New online book club for school library staff - What next?

Running an online book club

Photo by Christin Hume on Unsplash

Well, it has been and gone. My first attempt to create some professional development for school library staff. After a sudden and inexplicably impulsive suggestion that I wanted to set up an online book club I found myself having to put my money where my mouth was. Too many of my twitter friends thought it was a great idea so I had to find a way to make it work. 

My plan, well I didn't really have a plan, and to be honest I still don't! Was to create a platform for book suggestions and provide an area for discussion. I have joined in several twitter chats and felt that this was something that I could do but also wanted to provide a platform for those who don't use social media. This was why Padlet was chosen. I was not sure whether to post the link open to all or keep it for those that asked for it and have currently decided to keep it closed.  I may be wrong but this feels like a little like signing up for it which gives it a little more status. If you want to join in after reading this, either email me at ehutchinson@library.gg or follow me on twitter @elizabethutch. Be aware that I don't automatically follow back so you will need to post a message to me saying that you want to join. At that point, I will follow you and give you the link to the Padlet. 

The first discussion took place on the 23rd January both on the Padlet and on twitter. We had chosen to read Reading by Right by Joy Court. After 2 hours of moderating I was shattered. I did learn a lot from the experience and will be making changes to the next one. I have also had some very useful feedback too that will be taken into consideration too. 

My thoughts on the first discussion 

• I need to consider my focus for my questions. Am I wanting to engage in school library discussion or more about the book? I think this was a little difficult with the first book Reading by Right by Joy Court as it had very specific chapters and it lent itself to linking what we do in practice. This meant that it was possible to join in the conversation even if you hadn't read the book. I don't think this will be the case with every book so will monitor as we work our way through the next few books. 

• I had far too many questions. 10 in an hour does not lend itself to a good discussion. I was moving to the next question just as an interesting discussion was starting on Padlet. On Twitter, I did not have time to join in the discussion myself as I was too busy getting the next question ready. I felt that I could not change this once it had started because I had already posted a link to the questions out on Twitter. I could, however, have some reserve questions in future! (Thanks, Janet!)

• I need to sit at a desk and not the kitchen table as I was aching after I had finished 2hrs of talking on the computer...

• Is the Padlet the best platform for this discussion? We had to keep refreshing in order to see other peoples comments and it felt a little disjointed although I am not sure if there is a platform that would give us what we need. I don't intend to change it for now as it may be that we just need to get used to it. 

• I also need to think about keeping a 'request only' link to the Padlet. I am not sure if it will get too big to have a proper discussion if too many people are involved. Will I have time to keep adding people? I think I will have to monitor to see how this goes. 

• Twitter, this worked well but I just need fewer questions and maybe someone else moderating with me. One person to ping out the questions and another to respond to comment might work better. Looking for volunteers :)  

• The books need to be reasonably priced, most of the time. I had not thought about this at all and chose the first one on book suggestions and votes. I don't want to be restricted by price all of the time as there will be some really useful books that we should be reading that will have a higher price. I will try to make sure that at least every other book is one everyone can afford to buy.

• This is a very useful thing to do and there is a need for this kind of #PD for school library staff

Where next?

I am very pleased with the enthusiasm for this book club. I do feel that there is a need to continue it. I hope that everyone taking part will suggest books or if not at least vote for what they would like to read. I don't want to feel like I am making all the decisions and so far that is not the case. 

If you have any feedback on the last discussion or any suggestions please feel free to comment below. This is very much our book club and I will try, as best I can, to make it worthwhile for everyone taking part. 

Advocacy for school libraries. How we can take responsibility

After the success of my post in November 2017 Why do teachers need school librarians? 5 questions to ask yourself. Where over 29000 people viewed it I began to worry about how I could ever match that again. I think I have come to the conclusion that I can't! I just have to write about what I feel passionate about and let the world decide if it is interesting enough to read and share so here goes.

Advocacy

(Photo by alexander milo on Unsplash)

Today I want to talk about advocacy for school libraries, it may seem an impossible mountain to climb but I do feel that we all have a responsibility to engage with it one way or another. It is not about shouting about how great we are, it is not about demanding that teachers work with us, it is not even about increasing our loan figures. It is all about our students and this is the only reason that advocacy is important. Our students deserve the right to have access to a good school library with a librarian to support them, they deserve the right to understand how to access good quality information and they deserve the right to have access to fiction that will enhance their literacy and learning. Without the support of the teachers and senior leadership teams in schools these rights are undermined and one of our roles as school librarians is to make sure that teachers know and understand what we can do. 

