Flash back ..semester 2..2010

Semester 2,was very busy but it opened up many new opportunities for me to gain greater experience in librarianship. After my work placement at Chisholm, I gained some casual work at Dandenong High School (DHS) library which had two campuses and services 2100 students. This library runs literature programs with year 7 and 8 students, Premiers’ Reading program and a Reader’s Cup Challenge. It was interesting to be involved with these programs and to use the Web 2.0 technologies such as ‘wordle’ and ‘wall’ with the students.Some other websites we used were "worldbookonline", "storiestogrowby.com." and International Childrens Digital library (http://en.childrenslibrary,org.au. I also participated in team teaching classes in humanities with year 7 & 9 students. I conducted year 11 an 12 student orientation sessions, using a wordpress wiki  and SLV and VCAA websites to support the development of their learning and time management skills, and to make them aware of plagiarism and correct citation practices. DHS is currently amalgamating two schools into one, where students are organized ‘in “SWIS’s or seven houses which cater for year 7 to 12 students. Each house has it’s own Coordinator, teaching and administration team. During term four, one campus library was closed and all the resources moved and processed ready to merge in to one library at the Dandenong campus. The process of checking all catalogue records and modifying them to comply with local preferences gave me practice applying DDC 14 Abridged classifications and National library records. This experience helped to reinforce what I had learned about bibliographic standards in education this semester. It was great to achieve one of my 2010 goals to gain more experience in a variety of library environments.

Take it with a grain of Salt!

I have since calmed down and had time to consider the subject coordinator's statement that he requested that the assessor should give formative feedback from which we can benefit in the future. I have reviewed my collection policy from this perspective.
However, I think it would have been less stressful for the students who received so many critical comments, if we had of been aware of the intended purpose of the formative comments prior to the return of our assignments. Nevertheless, I realize there is some valuable advise within the comments and I obviously still have much to learn about studying at this level. I can now move on to the next challenge with a fresh outlook.

Collection Management Policy - great effort for very little return!

My results for my second assignment - Collection management policy were very disappointing! I was very upset to receive the assignment back with so many critical and negative comments wrtiiten all over it by the assessor. Even now as I reflect back on this experience. I still feel that her comments should have included some real positive feedback. I am astounded that someone in the teaching profession cannot understand how deflating it is to receive so much negative feedback! It is difficult enough to remain motivated to keep going when you are studying distance education,without some genuine encouragement and feedback about what you have done well. I made a concerted effort to read widely and I also consulted with experienced teacher- librarians, before writing and editing for weeks to ensure that this assignment matched the requirements outlined in the subject guidelines. I was angry and very upset by her critical suggestions that did not match the specific guidelines we were given! I empathized with all my colleagues who had expressed similar disappointment on the forum.

Resourcing curriculum / Library visits

I'm mixing it up,this semester -doing a first year subject and a final year subject.
ETL 503 -Resourcing the curriculum and ETL 507 -professional placement/portfolio. It would be great to go straight to the end of the course!
Nevertheless, it has been good to do the library visits (in Melbourne) because it gave me a more objective overview of the range of libraries out there and their different clients' -private, public and educational institutions. It gave me greater insight into the ways different libraries modify the catalogue records and collection managment practices to cater for their users' needs. I could see the value in collecting statistical data re:library visits and website usage to monitor and evaluate if daily practices are achieving the stated goals.
ETL 503 - the first assignment was a good practical experience in selection processes in relation to curriculum content, users needs'and appeal. It gave me first hand experience with criteria and professional tools, publishers' websites etc.
Initially,I was dreading the laborious task of creating a collection policy and felt annoyed at having to do so alone, when most writer's advocated that this task should be done by a team of staff! But a friend,who is currently a Library manager said that it has been the most useful resource for her, so this helped to motivate me.
I hope it proves to be worth the effort! It explains why librarians do what they do and why! I'm now looking forward to weekends free of study and reading some novels just for pleasure.

Resourcing for the future: constant renewal through collection development. A conference presentation by Bronwen Parsons

The following ppt presentation by Bronwen Parsons from the 2009 SLAV conference can be retrieved from Bright Ideas blog section on the "Global teacher" It demonstrates a great example of collection development to upgrade the Belmont High School library.
It's worth a look.



Resourcing for the future: constant renewal through collection development. A conference presentation by Bronwen Parsons

Resolutions for 2010

Having read back over my assignments and the marker's comments, I resolved to find more information regarding critical evaluation and writing annotated bibliographies.
I will read more widely,visit other local libraries and organise regular access to journals etc. My personal goals are to improve my typing and ICT skills and to keep up with professional awareness of uses for web 2.0 technologies and networks, I have subscribed to Bright Ideas -Slav blog. I need to organise my time to include exploration of these new resources i.e walls, wordle,prezi, twitter etc.to develop working knowledge with them and to blog more often!
I must admit I really needed a summer break and it gave me time to reflect on my
learning and my goals for the future. It also gave me time to read for pleasure, I decided to read a mixture of student novels and adult literature. I read the classic Bryce Courtney novel "The Power Of One" which could be used with upper primary school students to foster critical thinking about bullying, racism and social issues. It could also provide insight into the human ability to face adversity, to rise above it and focus on personal goals. Morris Gleitzman's "Then" is a serious novel that tells a tragic tale of World War 11 experiences from children's perspective. I would be reluctant to use it with primary school students because of the gravity of the subject. But,I would like to read the previous novel and more of Gleitzman's more recent work. Currently I am reading "The Book Thief" and despite the bleak environment and the harshness of the story, I am enjoying the author's unusual expressions of language, it's format and it's use of illiteration. Right now,I need to hurry up and finish it so that I can get into the reams of reading that we need to do for this course!

Hindsight on 2009

When I look back I now realize what a huge year it was- my son turned 18, my daughter's 2ist birthday was a major event to deal with whilst my husband and son were overseas. As well as returning to study after 22 years, I had a major health scare,and I went overseas with my mum to New York for nine days then returned to face the medical dramas. Nevertheless,I lived through it all and managed to pass the three subjects. Of the three subjects,I enjoyed "Information environment" the best because it was so practical and relevant. I loved making my own "mywiki', I learned so much through the process and got some great feedback for it. However it was a mistake to do it on the school website because James could not get access to it!. I will now have to try to recreate it on wikispaces so that I can re-use it with students and include the link on my eportfolio.Despite really looking forward to "TL as a Leader",I was disappointed in this subject. I found the assignment outlines ambiguous therefore they were difficult to complete and I got poor results. The group assignment was difficult to coordinate with everyone's various commitments, however I was lucky that I had a good group to work with and I learned and benefited from the professional imput of others. It was great to actually use skype ,google docs, wikis, chat lines etc. in a meaningful way, to learn by doing. It gave me more confidence and belief in my abiltiy to use web 2.0 technologies.