QLD

As a Teacher Librarian, I am able to keep up with new publications, especially in fiction. Usually TLs are avid readers and this is so with myself.

So, I provided (am a classroom teacher at the moment) extremely engaging teaching and learning programs around fiction. I can grab and hold any class's attention, from Prep to Year 7, with a quality story that speaks in some way to the children's emotions. I do it deliberately and manipulatively. I do it so that the students will then be very motivated and enthused about any text that enthuses me. Laughter, tragedy (sometimes with an unhappy ending), adventure, and well-written horror that leaves a great deal to the imagination, work best.

Of course, my story-telling and acting abilities play a part and I do foreign accents extremely well. All that helps. I am in my 50s and not cool-looking at all, but am cool because of the 'theatre' I provide.

To this end, for older students, I 'trawl' short stories that will achieve my aim in 10 minutes. I am currently sharing a story about a manta ray with my Year 6s. And I have an increasing core of picture books that I read to everyone, Prep to 7. I can do this because, unlike classroom teachers, I do not have the whole of the Primary Curriculum to teach every day, all day. I can do this because it is my life's work.

I can do this because I am well read. I can do this because I am a Teacher Librarian. Literature is my passion and I have used this passion to hone my craft so that I can motivate students to read, appreciate literature and to want to search it out for themselves; and when they do, I'm the collection expert - and if I do not have it on the shelves, I will source and acquire it.

Cheers, Chris Whittaker Flagstone State SchoolPoinciana Dve Jimboomba

=
I am the sole teacher librarian in a primary school of nearly 1300. This is my fifth year in the Primary sector, after working as t-l in Secondary for 25 years. I work closely with ALL teachers and ALL students. I integrate information literacy, literature, and ICTs into the curriculum programme at all year levels. In term 1 of 2010 for instance I worked with all Year 1, Year 3 and Year 4 students. This involved 17 lessons a week, teaching information literacy as outlined in my Information Skills Programme, incorporating appreciation of literature, and exposing students and teachers to the use of the IWB, and to various web 2.0 applications. All my lessons are closely linked to the work they are doing in their integrated units, and involve collaboration with all teachers.======

Although my role as teacher librarian is heavily slanted to the teaching role, I also commit to fostering a love of literature, promoting books in class borrowing time, advising teachers on text selection, and organizing visits by prominent authors for every year level- in 2010 these authors were Narelle Oliver (Years 1 and 2 for 2 days), Justin D’Ath (Year 4), Phil Kettle (Years 3 and 5 for 2 days) and Pat Flynn (Years 6 and 7 for 2 days). I also promote the short-listed titles for CBC Book of the Year, and invite guest speakers to talk to the children about the short-listed titles. As well, we run two Book Fairs every year, so children have the opportunity to buy their own books… a very popular affair!

I ensure that an enormous selection of fiction and picture books are included in Reading Lists for the 28+ integrated units that are operating in the school curriculum, through appropriate tags in our Library Management System, Oliver. This means that when, for instance, Year 5 classes are working on their unit on Gold! Gold! Gold! they are provided with numerous fiction titles that match the unit, and Year 7 students are given a wide selection of titles, fiction and biography, that complement their work on Multicultural Australia.

The Reading Lists enable volunteers to pick the shelves so that relevant resources for all topics are provided to classroom teachers from every collection in the library. Most Reading Lists comprise upwards of 300 resources. As an example: Recent discussion with the Year 7 group of teachers resulted in the bulk loan of numerous resources illustrating the idea of pop-ups in picture books (a new tag was established RL: Year 7 Pop up books) This topic will be added to the purchasing list for 2011, and any resources located will be added to the list during the catalogue process. Volunteers also collected another set of resources we had tagged RL: Year 7: Systems of the Body to support their Science unit, others tagged Fractured Fairytales for their English study, and an extensive list of items suitable for the Multicultural unit planned for SOSE in Term 3. Because I work closely with teachers in the planning process, I (usually) know what topics will be considered during the year and I purchase resources to support these topics. Every resource catalogued into Oliver is tagged with the unit (Reading List) for which it was purchased. And when we need to develop a new Reading List, the shelves are scoured for resources that will be appropriate for the topic and the year level involved. This is a time-consuming process, but worthwhile when we can so readily print off a list of appropriate resources when requested.

I am also heavily involved in the integration of ICT in the curriculum. For the Year 7 SOSE unit I was also able to provide a revised Webquest document that I had developed three years ago, with numerous links to primary sources for their Multicultural unit. This Webquest has been loaded to the school website so students are able to access it from home as well as school. A Webquest I developed for Year 3 to support their unit on Earth and Beyond is used as part of their regular class work. I have recently restricted my involvement in teaching classes in the lab, for lack of time, but still make guest appearances in lab lessons when teachers need a kick start in introducing aspects of ICT’s into their curriculum. I am now concentrating my ICT lessons on promoting the use of the IWB and introducing some Web 2.0 applications to classes. I see my work with classes as an opportunity to teach the teachers how to use the newly installed interactive whiteboards, and for me to demonstrate the effective integration of ICTs in the curriculum.

I also play a major role in delivering professional development to teachers in the use and integration of ICTs in the curriculum. As well as the annual presentation of a 13 week PD programme in Intel, I regularly present formal PD on the use of the IWB software, and I provide staff with access to lessons I have developed for the IWB so they can use or adapt as they choose. I am also developing a WIKI to promote Web 2.0, so that teachers can discover more about the applications we have played with in class- and so they can add what they find as well. This is a vibrant library. It is constantly teeming with students- I estimate 400 students a day come through the library and the lab during class time, And as we have a split lunch break, separate sessions for Junior and Senior students, we have another 60 working, building, playing, reading at both breaks. But how much more could be done if we had space, and time, and appropriate staffing…

Helen Mackintosh BA, Dip Ed, B.Ed St, Grad Dip TL, M. Ed Teacher Librarian Grand Avenue SS

// **__Case Study__** **__As requested by the Federal Inquiry into School Libraries…:__**

**Aquinas College** **PO Box 34, Ashmore City Qld 4218** [|www.aquinas.qld.edu.au]

**Teacher Librarian: Marj Kirkland** marjk@aquinas.qld.edu.au

**__Teacher Librarian’s Key Roles__** //
 * **Promotion of reading** through Literature Circles (integrated into 1 term of both Year 8 & 9 English classes for all students), Readers Cup (all Year 8 students as well as a representative team at regional level), author visits and writing workshops, free voluntary reading through book promotion and supplementary curriculum reading lists.
 * **Library and Resource Management** – The Library staff consists of one fulltime teacher librarian and one fulltime aide (Library Tech & Aide job share situation). Aquinas College has a centralized budget for purchase of resources including teacher texts.
 * **Information Skills** includes web page assessment, internet safety, conducting research, search strategies, note taking, using different models/scaffolds of writing [], writing a bibliography.
 * **Cooperatively planning curriculum with teachers** – writing web pages, setting up blogs, moderating online content, producing ‘learning pathways’ for the college web page and intranet. This planning includes whole school initiatives such as the Aquinas College Whole School Literacy Plan (see Brian Bahnisch Award information below), as well as individual units of work (such as ‘Schoolies – Fully Sik’ DVD and work unit, used Australia-wide).
 * **Student supervision** – Library hours 7.30am – 4pm Mon-Fri. The Library provides homework help and supervision of students for three hours daily outside class time.

**__Whole School Literacy Plan: Brian Bahnisch Award 2006__** From The School Library Association of Queensland website: [] //‘The winner of the prestigious Brian Bahnisch Award for 2006 was Aquinas College situated on the Gold Coast. This is a biennial award that recognises and encourages collaborations and partnerships involving teacher-librarians, teachers and other members of the school community… The judging panel supplied the following comments:// "We would like to commend Aquinas College and the work of their teacher-librarian Marjorie Kirkland. The project nominated for the award demonstrated a whole school focus on literacy through the implementation of a whole school literacy plan. It exhibits significant leadership by Marjorie in working with Mary-Elizabeth Nash, Assistant to the Principal, Administration and Marie Samuels, Head of Middle School, to collaboratively establish a planned, systematic approach to the teaching and learning of literacy in order to improve student learning outcomes. The project displays a strong link to the mission and vision of Aquinas College and the dedication of the school to improving learning outcomes for students." //The award, presented by Professor Kerrie Mallan of the Queensland University of Technology, was accepted by Marj. on behalf of the college, at the SLAQ 2006 conference dinner in Mackay. In her acceptance speech, Marj. paid tribute to the school team of teachers and administrators, whom she said were driven by the belief stated in the Rowe Report (2005), that "teachers and teacher-librarians make a difference". Congratulations to Marj. Kirkland and Aquinas College for their professionalism, dedication and excellence in teaching.’ **__Present Work (Term 3, 2010)__** Work this term will focus on cooperative planning with teachers to integrate technology and Web 2.0 tools into curriculum, particularly with Year 9s, as part of the laptop roll out. Besides the roles outlined above, the focus will be on:

__Year 9 English book trailer elective__ – students have read a novel over the holidays and will work in pairs making a book trailer (similar to movie trailers). They have the choice of using still images in// Animoto// or //MovieMaker// or using digital video and Flip digital cameras to complete these. Some will be entering a Queensland-wide competition for Book Trailers.

__Year 9 Introduction to Shakespeare:__ 'The Bard is no Bore'. Take a look at our blog page: [] Students will read Shakespeare stories or comics, or watch// YouTube// videos of the plays in cartoon form to become acquainted with basics of plot and characters. Their responses will be using Web 2.0 tools: //Twitterature//, //Glogster// , //Animoto// and digital video in a //'60 second recap'// format.

__Year 9 Science class blog__ to put up web links, articles and activities that they can reach at home as further extension of their class work. The teacher’s idea is to develop blogs for all year levels (in time). Here's his 'embryonic' 1 day old blog, which he's working on with me. It's fully moderated (i.e. all comments come to his email address to be approved BEFORE they show on the blog). []

__Year 9 English – Literature Circles (5 teachers)__ As we did with all Year 8 in Term 1, students will be required to write a book review for the blog as one of the assessed activities in Literature Circles. The idea is to have students writing for a real life audience. Visiting authors write for the blog, increasing the students’ interest and giving connection with the author of the work: []

Blog pages are also being developed to supplement the following units of work://
 * Bridge construction in Tech Studies (extended reading and viewing, both online and in print format). We hope to put up some of our students' paddle pop bridge construction videos on that site soon: []
 * Year 12 English study of ‘Metropolis’ (extended reading and viewing is required for the assignment - a visually presented reading and viewing list to increase accessibility and motivation): []
 * Personal/first person narrative – Year 9 English – to complement a unit of work: []

It is expected that more will be added…the possibilities are endless...

Marj Kirkland Teacher-librarian, Aquinas College National President, The Children’s Book Council of Australia//