ICT Staff Support
The statement in our module this week about most libraries having a ‘Professional Development’ section for staff made me both laugh and groan at the thought of mine. When I started in my current library, there was an entire side wall of the room dedicated to teacher resources and professional development books. I left it as it was for the first while, then realized that I had never seen a single teacher come and look at the books there. Most of it was quite old and outdated. I even found a copy of a workbook that I remember using when I was in Elementary school; the companion to the reader ‘The Dog Next Door’ (which has a copyright year of 1973, even before my time!).
The majority of teachers either had all the resources that they wanted in their classroom, or they were going online to read about what they needed. This section was taking up a lot of valuable shelf space in the library. I have managed to weed it down to about half of what was there. We still have a few staff holdouts that are hesitant to get rid of too much, mostly due to their ‘what if I want that later’ mentality. I think that I will slowly put out a few resources at a time in the staff room for anyone who wants it and hopefully pare this section down to only the most used books.
As of right now, I am mostly providing Pro-D and support with ICT on a one to one, as needed basis. I prefer to do it this way, as I’m not really interested in leading large sessions. I also have a set place on our staff meeting agenda and can use that time to introduce new programs to teachers.
We currently have twice monthly PLC meetings after school. I am not officially part of any grade level group, so I can use that time to support a team in the areas they would like to explore. In the past I have used those meeting times to teach groups about programs that our district has subscriptions to, such as CBC Curio for educational videos or TigTag for science resources.
I try to be flexible and willing to help staff as they need it to learn new tools and devices. I have tried to foster a good relationship with them so that they feel comfortable coming to me to ask for support, and they know that I will either try my best to help them learn or direct them to the best person to help them out.
Our district used to have Teacher Librarian classroom collaboration time built into each TLs schedule that would give us half a day each week that was dedicated to working with classroom teachers. I have used this time to co-develop ADST projects with teachers and then spend time in their classroom helping to teach it as well. Unfortunately, this time was removed from our schedules when the required amount of prep time was increased and is now used for longer library classes.
One thing that I would like to do this year to support my staff’s ICT in-service needs is to advocate for more digital subscriptions for our school. This would allow for teachers to access information from anywhere, and it would also allow me to get rid of some more of the outdated paper copies of professional development resources taking up space in the library.
I would also like to send out a survey to staff to see what kinds of ICT help and programs they would like to learn about. This way, I could either set up a time to meet with those interested in specific topics or connect them with our district’s IT department for help. There is no point in me setting up in-service sessions on topics that no one is interested in!
Lastly, I would like to do more of my own pro-d on incorporating ICT in the library. The TPACK model looks interesting because as librarians we “know that the medium impacts how information is communicated and experienced” (Farmer, 2019), I think that it looks like a helpful way to combine the knowledge of librarians and teachers.
At the end of the day, my job is to support our staff and help them to provide the best education that we can for our students. As it was stated at the end of our textbook, my goal is to “Enjoy the journey, and be the force for change that is needed in our schools.” (McClintock Miller, pg. 96)
Resources
2014-2021, C. B. C. R.-C. (n.d.). An essential educational resource / une ressource éducative incontournable. Curio. Retrieved February 2022, from https://curio.ca/en/welcome
Farmer, L. (2019, May 9). The role of librarians in supporting ICT Literacy. EDUCAUSE Review. Retrieved February 24, 2022, from https://er.educause.edu/blogs/2019/5/the-role-of-librarians-in-supporting-ict-literacy
McClintock Miller Shannon; Bass William. Leading from the Library (Digital Age Librarian's Series). International Society for Technology in Education. Kindle Edition.
Www.tigtagusa.com. (n.d.). Retrieved February 2022, from https://www.tigtagusa.com/
Hi Jodi, Wowee those Pro-D books are old! It's amazing how much some people will hold on to, and I *do* remember that old book in particular. Your post gives good realistic advice and I like that you remind us how much we need to listen to our teacher community to provide the pro-d they're interested in.
ReplyDeleteHi Jodi,
ReplyDeleteI can connect with your experience as we have a large outdated section of teacher resources. When I weed children's books, I do not ask teachers fro input or offer books, unless they are good books and I am only removing them because we have unnecessary multiple copies, but with teacher resources, I feel I need to ask. Some of the teachers in my school tend to borrow books without signing them out as well so I cannot rely on the circulation history. I have been uneasy removing books from this area, but it needs to be done and I am going to be more disciplined about tackling this section.
Hi Jodi,
ReplyDeleteOh my goodness I can't believe you found a 48 year old Pro-D book in your collection! I love your idea of slowly putting the books in the staff room for teachers to take. Like you said, the ones who will use it will take them and if someone else needs it maybe we can connect them with the teachers who now have that resource in their personal library. I too struggle with the resource section though...we have managed to weed it down a little bit and are slowly removing more. Our goal is the same as yours, to have only the ones with highest demand available. Thank you so much for the tip on Tigtag, I had never heard of it and it looks really good! Do you have a school subscription or district?
Take Care,
Karla
I must admit that the professional collection in my school needs some work as well. It rarely gets used. I have seen TLs do some impactful things like putting a few teacher resources in the photocopy room or the lunchroom for people to browse through. Something on my “to-do” list. I appreciate the way you incorporated the TPACK model into this post as well as the way you wove in some takeaways from our text.
ReplyDelete