Here I am at the end. Or the beginning, I guess. It's a good but nerve-wracking feeling!
I started this course with just a vague sense of what a teacher-librarian is and each week as I explored our assigned topics and read the posts of my peers, I learned more and more. And the amazing part, to me, was that each new thing I learned made me feel assured that I have chosen the right path to be on at this time in my life. I am up to the challenge of learning the technology, doing the work, and sharing it with others.
The most important elements of the course that I will take with me are the connections that I have made with other teacher-librarians, a growing understanding of how I can use Twitter to my benefit as a teacher, and the encouragement to really embrace the concept of being a lifelong learner. When you are taking a course, reading articles, and blogging about your learning, it really keeps you motivated to be a catalyst for change. And really, there are so many technologies that I have learned about and used this term that I am thankful for: Digg reader, Symbaloo, PowToon, etc.
And speaking of change, I started my new 40% position as a teacher-librarian last week. I am excited and hopeful for the ideas that I can bring to this school. I am hoping that my continued connections with my PLC and my growth-mindset will tide me over as I continue to take LIBE courses one at a time while working. :)
To remind you, I created this partly for administration but also to be able to use as an intro on my [new] blog as I start working in this new position as the teacher-librarian at TLA. Who will be reading this new blog? Hopefully, parents and other staff alike! This is my audience. I think that sharing my intended direction with the TLA community will help me stick to my plans.
Without further ado:
(I see it's partially covered by my sidebar so feel free to
click HERE)
Do you ever spend all kinds of time on something only to discover it's been done and done better than what you've created? Haha. On Sunday, I had that video above completed but part-way through, I write "More on that later" in regards to developing the online learning commons. So I wanted to do more - a "part two" to my introduction video that fleshed out what a learning commons really is.
Yesterday, I spent all day (much to my 4 year old's chagrin) working on "part two" and halfway through, I discovered such a great PowToon video that said exactly what I was trying say! Well, I will literally just show this other person's wonderful video to our admin. My "part two" video was beginning to branch into a more personal description of my ideas for my school's space/website but I need to put more research into what I think we need in an online learning commons before I can continue on. And really, I just need to get the above project shared! Like I said in my previous post, you can just keep going and going!
So essentially, my final project was my introduction to my vision video above. But so as to not leave you hanging, I'm willing to share my "project : part two" unfinished product to give you an idea of how I spent my time today.
or the link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NaF9s7xH1hc&rel=0
Thanks to all you, Bears, who have commented and been great inspiration. I hope you continue to blog and/or tweet as I will be following! Thank you, to Mr. Mueller - I appreciate your time, punctuality, clear guidelines, and feedback. When I get my TLA TL blog up and running, I will post the link here for anyone who wants to add it to their Digg reader! :)
the future
Showing posts with label library development. Show all posts
Showing posts with label library development. Show all posts
Tuesday, 8 December 2015
Sunday, 22 November 2015
A Rationale...or a complete shift in the plan...
Well, so much can change in a week, can it not?
Would you believe that three months after I started my first course in my Teacher-Librarianship Diploma program, our school's current teacher-librarian resigned? And would you believe that I would be approached by our admin to step in as the new TL starting in December? No. Too coincidental. BUT IT'S TRUE!
via GIPHY
What now? Does my project change? Do my goals change? Does my audience change? I think it does. Two experiences from this week are the catalysts for the proposal of the development of a new vision project:
(1) This week, I was with a group of friends and announced my big news. Everyone's response was, "An online school has a librarian? What will you even do?"
(2) Yesterday, I spent a number of hours setting up the beginnings of my personal library blog/Pinterest board as discussed in the previous post and I just had this nagging feeling that this wasn't the best use of my final vision project.
What does a DL Resource Librarian do? Do I even know? It's all I've thought about for five days (since getting word on the final decision that I'd be taking this position). I have many ideas of what I'd like to develop and bring to our resource library. In the past, I've proposed ideas to admin that I wanted to implement but they were denied and labeled "something that our TL should do". But now I AM the TL! I can bring these ideas and start something new and fresh! Today, in an effort to procrastinate from writing report cards and completing this blog post, I was googling "organizing a Distributed Learning library" and other similar searches. Then I thought of the largest independent DL school in BC and wondered what their resource library looked like. WELL! They have an awesome, online learning commons page. This LC includes book lists, reading programs, a lending library, an lending ebook library, digital unit plans for parents to use in their homeschooling, book clubs that are run through online mediums like Blackboard and Blogger, and much, much more. I don't need to reinvent the DL-LC wheel! I have those who have gone before me in my very specific field. I already have plans to connect with this school's TL.
Our library is 2 years old. It has had intense growing pains. And unfortunately, it hasn't had a chance to develop in the ways that it needs to for lack of TIME! Currently, the TL of our school orders your books. She barcodes and catalogues those books. She ships you the books that you ordered (if you live out of the lower mainland). She organizes those books when they are returned. She builds the library by purchasing resources that she deems excellent. And so far, I don't think there has been much time (or vision?) for anything else.
