The "Teacher" Part of Teacher-Librarian
Welcome back!
I hope you are having a wonderful long weekend and have been taking advantage of this gorgeous, sunny Sunday. 🌞
I have taken a step back from internet research this week and instead have been focusing my energy on having conversations with my colleagues. Serendipitously, I attended a district wide Professional Development day on Friday which gave me the opportunity to pick the brains of other teachers within my school district. My discussions were based on ideas around how teacher-librarians can best support other staff members in resource selection, collaboration, and technology. I have compiled a list of suggestions that I gleaned from these discussions that I would like to share with you all. Please feel free to use anything that your learn from this post and tweak it to work for your purposes.
Resource Selection
My school does not currently have a formal process in place when it comes to teacher requests for resource selection. Several colleagues and I were discussing the possibility of having a request form for resources including the topic/subject that we are working on in our classes with a "date needed by" section. To extend this idea I was thinking that we could perhaps have an online working document using a tool like Google Docs on which all staff would be able to request resources and view selections that their colleagues have made. This would reduce overlapping requests and it would be the job of the teacher librarian to indicate whether or not the request has been filled. The key to the online document is that everyone would be able to view and edit it in real time. This could assist the Teacher-Librarian in retrieving resources that are already in the library and locating books in the district. The Teacher-Librarian could also use this list as a sort of wish-list when ordering books for the school. I am currently in a position in which I have requested for our school TL to order books for our Canada unit but I am unsure as to whether or not she has ordered them because we have no communication process in place. My hope is that the working document would eliminate the ambiguity of resource selection. Below is a rough draft of a resource request form that I made on Google Docs.
Teacher Resource Organization
At my school there are several places within the library for staff to find teacher resources. Unfortunately, our Guided Reading books take up the majority of the staff closet in the library so we really have no other choice than to store resources in various locations. As a new teacher to my school, I find it especially difficult to know what is available on our shelves and where to find the resources that we do have. At the Pro-D day, I discussed this problem with some other educators in my district and they were saying at their school they have a visual chart of the teacher resources available, posted on the door of their staff cupboard in the library. They also shared that they have a sign-out posted beside the visual chart to ensure that valuable resources don't go missing. I can see challenges when it comes to the visual chart because the Teacher-Librarian would need to update it every time the library obtained a new resource; however, I really like the idea of the sign-out to keep staff members accountable for the hoards of resources in their classrooms. Not that I have ever taken out a resource without returning it right away... 🙈 Below is a draft of the sign-out I created for out resource cupboard.
Another suggestion was to use part of a staff collaboration day going through the resources together, organizing and labelling them in areas that make sense. Then the onus wouldn't be entirely on the Teacher-Librarian and the staff would have a better sense of where everything is in the library. I would also add to this suggestion that the Teacher-Librarian contributes during staff meetings to notify staff of new books added to the library catalogue (teacher resource or otherwise) and where they will be located in the library. The library is a wonderful resource in itself but I have noticed (and experienced) that teachers are so busy that unless something is readily available to them they will rarely take the time to go seek it out themselves. The point of the resource location list and staff meeting updates would be to make resources easily accessible for our staff.
Technology
Blogging and Vlogging
I think the largest lesson that I have taken away from this week and my discussions with colleagues at my own school and throughout the district is that the Teacher-Librarian and staff members need opportunities to communicate outside of school hours. Teachers are busy... did I mention that already? Okay, well if not, here it is in all-caps for extremely necessary emphasis: TEACHERS ARE BUSY.
That teacher (right) is an accurate representation of me leaving the school each day. The reality is that the work is never done. I think the Teacher-Librarian can access busy teachers via blog or vlog posts. The reason being is that these modes of communication are low-stress. As part of my downtime I watch teaching vlogs and read teaching blogs. Maybe I'm an anomaly but it makes me feel productive and less guilty about resting if I am engaged in something teaching related. We currently have no communication set up with our school Teacher-Librarian other than face-to-face interactions in the staff room or when dropping off/picking up kids for library. I think our staff would respond really well to learning about what's new in the library, literacy tips and tricks, technology tools, library organization, and anything else that our Teacher-Librarian has to offer. It could be a weekly or even monthly post that the Teacher-Librarian creates for staff members. The nice thing about blogs and vlogs is that they are engaging and people can choose to comment and ask questions if they would like but there is no set time-commitment. I think both vlogs and blogs are effective so it would just depend on the comfortability of the Teacher-Librarian. I personally think vlogs can be more engaging for the viewer and less effort for the creator; however, as I previously mentioned, both could work. The Teacher-Librarian could even take requests for posts and tailor information to the needs/wants of the staff. Uh-oh... I feel another request form coming on. 😬
The library program is what the Teacher-Librarian and staff make of it. Yes, blogging, vlogging, tech clubs, and resource lists are more work for the Teacher-Librarian but I think they are all actions that would boost library engagement which is what we are looking for at the end of the day, isn't it?
Please let me know what you think of these ideas and if there are any unecessary challenges you think they may create. I look forward to hearing from you!
