The Art of Mentoring

By JVC Abatayo

        It is indeed true that an iron can also sharpen an iron, that is why it is very important to be with those individuals who are thriving and proactive about achieving their goals in life because they can inspire you to see life as a battlefield in which it is possible to lose for you to learn and bounce back and for you to be able to experience the real essence of triumph. With that, I strongly believe that mentoring is very significant in helping others to reach greater heights and unleash their hidden adeptness and brilliance. Having a mentor enables you to recognize that there is always hope amidst uncertainties and adversities. However, the only challenge in mentoring is the acceptance and provision of trust because sometimes others could become reluctant and hesitant in giving and accepting trust from those individuals whom they think are not trustworthy.

        As a Chairperson of the Bachelor of Library and Information Science (BLIS) Program of Saint Michael College of Caraga, I also do sessions of mentoring not only for my students but also for my subordinates and colleagues. I really make sure that I never fail to give my pieces of advice and words of encouragement and wisdom to them for them to have a support system that will help them in times of difficulties and setbacks not only about the program-related issues and concerns but also when they have personal problems. Moreover, I am so grateful to have genuine mentors who push me to become a more effective and efficient individual. I want to mention our dean here because I strongly believe she has the qualities of a good and accountable mentor. I actually seek advice from her on what will be the right things to do when I have problems with our program, especially in the instruction and marketing advocacies. I can still remember when I was just a newbie in the department, I went to her office and talk to her heartily when I committed something inconsiderable and unbearable. She praises me when I do something worth-appreciating and she slaps all of the truth to my face when I do something that is not proper. For these very reasons, I always trust her because I know it’s the right way to build a strong bridge that will lead me to the fortress of success.

        I am so privileged right now because I have acquired new inputs and takeaways about the mentoring process. This means a lot really for me as a program head. Though it is not easy to just lay down your trust and have someone to pick it up easily, we should always find those persons who can illuminate the excellence and beauty within you. We need to embrace the advantages of having a mentor who can empower us. If you have one or more, trust them, appreciate them, and listen to them because they can resonate with the truth about you. Good or bad, you need them for you to see the light and to win a good fight.

        The pieces of information and bits of facts that I have learned about mentoring, one way or another, I will apply in my work as a program chairperson. I will continue inspiring my students to be proactive and appreciative when it comes to learning and exploring Library and Information Science. I know that they know that I am always there for them when they experience complications and setbacks. They also know that I am very vocal when they commit mistakes or when they become irresponsible. That’s how connected we are. Furthermore, as I am handling a supervisory job, I promise that I will be a desirable mentor for my subordinates or colleagues because that’s the essence of servant leadership. I am here in this position to influence and encourage them to become the best that they can always be. I need to motivate them to help me up in my quest on honing future catalysts for academic excellence, research development, and community success. God is good and great. I know he will help me give sound and acceptable advice and instruction.

        To those who want to grow and evolve, don't hesitate to look for the right mentors. Be mentored. Be tailored. Be furnished.

LEADERSHIP IN THE IMPROVEMENT OF INSTRUCTION: Leadership Strategies that Support Teachers

 

By: JVC Abatayo

As a future school leader, I really have learned a lot on what would be the most appropriate things to do when employing leadership strategies that would help your teachers unleash their full potentials and for them to excel in the field of instruction. I’ve acquired so much information regarding the ways of solidifying and augmenting teacher career advancement, providing opportunities for teachers for them to collaborate and expand their horizon by sharing strategies with each other, formulating appropriate pieces of feedback that are constructive or transformative, and listening heartily and responding to their concerns. These strategies will surely be applied if I will become a school leader in the near future.

      To be specific, it is really a must for a school leader to encourage his/her subordinates to go out from their comfort zones to start rising from the ashes. They need to be enlightened about the beauty of career progressions so that they can be more effective and efficient in handling instruction. They need to be inspired in achieving greater heights and learning how to evolve as educators for them to be more and competent, which will also lead them to provide what’s just and fair for the students. At the end of the day, the learning of the students is the top priority.

      Another, I know it’s a cliché to say that “no man is an island” but it is really true because, in the field of education, no one can stand on his/her own. With that, it is obvious that collaboration is a must. By encouraging your subordinates to work together to thrive and prosper together, you can surely expect a great quality of instruction. Everyone should be supportive of each other because the bottom line here is that we all just have the same vision, mission, goals, and objectives. We all want to improve the quality of teaching and learning. Thus, fruitful collaboration must always be there to ensure organizational progress.