I have the luxury of walking into a blossoming library with a solid foundation. There is SO much that can and should be developed to meet the rising standards of a DL school's learning commons. Before taking this class, I had a misconception of teacher-librarians. I had never heard that "libraries" are slowly transforming into "learning commons". If the average person doesn't know what our TL does nor how our resource library works, why will they use it? If our administration doesn't see how libraries are changing and how this could serve our teachers and parents in a much better way, why would they invest in it?
My vision project is going to literally be a VISION project. I am going to create a presentation that gives a vision for our school's online learning commons. This will educate in an overview of how libraries are changing. It will also include the suggestion of how the development of the learning commons aligns with our school vision and mission.
The digital format I'm going to use is still to be determined. I signed up for projeqt account and downloaded Haiku Deck but I think that whatever platform I use, I'll need something that I can talk over to describe what the slides mean. I was thinking about using Jing for element of the presentation this which gives me a 5 minute window. Perhaps I can create a few Jing videos.
My audience: will grow. I'm going to start with our principal and our four department vice principals with the goal of spreading my vision! It's really a proposal for the ways that this LC needs to develop and how we can do it. After I see how the presentation is received, I hope to be able to present it (or a portion of it) to my colleagues with the goal of helping them understand how they can access and use the learning commons to develop their families' learning plans. As the learning commons is developed (likely, this portion would be in the 2016/17 school year), I hope that portions of the original presentation will still be able to be used for sharing with parents to educate them in what a learning commons is and how to make the most of the resources we have. Because this presentation is essentially a proposal for changes that we should made, really my audience will end up being the whole school community as they will get to watch the changes made in real-time and benefit from them in years to come.
Would you believe that three months after I started my first course in my Teacher-Librarianship Diploma program, our school's current teacher-librarian resigned? And would you believe that I would be approached by our admin to step in as the new TL starting in December? No. Too coincidental. BUT IT'S TRUE!
via GIPHY
What now? Does my project change? Do my goals change? Does my audience change? I think it does. Two experiences from this week are the catalysts for the proposal of the development of a new vision project:
(1) This week, I was with a group of friends and announced my big news. Everyone's response was, "An online school has a librarian? What will you even do?"
(2) Yesterday, I spent a number of hours setting up the beginnings of my personal library blog/Pinterest board as discussed in the previous post and I just had this nagging feeling that this wasn't the best use of my final vision project.
What does a DL Resource Librarian do? Do I even know? It's all I've thought about for five days (since getting word on the final decision that I'd be taking this position). I have many ideas of what I'd like to develop and bring to our resource library. In the past, I've proposed ideas to admin that I wanted to implement but they were denied and labeled "something that our TL should do". But now I AM the TL! I can bring these ideas and start something new and fresh! Today, in an effort to procrastinate from writing report cards and completing this blog post, I was googling "organizing a Distributed Learning library" and other similar searches. Then I thought of the largest independent DL school in BC and wondered what their resource library looked like. WELL! They have an awesome, online learning commons page. This LC includes book lists, reading programs, a lending library, an lending ebook library, digital unit plans for parents to use in their homeschooling, book clubs that are run through online mediums like Blackboard and Blogger, and much, much more. I don't need to reinvent the DL-LC wheel! I have those who have gone before me in my very specific field. I already have plans to connect with this school's TL.
Our library is 2 years old. It has had intense growing pains. And unfortunately, it hasn't had a chance to develop in the ways that it needs to for lack of TIME! Currently, the TL of our school orders your books. She barcodes and catalogues those books. She ships you the books that you ordered (if you live out of the lower mainland). She organizes those books when they are returned. She builds the library by purchasing resources that she deems excellent. And so far, I don't think there has been much time (or vision?) for anything else.
I have the luxury of walking into a blossoming library with a solid foundation. There is SO much that can and should be developed to meet the rising standards of a DL school's learning commons. Before taking this class, I had a misconception of teacher-librarians. I had never heard that "libraries" are slowly transforming into "learning commons". If the average person doesn't know what our TL does nor how our resource library works, why will they use it? If our administration doesn't see how libraries are changing and how this could serve our teachers and parents in a much better way, why would they invest in it?
 |
| image from: http://www.bythebrooks.ca/leading-learning-in-the-school-library-learning-commons/ |
The digital format I'm going to use is still to be determined. I signed up for projeqt account and downloaded Haiku Deck but I think that whatever platform I use, I'll need something that I can talk over to describe what the slides mean. I was thinking about using Jing for element of the presentation this which gives me a 5 minute window. Perhaps I can create a few Jing videos.
My audience: will grow. I'm going to start with our principal and our four department vice principals with the goal of spreading my vision! It's really a proposal for the ways that this LC needs to develop and how we can do it. After I see how the presentation is received, I hope to be able to present it (or a portion of it) to my colleagues with the goal of helping them understand how they can access and use the learning commons to develop their families' learning plans. As the learning commons is developed (likely, this portion would be in the 2016/17 school year), I hope that portions of the original presentation will still be able to be used for sharing with parents to educate them in what a learning commons is and how to make the most of the resources we have. Because this presentation is essentially a proposal for changes that we should made, really my audience will end up being the whole school community as they will get to watch the changes made in real-time and benefit from them in years to come.
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