Goodbye, Summer! Hello, New School Year!

This morning dawned crisp and clear, a harbinger of fall days to come. I went back to work on Monday, and I have this week, before the teachers come back, to get a head start on the new year.

This summer was full of social media and online professional development. In June, although I couldn’t go to San Antonio, I participated in the ISTE 2013 Conference SIGVE Playground. (ISTE = International Society for Technology in Education; SIGVE = Special Interest Group on Virtual Environments:  http://sigve.iste.wikispaces.net/SIGVE+Virtual+Environments+Playground+ISTE+2013.) I helped out inworld for the Second Life portion, as Gord Holden did a presentation for the attendees. Later I was asked to take on Gridjumper’s role as Producer for the SIGVE Speaker Series (http://sigve.weebly.com/13-14-speakers.html). I’m looking forward to working with our speakers and guests, some of whom have no virtual world experience.

In addition to my usual round of meetings, and an Internet-free vacation in the North Woods, I managed to attend the beginning and ending sessions of the VWBPE Conference (VWBPE = Virtual Worlds Best Practices in Education: http://www.vwbpe.org/) I’m now taking part in the post-conference MOOC (http://vwbpe.kamedia-interactive.com/), which explores some of the virtual worlds in more detail. Next year’s VWBPE Conference is April 9-12, 2014, and I’m hoping to participate more fully.

Now, for library goals for this year. I hesitate to put these in print, for fear of failing, but I think most of us know that without failing there is no learning. So…

This year I want to focus on staff development, rather than direct student instruction. I can do that without closing the library much, since I can work with grade level planning blocks. I’m hoping to collaborate with our ITRT (Instructional Technology Resource Teacher) on monthly tech training, plus do short bits at staff meetings and grade level meetings. I hope to help teachers (and their students) learn about EasyBib, online research databases, the Destiny library catalog (including interactive functions), and Edmodo (or whatever equivalent thing we’re using).

I’m hoping to continue the after-school Library Guild. This year I’m going to start out assigning shelf sections and incorporating badges. We might be able to use Edmodo for this, too. I still haven’t learned to play Minecraft, but I’m looking into the possibility of using this with the Guild, too.

This might be the year that I establish a Library Council of teachers, parents, students, and administrators. I really need to become part of a group, rather than a department of one. If we can meet quarterly, we could at least make a start. I’d like to use the AASL framework that Chris Flench shared a couple of years ago; hopefully I can find my notes!

We have a change in administration, as our former principal was promoted to a district position. I’m feeling positive about this, as our new principal is our former assistant principal, with whom I’ve worked well for years. Our new AP used to be a teacher here, and we’ve collaborated on teaching together. I’m meeting with the principal on Friday to talk about goals, and learn more about how the library program can support our school and district goals.

Now–on to processing the rest of the new books that came in last year! Huzzah for the new year!