Digital-Newly Landed Immigrant

I must preface this reflection with the fact that I suffered a great sense of overwhelming anxiety the first few days of this course. Here I am, about to assume the position of the Librarian at our school for the first time in September. I am feeling a bit more confident having two courses under my belt and then I am hit with Library 2.0. I felt that I had walked into a class where the expertise and experience was so much greater than mine. What was I doing? Who was I kidding? Should I quit and drop out? The fact that Sandra Lee is a very calming and encouraging instructor helped me to decide to stick it out. I am certainly glad I did. Yes, there are those in the class that are younger and are more akin to the “digital natives,” and those that have so many years of experience as Librarians, especially at the Secondary level, but I soon found out that a few in the class were also limited in their technological expertise.

Teachers, on the whole strive to do their professional best. I realized, that as you James pointed out to me in my last course, the Library belongs to the whole school and I am in a sense just a facilitator to make learning happen at Gibson Elementary. I feel very connected to many of the students at Gibson, especially the ones who I have taught in the past. This course has taught me new tools to incorporate into the Library Media Centre to bring the Library alive and more current to the times. More importantly, I hope to assist many of my colleagues in their teaching to, “enable powerful teaching and develop the collection to that purpose.”(James Henry-comments to me regarding my library).

I am excited by my learning and was truly inspired.