Professional Development Realities

I think the 21rst century vision of a teacher-librarian as a leader in developing new skills, evaluating and acquiring new resources, and leading Professional Development around new strategies, resources and school technology is very inspiring.  I think TLs all over BC and beyond are doing amazing work for their staff, students, schools and districts. I said it before and I will say it again, I truly believe that my fellow TLs are my best resources for furthering my professional development and pedagogy.  I think it can benefit all teachers to remember the basics of why we do professional development and how we can be supported in this.  The BCTF promotes lifelong learning and I can only assume that most schools districts have support networks in place to help with professional development. This is very much a necessary part of our job!

Having said that, this is a job with a very steep learning curve, particularly in the technology department, and little time to learn with.  I feel that I am very far from being an inspirational leader in my job BUT it is a role I would like to take on eventually. The reality is I have little to no involvement in  planning/facilitating  my staff's professional development. At this time, the realities of my part time TL job (time constraints being perhaps the biggest challenge) simply do not allow me to be "all that I could be" within the role of helping my staff with professional development.  Certainly, I communicate with my staff (both individually and as a whole, formally and informally) on a regular basis, and partake in staff collaboration, but I can't say I've had much experience at the school level with Pro D, often preferring to working with my teacher librarian group to expand my knowledge base with colleagues who are doing the same job I am. In addition, I have thus far hesitated joining my school's Pro D Committee as I don't really feel overly confident yet with digital technologies - or taking on a leadership role in this capacity - one day!  One goal I have set for myself for this school year is to learn more about how iPads can effectively and purposefully be used in a educational setting.

This video, although not reflective of the technology in my school (no smart board etc.) is something worth considering and could be a good conversation starter at a staff meeting.

I do wonder how I can start to help my staff with their professional development despite the time constraints. I suppose even small actions are helpful. I am hoping to be able to revamp and consolidate our professional collection over the next few years as it is both out of date and not centrally located in the library.  As mentioned above, I would also like to be able to share with my staff useful information surrounding iPad use, but I need to learn about this myself first!  I can't imagine doing much more beyond this when I am working with such limited time - but one can always dream! And dream, I think, we must! I think from an advocacy point of view is it very important for us to consider "all the we could be" as TLs so that one day, hopefully the dream can be a reality.  Hopefully, one day I and other TLs facing similar challenges, can take on more and more leadership roles.

For the present time, unless we are talking have a 1.00 FTE at a single school, I don't really see how a TL could  do a lot of meaningful work with Pro D beyond the basics of attempting to maintain a relevant and up-to-date professional collection and keeping staff informed about said resources.  In my ideal TL job I would (and hope to one day):

• Have enough time - say an hour or two a week (?) to spend on Twitter and other social media sites connecting with other TLs and sharing their ideas and recommendations with my staff.  I really recommend checking out #TLCHAT on Twitter if you haven't already - lots of great discussion there.
• Have a school website or Facebook page to share happenings in the library with students
• Have collaboration or a "check in" time with each staff member to see what their professional development needs are.
• Have enough time to weed and add to my professional collection in a timely manner.
• Be able to attend PLC times so I could help facilitate workshops and seminars.
• Be able to attend staff meetings! Staying connected is so important!
• Help staff who are slow to use technology.

Throughout this course I just keep coming back to advocacy.  It seems so connected to this week's topic!  I want to consider this further... how can we, as TLs, fight for our jobs and all they could potentially be? Food for thought...and absolutely something to consider when speaking to school board staff, trustees, and administrators. Below I've included another video that could serve as a generally TL advocacy piece.

Promoting Reading

Within my school library I try to create a culture of reading as much as possible.  Our library has very limited technology so I do try and focus my library program more on books and being excited about reading. In my library I am doing a variety of things to foster a love of reading.

·         Author of the Month – I try and do a display about a different author each month.  During the first week of the month I highlight this author with students.  I find that students in my school often need help when choosing reading material and that many of them choose the same books over and over. Minecraft, Geronimo Stilton and Diary of a Wimpy Kid are all well and good but I like students to branch out.  As an example, last month I did Kenneth Oppel – a Vancouver Island native – and his books were checked out by several classes.  I talked a little bit about his personal life, his books (showed some book trailers on Youtube) and we explored his website.  My experience has been that students are usually quite receptive to learning about a new author.

