LIBE 477: Supporting Teachers

"Professional Development, designed in concert with participants' needs, implemented thoughtfully, and focused on impact over activity, is a powerful way for librarians to leverage their expertise, perspectives, and skills." (Abilock, 13) 

Great! You have me convinced... except... I am lacking in the expertise department!

I find this week's topic particularly challenging. I know that in the role of Teacher-Librarian, we are often called upon for recommendations for resources for topics and student projects. I feel comfortable with that because that is what I am familiar with as a Teacher firstly. I am also comfortable with curating and maintaining professional resources in the bookroom adjacent to the Library and managing their circulation. However, I am not trained to lead others professional development. I have only been teaching for 6 years now and have been in the Library for 4 of those years. I do not know more than the teachers I am working with and am definitely not comfortable leading their professional development, especially in the area of Information Communication Technology (ICT). 

So, with that said, the role that I prefer to take is one of support. When a teacher shows interest in an area of professional development I do some research and share any and all resources that I can find that may help that teacher to grow. When Covid-19 forced us to teach remotely last spring I found myself giving a lot of ICT support. I spent my days searching for, assessing, and collating resources and tools by grade, subject, and use so that teachers could use them for their remote classes and class websites. I had a lot of co-workers asking for help establishing class sites and would zoom for hours setting up pages. Additionally, at the same time as the pandemic hit our district switched our email service disrupting many teachers set habits and causing the loss of a lot of files. The PGDTLA decided that as a group we should become familiar with the new system while we were working from home so that we could help ease the transition for the rest of the staff when the old service shut down (there was a two month overlap). Between these two extraordinary events, I was very involved in helping teachers adjust and develop their ICT skills. Since then, people have adjusted and I am getting fewer requests. 

I co-teach a lot in my library programming. When teachers are open to it, I use these set collaboration blocks to teach classes coding and technology skills. I look at these times as Pro-D as well. Sometimes, I am learning from the classroom teacher if they are taking more of a lead role, but often I am demonstrating for them how to use technology and teach technological skills for their class' age range. I have a few pieces of tech that I could do a small pro-d session on for teachers to get them familiar with the devices and link it to their curricular content. In order for the pro-d session to be well received and useful I need to "develop a thoughtful vision for what the technology tools will accomplish based on observations of teacher needs, curriculum maps, and district initiatives." (Abilock, 13) Sometimes though, you just have to teach with what you have!

Work Cited:

Abilock, Debbie, Violet Harada and Kristin Fontichiaro."Growing Schools: Effective Professional Development" Teacher Librarian. Oct 2013. pgs 8-13 

http://teacherlibrarian.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/06/Todarorequests/abilock-harada-fontichiaro.pdf