Reflections on Phase 2

Posted on By janelletenhave

What are your key takeaways, learning and direction after all this exploration?

Phase two was a time of learning, researching, and personal growth. It gave me the opportunity to communicate freely where I am at now, and where I hope to be in the future. I think a consistent theme throughout my phase two blog posts has been “I am here, learning and growing, but if it weren’t for a pandemic, I would be at a different point in my journey”. While this is still true, I think I need to shift my focus a tad, and instead stay in the mindset of “What can I do and where can I go from here, despite the circumstances I am in”.

What are the new avenues for development in your personal and professional practice?

A goal I have is to continue on my journey to implement and incorporate more technology into my teaching practice. I know I still have a long way to go in this respect, as I have spent a lot of time being reluctant to change. I have always felt more comfortable and confident using things like pen and paper, and physical books. Technology can fail, but tangible things like paper have yet to do me wrong. I do know that technology can enhance my teaching, so this is an area I would like to continue to push myself in. I would like to start with incorporating e-readers into my practice, as I can see them helping to provide a wider range of books that I may not already have in my library.

What are you going to take with you, moving forward from your own explorations and also from the explorations of others in this class?

Yet another area of growth I see myself working through is to start the process of weeding in my library. It has been years since it has been weeded, so I know this will be a huge undertaking. I am still feeling a bit overwhelmed by the idea of it, as this is all new to me, but I know my library will become a condensed and more useless version of itself when that is done. I have gathered a few ideas from my classmates in this respect, and I think I will be give first priority to the teachers at my school to choose from the weeded books. After this, I will place a “Free Books” table outside of my library so that the students will have access to free books of their choosing. Lastly, before I discard of them completely, I will check to see if there are any relevant books remaining, and offer them up to my community.

If you could pick just one topic from Phase 2 that resonated with you, which is it and why?

The topic that resonated with me the most from phase two was fostering a love of reading. I hope to continue to foster a love of reading at my school. In my first inquiry blog post (https://janelleraeth.wordpress.com/2020/10/11/inquiry-blog-post-1/) I mentioned a video titled Fostering a LOVE for READING in your Children by THE OGLESBY OHANA. In the video she carefully outlines some steps you can take to be able to foster a love of reading in children. These steps are very well applicable to the classroom, as well as my position as a TL.

Step one: STRUING: Make books accessible to children, leave them along their path so they can grab them when they want to read.

Step two: MAKE READING COMFORTABLE: Get pillows, blankets, couches, to make reading comfortable for them. Take them outside. Make the energy gentle and accepting. 

Step three: READ TO THEM AND READ WITH THEM: Reading becomes special when they foster relationships. Make the time to reading aloud with your students. Don’t be afraid to stop reading to explain things, to laugh, and make connection points.

Step four: LET THEM PICK OUT THE BOOKS: Let them read the books they want to read, because at least they’re reading (if it is appropriate). Let them know they have a voice in their reading.

Step five: LET BOOKS BE THE ANSWER: Instead of going straight to your phone, get them to look it up in the books they have on hand or a dictionary.

References:

THE OGLESBY OHANA. “Fostering a LOVE for READING in Your Children.” Youtube, 2020, youtu.be/h4B0n4IDbfI. 

Janelle

The Island TL

Supporting Teachers’ ICT Curriculum and Pedagogy

Posted on By janelletenhave

On going professional development: Inquiry blog post #3

Professional Collection:

Most school libraries have a “Professional Collection” of resources, journals, articles, publications that can be signed out by staff members at the school. I actually did not know about this Professional Collection as a teacher, in the past schools I have worked at, and I am worried that some of the teachers at my school currently may also not be aware of the full capacity that our library holds, for themselves and their students. The first day I walked into my library, I took some time to take it all in, analyzed the way it was organized, and started to brainstorm ideas of what I may like to change.

One thing that I really appreciated about my current library is the placement of our Professional Collection. It covers one entire wall and is clearly labeled that it is for the staff, and not for student access (although no students are coming into my library at this point anyways).

