"The teachers teach - the students learn." "The students' job is to listen." "The teacher will tell the students what to learn and how to learn." When and where I grew up, this was the only acceptable perspective of our school system. Luckily, nowadays we have a different perspective.
We are all learners, teachers and students alike. In the learning process, the SLLC has a crucial role: it nurtures imagination, discovery and creativity. "Throughout all activities in the Learning Commons, both students and teachers strive to improve. Metacognition of content understood as well as skills and processes gained helps to build learning to learn skills and attitudes and responsibilities.The rich variety of resources and technologies as well as flexible physical and virtual spaces in the Learning Commons enhances differentiated instructional opportunities in the information to knowledge creation process." (Together for Learning)
In our school we have 190 students in 10 divisions, 14 teachers and 19 additional staff members (educational assistants, administrators, and other support staff). How can we make sure that they are all receiving a somewhat 'personalized' support at the School Library Learning Commons? How can we accommodate all our adult learners' professional needs?
It's not just teachers who seek advice from the Teacher Librarian. We often give book recommendations to parents, just recently our custodian needed advice on how to log into the library computer, and our breakfast club organizer needed a picture book for her dance class that she is teaching.
I created a plan for the next year in order to provide better support and service.
September-October: We are just transitioning to a new library software. I will provide training sessions for the ENTIRE school community to learn how to use the new system, how to look up, reserve and renew materials. I am planning to set up a self-check out station for adults.
At the beginning of the school year I connect with every classroom teacher to do some planning together: I receive their year plans where I look for curricular areas for collaboration, technology enhancement and hands-on learning opportunities. My general goal is to complete at least two major tech-projects with each class per year (movie making, animation, Makey Makey, digital books or posters, interactive presentations, etc.) and one hands on project (sewing, clay, paper art, drama, various ways of storytelling, dioramas, etc.) Some of our projects are the combination of more than one or two of these options.
November-December: By the end of the first reporting period teachers will need to learn how to use MyEd BC for their progress profiles, since our whole district is transitioning to online report cards. I am sure teachers will be needing lots of tech support and scaffolding.
January-February: I will provide some refreshing courses to our teaching/supporting staff about how to use and navigate ShareEd, FocusEd and other websites, softwares and apps that the district provides for us. (I usually show these to them at the beginning of the school year, but by winter the forgot about these resources and they are grateful to be reminded again.)
March-April: All staff members will be able to request materials that we'll subsequently order and add to our collection. Around this time of the year (since by then we have a clear picture of our budget, which contains district funds, income from fundraisers and PAC support) we usually complete a large order, focusing on requests,
May-June: We usually do our major weeding at the end of the spring (although weeding should be an ongoing process throughout the year). The books that we select to be taken out from the collection are offered to the school community: teachers can keep them for their classroom libraries; students, parents or staff members can take them home.
We'll make sure that our SLLC will be supporting everyone in our school community throughout the seasons, so it becomes a "hub", a sustainable investment in learning for the future.
This is a thoughtful and comprehensive post. I appreciate how you have shared your ideas. Your year plan is an excellent model for others. Your deep commitment to supporting your school community is evident in your work.
ReplyDeleteThat is some pretty amazing collaboration time! I have found that most of the teachers that I have tried to collaborate with actually just want me to teach their class. How do you keep this from happening?
ReplyDeleteI appreciate how you've laid out this plan. I would hazard to guess your colleagues would also be very grateful for the conciseness of this plan and the amount of time set aside to teach and pass along the tech knowledge to ensure folks are all on the same page. I think it's especially important for all staff to know how to sign out, renew, and reserve as people can help themselves and understand the overall organization of the space that the community relies on.
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