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This presentation will be made available on my blog
readingpower.wordpress.com, using slideshare, so you will be able
to access both slides and notes. Last year at Edutech, I shared our
library renovation. Photos of our Library will again feature in
todays slides. However, the renovating of the space was but one
stage. The next stage was to renovate our library program to
maximise the learning potential of this wonderful environment.
Firstly, some work for you. Jot down or discuss with person next
to you answer the question: What is your idea of a visionary
library program? You have one minutes. Wewill share these at the
end of the session, time permitting. I find it immensely helpful to
hear the vision of other librarians for reflecting on my own. This
talk today is our vision statement: our aspiration for our school
library which might challenge you to think differently or it might
reinforce what you are already doing.
Like most of our students, I started with google. I found an
article called how to do a TED-like talk. It said A good 20-minute
talk presents: one idea, tells one story, and asks one
question.
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One idea: Teacher librarians must provide cutting edge library
programs, using evidence based practice, that focus on goals
directly connected to school leadership priorities. Teacher
librarians need to use Professional Learning Networks to develop
these programs and must promote these. One story: kill Sacred
CowsOne big question: Is your library program satisfying your
Principal or school leadership?
Lets consider the last question mathematically. Please dont
answer. But consider -what are you paid? What is a library aide
paid? Lets say an experienced teacher librarian might cost a school
$90,000; possibly more. An aide running the library (term time
only) might cost less than half this amount, that is less than
$45,000. So, school leadership would need to be satisfied that the
learning benefit provide by the teacher librarian is worth the
differential cost - say $45,000. What does this mean? Here is a
recent example. A teacher librarian returning from leave asked her
school leadership if she could take mainly prep and younger
classes. School leadership refused this as they were concerned this
teacher librarian would largely be reading picture books, based on
her past work, and they were not satisfied that this justified
paying her salary. Teacher librarians spend a lot of time juggling
finances,
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so we should be very aware of what this must be like for school
leadership.
When teacher librarians lose their job, they are sometimes given
the choice of returning to the classroom. I have been told by some
teacher librarians that they chose to resign because classroom
teaching is too demanding. Teachers work on average a 60 hour week
with marking, preparation, parent meetings and so on. Teacher
librarians need to work as hard as teachers if expecting a
teacher's salary and many of us work longer hours than this.
http://www.theguardian.com/education/2014/feb/28/primary-school-teachers-work-60-hour-week
Many teacher librarians already have timetabled classes with
reporting and assessment. I do. Just this month. I was told about a
teacher librarian who applied to fill a contract for a teacher
librarian on long service leave. This applicant was a qualified
teacher librarian, but said she could not take classes by herself.
Needless to say, she did not get the job. It is non-negotiable,
that teachers librarians must show leadership in teaching.
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There are many excellent teacher librarians, but not every
teacher librarian is excellent. Some do not connect with cutting
edge school library information, so do not hear, let alone heed,
the warnings that have been communicated for many years, about the
need for change in teacher librarian roles and programs.
I am not saying that only poorly performing teacher librarians
have lost jobs, for that is not the case. Rather, I am saying that
we need to consider the issue more broadly than blaming Principals
or asking Unions to enforce one teacher librarian in every library.
Some school libraries are simply revising what has been done in the
past. Most teacher librarians work hard and mean well, but this is
not enough to keep teacher librarians in jobs. Technological
advances mean that many library processes can be done without
specialist skills, yet many teacher-librarians spend considerable
time on such tasks. In America, the role is often called library
media specialist. Teacher librarians need to run programs that are
very "special" to enhance learning. If teacher librarians are doing
jobs that can be done by non-specialist staff; if they do not
become indispensible to their school's learning goals, then they
become an expense that can be dispensed with.
Recently, on the main Australian teacher librarian list, a
teacher librarian emailed
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about disparaging remarks that had been made about teacher
librarians at a conference. In response, the suggestion was: let's
... bombard them with messages from school libraries and kids. The
problem with this response is the "show, don't tell" rule. Telling
people we are "good" is unlikely to work if that is not what they
have been shown.
We need to reflect seriously on why these poor opinions of
school librarians exist because teacher librarian jobs are
disappearing at a rapid rate, not only in Australia, but also
worldwide. Some teacher librarians plan their programs quite
separately from teachers, let alone communicating with school
leadership. It is very easy to get rid of teacher librarians if
they are already disconnected.
