Marketing

Being in a new school, I feel rushed to prove my worth to our community.  For this reason Johnson's article outlining the five steps to advocacy spoke out to me.  Number 3- creating relationships was the point that ressonated with me the most becasue that is what I focus on in order to create buy-in.  Clearly there is much more that can and should be done in terms of advocating for the work and learning that takes place in the LLC.  Creating a document that shows LLC usage, circulation, projects collaborated on would be great to share, but it isn't in my immediate future.  Certainly I need a better understanding of running such reports.  I do use a TL Evaluation and Teacher Needs form, however only a handful were returned.  It will require me to chase them down a bit better. 

Creating relationships is priority number 1.  Should I remain in the school next year, I will be able to think in longer terms, but at the moment, it's one step at a time for me.  Go into classrooms, see what they are doing, offer support, resources, collab time or ideas for activities that could be done together. Use LLC class prep time to do activities that support classroom learning, use technology to engage learners or as a platform for presenting their learning.  Support school goals by using students to achieve them. (Our School is adopting "outdoor education" in small ways that are realistic to each teacher.   We are taking on a project  that will support teachers in reaching these goals.  Students and I are going to be making "sit-upons"which are little waterproof seats that can be taken outside and used on the ground out of used tarps, newspapers as stuffing and duct-tape.  Working with parents to support their efforts in generating library funds through book fairs, promoting and running fun clubs for students to take part in (Reading Link Challenge, Upcycling and Coding) are all ways that seem important to me to produce buy in.

I felt that some of the other ideas presented by Burkman were out of alignment with my beliefs such as generating test scores and comparing those classrooms who used the LLC to others who did not.  I simply don't have the time for that.  At lease not at this stage in the game.  I did like some of the ideas presented though such as book talk over the school announcements or endless contests to support other users of the LLC.