Zoom. EdPuzzle. Google Meet. Screencastify. Google Classroom. eBooks. Audiobooks. Discovery Education.
It has been 45 days since our physical school shut its doors to staff and students. These days have given me time to reflect about my efficacy as a resource specialist, educational partner, and support staff. The overwhelming options for online learning tools have rattled many teachers who are struggling to figure out how to shift from face-to-face learning to an asynchronous, online classroom.
Making connections was my first action as collaborative staff support. I paired with a team to try connecting with families to learn which resources they may need in this new online learning environment. I communicated by connections to our administration, who took the team information to the county level for resource support.
As Future-Ready Librarians, this is our opportunity to shine. We are comfortable with educational technology. We have an arsenal of resources curated to fit the needs of our curricula. Literacy support is our stronghold. Collaboration is our comfort. We connect and create professional learning opportunities. Librarians can also navigate mountains of digital tools like sherpas.
How can we adapt our roles to meet the needs of our school community? Collaboration is still a key element. Working closely with instructional coaches, other support staff and administration helps to foster connections to struggling departments and teams. Sitting in on a virtual PLT meeting to offer one or two resource suggestions can ease the burden of these teams who feel like they have to "do it all". We attend our own virtual PLTs, to band together and use our individual strengths to build our own program resources.
Community connections are equally important. We share our online resources and offer support emails, phone calls, and teleconferencing with our learning community. We request that teachers share collection resources and contact information through their Google Classrooms. One-stop shopping for teachers, students, and parents can mitigate the overwhelming feeling of having numerous resources piled on them.
We make mistakes, but learn and adapt at each failure. Personalized student learning has changed in this new online learning environment, but school librarians are ready to lead the way for our school communities.
It has been 45 days since our physical school shut its doors to staff and students. These days have given me time to reflect about my efficacy as a resource specialist, educational partner, and support staff. The overwhelming options for online learning tools have rattled many teachers who are struggling to figure out how to shift from face-to-face learning to an asynchronous, online classroom.
Making connections was my first action as collaborative staff support. I paired with a team to try connecting with families to learn which resources they may need in this new online learning environment. I communicated by connections to our administration, who took the team information to the county level for resource support.
As Future-Ready Librarians, this is our opportunity to shine. We are comfortable with educational technology. We have an arsenal of resources curated to fit the needs of our curricula. Literacy support is our stronghold. Collaboration is our comfort. We connect and create professional learning opportunities. Librarians can also navigate mountains of digital tools like sherpas.
How can we adapt our roles to meet the needs of our school community? Collaboration is still a key element. Working closely with instructional coaches, other support staff and administration helps to foster connections to struggling departments and teams. Sitting in on a virtual PLT meeting to offer one or two resource suggestions can ease the burden of these teams who feel like they have to "do it all". We attend our own virtual PLTs, to band together and use our individual strengths to build our own program resources.
Community connections are equally important. We share our online resources and offer support emails, phone calls, and teleconferencing with our learning community. We request that teachers share collection resources and contact information through their Google Classrooms. One-stop shopping for teachers, students, and parents can mitigate the overwhelming feeling of having numerous resources piled on them.
We make mistakes, but learn and adapt at each failure. Personalized student learning has changed in this new online learning environment, but school librarians are ready to lead the way for our school communities.
