Teacher-Librarians as Professional Development Leaders
I believe that it is important for the teacher-librarian to have a leadership role in the school and to take on a piece of the professional development. It's a unique role within the school in that there is only one person doing it and the job entails the management of a facility. As such, teacher-librarians are leaders by default. As for professional development, the teacher-librarian should be on the forefront of discovering new resources. I believe it's important for the T-L to “vet” up and coming resources and present them to the teaching staff. Carl A. Harvey II in “Are You the Next Leader in Our Profession” (2011) states that “We have to be one of the folks in the building to whom students and staff look for guidance, support, and encouragement. We want to be models; our patrons should see the librarian as someone who is a lifelong learner, always striving to make their program better.”
In order to establish themselves as a professional development leaders, teacher-librarians should consistently be connecting staff to new resources and opportunities. They might do this simply by sharing some new resources at a staff meeting. They might take on a teaching role in PLC time or create and lead a PLG. Being a member of the professional development planning committee is important in that they can present workshops to staff or plan for engaging facilitators.
Teacher-Librarians as Educational Partners
Unfortunately, it’s not always clear to staff just how useful a resource their teacher-librarian can be. Trevor MacKenzie (2019) speaks to the value of working collaboratively with the teacher-librarian: “I have discovered rich support and learning in my own backyard when I have collaborated with my teacher-librarian. This educational professional is often under-utilized in a school environment. Many teachers see the librarian interact only with students, but they are invaluable resources for teachers as well. Collaboration with a teacher-librarian creates a rich inquiry practice for classroom teachers that can easily be implemented with students. If we develop the habit of accessing this great resource as a regular class routine throughout the year, we will see the kind of progress and success we are looking for.”
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| Image Source: Trevor MacKenzie (2019) |
It’s important for teacher-librarians to establish themselves as approachable, personable and collaborative. With the teachers the main focus should be on building relationships. Toor & Weisburg write about the personal relationships being even more important than the professional ones. Teachers need to feel comfortable wandering into the library for a chat or to look for resources. They need to feel some ownership over the resources and know that they can browse freely without someone pestering them but knowing the support is available (in the past I’ve gone in to browse and found it really hard to focus when the librarian didn’t give me space!) Building a strong foundation with teaching staff will help the teacher-librarian to become an indispensable member of the school. As far as collaboration, the goal is to lighten the load of the teachers by supporting their units or taking on certain learning outcomes for them, especially in (but not limited to) the curricular competencies related to Applied Design, Skills and Technologies. Being an observer is one of the best things a teacher-librarian can do. When they see the needs of the teaching staff they can pull resources and make suggestions to colleagues without having to be asked. A busy classroom teacher will be grateful to know they what they are doing matters and is supported.
Works Cited
Harvey II, Carl A. (2011). “Are You the Next Leader in Our Profession?”Library Media Connection, 29(6), 14. Retrieved from http://web.a.ebscohost.com.ezproxy.library.ubc.ca/ehost/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?vid=1&sid=e4203618-7b3c-4698-8f51-dd5c10c08d78%40sdc-v-sessmgr06
MacKenzie, Trevor (2019, March 18). Classroom Inquiry’s Secret Weapon: The Teacher-Librarian. Canadian School Libraries Journal. Retrieved from https://journal.canadianschoollibraries.ca/classroom-inquirys-secret-weapon-the-teacher-librarian/
Toor, R., & Weisburg, H. K. (2012). New on the job: A School Library Media Specialist’s Guide to Success. 2nd edition. Chicago: American Library Association
This was a good overview of the value of collaboration and a couple of good examples and resources to support exploring more collaboration with your T-L. A little more discussion of strategies for engaging with reluctant colleagues, activities that include more of your school community and opportunities for next steps would be useful. Good use of labels, links and journals.
ReplyDeleteI love the Inquiry Mindset sketch notes; I am so lucky to have seen these educators present on a few occasions as they work for my school district and are inspiring. I agree that the main focus should be building relationships; it is so important to have the trust of staff members and form that relationship in order to be able to work with them. Do you have any examples of ways you have collaborated with your teacher librarian? Last year ours jumped into her role in January due to school construction, and she created a pamphlet for us! In this pamphlet she outlined ideas of things she could do with us and left two collaboration blocks open on the schedule. I thought this was useful! She also spoke to it in a staff meeting.
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