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Why do I still need a librarian when I have one in my pocket? 

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Why do I still need a librarian when I have one in my pocket? 

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The teacher librarian’s role in 1:1/BYOD learning environments.
Week 1 Overview and Standards

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Why Do I Still Need a Library When I Have One in My Pocket?: EBSCOhost

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Week 1 Overview and Standards

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Making the decision to allocate school district resources to a digital conversion, and planning for and sustaining that technology conversion, requires effort and dedication. The need for techno...

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Instructional Coaching: Driving Meaningful Tech Integration

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Instructional Coaching: Driving Meaningful Tech Integration

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Week 1 Overview and Standards

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Instructional Coaching:  Driving Meaningful Tech Integration

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How do I get a PLN? Retrieved from Edutopia

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How do I get a PLN? Retrieved from Edutopia

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Week 1 Overview and Standards

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Guest blogger Tom Whitby, a 40-year veteran of the teaching profession and an extremely connected educator, offers some basic, practical wisdom about what a PLN is and how to get one.

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School Libraries Matter: The Changing Role of the School Librarian

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School Libraries Matter: The Changing Role of the School Librarian

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Week 1 Overview and Standards

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 Strengthen school vision with technology

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 Strengthen school vision with technology

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Week 1 Overview and Standards

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Schools are complicated places. We have mission statements and visions, district points of pride and learning objectives, new initiatives, variable funding and shifting enrollment. All of this is enough to make educators' heads spin.

So, what can be done? There are some who opt to wait it out. They'll do nothing now and wait and see what sticks or who retires. These individuals don't change and don't adapt, instead they lie low and let the complexity pile up and the opportunities pass by.

Others refuse to get overwhelmed. These individuals recognize the interdependent nature of the system. By focusing on a single vision, they are able to harness the complexity and use it to propel forward.

This is the story of how my district used technology to strengthen our vision, which states:
We are a learning community that inspires, engages, and empowers students to become lifelong learners and productive global citizens.

But before we discuss technology's roll, we first need to be on the same page. What does student empowerment look like? What are the characteristics of a lifelong learner? What is a productive global citizen?

These are the definitions that our district came up with:

Lifelong learners

These students are equipped with the skills necessary to learn outside the classroom over time. Critical thinking, clear communication, continuous reflection and collaboration are skills that top the list. A lifelong learner knows how to ask probing questions, seek multifaceted solutions and fail forward - not just come up with the answer. Much of their learning will happen online. This means that today's students need to be explicitly taught how to acquire and evaluate digital content.

Student empowerment

When students are empowered, they take initiative. They are able to articulate their own thoughts and manage their own learning. Empowered students are self-directed and committed to seeing work through. They are able to apply a growth mindset philosophy to their own learning by practicing positive self-talk, setting attainable goals and then actively go about reaching them.

Global citizenship

Globally competent individuals are empathetic, flexible and comfortable with ambiguity. They approach problem solving collaboratively and are able to process complex situations by considering multiple perspectives and using tools and techniques from across disciplines.

I doubt there is an educator out there who wouldn't support our district vision.

Still, when it comes to the reality of implementation, there is a wall of anxiety that goes up and initiative fatigue that prompts questions like: How can I do all of this and teach my content? Now you want me to layer in technology, social-emotional learning and being a global citizen?

It's understandable that many feel overwhelmed. After all, we packed a lot of competencies into our one-sentence vision. Fortunately, teaching about our vision is not the same thing as teaching our vision.

When we teach our vision, we integrate it into our pedagogy. For example, we first teach the concept of growth mindset as a stand-alone lesson. Then students practice it every day by setting initial and final goals, reflecting on their progress and engaging in positive self-talk prior to a quiz.

Help students fail forward

What does this all have to do with technology? If we always teach technology as a separate content area, it becomes another one of those things added to an already full plate. On the other hand, if technology - and the ISTE Standards for Students - are integrated into our classrooms, it becomes a tool to strengthen our school vision.

If we want our students to be lifelong learners and achieve academic success, we need to develop students who know how to struggle productively and who have positive attitudes and beliefs about themselves as learners.

Technology tools that provide real-time feedback, such as Quill for writing and grammar or Dream Box for math, are critical components in achieving this part of our vision. They help students fail forward because they provide a nonthreatening environment for practice.

By using such apps, students can immediately see what they don't understand and ask for on-the-spot clarification. Students learn to use real-time data to reflect on their performance and move their learning forward, either to meet grade-level expectations or challenge themselves to go beyond.

Teachers can then focus on being an analyst as defined by the ISTE Standards for Educators - as opposed to gathering data - and then respond effectively by asking probing questions and providing complementary activities that solidify student learning while strengthening higher-order thinking skills.

Because students are expected to learn and make progress rather than achieve perfection, class culture shifts away from answer-getting and assignments being something to mark off a list.

Students value the process

Instead of being competitive with one another or to feel pressure to cheat or finish quickly, students experience what it is like to be productive learners and understand how the collaborative process is part of the learning process. This is what academic success and life-long learning look like. And this is how technology supports school vision.

For students to be empowered, they must be have the tools and opportunities to articulate their own thoughts and manage their own learning. Technology tools that provide real-time feedback and data allow teachers to meet students where they are and help students to develop individualized learning plans.

Students feel more supported and confident. And because technology can be one-on-one, students now have the tools to manage their own learning and become active members in the discussion of their education.

Students are empowered learners - a hallmark of the ISTE Standards for Students - because they drive their learning; they have agency. This is a big responsibility, but it is authentic. They are not empowered if the experience is not authentic; technology plays a part in making this possible.

The use of technology also provides a vehicle by which students can articulate their own thoughts. Apps that allow for creativity, such as Explain Everything, make student thinking visible and actively engage students in the process and product of learning.

Students are empowered because they can choose how to show their understanding. Of course, this requires that the teacher's pedagogy values critical thinking and productive struggle.

This is where technology integration, as opposed to technology used in isolation, becomes crucial. It is not about using the app to create a product. It is about developing a culture that values critical thinking, explanation, revision and problem-solving. Technology nurtures the culture by allowing for revision, collaboration, explanation and an authentic audience.

Provide a globally competent environment

If we want our students to graduate from our campus as globally competent individuals, educators need to model these characteristics for students, by infusing our pedagogy with ISTE Standards for Educators and structure our classes so that students experience a globally competent environment.

This requires a shift in pedagogy, and integrating technology is a vital part of this shift. Because of technology, students have access to current events, information and multiple perspectives. Technology, however, does not teach students how to filter internet content, collaborate, be reflective or be empathetic. This is the job of the teacher.

Learning to keyboard is a necessary skill. Discussing an issue, posting in a digital learning journal and then having students respond to questions such as How do we tackle this issue with empathy? Why is it vitally important that we take on this challenge? is emblematic of a student practicing global competency.

Moreover, when posts are saved to a digital learning journal, they are readily accessed and reviewed and can themselves be used for reflection.

How have I grown as a globally competent person this year?

When integrated into pedagogy, technology lets all stakeholders - students, teachers, parents - focus on the learning process and growth; not just the product.

Once technology is integrated into pedagogy, it becomes possible to have in-the-moment digital citizenship discussions.

When students post digitally, they begin creating their personal digital footprint. Because posts will be read, and commented on (feedback), by an outside audience (peers, other parents, teachers, community members) the experience is authentic, not hypothetical.

This means something to students. Technology becomes a means to an end, not the end.

What's next?

All this points to the fact that technology is not another subject to be learned. It is a tool to be used to support school vision.

But don't be misguided. This is a multistep process that is complex and interdependent.

My school has taken the first step. We have given teachers and students the physical tools, such as iPads and laptops, and offered professional development around their basic use.

Now, it's time to move beyond that, lest technology become yet another thing teachers have to teach and students have to learn. Yes, there is a place for teaching keyboarding and coding as separate courses.

Schoolwide, however, we need to invest our time and limited resources in apps or sites that allow for creativity, collaboration, data collection and real-time feedback.

Our staff needs to have conversations around our shared vision - and how technology is integrated into our pedagogy, not just another subject to be taught, but harnessed as a tool to strengthen our school vision.

We need to be supported with professional development that emphasizes a move away from basic technology skills - though many still need them - toward higher-level thinking and collaboration, and development of strategies that permit teachers to develop a game plan for moving forward.
Brandolyn Patterson teaches middle school mathematics, is a teacher leader and serves on her district's Technology Advisory Committee.

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Strengthen school vision with technology

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Schools are complicated places. We have mission statements and visions, district points of pride and learning objectives, new initiatives, variable funding and shifting enrollment. All of this is enough to make educators' heads spin. So, what can be done? There are some who opt to wait it out.

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Week 1 Overview and Standards

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The 2016 compendium updates and builds upon the 2008 edition, reinforcing the most relevant themes from that report while highlighting recent research at both the national and state levels. All told, the research included in this compendium continues to show that school libraries and school librarians are a powerful force in the lives of America's children.

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Week 1 Overview and Standards

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Last summer, I decided that I wanted to know more about my personality in relation to my leadership skills. Part of my search for knowledge included taking the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) personality inventory. I did it because I needed to have a better understanding of individuals and how their personalities form organizational cultures.

I also realized that I need to know how to assess situations so that I either step up for the leadership role, yield to another person to facilitate growth, or observe instead of speaking. Eventually, I completed the certification course and began offering a discussion in one of my classes about personality types. I find this discussion important because functioning in a teamwork-driven atmosphere requires the ability to communicate and show empathy.

These skills are important for school librarians because we interact with our entire school communities. Our position comes with the responsibility of navigating interactions with a variety of personality types. We are effective when we understand who we are and who is on our team. Working in a rapidly changing environment can be easier if one is able to grasp how people perceive our actions. Hence, taking an assessment such as the MBTI can help us to:

Understand the tendencies related to our personality types

Recognize how these tendencies can impact other people

Identify how certain behaviors may limit successful interactions

Assess how one approaches conflict

Determine what can be done to improve our communication styles

Capitalize on the strengths of our communication styles

If you are going to take an assessment, there are some things that you should keep in mind. For example, there is no ideal personality type. Personality types are also not negative. Instead, we are all people with unique talents to offer.

Moreover, for an assessment to be accurate, you need to be honest with yourself. When you answer the questions, don't answer according to how you want to be perceived, the traits that you believe are the most important for your job, or the traits that seem to be the most attractive to the people that you care about. Answer based on who you are at your innermost core. Then you will be able to get tips that match your needs.

In conclusion, this post only touches the surface on how personality assessments can help you plan for your future. The starting point for improvement is awareness. Please note that I am not advocating for one type of assessment. There are many tools that you can use to learn more about your personality. An example is the DiSC model .

When you decide to take an assessment, I highly recommend meeting with someone who is certified instead of taking a random copycat assessment online. A computer can respond with a personality type based on your input. But you may not agree with the results. A reasonably priced consultant can help you work through the discrepancies and create a plan of action for improvement. Please see the August 2018 professional development below.
Note: The picture used in this post was purchased from DepositPhotos.

Organization Date & Time Professional Development Title

Association for Library Collections and Technical Services (ALCTS)

August 14- 15, 2018

9:00 AM - 5:00 PM CST

Working with Digital Repositories

Categories: Advocacy/Leadership, Blog Topics, Community/Teacher Collaboration, Professional Development

Tags: collaboration, leadership, personality assessments, personality types, school librarian

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Last summer, I decided that I wanted to know more about my personality in relation to my leadership skills. Part of my search for knowledge included taking the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) personality inventory. I did it because I needed... Read More ›

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Nowhere is tech more important than in curriculum: Here's why. 

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Nowhere is tech more important than in curriculum: Here's why. 

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Week 1 Overview and Standards

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Evergreen Public Schools is trying to answer a bold question: Can technology help ensure learning experiences are consistent across all of its schools, and at the same time promote personalized learning?

The district's work in technology didn't start with this question. Three years ago, officials decided to make an investment in one-to-one technology for the 27,000 students it serves. Once down this path, they quickly realized that the conversation had been primarily about the technology itself, and not how the technology would support personalization in teaching and learning.

By questioning how the technology could support teachers and students, the conversation and work in teaching and learning shifted away from technology and toward curricular resources that can be easily used to support the learning design focus in the district.

To date, the general model for curriculum has been the physical textbook. If a school district adopts a textbook, that became the base for curriculum. In recent years, many teachers are augmenting district-approved textbooks with texts and open educational resources, digital materials and links to PDFs-meaning third grade students in different classrooms at the same school may be experiencing the same content in a completely different way.

Evergreen's leaders have decided to change how they think about curriculum to ensure equity across all schools.

