Thing 13

Ok.  I am seriously behind with CPD23 because it is the summer holidays.  Working in a school gives me great holidays, but does also mean that I tend to switch off completely from anything work related and that does include my chartership as well unfortunately.  I am also blogging this from my IPad which is a first, so I apologise for any mistakes.  

So Thing 13 is online collaboration and the examples given are Google Docs, Dropbox and Wikis.  At this point, I am also going to put into the mix Titanpad as well which I have used with some effect in the LRC with students and one of my first posts on this blog was how I used Titanpad with several Year 7 and 8 classes.  The students worked in cooperative groups using a variation on a Sage, Scribe, Serf, Crusader activity (Kagan Cooperative Learning) to jointly produce some research in preparation for a visit by the author, Paul Dowswell.  Although I haven't been able to move forward as I would have liked with Titanpad (see some of my previous posts as to how my job has developed this past year) I have been pleased to see how those teachers who watched me using it with their classes have moved forward with Titanpad in their own teaching; one teacher has done some great collaborative work with schools across the UK and this is of course part of our CPD as any professional ( be it librarian or teacher) sharing what we find out so as to improve the learning experience of our users or in my case, students. 

So back to Google Docs etc.  I have used Google Docs quite a bit as part of staff development training sessions.  One example of how the Digital SIG (school improvement group, of which I am a member), used Google Docs was when we collaborated to produce a rationale, based on the cooperative values (my school is a cooperative school and these are at the heart of all we do).  I liked how our changes were identified on the screen which makes for a great feeling of shared ownership, although there does have to some degree of responsibility and respect!  Our aim as a school is to implement the use of Google across the college, including email etc, with Google Docs being used so as to encourage students to bring their physical cooperative learning into the online world as well. With this in mind, I shall probably use Google Docs in the future instead of Titanpad because it will also sit beside the other Google products I use, such as Reader and Calendar. 

Regarding Dropbox and Wikis, I am sure they are great, but for the reason above, I don't think they are going to be something that I personally will use in the future.  I am a bit of a believer in being consistent, especially when dealing with young people who often dislike change in the classroom/LRC I find.  Although I am always prepared to try new resources, products etc, I am a bit obsessive about not flitting to and fro between lots of different ideas.  So having been really 'forced' into adopting Google Docs at school and liking it, this is the collaborative product which I am sticking with.  This is not to say of course that I won't be contributing to wikis for my CPD at all: I made several contributions to the Libcampsw wiki for example and I have also been a contributor to a wiki shared and developed by school librarians, but for my personal professional development AND developing collaborative learning in the LRC at school, it will be Google Docs.

Thing 12

Putting the social into social media is this week's Thing and initially I wondered why we were repeating ourselves, having done online networks in Thing 5, but when I read the post on http://cpd23.blogspot.co.uk/, I understood that this was more about putting our use of social media into practice and having a bit of time to reflect on how we use it, i.e. how we interact with social media, rather than just pushing information out.

This has really made me think about a Twitter account I set up just last Friday strangely enough.  Since becoming Assistant Head of Sixth Form last September, I have been considering ways in which we could improve interaction and levels of communication with the sixth formers; assemblies, messages via tutors and a message board in their common room only communicate so far.  The college uses My Big Campus as are our main VLE type resource, but after speaking to students about a sixth form specific area (including the sixth form council), I discovered that this was not something they wished to use and would prefer a more immediate form of communication such as Twitter or Facebook.  As I love Twitter and use it daily, hourly etc for my own PLN, I decided to set up a Twitter account for sixth form.

Having decided to follow users such as @UCAS_Online, @BBC Breaking News and @Apprenticeships, I initially saw it as a way of pushing information out to students; informing them of assemblies, trips, specific events such as UCAS registration etc as well as retweeting information from UCAs, National Apprenticeship Service and BBC News.  However the thought has now struck me how Twitter may also be used by the students to interact with me in return; when we want to gauge student opinion, telling us when they are going to be late, if they are ill, sharing of good news e.g. places at university, new jobs etc. If this happens, then it can only be a positive thing for the relationship between sixth form staff and students; more of a celebratory and moving forward than simply another means by which to nag them.  Social media really becoming social.

Libcampsw

Saturday 7th July 2012 saw the first ever Libcamp in the southwest; our very own little sister to the national Libcamp.  It was a wet and windy day (when isn't it?) and unfortunately some attendees were unable to come, being stuck in Honiton.  Fortunately there were only a few minor delays on the line from Cornwall so I arrived at the Xfi building at Exeter University with time to get my Ipad connected to their wifi and to ogle the amazing array of cakes which was steadily growing!