      Lastly, communication is always the key to have a smooth-sailing way of understanding teachers individually. As a school leader, you need to be there to listen heartily to their concerns because they need to voice out what they feel and you need to know as well what their experiences and struggles are (if there are any). You need to be willing to give appropriate and honest feedback and judgments because they deserve to be informed about what is really happening and why it is that they need to accept such constructive or transformative criticisms or comments from you. Thus, effective feedbacking is really necessary to avoid conflicts and to settle disputes.

Meeting and Embracing Change

1. “The measure of intelligence is the ability to change” -Albert Einstein

 

I see change as necessary for us to understand that life is not boring. There are so many things to explore and with change, we can unleash our full potentials and discover bizarre but exciting things that will keep us evolving and flourishing. Without change, it will be impossible for us to stir innovation. Like a butterfly that is undergoing a metamorphosis, human beings also need to transform to become better than ever.

As professionals and leaders in our individual organizations, we should not be hesitant and reluctant in embracing change because it helps us unravel the mysteries of life and it measures versatility and resilience when facing unexpected adversities and setbacks that come along the way. Thus, when we desire to achieve our organizational goals, we should always be ready to manage disruptions.

Change is needed when growth is already not happening because of passiveness and pessimism. It always exists because it is not meant to degrade or destroy you, but it enables you to achieve better opportunities in life. When we desire something to happen for ourselves, we should always be ready to face commotions or distractions that test our capability to endure the hardships and think about what needs to be done to solve the problem.

When it comes to leadership, disruptions always happen in every organization. Leaders constantly face change and through flexibility and fortitude, they can find ways to get out of a labyrinth. Without change, an organization will remain stagnant. It will not boom and bloom. When a leader is resistant to change, he/she possibly doesn’t want to improve. He/she only settles for less. When a leader is proactive in facing and handling change, it will create a positive impact on his/her subordinates, leading them to think and accept that change is vital for them to effectively recalibrate, reinvent, and embrace new paradigms that will solidify the organization amidst challenges and will enable them to collaborate to achieve their common goals.

What needs to be changed? Sometimes, it’s the leadership style that will depend on a specific situation or predicament. Sometimes, it’s the perception of the leader towards leadership because it’s always important to become a servant leader, not a bossy dictator. Sometimes, it’s the plan because there are always disruptions that make a plan irrelevant and we can always bounce back and try other options. Sometimes, it’s the worker because whether we like it or not, if he/she is the evil extra baggage who never exerts effort to change and the one who could be the cause for the organization’s downfall, we have to set him/her free. Sometimes, it’s changing that needs to be changed because we need to assess first what will be the consequences of our actions to lessen the damage or dodge it as much as possible.

When change happens, there are only two possible outcomes that come after it. It could break or make you and the people around you. Who will be involved? As I have said, it's you and the people around you. There are also instances that there are unforeseen individuals who will come along the way which will help you or worsen the situation. 

In an organization, change will always be felt by all but sometimes, only a few will care or will acknowledge how significant change is. Thus, it is very important for a leader to enlighten his or her subordinates about the real beauty of change. They need to realize that life isn't always sugar, spice, and everything nice. There are times that they need to face the panic zone and conquer it to experience learning and growing.

Change can successfully be managed when you are thriving. When you have the vitality and the determination to learn, you can always adapt to change and even take advantage of it. You just need to acknowledge the various enablers that will help you manage changes or disruptions. These enablers could be positivity or proactiveness, psychological flexibility, drive to learn, sense of religiosity, social capability, support from colleagues and significant others, and ability to face adversities. With these enablers, we can surely find the light at the end of the tunnel.

 

 

Credits to the owner of the image: https://cpoinnovation.com/change-management/

LibrarJuan Speaks: Career Progression for LIS Instructors is a MUST!

 

I strongly believe that it is a must to give so much emphasis to LIS Instruction because it is the birthplace of all librarians and information professionals. Full-time LIS Instructors should have a clear career progression so that we can focus more on the instruction. From what I can observe, some institutions would just appoint instructors from the library and these librarians have also other tasks and responsibilities which complicate everything. With that, the instruction could be compromised. There is a possibility that the course becomes the second option.