Rather than thinking of curriculum as a physical thing, Evergreen is flipping the script by using curricular resources as a tool that works with their technological investments to better meet the needs of their teachers and students, and ensures coherent, quality instruction across their district. Such a tool needs to:

Be easily communicated and distributed to schools, teachers, and students

Be quickly accessed across devices

Provide an adaptive and flexible resource that can change with needs of students

Support students and teachers in a variety of classroom settings

Help measure learning to empower teachers and school leaders to track success and adjust accordingly

A textbook can be a part of the tools available to get these jobs done. In many districts, a textbook becomes the base of a plan chosen and put forward by district leaders. A textbook can be used to guide plans teachers create and use in their classrooms. Often textbooks have assessments as well to help measure learning. But there are also limitations to a textbook model. Specifically:

What if the textbook doesn't capture the particular needs of the district?

What if teachers don't get their textbooks?

What if teachers don't use the textbook to plan and deliver instruction?

What if the textbook doesn't speak to the needs of every student in the classroom?

(Next page: Harnessing Curriculum-as-a-Service for personalized learning success)

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Nowhere is tech more important than in curriculum-here's why

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Evergreen Public Schools is trying to answer a bold question: Can technology help ensure learning experiences are consistent across all of its schools, and at the same time promote personalized learning? The district's work in technology didn't start with this question. Three years ago, officials decided to make an investment in one-to-one technology for the 27,000 students it serves.

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Week 1 Overview and Standards

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Week 1 Overview and Standards

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Future Ready Librarians - Future Ready Schools

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An essential component to becoming Future Ready, is making a digital learning plan before purchasing technology. The Interactive Planning Dashboard offers districts a five-step collaborative planning process. Upon completion, districts have a complete digital learning implementation plan, full of research-based strategies, including stakeholder input, local context, and district team leadership responsibilities.

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The Future Ready Librarians Facebook page

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The Future Ready Librarians Facebook page

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Week 1 Overview and Standards

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Week 1 Overview and Standards

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Future Ready Instructional Coaches - Future Ready Schools

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An essential component to becoming Future Ready, is making a digital learning plan before purchasing technology. The Interactive Planning Dashboard offers districts a five-step collaborative planning process. Upon completion, districts have a complete digital learning implementation plan, full of research-based strategies, including stakeholder input, local context, and district team leadership responsibilities.

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Future Ready Instructional Coaches Facebook page

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Future Ready Instructional Coaches Facebook page

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Week 1 Overview and Standards

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This group is moderated by leaders of the Future Ready Schools Initiative (www.futureready.org) and serves as a collaboration space for school leaders interested in learning and growing as...

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Week 1 Overview and Standards

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Future ready: Roadmaps to tech integration

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Future ready: Roadmaps to tech integration

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Week 2 Inspired Planning

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In my last two posts, I covered the transition to Open Educational Resources (OER). This transition can start when a school or district commits to making devices available. However, it's not simply about the device.

Trust and Leadership

I have been working with 1:1 and non-1:1 environments over the past four years. I have consulted with countless districts on what needs to be planned in order to make this transition practical, successful, and sustainable. Unfortunately, the first question I am typically asked is, "What device is best to impact student learning?" While this is an important question, it's not the first one you should be thinking about when planning your transition. The driving force behind any technology initiative is this: Innovation in the classroom begins with trust.

In all of my research and experiences working with schools, this is the common idea that schools gloss over. Technology integration is not about devices, nor is it about apps. Simply put, it's about challenging our students' thinking and trusting in our classroom teachers to develop and design creative paradigms for instruction.

Ultimately, effective leadership is at the core of trust. District leaders must look to develop a culture shift that starts with trusting those individuals they put in place to lead their initiatives. District leaders must also be open to thinking outside the box when it comes to developing technology plans. They need to understand that we don't buy or integrate technology like we used to do 10-15 years ago. Technology is constantly moving and evolving, and while we as educators must keep up with it, we must also balance our approach to integrating technology. The school or district that moves too quickly or tries to stay too far ahead of the curve may soon find itself in a hole.

Once you've established trust and had many conversations with all stakeholders in your school community, your school or district must set goals. It's always healthy to have a district goal, but similarly, to create school-based goals around technology integration. Every school in the K-12 spectrum will use these tools differently. Therefore, I suggest developing goals for each school building. I've done this by creating PLCs around technology integration within each building. Every month we connect, share ideas, and ensure that we are consistently looking at our goals as we move forward.

5 Ways to Plan a Tech Initiative

These goals can be viewed in a broader context by listening to what's coming from the U.S. Office of Educational Technology. The Future Ready campaign is providing roughly $2 billion to support new standards for e-rate and connect up to 99 percent of American schools, among other goals. While this campaign will surely provide more access within schools, there also needs to be commitment from school leaders to sustain this momentum.

In The 1:1 Roadmap, I suggest a route for district and school leaders to follow. Much like the Future Ready campaign, I suggest that there is no single path but rather many avenues to explore when designing a sustainable technology initiative. Every school and every district will approach these initiatives differently. What's more, districts shouldn't spend too long in the pilot phases of technology integration. The reason is that pilot initiatives can sometimes resemble longitudinal research, and while this is happening, an entire generation of students may miss out on access and opportunities to devices and digital resources. Instead, I suggest the following planning phases:

1. Begin With the End in Mind

Develop goals or a vision for technology integration. Begin by surveying all staff and students to ensure that all voices are heard. This will give you baseline data for measuring the growth of your initiative as well as starting out with everyone feeling comfortable about the decision. It should never be a top-down decision, and it should be reexamined and developed yearly.

2. Useful Data

Use the data gathered to select an instructional model for devices. Schools will want to look at their current infrastructure to ensure that it can handle a host of new addresses. Additionally, schools will want to look at access points and get a heat map of where the greatest saturation of address requests is happening in the building. Ultimately, when selecting a device, it should come back to what students and teachers feel comfortable with, while keeping in mind what your infrastructure can actually support.

3. Management and Privacy

Depending on what device you select, district leaders should develop a management system to ensure device safety and security. This type of mobile device management (MDM) system also provides a consistently updated inventory. In some cases, MDM systems can help district technology leaders push content and resources remotely to devices. Additionally, district leaders will want to become familiar with CIPPA, COPA, and FERPA to ensure student privacy.

4. Develop Workflows

Depending on the device you select and the quantity you use, this will be vastly different. Many schools that I work with have a foundation of Google Apps for Education. This environment has served school districts well and is being used widely by colleges and universities across the nation. However, many districts have recently adopted Microsoft 365 to integrate as well. Regardless of the workflow you integrate, district leaders should listen to the voices of all who submitted to the aforementioned survey of staff and students.

5. Support

Districts must commit to supporting these initiatives consistently. There should also be a tiered approach to professional learning offerings. Much like we differentiate our instruction, we should do the same for different levels of professional learning. Ultimately, the professional learning opportunities should resemble a conversation and allow time for staff to connect, share, and learn from each other.

In the comments below, please tell us how your school or district planned and carried out its technology integration program.

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Future Ready: Roadmaps to Tech Integration

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In my last two posts, I covered the transition to Open Educational Resources (OER). This transition can start when a school or district commits to making devices available. However, it's not simply about the device. I have been working with 1:1 and non-1:1 environments over the past four years.

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Know the ISTE standards for coaches: PD and program evaluation

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Know the ISTE standards for coaches: PD and program evaluation

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Week 2 Inspired Planning

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ISTE Standards for Coaches 4: Professional Development and Program Evaluation. Technology coaches conduct needs assessments, develop technology-related professional learning programs and evaluate the impact on instructional practice and student learning.

While most educators understand the professional development part of this standard, program evaluation can be more mysterious. Simply put, program evaluation is the systematic application of methods to assess the design, implementation and outcomes of a program. A "program" that you evaluate at your school or district might be a computer program for mathematics, a professional development program, or the entire educational technology outfit at your school or district, including hardware, devices, programs and initiatives. Large or small, a program evaluation's purpose is to uncover whether the program is achieving its desired results.

Effective technology coaches conduct program evaluations on a regular basis so they can best understand if the educational technology they are using and professional development they are delivering are positively impacting the students in the school or district. With this information, the technology coach will be able to:

Design future professional development.

Manage resources, including hardware, software and people.

Improve program effectiveness.

Provide evidence of what is working well.

Document accomplishments.

Provide evidence to support an increase in funding.

One of a tech coach's primary roles is ensuring that teachers have the skills and knowledge they need to use technology effectively with students. The table below describes three ways a technology coach could conduct a program evaluation to determine the professional development needs of staff at a school.

ISTE Standards-C 4: Professional Development and Program Evaluation. Technology coaches conduct needs assessments, develop technology-related professional learning programs and evaluate the impact on instructional practice and student learning.

Approach 1.
To determine the needs of teachers, the technology coach writes a list of what he or she thinks they need at that time. The technology coach then provides that training to the staff.

Approach 2.
Using the ISTE Standards for Teachers, the technology coach conducts one lesson observation with each teacher. He or she also sends out a survey to ask the staff what professional development they think they need. Using the observation notes and survey data, the coach chooses one of the PD options, then prepares and implements it.

Approach 3.
Using the ISTE Standards for Teachers, the technology coach conducts short lesson observations with all teachers twice a year. In addition, he or she administers a bi-yearly survey asking the staff what professional development they think they need. Using the observation notes and survey data, the coach prepares and implements all needed professional development for that year. This system continues throughout the following years.

a. Conduct needs assessment to inform the content and delivery of technology-related professional learning programs that result in a positive impact on student learning.

Not addressed: There is no evidence of needs assessment in this approach.

Addressed: The tech coach conducts a needs assessment via observation and survey.

Addressed: The tech coach conducts a needs assessment via observation and survey.

b. Design, develop and implement technology-rich professional learning programs that result in a positive impact on student learning.

Partially addressed: The tech coach conducts professional development, but it may not have been the training the teachers needed.

Addressed: The needs assessment leads to appropriate professional development that the tech coach implements.

Addressed: The needs assessment leads to appropriate professional development that the tech coach implements.

c. Evaluate results of professional learning programs to determine the effectiveness on deepening teacher content knowledge, improving teacher pedagogical skills and/or increasing student learning.

Not addressed: There is no evidence of evaluation in this approach.

Not addressed: There is no evidence of evaluation in this approach.

Addressed: The tech coach uses the observations and surveys to evaluate if the training met teachers' needs and what future training is needed.

The technology coach in Approach 1 has met none of the indicators for this standard. First, he or she assumed he knew what was best for training instead of referring to the ISTE Standards. The coach showed clear disregard for a needs assessment, which would be necessary to determine appropriate professional development training. The coach would also be unaware which teachers most need the training, as well as the specific content or skills they wished to learn. Teachers don't have much time on their hands, so they want professional development to fit their needs exactly, and they often view PD that doesn't meet those needs as boring and useless. After providing training, the coach also did not evaluate the outcome to determine if it was effective for teachers or if it improved student learning.

In Approach 2, the technology coach started with the ISTE Standards. The coach then gathered input from the teachers via a teacher survey and observation of one lesson with each teacher. However, the coach made no plans to conduct future observations. As a result, teachers were able to get help for the specific content and skills they needed that year. But because the coach did not evaluate the professional development, she had no measure by which to determine if it effectively improved teacher content knowledge and skills in ways that increased student learning. Therefore, this approach meets some of the indicators of the standard but not all.

In Approach 3, the technology coach knew that the typical one-off training approach does not work. Instead, he or she implemented a bi-yearly cycle of evaluation and training, using the ISTE Standards for Teachers to conduct classroom observations as well as a survey to gather teachers' input about their training needs. This initial needs assessment allowed the coach to customize professional development for those teachers. The second evaluation then gave teachers a chance to provide feedback about the last training session and follow up with requests for training needs that still remained. This approach meets all the indicators of this standard.

Professional development is crucial for teachers to keep skills sharp and current. But to really understand teachers' often evolving PD needs, coaches must conduct ongoing needs assessments, followed with evaluations determine if trainings were effective and plan for the future.

Samantha Briggs assisted with this article. She is a secondary science teacher in Virginia and Washington public schools. She earned her M.S. in education from Old Dominion University, Norfolk, Virginia.
Helen Crompton is an assistant professor of instructional technology at Old Dominion University in Virginia. She is a researcher and educator in the field of instructional technology, and she earned her Ph.D. in educational technology and mathematics education from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

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Know the ISTE Standards for Coaches: PD and program evaluation

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ISTE Standards for Coaches 4: Professional Development and Program Evaluation. Technology coaches conduct needs assessments, develop technology-related professional learning programs and evaluate the impact on instructional practice and student learning. While most educators understand the professional development part of this standard, program evaluation can be more mysterious.

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The ‘Transformative community based library’ in school Librarianship. LIS Theory

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The ‘Transformative community based library’ in school Librarianship. LIS Theory

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Week 2 Inspired Planning

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It is almost taken for granted that the goal of Librarianship is to serve the needs of the communities that utilize the library. However, that concept raises the question of how exactly librarians should serve those needs. Do librarians decide what is best for their communities? Do they select books and materials that they specifically deem valuable? Or does the community get a say in what exactly will satisfy its needs? Rather than separate the librarian and the patron, we should instead look at them as part of the same community, where both the opinion of the library and the opinion of community come together to create a space where both views have equal weight.

