Wow, writing this mid-term paper was an exhausting yet educational process. First and foremost, it pushed me back into the world of being an academic student again. It feels like it's been ages. Being a student today versus 14-15 years ago is a very different experience. Then again, we didn't have online courses back then, so granted, the universities have had to come a long way in order to accommodate students who might be thousands of miles away from their home campus (like me!).

Anyway, the purpose of this entry is to showcase some of the learning points, or "ah-ha" moments I had while doing this project. The mid-term paper for this course asked me to examine what the role of the teacher librarian should be in the creation of an information literate school community. It then asked me to examine the major challenge to this in a school I know, and make some recommendations. 

In examining the role of the TL (teacher librarian), I have come to realize the inevitable need for the TL to be a leader. It is a bit intimidating, to be honest. I have always seen the TL as yet another member of the academic community--another teacher. It IS that, but it is MORE than that, whether I want it to be or not! Because a TL works with a whole school, or at least several classes (depending on the school), the TL will never be a teacher without some level of collaboration. The TL is always overseeing the use of resources and the instruction of information literacy skills for a large community--not just for a class of students. It is like being a curriculum leader for a specific subject--a subject area specialist, if you will. Many schools see this "specialist" as a leadership position that can be paid a stipend. However, as the TL, this is simply the job.

In overseeing the school-wide use of resources and information literacy instruction, there is a great level of partnership and collaboration involved with the TL. People skills and management are very important, and I have always been aware of this. However, I never really noticed the amount of school-wide leadership that can be required for this position. Establishing a strong rapport not only with the principal but also with the teachers is crucial. The TL needs to be seen as an innovator and someone who can help make a difference--someone who is essential. This is a tall order!

In the end, I see the TL as being a teacher, resource manager, leader, technology innovator, curriculum designer, and more. For much of this, I have felt prepared, particularly highlighting the "teacher" role of the TL, and my own personal passions, the technological innovator. However, I will have to learn to become more comfortable with the leadership element of this role. Persuading and educating the staff and administration is a difficult job, as they can be a difficult and highly critical audience. However, these are excellent skills for me to work on, as they are applicable not only in the role of the TL, but for my professional experience as a whole. 

In topic three, one element of our readings was based on learning about various pedagogical initiatives, and how they might impact resource based learning and the teacher librarian. While there were many initiatives to read about, I chose one I was familiar with (Habits of Mind) and one that was new to me (Dimensions of Learning).

I found Dimensions of Learning to be, from my experience, simply good teaching skills and understanding how students learn. Generally speaking, Dimensions of Learning (http://www.mcrel.org/dimensions/whathow.asp) had five categories which were 1) Attitudes and Perceptions, 2) Acquire and Integrate Knowledge, 3) Extend and Refine Knowledge, 4) Use Knowledge Meaningfully, and 5) Productive Habits of Mind. This all rang true with me and connected well to my teaching experience.

Having read this, I decided to read about Habits of Mind. I have taught at a school where Habits of Mind was an embedded program within the school, and was even included in student reports. I always believed that Habits of Mind were important and great concepts, but I never did a lot of training on the program, and therefore, it was "another" element to teach. I'm not sure I ever did this effectively. As I read the web page (http://www.instituteforhabitsofmind.com/) I became more aware at how similar the Habits were to many of the elements of the PYP that I recently taught (part of the International Baccalaureate). There are 16 Habits of Mind, and in the IB, there are 10 Learner Profile characteristics. I found it fascinating to compare the two to see where they overlapped and how similar they were. By no means am I an expert on these topics, but I made the best connections I could. Do you agree with the way I've categorized these? By the way, green is from Habits of Mind, and purple is from the IB Learner Profile. I couldn't seem to match everything up.

There were more pedagogical initiatives I could have read about, and I wonder how they'd compare to these two. How does one choose which is the best to go with? While Habits of Mind has some great concepts and "habits" to teach our students, I often wonder how embedded these get into programs (very difficult to do) or if they end up being taught in isolation, which I feel is not the most effective either. Anyway, those were my musings for the day.

As I read the article, "Irrefutable Evidence, How to prove you boost student achievement" (Todd, 2003, School Library Journal) I found it very practical and easy to apply to one's own librarianship position. Sure, gathering evidence and making decisions based on real information seems the most logical approach to any change or decision. Todd made this gathering of evidence seem so easy, as he suggested things such as surveying students after lessons, evaluating with rubrics, having students journal and reflect on lessons, etc. However, the question that kept looming over my head was, "What about long term results?" Surveying students after a library lesson will tell you how they feel they have learned, but students might just be regurgitating information and skills given to them. Will they actually apply these skills when independently researching and evaluating information? This, to me, is the most important element, and the most challenging thing to document.

Todd's suggestion of portfolio strategies where you gather student work over time might be better to show how a student's information literacy (IL) skills may have changed. Of course, it is always hard to tell if this is a direct result of teacher librarianship involvement, because maybe this student has a really good classroom teacher? How can this be linked directly to the teacher librarian? I keep thinking that the librarian could have some involvement in creating one element of the rubric for a class assignment/project. Maybe this would shed some light on how well teacher-librarian involvement is contributing to the students IL skills. However, I am still unclear on how evidence of improved IL skills by students can be directly attributed to the teacher librarian. Thoughts?

As I continue to read and learn more about the role of the teacher librarian, I often wonder what kind of librarian I want to be. I am not currently in this role, so here is a chance for me to create what I think is best. We've done a lot of reading of acceptable practices and standards for teacher-librarians, what Principals need to do to support the role of the teacher librarian. To be honest, I find that a lot of the information is saying the same things:  high priority in the school curriculum, improved understanding of the role for admin and staff, collaboration, strong personality characteristics, leadership, thinking "outside of the box", budget, commitment, clerical support staff, etc. etc. I completely agree.

I want to comment on the collaboration element though, because I feel this is something that I CAN do, that is urgently needed in my own case. Having been a classroom teacher for so long, I am not used to receiving support from the librarian other than maybe him/her collecting a stack of books and having them delivered to my class. Of course, then I need to take time to sift through every item and figure out how I'm going to use them, if I will at all. TIME... it's such a rarity. It never dawned on me that a teacher librarian could collaboratively plan with me and my team, and locate, refine, or even design resources for specific use in my classroom. Better yet, I never thought a teacher librarian might be able to help teach specific skills to my students, or prepare resources for the students to use themselves. 

At my latest school, there is a high level of collaborative planning that goes on, and there is some time set aside for teachers to do this. I believe this is excellent practice and highly necessary for the strong inquiry based teaching approach. However, this hasn't included the teacher-librarian in the past. It may have included music, art, or IT specialists, but never the teacher librarian. Again, I just didn't realize this was a norm. Why is that? Imagine the number of teachers out there who are likely in the same boat. I'm shocked at how this collaboration is suggested in so much literature for highly effective schools and libraries, yet I know I am not the only teacher who has not been collaborating with their teacher-librarian. I really need to know more details about the schools that are doing this successfully.