I am excited with the many, many ideas and blogs, posts and research
we have piled through this month. The
best part of it all for me is that it is applicable to the work I am
doing! It made this course not feel like
a hoop to jump through, but one where I have tonnes of takeaways, lots to be
interested in, and lots I have already incorporated into my work.
One new avenue for development for me personally is that just
this week I received another inquiry grant from my school district. The grant is for my little TL group in which
we began as an inquiry group working to transition our libraries to a learning
commons. This year we are collecting
resources and sharing with each other our learning. This is a huge help to me professionally as I
am given time to talk, share, discuss, and learn with fellow TLs. I feel I learn LOTS from simple conversations.
We
will continue our march on towards becoming a full library learning commons and
are almost there. There are so many
ideas I gathered from this last month, such as Book Clubs or Book of the Month
to continue the development of the reading culture in our school
community.
Our group also hopes to bring
in a neighbouring district guru, Amber Hartwell, to help inspire other teachers
in our district to transition their libraries and give us guidance, as
well. I like the idea of having my own
personal inquiry in that I am modelling the process for colleagues in our
school, just as we embark on a school wide inquiry process. Another area for me to development in my own practice
is staying on top of an efficient and practical way to curate resources. I think heading forward I hope that my
library webpage will hopefully house resources through links, my blog, and twitter.
 |
| retrieved from: https://fernie.bc.libraries.coop/adult-book-club-books/ |
Moving forward from what I learned this month is I will be sharing
out! I had thought about it briefly before,
but my biggest takeaway is definitely the importance of sharing out and how not
just others benefit from it, but me too!
Richardson (2012, p.387) named reasons that teachers don’t share out,
from fear to a culture of competition in schools, but I feel the biggest factor
for me is time. Really the lack of time
is my issue. However, sharing out with
fellow local librarians, colleagues, and other TLs is an area needing growth
for me, one that I can attain, and one that will help me professionally, as
well. A quote from Paige Bredenkamp found
in fellow wolf Karla Germaine’s blog has stuck with me since I read it: “Knowledge
is the result of interactions and experiences through connected networks in a
community”.
 |
| retrieved from: https://www.amazon.ca/dp/B00998J5YQ |
I have some highlights of learning I have gained from others
over this past month and one is that it is time, past time, to have a blog and
active twitter account for my school. Although twitter has not been my favourite
social media form (I don’t feel I have time to sort through what people had for
breakfast to find things of interest to me), I do like being able to get
snapshot ideas. It is growing on me now
that I found some that are specific to teaching and like the quick snippet idea. Two new accounts I am now following are from Hannah's blog : https://twitter.com/bctla and Darryl Beck's blog: George Couros, which both provide professional and thought provoking ideas. I still feel blogs are more valuable overall
to me and I have appreciated blogging with my fellow wolves. For me it is the discussion feel, like a
conversation, that I am drawn towards.
I also like the building on the plentiful array of ideas. I give an idea, but others tag in and say…”I
also tried this”, which is a little new tweak to something I had just
done. It adds a fresh zing to add onto an
idea. Every single blog post from my
colleagues has had a little idea or two I have either incorporated already or
hope to do. For example, as TLs we are
always looking for a perfect book for someone and ask questions of them, “what
did you last read? What is your
favourite book?” etc., but I have tried Hannah’s reader personality test and students had fun with that. They
were shocked to see that some of the books recommended to them from the test they
had already read so the simple quiz seemed to work for many. Thanks
to Alison's blog for 2 peas and a dog blog, which I now like to peruse. Another tidbit idea from Karla’s blog,
which is still rumbling around in my head, is about helping students and
colleagues with their PLNs. I have been
focused on me, but Karla shared the ideas of Irene Hanreates and her ideas which has me thinking of
how important sharing out is, the need to model it, to work on my own PLN, but to
help others gain the benefits of this, too.
 |
| retrieved from: https://teacherchallenge.edublogs.org/pln-define/ |
The one topic that resonated with me most this past month is
in regards to how I will continue my own professional development. This is my last library course and it scares
me a bit to become stagnant. So often
you see a teacher teaching the same grade and same material year after
year. They are doing what they know
well, but not updating or challenging themselves with something new. It isn’t enough to go to a pro-d day, but in
a role as TL I can do so much more to be inspired and to inspire.
References
12 Ways a School Librarian Can Help Teachers - 2 Peas and a Dog.
(2018). Retrieved from https://2peasandadog.com/2018/07/12-ways-a-school-librarian-can-help-teachers.html
BCTLA (@bctla) on Twitter. (2018). Retrieved from
https://twitter.com/bctla
Beck, D. (2018). Mr. B's Blog. Retrieved from http://kidstonkokanee.blogspot.com/
Couros, G. (2018). George Couros (@gcouros) on Twitter. Retrieved
from
https://twitter.com/gcouros?ref_src=twsrc%5Egoogle%7Ctwcamp%5Eserp%7Ctwgr%5Eauthor
Cuthill, A. (2018). LIBE 477: Special Topics in Teacher
Librarianship - New Media and Technology in the School Library. Retrieved from
https://critiquelecture.wordpress.com/
Germaine, K. (2018). Reflections of a New Teacher Librarian.
Retrieved from http://kargermaine.blogspot.com/
Reader Personality Types - A Book And A Hug. (2018). Retrieved
from https://abookandahug.com/reader-types/
Richardson, W. (2012). Why
school. New York, NY: TED Conferences.
Wilson, H. (2018). Hannah's Learning Library. Retrieved from
http://hannahslearninglibrary.blogspot.com/