In their article "Transformative Library Pedagogy and Community Based Libraries: A Freirean Perspective," Martina Rielder and Mustafa Yunus propose the idea of the "Transformative Community Based Library (TCBL)". They write:

The TCBL model identifies libraries as democratic and educational sites for a community of learners who construct library practices as an interactive process between the present and the future of the community. It therefore encourages library visitors to reflect critically on the information provided, not simply as individual learners but as politically aware members of a community. (201o, p.93)

The TCBL is based on the Paulo Freire's model of education, presented in The Pedagogy of the Oppressed, which bucks against the traditional "banking" model of education where teachers communicate set knowledge and students memorize that information in order to repeat it back. The Freirean model of education proposes that teacher and student work together in the learning process, that the student has a base of existing knowledge that can be expanded on by the teacher, and that the teacher is capable of learning from the student. For example, a traditional classroom might be solely lecture-based, but a Freirean classroom would be seminar/discussion based, putting student voices on the same level as that of their instructor.

While Freire was specifically talking about the classroom, it is easy to see how the banking model vs. the Freirean model applies to libraries. A banking approach to Librarianship would be a library where all decisions are made by the library, and the community is merely presented with materials that has been deemed worthwhile for said community. The community uses only those materials, and little growth occurs. Meanwhile, the Feirean approach to Librarianship would be the TCBL, a library where there is a constant dialogue between the library and the community, resulting in a library that fully serves its community and provides community enhancement. The TCBL recognizes that the patrons and the community are integral parts of the process of library development, and that libraries have the ability to be centers of community empowerment and transformation.

Rielder and Yunus seem to speak more about the TCBL as a library that serves a larger community, such as a neighborhood. However, the TCBL model can be applied to many different fields of librarianship and many different kind of communities. One such field that would greatly benefit from the TCBL model is the field of School Librarianship, particularly school libraries that serve primary and secondary schools.

School libraries are supposed to be spaces that not only enhance the curriculum and provide guidance on the appropriate use of information, but also spaces that foster a real love of learning and reading. Three of the nine Information Literacy Standards set by the American Association of School Librarians refer to this goal, stating that the students up to standard should: "pursue information related to personal interests", "appreciate literature and other creative expressions of information", and "strive for excellence in information and knowledge generation" (1998, p. 8-9). Yet, many libraries, particularly secondary libraries, are not always utilized in ways that would help students to meet these standards. In fact, many students see the library as a place to spend a free period or avoid rather than a space they can use to enhance their education, let alone find material to be used outside of the classroom.

Why is this? Perhaps it is because many school libraries do not necessarily feel like community spaces to students. The library's collection may only contain books that pertain to the curriculum, or may only have books that the librarian deems appropriate for the students without student input. The Library Media Specialist may barely interact with the students. I recall in my own high school library that while I spent a lot of time there doing homework, I don't think I ever exchanged more than a few words with my high school LMS. She was completely separate from her students. This kind of library, like the banking model of education, may be adequate for providing set knowledge to the community (coming from the school district, state standards, curriculum needs, etc.), but it does nothing to really help its core community (the students) learn and thrive. It attempts to serve a community that it is disconnected from, and so it fails.

However, a library that follows the TCBL model, and really partners with its students, has the ability to actually succeed in its goals to promote information literacy and passion for reading and learning. If students feel that they have a voice in the development and management of the library, it stops being a space that they can be in and becomes a space that they take ownership of. Rielder and Yunus write "If learning involves the ability to negotiate new meanings and become a new person, it requires a space, a community, a counter public within which learners can engage with others in joint practice" (2010, p.95). In the context of the school library, the students have to feel like their library truly represents their needs and their interests, not just the needs and interests that the school district says they're supposed to have. This type of library is what really drives learning outside of the classroom and strengthens a students education.

There are Library Media Specialists who are developing libraries that really do represent their communities needs and interests, with strong results. For example, the School Library Journal recently reported on the LMS at Chicago's Wendell Phillips Academy High School: K.C. Boyd. When Boyd first started teaching as the LMS at Wendell Phillips, the school library was underutilized by the student body. Boyd had to "drag kids" into the library, but now the students come willingly and the library is one of the most popular spaces in the school. How did Boyd accomplish this? By paying attentions to what her community, her students, needed from the library and shaping the library around those needs.

Boyd began to purchase manga, poetry, supernatural stories, and street lit for her library because it was what her students wanted. School Library Journal's Mahnaz Dar notes that many educators may shy away from the street lit genre, but Boyd has proved that it has an important place in her library. Dar writes:

Boyd's willingness to purchase these titles shows a deep understanding and perception of her community. Many of her students come from neighborhoods where violence or crime is common. She can warn them against risky or dangerous behavior, she says, but "if they read a story with characters in similar situations, that story sits with them much more than what I would ever say. Street lit feeds into the social and emotional issues my students are dealing with."

Boyd, as an LMS, has created a library where the students are active participants in how their library runs, how collections development works, and how they learn and engage with information. Like a teacher might work with a student in the Freirean model of education, Boyd recognizes that she must help her students shape their own education process rather than tell them what their education process will be. Boyd's library, which matches the description of the TCBL, has proved to be very effective. The school's ranking has improved, ACT scores are higher, and the Class of 2014 collectively earned $2.3 million in scholarship funds. While, of course, there are other factors in play, and Boyd is not solely responsible for these changes, she certainly plays an important role in her school's improvement by managing a library that represents and incorporates the student community.

The Transformative Community Based Library model is extremely beneficial to school librarianship, especially since the model has its roots in education theory. If the field of classroom education wants to move away from the banking model, why shouldn't the school library follow suit? Library Media Specialists, like Boyd, have shown that the TCBL model is effective, and better helps students achieve information literacy standards. There will be barriers like budgeting, district regulations, and administrative support, but overall, if schools adopt the TCBL model, they will better serve their community and provide real enrichment for their students.

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The 'Transformative Community Based Library' in School Librarianship

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It is almost taken for granted that the goal of Librarianship is to serve the needs of the communities that utilize the library. However, that concept raises the question of how exactly librarians should serve those needs. Do librarians decide what is best for their communities?

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Week 2 Inspired Planning

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Overview of the Strategic Planning Process

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 Rethinking acceptable use policies to enable digital learning: a guide for school districts

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 Rethinking acceptable use policies to enable digital learning: a guide for school districts

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Week 3 Practical Policies

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Acceptable or responsible? What’s your use policy? 

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A portion of below is an excerpt from the new ASCD book, Learning Transformed: 8 Keys to Designing Tomorrow's Schools, Today, and is co-written by Thomas C. Murray and Eric Sheninger.
As a former technology director (Tom) and high school principal (Eric), we've seen some fascinating ways that students have tried to bypass the filter, have seen search terms that would make even college students blush, and have had a vast array of conversations with students about the appropriate use of digital tools. Concern about student safety while online and use of digital tools is undoubtedly valid. Every educator knows the best and the worst that the human mind has produced can be found somewhere on the Internet. We believe it is our moral obligation as educators to keep students safe, while simultaneously enabling them to create responsible digital footprints. Unfortunately, many school districts' filtering policies were developed before the rise of interactive web tools, social media, and mobile technologies.

"We believe it is our moral obligation as educators to keep students safe, while simultaneously enabling them to create responsible digital footprints."
- Thomas C. Murray & Eric C. Sheninger

We don't want student behavior to simply be acceptable. Neither do we want the digital footprint they create over the course of their lives to only be acceptable. We want students to be responsible for their behavior and footprint. Therefore, we believe that schools should move from "acceptable use" to "responsible use" policies. Acceptable Use Policies (AUPs) are typically written in such a manner that outlines everything a student (or employee) can't do. AUPs are often multiple pages long, written in legal terms that few understand, and have little to no relevance to users once they are signed at the beginning of the school year. There is also no possible way to adequately communicate all of the things districts deem inappropriate. Thus, these documents often become vast lists of ways users can get themselves into trouble, followed by an extensive pyramid of possible consequences. Although these policies may satisfy legal requirements, very few people pay attention to the details.

By contrast, Responsible Use Policies (RUPs) typically outline how students (and employees) should act. These policies typically promote positive behaviors, expectations, and guidelines. RUPs don't diminish student and employee expectations; they define ownership. We believe such ownership is needed for tomorrow's schools to guide students in developing responsible digital footprints that will follow them for the rest of their lives.

High-quality RUPs:

Lay the foundation for digital citizenship and personal accountability.

Include input from students, teachers, administrators, school board members, and the community.

Include school-owned and personal devices.

Encourage high levels of access.

Value student and community voice.

Outline expectations in a positive manner (i.e., "I am responsible for . . .").

Promote the responsible use of social media.

Encourage student (and employee) ownership of use.

Are age appropriate and easy for students to understand.

Are translated into the languages the school community needs.

High-quality RUPs include information about a variety of areas, such as Internet and software access, e-mail and user account information, filtering and monitoring, privacy expectations, and so on. We believe that regardless of how the plan is developed, districts should work to ensure maximum access, student (and employee) ownership, and relevant stakeholder input.

Boston Public Schools (BPS), which serves over 50,000 students in more than 125 schools, is a district that has worked to customize policies in an effort to make them relevant to students. Students enrolled in BPS are from 135 countries, and approximately 75 percent of all students live near or below the poverty line. As BPS worked to update its policy, staff quickly realized that policy language was not kid friendly, and students were signing off on documents they simply didn't understand. BPS tapped a retired teacher to review policy language and work with high school interns to create student-friendly, grade-level specific policies that kids could understand. In addition, high school students are trained as cyber safety mentors to work with students and the community on Internet safety.

So what's your take? How can school leaders build policies that are relevant to those that sign them? How can leaders best create policies that encourage responsibility and ownership and minimize limitations in access? We'd love to hear your thoughts! Use #LT8keys to continue the conversation online.

All for the kids we serve,

This post was originally published on EdTech Digest, here.

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Acceptable or Responsible? What's Your Use Policy? #LT8keys

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A portion of below is an excerpt from the new ASCD book, Learning Transformed: 8 Keys to Designing Tomorrow's Schools, Today, and is co-written by Thomas C. Murray and Eric Sheninger.

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School library tech budgets rise: SLJ 2017 technology survey

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School library tech budgets rise: SLJ 2017 technology survey

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Is your library stuck in the 20th century? 

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Is your library stuck in the 20th century? 

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Week 3 Practical Policies

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I had planned to write about something totally different today, but I got an email from an assistant principal on Monday that has been plaguing me ever since. This is a paraphrased version of the email I received, slightly edited to remove personal details.

Our librarian's policy is that when a student forgets to return their book during their scheduled library time, they're not allowed to check another book until the other one is returned. That student is also instructed to sit away from class and wait until library is over. The students who constantly forget to return their books never get a chance to check out more books, and they also do not get exposed to library instruction. I would like to provide feedback for the librarian to change the system she has in place and also develop more ways to motivate the student to take ownership in responsibility of leaving books at home. Do you have any suggestions?

Oh, you'd better believe I had suggestions... 🙂

My Response

Here's how I responded, slightly edited to remove personal details:

Thanks so much for your email. I appreciate your concern about your students' exposure to effective library instruction. I am very passionate about library instruction in the 21st Century. In fact, I think it's more important now than ever before.

I have never been a fan of rigid checkout policies. While it is important for students to learn responsibility when it comes to borrowing library books, it's more important to me that the student gets to check out a book that he/she enjoys in the library. I want visiting the library to be an enjoyable experience, not a place where someone is nagging them or punishing them for not bringing books back.

That being said, there is a point where a line must be drawn. I have always allowed students to check out up to a maximum of 5 books. If they have late books, it is OK as long as they do not have over 5 books checked out. If a student already has 5 books checked out (and not returned), he or she is allowed to browse books in the library during checkout time, but cannot checkout.

In my opinion, the best thing you can do is gently voice your concerns to your librarian and come up with some new ideas together. You should also develop a school library policy with your librarian that clearly states expectations for student book checkout. I will have examples of these documents available on my website later this year.

Keep on fighting for what's best for students! I want them to love the library as much as I do.

Honestly, I'm still a little speechless.

If you're the librarian the email is referring to (or even if you're not - but could be), I beg you to rethink this archaic policy. Maybe it's your first rodeo and you're trying to protect your collection. Maybe you've been doing this for many years and just can't stand the thought of losing more books. I understand this to a point. We all know how frustrating it is for a brand new student to check out two brand new books only to find out that he or she moved to another school a week later... or when a student returns a brand new, only-checked-out-once book on the last week of school with wavy, once wet pages and all the library stickers peeled off (which may or may not have happened to me). 😉

As school librarians, we have to be good stewards of our school's investment in the library's collection. We certainly should teach students to be responsible with library books, and also encourage them to bring them back on time. But isn't the job of school librarian about more than being keeper of the books?

