When candidates in the Teacher Librarian Additional Qualification courses I teach learn about how teacher-librarians co-plan, co-teach, and co-assess with homeroom or classroom teachers, some of the main questions they have are "When?" and "How?" Today's blog post shines a spotlight on three of the fall partnering units I'm involved with and demonstrates a few strategies to pull it all together.
Side note: If you are interested in taking any of the courses that I'm facilitating, the Queen's U Part 2 TL AQ I'm leading starts today (Monday, September 28, 2026) and the York U TL Part 1, Part 2, and Specialist AQs start next Tuesday - you can still sign up if you are interested.
1) Document the Scraps of Discussion
It's helpful to take notes about the plans you have, even if they are just half-baked thoughts from a conversation. I like having a collaboration planning template; it's better than random sticky notes, and it's handy to count at the end of the year to see how many collaboration endeavors I attempt during the school year. I borrowed this graphic organizer from someone in a past TL Part 2 AQ from York, because I loved the design and categories. These notes are from my plans with the Grade 4-5 (now Grade 4) teacher about our science plans. We are going to integrate it with language and the final task will be an I Spy book. (This year, I copied the plans on blue paper so they'd be distinctive in my day book.)
2) Asynchronous Plans are A-Okay
It's difficult to find the time to sit down during the instructional day to plot out what the collaboration will look like between a class teacher and teacher-librarian. I'd even go so far to say that insisting on this level or type of planning is detrimental. We have to be flexible with our methods for collaboration. For instance, I am working with a Grade 5-6 teacher, who is an experienced educator but new to our school and new to this grade. She's doing a fantastic job but she's got enough on her plate without having to worry about meeting me in person to figure out our health unit. She sent me a document with ideas over the weekend, and I threw in some comments and set up the topic launch in the library with three "mystery snacks". She created the small group jigsaw reading assignments, and I gathered the labelled chart paper for the discussion portions. It worked!
3) Expand your Notion of what Counts as Collaboration
There's a wonderful infographic published by the BCTLA on different ways to collaborate.
Sometimes I need to remind myself that it doesn't have to be 50-50 or "even-Steven" when it comes to planning. For instance, I felt guilty that I didn't feel like I was "carrying my own weight" in my collaboration with a Grade 2-3 teacher for our language work. She had chosen the book, the theme, and prepared all the handouts related to "Choosing A One-Word Focus". However, I was able to assist in other ways, from small group support, to helping with the display, to co-reading the book, to carrying on with the lesson when she had to leave the room.
4) Trust the Process and the People
There are days that the planning is less prepared than one might like, and we need to "wing it". There are times when one of the educators has an idea that they haven't elaborated on at length with their teaching partner, but if there's trust, you can do it. This happened with the Grade 4 Science partnering. Originally, I was going to create some electronic quiz for us to review habitats with the students. However, I know that my school board is getting more strict about which online tools we are permitted to use. I also wasn't sure how well the students had internalized their previous lessons on what constitutes a habitat and the various types.
I created a sorting activity where students would place certain plants and animals into their habitats. I did not use AI to help me make the activity, because the choices recommended as habitat representatives were sometimes unclear and/or inaccurate. (Question: When did it become harder to turn off the AI overview in a Google search? It used to be as simple as adding "-AI" to the query, but that no longer works!) My husband had flashbacks to the days when we were engaged and I was in teachers' college, because back then, he used to help me prepare some of the handouts or resources. He was kept busy cutting squares for me the night before the lesson.
Thankfully, my teaching partner was completely comfortable with the shift in plans, and the students did a decent job with the work.
It's a special gift to get to construct a lesson with another educator. You bounce ideas off each other. You get excited about the possibilities. You have a second opinion to steer you. Ideally, we'd have plenty of time to build these learning opportunities for students. This is the time of year for school and class reorganizations; our school is no different. We did not lose any teaching staff, but we had to make some shifts. If teacher-librarians can help other teachers with this turbulent time, as they readjust their class lists and long range plans, then it's another reason why teacher-librarians are important to keep around.
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