Well, after a few technical glitches, I finally listened to and watched Webinar 1 - Introduction to Teacher Librarianship. The Webinar gave a brief overview of each topic, highlighting some of the key points in each topic. I am really looking forward to reading the Australian professional standards for Teacher Librarians at www.asla.org.au/policy/standards/htm. Before I do that, I thought that first I should do as Lyn Hay suggested and jot down a few of my initial thoughts about the roles of a Teacher Librarian and what thoughts or preconceived ideas I may have had coming into this. So, here goes. My memories of the T.L when I was at school are not really pleasant ones. I remember having to sit and listen to her tell us things about the Library. She told us about Fiction and Non-Fiction books, she told us about the Dewey Decimal system, she told us that the Library was a place to be quiet and not disturb others and she told us if we couldn't put the books back in the right place then leave them on the trolley and she would do it herself. Hmmm..... a very Behaviorist way of teaching. Last year I had the chance to do 2 days of casual teaching in the LARC of a local school. Book week had been a few weeks earlier so I decided to do some activities with the students (K-6) based on the Books from Book Week. In 45 minutes I managed to squeeze in the reading of the book, an associated activity and have returning and borrowing of books. It was a true test of my Time Management skills, my I.T skills and my lesson planning skills and I loved it!
Thinking about returning to a full time job when my daughter starts Kindergarten in 2013, I wanted to up the ante and offer something to schools that not many other teachers could. I decided that a Masters in T.L might be for me. I love reading myself, have tried to instill a love of reading in both of my children and have always been keen to pass that love onto my students as well. My preconceived ideas about the role of a T.L really centered around that; instilling a love of reading in students and getting them excited about finding out new information. Very simplistic to say the least!
I must admit when thinking about a the role of T.L, media specialist and collaborative negotiator were never part of the job description. When I was a classroom teacher, I had very little to do with the T.L, sure she asked about our topics for the term and at the end of Week 1 there was usually a pile of books in your pigeon hole that had to do with the topics but there was no discussion, no collaboration at all. I also had no idea that the T.L worked so closely with the Principal. To hear Lyn Hay say that, "The Principal can make or break the T.L's role in the school" was indeed something I had never thought about. In thinking about Principals at different schools though, each one has something that they are passionate about and they make that their 'project'. My job as T.L (when I become an employed one!) as I see it now, is to make the Principal as passionate as I am about the Library so that the Library and the learners within it become that project.
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