SLLC Action Management Plan

This year I have been working at a new school in a freshly renovated Student Library Learning Commons (SLLC) full of new technology.   I had many feelings pass through me at the beginning of the year when I thought about the year ahead.  The school had a good reputation with innovative staff who offered many different learning opportunities including Applied Design Skills and Technologies, outdoor education, maker space and coding.  I felt excitement and anticipation for the opportunity, wanting to use the skills I had developed to contribute to the school culture and learning community.  I wanted to do my best to create meaningful relationships and to prove my value to the school community.   I also felt anxiety knowing how much work it takes to actually make this happen, as I have already worked in two other school libraries.  In this action plan I will discuss some areas I have identified that require improvement in order for the Library program to serve our students better and to help me become the library media specialist that my school community expects of me.(Harvey, 2005)

When I think about the challenges ahead with regards to redefining the space, as laid out in the first module, I chose to focus on my own effectiveness as a library media specialist and work towards addressing the areas that indicate you are a 21^st century school librarian.(Kasman Valenza, 2010)  Specifically I wish to be able to “organize the web for learners”.  Most times I am asked to find materials on a certain topic, I am a bit sickened by the currency of what I find. Sometimes I am able to show teachers other resources available to them through the district databases, but not always.  I feel that finding and dropping off a number of print resources is not enough to meet their needs.  I want to be able to find and organize student friendly websites and digital resources so I can distribute them to teachers and use them with their classes during our prep time together.  These resources will help engage their learners with the curriculum and enable them to conduct some research effectively on their own.(Lambert, 2013)  Symbaloo is an online bookmarking tool that stores favorite websites and resources and makes it easy to share a number of them visually at the same time.  By using symbaloo.com I will use premade resource banks and create my own versions tapered to our school needs to share and use resources with teachers and students.  Furthermore, I will propose a collaboration project where we can use these resources to begin the process of engaging students so they will eventually learn how to use them and are able to conduct their own research with them.

Although our SLLC does not function as a dual-use facility serving the wider community beyond school families, it does work together with the Surrey Public Library (SPL) to promote literacy programs for students.  We participate in the Reading Link Challenge, Summer Reading program and Reading Buddies that is sponsored by the Public Library system.  By working together with the librarians at the  SPL, I believe it encourages students to participate in the wider library community.  In order to further the relationship our SLLC has with the community I will include information in the e-newsletter and sandwich board (located outside the SLLC beside the playground) that will highlight opportunities held at the SPL and SLLC for our students and families.  Also I will include the SLLC school website, hours of operation and make and invitation for families to come in for whatever they need.  I liked the way the Britannia library branch operated as a learning commons, ESL center and Art gallery, and it caused me to think about using the SLLC as a vehicle to present student artwork/creations.(Nikolai, 2007)

I found the world of library policy to be overwhelming, but can see a way of slowly creating the documents needed and inform the school community of them.  I have been collecting all kinds of forms that I have either made or found online to help students in pursuit of their information skills since covering module 3.  I have been printing and collecting forms in a binder such as fill-in bibliographies, website evaluation (CRAAP), library information scavenger hunts, fliers and evaluations for teachers to use during instruction.  However, I realize they also need to be made more available in order to become “living documents”(MacDonell, 2004) that are widely circulated and used by teachers other than myself.   I have been sharing them with Teachers as I use them with their classes, to align our teaching, and will begin adding them to the school Library website in a PDF or Word document so they are available to the school community and beyond.  I have many more to make, but will use others where I can as a template.

I really appreciated all the ideas Miller presented in her discussion around kid-friendly environments.(Miller, 2008)  I want to continue pursuing some of these ideas in our SLLC such as fine tuning my knowledge of boys and books and continuing with some of the more traditional skills that she clearly values such as storytelling, dramatics and readers theatre.  Since completing module 4, I started to create a special book section for boys including creepy gross stories as it was close to Halloween.  I looked into and purchased some recommended titles through School Library Journal that fit varied reading levels and content area.  I will create the shelves that I want to designate for this section, which are going to be made of upcycled VHS cassettes stuck together.  I want the shelves themselves to be appealing to a boys’ sense of appeal and feel these materials may do the trick.  I will create a form that clearly lays out my role and the teachers’ role in our collaboration delivery similar to Johnson’s example of the Socials Studies case study.(Johnson, 2005)  I felt it clearly demonstrated the expectations of planning and executing and effective collaboration partnership.     

Now that the relationships have started to grow, I am beginning to focus on other ways of advocating the SLLC and my role within our school.  Two clubs I have started are generating excitement and students are approaching me in numbers to take part.  I have set aside two lunches per week to facilitate the Reading Link Challenge (RLC) and coding club.  I must be careful to take lunch breaks amongst the energy and excitement, however two devoted to student clubs and two for myself should work positively to advocate for my role and the library program in general.  If I am to connect with the students and their interests, then I need to be a part of the clubs so that I can find ways of improving the experiences for them.  The RLC doesn’t require much of myself other than to open the SLLC for students to have a place to meet and discuss in their groups.  At a later date I will create quizzes for them to test their reading retention and help them prepare for the upcoming challenges on either a RLC blog or Kahoot game.  On another note, I would also like to learn how to create usage reports so that I can compare circulation statistics from classes with whom I have collaborated with those whom I have not.

