Collaborative Sessions with Lead Learners -Teacher-Librarians #scdsb #bettertogether

Teacher-Librarians (TLs) are lead learners in their schools.  They are the "go to" people when curriculum changes, when new initiatives need clarification and when one's technology plans need a plan B.  Many of my fellow teacher-librarians are actively engaged with their (Personal Learning Network) PLN through our district's email list serve and on Twitter. Sometimes though, face-to-face sessions can be valuable.  I think the "lateral learning" from side conversations that arise when an engaged group meets can be just as important as the planned content.  This week those side topics were about maker-spaces, book collection, digital citizenship and other tech related topics.

I felt that I had the chance to collaborate in two different ways this week.
First,  I had the opportunity to organize and facilitate two full day professional learning sessions for teacher-librarians (TLs) with the help of three Elementary Student Success Teachers (ESSTs), and three Instructional Resource Teachers IRTs.   We co-planned and facilitated  two sessions to help teacher-librarians understand the importance of the Creating Pathways document and some of the electronic tools that are available.  Then we gave the teacher-librarians the time to play with the various software.

 The second half of the day was designed to further our collective knowledge and to determine this year's professional needs to create successful inquiry opportunities for students.
The ESSTs presentations were engaging because they demonstrated their passion for Grade 7 and 8 students as they described some of the tools teachers can use to support students.  It was also an opportunity for the teacher-librarians to meet with their ESSTs and learn more about Pathways.  It is important that teacher-librarians are kept up to date so they can assist students.
The teacher-librarians appreciated the time to network with colleagues -one mentioned he enjoyed meeting his PLN from Twitter face-to-face;)
The chance to co-plan and present with staff from Student Success and Program was one positive aspect of the sessions because it gave me an opportunity to connect and learn from other talented teachers in our district.
The other positive effect of the day that I didn't expect was the requests for more collaboration opportunities. I am now booked to help one TL develop a D2L site for her school library, another wants to learn more about Genius Hour and I can't wait to help another increase his fluency with online presentation tools.  I feel that we achieved our goals around Pathways and Inquiry at these days and I think that the positive attitudes and openness to learn encouraged others to ask for more support. It was a perfect example of a growth mindset at work.
We have three more presentations for TLs in three more areas over the next two weeks.  I will get the chance to co-present with additional  IRTs and ESSTs and I look forward to learning more with each session.
I wonder if the participating teacher-librarians realize that they help me to learn and grow when they share their successes and challenges? I will have to thank the next group!