My previous post was written a couple of weeks ago -I had written it one evening -just put my thoughts down on paper and then had to go out so didn't actually post it. Then I was sick for ages and couldn't face any work and forgot all about it. I suddenly thought today that I had better look at my blog and realised I had fogotten to actually post my last thoughts. Anyway, it's on now.
Next term is going to be more challenging for me. I am still doing my usual job - teaching 24 wonderful 3-4 year olds, but will also be studying, getting my reports in, doing some work in the library after school once a week and also meeting with the 8 Year 2 classes -introducing myself as the TL for next year as part of their transition process from Year 2 to Year 3.(Our school year ends at the end of June.) A busy time ahead!
I was reflecting this morning on what I have achieved so far in this course. I have learnt...
* how to search data bases
* how to blog
* that this is a shared learning process and that you can post a request for help on the forum and people will help you out
* there are differest styles of referencing and what APA involves (even though I'm not sure I followed it strictly enough in my last assignment)
* about the myriad of issues, such as collaboration, that are essential to the success of the TL
* that Standards can both be harmful and helpful to a TL
and much, much more.
This morning I listened to James' podcast (though I do find it disconcerting looking at an orange witch's hat instead of the person speaking as you do in a vodcast) and found it great listening!
Amongst all the ideas James presented I found 2 particularly interesting:
1. The implications of IL in the workforce, whether those skills, so useful at school, are transferable to the workplace. So far he is saying it really depends on the job. I agree but I think that the IL skills learnt at school might still have life implications for the person concerned even if they don't emply those skills at work. (ie they might still use some of those skills- but in their pursuit of leisure activities)
Also I think you can't dismiss the confidence those skills have given the person.
I see education as being layers of learning. As you go through life more and more layers are put on top of the ones underneath.None of it's wasted -it just goes to make up the whole person's capabilities/skills/confidence/persona.
2. The concept of reflection of skills resulting in transference -whether students are analyzing which skills have proven useful in past work and which of those useful skills might be relevant to use in a new assignment. James raises the issue of whether skills are being transfered across the curriculum or not.
I can't believe I ever thought this course was going to be dull! I love finding out all these interesting ideas!
Anyway, I have a plane to catch tomorrow, a husband who is feeling neglected so must go!
Sunday, 24 April 2011
The assignment is handed in. I don’t even want to think about getting the grade back! After all the work I put into it I couldn’t bear to fail. However, I am a very positive person so I’ll think optimistic thoughts. I really hope that the feedback is constructive criticism so I can learn how to improve my skills.
I found it difficult to compare Purcell’s (2010) article with Herring’s (2007) chapter. There were just so many points that could be made – but the word count was so low that I had to ditch many of them. I also had to find ways of re-arranging sentences to make them briefer without losing the impact of the language I had originally chosen.
To compare an article to a chapter in a book is difficult. There is obviously going to be a lot more depth in a chapter. That was really what I said. Every comparison between the two authors showed that Herring (2007) justified his points with examples based on research whereas Purcell (2010) just stated her points. Purcell also restricted herself to a solitary source whereas Herring gave an overview of several authorities’ definitions of the information literacy role of the TL. Herring was also a lot more concerned about ICT and accompanying issues such as plagiarism. I guess, reading through it now, the main point was that Purcell was just writing for the American market, whereas Herring’s book has a global audience. Wish I’d thought to include that in my assignment!
Something I found very interesting in Herring’s (2007, Chapter 2, p.8) work was his controversial idea that a library where works of fiction predominate does not address, “the total curricular needs of the school community.” It sounded to me like he believed a school library should have a weighting of nonfiction resources in favour of fiction. He said that, “school libraries are not mini public libraries but learning centres” (Herring, 2007, Chapter 2, p.8). However, I believe, very strongly, that much can be learned through the rich language experience that works of fiction provide and, as Paul Jennings (2003, p.52), wrote, “Stories help make us honourable members of the human family and tell us that dreams can come true.” As a parent I think most parents in school communities would probably believe that shaping a child’s character to become an “honourable member of the human family,” (Jennings, 2003, p.52), would be at the very least as important as acquisition of information through nonfiction resources. As we all know, nonfiction resources are vitally important in a child’s journey through life these days. However, I think a balance of both fiction and nonfiction resources is essential to the whole child- that is if the child is to be considered a ‘whole child’ not merely an ‘academic’ child.
Anyway, I thought Herring’s point of view was very interesting. I don’t agree with him, but that’s what’s great about democratic society –he can have his point of view and I can have mine. I’m sure he feels just as passionately that he is justified in his opinion as I believe I am justified in mine. I loved the fact that I know I don’t HAVE to agree with him.
