ETL 501 - Task C

I feel as I am in a separate category to many other students completing the ETL 401 course this semester as I have already completed ETL 502 and ETL 504 in second semester 2009. Even though I had a twelve month leave of absence I did not start this course completely unaware of the role of a teacher librarian. In saying this, my perception of the role of the teacher librarian has changed from my prior learning. This course would have been ideal for me when I first started my masters as it had been a good introduction to the wide role of the teacher librarian.
My initial thoughts of a teacher librarian was one who had many roles within the school as a librarian who taught research from both books and technology, ICT coordinator and as an expendable person who would be able to complete any role within the context of the school as a teacher when people were away. This was formed from my own knowledge of the school I work at and how the teacher librarian was used before the role of teacher librarian was collapsed and she became a classroom teacher. When I first began the course readings my knowledge grew even further of the role of the teacher librarian. Herring (2007) and Purcell (2010) opened my eyes to the roles I was not previously aware of, that the teacher librarian needs to fulfil concurrently to ensure the library runs effectively and efficiently such as library manager, collaborator, teacher, ICT teacher, curriculum leader and literacy leader.
The topic and assignment forums provided me with an informal learning from other people’s experience as teacher librarian as well as their own view from their readings. Even though I did not regularly post on the forum I still participated through reading the posts and reflecting myself. My post on 11 April discussed how teacher librarians need to continually adapt to new technology and change their teaching approach to cater for such (Ianna, 11 April, 2011.
http://forums.csu.edu.au/perl/forums.pl?task=frameset&forum_id=ETL401_201130_W_D_Sub3_forum&message_id=5077944)
The ultimate question that needs to be answered is if I could have learnt more throughout the course. It is true, that I could have learnt more during this semester if I had of completed every essential reading that we were provided with and researched and analysed further reading on each topic instead of the basics. Even though I enjoyed participating and learning throughout the course I found lack of time due to a full time teaching commitment meant that I did not have enough time to do so and continually forgot to post on my blog.
I especially enjoyed learning about information literacy and ISPs and have thought about how I can use Big 6 (2006) in my classroom and teach it to my students. Prior to topic 4 and the second assignment I was unaware of what information literacy was and had not heard of ISPs before.
Overall, the course has increased my knowledge over semester from knowing a small proportion of the role of the teacher librarian to being more aware of the multi faceted role they play within the school as well as what information literacy is and how I can use the ISPs in my classroom and eventually in my library to introduce and teach the skills needed to be information literate.

The Frazzle of Assignment 2

I've been working on this assignment for a bit over a month, at least I hadnt left it to the last minute this time... and I am surprised at what I have found about about ISPs - after never knowing they existed before - and I call myself a teacher... My brain has turned to mush and I feel like a very stiff drink, but no, I have more work to day and would like to get this finished by tonight, with school and then homework centre tomorrow I don't get home till 5 and dont want to have to finish it off then!

During my 4 years at uni it was not often I had to cut back on words, but for this assignment, I feel all I have done has been write a paragraph - check the word count, write another paragraph, check the word count. Oh bother, I am out of words, sumarize what I'd already sumarized and check the word count. But I finished taks a and b and am now quite happily procrastinating about task c - the dreaded reflection. At first I thought it would be easy to do, but upon reflection. THIS IS NOT THE CASE!!!

Now it's up to reflecting on what I have learnt about over the course of the semester............ hmm blank... yep still blank..... think it might be the brain strain.
Ok, Ok, think I need to cook dinner and then hopefully my brain and I can regroup and tackle the last part together.


Not even my post has much sense about it tonight :(