Staff Development in the Library

Generally, January and February are the months we don't tend to see research classes.  This year we actually have 2 junior classes starting early, this week in fact.  So we are dividing our time between the classes that are coming and the other chores of spending our budget, cleaning up the card catalog, processing, book displays, etc.

In addition, this is the time we sit down and analyze our staff survey to create the staff development classes we want to offer to the teachers.  Our philosophy is to know our audience, and what better way to know than to just ask them what they want.  So we created a Google Form to briefly ask the staff what classes they wanted to attend.  Here is what that looked like... Teacher Survey 2013-14.

From that survey, here are the classes our teachers wanted...

Our next step was to set the staff development schedule, and that took some time.  We debated whether to hold 2 sessions at a time, one session at a time, or hold one session on multiple days.  In looking at some of our surveys in the past, we decided to go with one class on multiple days.  We operate on a modified block schedule, and we have an A day and a B day.  On A days, we see blocks 1, 2, 3, 4, & 8.  On B days, we see blocks 1, 5, 6, 7, & 8.  Some teachers have an instructional planning block on A days, some on B days, some on both days, and some not at all.  If we offer our classes all day and after school, two days in a row, we give all teachers the opportunity to come to our classes.  So our staff development schedule is set as follows...

Jan. 14 & 15 - School Fusion (Beginner)

Jan. 22 & 23 - School Fusion (Advanced)

Jan. 28 & 29 - Google Drive/Docs

Feb. 11 & 12 - Alternatives to PPT

Feb. 18 & 19 - Digital Tools

Feb. 25 & 26 - Twitter (Beginner)

School Fusion was not on our survey, but it is a district program.  We always have requests for School Fusion classes at the beginning of a semester.  School Fusion is the program for our teachers' websites.  So we began with those classes first.  

We do not have any classes the week of Feb. 3rd because Blanca, Karen, and I will be in Austin attending TCEA.  This is the 1st year in the past 7 or 8 years that we will just attend the conference and not present. That wasn't by design; we just missed the deadline.  We are planning to use our new knowledge from  TCEA to design the remaining February classes we have scheduled in our own library.  We are all excited about going. Austin...here we come!

See you next time.  Thanks for stopping by!

A Day in the Life of a High School Librarian

Happy New Year!  I can't believe it is already 2014.  As we gear up for a new semester, I thought I would share with you what happens in our library in a typical day...from my point of view.  This was my day today, January 8, 2014.

At 7am, we opened the doors to over 200 students who were checking out books, using a computer, playing chess, or just hanging out with their friends.  Classes start at 7:30am, and our task is to herd our students out the door between 7:25 and 8am to make sure they are not late for class.

At 7:30, my first class of the day showed up.  It was an audio/visual class researching topics for a newscast they had to prepare.  After conferencing with the teacher yesterday, we decided to narrow the search to news clips, newspaper articles, and magazine articles.  The students could research whatever they found newsworthy from our country's recent cold snap to Manziel announcing his intent to play for the NFL.  The teacher wanted her students to use both databases and websites.  So I decided to highlight 2 of our databases, EBSCO and NBC Learn, as well as a few reputable websites like CNN, MSNBC, ESPN, and Biography.com.  My part of the class included navigating to the library website, showing the students how to use our databases, demonstrating how to either save the articles or print them, and then mentioning the other websites they should try.  Afterwards, I stayed with the class during their independent research time to help those who had questions.  I taught 3 of those classes today.

In addition to these classes, I had 2 other tasks to accomplish today.  First up...staff development.  Blanca, Karen, and I planned our staff development schedule for January and February based on the campus interest survey we sent out in the fall.  This is the 2nd year we created the interest survey in Google docs.  Before that, we used Survey Monkey.  Here is a link to this year's survey... 2013-14 DHS Survey

So based upon the 100+ teachers who responded to our survey, these are the staff development topics our campus wanted...

Using this information, we set up a calendar to address the top 4 topics (social media, Google drive, alternatives to ppt, and digital tools) along with 2 more classes on School Fusion (district website).  School Fusion wasn't a part of our survey, but all 3 of us had been receiving recent requests to hold more classes. After we set the calendar and decided who was going to teach which classes, I sent out a campus wide email to inform our staff, put the classes in our library calendar, and created them in Workshop so the teachers could register online for the classes they wanted to attend.

Second task of the day...register for TLA.  This included registration, hotel arrangements, finding a SUB to help Judy out while we are gone, and submitting an online form to seek our principal's permission to go.  In addition, we also reapplied for our annual TLA membership.  After all those forms were filled out, I had to go back and fill out the payment request forms for each of those items.

Between the classes and the tasks, I assisted multiple students and teachers who came into the library looking for help. Some of the student crises we averted today included looking up passwords so students could have computer access, helping students locate books for their research, helping them use the document camera to trace political cartoons (economics project), helping them use the copy machine, the color printer, connecting their new devices to our wi-fi, and checking out iPads for after school use. We were open for an hour after school for student and faculty use.  Our morning crowd is always more, but we probably had about 100 students after school using our computers, looking for books, or just hanging out.

On the teacher side of things, I got a projector to work in one of our labs, fixed 2 computers in that same lab that weren't getting any power, showed a teacher how to turn on the desktop computer she wanted to use, helped another find a copy of To Kill a Mockingbird, and listened to 3 others who just needed to vent.  I have always said that the librarian is the "bartender" of the school. In the midst of all that, I did squeeze in a 20 minute lunch. 

Now take what I did today and multiple that by 4. There are 4 of us in that library, and each of us stays busy.  For instance today, between helping students and teachers, Blanca changed out one of our book displays...(just in time for the Awards Shows - Books that have been made into movies)

talked to multiple vendors, ordered eBooks to complete our latest grant, helped me map out our staff development, registered for TLA, and organized our Book Club field trip, which is YAK Fest in Keller. Karen delivered mobile labs, reserved mobile labs for a few teachers, delivered a projector to an Admin meeting, detangled a couple of mobile labs that were returned but not properly stored, shelved 2 full carts of books, assisted some teachers by troubleshooting laptop issues, helped me map out staff development, registered for TLA, and opened up our latest order and put in a help request for maintenance to come put our new bar stools together.  Judy, our clerk who diligently guards the front door to make sure all students have their ID and a proper pass, also encouraged students to help us decorate the library by cutting out snowflakes, took down the last of our Christmas decorations, and shelved 3 carts of books.  

I'm sure if I asked each of them, they could name a few more tasks they did.  Again, this is a day in the life of our library from my point of view.  It takes a village to keep this library running, and I couldn't imagine having this job without them, all of them.

Thanks for stopping by!  See you next time.