Category: TeacherLibrarian

Evaluate!

Kim # # # #

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My social networking practices are in the area of professional training and development – I use Twitter and Facebook to connect with and learn from other educators around the world. I continue to build a Personal Learning Network that supports and encourages me, especially in the area of Teacher Librarianship as I am very new to this role. INF506 expanded my understanding of the role social media could play in defining my role as TL (Teacher Librarian), in providing a way to connect and a means to present and share the story of my library and learners. I still have a lot to learn about effectively using social media in the Library, but my current understandings have been heavily impacted by my participation in INF506.

Librarian 2.0 was a concept explained in detail in Module 3 and was one of the most interesting and inspiring parts of the session. A number of important concepts, theories and practices of Library2.0 were introduced in the module and collaboration, conversations, community and creation were shown as the 4c’s of Web2.0. (Hay, Wallis, O’Connell, Crease, 2013). In the blog post “Librarian2.0 Essentials” I was able to identify a number of aspects that really excite me about working with the school community to provide, share and create new learning and knowledge.

Collaborating with current and prospective customers and working with them to provide for their needs and wants is the first step in building a vital community of users, who are willing and able to share conversations around the core business of Library. With the goal of creating together new learning and understandings, the TL 2.0 needs to be ready, willing and able to source information, products and experiences that will enable and enhance the work and recreational needs and wants of the customers (in my case the students and staff).

Much of the essential knowledge, skills and attributes of an information professional in a Web 2.0 world as discussed in my blog post (“Librarian2.0 Essentials”) relate to the critical examination of various social networking tools to meet the information needs of my students. I feel that a TL2.0 must be

  • fearless and courageous – in providing information in the required formats such as blogging to inform and share and wikis to collate information,
  • be a lifelong learner – delivering the best programs and facilities for the community it serves. For example,  by  exploring game based learning and Edmodo,
  • respond positively –  and back up opinions and views with cohesive examples and research of the successful use of social tools and apps to support learning and sharing,
  •  play with change – use it as a chance to experiment and work to take advantage of new tools, apps, services and ways of approaching information collection, curation and communication.

All of these skills and attitudes result in being willing and able to effectively examine the features  and functions of  new tools and apps in order to select the best ones for the many purposes within the school. As an advocate for staff and students in the field of information literacy, I have shown, in my blog post that this is a responsibility of a Librarian2.0.

In my blog post “Participate!” I commented on a number of important new literacy skills that addressed participatory culture and how this could support the informational and collaborative needs of our students. In his paper, Jenkins (2006) puts forward eleven new skills that he recommends to educators to harness the social communities our students are already engaged with in a more educationally explicit manner.

Many social networking technologies are already being used by students out of school and whilst some of these technologies are not supported yet within schools, the idea of using social media for learning is starting to take hold and apps such as Edmodo, wikis and blogs are seen to be educationally relevant and support the informational, collaborative and safety needs of students, staff and schools.

Investigating some of the social, cultural, educational, ethical, and technical management issues that exist in a socially networked world was another important area of INF506 in which I had a lot to learn. Using the You Tube clip “Did You Know v.4” as a provocative starting point  I was able to use the scenarios it brought up to reflect on the readings I had undertaken in Module 5 in my blog post “Did You Know?”.

A number of interesting points were made by Bryson (2007, p. 125) in regards to information policies that I found to be well supported in this clip. The use of policies can be general or specific and can help to:

  • Solve a recurrent problem
  • Provide guidance in decision making
  • Ensure consistency in approach across the organization
  • Declare an intention or enable a stance to be taken on a contemporary issue
  • Clarify organizational values and intentions
  • Make a commitment
  • Grant rights or entitlements

INF506 has enabled me to reflect on my use of social media and has informed and challenged me to use social media in a deliberate and mindful manner as part of my library 2.0 toolkit.

References:

Bryson, J. (2007). Chapter 10: Policy making. Managing information services: A transformational approach (pp/125-130). Burlington, Vt.: Ashgate e-Book. [ebook]  http://CSUAU.eblib.com/patron/FullRecord.aspx?p=429668

Hay, L., Wallis, J., O’Connell, J., Crease, R. (2013). What is Library 2.0? [INF506 Module 3] Retrieved May 30, 2013, from Charles Sturt University website: http://interact.csu.edu.au/portal/site/INF506_201330_W_D/page/ac87941b-5bcb-45fc-80ce-be53a4c930ea

