Memories..

.. like the corners of my mind.

Ok, Christmas is over, and as I actually submitted my first assignment early due to my flight to England I now have to dredge the depths of my mind to remember what it was all about. It's quite amazing how a couple of weeks off from the hard slog, plus jetlag and small children, allows you to just forget what it was all about.

Well, I think it's starting to come back now. It was something to do with resourcing the curriculum.. yes?

I jest, of course. While the details are perhaps a little hazier, much like the English weather outside my window, there are a number of things I have learned from the process of this assignment. For a start, resourcing can be quite time consuming, but I think there comes an optimal moment where it would be counter-productive to continue. There are a number of useful OPACs providing lists of resources, and some of them have useful reviews, but after a while they begin to offer the same things you've already seen, or at least nothing better.

Obviously you don't want to get stuck in a rut, using the same tools every time, but the reality is that most people are going to settle on a few favourites that they think offer good value. I think I would find it useful to set a rule for myself that I would always try at least one new tool, or revisit a neglected one. If nothing else, this would help me stay in touch with new developments and keep things interesting.

I think my favourite discovery was the Follett Titlewave site. They seemed well set up to make things easy for schools who want to invest in eBooks, and judging by the email I received for their sales team they are keen to be helpful when a school wants to join them. It must be the Englishman in me, but I felt a bit embarrassed when they assumed I was the TL for my school and wanted to set up a credit line. I'd only signed up to see what they had available. Still, maybe I could select a few resources and suggest them to the TL at my new school in January.

Bibliography Blanket

I haven't posted much on my studies for ETL503 in a couple of weeks, mainly because I've been researching for my first assignment. I have to admit that I thought it would  be easier to find appropriate resources on the Industrial Revolution for year 9, but everything I found just seemed to be out of date or very adult. It'll be interesting to see if there are some more resources appear before the history curriculum is implemented in 2013.

Anyway, a change of topic, and a level I'm more familiar with: year 5 on the solar system. Lots more stuff available. To be honest, I'm now selecting more on what shows I can use a range of selection tools rather than what is the best item. My only difficulty is the requirement to select predominantly online resources. For this age group there is still a lot more available in hard copy format, and electronic resources such as CD-Roms, DVDs and ebooks don't all count because they're not on the internet, although free ebooks could be included if there were any decent ones available. The only one I've found of use is on Amazon, which is great, but a Kindle doesn't count as online either. So, it may be something of a struggle to select the best 4 offline resources.

Well, at least I'm almost there, and I've even written part A. I'm just finding it disconcerting that I'm not creating an extensive reference list as I write. I know this is because the nature of the assignment is very practical, but I realise that I miss my bibliography blanket. It makes me feel more secure to see a thorough list of research articles that prove I haven't just sat down and typed out the first thing that came into my head.

Santa's Selection Policy

I was discussing potential Christmas present options with my four year old son when it occurred to  me that, much like the TL, Santa has his own selection policy. As a timely opportunity to synthesise recently read information I thought I might write it out for him. Obviously I'm still in the early days of ETL503, so don't expect this to be too perfect.

• User Needs Analysis

The following questions should be asked and a reasoned judgement reached. A particularly strong response in one area may override all other considerations, eg. ardency of request or noise considerations.

Is there a patron-requested item for consideration?

Does the user already have this toy, or one similar?

Does the toy look exciting, but actually get quite boring after 30 mins?

How much mess will the gift create?

Is there any educational value to the item?

Will the user's family find this intensely irritating? e.g electronic tunes, repetitive messages, flashing lights.

• Delivery Method

Real world items will be delivered via Reindeer Sleigh.

E-items may be represented in gift form via a card or voucher.

Returns will not be accepted.

• Delivery Schedule

Annual delivery on 25th December for all Australian items.

• Payment

Santa does not require payment.

• Licence Agreement

The user must accept agreement of the licence for the following 12 month period, to be nice, not naughty.

Failure to fulfil the licence agreement will disqualify the user from further deliveries.

Don't Panic!!

