Late yesterday after working through Part C, I began to remember a conversation I had with a teacher last week and I was explaining to them how I wanted to become a teacher librarian and what I was learning in the course.
In Assignment One, I identified a reason subject teachers not engaging in effective collaboration with teacher librarians and hence lack understanding of the role in information literacy in the set of skills a student should have for 21st century learning as observed at a school. One reason was a "lack of time" and "other commitments". The conversation revealed the same reasons, this time coming directly from a subject teacher as opposed to a teacher librarian. From the tone they expressed, they didn't express much interest in utilising the teacher librarian in their lesson planning and programming. This was disappointing.
I respect classroom teachers in their efforts in provide meaningful learning experiences for their students, but honestly consulting a teacher librarian doesn't take much effort at all. From my experience of consulting a teacher librarian in preparing lessons using library resources, it only takes 10-15 minutes of a teachers time. I remember last year, I was able to obtain a list of relevant books for students to research the experiences of one group during World War I such as Women and Germans in Australia. I spoke to the teacher librarian, told the students what they were researching and walked with them as they collected the resources for me providing feedback. It provided for a more meaningful learning experience, and in with my class, they actually used the books in conjunction with the Internet.
How can I apply this to my role of teacher librarian?
I can only recommend one solution (apart from being proactive) - tell subject teachers that the process doesn't take that long, on the provision that they provide me with a list of what they need, an outline of the task and what learning outcomes need to be met. Encourage them to visit for the library for a few minutes while the sources are being collected and provide them with an opportunity to provide feedback to ensure the right resources are located.
