ETL401 Assessment 2 Task C

ETL401 Assessment 2 Task C

My participation in ETL401 has certainly altered my view of the role of the teacher librarian. I first began studying Teacher Librarianship in 1992. I managed to get through half of the course before babies, family and work commitments took up my time. When I finally had time to think about study again…..I had to start all over.

Years later, I have found the units vastly different. No longer is the focus on children’s literature, teaching basic research skills and developing the collection. No longer are we simply responsible providing resources, developing literacy, research skills and a life-long love of reading. No longer is it enough to have a great looking library with wonderful displays and a well-balanced collection. (“What exactly is a balanced collection?” Author Winzenried- Forum 15/9/11) No longer can we stay in the library and wait for the weekly class visit.

The TL role has grown to include so much more. One needs to be proactive and get out into classrooms. (The idea of the classroom is changing too with the inclusion of virtual technology) We are expected to provide PD, perform a leadership role, work with the administration and collaborate with teachers to develop relevant learning programs to help guide students towards education goals and information literacy. TLs need to understand and utilize many forms of ICTs and integrate them successfully into learning programs. 

The discussions on the forums helped me as I saw that others were feeling as apprehensive as I was about how much the role has grown and changed. Many of us were struggling with the sometimes overwhelming use of technology both in our own study and in the role of the TL.

When I look back through my blog posts one in particular jumps out at me. On the 6^th of August, full of enthusiasm, after looking at the role of the TL, I posted this;

“My reading has shown me this:

I want to be part of the movement to help others see the school library as more than a book collection.

I want to help develop the concept of the library being a vital, up to date media centre that can extend beyond its physical confines. (Lamb & Johnson 2008)
I want to be the TL that still helps young people develop a passion for reading, but perhaps my recommendations might also include an audio book or web-based magazine.
I want to be the TL who can provide guidance in the effective use of materials and information technology to both students and teachers.
I want to be the TL who participates in curriculum design and assessment.
I want to be the TL who makes the library the exciting central hub of relevant learning for his/her school.
I want to be able to provide support to my school administrators and fellow teachers.
I want to be a Teacher Librarian in the 21st Century!”

Then I got my first assignment back! My enthusiasm waned considerably! LL

Ploughing through the modules, further exploring the TL role and reading motivating articles by authors such as Doug Johnson (2002 & 2004) and Joyce Valenza (2010) have added to my new perception of the role. I found some great articles/sites on collaboration (posted on my blog) that give practical ideas and advice.

My perception now….. the 21^st century TL needs to be progressive & flexible, dynamic & enthusiastic, efficient & helpful, possess great interpersonal skills, be a wiz with all things technical, know the curriculum back to front across all subjects/grades, be a fantastic, multi-skilled teacher with loads of strategies, collaborate/plan and teach with teachers, be able to manage students, staff, budgets and all other library administrative needs, document everything, keep everyone informed, and have time to read, trial and review all kinds of different learning resources and materials. Not too much to ask???? ……Not of SUPER TEACHER LIBRARIAN! I have to admit, it all seems a little daunting………

  Author Winzenried (Forum 15/09/11) pointed out that priority seems to be the deciding factor. What each individual TL decides in the context of their own skill set, their environment, other staff, budget, etc. perhaps will then define the level and nature of collaboration.

I enjoyed reading Sue Spence’s advice on the main elements of being a successful TL. (Spence, (n.d.)

More importantly, I noted the point she made about there being no reward in becoming a doormat who works themselves into the ground to meet the needs of others. Accept that you will never get everything the way you want it. There will always be 'blockers'; so 'work with the willing'. People need time and space as well as persuasion to change their ways.

I think I will listen to this and start small, make influential friends and be sure to celebrate successes and let everyone know! JJJJ

Time Management??? Who has Time to Manage????

Time Management??? Who has Time to Manage????


