How can teacher-librarians support teachers ICT curriculum and pedagogy? Currently, I am in the classroom and I have not yet had the opportunity to act as a teacher librarian so I have not thought much about how I will support teachers. However, the best practices we use with students, should also be used when teachers are the students. Like the classroom, I would first start with building relationships, followed by building opportunities to learn.
Build Relationships
Teachers need to view a teacher librarian as approachable, knowledgeable and willing to help. For staff to see this a relationship needs to be fostered.
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| Photo by Alexandra |
One idea I had to get to know teachers better is to ask them to fill out a survey. The survey would be aimed at discovering what they know, what they want to know, what they have tried in the past that worked or what didn't work for them. This way I would know what tools, technology or resources I could curate to meet their needs. Also, a survey that is followed up on by the teacher librarian, gives teachers a voice. I could tailor any professional development I plan I would develop towards what teachers are curious about. Therefore making the professional development relevant and timely.
Provide Choice In Learning - It's Motivating
Providing students with choice has proven to motivate learning. Judy Willis, a former teacher turned neurologist, explains that the brain chemical dopamine promotes intrinsic motivation. Dopamine provides a rush when we've achieved a goal and is linked to intrinsic motivation. Dopamine is produced when people are given choice.
Some ideas involving choice I thought were interesting:
1) Teacher Tech Playground.
Monique Flickinger had an interesting article that talked about having a Teacher Tech Playground where teachers have the opportunity to play around with various technology. It seems like a low stress, fun and supportive environment in which to learn something new. Also, teachers would have choice as to what technology they would like to try out with some support from their colleagues or the teacher librarian if they choose.
2) Pathways
From my own experience, being able to play around with technology or ideas on my own time is something that I look for in PD. One of the most effective PD I've attended happened this past summer, where we learnt about Teams, our district's preferred digital platform. The day consisted of an online presentation followed by digital handouts. We were given a 'pathway' or a series of links to videos and other resources to help us discover more about the various applications available to teachers through Teams. The remainder of the time that day, I was able to explore many videos and try many of the applications out. I feel like having the time to explore on my own allowed me to learn more deeply about the applications and how they could be useful in my classroom. One of the reasons that maybe this pathway resonates with me could relate back to my exploration of growth mindset. Pathways track your progress and as O'Rouke (2016) found in her study, progress tracking is motivating. I could see developing pathways in other areas to support teachers' learning.
3) Book Clubs
Book clubs featuring professional books, have been successful at my current school. Often teachers meet at lunch or after school for an informal chat about the section of the book they had agreed to read. Given covid isn't going anywhere fast, an online book club for teachers may be a good alternative. Cheryl Boes describes how an online book club can be advantageous for those who have busy schedules. She suggests having moderator for the book club who posts questions about the reading in a blog post that teachers can respond to through the comment section.
Differentiation and Mentorship Are For Teachers, Too
Differentiantion is not only for students. Teachers benefit as well. The pathway discussed above is one example of differentiation. A teacher could start anywhere along that path depending on their experience.
In the video below, Kristen Daniels points out in this video that by differentiating and providing choice and support for teachers using technology empowers them to affect their school community and beyond.
Howard (et al 2015) found that teachers who are reluctant to use technology in the classroom do so often because they are not confident that they can trouble shoot if the need arises. A teacher librarian may be able to work alongside the teacher providing assistance. As Dweck (2014) has found students (or teachers) with a growth mindset realize that if they stick with something and get mentorship when need it, they will learn and grow.
Your Turn
Supporting teachers I feel requires teachers librarians to firstly develop relationships with those teachers. Only once the relationships are formed will a teacher librarian know the needs of staff. Providing inservice opportunities is important and best practices tell us people learn best when they have choice, opportunities to talk and reflect as well as, receive mentorship and support at their level.
How do you support your staff? What methods have you tried that have been successful?
Works Cited
Howard, Sarah Katherine and Mozejko, Adrian, "Teachers: technology, change and resistance" (2015). Faculty of Social Sciences - Papers. 1830.
https://ro.uow.edu.au/sspapers/1830
O'Rourke, Eleanor, Erin Peach, Carol S. Dweck, and Zoran Popovic. (2016). Brain Points: A Deeper Look at a Growth Mindset Incentive Structure for an Educational Game. In Proceedings of the Third (2016) ACM Conference on Learning @ Scale. Association for Computing Machinery, New York, NY, USA, 41–50. https://doi.org/10.1145/2876034.2876040
Dweck, Carol (2013, July 8)
I truly enjoyed your blog post. I like the idea of the Candy Lady as it seems an easy way to connect with staff and make sure they feel comfortable coming to you with issues. I also agree with your practice of if it is good for our students, it should be good for our teachers. Why wouldn't we build relationships, provide choice, and differential learning? It just makes sense.
ReplyDeleteThank you! I thought the chocolate in the vp's office was a brilliant idea on her part.
DeleteExcellent blog post about the most important and foundational element to supporting your peers and colleagues in their own Professional Development: Relationships. Trust and comfortability go a long way to allowing your colleagues to come out of their safe shell and try something new. Sometimes, luring them with candy and chocolate can also help a lot. Your post provided good examples, helpful resources, strong videos and links and excellent strategies for organizing and supporting ICT professional Development. Well done!
ReplyDeleteThanks, Aaron!
ReplyDeleteGreat post!
ReplyDeleteI love that you made the connection that teachers are still students and how we work with students can be applied to teachers as well. All it will take is just a little modification to the delivery which is something that we should know how to do anyways!
Your post is really awesome; thank you for providing your knowledge/insights and experiences (love the Candy Lady concept; relationships are key to a stable and effective work environment)!
- Chevon
I also love the Candy Lady concept, probably because I personally would have loved a Candy person at any school I've worked at. I also am curious to learn more about the teacher tech playground. Even though the article suggests this be done offsite, I can see the value in maybe adapting this to being something offered at lunch or during a portion of pro-d. I think keeping it opt in and offering the focus on "play" is a great way to keep it light but also supportive. Nicole
ReplyDeleteWow! You're post is so full of great ideas. I loved the notion of creating pathways for teachers to guide their exploration. I need to learn how to make these!!! Your suggestion to lay out technology tools and allow teachers to interact with them is also very practical. The cute name of "Teacher Playground" is the icing on the cake as far as I'm concerned! I think I will adopt these 2 ideas into my TL role the next time I'm in a position to lead a PD session. Thanks for these great suggestions and links!
ReplyDeleteI really like how you communicate the importance of providing choice and differentiation when talking about professional development. It is so important as teachers that we are learning something that will be beneficial to us and be based on things we are interested in learning.
ReplyDeleteHaving a growth mindset is also so important when learning new things. I also often refer to Dweck's writing and philosophy and have adopted a growth mindset in my teaching. I believe it has made a difference and I am more open to learning and trying new things.
I really like all of your ideas and suggestions for building relationships, especially the chocolate :) Having an open door policy is so welcoming to us as teachers. We want to be able to approach our colleagues and teacher librarians when feeling overwhelmed or even vulnerable. You have shown some great ways to be welcoming and approachable.
Thank you!