I will say this though….if you don’t have it already; get Paul Jenning’s Book the reading bug and how to help your child catch it. It is fantastic! It is so readable –great for parents. Next year when I start my new job I plan to have several copies in the library for parents to borrow.
I found it much easier to analyse / criticise the standards. Even though the standards are really good, I thought the language they used could be a lot stronger to make the teacher librarian (TL) role more proactive. I also thought there was a danger of teachers being overwhelmed and demoralized because they are standards of excellence –and therefore not easy to achieve. I liked Herring’s point (2007, Chapter 2, p.3) that in the Canadian standards, “standards for excellent, acceptable and unsatisfactory levels of service are provided.” This would be a great alternative and would clearly indicate to TLs and Principals the level of provision they were achieving, give TL’s manageable goals to work towards, and, if they were found to be working at the unsatisfactory level, a shot of adrenaline to force them into action to improve!
Standard 2.1 Learning environment (ASLA/ALIA, 2004, p.3) I thought, failed to emphasise the importance of actively attracting learners to the library. Derr and Rhodes (2010, p. 90) stressed “we cannot rely on a captive audience – we must actively strive to be a desired destination for these library users.” I thought that was a fair point. As TL’s we do have to be proactive in attracting people to the library. If we owned a shop we wouldn’t think of just sitting back and letting whoever walked past our door wander in. We would be using marketing and advertising strategies to get those punters through the door! If we don’t attract people to the library it could easily be perceived that our services are no longer needed and we could be out of a job! I also think the School Library Association of South Australia in their SLASA Teacher Librarian Role Statement (2008, p.2) make an excellent point when they state the TL must “Provide a friendly learning environment”. The word friendly would have been a valuable inclusion to the learning environment standard. If the library is not a friendly environment it will not attract students.
I was also surprised there was no mention of the physical environment under Standard 2.1 Learning environment (ASLA/ALIA, 2004, p.3) When considering the learning and teaching role of the TL, I would have thought that part of that role would be to provide a (physical) environment conducive to learning. The book that links to the ASLA/ALIA Standards, Learning for the Future- Developing Information Services in Schools (2nded.) has a section devoted to the physical environment, so I don’t understand why it didn’t warrant a mention in the Standards. I am sure there must be an excellent reason for it-just not one that was apparent to me.
When analyzing Standard 2.2 Learning and teaching, I was surprised there was no mention of the importance of teaching children about online safety or an explicit statement of ethical use of information. Farmer (2010, p.21) noted the AASL Standards (2007) advocate that learners need to be taught how to use information ethically. He went on to discuss intellectual property and cyberbullying, all of which are important issues that should be addressed by the standards. This is such an important issue I think should have been explicitly spelt out that TL’s must ensure students use the internet responsibly and ethically.
I had almost finished the assignment when I realized I really needed to sort out the referencing. I had done my referencing as I worked, which was what was recommended to us, but hadn’t paid attention to the fact that it had to be done in a specific way. I had noted the author, date and title but didn’t realize that I needed to actually get the APA citation from the source and list the database and date. So unfortunately I had to go back to almost every source and access the citation. I won’t make that mistake again! It took me forever to do it properly!
It really is a learning journey!
I was so glad to hand my assignment in. As soon as I did though, my thoughts turned to the next one! I have actually sometime off though, to recharge! We are about to go on school holidays. I do have to start writing my school reports though. I’ll have to be very disciplined and try to work for a couple of hours each day on my reports AND the next assignment!
I found it difficult to compare Purcell’s (2010) article with Herring’s (2007) chapter. There were just so many points that could be made – but the word count was so low that I had to ditch many of them. I also had to find ways of re-arranging sentences to make them briefer without losing the impact of the language I had originally chosen.
To compare an article to a chapter in a book is difficult. There is obviously going to be a lot more depth in a chapter. That was really what I said. Every comparison between the two authors showed that Herring (2007) justified his points with examples based on research whereas Purcell (2010) just stated her points. Purcell also restricted herself to a solitary source whereas Herring gave an overview of several authorities’ definitions of the information literacy role of the TL. Herring was also a lot more concerned about ICT and accompanying issues such as plagiarism. I guess, reading through it now, the main point was that Purcell was just writing for the American market, whereas Herring’s book has a global audience. Wish I’d thought to include that in my assignment!