Until next week,
Miss P. 💕
I hope you are having a wonderful long weekend and have been taking advantage of this gorgeous, sunny Sunday. 🌞
I have taken a step back from internet research this week and instead have been focusing my energy on having conversations with my colleagues. Serendipitously, I attended a district wide Professional Development day on Friday which gave me the opportunity to pick the brains of other teachers within my school district. My discussions were based on ideas around how teacher-librarians can best support other staff members in resource selection, collaboration, and technology. I have compiled a list of suggestions that I gleaned from these discussions that I would like to share with you all. Please feel free to use anything that your learn from this post and tweak it to work for your purposes.
Resource Selection
My school does not currently have a formal process in place when it comes to teacher requests for resource selection. Several colleagues and I were discussing the possibility of having a request form for resources including the topic/subject that we are working on in our classes with a "date needed by" section. To extend this idea I was thinking that we could perhaps have an online working document using a tool like Google Docs on which all staff would be able to request resources and view selections that their colleagues have made. This would reduce overlapping requests and it would be the job of the teacher librarian to indicate whether or not the request has been filled. The key to the online document is that everyone would be able to view and edit it in real time. This could assist the Teacher-Librarian in retrieving resources that are already in the library and locating books in the district. The Teacher-Librarian could also use this list as a sort of wish-list when ordering books for the school. I am currently in a position in which I have requested for our school TL to order books for our Canada unit but I am unsure as to whether or not she has ordered them because we have no communication process in place. My hope is that the working document would eliminate the ambiguity of resource selection. Below is a rough draft of a resource request form that I made on Google Docs.
At my school there are several places within the library for staff to find teacher resources. Unfortunately, our Guided Reading books take up the majority of the staff closet in the library so we really have no other choice than to store resources in various locations. As a new teacher to my school, I find it especially difficult to know what is available on our shelves and where to find the resources that we do have. At the Pro-D day, I discussed this problem with some other educators in my district and they were saying at their school they have a visual chart of the teacher resources available, posted on the door of their staff cupboard in the library. They also shared that they have a sign-out posted beside the visual chart to ensure that valuable resources don't go missing. I can see challenges when it comes to the visual chart because the Teacher-Librarian would need to update it every time the library obtained a new resource; however, I really like the idea of the sign-out to keep staff members accountable for the hoards of resources in their classrooms. Not that I have ever taken out a resource without returning it right away... 🙈 Below is a draft of the sign-out I created for out resource cupboard.
Another suggestion was to use part of a staff collaboration day going through the resources together, organizing and labelling them in areas that make sense. Then the onus wouldn't be entirely on the Teacher-Librarian and the staff would have a better sense of where everything is in the library. I would also add to this suggestion that the Teacher-Librarian contributes during staff meetings to notify staff of new books added to the library catalogue (teacher resource or otherwise) and where they will be located in the library. The library is a wonderful resource in itself but I have noticed (and experienced) that teachers are so busy that unless something is readily available to them they will rarely take the time to go seek it out themselves. The point of the resource location list and staff meeting updates would be to make resources easily accessible for our staff.
Technology
(Source:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f0RyaAsVNGU)
Technology is a feared word at my school. Many teachers are reluctant to use it because they don't know how and our Teacher-Librarian has taken on the role of teaching tech to the majority of our students as her collaboration time because of the level of discomfort throughout the school. Unfortunately, this has been a huge undertaking for her because she isn't the most comfortable with technology herself and she has been needing to teach herself slowly but surely as she teaches the kids. I am very fortunate to be teaching at a school where technology is plentiful. We have access to SmartBoards in every classroom, iPads, MacBooks, iMacs, Spheros, and Makey-Makeys. However, the technology that is available is almost always used by the same staff members and much of our tech goes untouched by teachers who are not familiar with it. To combat this issue I was thinking it would be effective if some of our Staff Collaboration or Professional Development days could be dedicated in technologically-literate teachers teaching teachers in our school how to use our equipment. Another idea would be to start a tech club that could meet once a week in the library during lunch to address questions raised by staff members and to introduce new apps or pieces of technology. The meeting wouldn't need to be mandatory but just a way for teachers who are interested in learning more about technology to meet and discover technology tools together. The tech club would need a lead teacher, perhaps the Teacher-Librarian or another teacher who feels very technologically competent. This isn't the first time I have thought about creating a tech club at the school and maybe this is the little push I need. I just think it is a disservice to students in the 21st century if they are not being taught through technologically enhanced lessons and how to use technology themselves.
Blogging and Vlogging
I think the largest lesson that I have taken away from this week and my discussions with colleagues at my own school and throughout the district is that the Teacher-Librarian and staff members need opportunities to communicate outside of school hours. Teachers are busy... did I mention that already? Okay, well if not, here it is in all-caps for extremely necessary emphasis: TEACHERS ARE BUSY.
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| (Source: https://media.giphy.com/media/l2Sq0YQvufpEbHj2w/giphy.gif) |
The library program is what the Teacher-Librarian and staff make of it. Yes, blogging, vlogging, tech clubs, and resource lists are more work for the Teacher-Librarian but I think they are all actions that would boost library engagement which is what we are looking for at the end of the day, isn't it?
Please let me know what you think of these ideas and if there are any unecessary challenges you think they may create. I look forward to hearing from you!
Until next week,
Miss P. 💕
You have shared some good tips and strategies here for ways in which a TL can help others develop their ICT skills. I appreciate the options you have suggested for increasing communication between the TL and Staff. I also agree that starting a Tech Club might be a great way to help others build their skills; especially seeing as you have access to so much tech within your school. This might be something you want to examine further with for Final Vision project.
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