Jenkins, H., Clinton, K., Purushotma, R., Robison, A. J., & Weigel, M. (2006). Confronting the challenges of participatory culture: Media education for the 21st century. Available http://digitallearning.macfound.org/atf/cf/%7B7E45C7E0-A3E0-4B89-AC9C-E807E1B0AE4E%7D/JENKINS_WHITE_PAPER.PDF

Xplanevisualthinking (2009,September 14,). Did You Know v.4[Video file]. Retrieved from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6ILQrUrEWe8

 Image:  “chapter 8 – community building through social+networking”
chapter 8 - community building through social networking
Found on flickrcc.net
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Looking, seeing, visioning

Kim # #

I am currently procrastinating on an assignment that asks me to articulate a vision for my school library. It is a pretty exciting assignment because I am gathering (far too much) information on what a library can be, what it can provide and how it can position itself as the hub of the school.

I have pages of quotes and examples of what I want my library to be and this is the reason I am procrastinating – how to meld all of the ideas, suggestions and scenarios into a succinct, cohesive and do-able vision for the next three years.

As a very new TL in training (I still haven’t been in the library for a full year yet or completed my TL course) I am finding it a tad overwhelming trying to sort out and deal with the number of roles the literature expects me to fulfill.

I am beginning to see, however, that this assignment is helping me to pare down these expectations and take hold of the aspects that are important for the students and school community at my school in the next little while. This is a great chance for me to really focus in on the roles and functions that I can best undertake to move us from where we are now.

It doesn’t matter what we should have been doing, where we should have been working, how we should have been learning – we have the power and the ability to move forward confidently in a way that is authentic and purposeful and relevant to US.

This is truly exhilarating and scary as well. Yet, through the structuring and direction of my learning so far, I know that I can do this, I have to do this, it is my responsibility to do this – with the strategies and skills I am developing as I am learning.

Articulating my vision will help to tie up the many stems of my learning: it will enable me to really develop learning experiences around what is important, it will help me to provide learning opportunities for all students and it will  enable me to collect evidence that supports and celebrates the learning occurring throughout the library and school.

If I could just finish this assignment and start putting it all into action …….

 

Image: http://www.flickr.com/photos/52193570@N04/5774680570

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To Do List #1

Kim # # #

'To Do's' photo (c) 2011, Courtney Dirks - license: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/I need to share what I am learning in this module with staff to help build up a common picture of what Information Literacy, Information Skills and Guided Inquiry are, and the benefits to students.

I need to address the “what” and “why” before we can move on to the “how” and “when”.

I need to look at best practice examples of Guided Inquiry , have opportunities to learn from these examples and then look at ways to support each other as we work together to apply this model in the school.

I need to make a great case for taking the trouble to plan and work together collaboratively, when most of the staff are used to working autonomously in their classrooms, formulating and driving their investigations in Key Learning Areas. It will be quite a challenge for some staff to see the point of information literacy skills and guided inquiries and letting go of being the sole leader in their room.

Hmmm – this is an important step in moving forward ……

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Learning As A Process

Kim # # # #
'I am Here for the Learning Revolution' photo (c) 2008, Wesley Fryer - license: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0/

Kuhlthaus’ “Learning as a Process”chapter was an important reading for me professionally.

I articulated in a recent post “What sort of library?” the aspects of the learning environment I was striving for – and then I read this chapter! The learning environment I am aiming for is constructivist, where the learning is active and dynamic.

It was enlightening and exciting to read and understand the theories explained by Kuhlthau in this chapter. I had lots of “a-ha” moments and “so that’s why!” and “I’ve seen that too” thoughts.

I will scaffold my thoughts and responses using a Visible Thinking routine called “Connect, Extend, Challenge”:

CONNECT: How are the ideas and information presented 
CONNECTED to what you already knew?
  •  learning is active and dynamic
  • students are “constructing their own personal worlds”
  • students construct their own knowledge from the information they collect
  • information seeking to broaden their understanding of the world
  • thinking and reflecting go hand in hand with learning by doing -> higher order thinking skills and metacognitive thinking. Visible thinking routines can be used to scaffold student thinking and reflection.
  • the idea that the “Problem and solution stand out completely at the same time” (Dewey quoted in Kuhlthau, 2004, p.16). Often we can see the solution to a problem at the very same time as the problem itself becomes clear, this is especially the case when researching – clarity and a sense of “a – ha” that’s the answer happens at exactly the time that you understand or “get” the problem that you were struggling with.
EXTEND:                   What new ideas did you get that EXTENDED or pushed your thinking in new directions?
  • to provide useful and appropriate scaffolding that will support students to take control of the process. Students need to be able to confidently be able to use routines and scaffolds that they know will help them organise their thinking.
  • knowing how to learn – empowering and enabling students to have the responsibility = skills, strategies and processes
  • working towards deep understanding and being able to transfer it to other situations. In the rush of the classroom we have to have strong convictions to give over the time to support and promote learning experiences that contribute to deep understanding. It can be done, and very rewarding when it is done.
CHALLENGE:             What is still CHALLENGING or confusing for you to get your mind around? What questions, wonderings or puzzles do you now have?
  • Making inferences  – jumping from the known and beyond the given information is the aim of learning and what the students I teach find very difficult to do. I’m not sure if it lack of opportunity to do this, lack of scaffolding or something else? Is  it because they haven’t gone through the entire phases of reflective thinking – maybe they are stuck on conceptualizing the problem and are therefore unable to make the jump to tentative interpretation/ hypothesis making.
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The Constructive Process

