Storybookathon

Every year my children's school has an "athon" to raise money. The children collect sponsership money, and on the "athon" day they dress up and do activities that earn them points. Their sponsers then pay up according to how many points they have gained.

This year the "athon" is the storybookathon. My son, God bless him, decided to go as Richo from Paul Jennings Lennie Lighthouse, thus requiring absolutely no dress ups at all! My daughter, however, being a Year 6 girl, is part of a group that decided to recreate L. Frank Baum's The Wonderful Wizard of Oz. As you can see above, this required quite a lot of dress ups!

Not being able to find a witch's costume anywhere (wrong time of year), I purchased 3 metres of cheap black cotton and 1 metre of purple and silver spiderweb netting from Spotlight, and went to work. (Luckily we had the hat from a previous Halloween.) I am proud to say that without a pattern, a sewing machine, or any sewing experience, I was able to create the masterpiece you see above! Is there no end to my talents?!?

At 11am I'll be up at the school participating in the festivities. Each class has set up a display about a story book they have read. There is a question to answer at each classroom, such as "Name Black Beauty's two best horse friends" at 3L and "How many times should the key be turned?" at 6W. Children and their parents visit each room to look at the displays and answer the questions, with students getting a point for each correct answer.

Now I must get on with some editing for the last uni assignment so I can get a bit closer to the word limit!

My View from Here

I come to librarianship from a background of happy experiences with books and libraries. In my blog entry of March 2 2009, Confession Time, I wrote about my expectations: "intellectually stimulating, and frankly, downright bliss to be surrounded by so many books!". In my entry on May 13 2009, Why I want to be a Librarian, I commented on why I felt that my personality, skills and interests were compatible with librarianship. Bear in mind, I have never worked in a library.

It was not long into the course before I came to see that the daily life of a teacher librarian involved much more than pottering about the library rearranging the shelves! I immediately resonated with Anne Olsen's forum post (2009), which began "Just now the task of a Teacher Librarian seems at once impossibly worthy and...impossible.".

How was I feeling in the face of what I was learning? Consider my February 27 2009 blog entry There's a new superhero in town!. I introduced "The Amazing and Multi-Talented Teacher Librarian" who:

• is able to be "simultaneously across all of the curriculum",



• has a "well-organised, attractive, up-to-date and easily utilised" collection, and a school library website that is "a work of art",


• has a library which is "a welcoming, happy and stimulating environment with an ever-changing display of student's work",


• is "an admired and respected leader within the school" with a "respectful and warm cooperative relationship with the school's teaching staff".

More seriously, I became aware of the competing aspects of the role of TL and how much hard work and time would be needed to fulfil them. In an ETL401 forum post (Jones, 2009-b), I commented on the difficulty of finding time for collaborative planning and teaching "in light of all their other responsibilities". In another (Jones, 2009-c), I discussed the "strain to incorporate research into the mix". In my April 19 2009 blog entry I tried to imagine life as a teacher librarian, timetabling weekly activities to move forward on each of my goals, and on April 16 2009 in Let the editing begin! I blogged about my concern in being able to live up to the role as a beginning TL.

There was always a danger that what I was learning about teacher librarianship would remain theoretical, as I am not even working in a school, let alone a school library. Despite this, I have found that much of my learning has translated into experience.

I have begun to appreciate the large role that ICT is having on librarianship, and have been making great progress with my skills. I am seeing first hand the ways that technology is shaping our access and use of information. In my April 1 2009 blog entry Techno Savvy, I happily discuss my "much more adventurous" take on computing.

ETL401 has introduced me to the concept of information literacy. I have learnt about information literacy in the context of teaching and learning, and have experienced a new awareness of my own processes. In the school context, I can see the wonderful possibilities of collaborating with teachers: "always a benefit in having another professional opinion", "TL has particular expertise in regard to information", "the library can provide a central collaboration point for staff" (Jones, 2009-d). I can also see the difficulties: "working together is seen as a challenge...Lack of leadership by principals and other experienced teachers...Lack of a common vision and mutual goals" (Jones, 2009-e).