I'm beginning to feel rather like Corporal Jones in Dad's Army. Term 3 hasn't even officially begun, yet I feel like I'm already running out of time to get the first assignment prepared. On top of that I now find I need to start preparing assignment 2 since the schools will all be closed in a few weeks time. All I can do is run around yelling 'don't panic' in the hope that things will all work out. Where is Captain Mainwaring when you need him?

At least I have my faithful blog here to exorcise these daemons. It also helps to look through the introductions forum. There are so many people with amazingly busy lives, or who have chosen to study multiple subjects (I'm not doing that again!). If they're able to get it all done and pass I really shouldn't have anything to worry about.  

I am Spartacus!

Everybody wants to be Spartacus, and it seems collection development wants to be collection management and vice versa.

Well, I've ploughed my way through chapter 1 of the Kennedy text, and also chapter 1 of a similar book by Peggy Johnson, and I feel that I now have a pretty thorough knowledge of US library history, along with the development of these two terms. So, here is what I now know:

• Most librarians use these terms interchangeably. 
• Collection development came first to reflect a more thoughtful approach to selection.
• As budgets, and collection growth, diminished collection management became the preferred term by many.

Essentially they describe the same processes. The only real difference is the emphasis on growth implied by collection development. Collection management does seem to be a more satisfactory name for the tasks undertaken to maintain a static collection.

However, in the futuristic utopia we now inhabit library collections are anything but static. We are supposedly providing an elastic collection that flexes to accommodate current user demands. There is constant development in the acquisition of access to new resources, and growth can potentially outstrip the weeding process.

Johnson, and the ALA apparently, have settled on the title of collection development and management. It's a bit more of a mouthful, but at least they don't have to waste any more time bickering over who's the head honcho here.

A Muse in the Cloud

photo by Alun Salt

Aristophanes would, I am sure, find much material for a rewrite of The Clouds based on my readings about collection management models. It would seem that in the future we teachers and TLs will be spending our time in lovely collaborative chats about what materials the teachers would like to have, assuming the TL can drag him/herself away from the consultations with local public libraries and community interest groups that seem to be a crucial element in collection development. Not that any of it really makes any difference because it's all about rapid response to student demands. We're simply here to guide them to an online expert, not to teach them anything.

Well, perhaps I am being unfair, but it seems odd that Hughes-Hassell and Mancall (2006) should describe the traditional collection management model as being time consuming, but replace it with something that sounds infinitely more so. Don't get me wrong, I wouldn't dare knock the value of collaboration. It's probably a hanging offence at least. But is this Collaborative Access Environment a model grounded in reality? Is there really value in consulting with everyone from the cleaner to the little boy who lives down the lane? Frankly, who has the time?

More to the point, there needs to be someone in the school who is the resource expert. They seem to think teachers are all experts in what is available for their areas. Hah! Anyone who has worked in a school environment knows that teachers have no idea what is available until it is thrust under their nose, and unless you tell them what's in it and how to use it they'll more than likely have forgotten about it by the next day. They are snowed under with planning, assessment and reporting, not to mention teaching. They really don't want to be burdened with selecting resources for the library, no matter how great it sounds in theory. Why should TLs be so keen to abandon an area where they can still be a respected expert?

This sounds a bit ranty, and I am not a reactionary traditionalist, but I don't think we should get carried away with ourselves. Yes, we should try to consider outside opinions in resource selection, but ultimately the school library is there to meet student curriculum needs. Teachers will look to the library for quality resources just as they have always done.

Working With a Hoe

Apparently the modules are now available for me to read. Hopefully there will be more than the Kennedy text since I'm still waiting for that to arrive. If nothing else, my experience with the Librariansbookstore.com has shown me that acquiring resources is not simply a matter of selection, and also perhaps that the early bird does not always catch the worm. Damn those sneaky worms!

Still, my lack of a recommended text to read has encouraged me to do a little preliminary research into this topic that may prove useful later. I'm not one to rest on my laurels.. they're far too scratchy. While I find myself reading a number of texts that are far more relevant to those working in public libraries, particularly in America, I have gleaned a few insights into collection development.

