edition 12 - so far ....

I had just almost finished this post but stupidly closed the browser after searching for something else and lost it arghhhhh.. Here's take 2.

after a week of more emphasis on pleasure reading than uni reading, I am now back into the swing of things. Have looked to the next assignment requirements and, as part of it is taken from blog posts and forum discussions, I thought i might just review some thoughts ...

I think my view of the TL before starting this course was probably one typical of many Ts - the head teacher gives unit outlines and time frames, there's a little bit of sharing of ideas and resources but on the whole you go out to teach as an individual in control of the class. The TL was there to assist with resources and for assignments etc but you source a large proportion of the materials yourself. No induction or teacher training lead me to consider the TL in the way the literature i have now read suggests. Thank goodness i know better now.

IN terms of RBL, i think i have utilised this approach under the guise of inquiry learning. This approach is conducive to encouraging TL-T collaboration and technology, particularly computers in classrooms, have altered the potential for utilising RBL. Though it certainly does raise the idea that IF needs to be taught in context and I'm pretty sure i would be a better teacher of these ideas now than 6 weeks ago. Could you use it all the time? Not sure, although the students are engaged, it takes longer and there is still an awful lot of stuff to get through and not much time.

Pondering on the business of TLs, i feel overwhelmed sometimes: curriculum development and implementation, collaborative planning, policy writing, advocacy, leadership, evaluation and research all while maintaining resources and their intellectual and physical access is no small task. But i do believe that students and Ts are enriched through collaboration with TLs and that the library has much more to offer.

I have also wondered how far the literature is removed from practice. I have yet to see an ILSC in action or a TL that has the support (or a principal the knowledge/drive) to create one. It has made me consider again how important the overarching principles of a school are, particularly in terms of their pedagogical approach and their understanding and approaches to learning. Having said that i do think that principals would be wise to expect TL- T collaboration in planning units and from the research can see how students in schools could be missing resources and knowledge when the TL is excluded from curriculum issues. But i do also recognise that for this to occur adequate staffing and the perennial problem of scheduling needs to be addressed. And perhaps the biggest hindrance of all is the outmoded approach to schooling we have!!

Below you can find some great links on this issue from the inspiring Ken Robinson to 24 hour learning at Paramatta and some interesting videos on information for the future and what students at university are really like.

I hope you enjoy!

http://www.ted.com/talks/ken_robinson_says_schools_kill_creativity.html
http://blip.tv/file/88216
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dGCJ46vyR9o
http://fusionfinds.wordpress.com/2009/04/04/we-are-living-in-exponential-times/
http://heyjude.wordpress.com/2009/01/10/how-we-learn/

confession 11 - reflections on assignment 1

so ... its in!! Assignment 1 done and dusted - and I finally managed to get it down to 2176 - thank goodness for the +10% word limit.

It was suggested that we post our reflections on the things we have learned from the assignment. I know they mean the stuff pertaining to the course, but......

I learned:

1. that i should have started my readings a little sooner
2. that knowing your assignment requirements before you read the course materials is much smarter than having to re-read info to pluck out the relevant bits
3. writing down page references as well as authors is very helpful
4. that its much better to write the references down just after you've read them and decided to include them rather than having to rifle through reams of paper to find the article again
5. that having children probably means that you need to allow a little more time than you thought
6. I'm too old to do all nighters - so its just as well i finished it on sunday!
7. That i should maintain the work habit i have got into over the last and begin the second assignment now (well... maybe after i've had a week off and caught up on some reading for fun!)

edition 10 - editing

well... its Sunday and I'm still cutting words - have about another 250 to go - its so sad getting rid of a gem of a quote or a sentence that you've worked on. I'm trying to tone the unnecessary words and find ways of joining bits together but this last bit is hard, and after a while what I'm reading begins to make no sense. Thanks for the words of encouragement from fellow 401ers.

In editing i have had doubts about what i have written and if i have actually answered the questions - which i think is a little different from the marking rubric, but it's too late for a re-write. I also have to update my references again as I've cut some quotes and hence authors - i did wonder if i have too many - finding the balance between literature that supports your work and your own voice is tricky.

Having said that, there's something so satisfying about a good edit and bringing all your ideas together. Though, i would have like some more time to talk about some of the approaches the TL could initiate to help create an ILSC. If you look at Henri (1999, 2005a, 2005b) alone there's at least 2000 words worth of ideas that you could explore.

I shall not begin reading the next novel - Blood noir - until I've cut these last 250!!

Henri, J. (1999) The Information literate school community: not just a pretty face. In J. Henri, (1999) The Information literate school community: best practice, (pp. 1-10). Wagga Wagga, NSW: Centre for Information Studies, Charles Sturt University.

Henri, J, (2005a) Understanding the information literate school community. In J. Henri & M. Asselin (Eds.) The Information literate school community 2. (pp 11-26). Wagga Wagga: Centre for Information Studies, Charles Sturt University.

Henri, J. (2005b). What is an information literate school community and what are the implications for teacher librarians? Unpublished chapter. Retrieved from http://www.cite.hku.hk/people/jhenri/doc/InformationLiterateSchoolCommunity

confession 9 and the ILSC

I am taking 5 mins out of the serious business of assignment writing for a quick update - I have finally finished my draft and true to my usual standard it is 3000 words over the word limit. I know concise writing is a skill, but ....
I think I could probably quite easily go to 10,000 on this one - oh for another 1000 words.

Nevertheless, I have 3 days to cut back, cut down, reword and trim quotes. I am actually quite happy - i may not have to do very late nights for days on end after all!! And best of all I actually have my references all done!!! thanks goodness - don't you find that just when you think you're finished the references somehow mysteriously add on extra time.

