By Lila Armstrong
“Know your superpower,” said Jael Richardson, during her endnote session of the BCTLA conference. For TLs who have found themselves managing the changing landscape of education over the past 2 years, and its impact on school libraries, not all of us feel like we know our superpower right now.
While Richardson’s presentation revolved around the importance of equity, the conference theme of TL Leadership was woven throughout. She shared her own struggles in education, and the importance of knowing your origin story; by doing so, you can create opportunities for new voices and defining your own. Our stories shape our place in the world: when we apply the lenses of equity and inclusion, we can see where there are gaps in our knowledge, access and resources – for ourselves and for others. The recent charge to apply an equity lens to school libraries, and expand our collections, has been met with excitement and the realization that honouring as many stories as possible could be one superpower of all TLs.
The keynote, presented by a team of three long-time TLs, Devika Chudy, Marilyn Lunde and Keely Thornton, reminded us first and foremost of how engaging, exciting and imaginative TLs can be! While the three shared ideas of how to rebuild struggling school programs, increase collaboration and better represent our students in our programming, what they really did was remind us of how superpower-ful we are to our students: how we create excitement around literacy, offer safe spaces, use fun to engage students and staff; and of course, how we can care for staff in our specialized roles. TLs are constantly looking to make new connections, strengthen current connections and reach out to make new connections. Through participant engagement, the keynote speakers reminded us gently that we might be underselling ourselves – we might actually be doing more than we thought, reaching more than we thought, impacting our schools more than we thought.
The sessions offered at the conference ranged from programming to question formulation techniques to using loose parts; however, the sessions that created stir were those offering elementary library planning, designing spaces to foster engagement, getting teachers into the library to collaborate and creating high school book promotions. Looking at the big picture, it appears that we want to know how to grow the love of our school libraries, and keep everyone coming back for more. Luckily for all registrants, Joseph Jeffrey of the BCTLA was able to troubleshoot a massive website crash of EasyReg and keep the conference up and running. His superpower of the day!
In her session on Local union leadership and the teacher librarian, Sarah Wethered, CSL award winner, reminded us that TLs are over-represented in positions such as staff and professional development representatives. Why? Superpowers such as organization, attention to detail, diplomacy skills, collaboration experience/expertise and understanding who is in our building (students, staff and admin). Maybe we volunteer because no one else does (also a superpower!) but we grow our leadership skills everyday through communication with administration, students, connections to PAC, and school/district committees. It is this constant improvement and innovation that makes TLs such a special group.
As school libraries continue to evolve, we must also, using our existing connections and continuing to forge new paths. Self-reflection, self-evaluation and expanding the lenses through which we see our roles will help us all find our superpowers, and then share them.
If you are interested in hearing how TLs across the country are making their mark, look up the Oct 25th episode of Read Into This, and listen as Beth Lyons shares the superpowers of colleagues from all over Canada on Canadian School Library Day.
Lila Armstrong is an elementary teacher-librarian in Campbell River, BC. She brings private, public and international teaching experience to her French Immersion teaching practice. Lila is hooked on school and thrives when learning new things. She is currently learning about farming as her family now resides on a farm in the Comox Valley.