I’m not quite sure how I fit into my group since I’ve chosen to take Bloom’s taxonomy and to create a repository of ICT skills that I would further like to develop as a librarian to facilitate learning.

I might try to develop an inquiry question and start to work on the ICT skills for ESL students.  I will be teaching ESL science next term and it has always been difficult to find projects for them to do that are manageable.

Cultural Change

Six years ago our school went through an amalgamation with another school.  The other school’s building was falling apart and we had a newer school.  The funding was to add an extension on to our existing school. It was a difficult process.  The other school had a longer history and considered themselves to be more academic.  We were a former junior high school which fed into the other school at one time.  They didn’t consider us as quite academic.  But our dwindling numbers forced us into a merge and this was a difficult process.  We had to merge two different school cultures.  So what were the issues and what were the cultures?

We did things differently, we had different events and as educators we valued different aspects of teaching and learning.  Senior teachers taught grades 11 and 12.  Everyone else was considered to not have enough experience.  The library had a circulation, but was not welcoming.   The librarian did not do any orientation, or teach any research skills.  This is only conjecture and not substantiated by research on my part.  On the other hand, we had a website, orientation for all new students, research skills were taught in context to various assignments.

When we came together, we were two different and separate entities.  Our science department, the most cohesive department in terms of goals and teaching were doing ELOs.  They continued with their ELOs and the other teachers did their own thing.  The students must have felt this because they wanted to go back to their own old school.  Even though it was run down.  For spirit week, some of the students would wear their former colours.  We were two solitudes.

We did come together and last year we had our first graduating class which came into our first year as grade 8s in the amalgamated school.  Trust and prejudgement were factors which inhibited us from coming together sooner. For the other school they were leaving their territory and coming to another school’s territory (our). We must have made them feel like the guests, hoping they would leave.

How did the library figure into this picture of cultural chaos?

• Get to know the staff, names and positions
• Bend over backwards to get the teachers from the other school to buy into what you have
• Respect where they are coming from and the assignments they give.  Just as you, the librarian is worried about how they will receive you, they are just as uneasy.
• Build new relationships, let them know you are there to support and facilitate the learning of their students (I think this is the heart of the manner and defines your relationship with the school and in my case teachers from another school)

Previously the senior English teachers and the librarian used microfiche to do their English research essay.  I loved the idea, senior English students were getting exposure to what it was like to do an “university level” essay which included research.  I had to change the method of research.  When I merge the collection, I kept all the print resources they wanted to be included in the collection, but I did not even bring over the microfiche reader, let alone the film. The teachers didn’t have to learn anything, but my purpose in this case was to keep the integrity of their assignment, but show them a different way to access information.  Using the Internet was what students were used to, so it wasn’t a problem and the teachers after seeing how their student’s learning and access to information was supported were enthusiastic.

When we use technology, I think we are imposing a cultural change whether we accept or are aware of it.  How do we use technology to facilitate learning?  How do we make our student active learners?  How do we bring learning into the 21st century?  Students can buy into technology much easier than adults sometimes.  Sometimes, students do not want to deal with change.  For example, some students didn’t want to learn how to use Glogster, this would mean they would actually have to learn some technology related to learning and it wasn’t leaning how to play a game.  Others couldn’t believe how great their posters were.

TLs are the forefront to make educational change happen in a school, but we have to be willing to make the change first.