I had my first moment of panic when Claire (one of the organizers) announced that we were to each introduce ourselves to everybody else (first panic - speaking in front of people), then handed over the microphone (second panic.....).  Once all 40 odd librarians (and one non-librarian) had introduced themselves, it was time for pitching workshops.  I had already pitched an idea on the wiki, http://librarycampsw.wikispaces.com/, but panic number 3 set in just as I bravely took the microphone again and nervously suggested that it would be good to talk about how libraries and librarians were using mobile devices - Ipads, tablets, smartphones etc.  That moment of pressure over, I then had the rest of the day to worry as to whether anybody would turn up to my proposed workshop as it was placed near the end of the day. 

Just for anybody who might be wondering why this didn't sound like a normal conference, let me show you what it was all about ....(from http://librarycampsw.wikispaces.com/)

"Library Camp SW will run as an “unconference” where participants decide on the programme at the beginning of the event, working on the principle that the sum of the knowledge, experience and expertise of the people in the room is likely to be greater than that of those on the stage at traditional conferences.

The idea is based on “Open Space Technology” (Harrison Owen) which has four main principles and one law:-

1. Whoever comes is the right people
2. Whatever happens is the only thing that could have
3. Whenever it starts is the right time
4. When it’s over, it’s over

Law of two feet: If, during the course of the gathering, any person finds him or herself in any situation where they are neither learning nor contributing, they must use their two feet and go to some more productive place."

The first session I chose was on looking at children's services, specifically that of public libraries, but the discussion soon morphed into more of a general consideration as to how do you reach young people in the first place, then get them through the door and finally keeping them!  It was also interesting to hear the views of public librarians who use schools as the medium for reaching young people, many positive stories, but a few frustrations especially in the secondary sector which I could empathise with; pressures of teachers to get results doesn't always mean they have the time to do all those other things they would like to do.  The second session was an informal chartership chat which was great as I found that everybody has the same problems as I do; trying to get your portfolio done whilst holding down your full time job is hard.  It was also interesting to have a mentor as part of this group as we were able to hear from their perspective, especially the different ways in how mentors mentor.  Assigning chilli levels to each mentor on the CILIP website denoting levels of strictness was suggested!  One great outcome of this session was a regular Plymouth Chartership meet up #chartershippub and I am looking forward to our first 'date' later this month.  Hopefully this will keep us all on the straight and narrow and not the scenic route!  Thank you @annetteearl, @calire and @claireStevens.  We just need to keep asking 'so what'?

After a fabulous lunch (Libcampsw was sponsored by SWRLS, CILIPSW, Arts Council and OCLC, wild boar sausages and more cake, I attended a session on engaging people who don't use our libraries.  Having refreshed my memory by taking a look at the #libcampsw tweets, there were some great ideas suggested from Plymouth Libraries introducing a monthly email bulletin and sending to all users (a good discussion came out of this on using our user data more wisely), to a 'tell a friend' schemes whereby promotional material is given to regular users who then pass it on to friends etc. We discussed Twitter and Facebook as a means of getting to your library users and keeping them updated; several libraries/authorities are well down this road by now.  I also was interested to hear about a cross sector library group which meets regularly in Exeter to share ideas etc and we all agreed that one of the biggest barriers to libraries is that people still don't actually realise they are free!  The final session I attended (not of the day - I had to leave a bit early to get my train), was the one I pitched on using mobile devices in libraries.  Extremely relieved to find people turned up as the session on your Dream Library was very popular, I began by sharing how I have been using Ipads, Kindles and tablets in my school library and the discussion was taken up by several HE Librarians who shared how they were using tablets, specifically Ipads, so as to be roving Librarians which meant that could be amongst their users on the 'shop floor' if you like, not stuck behind a desk and not having to return to a PC to answer queries.  We also discussed the digital divide, but that of staff; those staff who are experienced and confident enough to use technology and those staff who require additional support and training.  A Gadget Day was suggested for the south west enabling library staff to have a 'play' on different technologies, including social media therefore enabling good practice and expertise to be shared informally.  Using QR codes was a popular discussion as well; promoting author events, bookmarks in books linking to the online version etc.  One tweet which came out of the session asked whether mobile devices are a distraction in a learning environment and this really struck a chord with me in particular being in a school.  We also decided that it was now acceptable to tweet at meetings, conferences etc and discussed the changes in the way in which we view and use technology as a society; one person shared how a few years ago he would have begun any training session with the words 'please switch off your mobile phones' and how different it is nowadays with people even using their tweets as the basis of their note taking and using Storify for example to curate them afterwards.

