My LLED 462 journey had officially begun, but I found myself stumped as to where to begin. A guiding statement or essential question seemed daunting. How would I start? What should I focus on?  What if my mind changed?  But, isn’t that the beauty of inquiry? Inquiry leads us to answers, answers that we want answered. Ergo, I decided to simply let my mind lead me, for whatever it chose would guide me down the right path.

When I thought about my essential question, lots of phrases popped into my head – learning commons, inquiry, collaboration, literacy, change, growth, and the list went on. Ideas, words, jumbled around my brain as I contemplated what I ultimately wanted to get from this course and from this curation.  Rather than picking something right away, I decided to jot down ideas, thoughts, and let my jumbled thoughts flow onto paper.  With ideas in mind, I then decided to read Leading Learning and IFLA School Library Guidelines in hopes that my ideas would hone in on my essential question. After doing the readings, I felt inspired and decided to brainstorm a variety of potential questions stemming from the five standards from Leading Learning.  I recorded my brainstorm using bubble.us.  I have never used bubble.us, but since I want to be a more informed teacher-librarian, I decided that as part of this course, I would like to experiment with new technologies, since digital literacy, technology, and the virtual world abound throughout Leading Learning. Below is my brainstorm (click on the image to enlarge it):

As a side note, bubble.us was super easy to use.  There are not too many tools to be overwhelming and the user interface is simple to navigate and interpret. I could definitely see myself using this in the library with classes.

Now that I had many questions to consider, I decided to really think about what I wanted to focus on for this course and this curation. I came up with the following goals:

• To be able to justify to my administrator why we should transform the library into a learning commons
• To be more effective at my role as teacher-librarian
• To gain a better understanding of the different types of literacies and how to teach them more effectively
• To better utilize and explore the digital world/technology and apply them to my role as a teacher-librarian

My goals are intentionally quite broad. They are meant to help me grow in many ways as both a teacher and teacher-librarian. After looking at my goals, I decided that the essential question that makes sense and encompasses all my goals is:

How do learning commons better help schools achieve their goals?

How does the essential question help meet all my goals?  Firstly, it would be an excellent way to justify to my administrator why we should change our current library into a learning commons.  Administrators want their schools to achieve their goals.  If I can justify why a learning commons is better able to help the school achieve its goals, then I am providing excellent incentive to switch.  Second, to take on a learning commons model to improve school goals, I must figure out how to be more effective at my position, which would thus entail gaining a better understanding of different literacies and embracing and understanding the digital world and technology. In essence, my essential question drives my goals.

For the purposes of this curation, I have decided to use a blog to organize and document my learning.  This is directly related to my goal of exploring and using the digital world. If I am to be expected to use technology in the library, I need to try out different tools and resources so that I know what I am doing and so that I can then envision different ways to use it in the learning commons. It also allows me the freedom to try out different technologies that I could easily include on the blog (i.e. like bubbl.us, youTube, slideshows, etc.). It also provides me with a timeline of my learning. I can see the progression of my understanding change, grow, and blossom throughout the blog posts.  It provides a fantastic way for me to see my learning. Lastly, it allows me to be “organic” in my thinking. Rather than having something contrived, it is a more natural way for me to express my ideas, thoughts, and feelings as they come to me. That, to me, was different and inviting.

With that being said, I now loop back around to how I started – taking a look at Leading Learning. My essential goal clearly stemmed from my reading, but I have yet to delve into my thoughts or reactions to the readings. When I first started taking courses towards my Teacher-Librarian diploma, the term “learning commons” had yet to be introduced (at least in the courses that I had taken).  This past summer, however, I was introduced to the term in LIBE 465 through David Loertscher’s (2008) article called “Flip this library: School libraries need a revolution.”  In “Flip this Library,” he states, “If we want to connect with the latest generation of learners and teachers, we have to totally redesign the library from the vantage point of our users – our thinking has to do a 180-degree flip” (Loertscher, 2008, p. 46). He goes on to describe ways to alter the physical space (flexible room, movable furniture, etc.) and virtual space (describing it as a “giant, ongoing conversation and a warehouse of digital materials…all available 24/7 year-round) (Loertscher, 2008, p. 47). He then provided a great overview and introduction to the world of learning commons (providing ideas of where to go in the transition from library to learning commons). However, I always felt like something was missing – like I did not quite know what steps to take to fully make this transition.  Leading Learning helped bridge this gap.

Leading Learning was easy to read and understand.  It was nicely presented, with color coordination and clear steps and charts. I liked that the learning commons was broken down into five core standards of practice, which “focus on key concepts to be implemented to drive best teaching and learning” (CLA, 2014, p.8).  I felt that this piece was a vital part that I was missing from Loertscher’s article. I now had an idea of what I needed to include and why. Not only that, but I valued that each standard was supported by a growth continuum. When I thought about the transformation, I was initially overwhelmed, but when looking at the continuum, it helped break down where our school was and where we need to go. I realized that we are already doing many of these things (albeit at different stages). I tend to do better when I have concrete goals in front of me and Leading Learning laid this out very well. Furthermore, I liked that it provided key steps for implementation.  Again, Loertscher provided ideas and examples, but I felt that Leading Learning presented a more step-by-step guide. I think having this in front of me will make it easier when I try and justify to my administrator why we should try and move to a more learning commons set-up.  Will it be easy?  Of course not.  There are potentially many obstacles in the way (funding, support, time, etc.).  However, the grand ideas and the reasoning behind are worth the effort.  Perhaps it will take years to try and implement this vision, but I think it is worth it and having this document as support will be pivotal in this undertaking.  The first steps, I imagine, will be getting my administrator on board (which, naturally, brings me back to my essential question).  Once that happens, then I can see us starting off with forming a Learning Commons team (as the guide suggests).

Overall, I am quite excited about what is going to happen over the next few months.  When I first started thinking about my learning curation and the course, I was overwhelmed. However, now that I’ve started tackling ideas and did the initial readings, I feel inspired. Transforming my library into a learning commons seems like a huge undertaking; however, I think I will be getting ideas of how to do this throughout this course (and others).  One unsettling thing, though, is that I am in a district that has a massive layoff and recall process every year (I have nine years experience and I still get laid off every year).  As a result, I never know if I will return to my past teaching position(s) and, as a consequence, many school libraries in the district have a different teacher-librarian every year.  This has resulted in many school libraries getting neglected. It takes time for the new teacher-librarian to figure things out, get oriented, and assume his/her role. As a result, none of our schools have transformed into learning commons (how can they when there is so much disruption and change?). This is the first year that I was able to return to my same library and I have hopes that I will perhaps get to return again next year. With this (hope) in mind, I still think it is worth focusing on as a goal. I know it will take small steps and lots of time, but I think it will be remarkable to see how the library changes, evolves, and motivates. Furthermore, since a learning commons involves the whole school, if I can at least get ideas percolating and started, then perhaps the Learning Commons team can potentially keep things going (even if I end up in a different school).  I may have to keep doing this wherever I go! Nevertheless, it is an exciting time for teacher-librarians.

References

Canadian Library Association. (2014).  Leading learning: Standards of practice for school library learning commons in Canada. Ottawa:ON

International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions. (2015).  IFLA School Library Guidelines., 2nd revised Ed. Den Haag, Netherlands.

Loertscher, David. (2008).  Flip this Library: School Libraries Need a Revolution.  School Library Journal, 54(11), 46-48.