Tuesday, April 19, 2011

bloggo slacko

OK, so things are a bit slack when I actually have to look up my blogspot address and login details to be able to find it!!!

Apologies to the 3 people who have actually bothered to follow this blog - I have no idea guys! I'm still not really sure about the purpose of the whole blog thing, but know that I should use it as a reflective activity, so I guess I'm sort of treating it a bit like a diary.

The journey of studying the TL course has been interesting so far...... I am amazed at the huge ups and downs I am experiencing along the way. One minute I am feeling under control, travelling along ok (nothing fancy, but making progress and feeling adequate). Then I read the multitude of  postings I receive in my email box every day (I thought they were supposed to thin out!) and wonder a few things:
  • Where the hell do they get all of the extra time to actually come up with all of that impressive sounding stuff?
  • Do they ever sleep?
  • Why is my brain not coming forth with such intelligent, provocative responses to the readings and activities we are looking at?
In the last few weeks, I've had a couple of "lightbulb" moments:

The staff at the school I am working in (only just started there this year) have just moved from a system where the TL and the CT work collaboratively during "library" time, to the situation of "library" time being part of the CT's NIT (Non Instructional Time). Before I was actually working in the role, I thought that having 2 qualified teachers with the one class was a bit of overkill and possibly a waste of the school's resources. I was happy to come into a position where I, as the TL, would be taking the class solo and could do what I wanted to do with them, while the CT took some much needed NIT time (we never get enough of this do we?)

Anyway, as time has gone on and I have had the opportunity to study the role of the TL, and have also been in contact with other TLs in other local schools, I have done a complete turn around in my thinking on this. I am finding it difficult to get around to every teacher (11 classes - 1 lesson a week each) in the school to try to discuss in detail with them what their students could be doing to get the most out of their RBL/Library time. I have very little idea of what they are doing in the classroom, and so am feeling a bit isolated and "standalone-ish" with my efforts in the library.

The French teacher made a comment to me early on that nearly gutted me: "They don't really care what you do with the kids, as long as they get their NIT time!" I don't actually believe this to be true of all of the staff, and if it is for some of them, I am determined to show them that something wonderful and worthwhile can occur during that one lesson per week with their class. Time will tell.

The other thing that I have been getting excited and thinking a lot about is the whole PBL (Project Based Learning) or Inquiry Learning approach. From what I am reading, this style of learning makes great sense. I feel like I need to do some more investigating to try to develop the confidence needed to really give this a crack with some of the classes that I teach - would like to try and find some simple examples that I could pick up and experiment with, just until I get the idea and feel able to create my own projects. Will continue down this path - I guess the best way is to actually take the plunge and do it!! Much can be learnt from semi-successful ventures, and like anything, the more you do it, the better you get at it. That's what I keep telling myself anyway.

So, again, ye followers of the blog - sorry for the babble, just letting it all fall out onto the page so that I don't have to think too much about it when I go to bed tonight. Surely there must be more interesting things you could be doing?? No hard feelings if you decide to remove yourself from my followers list.

Now to get on with the job of trying to sift through the Information Literacy stockpile........ and to make sense of it!

Until next time.......

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