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So, the most important step in revisioning the library program
is to look at the practices of the teacher librarian. This does not
mean abandoning information literacy, reading or resourcing roles;
but it may mean doing these things differently; it may mean
stopping some practices; and it means making time for new
directions. Literature and inquiry are now included more explicitly
in International Baccalaureate and other curriculum documents more
extensively than in the past. Teacher librarians do not own reading
promotion or information literacy. These programs will only be most
effective when the teacher librarian operates with teachers as a
team, who have a shared approach, which is sequenced across year
levels.
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Teacher librarian, Natalie Georgious from Western Australia sums
it up on her blog http://www.backtothelibrary.com/ ; it is easy to
start playing the blame game. She says there has been much pointing
of fingers towards school administrations and the government... She
says if you put yourself in their shoes with their very tight
budgets, knowing that the only way to continue learning programs is
to cut back in other areas, could you justify the employment of
library staff? Natalie states if all we are really doing is
building and maintaining resource collections, along with
traditional reading programs and some ad hoc information research
skills teaching, then we are indeed an expensive luxury resource in
the schools overall budget. It will only be a matter of time before
your position becomes redundant and replaced by someone who costs a
lot less.
She also says on her blog; "At the end of last year (2014)
...the library staff (3 Teacher Librarians and 2 Library Officers)
at a very large city public school were told by their Principal
that they were no longer needed at the school and that they would
be replaced by a Level 3 Library Officer... This was a start of a
stream of horror stories about teacher librarians being retrenched
or not being replaced and Library Officers left stranded in running
large school libraries without any support or training to do the
job....
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Natalie states the Western Australian Department of Education in
2014 rewrote the job description for Level 2 Library Officers
stating that their duties include running a school library in its
entirety, including budgeting, resourcing, programming and duty of
care, with not a mention of a Teacher Librarian anywhere in sight!
Natalies story is similar to moves in many other jurisdictions
worldwide. Technology has wrought massive changes to learning, with
more to come, so unless teacher librarians change their programs to
meet the needs of modern learners, the job will go the same way as
rat catchers, leech collectors and the milkman.
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There is no perfect library program. Each teacher librarian
needs to make choices on how they can make the biggest impact on
their own schools learning goals. These decisions should be reached
through collaboration with school leadership. This is not about
leadership telling the teacher librarian what to do. This is about
a 2 way professional conversation with the teacher librarian
proposing programs that they see as achieving school goals and
obtaining ideas and feedback. If this conversation does not happen,
at least annually, then this is the first practise that needs to
change. The teacher librarian also needs to be perceptive in
eliciting leadership directions which are made explicit in many
forums, and these can also be detected from staff meetings,
newsletters and other school communications. The library program
then needs to be implemented as strategic and operational library
goals, looking ahead, and then broken down into years, terms and
weeks. Then this can later be broken down into goals for each day.
Statistics need to be taken and reports made regularly of progress.
These plans should have some flexibility, but there is an old
quote: failing to plan is planning to fail.
So, how do we make our plan happen? By killing Sacred Cows. The
phrase Sacred Cow comes from India, where cows are protected even
if people are starving. It refers to someone or something that has
been accepted or respected for a long time
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and that people are afraid or unwilling to criticize or
question. With the rapid decline in teacher librarian jobs, nothing
should be too sacred not to be questioned. So, I am proposing to
kill 10 Sacred Cows today.
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Sacred Cow number 1: Not enough time to introduce new programs.
Di McKenzie
http://librarygrits.blogspot.com.au/2014/02/day-7-keeping-track.html
suggests teacher librarians should track how they use time. It is
important to review where time is being spent, so that most time is
spent on the most important goals. I tracked my time for 2 weeks
and was amazed how much time I spent trying to fix student printing
problems. Not any more.
Also, setting deadlines for achieving goals, changes how you
view time, even if you take more time than expected. Deadlines
force focus.
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Sacred Cow 2. Cataloguing. Many years ago I did a contract at
Earnshaw State College where a volunteer did ALL the library
cataloguing. Teacher librarians need to avoid doing work that can
or should be done by aides or others. Part of the teacherlibrarian
role is to manage training of other staff in administrative skills;
such as cataloguing.