 

·         50 Book Challenge  - I have challenged the students in my school (grade 3+) to do a reading challenge.  They can choose to read 10, 20, 30, 40 or 50 books between September 15 and June 15.  I have started to have them record their reading on Padlet, (thanks Aaron for the recommendation!) an easy to use digital wall program.  It is just for fun but I have small prices at each increment of 10 and it does seem to create some excitement.  I am still trying to learn Padlet but I like that they do not have to log in or have an account and can add a book on their own time.

·         Weeding – I know this may seem a bit off topic but I really think that weeding promotes reading! There is nothing more undesirable then a jam packed shelf of out of date books.  I find that less is often more when it comes to reading! By keeping the collection looking “fresh” students feel more welcome to check out books.  Our district has a very specific collection development policy and as any TL knows, wedding is NOT throwing out books.  I’m currently in the process of keeping my non-fiction VERY stream lined and getting rid of novels and picture books that hold no interest for today’s students. I really find weeding is a breath of fresh air in the library. 

Before:

 

After:

 

·         Library volunteer program – Once a week I have students come into the library at lunch recess to help out with odd jobs.  While not directly tied to reading I think this does let students know that the library is a welcoming place. This is a “paid” job – students earn three dollars of scholastic book credit each time they come to the library.

·         Encouraging good book choices – this can be tricky with very limited time but I do try and make sure students are picking books at the appropriate age and ability level.  I try and keep this positive often saying to students “you can’t read this book….yet” so they know that they have something to strive towards. 

I think it is great for a school if all the staff is on board with school wide programs. I know my school believes reading is important but I think we could do more as far as school wide programs.  We have access to Tumblebooks which a lot of the primary teachers use with our iPads. Older students who struggle with reading at our school also have access to Kurzweil software in our student support room.  We also have reading groups that work with multi grade level students who are at the same ability level. I previously have worked in a school that seemed to have a lot of success with the Accelerated Reader program – particularly with students who are self-motivated readers.

I would love to know more about programs for reluctant readers. For some reluctant readers I think finding that “right fit” book is key to opening up the world of reading to them. There are often many recommendations of different books to try.  For other readers that struggle with motivation, it is probably not that simple.  Although American, this post has some great suggestions for promoting reading in schools.

If I can focus my blog post a bit this week, I’d like to look more into how to further utilize my school’s iPads to foster reading. I was able to find some good “starting point” articles through UBCs website here and here. The TL group in our school district also has a Livebinder with iPad app suggestions but my lack of familiarity with most of these apps makes this challenging – I am hoping in the next few weeks me and the other teacher in charge of the iPads at my school can sit down and go through some of these apps and figure out exactly what we are doing.  I will also be talking to my staff at our next meeting and see what is working and what is not.

Some other links I found for promoting reading are the Chocolate Lily Awards (check out the video!) and DEAR day which is coming up.  Here is a checklist from the BCTLA about some ways to prepare for DEAR day. Also, I thought this website from New Zealand was interesting. It's set up nicely with relevant topics such as "reading and boys" and "reading environments" - lots of ideas to pick and choose from - I like the reading tent idea!


To end my blog post for this week I’d love it if anybody could share any more information on implementing iPads, useful apps, and any other ideas on how to use iPads to promote reading. Some search terms I tried in YouTube were “best apps for teachers”, “reading apps for school libraries”,“apps to promote literacy” but I couldn’t find a video I thought was really good. The search continues!

Works Cited

 
Harmon, Jim. Learning and Leading with Technology:
Unlock Literacy with iPads. 39 Vol. International Society for Technology in Education, 06/01/2012. Web. 7 Oct. 2015.
 

Williams, Carol. School Librarian: My Year 8 iPad Project: Apps in Action. 62 Vol. School Library Association, 2014. Web. 7 Oct. 2015.