Staff & Self Development (With a little bit of Collaboration Sprinkled in!) By: Erin Berkholtz & Michele Koshollek

Purpose of Development  To update library teams on latest trends and initiatives  Technologies  To focus on priorities for library development  What can we improve on?  Teacher/librarian collaborative instruction  still the most effective means to teach information literacy skills in order to improve student achievement

Best Practice Model - IMPACT  IMPACT model for North Carolina Schools. “Recognizes that effective school library media and instructional technology programs support both effective teaching and learning. Fully funded program. Is aligned to Information Power: Building Powerful Partnerships, the national standards for media and technology programs (AASL, 1998).

IMPACT  Brochure Brochure  What is an IMPACT school? What is an IMPACT school?  Collaboration Toolkit Collaboration Toolkit  North Carolina realizes the importance of fostering a strong, collaborative relationship between teachers and school librarians in order to find ultimate success for all students.

Teacher/Librarian Collaboration “The school library media specialist works with all the students, all the teachers, and all the curriculum all the time” – Blanche Woolls, 2008 Each partner brings valuable knowledge… Teacher: strengths and weaknesses of students and knowledge of curriculum and content. Library Media Specialist: thorough understanding of information skills and methods to integrate them.

Staff Development Needs Assessment  A great way to assess the needs of staff (and volunteers?) is to have them do a survey.  By having staff indicate their level of knowledge and interest on the survey, a committee can then use the results to plan building-directed staff development offerings.  braries/Staff_Development_Needs_Assess ment.doc (handout) braries/Staff_Development_Needs_Assess ment.doc

Staff Development Plan Workbook  New Mexico’s libraries created a document to be used to do the following: Create a plan to work to prioritize educational opportunities for library staff to ensure a library’s needs are met ent/planning/Staff_Development_Plan_Workbo ok04.pdf (handout 2) ent/planning/Staff_Development_Plan_Workbo ok04.pdf

Why create a staff development workbook?  To identify core competencies for staff  To identify training methods that should be used to ensure all staff will be able to have the skills necessary to do their jobs.

Latest Trends in Technologies  Staff Development with teachers new to the district/school is a great way to show them technologies they can use in their lessons  Web 2.0 Blogging RSS/Live Bookmarks Podcasting Social Networks Wikis

Self Development – How?  Attend professional conferences, especially those sponsored by library associations, publishing groups, academic societies related to your work  Join sponsored training sessions to learn additional skills  Monitor new developments in the field by joining appropriate list-servs, discussion groups, and networking

Self Development – How? Con’t…  Participate in conferences, seminars, etc as a speaker, facilitator, trainer, or mentor  Collaborate with other librarians, information professionals, and publishers  Study visits of local/international libraries  Visit major trade exhibitions, book fairs, etc.  Keep a journal or documentation of library activities.documentation

Self Development – How? Con’t…  Keep current with new developments, issues, and gain expertise and more knowledge by: Attending formal courses, distance learning programs, tutorials, etc. Independent self study Reading professional literature in print online such as e-newsletters, web-based resources (magazines, journals, full-text articles)

Self Development – Examples  Publications Booklist School Library Journal Edutopia Tech and Learning  Organizations ALA WEMTA WSRA  List-serves LM_NET  Conferences WEMTA ALA annual conference (Chicago) WSRA (Milwaukee/February)

ALA  Getting Involved with the American Library Association (ALA) Whether you're beginning your path in libraries or building on an existing library career, membership in ALA affords unique opportunities to students, librarians, support staff, and retired and non-salaried professionals. Involvement in ALA helps you connect with continuing education, peer networking, and leadership development through many ALA initiatives. ALA works for you by advocating at national, state, and local levels for issues that concern our members.  Continuing Education ALA and its divisions provide continuing education in a variety of venues and formats for librarians, library support staff and library trustees. ALA and its divisions also develop competency statements for various specializations and provide a broad range of publications.

WEMTA WEMTA's Mission  The purpose of the Wisconsin Educational Media and Technology Association (WEMTA) is to embrace individuals involved in the support, utilization, and integration of information, communication, and technology and to advance their efforts to improve student growth and achievement by: Providing programs and services that enhance the professional growth of all members. Representing information, communication, and technology interests to the general public, policymakers, and the educational community. Advocating our members’ role as instructional leaders and key players within the educational community. Promoting leadership and advocacy for information access, intellectual freedom and life-long learning. Advancing Association goals through cooperation with related organizations and associations having similar interests and purposes. WEMTA

LM_NET  LM_NET On The Web is dedicated to school library media specialists worldwide, and to people involved with the school library media field.  can be used by library media people for many different things- to ask for input, share ideas and information, link programs that are geographically remote, make contacts, etc.

Self Development  The Alabama Professional Learning Collaborative has created extensive evaluation tools to use for both self and professional development.  bselfasmnt.doc (handout) bselfasmnt.doc

Staff/Self Development Programs   Build and deliver your own staff development: Select from 15 modular activities to create and deliver your own Library of Congress professional development. All materials you need to deliver are included. Download your materials in an easy-to-print PDF or exportable HTML file. Deliver standards-based Teaching with Primary Sources professional development to educators.

Staff/Self Development Programs  – You would need a user name and password. This professional development offers best practice videos, interactive training, project demonstrations, and courses for credit.  Interactive Training is a self-paced, easy-to-use program that helps you learn to use Discovery Education™ streaming. From basic site features to in-depth instructional strategies, this engaging series of lessons is a comprehensive instructional tool.  Discovery Education has joined forces with several accredited universities to offer high quality, online graduate courses on integrating digital media in education that feature Discovery Education™ streaming. Courses can be taken individually or as part of a certificate or master’s degree. Each program offers a range of courses and concentrations, click on ‘Go To’ for detailed information

Staff/Self Development Programs  Collaborative Research Project using Web 2.0 tools. Teacher/Library Media Specialist work together to create topic list. Presentations of projects and programs is done in a co- teaching situation. Research is done using print and online databases and sources. Notes are taken using Webnote and Delicious Documents are created using Google Docs. Outlines are created with Gliffy or Inspiration Sources are cited using Easy Bib Work is evaluated with Survey Monkey Projects are presented using Glogster Library Media Specialist is involved in every step of the process, including evaluation.

Resources  /Staff_Development_Needs_Assessment.doc /Staff_Development_Needs_Assessment.doc  y/pplstaffday/piscataway.ppt y/pplstaffday/piscataway.ppt  us/events/events-profdev/t us/events/events-profdev/t1-25  practices-professional-development-for-librarians practices-professional-development-for-librarians  Russell, Shayne. "Teachers and Librarians: Collaborative Relationships." ERIC Digest (2001): n. pag. Web. 10 Apr 2010.

CONCLUSION  LIBRARY ADVOCACY LIBRARY ADVOCACY