Librarians as Future Ready Leaders

On June 24, 2016, Future Ready Schools added Librarians to their initiative with Future Ready Librarians. AASL & Follett are project collaborators and thought partners include Carolyn Foote and Joyce Valenza. Read Joyce's SLJ post about Launching Future Ready Librarians The framework will help librarians stay relevant and active in an evolving education system. 

This is an exciting announcement and something we have been working on in Weatherford ISD and definitely something we will use this summer as we map out a three-year plan for our district libraries. 

Future Ready Librarians recognizes that teacher-librarians can and should be at the forefront of changing education and can and should take on leadership roles on their campuses or within their districts. Many librarians are already supporting teachers as they integrate future ready skills into instruction, helping to create good digital citizens, creative thinkers and global collaborators. Many librarians are playing active roles in technology initiatives such as 1:1 rollouts or BYOD on campuses. Many librarians are just as active in technology organizations and conferences, as they are with librarian and literature conferences. With this initiative, these efforts will become more focused and more universal. This will become the norm among teacher-librarians and not the exception.

Looking at each area of focus, you can see the makerspaces we have added to many of our libraries fit right in. In Weatherford, several librarians have created coding clubs and Minecraft clubs, which encourage creating instead of just consuming. 

As you can see, a part of this is creating a learning environment that belongs to the students and staff on a campus, one that is flexible and has multiple uses. Designing collaborative spaces that support blended learning, genius hour, and technology integration should be something we prioritize when we think about our library space. The present day library should look and feel very different than libraries in the past. Schedules might need to be tweaked, purchases might need to be re-evaluated, and the way we have always done things might not be meeting the needs of today's learners. 

It is an exciting time to be a librarian and we should use the guiding questions as we think about our upcoming school year:

How can librarians and libraries support Future Ready schools?

How can librarians and libraries become more Future Ready?

What will you do this year to become more Future Ready?

New Adventures

After being a teacher for 19 years, then a teacher-librarian for the last four years, I have a new adventure, a new position, a new challenge. This summer I moved into a brand new position as the Future Ready Learning Coordinator for my district. What does that mean exactly? Well, I believe that this position will evolve and grow throughout this year and probably every year after that. I am working with teachers & librarians to help create learning opportunities for our students that will prepare them for THEIR future. 

I went from a classroom, to a library, to now a collaborative workspace with two other coordinators. As we developed  our space, we wanted to create a workspace that teachers could possibly use for ideas for their classrooms or libraries. Our district has several teachers who have chosen to remove traditional desks and create a more collaborative physical space.  Our first group we hosted was the district librarians. I think they liked the space! 

In addition to working with librarians, I spend time on our eleven different campuses and help teachers create "future ready" learning opportunities for their students. Sometimes this is helping with a new technology tool, sometimes it is assisting in a global connection, and sometimes it is brainstorming innovative ideas with teachers. 

One of the things we started this year is #N2WISD,  a new teacher chat for teachers new to WISD. While it has been very successful, it is hard to tell how many new teachers are being supported. Generally, there are many more "not new to WISD" teachers that participate. We have had topics such as Successes, Genius Hour,  Reformation vs. Transformation, and Being a Connected Educator. We will continue these chats, making them monthly though instead of weekly. I will also be sending out a survey to see if we should adjust the date and time to bring in more participants.  Something that helped to make the chats successful has been having them "hosted" by groups or campuses. This helped get more people involved as the chat was advertised through email & Remind. Here is the link to some of the archives for the #N2WISD chat.