Standard 3: Collaboration and Leadership
School library media candidates provide leadership and establish connections with the greater library and education community to create school library media programs that focus on students learning and achievement; encourage the personal and professional growth of teachers and other educators, and model the efficient and effective use of information and ideas.
Reflection
Learning to become a leader has been a tough task. As a classroom teacher I enjoyed autonomy and leadership on a small scale. It is often easier to establish a leadership position when your subjects are under age. The idea that media specialists are leaders has caused a paradigm shift for me. My experience with media specialists in the past has been of someone who is an expert at cataloging, shelving, and purchasing books. I understand now that media specialists are information experts and as such play a much larger role in the school and learning community at large.
My work with developing a facilities plan helped me in this search tremendously. I had to involve many different people in the learning community. I first worked with the media specialist to determine obvious areas of improvement. I worked with stakeholders such as teachers and students by developing surveys and collecting feedback data. My principal and I worked together to identify areas in the budget that could support updating the media center as well as other programs that could benefit from an expanded media program.
The ultimate goal has been focusing on student learning and achievement. Many of the assignments throughout the program have helped me discover best practices for maximizing student achievement. The school’s media program plays a pivotal role in the development of programs to achieve these goals. Research has shown that schools with strong media programs often have better scores on standardized tests for this very reason. By collaborating with fellow teachers and other stakeholders helped me develop programs and initiatives that would help students be successful in their academic work.
Creating a professional learning forum for my school at large played a large role in encouraging professional growth. Teachers in my school have used the forum to share ideas and resources with one another. I was also able to share the link to my personal learning network and have highlighted areas for professional learning in my learning network to share with other teachers.
My work with developing a facilities plan helped me in this search tremendously. I had to involve many different people in the learning community. I first worked with the media specialist to determine obvious areas of improvement. I worked with stakeholders such as teachers and students by developing surveys and collecting feedback data. My principal and I worked together to identify areas in the budget that could support updating the media center as well as other programs that could benefit from an expanded media program.
The ultimate goal has been focusing on student learning and achievement. Many of the assignments throughout the program have helped me discover best practices for maximizing student achievement. The school’s media program plays a pivotal role in the development of programs to achieve these goals. Research has shown that schools with strong media programs often have better scores on standardized tests for this very reason. By collaborating with fellow teachers and other stakeholders helped me develop programs and initiatives that would help students be successful in their academic work.
Creating a professional learning forum for my school at large played a large role in encouraging professional growth. Teachers in my school have used the forum to share ideas and resources with one another. I was also able to share the link to my personal learning network and have highlighted areas for professional learning in my learning network to share with other teachers.