Kim # # # # #

In her work on inquiry learning, Carol Kuhlthau is heralded as being the first person to incorporate feelings into a model of the  inquiry learning process. Upon reflection, there is a lot more to incorporating thinking, feeling and acting in learning than just identifying the feelings students are having at particular times in the process. Kuhlthau’s model has let me know where in the inquiry learning process my students are most likely to have uncomfortable and negative feelings, and be ready to give up. But more importantly, she has matched these feelings with what the students are doing cognitively at this time.

This will enable me to provide scaffolds, organisers and learning experiences to support my students in their cognitive tasks at these points in the process.

By electing to use these scaffolds, organisers and learning experiences students should be able to reflect, infer, predict or see patterns in their information and therefore technically be in a better, more supported/confident/aware and positive position to make the jump to the next step in the inquiry learning process.

So my role is to have on hand a selection of learning experiences, scaffolds and routines for students to use at various times in the learning process, but especially at those times when their feelings are low and negative.

My learning of and about the inquiry learning process is deepening my understandings of what is involved in the information process and will hopefully lead me to be able to transfer this knowledge in practical and meaningful ways across age groups, grade levels and Key Learning Areas.

 

Image: “Icelandic Faces”

Icelandic Faces

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Information Literacy

Kim # # # # # #

Here are some definitions of Information Literacy:

Langford (1998,p.59): information literacy is a type of literacy that has been transformed to work with the technologies of the time.

My comment: Literacy is active and changing and as the types, sources, reliability and access to information change and develop through the use of the internet and web2.0 applications,  students must be able to make sense of this information.

Abilock (2004, p. 1): information literacy is a transformational process where information is taken and used.

My comment:  This is an active sort of definition – information literacy is a process or strategy to work with information in a purposeful way.

Herring & Tartar (2006, p. 3): list of things information literate students will be able to do. 

 My comment: Add the idea of reflecting on the way the information was used to serve an identified purpose.

 

All of the authors added extra dimensions and  aspects to my understandings of information literacy.

Langford’s references to information literacy complementing technology is very relevant as students are dealing with many types of information in many formats and from varied sources. They need strategies and skills in identifying, deciphering and evaluating the information they come into contact with.

Abilock’s idea of using information for personal, social and global purposes support both constructivist and connectivist thinking where students are learning for an authentic purpose and audience.

Herring & Tartar identify actions that students are able to do with information in a step by step manner.

It seems to me that information literacy is a process to help students “help themselves” learn. So much about learning is not just content related facts. Students need to be able to collect, sort and use information in many ways to make meaning from what they read, view and hear. Information literacy is both a process and strategies to help them do this.

Reference:

Herring, J. and Tartar, A. (2006). Progress in developing information literacy in a secondary school using the PLUS model. School Libraries in View, 23, 23-27

Image: http://www.flickr.com/photos/19356123@N04/3187207970
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Support

Kim # # # #

'Gargoyle Supporting An Ornamental Pillar At 575 Seventh Street, NW (Washington, DC)' photo (c) 2007, takomabibelot - license: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/When there is a strong vision and plan for a school, which has been discussed and negotiated with the school community and actively embraced by the staff,  all staff are able to proceed in their roles with confidence. When this process is led by the Principal who encourages teacher leadership at all levels, having and using this school plan is very important in providing the structures and scaffolds necessary for the freedom entrusted to staff.

Oberg (2006, p.13) suggests that the Principal’s contributions in terms of ” vision building, evolutionary planning, empowering others, resource mobilization, and problem coping and monitoring” are critical in implementing change in schools. Having the support of the Principal, and through her/him the school plan means that the investment of money, time, effort, resources, planning,  and collaborating must have a real pay off in terms of student learning.