Apparently I'm going to need a good hoe, albeit a metaphorical one. It seems that the key to a good collection is weeding, alongside knowledge of the curriculum and the library users needs/interests. Yes, we need to know what are the best new resources to buy, but the way to start is with an audit of what is currently available in the collection. Identify items that are dated, damaged or simply unused and replace them with new ones that will serve current curriculum needs more effectively.

What scares me here is that things always take longer than you think they will, and I already think this sounds like an immensely time-consuming process. The texts I've read so far recommend having a clear policy on how much to weed from the collection each year, but I think it needs to include a clear recommendation for the number of man hours, or woman hours (I don't want to be sexist), that need to be devoted to this process in an ongoing fashion throughout the year.

Make like a mirror...

... reflect.

Well, it's that time again. ETL 501 assignments were returned promptly, but I have to admit being a bit disappointed in my result. While 65% is a reasonable pass I thought I'd done enough to warrant slightly better marks on some sections at least. I was a bit confused by the comments. Admittedly, yes I neglected to discuss Boolean logic in my search discussion, and that was a bit of a mistake, but the other comments really didn't match well with what I'd written. Comments on the forum indicate a number of others similarly confused about exactly what they wanted from us, so I'm inclined to think there may have been some harsh marking flying around the place.
My spirits were boosted, however, when I got my ETL 401 assignment back. I don't think I've ever got 98% on an assignment before, and certainly not since I was at school. I can't say I worked  harder on this assignment than the other though, so the discrepancy between the marks is all the more startling. All I can think is that the course notes for 401 gave far more essential and recommended reading throughout, and perhaps I inadvertently spent more time on this than 501. I don't think I could have worked any harder with the time I had available.
So, what lessons can I carry forward? First and foremost, don't bite off more than I can chew. I may have done startlingly well on one assignment, but overall it was a massive struggle to do two subjects whilst working full time and I was just glad to pass. I will be sticking to one subject per semester in future and I might be able to have higher expectations than simply scraping through. For now I'll happily take the marks I've got and prepare to start afresh with ETL 503.

Nothing so nice...

Well, the song says that there's nothing so nice as messing about on the river. However, I just finished reading Thor Heyerdahl's Kon-Tiki Expedition and now have the irresistible urge to spend three months messing about on the Pacific. It's amazing how he makes what almost everyone considered to be a suicide mission sound like the jolliest holiday ever. Just goes to show you should never listen too carefully to the experts.

Unfortunately my wife says I can't spend the next three months floating on a raft across the Pacific. Instead I will be getting stuck into ETL503 Resourcing the Curriculum. The subject outline is available and my first text book has arrived in the post, so there's really no excuse for delay. I just hope that my journey also has lots of interesting fish and not too many storms.

The Evolution of My Views on the TL Role

My initial conception of the role of the teacher librarian was somewhat narrower than it is today. My eyes have been opened, you might say.

I have realised, like Hay and Todd (2010), that this is a profession in the process of change. My initial impression (Farley, 2011a) was that this was something of an ongoing battle between the factions of complacent librarians in situ and emotionally charged researchers, but the House of Representatives report (2011) showed me a profession in crisis, with poor morale and an ageing demographic. I came to realise (Farley, 2011g) that the potential roles of the teacher librarian, as shown by Herring (2007), are too numerous for any one person, and that it is up to those coming in to the profession to choose the roles that will shape the profession for the future.

I think possibly the most challenging role for those coming into the profession is that of technology specialist. Killeen (2009) says that teacher librarians have always led the way with new technology but, as Valenza (2011) demonstrates, technology has been evolving rapidly in recent years. I found this rather overwhelming at first (Farley 2011c), but came to realise that this particular role can be highly enjoyable (Farley, 2011e) and should be embraced. I expressed my concern (Farley, 2011i) that many students only engage in information literacy when they are forced to by teachers, but if it can be incorporated into enjoyable, purposeful projects using this new technology, then it is certainly the role of the teacher librarian to do so.

