This week's discussion focused on the feelings aspect of collaboration--passion for the job, building relationships with coworkers, and our own personal emotional intelligence.

I did not realize how passionate I was about becoming a librarian until I was well into my first semester of graduate school.  After all, it had to be passion that drove me to enroll at the same exact time as losing my beloved, eleven-year-long half-time position as an ARD facilitator and returning full-time to the classroom for the first time in seventeen years.  I believe it was the master's program that got me through that first year as a returning teacher; the act of learning, and the excitement I felt about the process and the content, spilled over to my colleagues and my students.  Passion is contagious, and people want to be a part of it!

As a special education teacher, I work with almost all grade levels.  The ARD process  is, by its very nature, collaborative, as is the "sharing" of students with their general education teachers.  I have to maintain good relationships with my colleagues in order to serve our students well and connect the learning from both settings for them.  I see this as good training for staff relationships in a future library position.

Dr. Long invited us to take a 146-question emotional intelligence test.  The questions were interesting, but the results were not surprising.  Overall, my emotional intelligence is "fairly good", with a high positive mindset and good skills at reading others' emotions with empathy and social insight.  I do need to work on managing conflict (I tend to avoid it) and being more assertive when marketing my own skills and ideas.  I will need to work on this if I am to make myself indispensable as a school librarian; by recognizing my strengths and marketing what I can offer to the campus, I can begin to lead in the process of collaboration.

The latest module of the I-DO series focuses on the role of the librarian as a collaborator.  This facet of librarianship seems like a no-brainer; after all, librarians should be supporting and working with the entire learning community, from students and parents to teachers and administrators.  This type of work can't be accomplished without some form of collaboration occurring!  Of course, for collaboration to occur, it must be involve both parties communicating with one another, and that's where issues may arise.  Librarians need to learn the communication styles of the members of their learning community.  For example, some teachers may like face-to-face time with the librarian while planning units or discussing needed resources; others may be better served through emails.  Some principals invite their librarians to periodic meetings for  program updates; others, again, may want brief written communication with only the highlights.  No matter how it's done, collaboration and communication must occur for the librarian to effectively support the learning community and maximize the benefits of the library program.  

While the ultimate goal of collaboration and school library service is increased student achievement, the effects of collaboration include an improved collection, a higher level of professionalism, and the chance to model my skills for others so that I am not seen strictly as an employee who checks out and shelves books.  I would also add that collaborating is essential in building rapport with the learning community, which can lead to increased use of library resources and better opportunities for leadership activities and acknowledgement/ job security.  Lastly, I need to collaborate to increase my own knowledge base.  Collaborating with others is one of the best ways to learn about librarianship!  When we share our successes, failures, and great ideas, we help each other become better in our chosen fields.  


 

We explored our personal educational philosophy and personality traits in the last two weeks, and this week, we moved on to exploring traits of a good leader and how that relates to librarianship.  During our online chat, we discussed our influence on those around us, and being aware of other's needs.  We also talked about developing a leadership plan, based on our philosophy, vision, and goals as a librarian.  

The activities for the week included videos and reading of articles.  Watching a 1946 video about library careers was entertaining; many of the aspects of librarianship that were highlighted are still important--liking people of all kinds, a love of reading, meeting the needs of your learning community, evaluating a collection, and organizing materials.  Dr. Long pointed out that we do much more than that these days; we serve as instructional leaders, members of various school committees (including the school leadership team), technological use and support, information literacy teacher, club sponsors....the list can go on.  (We made a similar list during my MLS program, and came up with three pages of duties that librarians are often called upon to complete.)  

We were asked to list ten endings for the sentence "A good leader....".  Here are my offerings:

• knows her community.
• has a vision.
• has a leadership plan.
• had good "people skills".
• is proactive, rather than constantly reactive.
• accommodates the needs of all of the community, to the best of her abilities and resources.
• knows when to delegate tasks, especially in her areas of weakness.
• motivates her team and community.
• celebrates with her team and community.
• is honest and transparent in actions and words.

I completed an online inventory of my leadership skills, and had an overall score of 70--which happily came up in the "excellent" range!  My lowest areas were in self-confidence (yes, I lack a little, as a librarian with no job yet!), emotional intelligence, and managing performance effectively--I had 70 in all of those areas.  My strengths were:  positive attitude, compelling vision, motivating people, good role model, and providing support and stimulation.  

After watching a few more videos, reviewing the requirements for the TALL Texas Institute (must have five years of experience first!), we were invited to write up our own leadership plan.  After looking at the documents, I realized that until I'm in a library, it will be hard to answer some of the questions asked.  I already know my philosophy, and my vision for my library is a welcoming, supportive place of inquiry and literacy for my learning community.  The specifics, however, will have to be based on the state of the library, and the previous relationship of the program with the community.  I will have to know where I'm starting, to set goals for where I need to be.  So I will archive the forms for future use...hopefully, in the very near future!

This week's studies were all about self-awareness--studying our personality types using three different measurements, and gauging their impact on our jobs, colleagues, and clients.  Both the quick Jung typing and the Myers-Brigg had me pegged with being a Sensor-Feeler.  However, the Jung test had me portrayed as an Extrovert and a Perceiver, while the Myers-Briggs gave the opposite readings of Introvert and Judger.  It was the Big 5 that brought all the results into perspective:  I scored an average on 4 out of the 5 indicators, meaning that I tend to feel and act in middle-of-the-road ways, without placing stressors on my environment or those around me.  The only gauge that was high was in the area of being people-minded; since librarianship is primarily about customer service, I don't see that as being a problem!

The Sensing subtype really suits me.  I prefer pragmatic solutions, using experience and facts to help solve problems.  The Feeling part of me is concerned with harmony and other's well-being.  I am an Extrovert at work, but prefer Introverted activities for my personal time.  As a Perceiver, I am flexible and can deal with changed plans--to a point.  Then my Judger steps in, and longs for scheduled and structured time in order to accomplish what needs to be done.

The highlight of this week's module was reading the list of jobs for which I am best suited, according to my personality type(s).  Teacher, special education teacher, and librarian were all listed!  As for what I need to work on, that would include the occasional display of overly-extroverted behavior at work (some see it as inattentiveness to tasks, even though my work does get done!), and learning to handle rude or intolerant behavior of others in constructive ways, rather than avoiding it and moving on.  I also need to be careful not to over-extend myself, so that tasks get completed appropriately and I can take care of my own needs.  Being aware of this information will help me play to my strengths, and seek help with my weak areas--or take criticism of them--effectively.

The first week's online discussion....and I'm late, having read the reminder email after the class actually started!  No worries, the presentation and chat were archived, and I was able to access them within a couple of days.

This week's topic was focused on forming our personal educational philosophies.  I had already written one out on my info page for this website, so I was curious to see how that would align with the assignment given.  After reading about various philosophical schools of thought, and answering questions about which one(s) with which I identified, I went back and reread my website's information...and it was pretty close, though without the philosophical jargon.  Though mostly humanistic in nature, I draw from all the schools of thought, and touched on them in my original writing:  safety and security in learning, opportunities for inquiry, and collaboration with the entire community to make sure individual needs are met. 

I was also greatly impressed with the "why" exercise, preceded by watching a video by Simon Sinek, in which we had to answer why we do (or want to do) what we do.  To really sit down and think about it, and write it down, brings a focus to our purpose.  This is important to remember when the job seems to be all about weeding and shelving...and we know it's not.  I will have to remember to post my philosophy and "why" statements where I can see them on a daily basis, to get me through the "dips", as our instructor said!