Week 13 Reading Reflection

"If we could change ourselves, the tendencies in the world would also change.  As a man changes his own nature, so does the attitude of the world change towards him... We need not wait to see what others do." Ghandi 

(or the bumper sticker version: "Be the change you wish to see in the world.")

This week's readings focused on the demands that change brings to the profession of librarianship (or education).  Some people change with the times and some don't.  The best means of serving our patrons is being ahead of the curve, but it only takes one individual to be ahead of each curve- developing multiple experts in one organization.  Each expert can help others become experts- and take turns doing so.

Semadini 2010

The focus on differentiated professional development is what struck me in this article.  I can't tell you how many times I have heard teachers complain that a professional development day was a waste of their time.  If a majority of teachers in a district feel this way then what good is the traditional standard of professional development?  Semadini's description of the Fusion method of professional development seems like an excellent way for teachers to become self-motivated to participate in differentiated instruction.  This is a huge focus for preparing lessons for students- it only makes sense that schools should provide the same opportunity for their teachers.

What really surprised me though was the commitment by the school to allow teacher's the time to do the learning and conduct the workshops during class time.  Now that I think about it, if you added up only the hours of all the teachers in a district having just one day off for professional development and spread that out of time for individualized learning, it would probably all even out in the end.

Blowers & Reed 2007

Change management?  I want to be a change manager- actually I have been one all my life.  Nobody ever told me I could get PAID for that!  It's brilliant that Blowers and Reed discuss the need for librarians to develop core technology competencies.  I see this everyday at school.  Some teachers are on the cutting edge of technology and integrate it daily into their classroom, while other teachers come in the the library because they can't change the margin on their Pages document.  Somewhere along the way (in some districts) administrators dropped the ball on making sure that all teachers had some core competency skills on even basic computing methods.  This is where the Media Specialist can come in and fill the void- as long as that librarian 1) has the skills, 2) is given the time to teach, 3) has willing "students" to teach to, and 4) understands what skills those "students" bring into the lesson.  Maybe integrating a little bit of the Fusion method into teaching core competency skills to teachers would go a long way in providing every student the same opportunity to use and learn from teaching methods using effective technological tools in the classroom.  An MP3 player wouldn't hurt either, or an iPad- whatever;)

And I'm going to keep these tips right here so I can refer to them often.

Thinking about creating a Learning 2.0 program for your staff? These are some best practices:

• Design the program for late bloomers.

• Allow participants to blog anonymously.

• Use 1.0 methods to continually communicate with participants.

• Focus on discovery and offer optional challenges.

• Encourage staff members to work together.

• Remember, it’s not about doing it right. It’s about exposure.

• Practice transparency and radical trust.

• Continually encourage staff to “play.”

Fontichiaro 2008

It is so important to think about how others learn (as WE have obviously learned this semester) and Kristin does a good job of explaining how simply this can be done.  By allowing teachers to understand how different tools can be used for their own personal use AND in the classroom, she is tapping in on the teachers' intrinsic motivation to learn.

My takeaways from this article:  

• Don't just tell teachers what they need to learn- find out what they need, tell them how it can help them, and how they can use it every day.  
• Encourage mentor relationships so teachers can help each other when the "expert" is unavailable.
• Allow "students" to experiment and make mistakes.  They will better understand a tool- if they attempt to navigate through problems on their own.