Michelle Reale

Teacher librarians seem to struggle will collaboration, coteaching, or embedded librarianship as the concept is named in this slim volume. Reale uses a sociological approach to the topic by concentrating on the value of relationships with faculty and students in order to gain their trust and then deliver the expertise needed. From long years of watching coteaching happen and teaching masters students to do it, some come to the position of TL with excellent collaboration skills; others struggle. The latter often just give up and resign their role to one of helpfulness when and if asked. Others abandon the challenges of working with teachers and just concentrate on the learners themselves. If collaboration seems to allude you, perhaps this volume would contain some ideas that you could work on. Of course, collaboration is a two-way street and one would like classroom teachers to come to the planning table with us equipped to consider us peers rather than helpful gatherers and obedient doers of this or that. It seems to be the number one barrier to our profession’s effort to become indispensible. This book is the kind of professional advice that it is good to read a chapter just before going to bed and let our subconscious mind consider the possibilities. Yes, it might be the sleeping pill you need, but I find that our brains take in more the process stuff at odd hours and you just may find yourself adopting a different approach to what has seemed a wall before.… (meer)