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Sacred Cow Number 3. Repeat lessons. Taking repeat lessons is
part of the job. However, this needs careful management. Taking
many repeat lessons is fine, if this is what your employer wants
and if you have enough staff to do this. However, there might be
areas where repeat lessons can be reduced, such as by providing
videos, screencasts or pathfinders, so teachers can deliver this
information. For example, referencing classes. You could make a
video that teachers can use and students can access 24/7 on how to
reference. You might teach referencing to one year level in person,
for example Year 7, but in higher grades you might refer teachers
and students to the support materials. For schools where the
teacher librarian has very limited hours, creating referencing
videos might be the only option.
Sacred Cow 4. Reading. Can the class teacher read the picture
book, especially in lower year levels? Can new books and reading
titles be promoted in other ways than the teacher librarian doing
multiple repeat book talks; for example videos or digital updates?
It is more effective if students are empowered to find good books
themselves, rather than having a system dependant on the personal
presence of a teacher librarian to suggest reading options. There
are many websites and apps that provide reading recommendations and
these are rapidly improving. There are many other strategies that
can be provided to maximise chances for students to find books
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they will enjoy. All teachers should promote reading. This year
at our school, the Director of Middle School organised National
Simultaneous Story Time this was great because she has much more
ability to convince classes on at this time, in this case it
included science classes, to give up time to make this happen.
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Sacred Cow 5. Displays. How much time is taken doing displays?
Can they be left up longer or done by other staff or by
students?
Sacred Cow 6. Activities. We need to look at the cost benefit of
each of our activities. Time is an important cost. At our school we
have reduced what we do for Book Week and no longer do Readers Cup.
These were hard decisions, but we assessed our many time demands
and targeted areas that more closely met school learning goals. I
am not saying that everyone should do this. We did not have a
system where we could implement Readers Cup for large groups, so we
were spending a lot of time on this for a small number of
students.
With any activity, there should be consideration of how the
activities promote specific learning goals. It is not enough to
justify activities by saying they promote reading. This is too
general. There should be specific and measurable goals. For
example, say there were concerns about student conflict in Year 6.
Developing activities around the theme of friendship using a
targeted book or book section could be a good strategy. Then
students could participate in activities that encourage reflection
on behaviours. Students could post to a private blog, that only the
teacher can see, a reflection about what they have learnt to reduce
the interpersonal issues
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that have been occurring. The blog would provide evidence
pointing to what has been learnt.
We need to be targeted and always consider versus learning
benefit. Some libraries spend huge amounts of time creating
pathfinders and on developing their library website. There needs to
be balance; the goal is to empower students to learn to research,
not for library staff to spend too much time researching student
assignments.
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Sacred Cow 7: Only the teacher librarian operates the book
lending software. If aides can run libraries, they can lend books.
Teacher librarians can train teachers or even some capable students
to do the lending. If there are concerns about the accuracy of the
catalogue, then reconsider practices in relation to lost or overdue
books and ensure students can and do check their library borrowing
record on the catalogue.
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Sacred Cow 8. Flexible versus fixed timetabling. Flexible
timetabling often means there are 2 teachers at a library lesson.
Unless the teacher is active in the lesson e.g. on rotations, or
taking groups aside, then this is very expensive. One teacher
librarian recently told me that she ran a silent reading lesson
where both she and the teacher were silently reading with the
students. Would the Principal question the learning and cost
effectiveness of this? Schools cannot provide the ideal learning
solution - if so, every student might have their own individual
teacher. It is about finding the most effective learning solution
in given circumstances. So, arguing for flexible timetabling is
pricing some teacher librarians out of the learning ballpark.
Buffy Hamilton said in 2012, that despite almost thirty years of
promotion of flexible scheduling as a strategy for richer
instructional outcomes, most American elementary school libraries
remain on fixed schedules. "Ironically, this reality saved many
colleagues jobs during the recession." Collaboration is time
consuming and not all teachers cooperate. Buffy states flexible
timetabling often relies on some classes opting out, and thus
missing out. Fontichiaro, K., & Hamilton, B. (2014).