Ok, I hear you say, that is easier said than done. I agree the thought of sticking your head above the parapet is frightening, you are one librarian in amongst a whole school of teachers. Who are you to be telling the teaching staff what to do? I thought I would share some of my ideas for advocacy this year in the hopes that it may inspire you to try at least some of it.

Advocacy Ideas

Staff meetings

Like you, I have always felt frustrated that I know that I can make a difference to a teachers job if they allowed me to work with them. The problem is getting them to give you enough time in their very busy day for you to explain. The only way I have found that works is to ask the Headteacher to give you a staff meeting slot at least once a year. It doesn't really matter when, so if you ask now and you can't have a slot until September then at least you know it is booked in. Before you approach the Head make sure that you know what you are offering. Do you want staff to know about all the resources you have? Do you have new resources that you want to share? Have you worked with a teacher in a innovative way that you think would inspire other teachers to work with you? It may be an opportunity to share what you would like to happen or to show what other schools are doing that you could do too. Here are a couple of blogs that I follow that give some great ideas for innovative teaching:

Read. Research. Rest. Repeat by Kathleen Currie Smith
Heart of the school by Caroline Roche

Also take a look at my scoop.it account here which has lots of ideas for school librarians

Have all my staff meetings gone well, no! You should not give up though as the more you do the better you get at it. Even if you manage to get one teacher to understand what you do and start working with you then that is a win. Sometimes I feel that all I do is talk but that is ok. Advocacy is about talking and sharing what we do. It will generate interest eventually!

Social Media

Next, make sure that your social media is working for you. Have a library twitter,  Facebook page , Instagram account, or whatever tool you like the best, to show what you are up to in the library. You may not be collaboratively teaching yet, but posting new resources and book groups is a good place to start. If your senior management team are not keen on you having one for the library show them some good examples of what other school library twitter and Facebook accounts look like. Here are some worth following:-

Twitter
Canon Slade Library
La Mare de Carteret High School Library
Worle School LRC

Facebook
St Sampsons High School Library
What a difference a school library can make

If they still are not keen then ask them to post on the school accounts on your behalf. If you keep pestering them with all the good stuff you are doing it raises awareness but it may also lead to them saying you can have your own because they don't have time to post everything you want :)

Blogging 

This is a perfect advocacy tool either for yourself or your school library. It is a place where you can write about what is happening in your library and critically evaluate what you are doing. How can you make it better, is it worth sharing so that others can learn? Don't use it to vent your anger but put it to good use. Saying that there are many times when I have written a blog post in anger and spent a week re-writing so that I could understand, learn and share how to improve the situation. It does not always work and those are the posts that stay forever as a draft. Sometimes you just need to get something off your chest! Great library blogs:-

The Library Voice By Shannon Millar
The Daring Librarian by Gwyneth A. Jones

Here is a list of other library blogs to follow. You are now spoilt for choice :)

Podcast interviews

I am not suggesting that you start up your own podcast, although if that is your thing then go for it. Rather look out for educational podcasts and offer an interview suggestion about school libraries. I did one recently with Lucy Parsons whose podcast is about what makes a good school. I really felt that you should not be talking about good schools without talking about the school library so I offered to be interviewed and you can listen here I have plans to work with Martine Ellis on her podcast The teaching space, as she is asking for volunteers to be interviewed. This is a great way to share our passion for what we do. Take every opportunity within a teachers environment to share the benefits of
school librarians.

Conferences

How often have you sat at a conference and thought, I could do that? or that they are not saying anything that I am not doing already? Then this is the time to push yourself forward and start sharing what you are doing. I agreed to talk at the SLAYLG conference last year and then I blogged about it. Here is the link to my write up. Once you are more comfortable with talking to other librarians about what you are doing then the advocacy kicks in. How about presenting at a teachers conference? How else are our teachers going to learn about what we do if the library is not represented at the conferences they attend. I went to the Practical Pedagogies conference in Toulouse to present at a teachers conference about using the school library across the curriculum and as scary as it seems I am off to BETT on Thursday this week to do a 20min presentation about how school librarians can support teachers. Honestly if I can do it anyone can! I do not have magic powers I am just passionate about getting our message out. 

