Saturday, 1 October 2011

The Australian Teacher Librarian Team

Who's who in the field?

On a weekend when many folks in Australia are thinking of football; Rugby World Cup in NZ, AFL (Australian Rules Football) Grand Final in Melbourne and the Rugby League Grand Final in Sydney, another, not mutually exclusive, group of dedicated folks are winging their way to Sydney for the biennial gathering of those involved in, and passionate about school libraries in education. The ASLA2011 conference program offers a wide range of topics and promises an engaging three days.

This had me pondering on the strength of the Australian team - the Australian teacher librarian team. Judy O'Connell asks United we stand - or do we? and raises some concern that we could be our own worst enemy. I take the opportunity prompted this morning by a query from @henriettaMi for examples of Australian TLs who blog, to highlight some of our local Australian leading lights in the teacher- librarian field.

I have concentrated on those people currently working in schools as we are all aware of the huge contributions made to the field by the likes of Judy O'Connell, Lyn Hay, Karen Bonanno and Pru Mitchell to mention but a few.

Apologies in advance for omissions, it is a rich field and I am limited to those I have encountered in my own PLN.  If I have omitted your contribution to these particular fields, please let me know in the comments.

Scoop.it
A wealth of material is being curated by Australian TLs using Scoop.it If you have not yet explored this tool, check out these topics. These TLs are sharing their expertise and following many others that are worth investigating.

Marita Thomson Reader's Advisory for Secondary Schools
Jean Anning QR codes in K-12 education, Weird and Wonderful, Steampunk in K-12 education
Tania Sheko Apps for learning, What is a teacher librarian?
Sue Krust Teacher librarians and transliteracy
Di Laycock Graphic novels in the classroom
Judith Way Are you game?
My topic ebooks in K-12 schools


Some significant Australian TL blogs
There are many TLs blogging for their schools and reflecting on learning. Here's a taste of some of those.

Jenny Luca Lucacept - intercepting the web
Tania Sheko Brave new world Her other blogs are listed from this site
Stacey Taylor Librarians are go
Marita Thomson Developing readers one of various blogs
Karen Powers Big Bookcase
Leanne Windsor Learning to learn
Judith Way The Way forward previously the power behind SLAV's Bright ideas
Audrey Nay Teacher Talk  and other blogs

Australian K-12 LibGuides lights 

These TLs are curating content and providing lessons for their students via LibGuides. You can see their sites here.
Leanne Windsor, Petra Pollum and Alison Rout at the Illawarra Grammar School
Cathy Oxley and colleagues at Brisbane Grammar School
Tania Sheko and colleagues at Melbourne High School
Stacey Taylor and Jenny Uther at Monte Sant' Angelo
as well as my valued colleague at Trinity Grammar School, Alison Klein at our site The Arthur Holt Library.

Congratulations team! You are on a winning side.

7 comments:

  1. Thankyou, Carmel, for including me in the lists amongst inspiring TLs. Please add yourself to the list. It's good to be reminded of the solidarity amongst Australian teacher librarians, especially since this is one of the most generous professions in terms of sharing knowledge and resources.

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  2. Great company to be in - thanks Carmel!

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  3. Thank you for mentioning me in this fine company Carmel. I won't be at ASLA unfortunately. It's my birthday on one of the days, and I have travel ahead of me when I leave for Italy in a few weeks with students from my school. I decided to spend the time this holidays with my family knowing I will be absent for a couple of weeks in the near future. I will be following from afar, and hopefully contributing what I can via twitter or a stream if any are being pushed out. I know that the conference will be excellent having looked at the program, and knowing that great Teacher-Librarians like June Wall have been planning this conference for some time.

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  4. Thanks for responses, I find TLs very generous as you mention Tania and there are so many talented folks in libraries, probably cause for another post after ASLA. Enjoy your birthday and the trip Jenny.

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  5. Thanks for collating such a wealthy list of active and inspirational Library people. I have been subscribing to the various blog feeds this afternoon, and wishing I was at ASLA 2011. Best wishes to all attending.

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  6. Thanks for the mention Carmel. And thanks to you for recommending more additions to my own PLN :)

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  7. Thank you Carmel for including my librarians and I in your post. It's wonderful that we can share and work together to ensure that school libraries and librarians continue to play an important role in 21st century teaching and learning. Leanne

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Thanks for visiting, I welcome your comments.


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