Collaboration is key
Fig. 2 Teacher Librarians.
No More Dusty Shelves. Web. Accessed 16 October 2017.
The role of the teacher-librarian is rapidly evolving, and “teacher-librarians have come a long way from the time when they were considered caretakers of the book collection. Now they are information providers, consultants, curriculum activists, instructional designers, instructional leaders, production specialists and most important, teachers.” (Bev Shreirer 2000) With all of these new responsibilities, teacher librarians need to be prepared to not only run the library, but inform others about information technology, advocate for new resources, collaborate with others, develop lesson plans to integrate new curriculum (and technology) and disseminate important information.
Teachers, as we know very well, are extremely busy. I feel that the best
way to encourage educators to try new technology and resources is to make it
really easy (and painless) for them to inform themselves.
In order to keep the staff apprised of what’s new, we need to make
ourselves flexible and open to communication in many different mediums.
Here are some of my ideas of ways to disseminate information and teach
others:
-
Ask if you can teach a mini-lesson at the end of a staff meeting
(or during lunch/after school) to inform about new technology in the school.
-
Send out email blasts when you have new resources/ new technology
which detail its use, and make yourself available for short tutorials to the
teachers.
-
Via email or a bulletin board in the staff room, update the staff
on new additions to the library, and send out links/videos that could be
helpful for them to implement these new resources.
-
Create video-tutorials that outline the new technology. In so
doing, teachers can watch the video at their leisure and don’t need to make
time in-person.
-
Communicate any new research to the teachers during staff meetings
and weekly emails
-
Remember to update staff about any changes in library policy (ex/
how to sign out new equipment).
-
Conduct full class tutorials to introduce new book series or
technologies to the students and teachers.
-
Meet monthly with department heads to discuss resources, needs and
how to best support them with their curriculum. You could take this time to
assess which new resources could be useful for their department.
-
Some schools allow for professional development meetings after
staff meetings, or in the evening. This could be a good time to teach and
collaborate with staff and answer any questions they may have.
-
In order to communicate with students and parents about these new
resources, a lot of librarians have monthly newsletters and offer tutorials
before/after school, depending on the needs of the community.
Fig. 2 Dream. The
Library Voice. Web. Accessed 14
October 2017.
Hopefully, with all of these different options for communication,
teachers will be able to easily access any information they need.
Using the internet, I had more difficulty finding information
about this topic than the others so far. It made me think that perhaps online
is not the best place to seek out help. I think an excellent way to find help
in this domain would be to ask teachers in your school what they need help
with, and personalize from there. Every school, teacher and student will
probably have a different set of questions. So, finding one-on-one time, as
hard as it may be, could be a great way to connect with teachers and keep them
informed. Another option could be to ask other teacher librarians what works
best for them!
Helpful links about the role of
the teacher librarian and how to keep collaboration alive:
-
If you have any other ideas for me, please comment below!
Works
Cited
No More Dusty Shelves. http://thinkspace.csu.edu.au/taraonlinelearningljournal/\
Heraper, Sue. YouTube, YouTube, 5 Mar. 2015,
www.youtube.com/watch?v=EyYKkh0n7Vg.
“The Changing Role of the Teacher-Librarian in the Twenty-First
Century.” The Changing Role of the Teacher-Librarian in the
Twenty-First Century, University of Saskatchewan,
etad.usask.ca/802papers/scheirer/scheirer.htm.
Hi Katey,
ReplyDeleteOne thing you mentioned that I did not speak to in my blog is how to communicate new ideas and technology with the parents of the school. I believe this would be an important piece. Having newsletters go home would be great, or I have even thought about creating a library learning commons website to inform parents and upload tutorials.
I like that your ideas speak to ongoing, consistent communication whether it be email blasts, post staff meeting tutorials, etc. I'm particularly fond of the video tutorials because you can archive them over time and have your own pocket of library commons specific information that teachers can access on their own time.
ReplyDeleteSmall bites, frequently over time is always going to be a lot more effective than big gulps infrequently. I like all the ideas you present, the reflection on the lack of suggestions online, the need to make it personalized, and the types and formats of ways to communicate new tools and learning. A strong blog post with good media, labels and links.
ReplyDelete