As a mother of two school age children, I see the lack of information literacy in schools from another perspective. Teachers often fail to make their expectations clear or to teach or model the methods and skills required to complete research tasks. Consequently, students don't enjoy completing the tasks, don't learn anything from the tasks, and their products vary widely in quality. See my blog entries The Real World... March 9 2009, and Just a quick post April 3 2009 to read the whole story. In a forum post (Jones, 2009-f) I have a little rant about how parents are left to pick up the slack when research projects are set and children don't know how to complete them!

In terms of my own information process, in my blog entry Up, up and away March 19 2009, I consider the thinking skills that I use quite unconsciously, and wonder how and where I picked up these skills. In April 2 2009's entry Becoming Conscious of my Study Process, I continue on the journey of making my intuitive processes more explicit. I am becoming a better learner, as well as a better teacher.

Looking back over my blog and forum posts, I can see that at times I've had a rather idealistic view of things. There are some real difficulties facing the profession of teacher librarianship. Throughout the history of school libraries, the teacher librarian role has been under-utilised and under-appreciated (Jones, 2009-g). Schools are struggling to develop curriculum, implement initiatives and promote collaboration between teachers (Jones, 2009-h). Teacher librarians are going to have to move beyond the role of serving the school community, and into the role of leading it.

I'm not willing to let go of my optimism. I follow a blog called Skerricks, written by Ruth Buchanan. Ruth embodies my current ideal of the teacher librarian, always trying new initiatives and demonstrating enthusiasm and joy.

References

Buchanan, R. (2009) Skerricks http://skerricks.blogspot.com/

Jones, F. (2009-a) a reader's random ramblings... http://readersrandomramblings.blogspot.com/

Jones, F. (2009-b, February 26). How might class teachers and TL's see RBL differently? Message posted to ETL401 Forum - Topic 1 subforum, archived at http://forums.csu.edu.au/perl/forums.pl?task=view&message_id=3651497&forum_id=ETL401_200940_W_D_Sub4_forum

Jones, F. (2009-c, May 11). Action Research. Message posted to ETL401 Forum - Topic 5 subforum, archived at http://forums.csu.edu.au/perl/forums.pl?task=view&message_id=3813308&forum_id=ETL401_200940_W_D_Sub8_forum

Jones, F. (2009-d, March 24). Benefit to the school if TL involved in curriculum planning. Message posted to ETL401 Forum - Topic 3 subforum, archived at http://forums.csu.edu.au/perl/forums.pl?task=view&message_id=3729563&forum_id=ETL401_200940_W_D_Sub6_forum

Jones, F. (2009-e, May 11). Professionals working together. Message posted to ETL401 Forum - Topic 5 subforum, archived at http://forums.csu.edu.au/perl/forums.pl?task=view&message_id=3813295&forum_id=ETL401_200940_W_D_Sub8_forum

Jones, F. (2009-f, April 28). my experience of (lack of) info literacy. Message posted to ETL401 Forum - Topic 4 subforum, archived at http://forums.csu.edu.au/perl/forums.pl?task=view&message_id=3792900&forum_id=ETL401_200940_W_D_Sub7_forum

Jones, F. (2009-g, February 26). How will the historical material inform my future career? Message posted to ETL401 Forum - Topic 1 subforum, archived at http://forums.csu.edu.au/perl/forums.pl?task=view&message_id=3652204&forum_id=ETL401_200940_W_D_Sub4_forum

Jones, F. (2009-h, March 24). disadvantage to students in schools with TL excluded. Message posted to ETL401 Forum - Topic 3 subforum, archived at http://forums.csu.edu.au/perl/forums.pl?task=view&message_id=3729603&forum_id=ETL401_200940_W_D_Sub6_forum

Olsen, A. (2009, March 7). About the Impossible. Message posted to ETL401 Forum - Topic 1 subforum, archived at http://forums.csu.edu.au/perl/forums.pl?task=view&message_id=3681485&forum_id=ETL401_200940_W_D_Sub4_forum

This is a picture of the flautist Jane Rutter with the three girls that came along to her concert An Australian in Paris with me: (from left) Hannah, Etta and Denika.

