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!