Ooh baby baby, ooh baby baby, ooh baby baby, ba-ba ba-ba baby (Yeah it’s the totally awesome salt’n’pepa kind)

To add to my challenges this semester in dealing with distance education, working full time in a pretty full-on position with some 'not so understanding' superiors and feeling seriously left behind at uni because I am not a teacher librarian already- just struggling to try and become one- I have also fallen pregnant during the semester.

 Andrew and I are very excited about the upcoming arrival of the little pikelet sometime in Dec-Jan but it has taken its toll on me physically. Gone are the days when I could stay up all night to finish assignments and then get up and do a full day at work and do it all over again. This little black duck is falling asleep on the lounge at about 7.30pm, totally braindead and unable to cope with any thought more complex than 'I would like a piece of vegemite toast please'.

 This whole not being in control of one's own body is freaky and is not conducive to study and full time work commitments and both have suffered a bit because of it, but as I am preparing myself for motherhood and getting used to the idea that someone else will be calling all the shots around here from now on, I am starting to get a bit of perspective. If things slip a little, oh well, I am doing a very important job from the lounge chair- growing a little person... a future learner.

I caught my first good glimpse of the pikelet yesterday at my 12 week ultrasound and it was truly amazing. All of the little insignificant shite that usually besets me was all forgotten. I am in love and my love waved at me.

Hopefully the world won't be too harsh with me if I am a bit slack here and there and maybe not as articulate or energetic as I may have been not so long ago, 'cos in the last few weeks I have done something pretty amazing ...I have grown a brain, a heart, lungs, a bladder, a stomach, a liver, a couple of sets of kidneys, a couple of arms, legs, eyes, ears, a mouth, and other miscellaneous rude bits... and wow that made me a pretty busy person.

As I head into 2^nd trimester I am hoping my energy levels will improve and I will be able to function as a (mostly) rational human for at least the next few months. So watch this space and judge for yourselves.

A little bit of vitriol (not the funky BlueJuice kind either) - mostly aimed at ETL503 at this stage, but I’m sure I will come across other offenders soon

For a moment I am going to set aside all the critical reflection and feeling the love for teacher librarians, and raise an issue that I have already raised in this forum before. That's right, discrimination against non-teacher librarians raises its ugly head again and I have to admit that I wasn't at all prepared for the assumption that one should already be a teacher librarian in order to learn to become a teacher librarian. Soon after starting this course I discovered that there is a great deal of assumed knowledge and an expectation that all students are actually working in libraries and/or schools prior to commencing studies. This seems like a bit of a case of the cart before the horse to me and as a full-time employee of an organisation not a school or a school library, I have found myself considerably behind the eight-ball and scrambling to catch up (with varying levels of success). Not only am I now struggling with the whole distance education thing but I am also having to overcome a huge bias towards people already working in the profession.

My previous analogy of my studies in law is probably a good illustration of my point. I started my law degree not as a lawyer nor as a person working in a firm- I was at uni to learn these skills. If some of my fellow students were working in the field, then they had a bit of an advantage, but the bar was set to meet the learning needs of the uninitiated. Maybe this is a good take-home message for the drafters of the courses for this degree.

Can I suggest that instead of asking students to talk about the school environment and/or library they are working in that lecturers actually construct scenarios that everyone must use as the basis for their assignments? I would suggest that this would create a more level playing field and would allow those students who are on the outside a fairer chance at actually scoring well on critical analysis etc rather than twisting themselves in knots trying to imagine a school or spend an inordinate amount of time trying to find a teacher librarian who is able to find the time and energy to assist them.

The current system seems manifestly unfair as there was no prior warning when I enrolled in this degree that I should already be doing the job before even thinking about qualifying to do the job- see it seems wrong when you read it doesn't it? Am I the only person who is feeling this way? Am I stupid and just don't get it? This is my fifth degree so I would suggest that perhaps I am not stupid, merely labouring under some unfair conditions.

