Global Connections & Collaborations

This is one of the topics that I am most passionate about; I feel so strongly that we need to provide our students opportunities to hear from the broader world and speak to authentic audiences.  One of my goals is to continually broaden my students' worldview, and yet this is also an area that I struggle to work out the practical application.  There are so many opportunities to connect...and so many barriers to overcome.  With my own classroom I would persist through whatever barriers of time, language, and cultural barriers we faced.  Adding to this the element of collaboration it all becomes more complex.  Even with these barriers and complexities I am determined to continue seeking opportunities for our students to connect with the world beyond their classroom walls.  Having as many options and solutions for this as possible will help me achieve this goal.
Some of the ideas that stood out to me from the resources provided could be done within library programming, and others I will approach classroom teachers to collaborate on.

With Classes:

Mystery Skype- I have looked into doing with with geography, but haven't been able to interest any of our teachers on it.  Looking at it again, I am thinking we could approach this from an environmental/ science angle, and have students develop questions that focus on the biome in which other students live.

Quadblogging-  This is something that our English classes may be interested in, and if they are not I will explore as an option for my 10th grade Research Seminar class.  Perhaps we can incorporate this blogging element into our research questions to share with a real audience.  

Global Nomads Group- There are so many ideas here!  I have foreign language and global studies teachers who have been interested in connecting with classes of students in different countries, and I believe the resources and curriculum opportunities offered through this organization may help us overcome the logistical barriers that have prevented us from making more of these global connections.  

In the Library:

#GlobalSpeedChat- During our major spring library promotion/ contest of Bookopoly I will incorporate these challenges as some of the activities for students to complete to earn "property cards".  In addition to this program, I plan to include watching TED talks from the "Bridging Cultural Differences" playlist.  

Bridging Cultural Differences- This series of TED talks has provided me with ideas of people/ topics to feature in a library display/ social media series on this topic.  I am gathering resources to share in both the physical library and within our digital presence.

Global Nomads Group-  I subscribed to receive updates, so that I can proactively be looking for coming programs that could be stand alone experiences in the library, or that I can incorporate into collaborative instruction.  

In addition to the ideas that I gleaned above, I have also gathered hashtag ideas to explore, and added a column to my Tweetdeck on #globalclassroom to keep this at the forefront of my professional learning network and personal exploration.  The tools and resources I gathered from this lesson have been a real encouragement to me on a topic that I was beginning to get frustrated with achieving.  I am ready to continue being persistent now!

Connecting with Stakeholders

In thinking about how to share my evidence based practice and program goals with different stakeholders I am focusing on students, teachers, administrators, and the board of education. Through watching "Connecting with Stakeholders" and "Marketing Your Library Like Lady Gaga" I have explored the goals and priorities of each group, and ways in which I can reach each of them.  I focused on getting to know my stakeholders and methods to craft my message to reach each of them effectively.
In order to match audience with purpose I am exploring the needs and values of each of the groups separately.  I have gathered some information for each, and have additional ideas for how to gather more.  As I think through the priorities, needs and challenges faced by each of these groups I am also considering how to best craft my message to reach them through various media tools.

Students

Students want a comfortable space in which to learn and socialize.  They also want books/ materials that match their interest readily accessible.  I would like to gather more specific data on their needs and priorities through a brief student survey.  I am exploring the method in which I should conduct this survey to maximize on responses and student buy in.  I think providing a digital survey on iPads at our sign in desk is what I am leaning towards right now, although I want to also capture data from students who don't come to the library as frequently.
To share how we can and are responding to their needs I want to continue rotating displays and bulletin boards, but I would also like to add posters that share our circulation statistics (to battle the perception that students aren't reading, or that it isn't cool to read), both of our physical collection and our digital collection.  I also need to increase my use of social media.  Our library has a presence on Facebook and Instagram, as well as my professional presence on Twitter, but I need to harness this power more frequently, and find ways to point students to our web content.  I would like to increase student content shared on our social media tools as well as include them more frequently in programs and library events/ activities.  Once I get students following our social media I can build their engagement with the content provided for them there.

Teachers

Working closely with teachers, both collaboratively and through professional development, I know that they are concerned with student achievement, instructional implementation and meaningful professional development resources.  They are also pressed for time, so keeping things concise and purposeful is key to delivering a message to them.  To meet this need I have hosted "Power Lunches" to teach a new tool, share resources, or highlight an instructional technique.  In addition, I regularly send out a newsletter to our faculty providing resources.  I would like to expand the content in these newsletters to include evidence and data from the library, perhaps in an Infographic style.  In addition, creating a fresh ThingLink of resources would be valuable.

Administration

"Engage... Foster Potential... Inspire Achievement"

The priorities of our administrators is similar to our teachers, with a key focus on student achievement.  Although I work closely with our administration on the curriculum team, and am in constant conversation with them about how to best meet the needs of teachers and students, I realize that I haven't found a specific and concise way to showcase the role of the library in student achievement.  One area I would like to explore is the link between participation in our summer reading program and achievement on STAR reading assessments.  

In addition, our district is embarking on a Strategic Planning process, and I would like to participate on some level with the development of this plan and then look for direct connections I can make to the goals and vision that are developed out of it.  

Board of Education

The Board of Education will be focusing in large part on this Strategic Planning process, and it will be imperative that I can connect with them based on the goals set.  Before even embarking on this process, they have already asked us this year that when we present at Board meetings (departments present on a rotating basis), that our focus is on presenting evidence and data to communicate strengths and needs.  Although I am not scheduled to present formally this year, I will tailor my end of year report to address that request.

Going through the previous two "Things" and this one in Cool Tools has helped me develop these plans, and I am in the process of gathering this type of meaningful data to include in an end of year report.