Remote practice shared by: Alyssa Smith (Catonsville Middle School) and Karen Turek (New Town HS)
To communicate with stakeholders about library learning opportunities, resources, and tools and increase student engagement in the library program.
Translation of Practice alignment:
Domain 4: Professional Responsibility
4.5 Effectively communicates the vision for the school library to the faculty, staff, families, and community.
4.6 Communicates regularly with staff, students, and families regarding access to library resources including User IDs and passwords.
Screen clipping of Parent S'more
Models/Examples:
Tools/Resources:
Screencasts
Schoology
S'more
Collaborators:
PTSA PR person
School Webmaster
School's Good News Ambassador
Used Library Facebook and Twitter to share:
community and online resources,
information,
school challenges,
activities for home,
supplemental resources,
reminders of digital content,
access instructions.
School newsletters for staff are a great way to communicate library resources, evidence of practice, and special programming. S'more makes it easy to include:
Pictures of students in the library
Updates on digital content and technology resources
LibraryTrac data and infographics
BCPL Calendar of Events and more!
Click the pictures in this section to see sample S'more newsletters for staff.
Impact on the library program and students and/or teachers:
Realized that parents also needed some support in providing instruction to students as well as with the technology tools available. Therefore, we needed to be available to answer parent emails and questions and provide them with information literacy skills.
Community Partnerships with Local Businesses
In looking for support of the library program, I noticed which businesses seemed to be favored by the Catonsville community. I reached out to them for support for contests and rewards for the parents and students. They very generously donated gift cards!
A window into the lives of our students
In seeing photos of the students, I could see what their interests are. This let me customize some of the activities, comment on the photos and reach out to students on a personal level.
Even more PTSA support...the CMS PTSA has been supportive of the library program but adding social media elements got more attention for the library program. One newsletter shared the CMS Library Facebook page (without my prompting) and the comment: "Check it out, there is always some really cool stuff there."
Realization that we can do more with Facebook. Therefore, by early July 2020, we will be updating Facebook from a page to a group. This will allow us to schedule posts, do live sessions and more. All new posts will be shared to the new Catonsville Middle School Library Facebook Group instead of on the page.
When my school principal asked me to create a weekly staff newsletter, I embraced this opportunity as a way to promote library resources and services. Although my newsletters for staff contain other school information too, they are a valuable tool to advocate for the school library, advertise library programs, and build partnerships with teachers. S'more even provides analytics so I know when staff members are accessing links related to the library from the newsletters.