Teach the Teacher - Part One

This is part one in a short series of blog posts about the Level 3 Award in Education and Training I am currently working on.
 

It's been an ambition of mine for a couple of years now to do some sort of teaching course. I do a lot of formal and informal teaching in my role and I wanted to support this with a recognised qualification - something concrete to include on the CV so potential employers know that I have a grounding in theory as well as practical teaching skills. I looked at various levels of course before I decided that my needs would be best met with a Level 3 Award in Education and Training.

The L3 Award was brought in in 2013 to replace the old PTTLS course. It provides an introduction to teaching including how to plan, deliver and assess courses. The Award can be used as the foundation for further learning or as a qualification in its own right. It consists of three units which have short, written assignments and a micro-teach (15 minutes) which needs to be completed in front of an audience. The course ticked a lot of the boxes for what I wanted to get out of a teaching qualification so I decided to explore further.

Finding a provider for the course proved tricky. Because of my current role and various other commitments I decided that face-to-face classes were not really an option so looked into distance learning providers. This proved easier said than done as not many offer the new course online yet and the ones who do had decidedly unprofessional looking websites that did little to encourage me to part with my money! Prices also seemed to vary widely but I did some research and found out what the rough recommended price of the course was which helped me to judge. I did eventually find a provider and have just started taking the course with TrainAid. Under their model I complete the lecture and written assignment part of the course online and then attend a face-to-face session to deliver my micro-teach. A short introduction to the course can be found in the video below:

So far I'm finding the material really interesting and I think it will help me as I do more teaching in the future. If you are interested in getting a flavour of the course then check out the TrainAid Youtube channel which hosts their lecture content and is available to all.

I'll be posting further updates as I work through each of the three modules and as well as some final reflections. If anyone has any tips that they have learnt from taking similar courses I would love to hear them so feel free to add them in the comments section below.

photo credit: Apple and water via photopin (license)

CILIP Leadership Programme

As readers of this blog will know I am always keen to develop my skills and learn new things. A few months ago I applied for a place on the CILIP Leadership Programme and I was recently told that I was successful. Thanks to the generous sponsorship of the CILIP Infomation Literacy Group I will be attending the launch of the programme at the CILIP Conference in  July.

I have been working on my leadership skills for a number of years now and taking part in this programme will help me to consolidate what I have learnt as well as develop some new skills. There are 21 people taking part in the programme from a range of backgrounds so it will be interesting to compare knowledge and experiences with them. 

Currently I am on temporary secondment to our Reader Services Department which is a wonderful experience but in a few months I will be back to cataloguing full time. This specialism perhaps more than most is undergoing a period of substantial change and solid leadership will be important to make sure that valuable skills are not lost. Hopefully I can help with this in some small way by completing this programme and sharing the knowledge I gain with the wider community. 

I will try and blog what I can of the process over the coming year so stay tuned for further updates. I will also be tweeting about my experiences so follow the #cilipleadership hashtag.

photo credit: IMG_8410 via photopin (license)

Don't Worry, Be (Chartership) App-y

During the last Chartership chat some people suggested using iDoneThis as a way to record your CPD and this made me think about other apps and websites that could be useful. Below is a very basic infographic showing some of my top recommendations. If you have any other suggestions of apps/sites you have found useful please feel free to share them in the comments.

#Chartership Chat - 23/4/15

Below is the Storify of the latest Chartership chat. The theme of this chat was Getting Started, either at the beginning of the professional registration process or after a break.

Having Your CaKE

The CAmbridge Knowledge Exchange project is something I've talked about a lot and one of my biggest professional achievements of the last year. I was recently asked to write an article about it for the CILIP East newsletter. If you're interested in learning more about how we planned CaKE, the lessons learned and where we go from here, the article can be found in the latest edition of Sunrise.

Photo credit: Ayca Wilson via Photopin (license) 

#Chartership Chat - 30/3/15

Below is the Storify for the latest Chartership chat. These chats provide a way for CILIP professional registration candidates at all levels to get together online and discuss problems or raise questions in a supportive environment.

Moving Into Management

I've written before about my desire to go into management and the difficulties I've had getting there. In the last couple of months I've been lucky enough to get a (temporary) promotion to a management role and complete some long awaited training with the ILM. My current role is Deputy Team Leader at the Reader Services Desk at Cambridge University Library and I have daily management responsibility for ten staff who work on the main issue desk at the library. We manage the circulation of materials, the admissions process and assist the roughly one thousand people that come into the library everyday. It's been a steep learning curve but I'm really enjoying the challenge. Management is not something I've always aspired to and if you has asked me a few years ago where I saw myself in the future the answer would definitely not have been managing people! However this has changed over the past couple of years and now seems like a natural next step in my career.

When I saw that CILIP ARLG Eastern was hosting an event called Moving Into Management I signed up as it was exactly the sort of day where I could pick up a few tips. Unfortunately one of the scheduled speakers became ill a couple of days before the event and I was asked to fill in with a short presentation (which can be found below).

I'm The Boss? from Claire Sewell

One of the things I was asked to talk about was the change involved with moving from being managed to being a manager. This is something I've struggled to get my head around since starting my new position so I was glad of the opportunity to reflect on my experiences. I wanted to expand a little bit on this area in this post.

In my previous role I actively managed people but not in a way that was formally recognized. Working as a Senior Library Assistant meant that I was the first port of call for questions from junior staff in the department. I also provided a lot of mentoring advice - something which I really enjoyed. When my manager(s) were away I often stepped in if there were any problems, such as something that needed to be done urgently for another department. Of course there were some things that were beyond my grade but I pitched in where I could. I really enjoyed doing this as I saw it as good training for future roles (although it was beyond frustrating not to be recognized for it!). 

This was what I would call the 'fun' part of management - the bit that lets you practice management skills but means that you don't have any actual responsibility. If something went wrong then I didn't have to step in and solve it and if there was a tough question I could just pass it off to someone higher up. When I moved into a management role this all became my actual responsibility and that was a big change for me. I'm responsible for ensuring that things get done, that my staff are happy in their work and that any problems get sorted out quickly with the minimum of fuss. Having experienced some bad management from other people in the past has made getting this balance right very important to me.

One thing I've not given new managers enough credit for in the past is the fact that they are essentially learning two jobs at the same time. This is especially true if they have moved into a new workplace or department. I've moved from a back office role to a front facing role and am having to learn how to operate our circulation system, the admissions categories for the library and about a million other tiny procedures which make up my new job. At the same time I'm learning how to be a manager and building on the skills I developed in my previous role. I came to the realization fairly quickly that I just had to get on with it and learn what I could. If you have a new boss in this situation then cut them some slack, they're trying their best. And if you are the boss then give yourself some credit because this is a lot of pressure and you're coping!

On a related note I just wanted to say that if you are feeling overwhelmed there are places you can turn to for help. Even managers have managers so make use of them. Good managers will sit down with you and see how you're getting on so use this opportunity to ask questions and get some advice. There will also be others out there in the same situation so make use of social media and professional associations to get in contact with them. Finally there may be management training available, either generic or specific to your organisation. I've just completed the ILM Level Three Award and this has given me some great tips to build on. There is also plenty of information available in books and online so get reading. Even if it only confirms that what you're doing is right it will increase your confidence.

Even if you think that management isn't for you it wouldn't hurt to brush up on your knowledge of it. You may change your mind in future or the future may change it for you. At the very least it may give you some insight into why you boss is the way they are!

Image credit: Peter Miller via Flickr