Writing articles

This is our opportunity to advocate what we do big time! As much as it is important that we share best practice with our fellow librarians it is also important that we are writing where teachers are reading. Have you something important to share then two places you should consider publishing is edutopia and ukedchat as both are widely read by teachers. I usually share something I have already written on my blog for ukedchat so that I don't have to write more and it is a great way to share. Here is one I wrote about about the importance of parents in independent learning.  You can find the same piece here on my own blog. 

Hopefully some of these ideas for advocacy will inspire you to try some of this yourself. Please write in the comments and share what you are doing. 

I just want to take this opportunity to share with you some good news I have had. I have been asked to write a regular column for CILIP Information Professional magazine about school libraries. The first one should be in the March edition so please watch out for it and let me know what you think. I am always happy for ideas to write about. 

If you have enjoyed this then come over to my new website to see more https://ehutchinson44.wixsite.com/schoollibraries/blog

4 ways the school librarian can save teachers time and help support independent learners

Independent learners

What makes an Independent learner?

•    The ability to understand which resource is going to help you find the best quality information and being able to use research skills to locate it.

•    Knowing and understanding the importance of referencing, copyright and giving credit.

Many teachers believe that if a student can find the answer via Google they have an independent learner. This is not independence; this is just the ability to type the question into Google. If this is the tool that teachers want their students to use then they need to be prepared to make them reference what they find and find time to check those references.  As many teachers do not have time to do this it re-enforces the idea that Google is the best way to find information quickly without looking at the quality of the resource. It does not ensure that students are evaluating or thinking critically about what they find. If students know that teachers are not going to check where the information came from why would they spend time on referencing or researching properly?

Independent learners start by connecting and wondering about the topic they are researching. They come up with keywords and create a question so when they sit in front of their chosen online resource they know what they are looking for. Research is not about finding the right answer but about collecting information to help you come to a conclusion.  Critical thinking has a huge part to play in independent research and is different from ‘finding the answer’.

Why does this happen? A teacher once said to me that they felt that the students knew more than they did when searching online and they did not feel it was right to stop their students ‘Googling’. I had to remind them that it wasn’t the case of stopping them using Google but it was important to use Google properly through good research skills. Google is only as useful as the persons research skills. Independence is not about speed but understanding the tools and having the skills to navigate them. Independent research skills is not about getting the students to the learning faster it is about knowing how to find the information in the first place.

School librarian’s curators of information and collaborators

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One of our roles as information professionals, is to curate physical and online resources that not only are age appropriate but also good quality. In order to access these tools, research skills are needed and school librarians are able to support teachers in helping students to access them. This is not about making it harder to find the information it is about ensuring that the building blocks are put in place so when they leave school they understand the difference between using Google to find the time of their flight and doing an in-depth piece of research for work or university.

Another role is using digital literacy to help make connections. Over the last year I have regularly use my social media skills, as Jennifer Casa-Todd says “to connect educators to educators who I think might work collaboratively together” (2017 p24) which has lead to some wonderful international connections. These connections have enhanced teaching and learning and have enabled me to help teachers use digital technology and support research skills in the process.

Our collaborations

This year we have been able to use and share both Padlet and Flipgrid with our teachers. Not only up skilling them in using these tools but demonstrating how they can be used within the classroom setting. One of my schools used both these tools to engage students in a literacy project reading the book Wonder by Raquel J. Palacio. The students were able to share their thoughts about the book with each other but also learn about the students on the other side of the world. Another group who were reading The Thieves of Ostia by Caroline Lawrence were delighted when at the end we connected with her via padlet and were sending her questions and getting answers real time! It was fabulous and I was very grateful to Caroline for doing this. The students came up with some amazing questions too. This supported the curriculum in writing, communication, digital literacy, critical thinking and empathy.

Collaboration saves time and impacts student attainment!

In a literature review by the National Literacy Trust they state that “School libraries have been found to impact pupils’ general academic attainment, reading and writing skills, plus wider learning skills” (Teravainen and Clark, 2017 p3) and if this is the case it is important that teachers and librarians work together often.

The main challenge, regularly cited by teachers, is time. It is therefore important that teachers understand the positive impact that collaborating with a school librarian can have on themselves and their students and this will take some time but the benefits will far outweigh the initial input.

What can the librarian do for teachers?