Although I had to leave before the last session finished, I was really pleased to drop-in on a discussion on 'what's next for #libcampsw as everybody seemed to have really positive feedback on the day.  I really hope that there will be another library camp in the south west and in the meantime look forward to keeping in contact with new colleagues on Twitter.

Things 10 and 11

I am finally catching up with myself, however the real test will be making sure I keep up during the summer holidays when I plan to be extremely lazy for at least the first four weeks, until I have to be back in for A-Level and GCSE results and their accompanying work for an Assistant Head of Sixth Form!

I have been professionally qualified since 2004.  I initially did a BA Honours degree in English & History and then studied for my MSc in Information and Library Studies distance learning with Aberystywth, University of Wales.  I always said that the reason I did my professional qualification was because I wanted to explore librarianship at all levels and across different sectors and jobs.  I started as a part time library assistant in a Central Library Lending department, worked in branch libraries as a casual assistant, combined these with a part time role in the Central Library Reference department and eventually managed to gain a supervisory role in Lending until I left public libraries altogether and went into schools where I am lucky to say 'I have never looked back' such is the level of support I have received from the Principal and his team.  I do know however, that part of the reason that I have received so much support from my senior management is because they respect my degree level qualifications, expecting a certain level of work from me as a result.

This blog was set up last year to help me in my chartership which I eventually signed up for in 2011 after a bit of procrastinating, husband's prolonged stays in hospital from life threatening illnesses and a pregnancy.  I was always encouraged to do my chartership by my husband and my line manager (I will talk more about that relationship later), but working as a solo librarian in a school has always meant that any CPD that has come my way has been more towards the education/teaching side of my job and not my library side.  However my chartership seems to be progressing fairly well although it definitely needs to be speeded up a bit because I really do need to be putting my portfolio together now and not just amassing more and more evidence and although becoming chartered won't make a bit of difference to my job or salary, it will be personally satisfying for me and my continuing professional development.  Qualifications that I have considered which are outside of librarianship, include a Masters in Education and the Leading from the Middle qualification from the NCSL (National College for School Leadership) which look at five areas; leadership of innovation and change, understanding your role in leading teaching and learning, developing self confidence as a team leader, building teams of people and resources and self directed change.  I have tentatively discussed these with my line manager before, but definitely need to do that chartership first!  

Thing 11 is all about having a mentor.  Initially I saw this as my Chartership mentor who is by the way great!  Last Saturday at Libcampsw we held a Chartership session and it was generally decided that my mentor is the one to have.  Seriously, I have found both my Chartership mentors (see previous posts for why I have had two) to be excellent in their support, advice and guidance with two very different styles of mentoring.  My first mentor advocated very gentle encouragement, not causing me to panic and fall into a heap at the thought of all the ' extra work!' whilst my second mentor combines both understanding of the demands of a full time job with carefully thought out, but very firm targets so as to get the job done. When it comes to an informal mentor, this would be my line manager; the Vice Principal.  I have been incredibly lucky to have a line manager who has always been interested in my CPD with twice yearly performance management reviews, clearly stated learning outcomes which this year were co-constructed and whilst I might have been a little taken aback to have been told that I am 'prickly', I did eventually acknowledge that she was right in saying that I needed to improve my management and leadership skills.  In turn, having had such good mentors means that I should begin to consider developing my own skills as a mentor.  I have had a little experience at being a buddy of a new qualified teacher who had taken the same route as I had, i.e. been a member of support staff before moving over to the teaching side, but although I enjoyed 'chatting' with my buddy and offering a friendly ear and shoulder to collapse on, I would question what both of us really gained from it.  Something to consider for my performance management perhaps next term?

Thing 8 & 9

Before I start on these Things, just want to mention the fantastic Libcampsw which I went to on Saturday.  Held at Exeter University in the Xfi building (great place for a conference), it was so good to meet up with librarians from the south west from all sectors, including even a non librarian!  I even managed to pitch a session and people actually wanted to come to it!  I will blog about the day properly in another post, but just wanted to mention it here first.

So Things 8 and 9 - getting organised. I like to think I am pretty organised already, but I use very old fashioned organizational tools, like a calendar on the back of my kitchen door, a staff planner/diary at school and a great weekly desk pad with lots of different sections like Remember, Checklist, Urgent, Number Crunching, Doodle Space, Random Stuff and the one I use a lot - Do this, or else!  I don't actually have the desk pad itself, I saw it on a colleague's desk and borrowed a sheet to photocopy, sneaky I know, but it really is a blessing.

