Day 21: Collaboration in #SCDSB School Libraries

I have the privilege as the Teacher-Librarian Resource Teacher to support the 101 school libraries in SCDSB. Many of my teacher-librarian colleagues direct their own professional learning.  Already I have been invited into 23 different elementary and secondary school libraries. Every time I step into a different library learning commons I continue my learning along with the teacher I am supporting.

There are a few new teacher-librarians who are trying to "learn the ropes" and adapt their skill set to their new role.  I am lucky to be able to support them when they have technical or programming questions.  As I support them I get a chance to relive the excitement as they realize that they will teach all students in all grades.  It is the busiest classroom in any school!

For the experienced teacher-librarians, they realize that they are lead learners and so they push me to keep up to date on reading engagement strategies, Google Apps for Education (GAFE) updates and how it all fits into out provincial document called Together for Learning and the national guide called Leading Learning.

The most popular reason that I have been invited into a school this month has been to assist in the implementation of maker spaces.  Many teacher-librarians believe that the library learning commons is the perfect place to introduce the maker movement to students, parents and staff. I completely agree!  The maker movement is multi-disciplinary by nature that emphasizes collaboration both of which the teacher-librarian has expertise.

Having a space where students and teachers can collaborate, create and tinker is an authentic way to improve problem solving skills, learn deeply and practice the growth mindset approach to learning.
It is really exciting to help transform traditional libraries to library learning commons to support student learning.  All stakeholders are excited to begin and have managed to eek out some way to demonstrate the maker movement in their school.

 In all my school library visits the topics are varied but the goal is the same. They all want to collaborate more effectively with students and colleagues. For some that is through the establishment of a maker culture and/or developing a relevant collection for inquiry teaching models or encouraging the love of reading through special programming.

I am excited to continue my visits and to connect those with similar goals into meaningful professional learning networks.