Here in our institution, we have full-time librarians but they also do part-time teaching and they receive extra payment per unit or as to the number of teaching hours. However, there are other institutions that have inconsiderable practices which lead to the librarians thinking that teaching is just a piece of extra baggage. As a remedy, I suggest that there should be a full-time BLIS Program head/chairperson to work closely for the program (specifically on the marketing and advocacy).

Unluckily, we don't have enough products to fill in the available job positions. Aside from LIS Instruction, there are lots and lots of opportunities (academic librarianship, school librarianship, public librarianship, special librarianship, archiving, records management, curation, and other related paths) but we lack librarians.

I just want to share this experience that I had during our Ph.D. class. We had this discussion about issues and concerns on the recruitment, selection, and placement process in DepEd schools. By the way, most of my classmates are DepEd teachers. Okay... let's continue... There was a chance that I have asked them if DepEd is hiring for librarians. They said that there are no applicants at all and they even encouraged me to apply! Imagine!? So... the bottom line here is that librarianship is in demand. It's just we lack future librarians.

Distributed Leadership: Fighting and Winning Your Own Battles

By: Jolo Van Clyde S. Abatayo

If you are going to ask me what leadership style our institution practices, I would say that I am honestly torn between two leadership styles here but I think it's the distributed leadership that is highly manifested in our institution because we are not treated like mere subordinates; we are inspired here to push ourselves to become the best leaders that we can always be. Even if there are higher levels of positions here, our school leaders never fail to emphasize the essence of equity. Instead of shouldering all of the responsibilities, the administrators see to it that these are properly and equally distributed to all departments so that no one will be left behind and that everyone will share a common goal which is the success of our learning milieu.

Aside from these reasons, I can really say that distributed leadership best describes the management of our institution for I am actually experiencing right now what it feels like to be a leader. Currently, I am the Program Chairperson of our Bachelor of Library and Information Science (BLIS) course here and I am so grateful for this opportunity because I can pursue my advocacy which is to empower LIS education and hone future librarians and information scientists for them to become catalysts for academic excellence, research development, and community’s success.

When it comes to my personal beliefs on what leadership theory I would prefer, I want to share this leadership quote from Tom Peters which says, “Great leaders do not create followers, they create more leaders.” Honestly, I will still firmly stick with my own beliefs that distributed leadership style is my jam. I like how it empowers people because it aims to unleash the potential leader within a person. If given a chance to handle the top-level management, I will not tolerate egotism and selfishness. I will genuinely focus on others’ growth and self-actualization for them to reach greater heights as well. And when the time comes that they will also experience actual school leadership, they will not stumble and fall.

Moreover, it is also inappropriate to carry all the burdens and enjoy all the sweet successes by myself because everyone deserves to fight and win his or her own battles. Lastly, I want to emphasize the essence of servant leadership in which I think that no matter who we are or what we are in the organization, our leadership philosophy should manifest truthful service. To conclude, according to Mahatma Gandhi, “service without humility is selfishness and egotism.”

Photo Credit: https://www.newamerica.org/education-policy/edcentral/principals-see-distributed-leadership-key-managing-their-evolving-role/ 

With Laybraryan, We LEARN as ONE!

 

By: LibrarJuan

Akala ng iba kami ay palamura,

Tingin nila sa amin, nakasalaming matanda

Sa utak nila, ayos namin ay badoy,

Laging nakasimangot at maalikabok na libro ang amoy!

Ito ang katotohanan, hayaan niyo kaming mangatwiran

Upang kayo’y maliwanagan, buksan ang puso’t isipan

Kami’y naturingang tagabantay lamang ng libro

Ang tawag sa’min ay Laybraryan!

Ano ba talaga ang aming layunin?

Gusto niyo bang malaman ang aming tungkulin?

Wag munang mainip, halina’t tuklasin

Ang mga natatago naming lihim.

Ang alam ng iba, sa laybrari, libro lang ang makikita

Hindi nila batid na may iba’t ibang gamit pa pala

Bukod sa materyales na ito, anu-ano pa ba?

Tara! Basahin natin ang susunod na stanza!

Sa Laybrari, may Audio-visual materials, alam mo ba?