I really enjoyed pulling together some of the reading for this assignment, I started by looking at what is IL and then moving onto the ILSC, some of the material that didn't make it was pretty insightful and its would be quite good to do a reflection on the school as a learning organisation and how this would impact on the development of an ILSC.
I also enjoyed the differences in opinion about the best way forward - Todd's arguments for evidence based research are quite strident, though i think that this is a big ask on top of the other TL roles, but having said that, i can see how a combination of approaches including (it goes without saying) getting the principals support, and attending to the 'first tier' core business of the TL as well as research would promote library services and help create an ILSC.

Anyway, enough musing ... Good luck fellow ETL401ers out there

Todd, R. (2001). A sustainable future for teacher-librarians: Inquiry learning, actions and evidence. Orana 37(3) 10-20.

doi:10.1177/019263659908360512

Todd, R. (2007). Evidenced-based practice and school libraries: from advocacy to action. In S. Hughes-Hassell & V. H. Harada, (Eds.). School reform and the school library media specialist (pp. 57-78). Westport, CY: Libraries Unlimited.

edition 8 - TLs?? ILSC??

So this week i have achieved a little - not the lot i was hoping for but, I have had some very interesting discussions with the library staff and managed to get at least 1/4 of my assignment finished and some sporadic drafty note type things for about 1/2 of the remainder - though am way behind in my readings if you go by the schedule. I have decided that the main problem for the TL is the rest of the teachers and i can't help thinking that this in part could/should be addressed in teacher training.
In fact I am struck by a couple of things - mainly how little i knew about the role and scope of the TL before embarking on this and the fact that so far none of the teachers i have spoken to have heard of the ILSC - I think this indicates that those readings that suggest that TL literature and research need to go beyond the TL profession to reach the broader teaching community are right. It is an uphill battle for any TL if no-one in the wider teaching community is aware of the vision and research that supports the ILSC. Apart from integration into T training courses i think that perhaps the TL community should be publishing in mainstream teaching journals.

confession 7

Today I finally had the time and resources to sit down and listen to the podcasts (being at work or home with kids running round and missing headphones have delayed me until now). And ahhh haa!
Now I know why there were gaps in my knowledge about interact - silly me! Have discovered quite a bit of useful info - note to self... listen to the podcasts first.

confession 6 - assuming too much

You know what they say about ASSUME .... its makes an ass out of u and me!
Well this week i'm feeling like an ass! (as well as feeling like i'm not quite up to scratch with DE yet).
Why you ask?

1. I assumed that any important messages such as the opportunity to talk about assignments would be e-mailed. Didn't you know to look at the announcements section on interact I hear you ask - well actually I did not. Perhaps I missed or glazed over some important thing like an interact tutorial cause i didn't even look at announcements til someone else mentioned it (but of course it was too late for the assignment chat).

2. This is probably because i assumed that having done DE before, a level of knowledge and intuition would help me (wrong again! it's very different - different locations and names for things and an increased reliance on all things electronic - not even a module in print format!!)

3. I assumed that the things in the library reserve would be the same as those listed in the module as essential readings and further readings (little did I know!) And no I didn't think to look in the library reserve till another student posted about it.

4. Lyn's message suggesting that she hoped she didn't need to tell us this left me feeling somewhat further chagrined ....

5. Then, as I wouldn't have been able to locate all this stuff without the useful posts of fellow students, I was left wondering if this indicates that i'm failing in an essential skill of information literacy - namely to be able to locate information.... and does this throw into question my potential as a TL? (eek, i hope not)

6. Generally speaking, i know i'm a little behind - but some of you have already finished assignment 1 !!!!! what??? Arghhhhh, i'm in no way close - as you can tell i'm still locating,selecting and organising information - the synthesising, presenting, assessing stuff is a way off yet.

7. Last silly assumption ..... that there were more hours in the day - and i forgot that family, work and uni stuff always seem to get busy simultaneously.

Here's hoping the rest of the week won't find me quite so much of an ass.

Edition 5 - TLs and achievement

Not sure if i've gained any inspiration yet but definitely a bit of organisation.
My aim this week is to only allow myself reading for enjoyment once I have completed some university work (so far have achieved this 2 out of 3 days).

This morning I have Girl 1 at school and Girl 2 set up with play doh and here I am with at least 10 mins uninterrupted study time!! (well at least interruptions only every 5 mins)

This week I decided I must get some focus.... so I really looked at the assignment and what we need to do for it and put together an outline for the essay. Of course, this then meant I had to go back over the readings with this in mind. Yes I know!! It would have been far more sensible to have studied the assignments and their requirements before beginning reading

On re-reading some of the materials I was really struck with the research that correlates TL qualifications with results (see Haycock, Lonsdale, Hay). It's slightly worrisome, as this suggests that in being under qualified or not qualified, our lack of training can impact on student achievement regardless of how well meaning a TL is.

The other question that keeps playing on my mind is how many TLs are under utilised in their school because of outdated notions of the role of the library in teaching. Is this what those of you working as TLs are experiencing?

Back to the real work now as i'm hoping to get a bit of pleasure reading done in Girl 2's sleep time!!

Haycock, K. (2003) The crisis in Canada's school libraries: The case for reform and re-investment.

Lonsdale, M. (2003). Impact of school libraries on student achievement: A review of the research. Melbourne: Australian Council for Educational Research.

Hay, L. (2005) Student learning through Australian school libraries. synergy 4 (2)