My purpose in creating this BLOG is to respond to current school library issues of ten articles from various issues of School Library Journals and provide a relective response as they relate to where I am in my professional development as a teacher-librarian. The various issues I selected show that teacher-librarians must collaborate with classroom teachers, so that there is an improvement in engagement in learning, reading for enjoyment, improving reading comprehension, teach to diversity, use technology for learning purposes, and improve academic achievement.
I included the specific elements that I did according to topics presented throughout the course. The articles I used strengthen and back up the arguments presented in the course texts: Doiron, R. & Asselin, M. (Eds.). (2005). Literacy libraries and learning: Using books and online resources to promote reading, writing, and research. Markham, Ont.: Pembroke Publishers Limited. I chose the topics that were particularly interesting to me and are current topics for discussion in Professional Library Journals. Some issues are very controversial in teacher-librarianship; for example, the Learning Commons Center designed without books and the use of technolgy in the classroom.
Problems that I faced as I worked toward my final product were, when Blogging using Blogspot. Com, I tried to italicize titles and it did not seem to do the function I wanted it to do. I clicked on Publish Post, but I did not know if it was publishing the post or not. Then, the message stated that I did not have any posts after working on the Blog for three hours. Very frustrating. As it turned out, my posts were drafts. Rather than waste any more time trying to figure out what I was doing wrong with my Blog, I opened a Word document and responded to my articles that I chose in there. Eventually, I figured out that I must check the box on the Edit page and click Publish Post. When I finished typing and editing my five to seven page rationale for my Blog, my Internet connection was dropped and I lost everything, so I had to type it all over again. I do not know how many times this happened during this course; I always like it much better the first time around. When looking for articles, I read through forty or more articles to get the subjects that were applicable to the subjects that I wanted. Many articles were written for education or psychology, or for elementary libraries. Finding articles for secondary school libraries proved to be more difficult. Many of the articles written for elementary school libraries may be adapted for secondary schools, as well.
My expectations about the process were that I needed to read a lot of articles to find the articles that I wanted to write a reflective response. After reading many articles, I would be informed about current school libray best practices. This process of reading professional journals and responding in a Blog are the beginning of a lifelong process of reading and responding to library issues.
I learned that there are many pro-active teacher-librarians out there that are making themselves heard and advocating for our positions as teacher-librarians. It is important to collaborate with classroom teachers, administrators, and the community to show that the teacher-librarians are indispensible to student learning and achievement. There are also many innovative ideas.
If someone else sought my advice about the process, I would tell them to spend a lot of time finding and reading articles, then summarize the articles, think about the articles in relation to the text and learning from the modules, and provide a personal response. I do not think I would do anything differently.
The next step for me is to create a BLOG, such as the peanutbutter BLOG suggested in the Richardson (2006) reading, so that I can interact with the students and teachers about books. I want to feel comfortable about blogging before I start a process with staff and students. I would also like to continue to respond to professional school library journals.
References
Bush, G. (2008). One indivisible day: Teaching for social justice through literature. School Library Media Activities Monthly, 24 (8), 23. Retrieved from http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=f5h&AN=31327824&site=ehost-live
Buzzeo, T. (2010). Strength in numbers. School Library Journal, 56 (10), 38-40. Retrieved from http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=aph&AN=54457987&site=ehost-live
Choy, W. (2006). All That Matters. New York: Other Press.
Doiron, R. & Asselin, M. (2005). Literacy libraries and learning: Using books and online resources to promote reading, writing, and research. Markham, Ont.: Pembroke Publishers Limited.
Goodin, S. (2004). Libraries and secondary literacy—the missing link. CSLA Journal [serial online]. Spring2004 2004; 27 (2): 13-14. Available from: Academic Search Premier, Ipswich, MA. Accessed November 8, 2011.
Gordon, C. (2010). Meeting readers where they are. School Library Journal, 56 (11). 32-37. Retrieved from http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=aph&AN=55092188&site=ehost-live
Kenney, B. (2009, October). The biggest losers. School Library Journal. p. 9. Retrieved from http://search.ebscohost.comlogin.aspx?direct=true&db&AN=4459875&site=ehost-live
Long D. (2007). Increasing literacy in the high school library: Collaboration makes it happen. Teacher Librarian. 35 (1), 13-17. Retrieved from http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=aph&AN=27485713&site=ehost-live
Lukehart, W. (2010). Art in theory and practice, II. School Library Journal, 56 (2), 20-21. Retrieved from http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=aph&AN=47927369&site=ehost-live
Marcoux, E. (2011). Technology and you. Teacher Librarian, 38 (5), 66. http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=aph&AN=62570046&site=ehost-live
Marcoux, E. (2010). Tweeting. Teacher Librarian. 37 (5), 82-83. Retrieved from http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=aph&AN=52571276&site=host-live
Richardson, W. (2006). Blog software. Weblogs: get started! In Blogs, wikis, podcasts and other powerful web tools for the classroom. Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin Press, 50-57.
Yee, P. (1996). Ghost Train. Buffalo, NY: Douglas and McIntyre.
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