1.  Find quality physical and online resources for your topic (teachers no longer have to spend hours on Google trying to find something suitable)
2. Co-teach in the classroom and demonstrate how to access the online resources (teachers do not have to learn how to navigate these resources beforehand
3. Help find the right educators to collaborate with (which teacher has time to do this?)
4. Learn the digital tools and then demonstrate their use in the classroom (allowing the teacher to learn about these tools within the lesson)

As the relationship between teacher and librarian grows the time the teacher needs to put in will be seen as a benefit rather than a problem due to the other opportunities that the librarian will bring to the partnership.

Creating independent learners is not something that happens overnight. The building blocks need to be embedded all they way through primary and secondary school. With the support of the school librarian not only can the student’s benefit but the teachers will too.

References

Casa-Todd, J. (2017). Social LEADia. San Diego: Dave Burgess Consulting Inc.

Teravainen, A. and Clark, C. (2017). School libraries: A literature review of current provision and evidence of impact. [online] London: The National Literacy Trust, p.3. Available at: http://www.literacytrust.org.uk/assets/0004/1275/School_Libraries_2017_-_Final.pdf [Accessed 20 Jul. 2017].

Teachers - digital literacy and school librarians. Innovation at it's best!

I am very excited about the opportunities digital literacy is creating for every school librarian. At last we are able to demonstrate how we can work alongside teachers with our skill set being used to it’s best advantage. Together we can create independent learners who can find great resources and improving academic attainment. 

When I think about digital literacy I can’t think of it in isolation without the overarching skill of information literacy. Schools and teachers, however, seem to have decided that digital literacy is the overarching skill for all subjects so where does information literacy fit into this?Does it matter whether we call it information literacy or digital literacy? Let's find out how they differ. 

As good librarians do,  I went looking for a definition for digital literacy 

“Digital Literacy is the ability to use information and communication technologies to find, evaluate, create, and communicate information, requiring both cognitive and technical skills.”

Then the definiton for information literacy 

“Information literacy is a crucial skill in the pursuit of knowledge. It involves recognizing when information is needed and being able to efficiently locate, accurately evaluate, effectively use, and clearly communicate information in various formats.”

Interestingly there are many similarities between the two, if teachers feel more comfortable with the term digital literacy than information literacy, I am beginning to realise that the terminology is not as important as the skills it ensures the students learn. As long as find, evaluate and use information is in there and teachers understand the need for research skills it works for me. Both literacies demonstrate the essential role a librarian is required to play.  

School librarians supporting digital literacy

I have recently been asked to support schools trying to increase their use of digital across the school curriculum. Just this week I was sent a document from Northern Ireland that schools are using as a guide for this. It is an old document as it gives examples of CD ROMS but the overview is fairly good so it just needs new examples fitted in. I am being given permission and the opportunity to demonstrate how library professionals can enhance teaching of research and wanted to share how schools and teachers can use the expertise of the school librarian to support digital literacy.

Digital literacy is not

• ·      Being able to type a question into Google and get an answer.

• ·      Being able to cut and paste into your homework

• ·      Steal information and pass it off as your own

A colleague I was talking to recently put it perfectly when he said ‘none of this is about how good they are at using tech. It’s about selecting good quality resources. Yet within education the importance is being put on the tech and not on the resources found.  

Going back to the Northern Ireland document level 5 is high end year 6 = 11 year olds the overarching skill was to:-

Research, select, edit, use and evaluate assets from a range of digital sources

The suggestion attached was the following.

•    Research internet sites of their own choice to find and select information, images, movie and audio files to support the production of a short film about their local area.

How does this explain to the teacher how to teach this? It is making an assumption that these skills have already been taught but if teachers are not confident of these skills themselves how can they be really taught and assessed. I would like to challenge many of the teachers I know, to find and use their school library catalogue within a lesson to find good resources. I would bet that many of them would struggle at finding the library catalogue in the first place. 

Collaboration essential.

At Schools’ Library Service we have spent the last couple of years creating lessons that demonstrate progression to this stage. Our lesson and session cover all lessons from year 1 to year 13. Here is a case study for the type of lessons that we would cover for a year 6 group. It includes selecting good quality information from the library and online, note taking and referencing. The teacher was so pleased with these set of lessons that I have been asked to repeat it again this year. This only worked because the teacher gave me some time to plan this with her. 

Why are school librarians so important to digital literacy?

School librarians are constantly sharing and keeping up to date with new resources something that teachers don't have time to do themselves. My own PLN (Personal Learning Network) is constantly sharing good practice and resources. A perfect example of this recently is I found out about Infotopia which was recommended by my network, which is a search engine that I was not aware of for children. It is created by librarians and finds websites at the appropriate level. This is a brilliant resource on two levels. One, it is now something that I will teach in a class where I am being asked to teach website evaluation and it is also something I will use myself when I am searching for appropriate websites to add to our school library catalogues.

