Final Vision Project: Rationale (LIBE 477B)

With report cards due this week, I didn’t really progress with building my website.  But, I did do a lot of brainstorming of ideas and thinking about the project, so I am in a place where I can now get down to work.  Additionally, after speaking to my Principal this week I have an additional goal to get it done because I will be presenting at our next staff meeting in our Carousel of Learning. 

This brings me nicely to the topic of this week’s blog – the why.  What is the purpose of this project and why is it important for my final vision?   

As I’ve said in many blog posts during this course, I am in a new position this year and I am at a new school.   In addition, I’ve joined a library team where my co-librarian has done a lot of work over the last few years to network with teachers in our school and to co-teach lessons. However, she has not reached all departments.   There is, after all, only so much time!  As I am new, I’d like to try and gain some ground where she has not.

If I were to break down the goals of this particular website, I’d say there are three that I have in mind.

1)      To introduce me and the library as a resource

2)     To create an opportunity for staff collaboration and access to resources

3)     To highlight great things happening at our school to help create a sense of community

Goal # 1:  Introduce me and the library as a resource

This website offers an opportunity for me to introduce myself to the staff with a tangible resource. Something I have worked on and that shows how I envision the library as a resource for staff.  I have tried to make connections this fall with many staff members, but naturally this does take time.   My hope is that some of our staff will be inclined to come and talk to me about starting a co-teaching project after seeing this website and some of the work I’ve done this fall.

Goal # 2: To create an opportunity for staff collaboration and access to resources

I’d also like to showcase how the library is working with certain departments to co-teach.  By having lessons on display, I am hoping that it will show teacher’s some options that are available for them and also get them thinking about how the library can support them in their own discipline.  I also want to have the website be a place where teachers can share resources. Initially, I will be uploading library developed resources, but the idea is to have the website be a collaborative effort. We hope that teachers will share their resources with us so that we can create a learning community for our school.  So often we are doing similar things in our classroom and often spend time re-creating the wheel. If we can have a repository of key lessons for different subjects, then teachers can borrow from one another.

Goal #3: To highlight great things happening at our school to help create a sense of community

Lastly, I’d like to showcase some of the great things happening at our school in the Teacher Spotlight section.  A lot of the time, teachers are so focused on their own classroom that they often don’t get a chance to see what’s happening in the rest of the school or maybe even their own department My hope is that by drawing attention to neat things happening at our school that this will help create a collaborative community.  So often we work in isolation, but really our strengths come out when we work together.  

So, returning to that Carousel of Learning at my next staff meeting – I think this will be a great opportunity to network with staff members and to reinforce what the library can do for them. 

All photos are taken from Pixabay and used under the CCO Creative Commons.