Mga larawan, posters, flipcharts, at kahit saranggola!

Globo, mapa, cassette tapes, video recording, at kahit trumpeta!

Kahit anong bagay na nagbibigay kaalaman at saya!

Bukod sa mga ito, meron pa ba?

Oo naman! Sa sobrang dami, hindi ko na maisa-isa!

Mga Electronic resources, pamilyar ba?

E-books, e-journals, e-zines, online databases, kilala nyo ba sila?

Naku! Mukhang di ko kayang isambit dito lahat

Ganito na lang, mag-usap na lang tayo sa chat!

Sa mga di ko nabanggit, tiyak ika’y magugulat,

Kahit isang libro pa ang gawin, di ko lahat maiisisiwalat!

Dumako na naman tayo sa aming papel at responsibilidad,

Teka muna, pag-usapan muna natin ang tunay naming edad!

Yung iba sa amin, ahemmm… fresh from the farm pa!

Kaya wag nyo kaming igeneralize na puro kami matatanda!

Hindi lang kami tagapagpahiram ng libro,

Kaya naming pasayahin ang inyong mga puso,

Kung kayo’y naguguluhan at nalilito,

Tawagin nyo lang kami at tutulungan naming kayong matuto!

Ikaw bay natatakot dahil baka maapektuhan ang iyong pag-aaral?

Alam naming kayoy nangangamba dahil sa hagupit nitong pandemya

Ngunit, chill ka lang dyan, huwag matulala, huwag mapariwara

Kaming mga Laybraryan ay willing na tulungan ka so di ka nag-iisa!

May katanungan ka ba patungkol sa’yong asignatura?

Nahihirapan ka bang maghanap ng solusyon sa’yong problema?

Wag mag-atubiling lapitan kami at wag mabahala

You know may Messenger, e-mail, Google Meet, at kahit Zoom pa.

Sasagutin namin mga katanungan nyo sa abot ng aming makakaya!

Sumasakit na ba ang ulo mo sa Pananaliksik?

Naguguluhan ka na ba sa iyong Thesis?

Wala bang mahanap na impormasyon?

Kaming mga laybrayan ang iyong solusyon!

Alam nyo ba na expert kami sa information literacy?

Kayang-kaya naming tuklasin ang truth at fallacy!

Fake news ay isang malawakang emergency,

Sus! Ask our help and the truth will set you free!

Hindi mo ba alam kung paano gamitin ng wasto si Internet?

Kuha ng kuha ng impormasyon na parang paslit

Fake news, hindi mo ba kayang mawaglit?

Lapit kay Laybrayan para ulo mo ay di na sasakit!

Naiistress ka ba or sa puso ay may sakit na dinadala?

May Bibliotherapy na kaya kang pagalingin sa pamamagitan ng pagbabasa.

Sa pandemya, mental health mo ba ay nakokompromisa?

May mga mahiwagang payo kami para mabawasan ang sakit na nadarama.

Digital or Virtual services, astig bang pakinggan?

Libraries without walls tanong mo: “Meron bang ganyan?”

Digital Libraries, Repositories, Online Info-services, meron naman!

Kahit may COVID-19, Mga Laybraryan ay hindi ka iiwan.

Photo from: https://americanlibrariesmagazine.org/blogs/the-scoop/covid-19-reopening-libraries-not-when-but-how/

Meet and Greet/Q and A Sessions with Seasoned Filipino Librarians

  

It's great to wrap up fruitful activities that help me empower LIS Education and inspire aspirants and hopefuls. From August to October 2020, the BLIS Program of Saint Michael College of Caraga, Nasipit, Agusan del Norte, spearheaded by me as the Program Chairperson, commenced successfully the Meet and Greet/Q and A Sessions with Seasoned Filipino Librarians. We are so privileged to hear their stories about Library and Information Science.

Their real life stories, expertise, and endeavors are really impactful in a positive way to the future librarians and information scientists and also to the BLIS Faculty members of our institution. We are so grateful to have them as motivators and movers, especially in this time of pandemic where enlightenment or illumination on the real beauty of librarianship is very significant.

To Sir Mike, Sir Kevin, and Sir Stephen, may the Lord God grant you more passion and enthusiasm to keep you on upholding our noble profession. We're hoping for more collaborations in the future! Daghang salamat!

Behind the Scenes: