Encouraging and Supporting Collaboration

As a new teacher, I sometimes find it a bit difficult to give support  my colleuges, as I don’t always have as much experience in the field as them. Nevertheless, I am in the role of a librarian and do most the purchasing of literary resources for the school. 

I am going to break this blog into 3 sections.  My current Practice, New ideas I found, and 1 idea I will try… Really try! 

My Current Practice: 

I usually send out emails with new books, or links, I feel might be useful. I sometimes get responses and sometimes don’t….. it works, but perhaps not the most effective method. 

I also hand deliver books, I think might go with what a teacher is currently teaching, or just interested it. With 13 divisions, it works okay…not the most effective to target all teachers. Especially a few that are not in the staff room as often, I will sometimes miss having those conversations with them, to find out about what is happening in their class. 

Developing kits, that get rotated monthly among staff…. Has worked well with integrating aboriginal teachings, literature, and activities. (Can’t take the credit, I just took the project over). But it is a great way to spread new and different resources. 

At staff meetings, presenting new books… problem once a month, and adds time to the staff meeting, so I always feel a tad rushed. 

Talking to teachers when they have library, if I can steal a moment… 

Asking, Asking and asking… Always asking what they are studying, feel they need, ect, 

New Ideas,  

-       A teacher librarian at Mc Math, sends out a monthly newsletter to her staff, which is colourful and has everything that is happening in the library.

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-       -Creaza is a really neat website, where you can easily create and edit videos. I wonder if this might be a good way to communicate with staff. Sending out a fun video, with new books or information of things going on in the library. 

-   Creating a space where student/teachers can share what they are teaching in the classroom. 

Perhaps the students could write it down, opposed to the teachers. That way the students are reflecting on what they are learning about and it is not adding another job for the teachers. I picturing a big chart or some roll paper in the hallway, and a graffiti style writing…. ( just an image in my head right now). 

Then I found that other teacher librarians have had this idea to. Here is a blog, where I got this image from. This Librarian sends a google doc out to the teachers at her school.

New thing to try: 

- Create a video introducing some new books, or new technology teachers can use.
I am going to be very nervous to do this, but I think it will be good to push myself out of my comfort zone. I will post it to this blog, when I finish it.
Hopefully, I will try some more things as well, but now I have a firm commitment to at least 1 thing

Cultivating a Stronger PLN

Before this course my Personal Learning Network has consisted of my Richmond Library Discussion group (which is quite amazing with lots of links and posts that librarians share) and few bookmarked websites/blogs. 

Now, I have a blog, and twitter on the go. I have to admit, I have been ignoring twitter…. As Janine posted 5 stages of twitter, I have been in the denial stage and slowly moving towards curiosity.  

Hopefully by the end of this course, I will have explored twitter more and feel more confident on it. 

I have discovered a couple other really interesting sites, which encourages the development and use of a PLN. 

Digital Bytes  is a website where you can explore and influence the digital world. 

You click a preference, to explore, create, do something, think, ect.... then you get offered two questions, and choose one. 

 video appears, you watch the video, then have the opportunity to discuss, engage and then share your thinking and video with other people.  It even has a vocabulary link on the left, which would be great for ELL students. 

Here is a Video Tutorial! 

Another thought that popped into my head, was perhaps making a library blog for my school library and try to engage students in conversations about books. Books, they liked, would recommend... 

The thought is a little different, then sharing professional resources, but I find I learn a lot about books from my students, it could be interesting if they had a space to share their thinking with me and each other on books. ( sure would help with more accurate purchasing). However, I would need to play around with the idea a bit more, if I went that route. 

In my research, I have come across a lot of information and links, about having digital foot print and about digital citizenship, which encourages me to keep thinking, how do I want to look online. If a parent googled me, what would they see, what image would they have, same with a student.. what does the internet say about me.... 

I realize, there is not a lot on myself, so it would be neat if they did google, and found a professional, with links, and thoughts around education. 

