A vexing question...

As I sit here sick with the flu and writing for the assignments due in less than a week a question occurs to my lucid mind...

Do teacher-librarians get sick (colds and flu) less than their classroom counterparts do?

The most obvious answer to my mind is yes because they are not located in faculties where illness gets passed around and they may have less contact with students and teachers (lets face it - not every school is encouraging RBL and they don't have face-to-face lessons every period and move from room to room).

This will bother me all night.
Courtney

Chapter 5

So I went to the school and did a day of volunteer work in the library again. It was a relatively quiet day so I didn't get to do much apart from look up books on SCIS. Apparently not all books end up on there especially academic remainders. I also got to edit information in OASIS on two books although apparently this isn't really the domain of the TL. However it is a starting point for when it comes time to put websites into OASIS.

I also got to meet a bookseller who travels to schools and it was interesting standing in the freezing winds as we looked through the books in the boot of her car.

Apart from this nothing much else happened which was quite boring in a way. At any rate it's giving me some more time to spend on the copious amounts of study I need to do.

(Can anyone else not study in the evening?)

Chapter 4

Ok so I know I meant to come home Friday and blog about my wonderful, inspiring, fun and exciting day volunteering in a local school library. But truth be told I was just too exhausted! But better late then never. Here goes -

I was so excited to finally get into a school library to see what a TL does within the course of their day (and also pick up information to write about in assignments). I learnt about accessioning, cataloguing, how to put information into OASIS, how to loan and return items, about SCIS, about a program to share televisions programs between schools and much more. The TL and his sidekick are going to train me from the basic up .

Throughout the course of the day I helped pick out books for a Year 8 English class studying fantasy and science fiction. I returned books to shelves and learnt that I really do need to revisit my ABCs.

But perhaps the best part of the day was the conversation I had with the TL about how times have changed in the school library with the increasing use of digital media, the impact of the little laptops, the impact of computer classrooms and the positioning of the library within the school.
He has essentially taken on more of an IT role within the school as a result and the TSO (technology support officer) is located in the library as well.

I learnt so much in one day and it made me believe that all the stress, late nights, lost sleep and panic attacks as assignments get done will be worth it in the end.

That's all for now
Courtney

Chapter 3

So I was meant to go to a local school earlier this week to do a day's volunteer work in the library. This changed when I was called in to do 3 days of work at a school so I've rescheduled for Friday. In the meantime I haven't had much chance to do study but I am trying to cram it in tonight as I'm starting to get stressed about the assignments. I originally planned to spend all of Thursday of studying however I have been asked to work (Yay money) and i'm refusing to give up my unpaid day in the library on Friday for the sake of the assignments. (At least I will meet people at this other school and hopefullly pick up some casual work there).

What I have learnt so far this week:
*The standards produced by ASLA are great. It's nice to be acknowledged as needing a separate set of standards to show that we are trained both as teachers and librarians.
*I like Haycock's definition of Information literacy. It's nice and simple yet covers what it needs to. I know that there are many different definitions however some of these can be hard to understand from the language used and when explaining to someone else it's nice to be able to put it concisely.
*Haycock's article also showed me that the role of the principal is critical to the development of the school (priorities, culture and resources). [I agree with this on so many levels]. The principal is the key factor to the development and success of a school library program as well as ensuring that the TL is used effectively as a resource.
*Oberg's 'developing the respect' article describes how TLs must be seen as leaders in the school. Often they are forgotten about or not even thought about as teachers. The article also outlines how a principal's support can impact on the library and the many roles a principal plays in supporting the library.

That's all for now