Teacher librarian as connector

Image created by Holly Broadland for LIBE 462 using WordSwag app

As I am currently a classroom teacher anticipating my first days as a teacher librarian, I look at the role of the teacher librarian with idealism and optimism. In past courses towards my teacher librarianship diploma, I have focused on the relationships a TL develops with students, teachers, admin, parents, and other teacher librarians as one of the major aspects of the role. I see the TL as the connector between people and knowledge.
Teacher librarian as connector, image from FotographieLink on Pixabay
I continue to believe that being able to develop relationships with the school community is an essential aspect of the job. If no one likes the librarian, people aren't going to want to go to the library and collaborate!

Chocolate chip cookies, photo by Holly Broadland
I created a Padlet in LIBE 462 entitled Collaboration in the Library. It includes my thoughts on how to encourage collaboration, and links to videos and articles on working with classroom teachers. I honestly believe that food can be a way to connect with others and I've had good luck with my Grandma's chocolate chip cookies! Recently, I've enjoyed connecting with other teachers online through social media. The facebook group Kindergarten Connections, with close to two thousand members, most of whom are BC primary teachers, has been a boon to me as a new classroom teacher. I've gained lots of great ideas from Learning Librarians, a Facebook group with mostly American librarians, and I've just joined the Ontario Teacher-Librarians group to get a Canadian perspective. As Russell says, "The greatest amount of collaboration occurs when the media specialist has a flexible schedule and team planning is encouraged by the principal." However, I know that realistically, many BC teacher librarians are dealing with fixed schedules as they do prep coverage for other teachers.

At my own school, the TL is fully booked with preps three days a week and since I only teach two days a week, I have absolutely no opportunity to collaborate with him during the school day. With my relentless enthusiasm for librarianship, I have managed to connect with him before and after school and I am looking forward to collaborating with him on a resource selection trip to Kidsbooks later this week. Riedling reminds us that "selection is not completely the responsibility of the school librarian. It also belongs to administrators, teachers, students, parents, and community members." The teacher librarian is fairly new to the library role at our school and is still learning about the collection. With the multiple demands on your time as a TL, I can imagine that it would be challenging to properly assess the strengths and weaknesses of the collection while also teaching, managing the library, collaborating with teachers, advocating for the library, coordinating volunteers, and all of the other duties as assigned. Keeping this in mind, I will endeavour to be kind to myself in my first years in the role and to remember that it will take many years before I know the collection and school community well but that it will be rewarding. After all, the end goal is pretty awesome. As Katz' quote states in our Riedling text, "Veteran [school librarians] never quit; or are fired, or die. They simply gain fame as being among the wisest people in the world." If I'm studying to be a wise immortal, bring it on!

<please use your imagination to conjure up an image of the Highlander as I wasn't able to find a copyright-free picture>

Works Cited

Riedling, A. M., Shake, L., & Houston, C. (2013). Reference skills for the school librarian: tools and tips. Santa Barbara: California.

Russell, S. (n.d.). Teachers and Librarians: Collaborative Relationships. Retrieved February 17, 2018, from https://www.ericdigests.org/2001-2/librarians.html

Comments

  1. Aaron MuellerFebruary 19, 2018 at 7:09 AM

    But can there only be one HIGHLANDER? I appreciated your passionate and positive post reflecting not just on our course and theme 2 readings and learnings, but connecting it with your previous courses and their reminders about the importance of collaborations and connections, especially around delicious cookies! You've highlighted many of the key takeaways and new learning for you, and how you are adapting it and evolving your own practices and understandings for the future as a wise Teacher-Librarian.

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  2. UnknownMarch 1, 2018 at 6:23 PM

    This is my second year as a TL and I am still anxious when I think of all the task I am responsible for but my mentor advised that I only focus on a small section of the collection at a time so I will be overwhelmed. For my first year, I focused mainly on the First People and the literacy circle sections as I found that those two sections were the most outdated. As for weeding my mentor advised that I spend just 15 mins a day going through a small part of the collection to see if there are any materials I could weed.
    As for collaboration I was lucky as the last TL that was at my school established a positive collaboration relationship with the school community so when I came to the school, all of the teachers were already used to collaborating with the TL and I had not problem asking teachers to sign up for collaboration blocks. At my first school in Richmond where I was covering an extended sick leave the teachers where much less collaborative so I started only collaborating with the two teachers whom I have already developed a positive relationship with. At staff meetings I would share what we did during collaboration blocks. The other teachers started to become more interested once they found out what collaboration could look like.

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