What's best for students?

My most important job as a school librarian is to facilitate student enjoyment of reading. It's probably not on the official list of librarian job duties, but it's what's truly important to me (and should be to you, too). Whenever an issue comes up in the library, my first question is always, "What is best for my students in this situation?"

Keeping students away from the library's resources is not what's best. Constant nagging about missing books and being punished for forgetting to bring a book back is also not what's best.

What's truly best for students is to help them love the library ( psst... it's also what's best for librarians). We can do that by having a lenient, but consistent, policy for returning books on time. We can also help our students love the library by allowing them to use its resources even if they can't check out that day.

Isn't this teaching students it's OK to be irresponsible?

I can see where you could say that, but I'm not asking for students to be able to check out every book in your library without returning them. I'm simply asking you to be more flexible. If your current checkout limit is 2, increase it to 5. As long as a student does not have more than the maximum number of books checked out, let them check out even if they have a late book. Give gentle reminders, but don't nag. You can say things like, "I see you still have Green Eggs and Ham checked out. Were you able to finish reading it? What did you think?"

In the grand scheme of things, a few lost books are a small price to pay for making your library a more inviting and pleasant place for your students.
What's your policy for late books? Share your thoughts on this issue in the comments!

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Is your library stuck in the 20th Century? - Elementary Librarian

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I had planned to write about something totally different today, but I got an email from an assistant principal on Monday that has been plaguing me ever since. This is a paraphrased version of the email I received, slightly edited to remove personal details.

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Confessions of a librarian who does everything wrong. 

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Confessions of a librarian who does everything wrong. 

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Week 3 Practical Policies

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"How do you do inventory if you can't close the library because you're letting kids take books out for the summer?" The criticism in the other school librarian's voice was not even trying to veil itself behind a smile.

"I don't do inventory," I admitted. "I mean, there were some kids eating lunch in the library a couple years ago, and they asked if they could take books out for the summer, and that got me thinking..." My voice trailed off at the sight of her expression. "They eat lunch in the library?" she asked. I suddenly found myself, once again, under the weight of heavy judgment. I am always doing things "wrong" in the library.

But sometimes it's worth doing the wrong things for the right reasons-especially when our right reasons are our students
I let kids eat lunch in the library.
The premise of a library lies at the intersection of truth and justice. It is the heart of the school where all are welcome and safe, where needs are met and potentials challenged. I didn't start to let students eat in the library because I didn't feel like battling the food issue. Instead, I let kids eat in the library because that is the just thing to do.

Like us, for a variety of reasons, some students need to work through their lunch. I'd rather them take bites of a sandwich and put words on a page rather than choose between the two.

Some students like the quiet break to sit and read during their lunch. There are several regulars who just opt to sit by themselves and, for 20 minutes, fall into a good story while they eat.

Some students do not feel safe or comfortable in the cafeteria. Students who have Aspergers, autism, or social anxiety gravitate during their lunch period, where they can either sit with a small group of trusted friends or by themselves to prepare for their next transition.

Lunch in the library can bring its own share of battles, but we tell kids who want to just come and hang out that hanging out during lunch is completely acceptable-just in the cafeteria. Every public room has its own function, and part of ours is to ensure that every child has a comfortable, functional, and safe place to be.
I let kids sign out DVDs and movies.
There is no room filled with teacher-only materials in our library. Just as we don't purchase and house the entire English department's book copies of To Kill a Mockingbird , we don't do that for audio-visual resources, either. We are a supplementer to curriculum materials, not the warehouse for them. The library is about access for all patrons, and we want to make sure that culturally important cinema is readily available. Not only do we have Gregory Peck in To Kill a Mockingbird , but we have also have J-Law in Mockingjay. And while I am always on the lookout for good movies that will augment my teachers' practices, I take great joy in watching a 17-year-old take out the entire Star Wars saga for a weekend binge.
I let kids take out unlimited books-even when they have overdues.
Sure-there are "those" kids with whom we have to have private conversations about returning items or maybe only taking a few out at a time, but there will always be the exception to the rule in education. When I go to the library or the bookstore, my eyes are always bigger than my 24-hour-day constraint. There are so many choices! A kid who wants to take out five books? I want to nurture that greed of good storytelling. We should never be the gatekeeper of literacy, but always the gate openers.
I let kids sign books out over the summer.
Significant reading loss-particularly for children in poverty-occurs from not reading over the summer. A proactive library needs to start talking up books a month before school gets out. Bring books to English classrooms during move-up days, send out summer sign-out memes, hang signs, make beach-read displays. Ask every kid you encounter, "What are you reading this summer?" Let kids know summer is a great time to read! We have found that our rates of book loss are exactly the same as school-year circulation numbers. And that seeing a kid walk out with a shopping bag full of books is worth everything.
And yes, I don't do inventory.
Here's what inventory says to the school community: we are not busy enough or instrumental in learning enough to stay open until the end of the school year. We want you to read like nuts-until it's time for us to make lists of and count our books. At that point, please return everything. Our relationship is over for the year. I know and value all of the reasons for doing annual inventory, but in the end, my students' access wins. We only have a finite time with our patrons, and I want our library to be a valuable resource through the very last day and into the summer. And if a book goes missing and nobody has been looking for it? Well, then. That speaks for itself.

As I write this, I am uncomfortable with the prospect of being chastised-I know I don't do everything the way I'm supposed to and I worry that my philosophy sounds like I'm embracing chaos and disorder. I know all of the counterarguments to my practice, and sometimes, in a moment of insecurity I question if I'm betraying the norms of my profession by untying the knots of cumbersome policy. But ultimately, I have decided I will shoulder the criticism and ensure that what is best for students will drive my practice, and that means that our library is student-centered, not policy-centered.

Angie Miller is a 7-12 school librarian in Meredith, NH. The 2011 NH Teacher of the Year and the recipient of the 2017 NH Outstanding Library Program of the Year, Angie is a TED speaker, National Geographic teacher fellow, and freelance writer who writes for her blog, The Contrarian Librarian, and is a regular contributor to sites like EdWeek and the Washington Post's Answer Sheet. As a co-founder of the initiative, Let the Librarians Lead, Angie leads professional development, speaks to audiences, and advocates for school leadership through librarianship. Her book, It's A Matter of Fact: Teaching Students Research Skills in Today's Information-Packed World, published by Routledge, will be on shelves in April 2018.

Categories: Advocacy/Leadership, Blog Topics, Collection Development, Student Engagement/ Teaching Models

Tags: collaborative culture, Culture, learning commons, literacy, policy, reading, rules, school librarians

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Confessions of a Librarian Who Does Everything Wrong | Knowledge Quest

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"How do you do inventory if you can't close the library because you're letting kids take books out for the summer?" The criticism in the other school librarian's voice was not even trying to veil itself behind a smile. "I... Read More ›

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Week 4 Budget

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It was very early in my career as a school librarian that I realized how important the principal was to the library program that I could create. Principals impact, influence, or control (choose the appropriate verb based on your experience) library budgets, scheduling, staffing, and programming. They can also set the tone among faculty for attitude toward and use of the library and its services.

While it might be ideal for our principals to come to their administrative positions knowing all about the job that we do, this is typically not the case. Although most administrators have been classroom teachers, very few have past experience working as school librarians. Much of my research throughout my career then has focused on principals' perceptions of our instructional role and how they come to those understandings.
What I've Learned
As a rule, principals do not learn what librarians do from their educational leadership coursework. Few articles about school libraries appear in the journals in their field, and sessions about school librarians are rare at their conferences. Based on the findings from my studies on Virginia principals, both elementary and secondary, 92% learn what librarians do from the librarians with whom they work...which puts the responsibility right back in our laps!
2016-2017 Presidential Initiative
There was little question then, as I reflected on the focus for my presidential initiative, that it would be on school administrators and how we might help them to better understand the critical role that we play in student learning. Deb Levitov, Editor, Teacher-Librarian (NE), kindly agreed to chair my Presidential Initiative Task Force; Priscille Dando, Coordinator, Library Information Services in Fairfax County Public Schools (VA), and Michelle Folk, Teacher Librarian at Fort Atkinson Middle School (WI), agreed to serve on the task force. I asked them to curate a limited number of select quality resources in a variety of formats, create suggestions for sharing these resources, and develop a mechanism to measure the effectiveness of the initiative. And what an amazing job they have done!
Resources
"School Librarians as Learning Leaders: An Administrator's Guide" is available in two formats: an infographic and an annotated resource guide. The two documents feature the same resources but are organized differently. The infographic presents the resources categorized by topic under the headings of Teaching, Leadership, and Evidence. The annotated resource guide presents the resources organized by format (Infographics; Journal articles, position statements, reports; and Videos).

In addition, the following resources will be added to the webpage later this week:

"Tips & Scenarios for Using 'School Librarians as Learning Leaders: An Administrator's Guide,'" which will outline who might share the documents, how and when to share, what to consider in planning, and advocacy scenario possibilities for various target audiences,

"Action Plan Worksheet for 'School Librarians as Learning Leaders: An Administrator's Guide,'" which will walk you through how to plan to use the documents, step-by-step, and

"Usage Survey," a quick and easy survey that will provide AASL with feedback on the use of the various resources.

What's Next?
Task force members joined me on the May 18 broadcast of Larry Jacobs' Education Talk Radio, " Administrators and School Librarians: A Powerful Partnership for Schools and Learning," to talk about the initiative. They will be sharing and discussing the resources with members of the Affiliate Assembly at Affiliate Assembly II on Sunday, June 25, at the ALA Annual Conference in Chicago and presenting a session, "Advocacy Begins with Each of Us: Resources and Strategies to Foster Administrator and School Librarian Partnerships," at the AASL National Conference & Exhibition in Phoenix in November.

Additionally, AASL will have a presence in the exhibit hall at the first-ever joint conference for pre-K through grade 12 school leaders National Principals' Conference in Philadelphia in July where Executive Director Sylvia Knight Norton and I will share the infographic and emphasize to principals the key role that school librarians play in student learning. As materials go out from the AASL Office to state affiliates for distribution at conferences, the "School Librarians as Learning Leaders" infographic will be included. And, of course, please feel free to download, print, and share!

As school librarians we are learning leaders in our schools. My hope is that these resources will be useful to you as you share the message with your administrators that #SchoolLibrariansTransformStudentLearning.

Categories: Advocacy/Leadership, Blog Topics, Community, Presidential Musings

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Audrey Church, Leadership Development Committee Chair and 2017-2018 AASL Past President

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It was very early in my career as a school librarian that I realized how important the principal was to the library program that I could create. Principals impact, influence, or control (choose the appropriate verb based on your experience)... Read More ›

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Week 4 Budget

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About the National Educational Technology Plan

The U.S. Department of Education released the 2024 National Educational Technology Plan (NETP): A Call to Action for Closing the Digital Access, Design and Use Divides. First released in fulfillment of Improving America's Schools Act of 1994, NETP has been updated multiple times since its original release, most recently in 2016. While past NETPs have largely served as surveys of the state of the field, the Department of Education's 2024 NETP frames three key divides limiting the transformational potential of educational technology to support teaching and learning, including:

The Digital Use Divide, addressing opportunities to improve how students use technology to enhance their learning, including dynamic applications of technology to explore, create, and engage in critical analysis of academic content and knowledge;

The Digital Design Divide, addressing opportunities for educators to expand their professional learning and build the capacities necessary to design learning experiences enabled by technology; and

The Digital Access Divide, addressing opportunities for students and educators to gain equitable access to educational technology, including connectivity, devices, and digital content. This also includes accessibility and digital health, safety, and citizenship as key elements of digital access.

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National Educational Technology Plan - Office of Educational Technology

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The 2024 NETP frames key divides limiting the potential of educational technology, including: Digital Use, Digital Design, and Digital Access.

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Week 4 Budget

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Big fish small budget: Insights from SLJ's 2017 spending survey

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Big fish small budget: Insights from SLJ's 2017 spending survey

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Plymouth State University - Connect ‹ Log In

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Access to resources and services in the school library: An interpretation of the library bill of rights. 

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Access to resources and services in the school library: An interpretation of the library bill of rights. 

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Week 5 Ethics

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Week 5 Ethics

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 Fencing out knowledge: Impacts of CIPA 10 years later

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 Fencing out knowledge: Impacts of CIPA 10 years later

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Rethinking acceptable use policies to enable digital learning: A guide for school districts

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Rethinking acceptable use policies to enable digital learning: A guide for school districts

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Technology planning toolkit: Policies and resources

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Technology planning toolkit: Policies and resources

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Office for Intellectual Freedom Established December 1, 1967, the Office for Intellectual Freedom is charged with implementing ALA policies concerning the concept of intellectual freedom as embodied in the Library Bill of Rights, the Association's basic policy on free access to libraries and library materials.