UNDERCURRENTS. Knowledge Quest, 43(1), 56-59
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These slides show ways of better utilising having a teacher and
teacher librarian in a class at the same time. For example, creates
smaller groups; some can be student led.
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This model shows a combination of whole class and smaller
groupings.
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These models can be applied even where there is one teacher
librarian staffing library lessons. This is from Jackie Childs
blog. It shows students doing rotations. Then, the teacher
librarian can work with smaller groups.
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So, Sacred Cow number 9 is almost everything else, not yet
mentioned. Do books have to be covered? Does it really matter if
shelves are sometimes messy? Are minutes typed during meetings, so
time is not needed to do this later? Is an online booking system
used for booking library spaces instead of booking in person or by
phone? Set goals and deadlines, make sure these goals support
leadership goals; then question everything that is standing in the
way.
Even lack of money. When money is limited it is even more
critical to manage time and resources very carefully and to be goal
focused. Nikki Robertson in her blog report
http://www.nikkidrobertson.com/2012/01/asla-twitter-chat-review-132012.html?q=funded
reports that Alabama schools have not been funded for books for
over 8 years. This makes the job much harder, but many teacher
librarians fundraise, ask for donations, use volunteers and student
helpers, and find cheap ways of running effective library
programs.
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So, what are these specialist cutting edge library programs?
They need to go beyond good teaching. They often feature blended
learning and new technologies. Teacherlibrarians need to be leaders
in technology it really is not optional for job survival. Including
technology in library programs adds the perception that library
programs are "cutting edge," further marketing the value of the
role. Local examples include: Jackie Childs and Megan Daley combine
their primary school literature lessons with makerspace activities
and gardening. Cathy Oxley uses scavenger hunts with QR codes as
part of library inductions and immersive apps. My team has a
library youtube channel with instructional screencasts. We have
adapted our school information literacy model resources so they can
be easily shared in class onenotes. Four local school library staff
created a simulated fantasy quest using immersive and augmented
reality experiences to promote creative writing. Marist Ashgrove is
using database articles to help secondary students improve skills
in decoding challenging texts. The Mt Alvernia team is using social
media and genius hour strategies to engage and challenge students
to be independent, critical and globally connected learners. The
choice of activities should reflect each school's circumstances.
Connecting library programs to the curriculum and school community,
aids promotion.
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Teacher librarians need to be connected professionally. Every
teacher librarian needs a PLN, a Personal Learning Network. This
saves time, by providing access to cutting edge ideas from other
teacher librarians. Options include twitter, blogs, MOOCs, as I am
currently doing as on the slide with the University of Adelaide, ,
email lists or Google hangouts. There is a huge amount of free
Professional Development available. Much can be undertaken online
whenever it is convenient. Many cutting edge teacher librarians
share generously and their programs can be modified to suit the
needs of other schools. Once teacher librarians implement library
programs, they must use evidence based practice to improve and show
the effectiveness of these programs. So, take photos, make surveys,
report on what has been done and use this information to improve,
so the program gets better and better. Teacher librarians must then
promote what they are doing. It is no good doing a fantastic job if
no one knows about it.
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So, let us take further the idea of perception of the role. If a
Principal asks for a goal to be prioritised or makes a request of a
teacher librarian, what should the response be? If a teacher
librarian is critical, disagrees or opposes the Principal's ideas,
then this is a sure fire way to become perceived negatively and
even eventually lose a job. Being right is not always the right way
to handle career situations.
For example, if asked by the Principal to provide ideas for
using technology to improve literacy, responding that technology is
not needed to improve literacy just makes the teacher librarian
look difficult, unable to find such resources, or lacking in
technology skills. We need to be career savvy and create win-win
outcomes. Take the Marist literacy idea of decoding journal
articles. This could be presented to the Principal with the option
of students making digital annotations on articles on their
devices. However, in practise handwriting on printed articles could
be the backup plan, if technology is problematic. Teacher
librarians need to market themselves as "can do" people. The
Fascination Principle says:" if your boss is interested in an
initiative, you should be fascinated." Like any job, the way to
keep it, is to support your employer's goals.