Something I found very interesting in Herring’s (2007, Chapter 2, p.8) work was his controversial idea that a library where works of fiction predominate does not address, “the total curricular needs of the school community.” It sounded to me like he believed a school library should have a weighting of nonfiction resources in favour of fiction. He said that, “school libraries are not mini public libraries but learning centres” (Herring, 2007, Chapter 2, p.8). However, I believe, very strongly, that much can be learned through the rich language experience that works of fiction provide and, as Paul Jennings (2003, p.52), wrote, “Stories help make us honourable members of the human family and tell us that dreams can come true.” As a parent I think most parents in school communities would probably believe that shaping a child’s character to become an “honourable member of the human family,” (Jennings, 2003, p.52), would be at the very least as important as acquisition of information through nonfiction resources. As we all know, nonfiction resources are vitally important in a child’s journey through life these days. However, I think a balance of both fiction and nonfiction resources is essential to the whole child- that is if the child is to be considered a ‘whole child’ not merely an ‘academic’ child.
Anyway, I thought Herring’s point of view was very interesting. I don’t agree with him, but that’s what’s great about democratic society –he can have his point of view and I can have mine. I’m sure he feels just as passionately that he is justified in his opinion as I believe I am justified in mine. I loved the fact that I know I don’t HAVE to agree with him.
I will say this though….if you don’t have it already; get Paul Jenning’s Book the reading bug and how to help your child catch it. It is fantastic! It is so readable –great for parents. Next year when I start my new job I plan to have several copies in the library for parents to borrow.
I found it much easier to analyse / criticise the standards. Even though the standards are really good, I thought the language they used could be a lot stronger to make the teacher librarian (TL) role more proactive. I also thought there was a danger of teachers being overwhelmed and demoralized because they are standards of excellence –and therefore not easy to achieve. I liked Herring’s point (2007, Chapter 2, p.3) that in the Canadian standards, “standards for excellent, acceptable and unsatisfactory levels of service are provided.” This would be a great alternative and would clearly indicate to TLs and Principals the level of provision they were achieving, give TL’s manageable goals to work towards, and, if they were found to be working at the unsatisfactory level, a shot of adrenaline to force them into action to improve!
Standard 2.1 Learning environment (ASLA/ALIA, 2004, p.3) I thought, failed to emphasise the importance of actively attracting learners to the library. Derr and Rhodes (2010, p. 90) stressed “we cannot rely on a captive audience – we must actively strive to be a desired destination for these library users.” I thought that was a fair point. As TL’s we do have to be proactive in attracting people to the library. If we owned a shop we wouldn’t think of just sitting back and letting whoever walked past our door wander in. We would be using marketing and advertising strategies to get those punters through the door! If we don’t attract people to the library it could easily be perceived that our services are no longer needed and we could be out of a job! I also think the School Library Association of South Australia in their SLASA Teacher Librarian Role Statement (2008, p.2) make an excellent point when they state the TL must “Provide a friendly learning environment”. The word friendly would have been a valuable inclusion to the learning environment standard. If the library is not a friendly environment it will not attract students.
I was also surprised there was no mention of the physical environment under Standard 2.1 Learning environment (ASLA/ALIA, 2004, p.3) When considering the learning and teaching role of the TL, I would have thought that part of that role would be to provide a (physical) environment conducive to learning. The book that links to the ASLA/ALIA Standards, Learning for the Future- Developing Information Services in Schools (2nded.) has a section devoted to the physical environment, so I don’t understand why it didn’t warrant a mention in the Standards. I am sure there must be an excellent reason for it-just not one that was apparent to me.
When analyzing Standard 2.2 Learning and teaching, I was surprised there was no mention of the importance of teaching children about online safety or an explicit statement of ethical use of information. Farmer (2010, p.21) noted the AASL Standards (2007) advocate that learners need to be taught how to use information ethically. He went on to discuss intellectual property and cyberbullying, all of which are important issues that should be addressed by the standards. This is such an important issue I think should have been explicitly spelt out that TL’s must ensure students use the internet responsibly and ethically.
I had almost finished the assignment when I realized I really needed to sort out the referencing. I had done my referencing as I worked, which was what was recommended to us, but hadn’t paid attention to the fact that it had to be done in a specific way. I had noted the author, date and title but didn’t realize that I needed to actually get the APA citation from the source and list the database and date. So unfortunately I had to go back to almost every source and access the citation. I won’t make that mistake again! It took me forever to do it properly!
It really is a learning journey!
I was so glad to hand my assignment in. As soon as I did though, my thoughts turned to the next one! I have actually sometime off though, to recharge! We are about to go on school holidays. I do have to start writing my school reports though. I’ll have to be very disciplined and try to work for a couple of hours each day on my reports AND the next assignment!
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