- start writing an annual report and share it with people in the school
- write up some teaching ideas and strategies as "lesson plans" to show administrators what we teach
- buy a camera and start documenting via photos some great things happening in the library
- make a blog but target it for the teachers so that more professional dialogue can occur
- start a wiki with the students and a teacher to show that we aren't "just book pushers"
- use the "paper blogging" idea to introduce the idea of sharing information and privacy
- restart the area's "Battle of the Books" using the Forest of Reading and social media
I'm not exactly sure why T4L elicits this sort of response. In my brief introductory chat with the DPCDSB teacher-librarians, I used the following analogy.
Look at your school library more like this.
Yes, it may be small, but you're doing a good job.
And look at those openings.
Those are openings for new possibilities.
So add something new.
Try a new teaching strategy.Borrow a laptop.
Let the students choose the next book to read.
You've still got your school library, but with just a bit more.
Squeeze in a new collaboration.
Try a new Web 2.0 tool as part of a unit.
Through deliberate "baby steps", you can make your school library a learning commons, the hub of a flexible and responsive approach to learning collaboratively. If anyone has any insights on how we can transform the despair felt by some after reading T4L into inspiration, please comment below.