Philosophy+of+Education

As a teacher, a librarian, and a lifelong learner, I love information. I love the power it has to change individuals and cultures and the way it can empower and inspire students. I love the way it can reflect opinions, emotions, or cold hard facts. I love its ability to create inquiring, reflective minds that have the potential to think critically. Above all, I love the way that I, as a school library media specialist, can help connect students with information in order to support the development of critical, inquiring minds.

As an educator, I believe it is my duty to help students access, evaluate and think critically about all kinds of information. These powers of inquiry and reflection are skills that serve students not only during their time in the library, but throughout their lives. Whether searching for sources on a formal research project or just browsing the daily news, the ability to critically evaluate material is critical. The library, a place where students continuously seek and manipulate information sources, is an organic environment in which to cultivate these critical thinking skills. Because of this, I believe it is my responsibility to engage students in true inquiry-based learning to develop their powers of reflection both in and out of the library.

This inquiry-based learning is further reinforced when the library resource center is a part of the larger community. I believe that it is the librarian’s duty to firmly establish the library program both in the academic curriculum and in the local community. Information literacy skills are relevant to every content area within the school. It will therefore be my job to collaborate with content area teachers and other staff members in order to develop a cohesive and multi-dimensional curriculum. By reaching out to classroom teachers and other staff, I will integrate information and media literacy skills into all content areas and further a broad environment of inquiry based learning.

This environment of critical thinking and community does not only exist within the library’s four walls, however. As a result of our increasingly connected culture, some students may prefer to access library services from their home computer or from personal electronic devices. As such, I believe that librarians must provide a user-friendly and effective web presence that students and community members can use even without entering the physical library. Librarians have a responsibility to help students navigate new and innovative technology and to demonstrate how to think critically about information they may find online. In spite of, and possibly because of, the potential risks, I believe that technology has the power to help students develop reflective thinking skills.

I strongly believe that each and every student and community member has the right to access information. Ultimately, with careful guidance and encouragement, my students will also understand the power of information and the dramatic impact it can have on their future lives. Through critical thinking skills, collaboration and technological know-how, my students will become lifelong learners and skilled users of information.