Principal Support

As mentioned in earlier posts, I teach only .1 in the Library - 2 classes once a week and we have another super TL teaching the remainder of the 7 classes. So, having just started in the role of TL at my primary school, I feel fortunate to have the support of my principal. Support being, anwering ICT questions that arise, signing off for release teaching time for future TL inservices I want to attend and basically leaving me alone! However, after reading Oberg's article(2006) I am now looking at my principal in a different light. Oberg talks about the four key roles of the principal. These being: 1. Supervisor working directly with teachers 2. Model demonstrating personal commitment. 3. Manager enabling the program 4. Mentor providing visibility and importance. In the supervisory role, my principal does allow time at Staff meetings for discussion relating to programs. He does not require evidence of collaboratively planned projects. This is of course,in our programs. Is that the same thing? As a model demonstrating personal commitment, my principal is not exactly "visible" in the library but frankly, I don't feel he need be that visible. I do not hear him spouting the importance of the library program to teachers and parents, but he doesn't do that for Music, PE or Drama either. As a manager, my principal does support the budget for materials and information technology. We have a brand new library with adjoining computer lab hosting 30 computers. Though my principal supports team planning time at stage meetings during staff meetings, I have never known him to use his admin time to release teachers for planning time with the TL. And as a mentor providing visibility and importance for the TL, I have not yet been encouraged to take time for personal and professional development. Hey, it's only week 9 and I'm not complaining yet at all. While still cheering that I got the job, I am also slightly freaked out by the enormous roles I must fill. I do feel my principal supports me. Oberg has made me think about the respect bit of it!

Just a quick note before bed about Haycock (2007) and his article on collaboration. I like his definition stating collaboration depends on trust, shared vision and communication. And I completetly agree that time is always an issue with collaboration. Yes, I trust the two classroom teachers I am collaborating with this year and yes, we have a shared vision to provide a positive and worthwhile learning experience for these students. Just need to finetune the communication bit...working against the time all the time.

It's week 3 of this course and I am feeling overwhelmed by not so much the new information I have read and learned but about how much I still have to read. Every time I go back to the topic - this week being The Role of the Teacher Librarian and read the essential readings, I then see all of the "suggested" further readings. I am not so great at reading online...funny that I should be doing an online Masters! so I find myself printing a few of these articles off. I am using the back of scrap paper from my husband's office so I am not using up any extra paper...just using up a lot of ink. Anyway, I am in the midst of rethinking my role of TL. When I started doing some casual work in the Library, I thought it was the best job mainly due to the fact that you only have these children for 50 minutes/week. How in the world can you not be a happy, positive person for that small amount of time that you teach these children? I have done executive relief teaching - still am - for over 10years and was getting a bit bored with it and thought the library would be a great move. I had never thought about the other roles of the TL. Purcell's five roles of SLMS nearly knocked me over. Yes,I agree with Purcell's role of teacher, instructional partner and information specialist and even the program administrator but the role of leader had never entered my thinking about a TL. Now, that 50 minutes might need to be divided into ten minute slots for each of the 5 roles. Talk about juggling...and I cannot even juggle oranges or balls or anything. I know the other TL at my school - she is 2 days full time and I am only .1 - teach 2 classes once a week is amazing. I am fortunate to be able to work with her and yes, I see her carry out all but the role of leader but frankly she is busy juggling everything else - me a rookie TL included! Aren't there other people in our school that get paid a lot more than us to carry out the role of leader?

Memory Lane

Please allow me to back track to a little history about me. I grew up in rural Prince Edward Island...you know Anne of Green Gables country. Come on you TLs out there! Surely you know who that redheaded girl is! The book mobile was a highlight that my 7 siblings and I looked forward to every week during our Canadian summer holidays. Every Wednesday in July and August, we would walk the 3km to the church where the book mobile would park for a few hours. My sister who is eleven months younger than me and I would borrow the maximum number of books - three I think and with the approval of the other books we each had borrowed, we went happily home. I can still smell that old bus and all the books in it. And I still remember that Librarian...always in a skirt and always helpful and happy to see all of my brother sand sisters. Nancy Drew, Trixie Beldon, The Hardy Boys were all borrowed from there as were many Enid Blyton books. We didn't have a lot of money growing up so the purchase of new books was a pretty rare thing...but that book mobile provided us with such a wealth of entertainment, knowledge and happiness during all my childhood years on PEI. I am sure this is where the seed of wanting to be a TL was planted...on that old book mobile in rural PEI. Now its all about media specialists and program leaders...and I cannot help but feel a bit nostalgic about her role on the book mobile. I wonder if there are any book mobiles still around.

Topic 2 - The Role of the Teacher Librarian

Have just watched the Youtube video attached to Topic 2- The Role of the Teacher Librarian. Being Canadian Australian - lived in Canada for the first 32 of my 44 years before moving down under - I didn't mind the strong American accents. I found it really informative and helpful in looking at the many roles TL's fulfill. Teacher, instructional partner, information specialist and program leader are the four roles these Americans believe their Library Media Specialists are. This is week 6 of my TL role in the primary school where I am employed on Wednesday mornings for two infant classes. Teacher and instructional partner are two roles I feel comfortable with as I teach and work with these two classes. I feel a strong collaboration is happening between me and the two classroom teachers I am working with. I am supporting both of these teachers in their HSIE topics - families past and present. The activities I have completed with the students have been specialist information tasks but I'm not quite comfortable with putting that label on me just yet. Maybe by the end of this term? year? MEd in TL? certainly but not just yet. And program leader...geez that is going to take me a while to be comfortable with that role...I'm a work in progress and I can honestly say, I have not helped one student sign out a book yet!! Luckily, we have a terrific Librarian Technican or as they say in USA, clerical staff.

Have spent most of the last hour reading fellow student's blogs and came away thinking mine was a bit too pink!! So have redesigned the look and adopted a new template and colour scheme. Feeling ready to hit the readings for this week or certainly add more readings to the pile I seem to be accumulating. A coffee first.

EBSCO

Have just been on Ebsco again trying to find some more articles using the words role, teacher librarian and support. I have saved a few of them to my folders and will attempt to get back on there later to read them. I wonder if I can put a shortcut to EBSCO on my desktop. Must try. Off now to be a mum and drive our children off to sport training.