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This post is part of one of final assignments broken posted and broken down into their respective sections. I have decided to post this assignment as I feel that it is important to document what I undertook during my Professional Placement. This is verbatim for what I submitted for this assignment, however, the Program subheading is formatted differently due to the restraints of the Weebly editor. See Section 1 here and Section 2 here.
PROGRAM: Monday - 12/10/2020
Tuesday - 13/10/2020
Wednesday - 14/10/2020
Thursday - 15/10/2020
Tuesday - 20/10/2020
Wednesday - 21/10/2020
Thursday - 22/10/2020
Friday - 23/10/2020
Monday - 26/10/2020
Tuesday - 27/10/2020
Notes: Monday 12 October 2020 – Friday 16 October 2020 the Campus Library was closed to finalise the stocktake as much as possible and to keep the students safe from shelving that was still being built. As seen above, I participated in a wide variety of tasks during my Placement – all of which I feel was to my advantage. Being in a primary school setting, let alone a campus that is not solely a Department for Education site, was a new experience. Looking at my experiences, they fell into three distinct categories: Library design and layout, working with students and “background” library work. LIBRARY DESIGN AND LAYOUT This was the overarching task of the first week – ensuring that the library was in place to be able to be re-opened during the second week of my Placement. This involved the layout of couches, shelving units and establishing how to display signage without damaging the newly painted walls. Assisting in the library design and layout was valuable, as it opened my eyes to what needs to be taken into consideration when designing a space that is going to be multi-use; and also provides the staff with a means to be able to monitor students. While many Teacher-Librarians (especially those new to the profession) don’t have a chance to design or set up a library from scratch, this provided me with knowledge that I can use if I were rearranging a school library in the future. I learnt well during this through discussions with Hajnalka and other library staff (including volunteers) and by, in some instances, moving furniture to see what it would look like in different configurations. WORKING WITH STUDENTS AND RESOURCE SELECTION This was a challenge for me. While I am a teacher, I am not primary trained; and outside of casual employment in an Out of School Hours Care, I have minimal experience working with primary aged children. This proved challenging when teaching a class as I struggled adapting the content and the level of difficulty. I also struggled with selecting digital resources that were appropriate for an early childhood and junior primary classroom setting. I was more confident with the primary and upper primary age groups as they are more like the Year Eight students that I teach and select resources for on a near-daily basis. Working with the classes and playing a part in the resource selection process was valuable as it shows an area that I need to improve on as it shows a deficit in my skills. I learnt through discussion and talking through the resources that I found with Hajnalka. Even if the resources I located were appropriate, she made me explain why I had selected them which enabled me to think and consider deeply why I had selected them. It is a future goal of mine to continue to work towards becoming more proficient in resource selection for younger year levels, which will be seen in a Civics and Citizenship resource bank[2] that I am currently working on. "BACKGROUND" LIBRARY WORK While I was aware of the amount of “background” work that is required to be undertaken for the library to be able to operate properly, the sheer level of what was there to be completed surprised – and at times – overwhelmed me. The book orders were continually coming in resulting in a lot of cataloguing to happen. I catalogued everything from non-fiction to fiction (general and senior) to picture books and graphic novels. There was copious amount of covering to complete as a result – both for hardbacks and paperbacks across all categories of books. There was much to be completed in terms of the stocktake of the library as well with a discovery that the recently catalogued books coming up as “un-shelved” which meant that as we were cataloguing books, we were having to stocktake them as well. I learnt a lot when doing this work by watching Hajnalka and library staff in the first instance, then undertaking the task myself and asking clarifying questions as I went. I find that I work well after watching an example then undertaking the task myself directly after. FINAL THOUGHTS I have valued evert second of learning during this Placement. I have valued being able to be a part of a complex environment that is outside of my ideal comfort zone. As a high school teacher, I have valued the opportunity to be able to learn how to select resources for a younger age group and for those who need a lower level of complexity text. I have learnt the value of having lower level complexity texts available for anyone who may need them. I am incredibly grateful that I have been able to learn how to balance the requirements within a Department of Education school, Catholic school and a Uniting Church school. That has been a massive learning curve and I have learnt a lot. While department schools are typically secular, staff and students can have a religious background; therefore, necessitating a balance of texts within the library to accommodate all parties. I will be eternally grateful to have been able to learn from Hajnalka and the Aberfoyle Park Primary School Campus Library staff and I am looking forward to joining the South Australian School Library Association (SASLA) Committee in 2021. [2] See https://governmentandfederation.weebly.com/ for the Civics and Citizenship resource bank
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Note:The posts dated from 2019-2020 are direct from my Charles Sturt University blog; hosted on their servers. For my own record, I have chosen to re-post them here. Due to this, there may be some formatting problems and for that I apologise. Archives
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