Branding myself as a Teacher Librarian

Branding is an interesting concept. I worked for a year in the IT industry and the positioning of their equipment, and at that time laptops in schools, was all about long term branding.

At the start of this year, after two years of working 0.2 as a Teacher Librarian in a school and three years into my Masters degree I got these cards done via vistaprint with the intent to "re-brand" myself within the school I was working.

Posted on my instagram

The idea was to attach it to the physical things that I tend to put in people's pigeon holes and use it to make contact with teachers who might not fully understand the role of the "new age" teacher librarian. By implicitly stating what my goals are (Valenza, 2010), the aim was to encourage teachers that I work with to see the Teacher Librarian as part of the 'team', rather than someone who reads books and drinks coffee all the time.

What do teacher librarians do (Lawson, 2011), ?

• To ensure that teachers and students are effective users and producers of ideas and information.
• Support the integration of inquiry learning skills and research skills into the curriculum (information literacy).
• Support teachers through evaluating and collecting resources which add to the rich learning experience of the classroom.
• Support both teachers and students in their quest for building knowledge by working collaboratively as an active member of the curriculum support team.
• Generate ideas and strategies to support each of these goals.

I am going through a transition, from being an information technology secondary school teacher to being a teacher librarian.

References:

Lawson, M. (2011) What do Teacher Librarians Do? [blog] Retrieved from:
http://infowhelm.blogspot.com.au/2011/08/all-librarians-do-is-check-out-books.html

Valenza, J. (2010).  Manifesto for 21st Century School Librarians. Retrieved from: http://www.voya.com/2010/09/15/tag-team-tech-october-2010/