My Final Thoughts

Tomorrow I am getting married and then going off on a honeymoon to the Dominican Republic for two weeks.  As a result, it is unlikely that I will have the opportunity to post more thoughts and reflections on Vista or my blog.

That being said, I would like to take the opportunity to thank Anne and my peers for sharing their insights, reflections and useful links with me over the past three months.  In reflecting on this course I am thankful to have learned a number of important things which will help me currently as a teacher and potentially in the future as a teacher-librarian.

I have developed a much better appreciation for all the different types of reference resources that are available to students and teachers.  I never considered many resources as being references.  However, I quickly realized that they are reference materials and even learned some new ways to make better use of them in my classroom.  This was taught to me the best through the completion of assignment three with the colleagues at my school (Elgin Park).

I have also developed a much better insight into how a teacher-librarian selects and manages the reference materials in the library.  I did not realize what an important role the teacher-librarian truly plays in this process.  I now know that TL's must become experts themselves with reference resources in order to be able to share the "best of the best" with the user community.

This course has taught me a great deal about the life of a TL with regards to reference materials.  I am sure this information will serve me well in the future either as a teacher or teacher-librarian!

Thanks again to everyone and have a great rest of your summer!