Leadership and Librarianship

Leadership 

"I am reaching out to this group as an AASL instructor. We are currently building a course geared toward first-year school librarians, and we are seeking advice from current professionals in the school librarianship field to include in the course.  If you were to give a new school librarian one (or two) pieces of advice, what would it be?"

My advice to a first year school librarian would be:

1.    Don't be afraid to try new things.

It's okay that you might not have an understanding of how to do certain things.  I have learned that if you are willing to try and put the effort in, more than likely what is going to happen is that you will learn alongside the students some new skills or ways of doing things, and they will have learned some new things from you also.  As a result, they will appreciate that you spent time and tried on their account and relationships will begin to form.  When you make relationships everything else is easier.  People are more willing to work by your side or be patient with the areas where you need work.  For example, don't be afraid to start a club on coding if you haven't had any experience with it.  If you can provide the space, time and materials to students to experiment with, likely there is going to be some learning that will illuminate the way forward. I am currently running a coding club for grade threes using grade seven leaders to help facilitate.  We have all learned the basics for Ozobot now and are discovering new things together each session.  At first I felt I wasn't organized, familiar or educated enough to have the club. However, after 6 sessions, and a few bumps along the way, I realize that the students and myself have enjoyed ourselves, made discoveries and learned enough to be able to go off and teach others how to use it.  Having the mindset of being open to trying new things and to ask for help from students, staff and fellow colleague TLs, it will start to make all the difference in your journey.

2.Take advantage of mentorship programs.

The more people I talk to, I realize that their interest in becoming a school librarian evolved out of need/opportunity/timing.  They were placed in the position and developed a curiosity and passion to pursue it ever since.  From what I understand there is a big need in the Surrey School District to encourage our TLs who want to stay in the position to become qualified by getting their certification.  It's such a big field to explore, and it's not going to happen overnight as I've learned.  Take advantage of the many supports that are out there with regards to training (mentorship program, professional development workshops and networking opportunities).  I have found the world of fellow teacher librarians to be the friendliest people I know who want to encourage learning not only to their students but to other TLs too.

Librarianship

“School librarians demonstrate leadership and added value when we work collaboratively with other educators to help them solve their instructional challenges and when we work together to help students meet their learning needs.”-Judy Moreillon

Another area that will help build relationships is to push your collaboration with teachers.  Don't sit in the SLLC alone waiting for others to come to you.  As soon as you know what teachers are looking for, find a way to fill the need.  I have recently been working with a grade seven teacher to help him with bibliographies, note taking and website evaluation.  I hadn't done this previously and was nervous about not really understanding how to teach some parts of the research process.  I believe that this is an area that I should be an expert on and that is why teachers are coming to me for this kind of help.  Making the commitment to support him, helped me to figure it out.  Now that we've begun, I'm beginning to understand what the need is and how I can be of assistance.  Next time I come across another situation where I feel students will benefit from further instruction in this area, I will feel more confident to offer support.  It's another way I can show that I am valuable to the school community.