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Mandatory reporters of child abuse and neglect: State statutes

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Mandatory reporters of child abuse and neglect: State statutes

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Week 5 Ethics

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The Children's Internet Protection Act (CIPA) was enacted by Congress in 2000 to address concerns about children's access to obscene or harmful content over the Internet. CIPA imposes certain requirements on schools or libraries that receive discounts for Internet access or internal connections through the E-rate program - a program that makes certain communications services and products more affordable for eligible schools and libraries. In early 2001, the FCC issued rules implementing CIPA and provided updates to those rules in 2011.

What CIPA requires

Schools and libraries subject to CIPA may not receive the discounts offered by the E-rate program unless they certify that they have an Internet safety policy that includes technology protection measures. The protection measures must block or filter Internet access to pictures that are: (a) obscene; (b) child pornography; or (c) harmful to minors (for computers that are accessed by minors). Before adopting this Internet safety policy, schools and libraries must provide reasonable notice and hold at least one public hearing or meeting to address the proposal.

Schools subject to CIPA have two additional certification requirements: 1) their Internet safety policies must include monitoring the online activities of minors; and 2) as required by the Protecting Children in the 21st Century Act, they must provide for educating minors about appropriate online behavior, including interacting with other individuals on social networking websites and in chat rooms, and cyberbullying awareness and response.

Schools and libraries subject to CIPA are required to adopt and implement an Internet safety policy addressing:

Access by minors to inappropriate matter on the Internet;

The safety and security of minors when using electronic mail, chat rooms and other forms of direct electronic communications;

Unauthorized access, including so-called "hacking," and other unlawful activities by minors online;

Unauthorized disclosure, use, and dissemination of personal information regarding minors; and

Measures restricting minors' access to materials harmful to them.

Schools and libraries must certify they are in compliance with CIPA before they can receive E-rate funding.

CIPA does not apply to schools and libraries receiving discounts only for telecommunications service only;

An authorized person may disable the blocking or filtering measure during use by an adult to enable access for bona fide research or other lawful purposes.

CIPA does not require the tracking of Internet use by minors or adults.

You can find out more about CIPA or apply for E-rate funding by contacting the Universal Service Administrative Company's (USAC) Schools and Libraries Division (SLD) . SLD also operates a client service bureau to answer questions at 1-888-203-8100 or via email through the SLD website.

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Children's Internet Protection Act (CIPA)

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The Children's Internet Protection Act (CIPA) was enacted by Congress in 2000 to address concerns about children's access to obscene or harmful content over the Internet. CIPA imposes certain requirements on schools or libraries that receive discounts for Internet access or internal connections through the E-rate program - a program that makes certain communications services and products more affordable for eligible schools and libraries.

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An Act to prohibit bullying and cyberbullying in schools

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An Act to prohibit bullying and cyberbullying in schools

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Week 5 Ethics

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PUBLIC Law, Chapter 659, An Act To Prohibit Bullying and Cyberbullying in Schools

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Effective 90 days following adjournment of the 125th Legislature, Second Regular Session, unless otherwise indicated.

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School bullying prohibited: bullying prevention and intervention plans

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School bullying prohibited: bullying prevention and intervention plans

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Week 5 Ethics

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General Law - Part I, Title XII, Chapter 71, Section 37O

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(j) The department, after consultation with the department of public health, the department of mental health, the attorney general, the Massachusetts District Attorneys Association and experts on bullying shall: (i) publish a model plan for school districts and schools to consider when creating their plans; and (ii) compile a list of bullying prevention and intervention resources, evidence-based curricula, best practices and academic-based research that shall be made available to schools.

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Week 5 Ethics

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Section 193-F:4 Pupil Safety and Violence Prevention.

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I. Bullying or cyberbullying shall occur when an action or communication as defined in RSA 193-F:3: (a) Occurs on, or is delivered to, school property or a school-sponsored activity or event on or off school property; or (b) Occurs off of school property or outside of a school-sponsored activity or event, if the conduct interferes with a pupil's educational opportunities or substantially disrupts the orderly operations of the school or school-sponsored activity or event.

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Week 5 Ethics

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Section 201-D:11 Library User Records; Confidentiality.

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I. Library records which contain the names or other personal identifying information regarding the users of public or other than public libraries shall be confidential and shall not be disclosed except as provided in paragraph II.

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Week 5 Ethics

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Week 5 Ethics

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Plymouth State University - Connect ‹ Log In

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Reading about difficult subjects might help kids better face them in life. Book World

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Reading about difficult subjects might help kids better face them in life. Book World

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Week 5 Ethics

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There are books for young people that hold difficult truths, and we gatekeepers - writers, parents, teachers, librarians - often find ourselves trying to sort out just what is appropriate for our kids to read about. When I was writing and illustrating "Hey, Kiddo: How I Lost My Mother, Found My Father, and Dealt with Family Addiction," a graphic memoir aimed at readers 12 and up, I didn't pull any punches because of one simple realization: There are difficult truths in our books because there are difficult truths in children's lives.

For me to write this harrowing tale of my upbringing, I needed to write openly and authentically so young people dealing with similar situations would feel less alone. This included some tough scenes dealing with my mother's opioid addiction and some less tough scenes involving my grandmother's salty language. To offer up a watered-down account of how addiction affected me as a young person would have been disingenuous. There are, according to the two recent National Surveys on Drug Use and Health, an estimated 8.7 million children ages 17 or younger in the United States who live in a household where at least one parent has a substance-use disorder - involving drugs, alcohol or both. Those young people deserve to be seen.

I told my story from the perspective of my 17-year-old self because that is an incredibly interesting time for a person - that moment you're about to be launched into the world on your own, just as you're trying to sort out who you are. There are some facts that I learned about my mother in my adult life that I didn't give to my teenage narrator - not because it would have upset the reader but because it would have dramatically altered the narrator's relationship with his mother, thereby steering the memoir away from actual events.

One story I share is a scene in which my mother aided in covering up a murder her then-boyfriend committed. I was just a toddler at the time. For the book, I needed to explain to the reader why the mother was going away even if I didn't give that knowledge to the narrator. My grandparents never gave me that information when I was a youth, but it slipped out from a family friend when I was an adult.

As the publication of "Hey, Kiddo" approached, I needed to face a conundrum similar to one my grandparents had faced as they raised me - when (and if) to tell my children the truth behind their familial lineage. Before I let my nine-year-old daughter read "Hey, Kiddo," I sat her down to tell her about some of the details I reveal in the book. She'd known about my mother's incarceration and drug use, but she'd never known the woman herself or any of the details. (My mother started getting arrested again when my eldest was in preschool and died of an overdose a few years after that.) I built up the courage to have this conversation and learned something very important: that I hadn't been giving my kid enough credit.

After I told the tale of my mother's abusive boyfriend and how my mother had helped dispose of the bloodied murder weapon, my daughter was quiet for a moment. Then she said, "Maybe she was afraid that she'd get murdered if she didn't help. Or what if she was afraid that man would hurt you when you were little?" Her empathy in the face of such a disturbing revelation blew me away - and reinforced my belief that kids can process difficult truths if they're given the right context and room to think about it.

My mother was just 13 when she started experimenting with drugs - only one year older than the earliest suggested age for readers of "Hey, Kiddo." While my book may help the children of addicts feel less alone, I hope, too, that my mother's story will help young people steer away from the devastating effect of opioids.

It certainly isn't up to me to tell parents what their child should and shouldn't read, but I do know this: There are some very difficult and inconvenient topics our children are going to face in real life. I so hope that our young people can experience and learn about these difficult truths for the first time on the page and not in real life. The windows that books provide may give them warning and steer them in a positive direction.

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Krosoczka is the author and illustrator of numerous children's books, including the Lunch Lady and the Platypus Police Squad series. His most recent book is "Hey, Kiddo."

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Book World: Reading about difficult subjects might help kids better face them in life, writes Jarrett Krosoczka

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There are books for young people that hold difficult truths, and we gatekeepers - writers, parents, teachers, librarians - often find ourselves trying to sort out just what is appropriate for our kids to read about.

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Week 6 Advocacy

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Help transform learning and teaching through becoming an advocate for educational technology. ISTE offers resources to help you advocate for digital age education.

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Week 6 Advocacy

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American Association of School Librarians (AASL)

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Definitions developed by the AASL Advocacy Committee.

Information on AASL sponsored events including Banned Websites Awareness Day and School Library Month.

The AASL Board is excited to launch AASL Connection (#aaslcxn), a new conversation point for the school library profession. Highlighted by quarterly live webinars, #aaslcxn is a hashtag with a social life. The hashtag will be integrated into AASL board member social media conversation and will be monitored for questions and content requests for future live webinars, Twitter chats, upcoming conference content requests, and more.

AASL-created resources and contact information in the event of a material challenge.

Information on school library specific legislation and the ongoing legislative efforts of the ALA Washington Office.

Information to facilitate the school librarian's role as advocate for their program - this includes position statements, AASL developed professional development, relevant reports, research and statistics, and white papers.

Materials to facilitate school library program advocacy - this includes advocacy brochures and toolkits.

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-american association of school librarians

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Definitions developed by the AASL Advocacy Committee. Information on AASL sponsored events including Banned Websites Awareness Day and School Library Month. The AASL Board is excited to launch AASL Connection (#aaslcxn), a new conversation point for the school library profession. Highlighted by quarterly live webinars, #aaslcxn is a hashtag with a social life.

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Week 6 Advocacy

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About the diagnostic tool

The ISTE Lead & Transform Diagnostic Tool is a free resource that takes a snapshot of a school's alignment to the 14 Essential Conditions for learning and teaching with technology. The tool generates a free report with data that can guide your tech planning and implementation decisions as you move forward. The questionnaire takes approximately 20-40 minutes to complete. If you can't finish it in a single sitting, don't worry! Your answers will be saved, and you can return to it any time.

How will the results help you?

After completing the questionnaire, you'll receive immediate access to results that will help you pinpoint the school's strengths and areas of growth. The data in the report will allow you to:

Measure your progress toward becoming tech- and standards-ready.

Inform your comprehensive planning and decision making.

Identify the resources you will need to help meet your tech integration goals.

You'll also have the opportunity to get more detailed information with a paid report upgrade of $49.95.

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The ISTE Lead & Transform Diagnostic Tool is a free resource that takes a snapshot of a school's alignment to the 14 Essential Conditions for learning and teaching with technology. The tool generates a free report with data that can guide your tech planning and implementation decisions as you move forward.

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Week 6 Advocacy

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Week 6 Advocacy

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At this time of year, many teacher librarians are working to compile an annual report: that is to say a 2-3 page summary of how their work made a difference for students and staff all year long. As someone who has crafted more than one of these babies, I understand and appreciate the work that goes into the shiny final products. Further, I know that the most effective annual reports are not simply collections of data pulled together at the last minute. The most stunning and impressive examples are intentionally and methodically crafted all year long. In other words, if you're only just now thinking about doing an annual report, the bad news is that you're probably too late for this year. HOWEVER, the good news is, you're just in time to get a jump start on one for next year!
Why Do An Annual Report?
While I've never worked for a district or principal that required an annual report, I believe strongly in their value as a storytelling tool. After all, if we don't share how our work impacts students, who will? An annual report is one way for you to:

1. grab the attention of your administrator

2. share data that illustrates how your work makes a difference, and

3. send the message that you care as much about student outcomes and the impact of your work as classroom teachers do.

What Makes A Good Annual Report:

I've asked countless librarians this very question as part of a workshop I do regularly on connecting the dots between the library and student outcomes. Together we analyze about a bajillion (or thereabouts) school library annual reports. We talk about what types of data had to be collected in order to make even the weakest report possible. I ask them to identify the most effective presentation tools. And I challenge them to discover the secret ingredient to creating the most amazing report ever. And I'll give you a hint: There is no single secret ingredient. There are, however a few commonalities among the most effective reports. And these shared traits add up to some pretty sage advice.

1. Identify a target audience. Ask yourself who needs to be moved by the story your report is going to tell and then curate, connect and create with those people in mind. If your administrator is the person you need to impress with your annual report, try to identify the problems that are keeping him/her up at night and then make sure your report addresses them. If your principal is concerned about the drop out rate, strategically display your work to address that issue front/center in your report. While author visits are amazeballs, if your principal could care less about them, don't spend 5 pages on that (or any topic that's going to lose your audience). Time and time again the librarians I work with recognize that a good annual report is as much about the audience as it is about the person writing it.