While I previously familiar with the terms ‘information’ and ‘literacy’ I have to admit that I was unaware they had become conjoined. At no point in my education or teacher training had I been introduced to the term ‘search strategy’ and it was perhaps my first realisation (Farley, 2011f) that the education system is full of teachers and students with self-taught strategies bumbling their way through the information online. Kuiper, Volman and Terwel (2008) point out that we expect primary school students to research online without their having developed any of the critical skills required. Well, we also expect teachers to teach those skills, but we haven’t trained them to do it. I concluded (Farley, 2011d) that my role as a teacher librarian in a primary setting would be to introduce the concept of information literacy to the children early. Rather like learning to read, we need to start off with the basic skills before we can progress to the more advanced tasks. I would add to that the need to develop those skills within the teaching staff also.

Leading on from this, I would now say that it is the role of the teacher librarian to know the students’ needs. Knowing that they are lacking in certain skills gives us the stimulus to implement an information search process model (Wolf 2003). Kuhlthau (2011) focuses on the emotional journey involved in learning something new, and I became aware of my own emotional involvement in the learning process (Farley, 2011b) when reflecting on my first assignment. I know from my own experience working with primary school children how excited they become by a new challenge, and also how quickly some of them will give up and sink into gloom. They are riding an emotional roller coaster and it is certainly the teacher librarian’s role to be aware of what will motivate these students, what they are capable of, and what will support those who feel overwhelmed when faced with challenge.

One of the more surprising changes in my perception of the teacher librarian role has been in connection with their potential as a school leader. Haycock (2007) urges us to be dynamic and extroverted, and my initial reaction was amusement (Farley, 2011h) because this is the antithesis of the commonly held view of teacher librarians. Having now reached the end of this subject I am in agreement with Haycock that the profession needs individuals who can fulfil this role of dynamic leader, and I hope I can do so when the time comes, but I remain concerned that the majority of people attracted to the role of teacher librarian are not extroverts. It will take a prolonged and concerted effort from all involved to change the commonly held conception of someone quietly checking out books all day.

Over the past few months I have been enlightened as to the ideal roles of the teacher librarian. These may not yet entirely match with reality but I am excited to be joining the profession at what could be a new era of heightened respect and job satisfaction as we step out of the library and engage students in authentic, collaborative projects with exciting new technologies designed to meet their individual learning needs. The future looks bright and interesting.

References

Farley, A. (2011a, July 26) Cry Havoc and Let Slip the Librarians of War! [Blog]. Retrieved from http://adamf-anabasis.blogspot.com/2011/07/cry-havoc-and-let-slip-librarians-of.html

Farley, A. (2011b, August 20) Some people are on the pitch… [Blog]. Retrieved from http://adamf-anabasis.blogspot.com/2011/08/some-people-are-on-pitch.html

Farley, A. (2011c, August 26) Cloud Cuckoo Land.[Blog]. Retrieved from http://adamf-anabasis.blogspot.com/2011/08/undiscovered-country.html

Farley, A. (2011d, August 26) Hit ‘em hard and hit ‘em fast. [Blog]. Retrieved from http://adamf-anabasis.blogspot.com/2011/08/hit-em-hard-and-hit-em-fast.html

Farley, A. (2011e, August 29) Hooray for Hollywood! [Blog]. Retrieved from http://adamf-anabasis.blogspot.com/2011/08/hooray-for-hollywood.html

Farley, A. (2011f, July 17) Effective Searching. [Forum comment]. Retrieved from http://forums.csu.edu.au/perl/forums.pl?forum_id=ETL401_201160_W_D_Sub2_forum

Farley, A. (2011g, July 24) Role. [Forum comment].  Retrieved from http://forums.csu.edu.au/perl/forums.pl?forum_id=ETL401_201160_W_D_Sub2_forum

Farley, A. (2011h July 26) Extroverts?  [Forum comment]. Retrieved from http://forums.csu.edu.au/perl/forums.pl?forum_id=ETL401_201160_W_D_Sub2_forum

Farley, A. (2011i, August 29) Transfer.  [Forum comment]. Retrieved from  http://forums.csu.edu.au/perl/forums.pl?forum_id=ETL401_201160_W_D_Sub2_forum

Hay, L. and Todd, R. (2010) School libraries 21C: the conversation begins. Scan, 29(1), pp.30-42.