At every level I am able to collate good resources for my teachers, I am able to teach in the classroom to show how to access our online resources and I can also teach referencing and plagiarism. Along with all of the basic research skills I am also making connections around the world to ensure that I include innovative ideas within my teaching too. 

Interestingly, I recently came across a blog post that talks about innovative teaching which I feel links nicely with what I am trying to say. “Innovation is NOT synonymous with the word technology, but how we create and use technology can lead to innovative practices in many elements.” For example after a lesson on creating a good question I invited an expert into the classroom via Skype and the students were able to ask their questions directly. This lesson had such an amazing impact on the students who could see the impact of a good question that it inspired them to change their questions to better ones. The technology enabled the lesson to happen but it wasn’t the lesson itself.

Training ideas for library services - Social Media for Marketing

In our office we have decided to run in house training sessions once every half term. This started last half term where we shared our information literacy programme CWICER that we have adapted from New York  Department of Education. We have had a amazing response from the teachers to this framework as it has allowed us to talk to the teachers in their own language at last. The staff enjoyed the training and sharing ideas so we decided to run another session this morning on social media.

This months DIY training is on Social Media for Marketing

We have decided to start using social media to promote our service but you can't do that properly unless you understand what the social media can do. I talked through twitter, Facebook, Pinterest and scoop.it as tools that I use on a regular basis.  There is still a lot of misunderstanding about what these resources are used for. Many of the staff still believe that twitter is about famous people or people telling you what they had for dinner. I tried to explain that my twitter page is purely for work. I follow librarians, authors, IT experts and anyone else that I think will make my life easier at work. My reasons for using twitter were:-

• My own CPD
• Gaining information to use in teaching
• Ask questions from those that know more than me
• Finding great articles for my MLIS

Why do all the hard work when someone else has already done it. Sharing is amazing and it has worked for me. Here is my twitter link @Elizabethutch

Scoop.it and Pinterest are great sources of information that I curate. I explained that I don't spend ages looking through the internet to find useful article but use these tools to do it for me. I use resources that others have shared and scoop them or pin them to my own pages so others can benefit from what I have found. I find that saving suggested links from twitter to my scoop.it page is a better   way of keeping what is useful and makes it easier to search. Have a look at my scoop.it page http://www.scoop.it/u/elizabeth-Hutchinson see what you think. Here is my link to my Pinterest page http://www.pinterest.com/slsguernsey/ I really enjoy keeping these pages full of information that is useful to me but find it fascinating that you can make connections with others who are interested in the same things as me.

I also use these tools to help me with my own study research for my MLIS. I enjoy using this as it not only is very useful to me but I can also demonstrate it's potential to the students I teach. I have always believed that in order to understand something you must use it. When Facebook first came out I was worried about my children using it as I did not understand how it worked I decided that using it was the only way to learn

Finally I do believe that you should have some social life on social media so I have a personal Facebook page that I keep private for friends and family. I do have a couple of  library groups that I am linked to but it is generally a fun tool.

I have challenged my colleagues to start using these resources before September so that we can consider using them as marketing tools for work in future. My worry at the moment is that if we were to start now I would have to organised it all myself as no one else really understands it's potential. I look forward to seeing where this will all lead.

I was just about to post this blog when my email pinged. I have set up Google alerts for 'social media' and amazingly this blog popped up  http://www.davidleeking.com/2014/02/13/social-media-skills-for-librarians/#.Uv9FOHkePwI David is saying, much better than me what we should be doing as librarians. The wonder of the internet! Having read his post I feel much better that I write as if I am talking as that seems to be the way to do this. What I have learnt from his post is that I need to spend time on my pictures. Will do that next time.

Finally, a colleague asked how I managed my time on social media. I had to be honest and say that I was addicted instantly and at first it was very difficult to not keep checking to see if anyone had read what I had written or commented on it. I still struggle to switch off between home and work life but I really enjoy it so does that matter so much? I will never be that person who can look for 30mins a day as it does not seem to work that way for me. I choose what I respond to when I am at home. What I have more of a problem with it allowing myself time to look when I am at work when it is for work purposes and not feel guilty about it.

I wonder what others have done to encourage others to use social media within the work place.

Next term we are looking at promoting reading for pleasure.