Management/Supervision
CTC Standard 15: Administrative Leadership
“Each candidate demonstrates knowledge and skill in providing leadership in planning, budgeting, promoting/marketing, implementing and evaluating school library media programs to meet established educational goals. Each candidate demonstrates knowledge and skill in implementing the goals, objectives, policies and procedures for the school library media program. These include budgeting,acquisition, processing, circulation, delivery and maintenance of information resources and technologies; and management of personnel, facilities and technical services. ” (p.15)
CTC Standard 16: Management & Organization
“Each candidate demonstrates knowledge and skill in providing leadership in planning, budgeting, promoting/marketing, implementing and evaluating school library media programs to meet established educational goals. Each candidate demonstrates knowledge and skill in implementing the goals, objectives, policies and procedures for the school library media program. These include budgeting,acquisition, processing, circulation, delivery and maintenance of information resources and technologies; and management of personnel, facilities and technical services. ” (p.16)
In Competency 15, the librarian takes the lead in planning and implementing library programs which further the educational goals of the site. This part of the management competency is intertwined with the next competency, collaboration. The library must be coordinated with the efforts of the rest of the site, sharing goals and guided by the same vision. In #16, the librarian is leading the planning and implementation of these supportive library programs, so that what the library promises to contribute to the overall effort, it can ultimately deliver.
Many of the teacher librarian competencies have been natural extensions of my existing English teaching skills, but management and administrative leadership were terra incognita for me, especially when I found myself temporarily “the boss” of another adult. I have never been a supervisor of adults, and it is especially difficult to navigate these relationships in my placement district, where the library technicians work as defacto teacher librarians for eleven dollars an hour. I am learning that it is far more important for the future of our libraries and my own future to become an ally of the district clerical employees than it is for me to express all my concerns about union issues and who should be doing what. Of all supervisors, a librarian ought to know when to shush. In discussions with my supervising librarians, I set myself specific tasks to develop my understanding of and role in policy formation at my high school site, which is reflected in the evidence below and in the Professionalism section. I have found new roles in planning for library involvement in school reform to be rewarding and accessible. My field experience has provided only a basic introduction to long–term planning for and implementation of library programs in support of school goals, but at least the evidence shows I have now joined the conversation.
Evidence
- 2. District School Leadership Team
- 3.Points for Meeting
I am now on the District Leadership team, where I will have an opportunity to influence policy.
Also, I scheduled a meeting with the Superintendant to share with her my observations during my field experience. From this, we agreed that I would do a survey of needs at the middle schools and ,make a proposal to her for some purchases and work by the hour to ameliorate the neglect caused by budget woes. Many of my union concerns are reflected on this agenda—the superintendant also discussed with me the impression that some similar observations of mine at a meeting had made on our library technicians: they thought I was insulting. In retrospect, they were right. Being a supervisor is not the same as being a union president. Now I have to make things right with these colleagues, and I have learned a valuable lesson.