For those who are interested ... Laura's post asking whether we are InfoLit
teachers, reading
teachers or technology teachers highlights a key difference between US teachers and
those in other
countries, especially in the primary (elementary) area.
In Australia, in the primary sector, we are all just teachers - we are expected to
be able to teach
all the key learning areas which are identified as English (reading, writing,
viewing, speaking and
listening), Mathematics, Science, Social Studies, Health and Physical Education,
The Arts, Languages
Other than English and Technology (as in designing and making things). There is no
separation of
duties into subject area specialisations although schools often employ a specialist
in LOTE, Music
or PE to cover classes during teacher planning times. In most primary schools, the
TL is part of
this team covering planning time. Apart from these times (about 2 hours/week),
teachers stay with
the same group of kids all day every day. Things like ICT are expected to be
integrated into the
daily program and again, we are expected to be proficient in this tool.
As the teacher-librarian, I had to have teaching qualifications and experience
first and then my
library quals on top of that, and although my focus when I took classes was
Information Literacy and
Literature, within those I could/would directly and indirectly teach nearly all the
KLAs. If the
unit had an InfoLit thrust, then I would often teach ICT, amongst other things, as
I helped students
to locate, select and evaluate Internet sources or help them use a particular piece
of
software/hardware to put their presentation together. Maths was key as I taught
them how to use the
Dewey system to locate information. If it had a literature thrust then I
explicitly taught reading
during the book orientation, its reading and the follow up. Teaching is more than
just standing in
front of a class doing chalk and talk - every time we pick up a book and read it,
we are modelling
and teaching students something about the value of reading.
No doubt many of you do the same thing and if you really stop to analyse your
teaching you will find
that you are as much a generalist as a specialist! And, if you look closely at
what, how and why you
teach you will find that separation into specific subjects only happens on the
timetable, not in the
real world.
I think the key thing to remember is that we teach students not subjects!
Barbara
PS. FWIW, this year I have devoted three of my columns in Teacher Librarian to how
to read aloud
effectively - there is more to it than meets the eye - and there are many
suggestions there for the
LMS and the classroom teacher.
Barbara Braxton
Teacher Librarian
PALMERSTON ACT 2913
AUSTRALIA
E. barbara@iimetro.com.au
"Together we learn from each other."
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