VISIONING IS VALUABLE!

Throughout this school year, I have taken three courses and made an ever-growing list of valuable resources, lesson plans and prospective changes to what I do and what the facility that I manage does for its clients. I have developed a vision for the future of OES Learning Commons that is flexible and continually developing. The following is a list of the goals that I have chosen to focus on over the coming school year! This visioning exercise is something that I have undertaken with an administrator, a primary and an intermediate teacher, and two parents. Some points are directed at my personal growth, however several will incorporate input from this Learning Commons Leadership Team.

• Blog updates on facility upgrades 

• I have created an OES Learning Commons Blog where the first posts are about the beginning of our transition from a library to a learning commons. I have posted the url in the year end newsflash, and on the OES Community Facebook page in order to reach out to parents who are interested in following our development. I intend to track the growth and development of our Learning Commons facility for students and parents alike. Follow this link to our new blog: Oliver Elementary School Learning Commons

 

• Collaboration Newsflash

• By sharing a monthly newsflash listing collaboration opportunities, other teachers may be inspired to try something similar or something that they have created. 
• I have created a collaboration idea resource list on Symbaloo for sharing with by staff. I will add and update as I curate further resources. 
• Considering Collaboration

• New Materials Newsflash 

• Using a similar template, I have created a monthly newsflash which will inform staff of new materials both for student and teacher use. This will include print, building sets and web-based materials. 
• What's New Pussycat?

• Tech Tuesday lunch sharing for teachers 

• In the fall, I will gauge the interest for staff to attend an ‘in-house’ tech support lunch session once a week. This may evolve into a session offered during our monthly collaboration afternoons. Teachers who have become proficient in certain areas of technology will be asked to share in order to provide opportunities to have grade level, or buddy sharing of web or technology-based activities. 
• A potential staring point for this activity is Ellen Holderman's blog post. 16 Websites and Apps for making Video and Animation

• Learning Commons Webpage (link on school website)

• As our school website is currently under construction, and we have been asked to follow a similar template, I have been impatiently waiting for this to be completed. I hope to include links to 
•  OES Learning Commons blog for transition updates,
• Student book review blog 
• Student reading and math practice sites (teacher recommended) 
• Overdrive access 
• District 53 Destiny link 

• Student book review blog 

•  In the fall, Grade 7 students will begin with a book trailer project, and in turn will create a plan to teach a grade 6 student the process. The plan is to continue this process moving down the grade levels until all students are familiar with the process. After we have the student body able to produce these trailers, we will feature a few from each grade level each week on our student book review blog (links on the Learning Commons website) These book trailers will be accessible at Chromebook stations in the learning commons for students who are needing inspiration for book choices. One interesting source I am planning to adapt for our use was created by a grade 5 teacher and 2 librarians from Virginia. http://digitallearningday.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/Student_Blogging_Collaborative.pdf

• Learning commons space redesign 

• Over the summer, I have plans to complete shuffle the small space we have creating a stronger flow, and opening up some opportunities for space flexibility. Currently, we have discovered an access and traffic flow problem with the collaborative space being located just inside the learning commons doors and directly beside the circulation desk. Plans will be to move collaborative space further into the room and re-locate all fiction books closer to the circulation desk. A flexible work/reading area will be created where the library assistant will be able to supervise and sign out materials while a class may be involved in a collaborative lesson on the other side of the room. This will alleviate much of the distraction caused by keeping the learning commons open and accessible at all times. I will encourage teachers to allow students to sign books in or out of the learning commons as needed. I find that many students will read their books immediately upon signing them out, only to have to wait a week to get a new one! It is my belief that this will encourage more reading and increase circulation. 

• Improvement of access to learning commons (teacher librarian, library assistant, education assistant, student leaders, parent volunteers) 

• Currently, students have access to the learning commons from 8:20 – 9:55, 10:10 – 11:15, and 2:30 – 3:15. The slot from 11:15 – 2:30 is only accessible with their classroom teacher, or if they are lucky enough to catch me there during collaboration blocks. This is not a very good schedule, and we are currently in discussion with the administration to work on a solution. We are considering exploration of ‘personal check-out’ options.
• Setting up a Self Check Out Station

In closing, I wish to convey the purpose and rationale for my checklist of goals. Primarily, my checklist is my plan of action. My ultimate goal is to improve the use of our school's learning commons both as a facility and in it's function. In years past, the 'library' was viewed as a resource check-in, and check-out space. Few of its clients used it as a collaborative space, or viewed the teacher librarian as a resource. The teacher librarian was essentially a literature promoter with improving reading and interest in the student population. Within the new vision of our learning commons, I plan to create a broader sense of the purpose for the facility and its personnel. I feel that we are in the 'Emerging' stage of the Leading Learning Transitional Growth Stages. "The school community has embraced the Library Learning Commons concepts and it has established a Learning Commons Leadership Team to begin the work of preparing the library facility, collections, technologies and teaching and support staff for renewed focus on learning in changing environments." (CLA, 2014). We have made some initial steps towards adopting the changes in our learning commons and I hope to be a catalyst for further change and development in this area for our school community.

RESOURCE LIST:

• Photos: Pixabay 
• Gifs: 

1. Perpetualpageturner. retrieved from: https://giphy.com/gifs/library-RzXQ6nsbUKmmA
2. MellyLee retrieved from: https://giphy.com/gifs/library-melly-lee-amanda-suk-l0HlMEi55YsfXyzMk

• Holderman, E. 16 Websites and Apps for making Videos and Animation. (May, 2014) retrieved from: https://www.commonsense.org/education/blog/16-websites-and-apps-for-making-videos-and-animation
• Esanu, J., Blaine, A., and Chapuis, G. Steps to Successful Student Book Review Blogging. retrieved from: http://digitallearningday.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/Student_Blogging_Collaborative.pdf
• Follett Destiny Library Manager. Setting up a Self Check Out Station. (2014) https://support.follettlearning.com/_files/fsc/pt_external/Destiny/_QRG/Setting%20Up%20a%20SelfCheckout%20Station.pdf
• Canadian Library Association. Leading Learning: Standards of Practice for School Library Learning Commons in Canada. (CLA, 2014) retrieved from: http://llsop.canadianschoollibraries.ca/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/llsop.pdf