Final Inquiry Post: A Reflection on the Course So Far

This past week was a busy one and I can't believe it is already November! Halloween was a blast this year! The "Nightmare Before Christmas" season (October to December) is my absolute favourite time of year. I took our son trick or treating around our neighbourhood, ate way more candy that I should have, and got called in to TTOC for a teacher librarian for the first time this year/since starting the program on Halloween day! Luckily I had been in for another teacher at that middle school the previous week, so I knew it was a school that wears costumes on Halloween. I went with the classic: Ms. Frizzle!

Halloween day was a weird day to be called in. The morning had all 4 blocks condensed and there were various activities around the school for the afternoon. It was a quiet morning with very few students coming in, as most classes were doing fun activities, but there were quite a few visits from administrators, support staff, and EAs popping in to see who was there. They were all surprised to find that the library was mostly empty! It showed me that the Teacher-Librarian at this school has opened up the LLC to the students who need it when they need it. Lunch time was a hub of activity, from students playing a Harry Potter trivia game, to looking at Guiness World Record Books together and laughing in awe or disgust at the pages, to kids reading on their own or just talking. A few had books on hold or made returns. It was pretty cool to see. The afternoon activity scheduled for the library was so much fun: building on the LEGO wall! The wall was pretty much the first thing I saw when I entered the library, and it was so cool! We had about 7 or 8 kids with us building their own creations to display for the month. It was neat to see them problem solve and figure out how to build their creation in a specific way to be displayed on the wall in the way they envisioned it to be.

As mentioned above, this is my first course in the Teacher Librarianship Diploma Program and I have so much to learn! I really enjoyed the inquiry portion of this class. It is amazing to be able to use your own ideas to guide where your learning will go. This was a challenge for me both as a TTOC and a newcomer to the program. I still don't quite understand the full scope of the position of a Teacher Librarian. Perhaps if I had taken a more broad introductory course prior to this I would have felt like I had more to add. That being said, going into this course cold REALLY made me in charge of my learning! It helped me to come up with my own ideas first and I can fill in the blanks later. I am glad this ended up being my first course. On a more broad level, moving forward I am going to take the inquiry approach with me. I am going to continue to be a life-long learner not just on Professional Development Days, but every day. I am going to find new topics or programs to be excited about and hopefully share that excitement with my future students.

If I could pick just one topic from Phase 2 that really resonated with me, it would be the very first topic: Fostering Reading Cultures in Schools. I cannot believe how many amazing resources and ideas my classmates had to share! The variety of ideas not only highlighted just how important school libraries are to schools, but also how important the LLCs are in to school culture in general. Every time I have been to a school library as a TTOC, I have to wait to talk to a Teacher Librarian because they are helping a student. They get to know students on a different level than just in a classroom and create connections with the school community as a whole. Fostering a reading culture in schools doesn't stop at reading...it fosters a culture at the school, and that is a beautiful thing.