ETL 401 - Assignment 1 Done!

Another week of stress and another assignment finally done.  Still not a painless process but at least I was a little happier with the end result of this one. 
Whilst completing this task I was forced to recognise just how under-valued the teacher-librarians are in my own school.  Whilst they are appreciated, they are mostly used for babysitting purposes ... stress and need a breather?  Book your class into the library for them to look after.  Sounds terrible doesn't it?  Or am I simply being honest??

There are very few times when the teacher-librarians are involved in the planning and implementation of curriculum; not because they are intentionally excluded from the process, but more because there's very little time to pursue a collaborative approach.  Yet it is precisely such collaboration that would make everyone's lives easier.  It's about time that school principal's were proactive and decisive in their promotion on the services that the school library can offer. 

The modern student is entering a technological world which is so far beyond what we ourselves experienced as teens.  It takes a whole community to teach the kind of critical literacy skills that they need, and yet so many schools continue to support a culture whereby classroom teachers work in isolation from their colleagues.  Excuses are overwhelming - schools are far too busy, they are under-resourced, their curriculum is alread overcrowded.  But at the end of the day some tough decisions have to be made.  Teacher-librarians have so much to offer the students and the teachers of within their learning community, they just have to get everyone else to understand this!