Teacher librarians need to be leaders in curriculum and
technology. We have seen
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such roles offered in schools in Queensland, in the last decade,
especially in primary schools, but these have often been declined
by teacher librarians because they are: "not my role." At one stage
some teacher librarians were saying that copyright was not their
job. However, if teacher librarians are meant of be specialists in
information, it is difficult to see why this would not include some
copyright expertise which now includes concepts such as creative
commons and information commons. And now we have the future focused
opportunity with makerspaces. There is really no set role for
teacher librarians. If we fail to step up to meet the current
learning needs of schools, then we will be left behind as relics of
the past. Many valued teacher librarians now do more elearning and
staff professional development than in the past. We see teacher
librarians providing support for 1 to 1 devices, systems
management, textbook hire, music collections, and archives. My
library staff are responsible for school bulk printing. On the plus
side, we do get to see every school assignment. We need to get rid
of the knots - do not, can not, will not and stop basing the role
on practices from the past.
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Some universities still advise that a teacher librarian's
priority is to meet the needs of staff and students. This is Sacred
Cow number 10. Whilst providing specialist support to staff and
students is extremely important, the teacher librarians first
priority should be to support the goals of school leadership. These
do not always align. For example, some teaching staff regularly
request help with doing their photocopying and treat flexible
library lessons as preparation time.
Be strategic when you do assist staff and students, so you help
them to be independent. Try and diverting non specialist "helping"
roles to others. If you do not have support staff, then discuss
managing this with your Principal. Set out options, such as not
covering books, using student or parent volunteers, and so on;
because operating as a library aide is a sure fire way to get
replaced by one. Remember, library aides are now expected to be
able to run school libraries. Let someone else be the expert in
un-jamming the photocopier.
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Here is an example of solution thinking. When I was at Terrace
Library last Friday, they had a help desk in the library run by
students. These students provided the initial troubleshooting
support for issues, such as printing for other students. Creative
solutions, such as this one, can ensure teacher librarians have
time for designing and implementing cutting edge library
programs.
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We have tried many strategies over the years to find more time
for cutting edge programs. Some of these are here.
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And what can you do with this time? Programs like
makerspaces
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I do not have time today to explore this further, but all
libraries have catalogues, well all I have known. Yet, I hear some
teacher librarians say their catalogue is barely used. Secondly,
catalogues are designed for searching, so makes it easier for
patrons if they can find everything in one place. Our catalogue
provides access to Clickview, scanned pdfs, digital textbooks,
books, instructions, pathfinders, school archives, equipment,
everything we can think of; it even records lending of musical
instruments. So, we are moving to use this more and more as our
main library portal.
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With our revisioning, we still support learning in class time.
However, there has been a significant shift to ownership of student
learning outside class time.
Our library is a destination with exciting events. We generally
run organised events outside class time mainly for the first 4
weeks of school, then leave students to focus on assessment or
chill out exploring our resources for the rest of the term We try
not to compete with other scheduled school events.
We connect our events with curricular and extra curricular
activities, for mutual benefit.
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It is critical to plan change management. You must get your
staff on board. Librariesneed to plan for others to share ownership
of library programs, especially students.
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An important part of the library program is connecting with
teaching staff. Here is what our library is offering teaching staff
in the last 2 days of this term, for example.
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Teacher librarians usually cannot see every class for every
assignment. However, by having a systematic approach this can be
done more efficiently. For example, see all Year 7s for referencing
lessons, Year 8s for in text referencing, Year 9 for website
evaluation, Year 10 for database training. Choose assignments that
suit these skills and that are done by all students in a year
level. This is more effective than an approach taht relies on
teacher contacting library staff which results on some students
missing out while other students receive multiple referencing
lessons.
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Teacher librarians must work out a way to connect with school IT
staff to be successful.
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So, please think back on the ideas you jotted down or discussed
at the beginning of this session.
Did you write that teacher librarians must manage time and
resources to achieve goals directly connected to school leadership
priorities? Did you write about providing specialist cutting edge
library programs using evidence based practice? Did you write about
promoting, sharing and connecting? Did you mention connecting with
leading teacher librarians and educators to select cutting edge
programs best suited to your schools goals? Did you say that
library programs should satisfy school leadership
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It is not about how hard teacher librarians work. It is about
delivering library programs that make our school leadership
satisfied. And to achieve this we need to kill any Sacred Cows that
stand in the way.
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