But for now, I think for my PLN, I going to start with engaging in twitter more, and learning that.. one step at a time. 

Inquiry 1- Promoting A Reading Culture.

My school has a really strong reading culture, but here are few things I do in order to continue promoting a positive and engaging reading culture.

Teachers Read Too

When I came to my school, each teacher had a laminated sign beside their door "Mr.... is reading ...." This is really neat way for both parents and kids to see what their teachers are reading. They get really excited when you write down a graphic novel.

Blind date with a book-- Teaching  permission, to read, leave, and recommend a book 

Another campaign, that I am getting ready for this week is " blind date with a book"- I have my grade 6 and 7 students, go on a "blind date" with a book over the weekend. I wrap up the books and out cheesy pick up lines on them, then sign them out. The student have to fill out a form and return it to me after the weekend. They must read at least two chapters of the book. I try to pull some old favourites. The kids get really gitty about it. One of my favourite things is that my sheet gives permission to leave the book. " did you leave the book early...? or finish your date?"

Come in the library and look around

Before Christmas, I also did 12 days of authors instead of 12 days of Christmas. I posted details about each author and students needed to guess who it was. If they guessed all 12 authors, there form became an entry form, for a draw. It was really fun, because with the clues the students needed to use the library computers to search information or books, and go through the library. It was great to have the library in use for students outside of their library blocks.   

Reading over the holidays 

Another link which I found students love, is of course "tumble books".. but also http://www.storylineonline.net/

They have the author read the their own books, which is exciting. I alway promote this to my students before winter, spring and summer break to encourage them to read during the holidays. Especially kindergarden students because they don't take out books during the break.

I am thinking of trying something new this year ( another librarian does this in my district)..
"Double your books before the break"- to encourage reading.
I do worry a bit about lost books though... hmmm...

Drop everything and read

http://www.theguardian.com/teacher-network/2011/nov/28/whole-school-reading
Neat article about reading culture that was created at a school in Essex

Reader's Choice 

Next term, I am starting " Reader's Choice" This is popular with librarians in our district. We have meeting to discuss our fav books and choices for the campaign. ( which is great to promote books to each other too)

Basically, we choose 7 novel and 7 picture books. The students read them, and vote on their Favourite. It cost about 700-1000 dollars to do, because you need sets of each novel, but the students love it!! There are many ways to go about organizing it and awarding the book " the people's choice" title. I do it a bit simple, but might try to amp it up a bit this year. 

Post 3

I found about 7 – 10 sources, and chose to share in my last post a few of my favourites, that I thought were most useful. 

These resources are relevant to my interest and current work opportunities, because our school is becoming more focused on aboriginal teachings and cultures the last couple years. So, as the Teacher- Librarian, I provide access to those resources and materials for teachers. The better, I can learn about where good resources are, the more materials I am able to provide to my staff. 

I did find a bit of difficulty trying to find good resources. I started with the government education website, and played around for a bit. I also got some advice about good places to purchase aboriginal literature from, colleagues (who were part of a inquiry group for aboriginal studies this year).  Some of the resources, I found was from previous Pro-d day handouts I had been given, and searched in our library discussion group on rich net  for links that had been posted on the topic, by other librarians in the district. 

The hardest thing when I searched on the internet on my own, was knowing what resources are authentic and current with the aboriginal teaching principals the govt has set out. That is why I found going to people who have knowledge on the topic, and searching links other librarians have posted really helped my research process. 

One of the Key, things I took away in this process is that you don’t need to necessary search google, or research academic articles to find good resources. Sometimes, asking people, searching colleague's blogs for links, and email district consultants can be extremely useful. 

  I often search Gordon Powell’s blog spot, and his twitter to find info)http://gordonslibrarylinks.blogspot.ca or http://gordonsthinking.blogspot.ca

It seemed a bit “ less academic” at first, and I had a small hesitation, but the resources I found, I find way more useful compared to a journal article.