2.2

//Reflection on AASL Standard 2.2: Effective and knowledgeable teacher //
The area of collaborative planning can challenge the school librarian. There is great value in collaboration; library skills enhance classroom teaching for both students and staff and student motivation is increased when information literacy lessons are tied to other, ongoing learning. Information literacy skills can easily be integrated in almost any functional area. To offer this collaboration I must understand each grade level’s curriculum, ideally on all topics. I constantly seek to improve my knowledge in this area. To be effective I need to provide my instruction either before or in conjunction with other functional areas; effort must be made to fit this in when the librarian has a fixed schedule of multiple classes. To be effective, one must implement a three-prong approach. First I “teach the teachers” – on a regular basis I work with classroom teachers to let them know of information technology capabilities we have and demonstrate these for them. (To this end, I have become both WIKI and BlackBoard certified within the county.) Secondly, I make curriculum specific recommendations based on the individual instructional calendars (to include pulling titles that might be of interest) and tailor my own schedule to what I perceive might be best for the students. An excellent example of this is the text set I prepared in my Children’s Literature class; this provides teachers a comprehensive literature set for their topic – enhancing and deepening their teaching experience. Third, I work with the Cultural Arts and Guidance teachers to demonstrate a model of collaboration that I hope others will follow. My lesson plan supporting instruction on careers using the BlackBoard course management software is an example of all three approaches. The Guidance teacher and I co-taught the lesson, providing for excellent formative evaluation. Based on the obvious enthusiasm expressed by the students, other teachers are interested in our lesson and in BlackBoard technology. I have offered to write BlackBoard lessons for them to support their specific learning needs. I have highlighted career related texts to extend the student learning experience. The Information Literacy standards provide a focus for instructional planning. As I plan my lessons, I must be aware of Standard 1 to help students’ access information efficiently and effectively. To that end, I ensure they know how to access text based sources of information as well as electronic formats. I begin my year informing my students that my goal is to have them become independent, life-long learners – my classes with the youngest students provide the students the skills to move independently throughout the physical space and materials; we finish in year 5 with a thorough knowledge of the online databases. I strongly believe that we must demonstrate social responsibility and provide to our communities (in all senses of the word) – each of my students signs a pledge indicating they will do their best for themselves and the community.