An Australian in Paris was brilliant, inspiring and intimate in equal measures. We sat in the third row as Jane spoke from the heart about her experiences as a young music student in Paris, weaving French poetry and music through the story. She also included stories of artists, musicians and writers of generations past, who flourished in the hothouse environment of the Left Bank.

Jane's flute playing was, of course, spectacular, but even more impressive was the way the show wove humour and pathos together to provide a window into her passion for the arts and all things Parisian.

The girls aren't old enough to fully appreciate her story, but they were inspired by the beauty and virtuosity of her playing.

I submitted my Collection Management Policy yesterday afternoon. I spent all day polishing it, and simply couldn't stand to look at it anymore. I know there are still things I could change and improve, but sometimes you just have to say "enough is enough". Now I just have to finish the last assignment of the semester, and take a well deserved break to do some serious recreational reading!

Reflections on Assignment Writing.

As I write my assignments, what am I trying to achieve?

1. Answer the question.

2. Comprehensively examine the issues.

3. Make some insightful comments.

4. Write clearly and concisely.

5. Write something that impresses the marker.

6. Demonstrate understanding of the subject.

But perhaps I should be more interested in actually understanding the subject and asking questions about the issues.

Before beginning this course, I was unaware of "information skills models". I approached "information tasks" intuitively. If I now unpack what my process is, it would go something like this:

• Read the question. Think: What do I know about this? What is this question really asking? What direction do I think my answer will go in? What material do I have at hand that will help me to answer this? What extra information will I need?
• Read the material I have at hand. Make summary notes of important points and organise them in such a way as to be able to attach them to the relevant section of the question.
• Begin to map out my answer. Think: What parts of my argument are missing? What extra information do I need to make my argument clear and well supported? Does my answer flow? have a structure? make sense to the reader?
• Begin to write my essay. Read over what I've already written constantly, editing to change phrases or words as I go. Make slow progress as I reread and edit every few minutes.
• Keep writing, rereading, editing...
• Finally it is finished. Step away from the computer.
• Look again at the essay. Reread it critically. Edit, edit, edit.
• Submit essay when I can no longer stand to look at it any more.

As I read through this, I realise that once I start writing, I have set my course. Though I edit, edit, edit, I never go back to the question, or seriously reevaluate my argument. Interesting...

In other news, the renovation pace has slowed considerably. Basically the kitchen cannot proceed until we have the new bench top. Chris needs to get up into the roof to fix up some pipes for the laundry, I'm not sure if that is something he is planning to get to on the weekend. Also the external brickwork needs to be done, but it's not exactly the weather for that! After a disturbed night with heavy rain and gales, I said to Chris this morning, (tentatively) "You might want to go out and check the tarp.". Thankfully he was able to report that everything was safe and dry.

I'm going to see Jane Rutter's "An Australian in Paris" tomorrow night. I'm taking my flute students and their mothers. It's been a very long time since I've done something like this - something that I want to do and will enjoy, without reference to my husband or children.

What we're reading:

Chris: recipe books. He's cooking dinner for our weekly get together with my sister's family and is choosing something lovely to cook.

Me: Dean Koontz Life Expectancy - grabbed it at the library when I was there getting some books for Josh.

Alana: Stephenie Meyer Twilight - has just started it to see if it grabs her.

Josh: (sorry don't have author at hand) Lab rats in space - one of the books I chose for him at the library. I read the back and it sounded like something he'd like!

I have been exploring the world of book review blogs. There are a lot of people out there that are doing a great job with really interesting takes on reviewing. In comparison, my attempts to move in the reviewing direction are pretty lame so far, but I'm not discouraged! I'm looking and learning and getting ideas, and I'm sure that over time this blog will be shaped into the wonderful place that I am imagining!

I'm really pushing to get to the end of my two uni assignments as soon as possible now. I'm relatively happy with what I've written, but I'm just a bit sick of them, and the subject material now. I'm almost ready to move on to new subjects!

I love the picture of the breaking wave that I've included in this post. The pale minty colour of the water makes me feel like I can almost taste it!