However I have been using Google Calendar this year to make communication and bookings easier for our Careers South West (CSW) Advisors and do we love it!  Let me explain.  As part of the Government's statutory requirement for schools to provide external (i.e. not employed by the school), impartial IAG (information, advice and guidance) to students age 13 - 19, we contract out to Careers South West (formerly Connexions) with whom we have a great relationship and history of working together to aspire and help our students achieve their potential.  Although some of the Personal Advisor's time in school is funded by the local authority, specifically focusing on those students with low resilence or high vulnerability, we as a school also think that all of our students should have access to impartial and high quality IAG.  Therefore we choose to purchase 'top up' days, 2 to be specific this year, so all students can have the opportunity of 1-1 IAG. 

As an information professional, I am employed as Careers Coordinator and Assistant Head of Sixth Form with responsibility for IAG and so I work very closely with our Personal Advisor from CSW to ensure that students are given appointments when requested, but not missing English, Maths and Science lessons in the case of Key Stage 4 (sixth form must use one of their study periods to have an appointment) and also to help both myself (representing the school) and the Personal Advisor to follow up any issues etc.  In the past we had operated a very hit and miss booking system which often meant that I didn't even know when the Advisors would actually be in school and this was ok when we were accessing a free service!  However now we are paying for 2 days a week, it became necessary for both the college and CSW to adopt a more robust system devising a whole school IAG referral policy, including IAG bookings as part of an administrative assistant's job role and all 3 of us (me, Personal Advisor and Admin Assistant) sharing a Google Calendar (I hold the calendar and then share it with them).  Students are highlighted in green (turned up) or red (not turned up) by the Personal Advisor which then alerts the Admin Assistant to chase up the students and make any additional appointments if required so as to continue supporting them with the necessary intervention. It also means we are are able to keep track of all appointments made, thereby ensuring that we are making full use of our paid for service.   Google Calendar has completely changed the way I work with CSW (for the better) and we are hoping to share this best practice around the city soon.  

Regarding Evernote, I am going to be very honest and say I don't think I want to use it.  I do use a PC (at work), Blackberry (on the go) and an Ipad (at home) and I have taken a look, both online and the apps and I can see the potential, but.....no, not at the moment. 

Thing 6 & 7

Just seen on Twitter that this week is a catch up week for CPD23.  Yay!  I won't get anymore behind while I am trying to catch up 4 things. 

So onto Things 6 & 7.  I am going to combine these as Thing 6 looks at online networks and 7 at real life networks.  With regards to online networks, I am a big fan of Twitter (see my post on Thing 3), but the two specifically mentioned on the CPD23 blog are Facebook and Linkedin.  I have expressed my reservations re Facebook quite a few times and am still not tempted to potentially jeopardise my career and whilst my teaching union have relaxed their stance on members being a part of social networks, they have issued a set of quite stringent do's and don'ts.  My Twitter account is permanently locked down and I go by a name that is not my real name - have just done a test and searched Twitter with my actual name and you don't find me.  So Facebook is a no-go area for me.

Whilst I have known about Linkedin for a while now, I have never felt especially motivated to try it.  I took a look at an Infographic by Charlie White which said that Linkedin has over 10 million users - I didn't think it was that big.  Mistake number 1.  I think part of the problem is that I have always regarded it as a professional work thing, more akin to businesses etc than librarians or teachers.  As a business person you are required to promote you and your business to maximise success - oh!   Maybe Linkedin does have something to offer me and my profession because of the fact we live in a society which is increasingly undervaluing (make that wiping out of existence) libraries and librarians, especially professional posts.  I do like the idea that Linkedin is seemingly orientated towards the professional and this was evident in the data showing that top level managers tend to use it more for promoting their business, whilst middle management and entry level workers rely on it for networking with other colleagues etc.  Thank you to the CPD23 blog for mentioning this amazing analogy as I can instantly understand the difference between Linkedin and Facebook (the office rather than the back garden barbecue)  Having taken a quick look at linkedin, I see that it can also be used to reconnect with past classmates which fills me with foreboding.  I was never that keen on Friendsreunited and have the attitude that I am still in contact with those I want to be, i.e. with whom I have never lost contact.  I do accept that using Linkedin to create a PLN of business contacts will always be useful especially when trying to boost your career and obviously as a way of sharing ideas, answering questions it would be beneficial, BUT I can do all those things via Twitter so I can't see myself joining Linkedin any time soon.  Just having another login and password to remember as well as not forgetting to use Linkedin (the only value you get out of such forums is dependant on how much/little you use them I find), is just a hassle I can do without at the moment.  