Haycock, K. (2007) Collaboration: critical success factors for student learning. School  Libraries Worldwide, 13(1), pp.25-35.

Herring, J. (2007) Teacher librarians and the school library. In S. Ferguson (ed.) Libraries in the Twenty-First Century: Charting New Directions in Information, pp.27-42. Wagga Wagga, NSW: Centre for Information Studies, Charles Sturt University.

House of Representatives Standing Committee on Education and Employment (2011), School Libraries and Teacher Librarians in 21^st Century Australia. Canberra: Commonwealth of Australia.

Killeen, E.B. (2009) Yesterday, today, and tomorrow: transitions of the work but not the mission. Teacher Librarian, 36(5), pp.8-13.

Kuhlthau, C.C. (2011) Information Search Process. Retrieved 23/08/11 from http://comminfo.rutgers.edu/~kuhlthau/information_search_process.htm

Kuiper, E., Volman, M. and Terwel, J. (2008) Students’ use of web literacy skills and strategies: searching, reading and evaluating web information. Information Research, 13(1) paper 351.

Valenza, J. (2011) See Sally Research (video). Retrieved 2^nd October 2011 from http://tedxphillyed.com/2011/09/video-post-dr-joyce-valenza-see-sally-research/

Wolf, S. (2003) The Big Six Information Skills as a Metacognitive Scaffold: A Case Study. American Library Association. Retrieved 23/08/11 from http://www.ala.org/ala/mgrps/divs/aasl/aaslpubsandjournals/slmrb/slmrcontents/volume62003/bigsixinformation.cfm

Death to the Collaborators!

Shock horror! After having the importance of teacher/TL collaboration drummed into me by every article I've read over the past 10 weeks I stumbled across a recent article by Michael Eisenberg and Janet Murray, creators of the Big 6.

Eisenberg, M.B. and Murray, J. (2011) Big 6 by the month: a new approach. Library Media Connection, 29(6), pp.10-13 (Can you tell I'm in essay mode?)

I  quote: "Systematic, large-scale, comprehensive collaboration is just not possible given the number of library and technology professionals in most schools."

Well, that's a bit of a shock to a young student like myself. I think I'm suffering from Carol Kuhlthau's uncertainty principle, although I'm not sure if I'm in the Zone of Intervention yet. Can I just hide under a rock until everyone's made up their minds?

Actually, it's not all bad news from the Big 6 twins. They may have thrown collaboration out of the window, but you should still be 'connecting' with the curriculum, and they've put together a month by month programme so that all the TLs will be doing the same things at the same time and can share ideas, plans, etc. That still sounds suspiciously like collaboration to me though.

Time, Time, Time, see what's become of me..

Thank you Mr's Simon and Garfunkel for this week's catchy title. Your royalties are in the post.

I have a vague recollection of reading about time management earlier this week and it all seemed to make some sort of sense at the time. Time, however, is transitory and illusive. I know that time must be managed, but it is rather like herding kittens; you think you've got some time to do something, but before you know it it's gone and you're hunting around after some more.
Nevertheless, time is ticking on and the deadlines for assignments draw ever nearer, so it seems I must shepherd tasks into specific time slots and guard them diligently.

The next assignment for ETL401 is all about information literacy, and I read an interesting piece by some Finnish writers (Tuominen, Savolainen and Talja) who laid a heavy emphasis on the relationship between user and technology as a major part of this topic. Having just left my school and handed in my laptop I have to agree with them. My relationship with my old laptop is extremely strained and I am feeling significantly less information literate with every slow search and internet crash. I joke, of course, but it does highlight to me the need for decent technology access if you are to make use of these skills, which is probably still one of the biggest issues facing teacher libarians, and schools in general, today

