Our Year Zoomed In
Seven Snapshots from West Hills High School Library's 2019-20
#1: Building Upon past Best Practices
While we are always looking for ways to improve the school library program, we also maintain features that continue to be valuable. Some of the practices that we continue to build upon include the following.
Browse previous library highlights using the buttons below.
#2: Promoting literacy across the curriculum
The library supports the development of a multiple literacies in a variety of ways, including but beyond checking books out to students. Below is a sampling of efforts from this year!
#3: Collaborating with classroom teachers
To optimally support student literacy and research skill development, Ms. Sannwald is eager and grateful to collaborate instructionally with classroom teachers whenever possible. Below is a sampling of some collaborations from this year.
#4: Supporting students as content creators
In addition to helping students access content, the library strives to empower students as creators themselves. Below are some examples from the past year.
#5: Adapting services during distance learning
As with classroom teachers, the work of the WHHS Library shifted considerably with distance learning.
When serving the community on-campus and under regular conditions, the library typically has an average of 400+ visits a day with the image from 3/9/20 providing an example of exactly how active the library can be on any single day.
Nevertheless, even without in-person contact, the goals of the library program remained constant: to connect with students and teachers, to help provide access to and guidance with resources, and to facilitate inquiry-based learning opportunities.
Below are some specific examples of WHHS library activity during distance learning.
- Sharing district-wide resources for distance learning, plus maintaining a Virtual WHHS Library Google Classroom open to all students for site-level engagement, most successfully with asynchronous Questions of the Day.
- Flexible instruction for the Library Assistant course, with some students notably taking advantage of career preparation options, creating resumes and cover letters.
- Collaboration with teachers including assistance with digitization of curriculum, instructional screencasting, and development of unit resources.
- Creating, updating, and sharing information for students such as digital reading options, study skills support, Chromebook troubleshooting hints, Senior Chromebook updates, and Destiny instructions.
- Collaboration with ITS, Library Council, Finance Techs/auditor, and site-admin to develop procedures for senior Chromebook sales.
- Collaboration with site admin to facilitate end-of-year management of textbooks, library books, invoices, and senior Chromebooks. Contributions included running reports and emailing notices, creating staff help guidance, and communicating with students and parents.
- Engaging in professional development opportunities and working on long-term projects such as website updates, including auditing accessibility compliance for library web resources.
#6: Connecting with Professional Communities
Ms. Sannwald engages within professional communities to keep learning ways to improve the WHHS library program. She also enjoys sharing her experiences and knowledge gained at West Hills with others.
#7: Contributing to FutureForward goals
During the 2018-19 school year, West Hills teacher librarian Suzanne Sannwald collaborated with GUHSD Library Council members to define a common vision for the library program district-wide of opening doors for students by increasing student equity & access and driving student learning with collaboration & literacy.
To start the 2019-20 school year, GUHSD's Library Council built upon that work by identifying three goals for shared, district-wide growth:
- Increased Outreach and Information Sharing with Students and Teachers, including Non-Comprehensive Sites
- GUHSD Online Database Change Implementation, User Experience, and Curriculum Integration Improvements
- Improve Efficiency and Balancing of FutureForward Chromebook Management
Connect with us! #whhspack #WeConnectHere
Connect with the WHHS library throughout the year. Click on the icons to visit our website and social media.