Other online networks which look/are promising are CILIP Communities - I am a CILIP Blogger (my blog has the much prized logo on it) and have set up the feed as part of my Google Reader.  I like Google Reader as the posts are marked as read as I scroll down the screen.  This allows me to skim over those which I don't think will interest me, especially useful as working in a school with a firewall which filters many social media sites (not all), it can be frustrating to laboriously override the network with my staff ID only to find that I wasn't very interested in it anyway!  I had never heard of the Librarians as Teachers network (LAT) so this is something I will be looking into in the future.  Having taken a brief look at its origins, I find it resonates with my own beliefs in that I think academic librarians would be better served with a teaching qualification as well (it would put to rest at the very least the discrepancy in salaries in schools if librarians were dual qualified).

I find I get so much more from my online network than my real life network - should this be so?  Am I becoming a 'geek'?  I don't think so, although I know many people who think there is something geekish about librarians and ironically it is not the students in my school!  I have been a member of CILIP since 1998 and to be honest, until CILIP Communities and the regular online bulletins (e.g. information world etc), I have always questioned what I really get out of my membership.  The monthly journal is nice to read, but...... I know that CILIP isn't just about the headquarters in London and I have made the effort to get involved with my regional branch (see previous posts) and indicated an interest in setting up an south west branch of the School Librarians Group, but there are times when I feel isolated from Ridgemount Street, London and the SE where it all seems to happen. I am also a member of the School Librarian Association and to be honest, feel very similar; nice magazine, informative website and ....... ? Having been involved in writing for a publication of their's I recognise that the publishing house is very good, especially for newly qualified school librarians who are often solo workers as well, but again....  Perhaps its me? When I began working in school libraries I was so much a solo worker, brand new to the profession and still working on my MSc at Aber that I think I became very self reliant.  There are some in my school who call me 'prickly' (thank you - line manager) because of my overwhelmining championing and protectiveness towards the library and its services, but when you are a solo librarian, it does fall to you to 'do it all' and I sometimes think that I need to look elsewhere for some support sometimes, but to be honest, my online network ticks all the boxes for me most of the time.

Thing 5

Thing 5 should have been done the week beginning 28th May so I am about four things behind.  It is ironic that Thing 5 is all about reflective practice which is what I find most difficult; not the actual process in itself, but actually stopping and taking the time to think about what I have learned from a  particular training opportunity or from reading a particular article etc.  It does seem that I hurtle from one thing to another without actually pausing to think and I can honestly say that this has been the hardest part of my chartership.  I looked with interest at a proforma  on Googledocs used by @joeyanne to critically evaluate and reflect on the impact of events, reading, projects etc as part of her chartership and then how it becomes part of her overall spreadsheet linking to her PPDP.  It was really good and I can see why others on Twitter have adopted and adapted it for their own practices, although as I am someway into both my chartership and my blog I shall continue my rambling.

The original purpose of this blog was to 'chart' the progress of my chartership and it has definitely helped to focus and get down in writing what I have 'done' this past year or so and hopefully will help me when I begin to write up my portfolio (which I should have started already according to my mentor), but again I think I am too busy 'doing' and not stopping to reflect.  I am not too naive to think that this practice is only limited to schools (where I work), but a product of most people's workplace and I certainly believe that our working habits, knowledge and applied understanding would be much improved if we all had the 'time' to reflect.

I don't  especially use a model like the one suggested on the CPD23 blog - recall it, evaluate it and then apply it, but I do like the prompts suggested e.g. what did you learn, enjoy, think worked well/went wrong, would change etc and will consider them in future.  I also think that more could be made of this at the end of courses that you attend as part of your CPD.  In my experience, leaders of CPD sessions are so eager to cram as much as possible into the time they have, that they often forget the need for reflection and to consider how new skills, knowledge may be applied.  A recent course I went on actually built self reflection time into the course; we were challenged to reflect on what we had learned and to come up with one way in which we would apply what we had learned using SMART targets and guess what!  I went back and did it which makes that course a really worthwhile experience as I can see the tangible evidence of it in my work.

If I can manage to reflect more on what I do, I can only see it having an advantageous effect on my work; I just need to stop more and think rather than rushing on to the next thing.