Wednesday, August 25, 2010

A Day at the School Library

I had the opportunity to fill in for an absent teacher-librarian at a catholic school in southern Sydney last week, and provided me with a chance to experience the role of teacher librarian on a school day.

This was my first casual day in this role and I have been employed as a casual teacher of Human Society and It's Environment at the school.

The day went well. As it was a sports day, I only had three three periods plus managing the library during the recess and lunch breaks. It is normal for the library to be quiet.

I was fortunate that the library assistant was there to teach me in how to loan and return books. The students at the school use their "ID Cards" to borrow. Laptops can also be loaned as the school only provides laptops to Year 9 Students. I am aware other schools provide laptops to year 11 students and it was disappointing to see that the students missed out at this school.

Also I engaged in a teaching role through supervising two study classes and I was allowed to move them from their classroom to the library. The students enjoyed it as they had the option to read or borrow the laptops, reducing possible misbehaviour amongst themselves.

Sport Supervision was part of my role, supervising students undertaking ice skating at Canterbury Ice Rink.

There was plenty to keep me occupied!!!

At this school, the teacher librarian seems to assume an active role in the day to day life of the school. They are not confined to the library, but also provide supervision of classes and also part-take in activities such as school sport.

For a person like myself, I can find working alone in the school library to be isolating, and to be provided with the additional responsibilities provides myself with an opportunity to get to know the students better. It means that I can in my role use the information about students to provide suitable resources that will assist in their learning. We are not librarians, but teachers as well. We are there to educate the students!!!