I have to have a laugh at my self here. At the moment I feel like the worst time manager around! With a full on new role in my teaching job, a family x 2 children + large dog (who needs daily walking), a house to run, renovations happening, a husband who travels for work, trying to get my head around studying again,madly trying to complete the last assignment, and now I have to write a job application as our school is becoming an IPS next year.....all before the end of the week! I feel like I am hanging off a cliff by my fingernails!


I will have to read the suggested literature  about time management again, WHEN I HAVE TIME!!!!
I seem to have way to many zones!
Zone 1- Work
Zone 2- Study
Zone 3- Mothering Duties
Zone 4- Household Duties
Zone 5- Wife Duties


I think I have a little too much on my plate as the zones all over- lap into each other and there doesn't seem to be a Zone 6- ME TIME!

Library Management

Library Management

I found it interesting that library management was left to the end of the unit and that it wasn’t  a very large module. I always thought the management of the library was one of the main roles of the TL. Perhaps it is time to rethink!

I was very interested to read in Gary Hartzell’s (2003) Building Influence for the School Librarian; Tenets, Targets, & Tactics, the parallels he draws between the principal’s job of school admin and the TLs job of library admin. He sees it as a valuable contact point. I’ll have to file that away for the future.

     

I found the recommended sites and articles Karen Bonanno's site, Pappas' guide & Spence’s to be very informative and worth saving to the Favourites. I particularly liked Spence’s short and to the point article. I found I could easily relate to her 5 elements of management:

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1. Knowing your learning community
2. Professional knowledge
3. Initiative and proactivity
4. People skills and pragmatism
5. Attention to detail & documentation
She is an author I will continue to follow as I find her style easy to read her ideas are very practical and I particularly like her idea for the documentation strategy, the "team statement" that she has used successfully to fight proposed staffing cuts. Well worth saving for future reference! http://www.teachers.ash.org.au/rblonline/librarymanagement/libmanage.htm

  
  

How to Measure Information Literacy?

Measuring Information Literacy

In my readings I came across Jamie Mckenzie's check list for an Information Literate School. I found this very interesting and more than a little daunting! Thought it might be useful in the future.
Pasted from <http://www.fno.org/sept98/infolit.html>

How does a school know when it deserves to be called an information literate school community? When the following characteristics are abundantly evident, the phrase is well deserved . . .

How can we tell that our school is approaching a mature level of information literacy? We assess the Traits of an Information Literate School, rewarding between zero and four stars for each trait according to where our school has progressed on what is for most a five year journey.

 • Zero stars = Not an explicit goal. No journey started.

• One star = Starting out on the journey with good intentions.

• Two stars = Making good progress with observable results.

• Three stars = Highly developed and effective

• Four stars = World class. Not much room for growth or improvement

Trait	The Traits of an Information Literate School Description	Rating
Invention	Much of the school program is dedicated to problem-solving, decision-making, exploration and the creation of new ideas.	.
Fluency	Teachers are becoming comfortable with the need to move back and forth between an array of instructional roles and strategies.	.
Support	The school provides rich and frequent ongoing support for all learners to develop thinking and information skills.	.
Navigation	Learners have the navigation skills to find their way through the new information landscape (as well as the old) with little lost time.	.
Searching	Learners apply Boolean Logic. They search with appropriate syntax. They employ powerful search engine features to locate pertinent information.	.
Selection	Learners know how to separate the reliable from the unreliable source. They recognize propaganda, bias and distortion.	.
Questioning	Learners know how and when to employ dozens of different types of questions in the search for understanding and meaning.	.
Planning	Learners possess planning and organizational skills. They sort, sift and store findings to enhance later questioning. They make wise choices from a toolkit of research strategies and resources.	.
Interpretation	Learners convert primary sources and raw data into information, and then they proceed further (beyond information) to insight. They translate, infer and apply what they have gathered to the issue at hand.	.
Deep Thinking	Learners combine deep thinking and reading with a wide ranging search for relevant information. This quest for information is but the prelude to the more important work . . . solving a problem, creating a new idea, inventing a product or composing a symphony.	.
Commitment	All curriculum documents include clear statements regarding the information literacy expectations that are developmentally appropriate for each grade level. The school community persists with the literacy goal over time.