I'm not sure if my rant will change anything with the current course or if there is really anyone out there listening who gives a care for us non teacher librarians, those striving to become teacher librarians. I guess I can only hope that some future student reads these posts and embarks upon a course of study into teacher librarianship with eyes wide open and no nasty surprises like I received.

Beware all ye who enter here...

Critical synthesis- ETL401 assignment 2 (not quite as catchy as my other titles)

When I first considered embarking upon my studies in teacher librarianship, I thought I had a reasonably sound idea of the role of the teacher librarian. I quickly discovered that I had grossly underestimated the importance, responsibilities and scope of the role of teacher librarians in schools. I wasn't a total philistine, expecting I would merely be learning about the Dewey system and how to push a cart full of books, but I didn't fully appreciate the integral role the teacher librarian plays in the school community. In this respect I have been on a bit of an information literacy journey myself and travelled through many of the stages identified in a variety of information skills processes, most particularly identifying with the NSW DET ISP model stages- defining, locating, selecting, organising, presenting, assessing (NSW Department of Education and Training, 2007)- all to varying levels of success. I am most definitely focussed on pursuing the goal of "lifelong learning" (ALIA, 2004) for myself and for members of school communities in the future.

As an 'outsider' not working in a school community and not seeing teacher librarians at work every day, I guess you could say I fell victim to some generalised stereotypes of teacher librarians. I made assumptions that teacher librarians kept to themselves, managed their libraries and only responded when students or teachers came to them for help. I queried my choice of this course of study because I wasn't interested in being locked away with resources, I wanted to get involved in students and teachers lives and help them access the wealth of information available. Yet I had a yearning to be a part of the quest for learning in a way that was different to that of classroom teacher. Luckily for me, through my studies this semester I have been disabused of the notion of a quiet wallflower librarian, managing their own domain in a vacuum, without influencing or being influenced by, the outside world. The role of the teacher librarian is a dynamic and integral part of an information literate school community.

It may seem somewhat naive, but prior to this course of study I had never really considered in depth the 'teacher' part of teacher librarian. I wondered why being a qualified teacher was a prerequisite for this qualification. As the semester has progressed I have given this concept much more thought and have come to realise that due to the fact that teachers librarians have skills and qualifications in both teaching and librarianship, they are uniquely placed to "combine knowledge about curriculum and pedagogy with information management knowledge and skills" (Ryan, 2009: 13) and bring both of these skills sets to bear in developing and promoting an information literate school community.

The role of the teacher librarian in pedagogy and curriculum development, as well as developing teachers and information literate learners across the school community (not just students) is something that I had not necessarily considered until commencing my studies. Collaboration is at the core of the role of an effective teacher librarian and something that I have only really started to appreciate through my studies. If there is no effective communication and collaboration between teacher librarians and the rest of the school community there is fragmentation and teacher librarians will find that they may be left on the outer and have only very "limited influence on learning outcomes" (Gibbs, 2003: 5). The teacher librarian should be a leader in the school community and actively pursuing collaborative opportunities wherever possible. By getting involved, teacher librarians can work to challenge some of the preconceived ideas members of the school community have about libraries and the professionals who staff them, 'sell' their skills to the broader school community and have more of a contribution to the running of the school and the advancement of information literacy. By educating teachers, parents and the executive about the services and capabilities available through the school library, teacher librarians work to improve the reputation of the profession as a whole and may find that funding and assistance become more readily available in the future- particularly if the teacher librarian is able to show proof of improved results through the use of the services of the library.

The role of the teacher librarian is so much more than print resources, and my studies so far this year have introduced me to the concept of the teacher librarian as a leader and an early adapter of ICT (Foley & Hay, 2007:22). This is a far cry from the archetypal librarian shuffling around with dusty old books. By continuing to be at the forefront of developments in information retrieval, access and ICT, teacher librarians will assure their integral role within the school community a long way into the future.