The Web of Self-Deceit

I have a child in my class at the moment who is convinced that he is an awesome reader despite the glaring fact that he struggles to read anything longer than  a basic cvc word. The power for self-deceit is quite remarkable.
My readings this week have demonstrated that the Web lends itself to producing a whole generation of students convinced that they are fantastic researchers. After all, they can type what they want into Google and up pop hundreds of results. They can cut and paste to their hearts delight and hey presto... instant assignment. Barely even any need to know what you are researching!
Well, that may be a slight overstatement, but it does not seem to be that far from the truth. Students are over-reliant on Google, inflexible in their approaches to searching, and even those who demonstrate good reading strategies when using print-based text seem to abandon what they have learned when faced with online text. To cap it off they seem to have total faith in everything they see online. The innocence of youth may be sweet and endearing but has no place online.
The alarming fact is that this confidence in their own online infallibility seems to be developing at startlingly early ages. The onus is on those of us engaged in the early years of education to address these issues before the students becpme over-confident and cease listening to reason.
Here I come to save the day...!

Time and Time Again

While the pleasure of further reading on the benefits of collaboration is neverending, what I have taken away from this weeks' readings is that successful collaboration between a teacher and the teacher librarian is massively time-consuming and difficult to achieve, but ultimately worth it. the question I ask myself is that, if it is so difficult to find the time for a single collaboration, how can the teacher librarian possibly find time to effectively collaborate with all members of staff?
Todd recommends a 'Just do it' attitude. (Thank you Nike). I guess if you want it enough you can make it happen..

Hooray for Hollywood!

Well, I have to say that, barring the uncomfortable feeling that there is so much stuff out there, the web 2.0 topic is lots of fun. I've explore all sorts of new things I never knew were possible, but I've also discovered that there is plenty of software on my laptop that has been laying around unused up till now. I've made excellent use of my  time on powerpoint and movie maker to come up with this short vid.

Cloud Cuckoo Land

Well, not sure how much I've achieved in my research of the web 2.0. To be frank it all  seems a little overwhelming. I could easily spend the next week surfing around and still feel like I've barely scratched the surface. However, I have produced a nice little wordle based on my delicious account (see above), and I think I now know what The Cloud is.

Hit 'em hard and hit 'em fast

Lots of fun reading this week on the illusive topic of information literacy. As usual, however, the research all seems to focus on secondary school teaching. Having read Herring's research on the use of the PLUS model and the Wolf piece about the Big  6 I get the impression that the more able students have no need for an information process model because they have internalised the process, and that ideally all students would be in this situation, although that might put us out of a job. No need to worry as yet though since the majority of students are still in need of this kind of scaffold.
What I would like to see is some research on the long term effects of the introduction of a process model at primary level. I am strongly of the opinion that primary students are constantly underestimated and that there is no reason the research process can't be introduced as early as Prep. The earlier learning can be embedded the better it will stick and become internalised. If information literacy were to be truly integrated into the primary curriculum the majority of secondary student would have no need for this scaffolding.

Some people are on the pitch...

..They think it's all over.

.. It is now!

Well, all I can say is that I am soooo glad I live in Brisbane right now. Without the two days off for the EKKA my assignments would have involved some very late nights this weekend.

Having said that, I feel that now is an appropriate time to follw Mr Herring's PLUS model and self-evaluate my information literacy performance. I may have finished on time, but do I feel confident that I've produced quality assignments?
Well, yes and no. I don't think I could have done much more reading in the time available, and I attempted to read around the subject as much as possible. I think I stuck to the brief for each assignment as accurately as possible, and I ought to feel confident about them.
I can't escape that niggling feeling that there's something I'm missing. Was there a crucial article that I didn't read? Does it sound professional or like the gibberings of a teenage monkey?

What I think this process really reveals is how emotionally fraught the learning process can be. I think all those on the course returning to study after a prolonged break will agree that, while familiarity may breed contempt, at least it might also bring peace of mind. Hopefully the next ones may be a tad less stressful.

The Salmon... Splish Splash

This week I have felt rather like the salmon struggling upstream against the raging torrent. I have been swimming around the world wide water hunting for new feeding grounds for my school.. Well, something like that anyway. Perhaps I should end this metaphor before it becomes completely incomprehensible.

