Library Ties » Professional Development

Podcasting PLCs

Carl Harvey — Sun, 20 Sep 2009 02:35:26 +0000

We’re working on a lot of fun things this year at my school. I’m most excited about our professional development plan. Our staff book study is Will Richardson’s Blogs, Wikis, Podcasts, and other Powerful Web Tools for Classrooms. We’re not necessarily going in order, but using it as the outline for our professional development his year.

We decided to start out with podcasts. I spent a week training teachers. Each created a short recording about their favorite children’s books. Hopefully we’ll get them posted soon. I loved how we decided to do the trainings this week. Rather than a large group, I went to each of their Professional Learning Communities (PLCs) meetings this week. We worked in a small group and could focus on their grade level. It was perfect. Now we’re working on integrating a project with podcasts into their curriculum. The plan is to have a staff meeting at the end of October where everyone will share what they’ve done with their students.

We’ll repeat this model a couple of times the rest of the year as we explore these tools and how we can best use them with our students. Should make for a busy and exciting year!

Networking

Carl Harvey — Thu, 24 Apr 2008 23:10:56 +0000

This week I’ve been out of my library for a variety of difference reasons. I attended Peggy Sharp’s BER workshop. This is a perennial favorite event on my calendar and a great time to share and talk about new books. It also provides an opportunity to catch-up with some of my library media friends — which makes the day even more special. This year I represented our school district at the annual Board Meeting for our state library cooperative – INCOLSA. Attending this event for the first time, I enjoyed the opportunity to talk and share and think about ways we can take even more advantages of the services INCOLSA provides its members. Other “outings” included: spending time with our 4th grade teachers developing book orders for titles they want to use with leveled reading, attending our monthly library media specialist meeting, and visiting a neighboring district to talk about collaboration. Sometimes when I go to a conference or a meeting I wonder if that really is a good use of my time, but as I sit here reflecting I think it is. Those opportunities to be out of our buildings give us a chance to see and hear what others do, to find new resources and opportunities to expand our program, and networking with others library media specialists. All of the time I spent this week will help us continue to develop and improve our library media program for our students and staff, so it was time well spent.

Professional Development and Library Media Specialists

Carl Harvey — Thu, 20 Mar 2008 02:21:37 +0000

Yesterday I had the opportunity to attend a professional development training with several of my teachers. The workshop focused on a model for instruction and that our district has adopted. The topic really doesn’t matter, but one thing I noticed was the absence of other library media specialists in the room. Why is that?

Is it the administrator doesn’t see the value of sending the LMS?
Is it because the LMS doesn’t see the benefit in attending?
Is it just there is a limit on the number who can attend?

When our building decided who to send to this training, we focused on our professional development committee. This group is responsible for bringing back the workshop to the others on our staff as well as preparing other trainings throughout the year. I quickly signed on board for this committee. Why? It certainly was because I need another committee meeting.

I wanted to find ways as we’re planning activities for our staff that I can integrate media and technology into those trainings, too.
I wanted to be at the forefront of knowing what our building is working on implementing. I wanted to be ready to demonstrate how we are able to implement school-wide programs and make connections in the library media center.
I wanted to know what resources I can provide to help our teachers as they start working with the new knowledge from the training.

It doesn’t matter what the training is — balanced literacy, writing, math, problem solving, etc. I attempt to participate as much as possible in these trainings with my teachers because I think it is very worthwhile. As I’m planning and working with teachers, I know what is expected and have had the same training so that the common knowledge we now share can help open the door to collaboration!