For Those Who Are Not Teachers

Your ability to teach is critical to your success as a school librarian. You teach everyone. This means you must be able to teach children of all ages and abilities. Also, you will be responsible for instructing teachers on technology and ways to incorporate it into the curriculum. Children and adults must like you and see you as a leader. If you do not have teaching experience, please consider a classroom position before continuing graduate studies in this field. At the very least, consider substituting or working as a school library assistant. Current classroom teachers will be expected to have outstanding teaching evaluations.

If you do not have teacher certification, you will need additional coursework to obtain MSDE certification as a school library media specialist. These courses, which may be graduate or undergraduate courses, should be taken prior to beginning the SLM coursework. They should be in the following areas as specified by MSDE COMAR regulations:
  • history and philosophy of education
  • student developmental levels, learning theory, and strategies for identifying student information and learning needs
  • theories, principles, and methods of instructional design and delivery
  • inclusion of special needs student populations
Search for these types of courses at your local community college. If you have any questions, send the course titles and course descriptions to me at  rkerby@mcdaniel.edu. As soon as you complete the four courses, please send an official transcript to my attention. of the completed courses. The registrar needs to mark these off your program plan as having being me. You and I will discuss this at your program plan meeting..
PRAXIS CORE TEST

If you are not a teacher, then when making your application you will want to submit the MSDE required score on either the Praxis Core exam, the SAT, GRE, or ACT.  Please review this link. You must make a score that is accepted by the Maryland State Department of Education (MSDE).