The “T” stands for “Terrific Teacher-Librarian.”
The school librarian blogosphere is alive with questions rather than resolutions for the new year. In her January 3, 2014 Neverending Search blog post “Tackling the Questions in 2014,” Joyce Valenza cited both The Adventures of Library Girl blogger Jennifer LaGuarde’s and Blue Skunk blogger Doug Johnson’s questions for the new year.
In the spirit of collaboration and since several concepts connected with our focus here at the Building a Culture of Collaboration blog were not mentioned by Jennifer or Doug, I would like to add a few questions of my own to their lists.
Judi’s Questions:
- How can I continue to serve as a leader alongside my principal in order to build a culture of collaboration in our school?
- How can I ensure that every member of our school community understands that our library is a shared learning and teaching space for all?
- How can I effectively communicate that I am a learner (as well as a teacher) as I coplan and coteach with classroom teachers and specialist colleagues?
- How can I further develop my interpersonal skills and improve my practice of instructional partnerships to achieve effective job-embedded professional development?
- How can I help maximize the impact of our collaborative teaching in order to make a difference in the learning outcomes for every student in our school?
Adding these five questions to those posted by Jennifer and Doug, terrific teacher-librarians can demonstrate to students, colleagues, administrators, families, and communities that ours is an essential role in 21st-century education.
Here’s to answering these questions in our daily practice throughout the new year!
Digital image by Mark Hicks for Discovery Education