I like Spencer’s blog title, ICT stands for “I Can’t Think” (of one way that PC is better than MAC!). Because I am a hardcore MAC lover and a diehard PC hater, well….just had to let you know that I’m with ya on that one bro! But I digress…back to the task at hand: continuing to develop my skills, pedagogy and professional development in my library and beyond LIBE 477.
Teacher-librarian collaboration: Currently, this is my number one way of developing skills in my topic area of mastering Destiny Quest. Once a month, all the t-ls in my district who have recently made the OPAC switch to Follett’s Destiny Quest, get together for an after school collaboration session. Each month, we examine a new aspect of the program, what is working well for us, what isn’t, etc. This last session, we looked at cataloguing new books in our library. It is very informative and extremely helpful, as most of my “big burning questions” are answered and I go back to my school excited to implement my newest skill acquisitions!
“Professional development”: Love this photo from the National Library of Norway, 1946. What does it have to do with professional development? Not much. But Nicole’s blog really got me thinking about my own professional development and how it is best spent. She says that “after all these days are meant for learning, not just getting work done” (i.e. picture above). My job share partner and I recently booked the second of our bi-annual “professional development” days together in March. It is sooooooo hard to work with a teaching partner that you don’t actually work with! So, twice a year we get together for the day. The first day is in the fall, and we make a trip to Vancouver Kids Books and spend a truckload of money. The second day is in the spring, where we close our library for the day and just plan, problem solve, talk, fix, process and laugh. This year, we are going to focus on how to catalogue. We are going to share what we have learned through trial and error and also through the collaboration sessions we have attended.
Social media: Of course, staying connected through blogs, twitter, pinterest, etc. is a key component of learning, developing skills and expanding one’s horizons. I am going to take some time after the course is done to really examine different blogs and find a couple that spark my interest. The Daring Librarian is a really fun, dynamic blog. It has lots of ICT content, ideas, media literacy and teacher-librarian professional development ideas.
Real professional development: Our school district offers many opportunities for professional development. I have the above “professional development” in quotes because it is more of a self created development, whereas our district has more formal opportunities on the SD33 website, PD Place. I plan to register for more sessions in areas that I need to grow in, chiefly, implementing technology with my students in the library. Although I have done small projects, most of my ICT learning is theoretical, not applied. I really am just beginning in my journey.
Well done blog post! You have a very humorous, honest style of writing that is super engaging and very helpful for others to see your learning journey. Too often people only discuss how easy things are, or how simple they found it, but that is not the true reality of our world where we are constantly learning “just in time” for what we need to do. I think you’ve got some excellent ideas for carrying your ICT skill development forward after this class is over and the diploma is done. You’ve got many great opportunities right in your district, and others to collaborate with and that is a huge asset that many don’t have. One aspect to keep working on is to “label” or “tag” your posts with keywords that will help categorize and sort your blog posts later. If you need some help with this, just fire me an email!
Great ideas and a great reminder that there are a lot of local ways to add to our personal learning networks: TLs in our district, staff at our schools, and district professional development and resources. I enjoyed The Daring Librarian blog too. Fun but with good information about ICT. Definitely bookmarking it.
Thanks for all the information Carrie. I clicked on all your links (except pd place;) as I went through, which I’m discovering is a fun way to read. I can identify with your ideas about putting it aside for later. It’s hard to learn it and use it all at the same time. I will have to attend one of the follett destiny sessions, at the moment I am helping lead the collab at our site so I need to opt in for next year.