Making connections
I feel it is important to establish connections and relationships with the school community if you would like to be viewed as an educational leader for 21st century learning.
As I was lucky enough to step into the role of Teacher-Librarian this year at my school (a school I have been a teacher at for 9 years), I feel that I am one step ahead of the game, as for the past 9 years, I have formed relationships with the admin, the teachers, the students and the parents of our school. By having those connections and relationships established, it makes it a lot easier for the school community to have confidence in my abilities, as I have already gained their trust, and feel my opinions will be valued when I share my knowledge and bring forth new ideas.
Communication
Now that the connections are formed, the next step is to figure out how I could be receptive to the personalized needs of each staff member, and the students. I think the key here is communication. In order to be responsive to the needs of my school community, I need to have open lines of communication. Teachers need to know that I am here to support them with regards to new resources, technologies and ideas for 21st century learning.
Resource curator
Once conversations have taken place, and I have a clear picture as to what the staff and students need to benefit their learning, it is my job to go out and identify, evaluate, select, and share the most current and relevant online content and resources (Handly, A. 2011).
Click here for an article regarding Content Curation and the School Librarian. The article gives some great ideas for online tools that librarians, teachers and even students can use to organize the resources curated.
Sharing the resources curated
As an educational leader, it is now my job to share these resources, but how? Below I go through some ideas on how to communicate new findings, new technologies and new resources to staff. It is my hope that by implementing these ideas it will better support and meet their professional development.
LUNCH AND LEARNS
Lunch and learns are great because as teachers, we always feel
there is never enough time during the day to learn this, or do that. Lunch and learns
are beneficial as they bring staff together for important conversations and would
allow staff to have the opportunity to learn about new technologies and/or resources
within a quick 30-45 minute time frame. If planned right and have the teachers needs
and wants addressed, lunch and learns could be very successful.
VIDEO TUTORIALS
This
year our school district has adopted a new catalogue system (Follett
Destiny). I noticed that as much as I
encouraged staff members to sign up during my flex blocks (in order to teach
the students and staff how to use the new system), they just weren’t. So, I decided to create a tutorial showing
staff how to log into the system, do a simple search, and then how to place a hold
on books. I emailed the tutorial out to
staff and it has been very well received.
By creating tutorials and sending them out by email, staff can look at them
on their own time, and as many times as they wish. I plan
to create more tutorials in the future for the whole school community. Here is
the tutorial I sent out to staff.
STAFF
COMMITTEE MEETINGS
At the
end of the last year, staff voted in favour of adding “Library Learning Commons”
to the agenda for every staff meeting. By having 10 minutes allotted to the
library learning commons, it allows me time to bring up new books/resources
purchased, new technologies that can be used by staff and students, and
anything else pertaining to the learning commons (author talk dates etc.).
BOOK/RESOURCE
TASTINGS
Staff
members regularly complain that they do not know what teaching resources are
available to them in the library learning commons. One solution I have to this problem is inviting
staff to a book/resource tasting. The
idea came from Pinterest. I would put
table cloths on the tables, and have menus ready with a list of resources they
would be “enjoying” at the tasting. This would allow teachers to look at resources
available to them and have the opportunity to have discussions around what is on
the menu. I haven’t figured out all the
details yet, but I feel this would be a fun and engaging way to display teacher
resources. 
Image retrieved from : https://i.pinimg.com/736x/ba/e2/fb/bae2fb46e19549f2d1d503ff708a92d3--book-tasting-tasting-menu.jpg
PRO-D WORKSHOPS
Another
way I could support staff this year in terms of professional development is by joining
the Pro-D committee and to commit myself to planning workshops that would best
suit the ICT needs of the teachers. While I am still new in the position, I do understand that I need to be an educational leader at my school. I also understand that I will not be an expert at everything right away, but I can begin small and build up as I learn new skills and gain more experiences and knowledge, especially when it comes to technology.
References
Handley, A. (2011). Content
Curation Definitions & Context for Content Marketing. TopRank Online Marketing Blog.
Robertson, N. D. (2012, December). Content curation and the
school librarian[PDF]. American Library Association. Retrieved from http://www.ala.org/aasl/sites/ala.org.aasl/files/content/aaslpubsandjournals/knowledgequest/docs/KQNovDec12_OE_TAGS.pdf
Hi Brigitte,
ReplyDeleteI really enjoyed your post, it is loaded with good ideas for collaboration. I particularly like your "lunch and learn" idea, as it is so hard to find time to collaborate with everyone's busy schedule. The "book/resource tasting" is absolutely brilliant as well, I love it! It's a great way to make checking out new resources fun and easy for the teachers. It seems that it's very important to make access to the resources simple for the teachers, and you've included lots of ways to do just that. Great post.
Great ideas here! I particularly like the idea of the video tutorials and the "resource tastings." In my experience I haven't really had a good idea of what resources were available in the library commons. Often teachers feel as though their days are so jam packed they are hesitant to add one more thing to their plates (such as meetings at lunch and after school). These ideas are great for providing support and new information in a way that makes teachers feel like they are taking on anything more onerous.
ReplyDeleteHi Brigitte,
ReplyDeleteYour post makes some great points! You are so right about the relationship and communication pieces. I too was a teacher at my school before becoming a TL and have found that that has made the transition easier because I had already fostered great working relationships. One area I have been working on is how to curate the resources that teachers need in an effective way. Your article was very useful to me and I will definitely be trying out some of the tools suggested. Thanks for sharing.
Great post full of important reminders, ideas, suggestions and videos to support your school community. I am so pleased you discussed the importance of relationships, communication and meeting the needs of your staff over time. This is vital to building your program, defining your role and being effective as a T-L. Great video on using the new destiny follett system for your school!
ReplyDeleteI loved your idea about the 'resource tasting'. I wanted to have a wine and books afternoon but that couldn't happen, and I wasn't interested in a whine and books (ha ha). I am going to try a version of your idea. I also enjoyed how you set up your post. I just asked for a spot on the agenda. Having the staff vote makes it more inclusive but we don't vote on our agendas..Interesting idea.
ReplyDelete