Embracing the professional development opportunities in lockdown.

It has been a long day, I've taught a few classes online and have had meetings via "Zoom" as well.

I've had a shower and I am sitting here in all my fluffy-dressing-gown-glory waiting on the #TM6 'teachmeet' to start via Youtube.

I have been lurking in this #edureading group for the last year, doing their readings and following their twitter feeds. But haven't managed to get to any of their 'teachmeet' sessions in the evenings. Sometimes it seemed all too hard; family, sickness, school responsibilities.

But tonight I am embracing the the flexibility that has been a side effect of us going into Covid19 Lockdown for the second time this year.

ALIA Schools Webinar [source]

Flexible Professional Learning

Teaching associations and professional development providers have all "gone online" to continue to provide professional learning to teachers. The side benefit to this is that the price has dropped, so as a department leader, I can sometimes afford to send the whole team, where as before it would have been just one person. Professionally, this is fabulous as it engages the whole team in discussions afterwards.

If I had attended the 'teachmeet' in person, I could have interacted with my network and partaken in those serendipitous discussions that often spark ideas and innovation. But at home, the environment was much different.

The platform for the 'teachmeet' was youtube, and it worked quite well. We could chat in real time on the youtube page and then there was a twitter back channel where people posted pictures of screen shots and links to articles that were mentioned. I had two computers going, the stream and then my desktop linked up to twitter and google.

With my bluetooth headphones in I could continue to listen to the session even if my son needed a drink or a hug.

Reflecting on this flexibility of web delivered content, I "attended" a webinar a few weeks ago and listened to half of it while driving home. In the past I wouldn't have attended the event because I needed to be home at a certain time, but now I can listen and sometimes participate irregardless of my location.

What I am missing?

I am missing the discussions over coffee at break time. I am missing the exchanges of business cards and conversations about possibilities and ideas. I am missing the collegiality and the sense of community that comes with meeting familiar people at professional development events. If it is Zoom session you can see who is in attendance, but other streaming services don't allow you to see the participants.

What are your views on online professional development?

Something we should keep when we slowly move from Stage 4 to Stage 1?

Our Library Newsletter moves online

For Term 2, the LRC team put together a text based newsletter.

Distributed via email it was just a list of links and ideas - low tech!

At the end of Term 2, we did a survey with staff to see what they thought of the format and frequency and upon reflection and discussion with the LRC team, re-invented the newsletter transferring it to our Libguides platform.

[source]

As a team we contribute to the newsletter over a two week period and when it is full distribute it with an email which lists the things that we can't put on the website, like student achievements in reading and writing.

So check it out if you want, let us know what you think!

WASLA Article - Supercharge your school library with co-curricular clubs

I was very excited to see my article for WASLA "in the flesh", printed on the page. 

Online journals are great and accessible, but having something in your hands is just magical.

If you would like to check out what I wrote and give me some feedback, the article is up on my Publications page.

Lawson, M (2020). Supercharge your Library with Co-curricular Clubs. IC3. Professional Journal Of The WA School Library Association, vol 10.(No. 2 July), 3-8. (link)

Teacher Librarians as Game Changers

Catching up on "The Game Changers" podcast, I listened with great interest at the interview with Dr Deborah Netolicky. I've been following Dr Deb on twitter for some time and her work has challenged my thoughts on how I go about my work as a Teacher Librarian.

Not only do I see myself as a co-teacher assisting teachers on the side with reading, literature and research but I am also an experienced teacher and curriculum designer. Coming up with innovative curriculum ideas is my superpower.

The interview was interesting and spoke a lot about how schools are changing because of Covid19, but my ears pricked up when they started to talk about The Grattan Institute report "Attracting High Achievers to Teaching".

In my 25 years of teaching, my wage growth hasn't matched the growth in my cost of living. Even though I have stepped up into a leadership position, my potential earning capacity hasn't really increased much.

If I wanted to grow my income in education, my next step up would be to go for a Deputy Principal role. The current teaching experience scale doesn't allow for competency creation, you are just automatically shunted up the teaching scale until you get to the top and then you take on a leadership position to increase your wages. Some schools are even starting first year out teachers on Level 5 as a way of attracting quality applicants. In fact when I took a year of leave back in the early 2000's to work in industry, I was earning twice as much (back then) as I do at the moment.

The Grattan Institute's revolutionary idea to create classes of teachers that would attract an extra $40k or $80k in wages, might be a valid idea. Providing career and wages growth for teachers, when there isn't much wages growth at the moment. Wages growth is one reason why we are losing teachers to industry. Our current progression model relies on teachers putting in the extra yards, out of the goodness of their hearts, until they can get that elusive leadership position, which is more 'administrivia' rather than revolutionary curriculum development.

As I listened to the podcast (while sewing fabrics masks for friends and family), I thought, "I have heard this before" ... I trawled through some old blog posts to find one from 2011 called "All Librarians do is check out books, right?".  I was just starting my Master of Education (Teacher Librarian) degree there was heated discussions about the ultimate school where the Teacher Librarian was seen as an instructional partner.

Herring (2007) writes that there is no other role in the school that is more focused purely on curriculum needs than the Instructional Partner and who is in no better position to reinforce learning with cognitive and constructivist theories. In the HREEC (2011) report on School Libraries, Parliamentary recommendations reinforce the view that the Teacher Librarian as an Instructional Partner is uniquely positioned in the school to influence and drive change. [source]

No where in the Grattan report does it mention Teacher Librarians and their role as curriculum specialists. Teacher Librarians as Game Changers in their own schools.

The High Achieving Leading Teacher certification is in one sense providing a pathway for experienced teachers, however we need to ask whether it is linked to wage growth. But before we go and re-structure the teaching professional we need to ask whether this need can be fulfilled by the Teacher Librarians in our schools at the moment.

The under-appreciated Teacher Librarian who isn't seen as a curriculum specialist but rather a book shelver.

References

Herring, J. (2007). Teacher librarians and the school library. In S. Ferguson (Ed.) Libraries in the twenty-first century : charting new directions in information (pp. 27-42). Wagga Wagga, NSW : Centre for Information Studies, Charles Sturt University.

House of Representatives Education and Employment Committee (HREEC). (2011). School libraries and teacher librarians in 21st century Australia, The Parliament of the Commonwealth of Australia, http://www.aph.gov.au/house/committee/ee/schoollibraries/report.htm