Having watched the video 21st Century Learning Matters, it has made me think about what I have been doing as a classroom teacher at my most recent school. While I still have a lot of room for improvement, the video has helped me realize that my teaching has been going in the right direction. I have been teaching the Primary Years Program (PYP) of the IB (International Baccalaureate) in grade 4, and the skills for 21CL (21st Century Learning) are a core part of the PYP. We have worked hard to focus on what we call transdisciplinary skills that fall into categories such as social skills, thinking skills, communication skills and so on. What I have especially learned to be more valuable is the fact that we focus on key concepts for a central idea or central theme. These concepts push the learner to extend his/her learning. Generally, the key concepts are things such as connection, responsibility, or perspective, which encompass higher level thinking skills than simply gaining knowledge and facts. All of this is embedded into the PYP, but it is a challenging process. I feel that having had this experience as a classroom teacher gives me a strong edge into seeing how the teacher-librarian can contribute to this educational challenge. In the video, Randy De Hoff said, "We can't do it all the way we've been doing it." I wholeheartedly agree, but it still raises the question, "so how do we do it?"
The Canadian report (Haycock) was surprisingly bleak to me as I read it. Some of the statistics were surprising, such as how "... only 10% of Ontario elementary schools have a full-time teacher-librarian." When the report compared statistics to those of approximately 25 years ago, there is a huge drop in the number of teacher-librarians now as opposed to then. I didn't realize the numbers were so staggering and grim. Many of the recommendations for an improved teacher librarianship program in the Canadian report were excellent, in my opinion, and matched with the concepts in the Herring article. The Herring article was more about the different roles of the teacher-librarian, the various definitions of "information literacy", and overall foundational topics relating to what the teacher-librarian does and is. Both the Canadian report and the Herring article did present significant support for the fact that collaboration between teacher-librarians and classroom teachers are big indicators to increased student learning. The Canadian report surprised me in a couple of ways. First, I didn't realize that there was a lack of formal qualifications for obtaining the role of teacher-librarian in Canada. Being from the US, I know that to be a teacher-librarian in California, I must meet certain educational requirements that are state approved, and apply for my certification when the coursework is complete. I'm surprised that this isn't also the case in Canada, formally. From what I can tell, there are good academic programs out there, but as far as formal requirements are concerned, it seems that this is not in place. Second, the Canadian report advocated for flexible scheduling. This seems to make sense, and is different from what most of are familiar with in the fixed weekly or bi-monthly "library time." I'm interested to know more about how this works logistically, and would be interested in encountering more case studies where it is already happening. It's tough for me to relate this to what is happening in Australian school libraries, as I have not worked with libraries in Australia (I'm an international student). However, I have worked with libraries in the US, and internationally. I think the steps that the Canadian report is suggesting might face many challenges in the California (US), because from what I understand, teacher-librarianship roles and programs are dwindling due to budget cuts. I'm not sure how a program could improve without state support. Principals' and Superintendents' hands are tied when there simply isn't enough money. Classroom teachers (and ultimately the students) end up bearing the brunt of budget restrictions, as specialist teachers like the teacher-librarian become fewer and more far between. Fortunately, I don't plan to be a teacher-librarian back at home in California (consider the situation). The situation seems to be much more promising and very supportive of a strong central library in the international school circuit.
My first reading for this course was based on the idea that Resource Based Learning became a major concept in the 1980s. It was based on the following article: Haycock, C-A. (1991). Resource-based learning: A shift in the roles of teacher, learner, NASSP Bulletin, vol. 75(535), pp. 15-22.
After reading the article, I do believe that RBL (Resource Based Learning) is a viable model of learning, although it is a difficult one to truly adhere to. In order for it to be successful, a school needs to adopt it wholly, from the curriculum, to pedagogy, reporting, and time allowances for collaboration. In my understanding, RBL is a style of learning that is entirely student centered, where the resources are used by the students to direct their own learning, as opposed to the teachers using the resources to support or enhance their teaching. Having worked at an IB school for the past few years, I feel that this is something that is ever present in the PYP (Primary Years Program) culture. Inquiry is something that we are all striving to become better at directing with our students, and moving away from the more traditional teacher-led style of instruction.
The classroom teacher and the librarian can differ completely if the views of teaching (RBL vs RBT, that is Resource Based Learning versus Resource Based Teaching) are different. Collaboration and time are the key factors needed, and this requires commitment from all parties involved. If the educators have different and inflexible philosophies about instruction, then this would not work. If personalities clash, then this would not work. If time is not committed for the librarian to be involved in the classroom activities, or if the teachers do not allow the librarian to get involved, then again, this would not work.
Technologies have definitely changed the nature of RBL. Knowledge is at our fingertips. RBT, and feeding students knowledge may be good for some, but not for all. Students can teach themselves knowledge if they are so motivated. I see that information can be easily obtained so there is no need to teach just content or knowledge. You can just “look it up.” However, I think it is absolutely necessary to teach students HOW to access the information they need. The challenge I have found is that students (at elementary level) are still seeking literal information on the Internet. They still don’t know how to “put the pieces together” or make the inferences and connections. The central ideas and key concepts in the PYP are excellent at keeping the focus away from straight knowledge, and more toward deeper, inferential, conclusive thinking.
Welcome to my first blog posting on this site. The purpose of this blog is for the reflection and portfolio for my ETL401 course, which is my first class in the M.Ed. Teacher-Librarianship degree that I just began to pursue.
Stay tuned. This is the first time I've done a degree completely online, and it's also been about 9 years since I was last enrolled in a formal course. I feel like such a rookie all over again!
It's my first time using weebly.com, and I have to say that I really like it! I've discovered that not only can I use this as a blog, but I can also use this to create more of a porfolio for several courses, possibly my entire teacher-librarianship program.
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