One issue I see with our collection is that it is PACKED so full that it would be overwhelming for a staff member to come into the library and independently find what they are looking for. I have plans to weed this section in the coming weeks, to condense it down to the more recent and relevant materials. I will take before and after pictures and post them once I get around to accomplishing this task.

Weeding:

On the topic of weeding, I think it has been years since my library has been weeded. Putting books away can be a challenge because the shelves have reached their limit. The idea of weeding makes my environmental heart screech. I had a conversation with a more experienced TL the other day, and she said “when all the teachers are in their classrooms, I sneak outside with a cart full of weeded books and throw them in the dumpster”. THE DUMPSTER?? (my heart hurts thinking about it). She explained that the books that need to be weeded are not books kids should be reading, or in this case we are also talking about the professional section, so these books are no longer helpful or relevant to the teachers either. Many recycling companies will not take discarded books, as they are often a mix of paper and plastic. I am hoping to find a way around throwing them in the trash, but I have yet to figure that out. My first step is to dive in and start weeding. Once this is done, I will have a smaller, more condensed, professional section but it will be much easier to find relevant resources, rather than sifting through a mess before coming across something that will be helpful.

How can we evolve and adapt this practice to be more responsive to the personalized needs of the educators, staff, admin, parents, and other members of our educational community?

I personally like to see my role as Teacher-Librarian as the behind the scenes “helper-elf”. I am often given requests, and I do everything in my power to make it happen (sometimes through my very specific set of skills, other times just pure elf magic). If a teacher needs a bin of books put together on a certain subject, I can do that for them. If a student wants a specific book, I can put it aside for them until their book exchange day. Sometimes parents ask for books on a certain subject, and I can help them with that too. If someone comes to me with a question and I for some reason don’t have an answer for them, I spend time researching until I am able to help them.

I found this video called Teachers + Teacher Librarians = Better Learning by Students Need School Libraries to clearly lay out how Teachers and TLs can work together to create a better and more cohesive learning environment for the students. 






What can I do differently, or new, this year that better support their inservice?





Unfortunately, most of my time this year so far has been taken up my in class books exchanges, and preparing the bins to bring to each class. This leaves very little time for collaboration or co-teaching with the inservice teachers. My hope is that next year will look so much different than this year, so I will be able to fulfill all the plans I have brewing in my mind. It is very peculiar to enter a new job, at a new school, during a pandemic, but we are making it work! 





We as TL have so much to offer, but we are often overlooked. The article 12 Ways a School Librarian Can Help Teachers by Kristy from 2 Peas and a Dog outlines well a variety of ways in which TL can support teachers. Below are just a few of the many things we are, and that we are able and qualified to do. 





We are Experienced Teachers:





  • We teach the 5 essential literacies: reading, content-area literacy, information literacy, digital/technology literacy, and media literacy
  • We specialize in teaching student inquiry & research skills
  • We know how to foster & promote independent reading 





We are Instructional Partners:





  • We can help create cross-curricular projects with other subject area teachers
  • We can show you how to integrate and teach technology skills 





We are Informational Specialist





  • We can curate print & digital resources for your every need
  • We have a comprehensive understanding of intellectual property, copyright, and fair use guidelines for using a variety of materials, and we can teach students, and advise teachers and administrators, on their proper use.





We are School Leaders:





  • We communicate with parents and the community about school activities and events 
  • We make the School Library the “go-to” place for students, teachers, and administrators





Janelle





The Island TL





References/Resources:





2 Peas and a Dog. (2020, June 14). 12 Ways a School Librarian Can Help Teachers. Retrieved October 22, 2020, from https://www.2peasandadog.com/2018/07/12-ways-a-school-librarian-can-help-teachers.html





Students Need School Libraries. (2020, October 15). Teachers + Teacher Librarians = Better Learning. Retrieved October 22, 2020, from https://youtu.be/uKtZ_unsHHo