References:
- Australian Library and Information Association. (2004). Standards of professional excellence for teacher librarians. Retrieved from http://www.alia.org.au/policies/teacher-librarian.standards.html
-Australian Library and Information Association. (2001, amended 2003, 2006). Statement on Information Literacy for all Australians. Retrieved from http://www.alia.org.au/policies/information.literacy.html
-Australian School Library Association (1994, amended 2009). Statement on Information Literacy. Retrieved from http://www.asla.org.au/policy/information.literacy.htm
-Australian School Library Association (2003, amended 2009). Statement on Teacher Librarians in Australia. Retrieved from http://www.asla.org.au/policy/teacher.librarians.Australia.htm
-Department of Education and Training (2007). Information Skills in the School. Retrieved from http://www.curriculumsupport.education.nsw.gov.au/schoollibraries/teachingideas/isp/docs/infoskills.pdf
-Foley C and Hay L. (2007). Shaping our profession: teacher librarianship into the future. Scan; vol.26 No.3, Aug 2007: 21-27.
-Gibbs R. (2003). Reframing the role of the teacher-librarian: the case for collaboration and flexibility. Scan; Vol.22 No.3, Aug 2003: 4-7.
-Langford, L. (2002). Information literacy: whose view, whose responsibility, and does it really matter? Access, Vol.16, No.3, 2002: 21-24.
-Ryan, S. (2009). TLs, Literacy, and the Curriculum. Incite, Vol. 30, No. 10, Oct 2009: 13-14.

Reflections (Not the cool Diana Ross kind either)

Despite my initial reluctance at the whole blog idea, I am kind of liking the whole venting of the spleen to the universe vibe that's going on...

As I sit here pondering assessment task #1 for EDTL401 I am again struck by the fact that it seems to be a prerequisite that one is a teacher librarian in order to learn how to become a teacher librarian- see my earlier post http://sarah-pike.blogspot.com/2010/04/under-pressure-not-good-david-bowie.html for the full rant.

I understand that at some point in this degree I will need to engage with trained teacher librarians and undertake practical placements. What I was not prepared for was that in the first few weeks of the first subject in the first semester, I would be expected to locate a real live teacher librarian and enlist their assistance in writing my paper. Seems a bit presumptuous on my part "Hi, you don't know me but I am thinking about becoming a teacher librarian and was wondering if you could help me with my assignment?" Not too much of a drama if you already are a teacher librarian, which brings me back to my original point...

What has also struck me as odd is the requirement to write this assignment in the third person when the question asks us to ...critically analyse the role YOU believe the teacher librarian should play in creating an information literate school community... bring on the twists and turns as I try to contort myself into giving my opinion about something whilst not expressing it as my opinion.

Spleen vented... for now...

Under pressure (Not the good, David Bowie kind either)

Well, after a hiatus whilst I moved residences (thanks Telstra for the 10 day delay, awesome), I am back online. I came back to an inbox crammed full of messages re: 401. Who has time to wade through all this stuff? Full time students I guess...Most definately not me...

Uni is getting to me and I have gone down like the proverbial sack of you-know-what with a migraine. Been bedridden and this has thrown out my whole essay writing schedule. Life is never easy huh?

I have to say that I am feeling the pressure of uni work at the moment and my overwhelming thoughts regarding the Teacher Librarian qualification I am doing is that I feel at a DISTINCT disadvantage not being a librarian working in a school... which is kind of weird because that's why I am studying, TO BECOME A LIBRARIAN IN A SCHOOL!

I find it very hard to understand why it seems to be almost a pre-requisite of the course that you are already doing the job in which you are seeking the qualification?!?! When I did my law degree, there was no assumed knowledge, if you were already working in a law firm then sweet, you had an advantage, but there was no expectation that you were already a lawyer, there was an understanding that that was probably why you were attending uni studying a bachelor of laws.

Well there is my rant for today, time to go back to bed with some migraine medication...

Well here I am internet, do your worst

Despite my reluctance in getting on board with the whole blog thing, here I am... albeit under sufference. I have created this blog as part of my university studies to become a teacher librarian- often referred to as liberrian- I love gramatical screw ups!

I have never quite understood blogging, surely only family and friends are interested in, or alternatively must listen to my rampant ravings, but here I am telling you what I think and what I am interested in...

Make of it what you will...