Professional Placement

I've finished my ten day professional placement and I am going to post a summary of what I did and what I learnt during this period at my school.

What I did

·         Completed weeding of the vertical file system retaining only articles from 2010 to present along with items from previous years if they covered significant events or contained useful content relevant to classroom learning e.g. items on Ancient Rome. This had begun prior to placement.

·         Commenced the digitisation of the vertical file. I scanned several items from the vertical file onto the school network and began to classify them by topic. This included creating a filing system that will allow for easy retrieval of items and for record keeping.

·         Compiled a library guide to inform students of the collection and services provided by the library to encourage them to make greater use of library facilities.

·         Created a reading list for Year Seven students focusing on fiction items that are suitable for Year 7 Students including popular authors, series and titles.

·         Organised and presented an information session for Year Seven students on library services.

·         Applied skills in classroom teaching, curriculum, pedagogy and teacher librarianship to guide students undertaking learning tasks.

·         Functioned as a staff member within the wider school community – such as communicating with teachers relating to student learning. I was also required to assist at the school Athletics Carnival on Day 10.

·         Liaised with library staff to ensure that the library operated smoothly.

What I learnt

·         Ensuring clients are aware of library services – Libraries that I have visited such as local libraries, other school libraries and specialist libraries such as Parliament House provide details to their clients about their services. This may be available on the web and/or published as a brochure or pamphlet. This school did not have a website that provided such information nor a brochure. The Teacher Librarian also wanted to encourage younger students in the Senior (secondary) campus to continue to utilse the library as they did in the junior (primary) school maintaining their relationship. I felt that they needed to be aware of the library collection and services. The user guide, I felt would assist in informing students of library services. This would be built up through information sessions. After a session with Year Seven, they had a greater understanding of library services. Some borrowed items and others were asking me questions about the collection and library services.

·         Skills in Collection Management – Creation of a system to record and maintain the files that will form the digital vertical file identifying items  by subject, author, year, and article.

·         Using the library collection to Identify and select a thorough variety of resources to guide students in  their learning e.g. Identifying and selecting items from the fiction, non-fiction and reference collections to assist History Elective Students that were commencing a research task on Myths and Legends.

·         How to effectively communicate knowledge of the curriculum and syllabus to ensure that students meet learning outcomes. This would include explaining learning outcomes and the steps that are required to meet those outcomes e.g To meet the outcome of using a variety of sources, students must not rely on information in one type of format such as the internet. Students meet this outcome by using relevant websites, books, and visual aids. 

The assignment will give me greater opportunity to reflect on my experiences. There will be some items that may come up as the assignment is completed. i'll just add them as we go along. Obviously when you have been out for two weeks working hard, it takes some time to sit back and think back to what was done.