Building relationships with teachers is crucial to student learning and success as a TL. Schools are incredibly busy places with demanding schedules and it may be hard to create time and space to build those professional development opportunities for yourself and teachers. TL’s are no doubt leaders in their communities, but I see my role as one of supporting the teachers in their creation and delivery of curriculum. As supporting characters in a school, it is incumbent upon us to find ways to enrich the teacher’s and students’ learning experiences. Becoming a digital resource and finding solutions for teachers online that make things easier for them and not more complicated, is the key. As McClintock Miller and Bass (2019) discuss, one must insist upon five minutes of harassment where you can check in with a teacher about what their plans are for that week where in turn the TL can then position themselves as a mentor by identifying technology and tools that will enhance the teacher’s lessons (McClintock Miller & Bass, 2019, p. 22).
MINI LESSONS: Virtual Meetings, Social Videos and Virtual Museums
My school is a Montessori school and so the teachers there love a mini-lesson. One of the ways that I could be supportive while also being respectful of their time would be to offer short presentations on new technologies or ideas that I have that could be useful in the classroom. Over the last few years, we have all had to become more comfortable having meetings online on Zoom and so forth. I am certain that there were many teachers who couldn’t wait to do away with this platform and get back to their precious in-person meetings. However, to my surprise, my school has continued to offer virtual staff meetings because it is undeniably a useful tool for the whole school. There is more autonomy in knowing that you don’t physically have to be in the building to attend a meeting.
Hilariously, last year, there was a teacher who chimed into the Zoom meeting from her dentist chair. Granted, this is, of course, an example of exactly what admin had asked us not to do, but it was still necessary that this teacher was in both of those places at once, and so she did it. For me, this opens up a world of opportunity that traditional school structures have never been able to accommodate. If I needed to schedule a mini-lesson with teachers to introduce a technological tool that they could use, my first step would be a Zoom meeting so that we could get together quickly, without actually having to get together and then if they had any questions I would be there to answer them.
The other option would be to utilize our staff social media platform, Slack, that has been instituted since B.C. (before covid). Instead of bombarding the teachers with emails, or taking up their time at lunch or before and after school, I would create some videos for them on a new tool that I have found. I could post these videos on their grade-level channel and then they would be able to access them at their convenience and also go back to them if they need to hear the presentation again. As I have become somewhat proficient in filming You Tube videos (I was actually a Fitness Instructing Star of my school during the lockdowns – I can only shake my head and laugh).
My next step is to learn how to record myself giving these presentations so that teachers can have the instructions to re-watch, pause and fast-forward or whatever the case may be. This is a new skill for me, voiceovers would also work very well, but I have made a goal of actually having my little face-square in the corner of a presentation that I give to teachers this year. Wish me luck! This video has been a helpful starting point:
An example of a virtual tool that I might share with teachers in one of my soon-to-be-masterpiece-videos is Digital Museum Canada. I was fortunate enough to attend the BCTLA 2022 Conference on Friday and one of the resources that was shared during the session, “Under the Sink” by Peggy Janicki and Jennifer Lane was a website with many wonderful teacher resources from Sq’éwlets-A Stó:lō- A Coast Salish Community in the Fraser River Valley.
This project is a virtual museum that is powered by Digital Museums Canada (formerly known as virtualmuseum.ca that has been decommissioned) is rich with language resources from the First Nation’s around the area with beautifully curated teacher resources that are ready to utilize in the classroom. My ideal would be to be able to give teachers a tour of the website so that they can see exactly where and how to access the materials they can use.
As we continue to evolve and want to bring useful technology into our schools more seamlessly, it makes sense that we would begin to confer as colleagues using the tools and methods that we hope to encourage our students to learn how to use. It feels less overwhelming and more manageable to more I dive into some of these practices. My greatest hope is to not become a Digital Dinosaur, no matter the deficit that is my starting point.
Works Cited
Husid, W. (2013). Collaboration: Make It Happen in Your School. Library Media Connection,31(4), 42–44.
How to record yourself presenting a powerpoint presentation. YouTube. (2020, May 16). Retrieved October 23, 2022, from https://youtu.be/6abWf-5u3Gs
Funded projects. Digital Museums Canada. (2020, November 19). Retrieved October 21, 2022, from https://www.digitalmuseums.ca/funded-projects/
Miller, S., & Bass, W. (2019). Leading from the Library: Help your School Community Thrive in the Digital Age. (Links to an external site.)Links to an external site. International Society for Technology in Education.
Stó:lō Research and Resource Management Centre. (2016, November 1). Classroom resources. Sq’éwlets – A Stó:lō-Coast Salish Community in the Fraser River Valley. Retrieved October 21, 2022, from http://digitalsqewlets.ca/classroom-resources_ressources-pedagogiques/index-eng.php