Part 3 - Reflection

The title of my first ever blog sums up what my journey into Teacher Librarianship has been – a steep learning curve. Having “inherited” a 20th century library in every sense of the word I knew there was a lot of work in front of me, but I was unaware exactly how much there was.


As a classroom teacher of 15 years I felt my IT skills were quite good – I used my IWB effectively, creating and sharing lessons with colleagues, I delivered quality IT lessons to my students and they were among the most computer literate students in the school and we regularly used the internet to assist us with research – albeit using Google. I had heard of Wikis, Blogs and Web2.0 and was planning to get around to finding out more “soon”.

Topic 1 – Using Learning Tools – just meant “soon” came a little sooner than I thought it would. My excitement and sense of achievement at setting up my first Blog is clearly evident in my forum post and my first blog post. Herring (2007) and Purcell (2010) both elude to the role of Information Specialist as being where the TL introduces emerging technology to staff and students. When I read this I realised I had a lot of catching up to do with “older” technology before delving in to emerging technology.

I have since set up class Blogs and Wikis for 8 Stage 2 and 3 classes at my school and class teachers are regularly checking them to see what their kids are doing in library time.

I found Topic 2: The role of the teacher librarian to be extremely inspiring, in particular the Standards for Professional excellence as they provided me with a clear outline of what I was meant to aspire towards. However I found it frustrating to read so many negative responses to the readings.

My forum post clearly reflect this frustration as does my blog entry. I found myself questioning my fellow 401 students suitability for the job as most comments were centred around the many roles of a TL and the impossibility of covering all of these roles. On further reflection I reminded myself that many of these comments were coming from students who had never been a teacher and had no idea just how many roles every staff member has in a school setting.

I found the many roles of a TL an exciting prospect especially that of Information Specialist as this is perhaps my greatest challenge. My years as a classroom teacher have provided a strong framework to build on my curriculum knowledge and I regularly collaborated with fellow teachers to provide quality curriculum but after reading Morris & Packard (2007) and Haycock (2007) the importance of collaboration with the Principal was brought to my attention.

I have since approached my principal with a “plan” of my vision for the library and a budget for making this vision a reality. I have requested, and received a library assistant 1 day a week which has freed up my “admin time” allowing me to team teach with 2 stage 3 teachers twice a week . This has led to wonderful collaboration between myself and students and teachers which Purcell (2010) states is vital. Further collaboration between myself and classroom teachers has come about due to an assignment on resourcing the curriculum.


If I am truly honest with myself, I have found the past few months a struggle and I had no idea at the beginning how much time and effort I would need to put into my studies. My stress levels have risen in way they never did when I was younger and studying and my ideas and thoughts seem to take so much longer to formulate. I have discovered that I have little time or patience for others views if I feel they are not relevant to my own needs – a somewhat arrogant and selfish finding.

I also have a much greater understanding of the fear, stress, uncertainty and apprehension school students must face at some point during their school years when faced with seemingly impossible tasks. This fact alone has made this process worthwhile as it has given me a greater understanding of the importance our role as educators can have on their lives and how important it is to provide clear, concise scaffolds to aid them in their learning.

I am amazed looking back at my blog entries just how much I have achieved in a few short months. As for the steep learning curve…. I don’t feel as though I’m anywhere near the top yet, but I have begun the assent.