Celeste-Lifelong Learning

Hi Everyone,

I titled my blog Lifelong Learning for a myriad of reasons. I know it is a popular 'buzzword' currently in education but, more than that, I believe that today's students face a future where, due to market forces, they are likely to need to change direction in their profession many times over the course of their career. They will need to have the skills to learn independently throughout their life. I believe that the Teacher Librarian,in conjunction with the classroom teacher, plays an important role in empowering children to become independent lifelong learners.

Upon reflection I have had a life with many twists and turns and much learning has taken place along the way. I began my career as a primary teacher in Fiji on a Rotary Fellowship, then taught at Double Bay and Mascot in Sydney before moving to Singapore where I commenced teaching in the Juniors (Primary) at a British International School. Consequently I had to become familiar with the British National Curriculum. Several years later I moved into Infants and began teaching Nursery children. (Nursery children in the British system are 3-4 years old.) This involved more learning as I realised my teaching needed to accommodate the needs of three year old children who generally don't like to sit still for long!Then, two years ago my school decided to implement the Early Years Foundation Stage Curriculum. This was a steep learning curve for all Early Years teachers. Finally, after many, many inservice courses and support from an Early Years' specialist from the UK the EYFS programme has been successfully implemented at my school.

Now, after applying for a Librarian position at my school (something I have always wanted to do) I am embarking on yet another Learning Journey. Life, I have decided,is one long journey of learning. The challenge for me, however, is using new forms of technology -like blogs, podcasts etc as I have not needed to use them to date in my career. This is my first blog!

Celeste Fisher

P.S My youngest son (Mackenzie) and I are currently in England visiting my eldest son (Jordan) who is at Durham University studying Economics. We have just had a pub dinner and they have just explained to me how they cite sources in the essays they write for school/university. I think I'll be asking them for lots of help!