Greg Handley's Friends

Greg Handley's Discussions

Started this discussion. Last reply by Julie Squires Jun. 13, 2008.

May 29

May 29

Describe your school library:: Cosy ! Nice buzz about it. Reasonably good collection. Computer access is good.

About Me:: At Broadmeadows Secondary College - Now called Hume Central Secondary College after an amalgamation last year (called "Regeneration" !) Been here as Teacher Librarian for a looooong time !!!!!! Love "Broady" kids ..

Don't be modest...list two strengths you bring to the role of teacher-librarian:: Approachable and treat students and staff equally.

At 9:01pm on May 23, 2008, Greg Handley said…: Interesting (and good) to see the words "passionate" and "enthusiastic" appearing so regularly in 'member profiles'. In the discussion about 'reading' (location / gender) can I throw in the word "territory" (?). In my younger teaching days , I loved to sit outside in the schoolyard at lunchtime to read while I ate my lunch (much better than the bloody staffroom). Amazing how "you" can attract a 'crowd' when you enter the territory of the students. Needless to say very little reading was done but ......... talking to those kids was fantastic and obviously broke down a few barriers. As a T/L , I sometimes do the same (with the same result) and quite often the kids, then wanted to come and talk to me "in/on my territory"................. OR try this, (pre-planned but looking spontaneous) go to a class and "interupt" with something "brilliant that you've just read or discovered" and I guarantee you'll have a captive audience in/on their territory and some will visit you very soon afterwards. Don't lecture. Don't be too formal. Just sow the seed. I'll stop coz I'm raving

At 10:22pm on May 20, 2008, Julie Squires said…: Just read your blog, Greg. How long have you been blogging? Thanks for the positive comments too! Have you noticed in your online travels how many T-Ls are out there experimenting with Web 2.0? There seem to be a lot of them. Would you agree? Also, curious as to how the school 'regeneration' impacted on the library. Did you have to do a lot of weeding?

At 11:37pm on May 19, 2008, Julie Squires said…: Absolutely, I agree! We need to help others understand our worth and stop being the quiet achievers on staff. We also need to take credit for our input and insist that the 'teacher' part of 'teacher-librarian' be acknowledged. If we can be replaced by library technicians or non-teaching librarians I suspect we are not doing our jobs properly!