2. Remember that student data is the only data that matters. If you're going to share circulation stats, you'd better connect them to student outcomes. If you're going to share data related to your collaboration efforts, be sure to draw a connection between that work and its impact on kids. If you're going to share your growth as a professional, you must include how the workshops you attended, the twitter chats you led or the professional development you conducted after school made a difference for the students and staff you serve. We are in the student business. Everything we do must lead back to them or it simply doesn't matter. That said, let me be clear... test scores are not the only students data that matter. There are lots of ways for you to share how your work changes the lives of the young people you work with. The key is to make sure all the data you DO share circles back to the reason why you come to work each day: kids. (See #4 below).

3. Tell a story. Stories are primal. They connect us. They help us understand and feel connected to one another. No one was ever moved to tears by a pie chart. Don't waste the few minutes you have (because typically your readers will only spend a few minutes looking at your report) on boring old facts and figures. Harness them to capture your audience. Use the data you collect to tell the story of how the library changes student lives.

4. Diversify your data. Make sure you include all different types of data in your report. Numbers are important. And often, these are the data that your administrators will be most interested in. But your job isn't about numbers. It's about students. So be sure to include photos, videos (if you're doing a digital report) student narratives and other types of qualitative data to not simply balance out the quantitative stuff but to compliment and enhance it.

5. Start early. Create a system for collecting data. Even if it's a just a folder on your desktop or in your email inbox. Throughout the year, put stuff in the folder (emails from teachers, students or parents, examples of formative assessment data or student products from a collaborative unit, etc). You don't have to be super organized, just create a system that works for you and make sure that you're adding to your stack of artifacts all year long. You'll likely have to do a little weeding at the end of the year, but that's a MUCH better problem than deciding in May that you'd like to do an annual report, only to realize that you don't have anything to put in it.

6. Less is more. The first school library annual report I ever read was by a librarian I admired greatly. It was over 20 pages and I hungrily devoured every single word. But I knew there was no way my principal would spend the time it took to read through a 20+ page report about the library. So when I set out to create my first annual report, my goal was to do the same work in one page. I ended up settling for five pages that included lots of visuals. My principal responded to the format, asked me lots of questions about the information but said at the end, "if it had been one page longer, you'd have lost me." Chances are, whomever your target audience is, they are made up of busy people. Be respectful of their time.

7. Do the work. I can't emphasize this enough. The true key to a great annual report is great work. Even the flashiest report, on the shiniest paper, with the most colorful graphics and slickest design won't be able to hide a library program that doesn't effectively serve kids. Simply put, you need to be awesome. And then let your report act as a mirror reflecting that great work.

8. And finally, learn from others. Our profession is made up of so many super generous people who openly share their work with the world. Over the years, I've curated tons of examples of Annual reports that I will include at the bottom of this pot. Take the time to explore the annual reports of others and learn from their efforts. Draw inspiration from your colleagues and then share your final product for others to be inspired be. (Which leads me to this post from Doug Johnson in which he shares some wisdom on how to get your annual report read. In this work, as in just about everything else I do, Doug continues to be an inspiration).

Obviously, creating an annual report is just one way to share the story of your work, Regardless of the format, what matters is that you are sharing it. This is not about librarian job security (although it is about that a little bit). This is about preserving full staffed library programs for students who need them. While one may not seem to have much to do with the other, in my experience, people fight for what they value. Unfortunately, by the time discussions start in a district about whether or not library positions are necessary, it's often too late to change sentiment and rally the troops in a way that holds back the pending cuts. The time to start sharing the value of your work is BEFORE the question of whether or not libraries are meaningful, relevant and effective arise.

To that end, I do a lot of professional development for school districts on both school library advocacy and using data to tell the story of school library impact. As part of that work, I've curated many, many examples of school library annual reports. All of these reports are so different, and yet the ones that resonate with people the most have one thing in common: they tell a story. Though grade levels and formats vary widely, those that people respond to over and over again connect with the audience. Whatever data you've collected to create your report, you have to make that data tell a story that connects with the people you need to move.

So... feel free to take a look at what I have put together over the years, but more importantly, please share yours! It's not about tooting your own horn, it's about helping others. Remember, you're small idea could make a BIG difference to someone else!

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It's Annual Report Season! Here Are Some Tips To Help You Effectively Tell Your Story.

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At this time of year, many teacher librarians are working to compile an annual report: that is to say a 2-3 page summary of how their work made a difference for students and staff all year long. As someone who has crafted more than one of these babies, I understand and appreciate the work that goes into the shiny final products.

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Why school librarians matter: What years of research tell us

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Why school librarians matter: What years of research tell us

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Week 6 Advocacy

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School library impact studies 101: An overview of the research

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School library impact studies 101: An overview of the research

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Week 6 Advocacy

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Chapter 1: School Library Impact Studies 101: An Overview of the Research

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This is "Chapter 1: School Library Impact Studies 101: An Overview of the Research" by on Vimeo, the home for high quality videos and the people who...

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Week 6 Advocacy

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But my principal won't let me! Leadership, advocacy, and some rebel yell from the library

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But my principal won't let me! Leadership, advocacy, and some rebel yell from the library

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Week 6 Advocacy

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"That is really cool that you can do that. But it wouldn't fly in my school..."

"I wish my principal would let me try something like that..."

Have those thoughts ever flitted through your mind while you read an inspiring article, sat in a workshop, or took a class? Then join the rest of school librarians across the country. We all have. The reality of the school library is that, like any other classroom in the building, it falls under parameters laid out by an administrator and sometimes those parameters feel like inflexible boxes that we just can't break out of.

It's important to remember that administrative rules for libraries don't derive from bad intentions; they are usually just deeply rooted in misperceptions and the ease of following long-set tradition. But with some leadership strategies, advocating skills, and a little rebellion we can redefine our boxes and break out of the "but my principal won't let me" trap.
Pay attention to what your principal needs.
The school library needs to provide resources for all of its patrons. Make sure the principal is one of them. Recognize what his or her priorities are and then go about curating resources for them to utilize. Don't ask what they need or how you can help-instead, present her with a LibGuide that is filled with resources that will help her communicate with teachers. Read articles and put them on his desk. Being a principal is a tough job. Ask yourself how can I make it easier ? If you can, you will develop a trusting relationship that will serve the library's goals.
Share national guidelines and goal-setting with your principal.
Set goals for your library and then support them with AASL's Standards for the 21st-Century Learner or the AASL's National School Library of the Year criteria. Instead of presenting ideas as "I think this is a good idea," present it as "my professional organization recognizes that this is what excellence in librarianship looks like." Read case studies on libraries that have transformed into learning commons and use those outcomes to support your decision making. Show your administrator that you want your space to be as relevant and academically and professionally supportive as possible. Invite them to be part of the process.
Make visuals to show what you do and where you want to go.
Part of our job is to keep the unsavory invisible. We do a lot of work that nobody ever sees. That includes our principals. Few administrators have a background in librarianship, and therefore do not understand the depth of the work we do and the ways that we support students and staff. For them to fully acknowledge our work, we have to be fully transparent with them. Show them exactly what you do. Develop lists, infographics, charts, etc. that outline the overall task of the library and its influence on the school. Administrators are busy people and love visuals that get information across to them.
Document your data.
Every month create an eye-popping visual that shows what classes you worked with, what your top titles were. Share your circulation numbers. Put it in the school newsletter. Send it to parents, staff, school board, and administration. Stand on the top of the circulation desk and yell out to the world all the great stuff that is happening in the library.
Always start with what's best for kids & how it will help the school.
Administrative styles vary from principal to principal, and we've all worked for some we adore and some we do not. Despite this, I have never met a principal who doesn't want what is best for students at heart. When approaching an administrator about a new direction you would like to take, do not start by complaining or explaining how hard your job is. Make sure your changes are student-centered. Show them that what you want to do will benefit your student body. Any program that can meet diverse needs of students will get full administrative support.
Be excited!
Passion is contagious. Share your excitement! They say the squeaky wheel gets all of the attention? Maybe. But the one that treads its own path and shares its enthusiasm usually gets the better kind of attention. Be unapologetically passionate about your space, your program, your students-and then be evangelical in your sharing. Make posters, go to classrooms, send emails, speak at faculty meetings. Share share share. It will catch on.
Don't ask permission.
I can hear the collective gasp. But really, that old adage It is better to ask for forgiveness than permission holds true. If you can support the changes you want to make in your library with pedagogical truth, then do it. Sometimes administrators need to see it in action to know it will work. You are the trained professional in charge of a program that is likely the largest academic program in the school. Being able to run and organize a library space, know every student in the building, be familiar with all of the curriculum, balance a budget and interact with sales representative, assess materials, and teach every grade level in every content is no small feat. You were trained for this, so don't wait for somebody who wasn't to give you permission to move forward. Do what you know is best. Don't ever allow yourself to be backed into a corner when it is what is best for students.

Meaningful change has never happened without a little rebellion. But it has also never happened without a little negotiation and compromise. Finding the sweet spot of the two takes courage. It means swallowing our pride some days. It means swimming upstream others. And it means always holding our ground when we know what's best for kids. If our profession and our programs are going to transform alongside all of education, it will require us to be brave in speaking out. Set your intentions. Grab your principal's hand. And say, let's go. We're doing this. Don't ask if you can.

Angie Miller is a 7-12 school librarian in Meredith, NH. The 2011 NH Teacher of the Year and the recipient of the 2017 NH Outstanding Library Program of the Year, Angie is a TED speaker, National Geographic teacher fellow, and freelance writer who writes for her blog, The Contrarian Librarian, and is a regular contributor to sites like EdWeek and the Washington Post's Answer Sheet. As a co-founder of the initiative, Let the Librarians Lead, Angie leads professional development, speaks to audiences, and advocates for school leadership through librarianship. Her book, It's A Matter of Fact: Teaching Students Research Skills in Today's Information-Packed World, published by Routledge, will be on shelves in April 2018.

Categories: Advocacy/Leadership, Blog Topics

Tags: Administration

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But My Principal Won't Let Me! Leadership, Advocacy, & Some Rebel Yell from the Library | Knowledge Quest

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"I love that idea-but there's no way my principal would ever go along with that..." "That is really cool that you can do that. But it wouldn't fly in my school..." "I wish my principal would let me try something... Read More ›

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Educational leaders discuss the essence of leadership

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Educational leaders discuss the essence of leadership

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Week 7 Leadership

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Know the ISTE standards for coaches: Visionary leadership. 

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Know the ISTE standards for coaches: Visionary leadership. 

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Week 7 Leadership

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ISTE Standards for Coaches Visionary Leadership. Technology coaches inspire and participate in the development and implementation of a shared vision for the comprehensive integration of technology to support excellence and promote transformational change throughout the instructional environment.
Visionary leadership is the first of six goals for technology coaches and arguably the most crucial. A visionary leader is a technology coach who inspires educators to be visionary in their use of technology. And developing a shared vision for positive, transformative technology use is critical for a school to move toward successful tech integration.

Technology coaches can implement multiple strategies and purchase cutting-edge devices, but if they don't have buy-in from educators and administrators, they will be fighting a losing battle. Of course, getting that buy-in is not always an easy task. The burning question on the lips of technology coaches across the country is: How do I encourage educators and others who are resistant to using technology?

First, begin with the end in mind. Showcase a simple but engaging technology lesson that an educator has already successfully implemented in the classroom. For example, present a novel blog that a language arts class used as a platform to discuss and critically think about teacher-assigned concepts. This example could demonstrate how students express themselves more thoroughly while using technology, are curious about their peers' reactions to their inputs and are willing to change their minds about previous assumptions, thereby growing within a collaborative environment.

Second, chunk the lesson for the educators to explain the importance of front-loading students with parental permissions, information on cyberethics, how and when to blog, and the administration of formative and summative assessments.

Third, demonstrate how to set up a classroom blog and give educators a blog account so they can become familiar with the technology. There are several free, K-12 student blogs, such as Edublogs.org. Ask educators to prepare successes, failures and questions to address at the next meeting, prior to launching the technology lesson. Educators can use blogs for a variety of content areas, not just language arts. As educators become familiar with the technology, they can extend their lessons by collaborating in other content areas. For example, a language arts class can collaborate with science or social studies to immerse students in their learning.

Planning, development, communication, implementation and evaluation of strategic plans.

Policies, procedures, programs and funding strategies to implement that shared vision.

Strategies for initiating, sustaining and managing technology innovations.

Educators must be willing to vary technology lessons since students are digital natives and quickly become bored with the same technology strategies. Encourage educators to ask their students for help. Often, students are eager to lead a technology lesson. Students greatly benefit from using technology for many reasons. For example, students can develop their technology portfolios throughout their educational career and showcase their best pieces for higher education.

There are four indicators for this standard. The development, communication and implementation of a shared vision for technology is the first indicator. The other three indicators also funnel into making the shared vision happen with:

The approaches in the table below show three different ways technology coaches could consider and possibly establish a shared vision in their schools.

