Rebuilding: A Foundation Built on Trust
I’ve enjoyed mulling over the question of how best I can respond to the needs of the staff. It seems to me that this question has two realities which should be addressed before I start proposing initiatives. The first is the reality of COVID. As with all libraries and schools across Canada, COVID has fundamentally changed our roles this year and the roles of our co-workers. In my Winnipeg school division, teachers are now teaching 2 classrooms of students at once using Microsoft Teams to communicate between the two spaces and to deliver content. Until January, these same teachers were also teaching students who opted to learn from home as well as those in the two classroom spaces. Their professional needs have certainly looked different this year than in the past.
Equally relevant is the fact that I am new to the role of teacher librarian and am experience a very steep learning curve as I am familiarizing myself with our equipment and school technology. My predecessor had a reputation for being standoffish, unapproachable and territorial when it came to library materials. All of these realities provide some context as to why many of my goals in the realm of PD may seem very modest but also explain why these foundational steps are needed to re-built trust between the staff.
Approachability and Communication:
I believe that before I can start helping my colleagues develop new skills or be gifted with their attention, I need to prove myself as someone who is approachable, is kind when they divulge their inabilities to perform a computer task, and generous with my time and our shared library resources. This trust must be built up over time and this process of being present and willing to help when required, will take time. To achieve this I’ve made some concrete changes:
1) First, I make an effort to connect with classroom teachers and ask them how there are doing. Building a personal rapport with everyone will increase the chances of them feeling comfortable to approach me when needed.
2) If a teacher asks me for help I provide support immediately and follow up by seeking advice from our divisional IT department if I don’t know the answer.
3) I send out emails keeping staff updated with library-related news and invite input around book purchasing.
4) I leave my office door open and make an effort to spend time with the staff instead of by myself in my office. As the document Leading Learning recommends, "She has an open door policy for all (p.4)"
5) Listening to advice and feedback. Communication is a two-way street and if my colleagues suggest someone to follow on Twitter, a book to purchase or the fact that the sound quality was poor at the last assembly, I need to show them that I heard their suggestion. That’s not to say that I must do as everyone tells me, but instead that I must listen to everyone, thank them for their input and implement the suggestions that fit with my personal teacher librarian philosophy and that of our Learning Commons Library.
Professional Learning Materials:
When I first started as teacher librarian, I asked my administrator if we had a professional resource section that I was unaware or (I couldn’t find it!) She mentioned that we did and that it was located in another room of the school far from the library and that it was “comically out of date”. There are other priorities at the moment, but my hope is that once we return to a COVID free world, that I would weed these resources and place a shelf for teachers to access somewhere in our school library.
I am also not sure if my colleagues are aware of the new books that come into our library. Although our budget is quite small ($1500 a year), I think setting up a new book display area in our library would help highlight the newest resources available for classroom use. These do not need to be professional development resources, but simply new books that they may wish to use in their classrooms. Again, this initiative will have to wait until after the code Orange COVID restrictions have been lifted.
https://www.pinterest.ca/pin/538250592958713744/
Another venue in which I can share about recommended teaching practices is when I teach in classrooms. Unfortunately, this has been paused for the moment during Code Orange, but once I am able to visit classrooms again I can teach by example through my content delivery method and activity choices. It happened in the fall, and I hope that it will happen again in the future, that someone saw how I used technology in my lesson and followed up with me wanting to learn how to do the same technique with their students as well.
School-wide responsibilities:
As mentioned before, the state of the teacher librarian position I inherited was quite dismal and I must diligently work at elevating the role to one of school leadership again. Here are some simply ideas which I hope to implement in the future when appropriate:
1) I would like to have a visible role in our school assemblies. At the moment, since I have some flexibility on Day 1s in the afternoon, I have taken on the role of creating virtual assemblies at our school. These once a month events involve sharing pre-made videos which feature grade 6 students. I spent 3 of the 4 Day 1s working with them on producing a script and filming the skits. This has done much to show the added value a teacher librarian can provide to a school and also highlights my technology skills for those who are looking to replicate some of what is modeled (such as using a document camera, screen sharing, or even creating a meeting in Microsoft Teams. Although this responsibility will surely change after COVID, I hope to continue adding my presence through a “new book” feature or by sharing a story with the school population.
2) I would love to organize some professional development in the future by either coordinating a guest speaker or by running an event myself. In a previous job I worked as a school garden consultant and so I am very comfortable running PD sessions and sharing my skill set.
3) Another humble aim I have is to establish a standing library update item on the staff meetings agenda. It seems very simple and unremarkable, but by sharing each month with the staff any library-related news and by highlighting reading opportunities and new material acquisitions, I hope to stay in the forefront of my colleagues’ minds. I want them to know that I take this role seriously and that I can assist them in a professional manner.
References:
Standards of Practice for School Library Learning Commons in Canada. Retrieved from: https://www.bythebrooks.ca/leading-learning-in-the-school-library-learning-commons/
There's Nothing to Be Afraid Of. Retrieved from https://www.pinterest.ca/pin/330099847661431441/ on February 27, 2021.
Workplace Communication. Retrieved from http://iblog.iup.edu/ntlw/2019/09/14/communication-in-the-workplace/ on February 27, 2021.
Good blog post on the some of the foundational approaches and supports that a T-L can provide for their school community, peers and colleagues. A good overview and reminder about the importance of trust, developing and cultivating strong relationships, approachability, as well as strong responsiveness to needs. You did a good job outlining and describing a couple of good examples of approaches, tools, ideas and initiatives that work now, during Covid, as well as after, when we will return to more interactive and personable times. A good connection to some of our course texts and publications, as well as reinforcing some practical pedagogy.
ReplyDeleteWow, Suzanne! You already do so much in your role as TL. I enjoyed reading about how you are transforming the perception of TLs in your school and connecting with staff. I have never put on a professional development day and am not sure where I'd start. I also never considered the role a TL could have in assemblies. In my current school, most assemblies were run by administration or our music teacher. Some food for thought.
ReplyDeleteTrust and positive relationships are so important to all of us as educators. I really admire your approach of being humble and modest and teaching by example. For so many years the approach to professional development was always "top down" and I believe we lost out on many opportunities to learn because we were being directed to learn about whatever the buzz professional development was at the time.
ReplyDeletefor example, first, Positive Behaviour Support, then when that wasn't embraced we learned about Response to Intervention, Zones of Regulation, Self-Regulation, and most recently Growth Mindset. and some not so new but little known concepts such as STEM and STEAM.
Much of the time we are told to learn the programs but aren't given the time to learn them,much less teach them. So to make a long story short, I love your ideas of leading by example and taking a modest approach to pro-d. (Struck a nerve, but as we learned during CBAM, we need time to learn, implement and reflect on programs that we are asked to adopt at our schools)
Developing trust and exhibiting humbleness is a fabulous approach. Thank you for sharing. Take care, from Roberta