Over the course of this unit I have experienced many
different emotions. I have felt anxious, perplexed, overwhelmed and most of all
stressed. I can almost compare it to Kuhlthau’s Information Search Process
(2004), as the initiation stage brought with it anxiety and uncertainty which
ensued throughout selection and exploration until I finally began to formulate
my own ideas and opinions to collect and present. Although I still experience those
bouts of anxiety now and again, I feel much more confident in my ability as a
teacher librarian.
My personal view of the teacher librarian (L) prior to this
course was quite naïve. I thought I had a good understanding of what the role
entailed and believed that completing this course would simply ‘fill in the
gaps’. Little did I know that I would be changing my whole perception of the
TL. Although overwhelming and anxiety-ridden at times, this course has assisted
me immensely in my role as the TL in my school.
Since keeping an online learning journal (OLJ) and
completing three compulsory blog tasks, I can see where my thinking has
changed. Looking back on my very first compulsory blog task, constructivist
learning and the Australian Curriculum, I can see how I missed the point
completely. I was in no way confident in my own ability to construct a piece of
writing that was critical of what I had read. I had no voice in my writing and
relied on the words of others to get my point across. I feel this is one area I
have definitely improved upon. As I begun to reflect upon what I had read, I
learnt to become much more critical and form my own opinions and ideas which I
feel is evident in the next two blog posts and assignment 1.
Through reading other personal reflections posted on my blog
I can see that I have focused on how I was feeling in that moment and have
tried to make sense of the experience as a whole. This is interesting to
reflect upon now as I can see how my journey begun and can compare it to where
I am now. Although I still have a lot to learn, I feel like I’m well on my way
to becoming the type of TL my school deserves.
Although posting my responses on the CSU forums was at times
inconsistent, I feel like it was reflective of where I was at that particular
time. Sometimes I felt strongly about a particular topic and felt the need to
share that with my peers while at other times I was much more comfortable with
observing the ideas of other people and reflecting on these to shape my own
ideas and opinions. Either way, the forums have been extremely helpful and an
integral part of this whole process. As a distance education student it became
the main form of communication between peers and lecturers.
A particular module of this course that I found interesting
was the importance of principal and administration support to the role of the TL.
This is quite an ironic topic as not only did I begin to see how vital the
support of the principal is, I began to see the many sides of the role of TL
and the lengths a TL must go to make this known within their learning
community. They must promote their role to staff, including the principal, and
keep them informed of library events and programs to enforce the library as
‘the hub’ of the school (Oberg, 2006). Not only did it convey how important it
is for the principal to understand what the TL does, it also put into
perspective for me what the TL actually does. This became a massive turning
point for me personally as my opinion of the role shifted from a somewhat vague
understanding of what the TL does into a much more clear and defined role. Once
again, very similar to the experiences felt by learners using Kuhlthau’s
Information Search Process (2004).
This assignment particularly has helped me to better
understand the benefits of implementing an information literacy process into my
own teaching programs and feel a lot more confident in doing so. Prior to this
course I was aware of such processes and had both witnessed and been involved
in the implementation of the NSW ISP (2007) but once again had a different
perception of the overall experience. Although I still have a long way to go in
this area, I feel confident that success will come with practice and lots of
it!
References
Kuhlthau, C. C. (2004). Information
Search Process. Retrieved from
NSW Department of Education and Training (2007). The
Information Process: Information
skills
in the school. Curriculum Support. Retrieved from
Oberg, D. (2006). Developing the respect and support of
school administrators. Teacher Librarian,
33(3), 13-18.
33(3), 13-18.
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