Sunday, January 16, 2011

Information Age and Organization

I often hear about how we are in the "Information Age".  When I reflect on my teaching I see that I'm not in the information age at all.  In the last 10 years I have made very little effort to increase my knowledge of technology and incorporate it into my teaching. Technologically speaking 10 years is far far too long!  At least I have some consolation in knowing that I'm not the only one to blame for my shortcomings.  The school district that I worked for over the last 9 years is also partly to blame.  There never seemed to be any money to improve things.  My colleagues also rejected any technological advance that was proposed...even simple things like communication through email.  Things are improving but we're already so behind that I'm not quite sure how we can catch up!  At least now people seem more aware of the need to keep up for the sake of our students.  Now that I'm working in an Independent school with a principal who is pushing hard to make many improvements in regards to technology, I have a real opportunity to step up and get with the program! I'm hoping that this course will help me get on the right path and give me the push that I need to be a leader in technology. 
Can we truly have a strong Library Program in a poorly organized school library? 
This question has stuck with me all week while at work.  I think that overall my library is quite well organized considering the space limitations.  However there are still many improvements that I can make.  I took over a library that was run by a library tech for the last 20 years.  She has done a good job in maintaining the collection however there is definitely some room for improvement.  I look forward to learning more in this course that will help me figure out where I should start.  In looking at the CASL document I'm not only reminded of the importance of organization in all areas of the library but also all the responsibilities that I have.  The fact that there are so many doesn't surprise me since as a teacher I always had so many roles and responsibilities.  Now I still have most of the roles of a teacher and have to add on all the new roles of a teacher-librarian.  It's quite overwhelming for someone just starting in this field.  As a teacher-librarian you have to be extremely organized to be able to take on the roles and responsibilities that this article outlines.  I'm not anywhere near that level of organization.  As I write this I'm thinking of my 3 drawer filing cabinet that is a big mess...it's my dumping station...every time I open a drawer I cringe! Hopefully by the end of the year I'll be able to organize my physical space...as far organizing my thoughts that could take even longer!
 In trying to stay organized the biggest challenge this year has been organizing the schedule and trying to get the teachers familiar with a teacher librarian as opposed to a library tech.  I just can't seem to get everything done in three days.  I have a pile of books in boxes waiting to be catalogued.  I manage to see all 9 classes each week and do book exchange for 3 of them.  I have a teacher's assistant doing book exchange for the remainder of the classes.  However he's not able to shelve all the books so I end up doing half of that.  I can't imagine what I'd do if I was in a larger school.  I'm trying to focus on the most important aspects of my job and I'm hoping it will all get done!  It's going to be an interesting 6 months!

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