ETL504 A2 Blog Task – Critical Reflection

I believe this subject was a critical one for me as it is the area I have always felt I am the weakest – leading. Once I thought about it I realised I knew what it took to be an effective leader (as seen in MacDonald, 2013a) but I had never taken my own advice … Continue reading →

ETL504 A1 Blog Task – Leadership in School Libraries

Assignment 1 Blog Task Based on your work in Part A, write a blog post that articulates and reflects upon your own understanding and practice of leadership in a school library. Prior to beginning ETL504 – Teacher Librarian as Leader, I had not given any thought to the leadership role I would play as a … Continue reading →

ETL504 – Concept Mapping beginnings

So I have just had my first attempt at ETL504’s assignment one concept map of Leadership. I decided to do the first one freestyle – ie. no planning on spacing – so that I could see how many concepts I ended up with and how many links I could make between the concepts. Turns out … Continue reading →

ETL504 – Innovation and Change: implementing Guided Writing groups

“Innovation is open to every man, woman, and child. It requires an inquisitive mind intent on solving an existing problem.” An innovation at an elementary school I have worked at a few times this year is the introduction of small Guided Writing groups for grades 6 and 7. The implementation of this idea had the … Continue reading →

A great video on Group Decision Making

Get me with a group of friends who are trying to decide something and I will almost always fall into Decision Fatigue! A great video on Group Decision Making. Continue reading →

ETL504 – Sergiovanni’s Virtues of Leadership

I thoroughly enjoyed reading Sergiovanni’s (2005) article on the four virtues of leadership. He suggests that leaders need to embody the virtues of hope, trust, piety, and civility if they are going to successfully lead in their school. 1. Hope. He suggests that hope is a necessity if change is to take place in a … Continue reading →

ETL504 – Teacher Librarian as Leader: Initial thoughts on leadership

Before I begin studying the content for this subject, my current understanding of leadership is patchy and inexperienced at best but here goes. I think it involves the ambition, more than one’s innate ability, to want to improve and experiment with new ideas and strategies, and through this inspire others to do the same. Leadership … Continue reading →