Teacher Librarians: Unsung Heroes
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This week’ s module reminded me of the many hats we, as teacher librarians, must wear if we want to run a successful Learning Commons. I remember how I used to think (a very long time ago…when I was in my first years of teaching) that being a teacher was a never ending adventure! As teachers we have to wear so many hats at once and boy, do we need to be masters at multitasking or what?! I used to dream about working at the library so I would not have to do a million things at once…I laugh out loud now thinking about how Naïve I had been! Being a teacher librarian is just like being a teacher but adding the rest of the school to your classroom!
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Just like Scott Douglas says, being a teacher librarian is not just about spreading love of reading and giving out information it’s “about serving a community. And if the community if hungry for more than just knowledge, then maybe it’s about time to open a snack bar.” (Douglas, S. via UBC, Module 7, 2022)
Teacher-Librarians are educational leaders, inquiry superheroes, our problem-solvers, tech magicians, and book lovers. They work tirelessly to ensure our students and colleagues have what they need to meet their learning needs.
Furthermore, as leaders, teacher librarians need to make sure to foster collaboration and networking within their school community. This is no easy task, but very worth it once you start seeing the fruit of your hard work. According to Trevor MacKenzie teacher librarians are "often under-utilized in a school environment. Many teachers see the librarian interact only with students, but they are invaluable sources for teachers as well." (MacKenzie, 2019). One of our jobs as TLs is to promote our services to the school community as a whole. Teachers won't know how much we can help them if we don't show them! A word of caution though, we cannot go in "guns-a-blazing" and end up overwhelming them all. We need to start small and go from there, perhaps collecting some resources that can help a grade 2 teacher with her science unit, or a pathfinder for Ancient Egypt, or offering drop in tech workshops to teach an app to the whole class, etc.
Margaret Merga adds that "teacher and teacher librarian collaboration is a key feature of pre-service programs that seek to optimize student benefits." (Merga, 2019). But how can we open the door to collaboration? I have listed a few suggestions in my presentation below. The most important thing to remember is never to give up and to keep pushing, our students deserve it!
Networking is another key factor to consider when creating a great learning environment for our students. Through networks, both teacher and students alike can find great resources and tips from like-minded individuals. Networks also helps us stay aware of upcoming projects or professional development workshops. They introduce new apps and programs to targeted audiences and they keep you informed of any changes around you. In this digital era, networking has become a crucial player for us to help us stay connected with the world around us. Teacher librarians need to continue to teach our students how to be good digital citizens and not fall prey to "information overload" or "digital misconduct."
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Below is a compilation of my notes from this week’s readings about the importance to sustaining collaboration and networking in the library and the roles and characteristics of a TL as educational leader.
I used a program called emaze to share my notes. One of my colleagues recommended this program and I love how user friendly it is! I can see how it can be added as a presentation tool for our students to use instead of Power Point or Pages. You can also insert multimodal resources such as music, pictures, and videos to your presentation. I highly recommend it!
Without further ado, here is my emaze presentation on “The Teacher-Librarian: an Educational Leader.” Just click on the picture below and it will take you to my presentation. To view it better, make sure to click full screen. If it's moving too fast, you can pause it at any time or go back slides by clicking the left/right arrows on the side of the screen. Enjoy!
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