What I  have actually been doing is hunting for websites to evaluate for my ETL501 assignment 1. Having selected a Year 4 history topic I embarked on a journey of discovery full of awe and wonder.. almost. I have discovered that the web is full of sites that say exactly the same thing as every other site available on the same topic. I find myself wondering whether there is any value in finding four sites when you will learn everything that's available from the first one you visit. I wonder to myself, did they all simply cut and paste from each other?
Perhaps the fault is mine. I like things to be orderly, and I don't like wasting my time trawling through something I've already seen. I wish there was some way to spring clean the Internet and scrub away all the dust that has gathered there over the years.

I have also reaffirmed something I already knew.. the Internet is not designed for children. While locating the relevant information is relatively simple, doing so in a format that is accessible and attractive to a group of 9 year olds is another matter entirely. I guess this is simply a cross that those of us working in the primary sphere must grin and bear with dignity. Lovely

Cry Havoc and Let Slip the Librarians of War!

Amazing to think I remember so much from my A-Level English Lit that I should misquote the same Shakespeare speech twice in the space of a week.

Anyway, I am getting the distinct impression that I am undergoing some sort of brainwashing process. I believe that Lyn Hay et al are creating an army of  teacher librarians that they can send out into the field to fight their war for them. Having read 'School Libraries 21C' I was struck by the impression that todays TLs are fighting a war for recognition, not only as part of the eduactional team, but as teachers of excellence. However, I detect a note of desperation.

Could it be that there a large number of old-style TLs out there who are holding back the image of the profession? Could it also be that CSU aims to combat this complacency by turning out an army of zealots who will carry forth their key messages of collaboration and instructional leadership?

All I know is that Ms Hay's Number 1 recommendation was that TLs stop whinging and take up the sword (maybe not in those precise words, but I got the message).

So, Hold the line! Stay with me! If you find yourself alone, riding in the green fields with the sun on your face, do not be troubled. For you are in Elysium, and you're already dead! (That one was from Gladiator..maybe not Shakespeare but still a cracking quote!)

Library Book Avengers

Absolutely loved this video. Who knoew that you could learn about libraries and have a good laugh at the same time. If you do nothing else today, wathch this!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=gSkat7th2FA

Friends, Romans, Countrymen...

.. I come to bury Herring, not to praise him.

Having read a few articles, the ETL501 course book and the assignment guidelines I am getting the impression that one of Mr Herring's favourite buzzwords is 'critical', so I guess I'd better be viewing everything I read with a critical eye. It is noticeable, however, that the pool of authors on teacher librarianship is not extensive. Articles make frequent references to the same authors, which can be a mite confusing. I've already read two things by Herring from 2011.

In other readings I've been reminded of a lot of teaching theory that I'd put to the back of my mind. D. Pardoe's 'Towards Successful Learning' (2009) prompted me to quiz my class on their views about learning and we now make frequent reference to helpful and unhelpful talk. Also, I have found myself spouting the thoughts of others about how children learn in this weeks parent-teacher interviews. Good to know that at least some of it is sticking in my head.

At The Coast

Beginning anything new, even a simple blog, can be a daunting prospect. Even before starting you are faced with the seemingly momentous decision of what name to choose. Rather like naming a child there are innumerable options and they all seem objectionable. After all, I want the name of my blog to reflect who I am and relate in some way to the purpose of it's creation.

So, after much deliberation, welcome to The Anabasis.

For those not in the know, an anabasis is a journey from the coast heading inland. As I am currently beginning my journey into the land of teacher librarianship through study at Charles Sturt University I thought it a fitting analogy. The purpose of this blog is to record my progress towards that target. Currently I am standing on the coast looking inland, more than just a little apprehensive about the task I have set myself, but determined to succeed nonetheless.

In my younger days of study I was an ancient historian, and at heart I shall always be so. While my wife would not allow me to name our children Agamemnon or Heracles, I can at least pay homage to Xenophon with this reference to his 'Anabasis,' although I suspect his writing will still outlast mine.