Task C - A critical Reflection

In this reflection I am asked to describe how my view of the role of teacher librarian has changed as a result of reading, writing assignments processing new ideas and chatting with others. Unfortunately I haven’t taken full advantage of blogging and the forums due to trying to balance study, work and home responsibilities. To be honest, I also still prefer to bounce ideas and clarify my thinking in ‘live’ chats with family and friends, though I know this is also possible in a Web 2.0 environment.

So has my view changed?

When I look back at my first blog in this area http://sakepuss.blogspot.com/2011/12/assessment-2-pre-thoughts-on-role-of.html I feel that my view of what a teacher librarian has not changed significantly, but there have been some changes, or at least fine-tuning.

For example, in my earlier blog, I discussed the role of supporting students to become lifelong learners. The example that I gave was purely in relation to information skills – that of defining, locating and using information. As I explained in my later blog, http://sakepuss.blogspot.com/2012/01/teacher-librarian-and-information.html, I have taught guided inquiry units that focused on critical thinking, or collaborative skills, but I hadn’t explicitly linked those other essential skills, values, dispositions within the concept of “Information Literacy”. I think that this more broad term is very important in our current digital environment, particularly critical literacy and online responsibilities and safety. When teaching, I have been amazed by some students’ acceptance and lack of critical evaluation of websites or information, and sites becoming increasingly more polished and professional looking, this is going to become more and more difficult.

Another key issue for me in relation to teaching information literacy is the way Google influences searches. I had previously become aware of this from a conference with Joyce Valenza (http://sakepuss.blogspot.com/2012/01/teacher-librarian-and-information.html). When I was reading for my assignment 2, however, I came across some other ideas about this by Debbie Abilock https://plus.google.com/u/0/111751601883348841865/posts/1ckvWNCLbmB. I also found Jann Carroll’s (2011, p.32) discussion about the ‘Eurocentric slant’ of Google and Wikipedia interesting as it really made me think about how I need to help my students become more aware of this.

One important area that this subject has raised for me has been the importance of good time-management (and not just in relation to my completing the uni tasks.) As I have said previously, my personal focus as a teacher librarian is very much about teaching and collaborating with teachers. This means that there are times when I have felt frustrated and even hopeless because I am not getting all of the managerial things done or they are taking a long time. (I still haven’t completed labelling my series boxes from last year!).I think I should display Cooper and Bray’s advice in my office to keep me realistic and prevent me from becoming disheartened. http://sakepuss.blogspot.com/2012/01/time-management-and-negotiation-and.html

I feel this subject has confirmed my belief that the teacher librarian role is an extremely complex one with firstly many aspects and secondly the way that the various roles overlap and entwine. It is no wonder that at times I feel overwhelmed with the enormity of it. It is in these moments however that I am reminded of an analogy that Joyce Valenza gave at a conference last year – it essentially went like this – the possibilities of what we as teacher librarians can achieve are huge but we need to think of it as a menu – we need to select an appropriately sized takeaway container and only select the bits that we can cope with immediately. We know where the menu is though so when we are ready, we can come back to it and choose again.

This subject has been helpful as it has shown me that I am on the right track in what I am trying to achieve as teacher librarian. As I started this role as a teacher, without the librarian qualification, I have often questioned if I was going about things in the right way, and so this subject has been affirming. It has also highlighted some areas I can improve. So to conclude my reflections, I will identify and describe the items that I am placing in my takeaway container . . .

1. Website developer and creator of a virtual space for the library – This was a key area that Joyce Valenza talked about and that I really have done nothing about. While there are several reasons for this – issues with DECD filtering etc – this really is something that I need to do.
2. IT Leader - While I have begun to learn about Web 2.0 tools through this course, and the How 2 of Web 2.0 from last year. (Syba Signs runs this online course). I know that these have lots of potential but I really haven’t explored these in relation to my colleagues or the classes that I teach.

L

References

Carroll, J. (2011). From Encyclopaedias to Search Engines: Technological Change and Its Impact on Literacy Learning. Literacy Learning: The Middle Years, 19(2), 27-34

Cooper, O.P. & Bray, M. (2011). School Library Media Specialist-Teacher Collaboration: Characteristics, Challenges, Opportunities. TechTrends, 55(4), 48-54.