Relective+Journal+for+the+week+of+Nov.+16th

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The link above is a librarian's resource tool to the recently revised from 9 to 4 standards for the 21st Century Learner written by the Amercian Library Association. I'm starting out with this thought because I am a certified librarian who is also serving as the ARRA Coach for the RULH Middle School Team. In order to receive my librarian certification, I had to study and learn these standards as the basis for my knowledge base. The frustrating part for me was that I knew that the climate of our school was not inducive to collaborative teaming which is an essential component of the philosophy of 21st Century Learning and Teaching.

Media Literacy, Information and Communications Technology and Information Literacy are all intertwined within the structure of the American Association of School Librarians. The very survival of the school library depends on student centered media centers in which collaboration, communication and dynamic learning and teaching must evolve. The school librarian must be familiar with all subject content standards because information literacy skills are embedded across the curriculum.

I am very excited to be a part of this grant because it not only is crucial that we change the way we think about teaching and learning but the very core of the existence of the school library also depends upon it.

Another important event took place today (Nov. 17th) with our ARRA Monthly Coach Meeting in Columbus. The best part of our meeting is coming away feeling much better and confident about our coaching positions. The Cohort 5 that I belong to is extremely supportive and I always look forward to their feedback and their fellowship. Judy Spicer is our mentor and is a huge component of why we all feel better after we meet; she is supportive and also offers advice after listening to our concerns.

I see I also need to "slow down" a bit. I feel so rushed sometimes with taking care of the middle school library and covering all the bases. When I saw my progress report for the online course - I see that I overlooked an important survey result and forgot to follow up on it when I first answered those questions. As the coach for our team - I have been trying to look ahead at the assignments on Thursday evenings so I can plan how much time we need to spend together as a group to meet our weekly assignment obligations. I like to have the videos and readings covered before my team meets together every Monday so I can make the most use of our time together and give us that "push" so we can get "jump-started" and this allows everyone to know ahead of time what is going to be expected of them at the Monday meetings.