For the teacher librarian to have the support of the Principal means that the work done in and through the Library programmes is visible, validated and contributes to the learning outcomes of the whole school.The Principal’s expectations evidenced in the support (in various forms including time for collaborating, focus, prominence of information literacy programs) offers the TL (teacher librarian) opportunities to affect learning in many areas across the school:

  • students
  • classrooms
  • Teacher Professional Learning
  • resourcing
  • committees
  • special interest groups – both Teacher or Student
There are many down sides and difficulties in trying to work effectively as aTL without the active support of the Principal, but I know of  downsides and difficulties in trying to work with TLs who have the support of the Principal but who do not work actively to enhance and support school programs and vision. In the happiest of all worlds, the TL and the Principal would be a formidable team capable of envisioning and enacting change across the school. Bring it on!
Reference:
Oberg, D. (2006) Developing the respect and support of school administrators. Teacher Librarian 33(3). pp. 13-18

 

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Thinking about roles of the Teacher Librarian

Kim # # # # # # #
'Teach' photo (c) 2012, Susana Fernandez - license: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/2.0/

 

After reading a number of articles about the roles of the Teacher Librarian, I had plenty to think about, the number of tasks mentioned was over whelming – I honestly had given little thought to the documented myriad roles of the TL beyond vaguely “being in the Library”.

In order to undertake the various roles successfully prioritizing according to the school’s and student’s needs at a particular time is vitally important (Herring, 2007,p. 31). Priority areas would ideally be fluid across the year allowing for the TL to be effective and strategic in her workings with colleagues.

Within the roles put forward in my reading, three common areas stood out for me: the TL as teacher was over-arching and enhanced by innovator, leader and specialist. My ideas are explained in this table:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

T

 

E

 

A

 

C

 

H

 

E

 

R

 Innovator
  • teacher
  • designing challenging learning opportunities for students
  • supporting  teachers – curriculum or tech based
  • leading by example
  • developing active learning using resources/materials used by 21st century students
  • collaborator

Pro-active in keeping Library products, services, experiences and successes visible and mainstream within the school community.

 

 

 

 

“Making a difference in the way teachers teach and students learn.” Purcell, 2010, p. 30

 

 

 

 

 

 

Contributing to a higher standard of student learning and performance
Leader
  •  teacher
  • creating & implementing curriculum
  • designing authentic learning experiences which integrate information skills
  • assessment, goal setting and planning
Specialist
  • teacher
  • in information literacy – transliteracy
  • in information systems
  • collection management
  • ensuring Library services, products and programs are visible and explicit

Teaching is where Teacher Librarians get to “walk the talk” – they are in the position of not only advocating, leading and specialising in integrating technology – they are also in the classroom showing what it all means in action.

References:

Herring, J. (2007). Teachers librarians and the school library. In S.Ferguson (Ed.) Libraries in the twenty-first century : charting new directions in information (pp.27-42).  Wagga Wagga, N. S. W. : Centre for Information Studies, Charles Sturt University.

Lamb, A. and Johnson, L., (2008) School library media specialist 2.0: a dynamic collaborator, teacher, and technologist. Teacher Librarian 36(2), pp. 74-78.

Purcell, M. (2010). All librarians do is check out books, right? A look at the roles of a school library media specialist. Library Media Connection 29(3), 30-33.

 

 

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A beginning …

Kim # # #

Why Teacher Librarian?

Why now?

I have had the opportunity, over the last few years, to have been given the gift of freedom in my work in my classroom as a primary school teacher. I have been actively encouraged and allowed to think, to read, to find out, to imagine, to play, to try new ways and even to fail.

This translated into working with amazing, and varied, groups of students and creating wonderfully authentic learning opportunities for us all. I have had the chance to see first hand the effects of engaging students meaningfully in their learning, of working alongside them as they take up the reins of their own learning and move off into the wonderful world of wondering.

I have seen how this works in one classroom, but beyond my classroom is a group of passionate, dedicated and enthusiastic teachers who are achieving amazing learning in their classrooms as well. This sort of student centred learning should not be kept in single classrooms – it should be shared across classes and grades and stages and teachers.

So I see my moving to the Library as a chance to move  my own personal learning, the learning of the students, and learning with my fabulous colleagues forward and outwards from  learners in single classrooms to learners across the school.

I know I will continue to keep on

  • reading
  • thinking
  • playing
  • making
  • wondering
  • questioning and
  • trying new ways of learning …

…….. this time from the centre of the school, the heart of the school – the Library.

Categories: Reflecting, TeacherLibrarian, ThinkingLeave a comment