In Approach 1, the technology coach has decided that she has a good amount of knowledge about this area and that her vision for technology will drive the school forward in the use of technology. However, this plan is unlikely to be effective without the support of the teachers and other school staff. In addition, this coach is not connecting with others at the district level and beyond to keep up with the policies and ideas that are being shared. This approach does not meet any of the indicators for this standard.

In Approach 2, the technology coach is dedicated to a shared vision of technology use. This coach is connecting with teachers to find out their wants and needs before making decisions and shows the teachers the importance of those decisions. This coach makes sure everyone's voice is heard by setting up a technology committee with all the relevant stakeholders, including student members. This technology committee connects to stakeholders throughout the rest of the school to make sure that everyone understands why important decisions have been made about the use of technology and student learning. This approach meets some of the standards but not all.

Approach 3 is similar to Approach 2, except that this technology coach is more explicit about what the technology committee is doing and attends important meetings at the district level and beyond to ensure they keep up to date with advancements in technology and in the policies they implement at the district level.
Paula Ross assisted in writing this article. She is a performance analyst for the Coast Guard and is currently working on her doctorate in education at Liberty University. Helen Crompton is an assistant professor of instructional technology at Old Dominion University in Virginia. She is a researcher and educator in the field of instructional technology, and she earned her Ph.D. in educational technology and mathematics education from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
If a school has a shared vision, it is clear when you walk through the doors of the building. With a shared vision, teachers understand how technologies are chosen for the school, and they have been part of the decision-making process. This school team works with technology to promote excellence and support transformational change throughout the instructional environment.

Learn more about technology coaching in our self-paced online Coaching Academy.

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Know the ISTE Standards for Coaches: Visionary Leadership

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ISTE Standards for Coaches Visionary Leadership. Technology coaches inspire and participate in the development and implementation of a shared vision for the comprehensive integration of technology to support excellence and promote transformational change throughout the instructional environment. Visionary leadership is the first of six goals for technology coaches and arguably the most crucial.

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Week 7 Leadership

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September 2007 | Volume 65 | Number 1
Teachers as Leaders Pages 14-19

Charlotte Danielson

Teaching is a flat profession. In most professions, as the practitioner gains experience, he or she has the opportunity to exercise greater responsibility and assume more significant challenges. This is not true of teaching. The 20-year veteran's responsibilities are essentially the same as those of the newly licensed novice. In many settings, the only way for a teacher to extend his or her influence is to become an administrator. Many teachers recognize that this is not the right avenue for them. The job of an administrator entails work that does not interest them, but they still have the urge to exercise wider influence in their schools and in the profession. This desire for greater responsibility, if left unfulfilled, can lead to frustration and even cynicism.

Teachers' tenure in schools is longer than that of administrators. In many settings, administrators remain in their positions for only three to four years, whereas teachers stay far longer. Teachers often hold the institutional memory; they are the custodians of the school culture. School districts that want to improve make a wise investment when they cultivate and encourage teacher leaders, because they are in a position to take the long view and carry out long-range projects.

The demands of the modern principalship are practically impossible to meet. Principals today are expected to be visionaries (instilling a sense of purpose in their staff) and competent managers (maintaining the physical plant, submitting budgets on time), as well as instructional leaders (coaching teachers in the nuances of classroom practice). In addition, the principal has become the point person for accountability requirements imposed by states and the federal government, and he or she must respond to multiple stakeholders (parents, staff members, the district central office, and the larger community). Under such pressure from a range of sources, many administrators simply cannot devote enough time and energy to school improvement.

Principals have limited expertise. Like all educators, most principals have their own areas of instructional expertise. A principal who was formerly a mathematics teacher may know a lot about research-based instructional practices in math, but not much about instruction in world languages. The school administrator cannot be an expert in everything. Individual teachers, of course, have their own particular areas of knowledge, but a group of teacher leaders can supply the variety of professional knowledge needed for sustained school improvement.

Given these factors, school improvement depends more than ever on the active involvement of teacher leaders. School administrators can't do it all.

Qualities and Skills of Teacher Leaders

Teacher leaders serve in two fundamental types of roles: formal and informal. Formal teacher leaders fill such roles as department chair, master teacher, or instructional coach. These individuals typically apply for their positions and are chosen through a selection process. Ideally, they also receive training for their new responsibilities. Formal teacher leaders play vital roles in most schools. In many cases, these teacher leaders manage curriculum projects, facilitate teacher study groups, provide workshops, and order materials. They may also evaluate other teachers, in which case their colleagues are likely to regard them as pseudoadministrators.

Informal teacher leaders, in contrast, emerge spontaneously and organically from the teacher ranks. Instead of being selected, they take the initiative to address a problem or institute a new program. They have no positional authority; their influence stems from the respect they command from their colleagues through their expertise and practice.

Whether they are selected for a formal leadership role or spontaneously assume an informal role, effective teacher leaders exhibit important skills, values, and dispositions. Teacher leaders call others to action and energize them with the aim of improving teaching and learning. As Michael Fullan writes,

The litmus test of all leadership is whether it mobilizes people's commitment to putting their energy into actions designed to improve things. It is individual commitment, but above all it is collective mobilization.

A hallmark of leadership, therefore, is the ability to collaborate with others. Teacher leaders must enlist colleagues to support their vision, build consensus among diverse groups of educators, and convince others of the importance of what they are proposing and the feasibility of their general plan for improvement. They must be respected for their own instructional skills. They also must understand evidence and information and recognize the need to focus on those aspects of the school's program that will yield important gains in student learning.

A number of values and dispositions make certain individuals ideally suited for teacher leadership. Effective teacher leaders are open-minded and respectful of others' views. They display optimism and enthusiasm, confidence and decisiveness. They persevere and do not permit setbacks to derail an important initiative they are pursuing. On the other hand, they are flexible and willing to try a different approach if the first effort runs into roadblocks.

Many attributes of good teacher leaders are fundamentally the same as the attributes of good teachers: persuasiveness, open-mindedness, flexibility, confidence, and expertise in their fields. Despite these similarities, however, working with colleagues is profoundly different from working with students, and the skills that teachers learn in their preparation programs do not necessarily prepare them to extend their leadership beyond their own classrooms. To assume a leadership role, they may need expertise in curriculum planning, assessment design, data analysis, and the like. They may also need to develop the abilities to listen actively, facilitate meetings, keep a group discussion on track, decide on a course of action, and monitor progress. These skills are not typically taught in teacher preparation programs.

What Do Teacher Leaders Do?

Three main areas of school life benefit from the involvement of teacher leaders (see "Where Teacher Leaders Extend Their Reach"). In each area, this involvement may take place within the teacher leader's own department or team, across the school, or beyond the school. No setting is more "advanced" than another; each has its own requirements and calls on its own particular skills and inclinations.

Within the Department or Team

Leading change within one's own department or team may require considerable interpersonal skill and tact. The success of such an effort also depends on the teacher leader's having established credibility and trust with his or her colleagues.

Leadership at this level can take many forms. Teacher leaders may coordinate a program in which students in the 6th grade read to kindergarten students during their lunch period. Or they may invite their colleagues to examine the reasons for student underperformance in writing. In many different ways, teacher leaders mobilize the efforts of their closest colleagues to enhance the school's program for the benefit of students.

For example, William, a middle school math teacher, brought a situation to his 6th grade teaching team, asking for their thoughts. He had noticed that many of the girls in his class were not participating in group activities as enthusiastically as he expected.

One of William's colleagues offered to visit his class and see whether she could help him understand the situation better. She observed several classes and took notes on what she saw and heard: the nature of the activities students were asked to do, types of questions the teacher and students asked, interactions among the students, and so on.

What she observed was stunning: William, unknown to himself, was not challenging the girls in the class as much as the boys: When a girl encountered difficulty, he supplied the answer or a significant "hint"; he called on the boys more frequently than the girls to answer challenging questions; and he was more likely to encourage the boys to challenge one another's thinking about the math problems.

William was astonished at his colleague's findings and set about changing his behavior. His approach to this situation revealed extraordinary openness and courage. He and his colleague reported their findings and William's plan for action to the rest of the team. Soon, other teachers on the 6th grade team set about systematically assisting one another with similar questions and situations, as well as bringing the results back to the team for discussion.

Across the School

Some of the most powerful opportunities for teacher leadership relate to areas that have enormous influence on the daily lives of students across the school, such as the master schedule, grading policy, or student programs. For example, many students experience the most memorable activities of their school careers through participating in the school play, being on the debate team, or taking an advanced class that enables them to engage deeply with academic content. Ensuring that students have full access to such opportunities involves a collective effort, requiring discussion and consideration of alternatives. This is the work of leadership. And although administrators play an important facilitative role, teachers-who are closer to the action-frequently put forward important ideas and can assume a leadership role.

Grading policies also have a profound effect on how students experience their learning activities. Jennifer, a high school history teacher, found herself troubled by her students' responses to tests and papers. She read their work carefully and provided thoughtful feedback. But when she returned their papers, the students seemed interested only in the grade; some never even read her careful comments. Also, she noticed that some students would decline to turn in work altogether if they knew it was going to be late, believing that it was not "worth it" to complete it.

Jennifer invited interested teachers from across the school to join her in exploring alternate approaches to grading. The teachers met for an entire school year, and each of them conducted systematic discussions with their students. Toward the end of the year, the group made a recommendation to the entire faculty; as a result, the school piloted a different grading system the following year that incorporated formative assessment and student self-assessment. At the end of three years, the school's approach to grading was considerably different; the teachers were convinced that the new system resulted in greater student buy-in and commitment to high-quality work.

Beyond the School

Teacher leaders contribute beyond their own school when they participate in a districtwide teacher evaluation committee or curriculum team, make a presentation at a state or national conference, serve on a state standards board, or speak at a school board meeting as the voice of teachers in the community. Again, these teachers are doing more than teaching their own students (as brilliant as they may be in that work); they are influencing the larger education environment in their communities and perhaps their states.

For example, Maria, a high school Spanish teacher, noticed that there weren't good opportunities for her to meet with and learn from other Spanish teachers in the area. The state organization of language teachers had not recruited many members in her school or in neighboring schools.

Maria decided to begin a chapter of the American Association of Teachers of Spanish and Portuguese in her area. She sent e-mail notices to teachers in other schools and scheduled an organizational meeting. Although response was slow at first, over the course of several years the chapter became vibrant. Before long, members were scheduling visits to one another's schools and preparing presentations for the state conference.

Conditions that Promote Teacher Leadership

Not every school is hospitable to the emergence of teacher leaders, particularly informal teacher leaders. The school administrator plays a crucial role in fostering the conditions that facilitate teacher leadership, including the following:

A safe environment for risk taking. Teachers must be confident that administrators and other teachers will not criticize them for expressing ideas that might seem unusual at first. Some of the most effective approaches to solving difficult issues in schools may not be intuitively obvious but may require that educators think creatively, which can only happen in a safe environment. School administrators should make it clear that teachers are safe to express ideas and take professional risks.

For example, a principal could raise discussion questions at a staff meeting: What would make the professional environment safe in our school? How would it be similar to the climate you create in your own classrooms? Following the establishment of these professional norms, the principal could schedule a brief, but regular, time at staff meetings for "wacko ideas," during which any teacher could propose doing something different.

Administrators who encourage teacher leaders. Administrators' commitment to cultivating teacher leaders plays an essential role in their development. Administrators must be proactive in helping teachers acquire the skills they need to take advantage of opportunities for leadership (data analysis, meeting facilitation, and so on). Unfortunately, some administrators jealously guard their turf, apparently fearing that ambitious teacher leaders will somehow undermine their own authority. In fact, one of the enduring paradoxes of leadership is that the more an administrator shares power, the more authority he or she gains.

Absence of the "tall poppy syndrome." It's not only administrators who, on occasion, stand in the way of teacher leaders. Sometimes the teachers themselves resist taking on leadership roles, or make it difficult for their colleagues to do so. In Australia, this is called the tall poppy syndrome -those who stick their heads up risk being cut down to size. This phenomenon might take the form of teachers' reluctance to announce to their colleagues that they have been recognized by the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards. To counteract this syndrome, the school administrator needs to create a culture that honors teachers who step outside their traditional roles and take on leadership projects.

Opportunities to learn leadership skills. As noted earlier, the skills required for teacher leadership are not part of the preparation program for most teachers. If teacher leaders are to emerge and make their full contribution, they need opportunities to learn the necessary skills of curriculum planning, instructional improvement, assessment design, collaboration, and facilitation. Teachers can learn these skills through school-level professional development, of course, but they may also build these skills through districtwide or university-based courses and seminars. Whatever the source, the opportunities must be available and sufficiently convenient for teachers to take advantage of them.

The Need for Teacher Leadership

Teacher leadership is an idea whose time has come. The unprecedented demands being placed on schools today require leadership at every level. Yet many schools are still organized as though all the important decisions are made by administrators and carried out by teachers.

