We were fortunate this year that our upper admin granted us time to hold some summer professional development days---two days paid, two days comp days, which was awesome. I have never had a district admin team show as much support for libraries and librarians as my current team and it is much appreciated.
Y'all, we had a blast.
We have 2 new members of our team and another who just joined us in the spring, so not only did we do a lot of learning, we did a lot of bonding this week. I sent out a Google form in the spring so everyone could give their input on what they wanted to learn/work on and what book they wanted for our book study this year. Everything we did was designed & taught by our very own team. Flexibility was intentionally built into our schedule so we could run with those teachable moments and move along quickly when everyone already "got it."
We went over our proposed new state standards, Future-Ready Librarian information, and maker-spaces for all levels. We worked through the process of creating a new Mission and Vision statement.
We played with an Epic Instagram Challenge I used Canva.com (my fave!) to create this challenge as a way to help us think beyond our usual go-to's with photos and social media updates of library happenings. We didn't all actually post our pics on Insta, but this was practice for the upcoming year. (feel free to use it if you like it)
We had time to play with Canva.com, Google, and our Texquest resources and brainstorm ideas about how to get the word out to our stakeholders about all things in library land. |
| #booksonashelf |
We discussed Gary Hartzell's work about building influence and specifically referenced Doug Johnson's blog post about making the principal your ally.
We got our new book-study books and I AM SO PUMPED.
We broke into elementary/secondary specific sessions, too, for a bit. Author visits and Bluebonnet Battles were planned. We came out of this week with a new shared Google Drive folder and are looking forward to building content together.
We discussed the power of Twitter chats for awesome continued growth, and are planning to do one as a team to get the newbies used to them. You just can't understand the amazingness of them until you live it.
On the next-to-last day our Superintendent and Assistant Superintendent for Curriculum and Instruction stopped by. We were energized as a team to see their genuine excitement and support of our library programs. Without a shadow of a doubt, we know that they recognize that strong school libraries support student achievement---and that is super-affirming.
I want to thank my new partner-in-crime for stepping up to take the lead elementary librarian role.(She blogs over at MrsTaylorsTales, so go check her out!) We have a shared vision and are working towards excellence!
I am so energized for this coming year, guys. What are you doing to get inspired? I'd love to hear all about it.