Pasted from <http://www.fno.org/sept98/infolit.html>

Collaboration????

Collaboration

After copious amounts of reading about collaboration my head is spinning. All research points to the fact that student achievement increases when evidence of collaboration between TLs and teachers take place. Why then are TLs fighting for their jobs? Is this a good thing as hinted at by Doug Johnson in his article The Seven Most Critical Challenges Facing Our Profession? (Teacher Librarian, 14811782, Jun2002, Vol. 29, Issue 5)
What is collaboration? There seems to be many different degrees of collaboration. After reading Shared Vision: A Key to Successful Collaboration? (Williamson, K., Archibald, A., & McGregor, J. (2010). School Libraries Worldwide, 16(2), 16-30.) This definition stood out;

Definition of Collaboration

Collaboration is a trusting, working relationship between two or more equal participants

involved in shared thinking, shared planning and shared creation of integrated instruction.

Through a shared vision and shared objectives, student learning opportunities are

created that integrate subject content and information literacy by co-planning, co-implementing,

and co-evaluating students’ progress throughout the instructional

process in order to improve student learning in all areas of the curriculum. (Montiel-

Overall, 2005, Section A, para. 9)

Sounds wonderful! In a perfect world….. Reality bites!

Introducing the restrictions to effective collaboration:

·         Limited Funding

·         Conflicting visions/goals

·         Personality conflict

·         Stringent time-table ling

·         Time constraints

·         Lack of understanding of TLs expertise/role

·         Lack of support from principal

And so on………

How much collaboration actually goes on in schools? Is it a myth or does it really happen? Reading Ross Todd’s article Collaboration: From Myth to Reality: Let’s Get Gown to Business. Just Do It! ( School Library Media Activities Monthly Vol. XXIV, No 7/March) was very interesting. He cites studies that show limited collaboration actually happens; as little as 48% in high schools, 44% in middle schools and 25% in primary schools. (Callison 2005 as cited in Todd’s article)
Is it all too hard? Teaching is such a stressful job and the pressures of curriculum and national testing programs just add to it.

On a side note….public schools are fighting for their lives as more and more parents move their children into private schooling. The publication of national testing results has seen more funding moving too these schools as government schools lose their students. Schools are developing the culture of ‘teaching to the test.’ Scary, I say! Are we moving towards an elitist society where only those with money can afford a decent education? I believe the government needs to come to the party and ensure our public schools are as well-equipped as the private sector. Aren’t we going backwards in time by re-adapting the ‘teach to the test’ learning culture? What happened to teaching students to be life-long learners? What has happened to the inquire approach?

In all the doom and gloom I did find some light and inspiration. Joyce Valenza’s article (2010) Manifesto for 21st century school librarians. (October, VOYA Magazine: Kurdyla Publishing. http://www.voya.com/2010/09/15/tag-team-tech-october-2010/) was inspiring and scary! She is so motivated and seems to have so much energy to have accomplished so much. She is amazing and I got some great ideas from her.

I also was inspired and got lots of ideas from other articles I found while surfing the net;

Spence, S. The teacher librarian toolkit for an information literate school community

(http://www.teachers.ash.org.au/rblonline/Library/TLconferences/islandjourney.doc) accessed 9/09/11

Milbury, P. (2005) Collaboration: Ten important reasons to take it seriously, Knowledge Quest 33 no 5 30-2 My/Je

Lamb A, Lamb's Latitudes. Information Age Inquiry. http://virtualinquiry.com/inquiry/inquiry0.htm accessed 22/09/11

Johnson D., (2004) Proactivity and Reflection: Tools to improve Collaborative experiences. Minnesota Media.

