I started my career in teaching four years ago when I joined the Ardee School NFC. It was my first experience in a school as I was teaching from home earlier.
Ardee School was a great learning experience. I joined as a Librarian and began my work which involved the entire school’s procurement, organizing book fairs, cataloguing, storytelling, book-related activities and helping students with research skills. I helped restructure, build, and develop a small library. During this process, I learned a lot from identifying which books to read to what age group, working on developing the children’s interest in reading, organizing a book club, and even organizing a college fair which was different.
Soon, I moved to Prometheus school as a Head Librarian. Prometheus being an IB school, was different. I took the challenge of an IB program. I love the work ethics, the organization, the faculty, and the management of Prometheus. At Prometheus, I was now interacting more with the students than at Ardee School. IB schools expect librarians to be more involved with the teachers and assist them with resources. I discovered a new side of me.
My love for children and their fondness grew. I learned more about the IB curriculum by attending a PYP, MYP, and DP online course/workshop. I joined the Liferarian group and attended a few workshops they organized, which helped me understand IB better.
Apart from maintaining the library, I took skill-based lessons in the IB Learner Profile, Academic Honesty, and more. I assist students in the PYP Exhibition. I conduct storytelling sessions, vocab quizzes, author celebrations and other programs. I organized author birthdays for Pre-Nursery, Nursery and Kindergarten. The children loved them! I introduced a weekly newspaper for Form 6,7,8. They now have current affair discussions in their Form time. I plan to introduce a newspaper and a few magazines for PYP in the coming academic year. I send out a daily note to Grade 6 and above that includes a new word with its meaning, pronunciation, and sentence usage. All highly appreciate this daily note. We had a Harry Potter week for MYP students ending with a Harry Potter quiz based on the characters in the book. The library has become an important part of the school. The PYP students look forward to their library lessons. We share new words learnt, book reviews and book recommendations.
Having completed one year in Prometheus, there was an opportunity to select the role of a Librarian in the primary or the secondary section. I am excited to start the new position as a Teacher Librarian in the PYP section. I plan to make the library the heart of the school in terms of books, resources, ebooks and maybe a maker space. I plan to help students develop a love for reading. I also would like to enhance their research skills and work on assisting them to be innovators, enquires, and risk-takers.
I enjoy working in the primary section and have signed up for a three-day PYP Teacher Librarian course in June 2022. I plan to enhance my skills more by joining many more IB workshops. The school is supportive and very encouraging.
My belief system closely relates to the IB way of teaching, I have developed a keen interest in it, and I want to play an active role in the school community by enhancing my skills. True learning never stops.
By Shifali Sachdev, Librarian.
