At the Heart of Things: The Honour of Being a Teacher Librarian

 

At the Heart of Things:  The Honour of Being A Teacher Librarian

As outlined in lesson one, to be a successful teacher librarian we need to know 3 things:  understand the research process, have patience and positivity and the knowledge of and the eagerness to share information.  

Are these unreasonable expectations?  No, they are not.  I believe as teachers we already strive to accomplish these things.  In my experience, becoming a teacher was because I wanted to share knowledge and inspire a thirst for knowledge in the children that I work with. 

Unfortunately for too many years we have not had teacher librarians at our school.    For many years school librarians were not a priority.  Teacher librarian's roles were "downgraded to simply signing out books and possibly reading a book to students if time permitted." https://journal.canadianschoollibraries.ca/bc-teacher-librarians/ Thankfully things have changed and the importance of teacher librarians has again been recognized.

Hence, me having the honour of becoming a teacher librarian!  As I child, I loved to go to the library!  Both my dad and my mom were avid readers.  My dad's wife was a librarian for over 25 years and they all passed down their love of books and reading to me. 

Going to the library was always something that I loved to do.  I never dreamed I would become a  librarian.  As I learn about the roles and responsibilities of a librarian I realize they are far more complex and important than I knew.  Being a librarian isn't just about reading to children and checking out books, we are also as Reidling describes, a mediator between students and information who "weighs the good, the bad, and the indifferent data and locates accurate sources to meet the information needs of students." (p.5). We are an integral part to the school and to the students.  We are, as described in the Canadian School Library's Journal, the "Classroom Inquiry's Secret Weapon."   https://journal.canadianschoollibraries.ca/classroom-inquirys-secret-weapon-the-teacher-librarian/  

 Although teacher librarians have been reinstated, unfortunately our school is very small so our time allotment is 30 minutes per class which gives me 90 minutes a week with our students.  It seems the perception of the role of teacher librarians remains to be of someone who reads to students and checks out books.  

I am ok with that....for now.  As I work with each classroom my mind is churning trying to figure out ways to meet the responsibilities of my role of "developing students' information skills" so they can "succeed in the 21st-century learning environment." (Reidling, A.M., pg. 13). We have our work cut out for us with such limited time to ready students for 21st-century learning considering all of the skills there are to teach.  

In order to "teach" 21st-century skills, we first need to learn them ourselves.  We as teacher librarians have to be open to learning about the technology around us and understand that "in the classroom of the 21st century, technology should be ubiquitous; it is just as much a part of learning as pencil and paper and is omnipresent." https://educationrickshaw.com/2017/08/02/what-does-a-21st-century-classroom-look-sound-and-feel-like/  

 Reisling reminds us that "our role as school librarians is to encourage the appropriate problem-solving research processes, as well as critical thinking, to lead students to information and the knowledge they seek." (p. 12). 

There are many barriers to being able to achieve the latter.   Time is one of the critical barriers.  Even though the American Association of School Librarians (AASL) have "established standards and guidelines for what 21st-century information services should look like in the school library" (Reidling, A.M., p. 7) the time required to be successful at achieving those standards is not administered.  

If we had more time, more resources and a genuine respect for the role of the school librarian we would comprehend that "full implementation of these new standards would bring school librarians to the place where they belong-at the heart of their school's collaborative learning community.  (Reidling, A.M., p. 7).