 Braxton B., (2008) The teacher librarian as literacy leader. Teacher Librarian. 14811782, Feb2008 Vol. 35, Issue 3

 Buzzeo, T. (2002) Disciples of Collaboration. School Library Journal Sept p34-35

These articles are easy to read, written by mainly TL’s in plain language. They contain numerous helpful ideas to get you on the road to collaboration. They have certainly been saved in my favourites!  I particularly liked Toni Buzzeo’s style of writing; concise, to the point and full of useful ideas. I have even put in an order for one of her books: The Collaboration Handbook 2008 Linworth Books ISBN: 1586830236. Looking forward to its arrival!

Life-Long Learners

Life- Long Learners

Still working on information process models. There are so many! Will I ever decide on two and get this part of the assignment done???

In his article Information Literacy: Essential Skills for the Information Age (2008) Eisenberg refers to IL as a set of skills and knowledge that allows us to find, evaluate and use the information we need. He sees IL skills as necessary for us to successfully navigate the present and future landscape of information we are being faced with. Eisenberg believes that information and technology affects every person in every possible setting including work, education and recreation.

I agree with all that he says. As educators of children, the future contributors of our society, teacher librarians need to keep these thought in the forefront of their minds when considering information literacy needs and learning programs in our 21^st century schools. In order to provide a balanced and relevant learning program all facets of the literacy spectrum (Stern 2002) need to be catered for.

(An interesting web page I came across. Stern C. (2002) Information literacy unplugged: teaching information literacy without technology. (White paper prepared for UNESCO, the US NCLIS and National Forum for Information Literacy. http://www.nclis.gov/libinter/)

Today’s information comes at us in so many different forms. We are bombarded with information through TV, movies, print, radio, electronic and digital forms as well as being able to access the World Wide Web with computer technology.  Successful people today are those that focus on meaningful use of information and technology. Successful people are those who are able to apply technology and information to a range of situations. (Eisenburg 2008)

Christine Bruce (2003) sees IL as being strongly connected with critical and reflective thinking. She believes a key characteristic of the life- long learner is having the ability to access, evaluate, organize and use information in order to learn, problem solve, make decisions in formal and informal contexts, at work, at home and in educational settings.

 Reading Bruce’s views and hearing the term ‘life-long learner’ on many other occasions lead to a search to discover just what the term meant. The following found on http://virtualinquiry.com/inquiry/inquiry0.htm (accessed 17/09/11) provided a valuable insight.

Life-long learning can be describe as the process of acquiring and expanding knowledge, skills, and dispositions throughout one’s life to foster well-being. It's much more than taking an adult pottery class or reading a nonfiction book occasionally. It's about the decisions you make and the problems you solve in everyday life. From enrolling in a structured, formal education program to considering whether to believe an infomercial's gimmick, lifelong learning takes many forms. Life-long learners choose to seek out new ideas and alternative perspectives. They embrace our changing, dynamic, information-rich society by keeping their senses active and their minds full of ideas. Much of this learning is self-directed. To be successful, the child or adult must have basic information inquiry knowledge, skills, and dispositions.

Therefore, if we are to foster the development of children as life-long learners then IL must not be seen as merely developing a set of skills, but also as cultivating attitudes and critical thinking behaviors that encourage students to become life-long learners and worthwhile contributors of today’s society.

Mmmmm......very interesting.

Information Process Models

Information Process Models


Interesting, the number of information process models there are out there. After examining a few I have realized that as a classroom teacher, I have my own information processing model that I automatically use with my students. I always keep it in mind particularly when designing research projects for my students. I have recently discovered that not all teachers do this.


Upon seeing a project I was working on with some year 6/7 students, another teacher asked me how I had developed this particular project. I spent some time going over my process with her and she asked if I minded if she adopted it to use with her class. I was surprised as this particular teacher is much younger (second year out) and more techno savvy than me. Perhaps my use of the information process is something I have developed through my years of teaching?????


I have enjoyed going over the details included in some of the models I have looked at. Kuhlthau's is interesting in that it includes how the user is feeling at each stage of the process. Food for thought when developing my next research project............