Engaging the Learning Community
Course
Example: Professional Development [5:02]
Let's not forget about the professional development possibilities in our learning community. Situating the school library at the heart of a diverse and thriving culture of learning can also take the form of engaging with adult learners at school without the kids around.
This might be a great opportunity for collaboration with other schools or organizations, maybe committees at your school or the public library. Don't feel like you have to go it alone. To get the ideas flowing, here are some possibilities for fostering a professional learning community. Throughout all of these examples, keep in mind: be flexible, make it appealing and even fun, plan for food and consider some kind of celebration element to conclude, especially if you have a longer series of events.
You might be in a PD provider role here as a school librarian in other aspects of your work, teaching the library catalog, working with e-books; but in this conversation I'm more suggesting a sharing role and not necessarily an instructor role. Just keep that in mind, thinking about being a facilitator.
Here are some examples. One might be a study group with teachers where you study a theme over a month or a semester, even a year and meet regularly to discuss articles or blogs. I did this as an elementary teacher and we had a differentiated instruction study group. Every other Friday, the principal and a small group of teachers would meet in our office and bring coffee and we would read one or two articles about differentiated instruction. Sometimes we'd go out and try something in our classroom and report back or other times we were little bit of a devil's advocate saying why we thought this might not be the best scenario for our students. It was a great way to get to know other teachers as well as explore a topic, that's part of the learning community.
Some other ways to engage professionally with adults in the building might be book discussion groups. These could be educational or not. Being lifelong learners and people who read, read lots of things. We're still modeling and practicing some of those skills that were interested in cultivating kids when we discuss books together.
You might consider some Bring It Back or What Did You Learn sessions following conferences or professional development that individuals attended. Kind of that way of presenting some accountability, but also a fun way to share "here's what I did when I went to that workshop."
Maybe plan a PD party where instead of just participating in an online webinar by yourself. Plan to watch and join an event together. Or maybe participate in a tweet-up after school. You might consider a writing group time, something like Write With Me or Blog With Me as a theme, where we don't necessarily work together but just dedicate time in a shared space to write professional reflections or maybe keep up with some blogging.
Online groups like the blogging group might happen virtually as well. Considering people's time and schedules, something after school or before school might not work. In these ways we can help build that community of learners through Facebook groups, tweet-ups as I mentioned or maybe communities within your school's course management system or within Google education or Google classroom.
Couple of other ways that you might cultivate this professional community of learners: think about going to the movies. Not just any movie, but if there's a topic that is of interest, maybe presented in a documentary or even a book to film. Check in, see who wants to watch the video or movie with you. Find out what the kids are watching or maybe make an important connection to a community event through film.
Lastly and we've talked about this a little bit already with regard to teachers, but not so much in this way. Share in a service project together, it might be a something that has a school connection, but maybe not, perhaps a church or religious group has an event where they're looking for volunteers. Grab a group and volunteer for a morning. It's a good way to build morale, build connections and show that you're interested in supporting the community and this helps you to gain advocates from the community as well.
In these ways and more, professional development can be a key component of the larger learning community.
Ensuring that the school library is at the heart of a diverse and thriving culture of learning can mean engaging with adult learners at school without the students around. This lesson suggests possibilities for fostering a professional learning community, including study groups and book discussion groups, sharing of conference or workshop experiences, and "PD parties," where participants tweet together, dedicate time to blogging or writing, or participate in a webinar. To support success, be flexible, make PD appealing and even fun, plan for food, and consider some kind of celebration element to conclude, especially if you have a longer series of events.
Select one of the ideas presented in this workshop to develop and implement at your school. Following confirmation of any required permissions (if needed), connect with a few colleagues to plan a new or updated professional development experience to share at your school. You might start small, with something like a meet-up for a webinar (the "PD party"), which requires only the time, space, and people, and not the content development.
MLA Citation
Morris, Rebecca J. "Engaging the Learning Community: Implementing PD." School Library Connection, November 2024, schoollibraryconnection.com/Content/Course/2018658?learningModuleId=2018650&topicCenterId=2247902.
Entry ID: 2122867
Additional Resources
About the Author
Email: rmorris@schoollibraryconnection.com
Twitter: @rebeccajm87.
MLA Citation
Morris, Rebecca J. "Engaging the Learning Community. Example: Professional Development [5:02]." School Library Connection, ABC-CLIO, June 2016, schoollibraryconnection.com/Content/Course/2018658?learningModuleId=2018650&topicCenterId=2247902.
https://schoollibraryconnection.com/Content/Course/2018658?learningModuleId=2018650&topicCenterId=2247902
Entry ID: 2018658