In the most successful schools, teachers supported by administrators take initiative to improve schoolwide policies and programs, teaching and learning, and communication. By understanding the phenomenon of teacher leadership and helping teachers develop the skills required to act as leaders, we will improve schools and help teachers realize their full potential.

Schoolwide Policies and Programs

Work with colleagues to design the schedule so that students have longer periods of time in each subject.

Serve as the building liaison to student teachers.

Lead a school task force to overhaul the school's approach to homework.

Represent the school in a districtwide or statewide program for drug-free schools.

Teaching and Learning

Organize a lesson study to examine the teaching team's or department's approach to a certain topic or concept.

Serve on a schoolwide committee to analyze student achievement data.

Help design a teacher mentoring program for the district.

Make a presentation at a state or local conference on alternative assessment methods.

Publish a department newsletter for parents.

Initiate a regular meeting time to confer with colleagues about individual students.

Develop procedures for specialist and generalist teachers to share their assessments of and plans for individual students.

Serve on the district or state parent-teacher association.

Lead an initiative to formulate methods for students who leave the district to carry information with them about their learning.

Endnote

Fullan, M. (2007). Leading in a culture of change (Rev. ed.). San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, p. 9.

Charlotte Danielson is an education consultant in Princeton, New Jersey; charlotte_danielson@hotmail.com. She is the author of many books, including Teacher Leadership That Strengthens Professional Practice (ASCD, 2006).

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September 2007 | Volume 65 | Number 1 Teachers as Leaders Pages 14-19 Charlotte Danielson Teaching is a flat profession. In most professions, as the practitioner gains experience, he or she has the opportunity to exercise greater responsibility and assume more significant challenges. This is not true of teaching.

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Blending teaching and technology: Simple strategies for improved student learning

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Blending teaching and technology: Simple strategies for improved student learning

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Week 7 Leadership

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Blending Teaching and Technology: Simple Strategies for Improved Student Learning - Future Ready Schools

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An essential component to becoming Future Ready, is making a digital learning plan before purchasing technology. The Interactive Planning Dashboard offers districts a five-step collaborative planning process. Upon completion, districts have a complete digital learning implementation plan, full of research-based strategies, including stakeholder input, local context, and district team leadership responsibilities.

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 Why school librarians matter: What years of research tell us

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 Why school librarians matter: What years of research tell us

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Week 7 Leadership

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15 questions to ask yourself about tech integration in your classroom

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15 questions to ask yourself about tech integration in your classroom

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Week 7 Leadership

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15 Questions To Ask About Tech Integration In Your Classroom
* this blog was originally published at TeachThought PD

by Drew Perkins, Director of TeachThought PD
For professional development around integrating technology in your school visit our technology integration workshops page.
As I watched Christmas, and the corresponding break from school for my daughters, come and go I was reminded of the fun that technology toys can provide. I was gifted the new Google Home device and it's quite entertaining for my daughters to ask it to make funny sounds, play silly games, set timers, and even ask it for help on their homework. For me it's a great way to start my day asking it to tell me the news or play music throughout the house.

The flip-side of that techno-circus is the trap of finding yourselves engaging with screens and those tech-toys for hours on end and missing out on more analog-like experiences. Just like at home, there are so many great reasons for integrating technology into our schools and classrooms but we're wise to keep our focus by asking whether we're just playing with the edtech toys in our classrooms or truly using those edtech tools to leverage and grow student thinking and learning.
When Should You Integrate Technology?
Perhaps the best answer to this question might be, whenever it helps. That might seem ridiculously simplistic but consider the alternative...when it doesn't help. The complexity of integrating technology begs us to identify the positives and negatives, weigh those, and be sure we're focused on what's best for students. With that in mind, here are 15 questions to help you think about your technology integration. This is by no means exhaustive, in fact I'd love to hear questions you think would be important to add to this list.
1. Will this help all students think and learn more deeply?
Not only should the technology tool you're considering help student think and learn more deeply but does it also help you differentiate instruction to help each and every student access that thinking and learning, not just some? How might your use of technology leverage the 6 Elements of DI?
2. Will this tech lead to non-productive struggle and frustration?
If the technology is glitchy and problematic or just too difficult for the students and you to navigate you run the risk of running into a dead-end. We want students to struggle productively and frustration can be ok if the work interests them but we don't want to lose them because the tool keeps halting their progress.
3. Will my students find this tech boring after the initial exposure?
Beware that myth about how great technology is at engaging students. Yes, new technology can indeed grab the attention of all of us but how quickly will that wear off? Any of us with small children can tell you it's not uncommon for kids to unwrap those Christmas gift tech toys only to put them down in favor of a cardboard box. If you're relying on technology as a classroom management tool you may quickly find yourself in trouble.
4. How will this tech empower students to control their own learning?
One of the goals of great learning environments should always be empowerment of students. Does the technology help them ask and pursue their beautiful questions or is it limiting students? Turning a worksheet into a Google Doc isn't empowering students unless the goal is to help them become more facile with Google Docs and even so aren't there better ways to do that?
5. Am I more enamored with this tech "toy" than my student's learning?
Few things raise questions in my head more quickly than seeing a teacher who can't wait to show me their latest tech gadget. Don't get me wrong, I find them fascinating and love the passion but just because a tool has captured your imagination doesn't mean it necessarily has a place in your classroom or school. It might indeed be a great way to grow learning but starting your lesson planning by thinking, "how can I integrate this neat new tech toy" more often leads you down a stray path.
6. How long will this tech be relevant and supported?
The speed at which technology evolves is staggering and while it's not likely that your devices or tools will be outdated in a lesson or even a school year there are instances where resources go away unexpectedly. More likely is not having the tech support in the event of problems or needed updates either internally or externally. To add to that, some districts block web traffic that you might have counted on. Better to be sure before starting than having to devise a workaround.
7. Does this tech prevent great "analog" thinking and learning?
There are times when the technology actually gets in the way of great communication, collaboration, and creativity. For example, we love the question-storming process of the Question Formulation Technique. While this can certainly be done digitally using Google Docs or something similar it would be hard to reproduce the synergy that occurs when a group is huddled around a large chart paper or whiteboard with markers building questions from the questions and thinking of others. Even in the most technology equipped settings it's often better to go analog.
8. Have I started with purpose and pedagogy instead of the tech?
This is related to #5 above but not exactly the same. Sometimes teachers are directed to use a certain tech tool more often, or perhaps they've just learned about it in a recent faculty meeting or workshop. In this scenario we often find teachers trying to figure out a way to use that tool without first considering their purpose and it usually feels like trying to fit a circle into a square. What do we want students to think about and learn and what tools can better help us do that? As TeachThought PD facilitator Allan Carrington shows us with the Padagogy Wheel, It's Not About The Apps, It's About The Pedagogy.
9. Will all students be able to access and leverage this tech?
Do you have any students whose struggles to use certain technology tools might hinder their learning? That doesn't necessarily mean you shouldn't use that particular tool but are there similar tools that might be more accessible? Or are there workarounds or supports you might consider to help them access the learning process? How might you make accommodations that don't leave students behind?
10. How does this tech align with my school & class mission & vision?
Admittedly most school Mission and Vision statements are enigmatic and ambiguous but they shouldn't be. Have you clarified a mission/purpose and vision for your classes? This can be a great way to stay on point and any lessons, units, including the use of technology should be aligned to help bring that mission/vision to life.
11. What level(s) of Bloom's Taxonomy does this help students access?
The simplicity of Bloom's Taxonomy can be helpful when thinking through lesson planning. Is your tech tool going to be solely focused on information gathering or will it be used to help students create? While there are times when using technology for lower-level Bloom's tasks is appropriate we're missing wonderful opportunities if we remain stuck there.
12. Is this the best tech to prepare students for the modern world?
21st Century Skills, NextGen Skills, call them what you like but we have to be focused on preparing students for the modern world. Whenever possible we want to get students engaged with technology that is closer to the cutting edge. Perhaps more importantly we want to be sure we're facilitating in ways that push students to cognitively travel the landscape of the modern world.
13. Will parents think this tech threatens their child's security?
Perceptions can become reality and as a parent I'm leery of the threats that can gain access to my children via technology. Be sure that your use of technology is indeed safe for your students but it's smart to get out ahead of the messaging with parents. I appreciate when the teachers of my daughters communicate well ahead of time and if there's a tech tool that might cause apprehension from parents giving them a chance to investigate in advance can be very helpful. This is not a case where the saying "It's easier to ask forgiveness than it is to get permission" holds true.
14. How might I combine this tech with other tools to grow learning?
Sometimes we get so focused on new technology that we don't consider how we might creatively combine it with other tools (digital and analog) to better grow learning. This often becomes more evident after we use that technology a time or two. Google the tool or ask on Twitter or other social media and you might benefit from others who have more experience with that technology and have some great uses you haven't considered.
15. What will you do when this tech doesn't work?
To use another famous quote, "The best-laid plans of mice and men often go awry." Be prepared for the inevitability of tech glitches because we all know it's going to happen. Do you know the technology well enough to navigate through the glitches? Will you be able to continue with the learning you'd planned without the technology? Are there alternate activities and work your students can do, perhaps other parts of a project if you're engaged in Project-Based Learning, and then return to the planned work later? Don't be left scrambling with a class in disarray because the wifi went down or the web site you'd planned to use is offline.
Your guiding questions?
The ever-changing terrain of integrating technology presents opportunities and challenges that can feel daunting but continually asking yourself important questions like these can be your best guide. What other questions would you add to this list?
image attribution: Laurie Sullivan Are You Using Technology Because You Can Or Because You Should?; 15 Questions To Ask About Tech Integration In Your Classroom

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15 Questions To Ask About Tech Integration In Your Classroom -

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15 Questions To Ask About Tech Integration In Your Classroom *this blog was originally published at TeachThought PD by Drew Perkins, Director of TeachThought PD For professional development around integrating technology in your school visit our technology integration workshops page. As I watched Christmas, and the corresponding break from school for my daughters, come and go ...

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Are librarians the key to a future ready school? 

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Are librarians the key to a future ready school? 

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Week 7 Leadership

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According to the U.S. Department of Education's Office of Education Technology, librarians are at the forefront of helping schools become future ready. However, too often librarians are left out of the planning process for infrastructure and devices, professional learning for teachers, and digital content strategies-areas where they often have expertise.

The Alliance for Excellent Education (the Alliance) launched its Future Ready Schools (FRS) initiative in October 2014 with the aim of leveraging technology and connectivity to personalize and transform learning. In June 2016, the Alliance, in partnership with the U.S. Department of Education's Office of Educational Technology, expanded FRS to position school librarians as leaders in this effort.

Michelle Luhtala, department chair of the New Canaan, CT, High School Library and a 2015 Library Journal Mover & Shaker, is a leader in helping teacher-librarians all around the country to become Future Ready. She kicked off Season 6 of the Emerging Tech series of webinars on edWeb.netOctober 19th with a live broadcast from New Canaan High School on the topic of " Future Ready Librarians." Her guests for this online discussion were Mark Ray, Chief Digital Officer for Vancouver Public Schools and Sara Trettin, Open Education and Digital Engagement Lead, Office of Educational Technology, U.S. Department of Education. The broadcast was attended by 450 librarians and educators for an informative and engaging discussion with the whole audience.

Watch: Changing the conversation about librarians

Future Ready Goals=Librarian Goals
The Future Ready movement grew out of the Connect Ed initiative launched by President Obama in 2013 with several goals: to connect 99 percent of students in schools to broadband, and to address the need for more professional learning and leadership to ensure the effective use of technology. In 2014 a Future Ready Pledge was launched as a commitment on the part of superintendents to provide the necessary infrastructure and devices, to support professional learning for teachers, and to provide high quality digital content.

However, Future Ready is focused on collaborative leadership, not just the superintendent. The Future Ready Framework published on the website futureready.org is designed to help many people who are looking to make change concurrently. Future Ready has developed a common set of information, tools, and assessment, that are all available for free.

Luhtala commented that New Canaan High School went BYOD just this year as part of their personalized learning initiative, and it's helping teachers empower their students to develop their own interests and learning plans with more flexible learning environments, extending learning outside the classroom, and collecting data to inform instruction so that it is truly reflective of each learners ability.

Trettin mentioned the 2016 National Education Technology Plan that is updated every five years and relates very closely to these initiatives. She said that some schools are reading the Plan as a kind of book club for their professional learning communities, reading one chapter at a time.

(Next page: Why librarians can help become future ready)

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Are librarians the key to a Future Ready school?

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According to the U.S. Department of Education's Office of Education Technology, librarians are at the forefront of helping schools become future ready. However, too often librarians are left out of the planning process for infrastructure and devices, professional learning for teachers, and digital content strategies-areas where they often have expertise.