LEADERS!

Now this is a leader!

Leadership and all!

Finally completed the first task. Now to examine Part B. I have been looking back at my readings on leadership in order to use for assignment 2. Reading over Cheng's article Leadership and Strategy has reinforced much of what I have learnt. Yes, leaders need to be proactive and an area that Cheng mentions really makes a great deal of sense. Leaders need to be strategic, in our fast paced technological society teachers, schools, TL's need to think more carefully about the future. We need to be inspirational but most importantly we must become forward thinkers. How do we achieve this? by working cooperatively, embracing shared visions, not an easy task but it is achievable. This last idea is supported by Donham's article, she focuses on the link between leadership and the shared vision. TL's have a unique position, we work with all staff and students, to ensure that our schools are able to provide the best possible learning environment. A Huge Role!

ETL501 Information Environment

My first entry!! This course relates to the various information and learning contexts in the school environment. So far I have read about wiki's, wikipedia and criteria for websites. The latter being the focus for our first assignment. What I have so far is practical and information gained can be applied to a class room context. How many times have I told my students that it is OK to look at wikipedia but not trust its contents? It seems that I am not the only one!

Reading about the technical criteria was new for me, being a humanities students I have never really focused on this area but clearly it is an area that I need to develop. Now all I need to do is select two criteria for my assignment, this is going to be more difficult than I first thought because so many are geared to students in higher education.

The most important lesson I have learnt so far is that I do not spent enough time on preparing my senior students to clearly assess the relevance/reliability of a web site. It is never too late to begin!

Learning about leadership ETL504

I have neglected writing in my blog because of my workload both at school and at University. Completing two subjects was a choice that I am now reflecting on. This subject The Teacher Librarian as leader has been a challenge. Coupled with the readings on leadership has been our first task, a group presentation. We have been placed into groups and are in the process of working on our power point presentations. I have been fortunate to be placed with two other students who are both motivated and luckily for me are technologically literate. The assignment is due in two weeks and I feel that we are progressing really well.

One of the most difficult components of this task has been to employ the knowledge we have gained in our readings to our task. An important area of the leadership qualities of a teacher librarian is presented in the quote by Donham.“Helping the Principal begin to see the benefits of a library media environment in school decision-making groups is the first step toward exerting influence and ‘leading from the middle’. It is this area, leading from the middle where the TL has influence and one that makes a lot of sense. Working collaboratively with staff, being positive and consistent are also qualities that can be considered essential for a leader.

The next week will be hectic, hopefully our group will be able to finalise our presentation then it will be time to start on assignment 1 for 501.