I have had some success asking for money at my previous school due to some excess funds left over which isn’t usually the case.  I do not believe that will happen this year, as our administration is skilled budget planning and spending.  After this first year, I feel I will have a better handle on being able to ask for funds based on facts, research and instructional goals.(Dickinson, 2003)  I have to become more familiar with the collection first before I will be able to assess which areas need supplemental budget allowance.  I will order a Titalwise report in order to show data that can tell me about the age and breadth of our collection.  I will then be able to understand where any gaps are for budgeting purposes next year.   I also want to learn about curriculum maps to see how they can help me plan for budgeting over the coming years and find out if there is a budget elsewhere in the school to pay for areas that need updating.

The first thing to happen before I will be able to understand what our budgeting needs will be is a huge weeding project.  Our school was created as a product of two schools merging in 2006.  Although the school structure was brand new, the SLLC was built from old library furniture, shelving and resources from those schools.  As a result, our library was renovated this past summer and was given a huge update with shelving, furniture and technology, however the print resources are largely quite dated.  I will continuously weed this year with the 15 minutes per week rule (Dickinson, 2005) targeting some specific areas and then order another Titalwise report to reflect the weeding done in order to assess where needs arise.   I appreciated Dickinson’s point about how an empty shelf demonstrates need, at the same time encourages students to access it easily as it becomes more available to them being less cluttered and daunting. 

With regards to the generous givers who spend their time helping in the SLLC, I wish to thank them properly.  It is not enough to give a little prize here and there or to recognize some and not others.  I have a group of monitors who have been scheduled based on their availability since October, however not all have been turning up, while others have been filling in.  I have since followed up with those who were not showing up and discovered that it was simply because they kept forgetting.  I should have followed up with them sooner, but because I am so busy it was easier to accept help from others who did turn up rather than to track down those who were scheduled.  Perhaps this view is too rigid, however I wanted to make sure all who signed up were getting the opportunity they hoped for.  We decided that rather than have them join late for only a few more weeks, they would start with my new recruits in January so they will be able to work for the entire term.  I will facilitate training sessions for monitors as a group at the beginning of the year starting in January, to ensure they understand basic job expectations in the SLLC.  I will also thank them all properly by taking them as a group to an event hosted by the SPL.  I will use the approach of trying different ways of saying thank-you and hope that it reaches them.(Fullner 2004)  As for the wonderful parent volunteers that run book fairs and help out in numerous ways in the school, I will also think of some ways of saying thank you and this time I will be ready with my camera to take pictures of them doing their valuable work.  Then I can post them and share my thanks with the entire school community.

Feeling confidant using various forms of technology in order to plan meaningful learning opportunities for my students is one of my continual goals.  Technology is advancing faster than I am able to learn, however I am seeing the effects of how students learn differently today than they did 10 years ago.   It is necessary to teach in a way that will ensure these students are engaged with the learning and are able to use technology responsibly and competitively in the ever changing workplace landscape.  More than ever, I am aware that I am a “digital immigrant” working to close the gap between myself and my students who are “digital natives.”(Prensky, 2001)  I will create a SLLC blog and website to include social media as a way of sharing all of the things that are happening in the SLLC with students, parents, teachers and administrators.  More than ever I am able to see it’s relevance when I hear students saying they will create a chat or group message to aid in group discussion.   What better way of being transparent and advocating for the SLLC than this?  I notice that although students enjoy interacting with different kinds of technology, they need much support in learning how to create questions, search for and synthesize information effectively in order to create projects using various formats.  

Professional development and leadership are two areas that are emerging for me.  Like Harvey, I was surprised that I became a TL, as I viewed that a person in this role would have traits and talents that I did not possess.(Harvey, 2001) My journey began six years ago as a TTOC filling in for a library position for six months and has evolved into one of my passions that I am challenged by and driven to learn more about each day.  I’m not running away from the pitcher’s mound as he makes analogy to but am trying to face it “even if I get hit”.  This is not a position where one can hide and do nothing.  If we are going to attempt to reach out and connect to hundreds of students then our heart and our leadership need be present.  I was also faced with presenting to my colleagues at a workshop and was happy it had gone well and others felt they had taken something away that was worthwhile to them.  I recognize the importance of having professional development a part of my journey because for some years I had not been able to take part in it.  This year I negotiated to have both Mondays and Fridays (professional days) available to me as workdays so that I would be able to take advantage of those precious learning opportunities.   I will continue to take workshops that are directly applicable to my position such as learning how to use Discovery Education.  By engaging with these opportunities and by networking with other TL’s, it will help me to advocate my knowledge of useful available tools to others to help them with their teaching. 

It’s always a learning curve, in the beginning when starting a new job.  Except these days, it never seems to stop curving.  We are continually being thrown in different directions trying to figure out how to make ourselves relevant and useful to others.  I find the work I do is worthwhile and as a result, I am driven to succeed in any way that I can.  Comparing myself to others is futile, but if I can follow a plan for next year to slowly incorporate some of the things I have examined in LIBR 461 then our SLLC will be better place for it and I will be closer to what is expected of me as a media specialist teacher.    In summary, the focus of my action plan will center around creating a SLLC social media platform to communicate with others, budget plan that allows for future spending, familiarity with the collection and mastering of new digital resources to help our students and staff.  My only hope now is that I can continue my work next year in the same school so that this learning can take hold and progress into something greater.