Role of the Teacher Librarian

I started as a TL this year in a K-12 school. The three areas I see the role falling into are; 1) Teaching 2) IT specialist and 3) Support librarian (assistant, database administrator, displays etc).

It is a very challenging role and one most schools, in my experience, do not have or do not fully utilise. It seems very different from the traditional librarian model. In our school, as the technology element expands, the time required for this really impacts the teaching/curriculum/colaborative time. Also, the practical side of keeping up with current practise (technology/list servs etc.) is daunting.

The three readings; Herring/Purcell/lamb & Jonhnson, though different, are not mutually exclusive. They seem to be saying similar things but have a different emphasis.

I believe that as our core business are our clients ie. the staff (supporting student learning) and students (supporting their learning), they are the focus of our role. The rest is supporting this work. What do others think?

Inquiry-based Learning

Re-read first chapter of set text for ETL501 (Improving student's web use and information literacy - Herring) and have had my enthusiasm for Inquiry-based Learning reinforced. Also, the use of integrating ICT use with the curriculum and IBL lessons seems obvious but how better to get students actively participating in lessons. The issue I have had has been the access to the technology. If most of the lesson is taken up with logging on, getting the computers from another room or walking to the other side of the school to reach the computer lab, there is often little time left for quality work. I am looking forward to having students having a device each (BYOD - Bring Your Own device) or a laptop in the classroom for each student so they can use it when necessary, not just for an hour, once a week.

Why do we need libraries?

Over the past couple of years I have mulled over the question of what school is for. As a teacher this has spawned many thoughts that have helped to shape the kind of teacher I am.

At the start of the year I moved into the library from the primary school. I now have responsitibities in IT as well as running library lessons for all the primary classes. I am now asking myself, what does a teacher librarian do? It is a new position in the school and we have just completed a new library as part of the federal government BER grant. As each week passes, more and more "jobs" seem to come my way and the position is continually changing.

So, what does a Teacher Librarian (TL) do? The readings for ETL401 have helped to start my search to construct a suitable answer for my learning context.

A school nearby has recently opened and I was surprised to hear that it does not have a library. I thought all schools had one. I will enquire as to the school's thinking behind it. It then begged the question, why do we need libraries? I believe over-arching questions like this need to be asked as they help us to formulate our educational philosphy/approach to how we support the teaching/learning undertaken in our school communities.

Online Learning Journal

This is my second foray into the land of blogging.I have set it up to support my learning in my masters.

As a digital immigrant I do not find pouring out my thoughts in an online forum particularly easy, so I hope in time, my posts will become more natural and longer ;-)

Welcome

Hello! My name is David Parkin and I am a teacher librarian in the Northern Territory. I am looking forward to learning about past and present research/practice of teacher librarianship to inform how I support the learning community at my school.