School Librarian as Game Changer: Innovative Strategies to Inspire Teachers and Learners

Purpose & objective

Upon completion, participants will be able to implement strategies to achieve buy-in from administrators allowing school librarians to be leaders in innovation while supporting diversity, inclusion, and professional growth. Session attendees will discover several approaches to integrate decision makers into the the learning so that they can have a first hand account of learners needs to help support the momentum behind acquiring tools and resources.

Participants will be able to leverage innovative tools to form partnerships to introduce resources and alternative teaching strategies into the classroom while cultivating leaders and content creators. Session attendees will learn how to inspire classroom and other subject specific teachers

Participants will be able to facilitate the use of new tools and advocate for the library as the innovation hub piloting resources to launch into the larger community. Tools will include recently developed apps, such as EyeJack for integrating augmented reality, app smashing old favorites with young learners to build digital fluency to create a meaningful project for global sharing, and integrating computer science into every day routines to teach complex concepts.

Outline

The presentation will be broken into three secions, all of which will include a back channel using a tool such as backchannelchat.com, for live interaction:
1) Collaboration strategies with co-educators and marketing strategies that appeal to decision makers (10 minutes): This will include a hook to demonstrate the relevance of this to each of us. I will showcase strategies that have proven to work and how these can be implemented.
2)Hands on projects using a variety of technology tools and innovative approaches to learning (40 minutes): Projects that integrate a variety of topics for every budget will include 3D modeling, valuable experiences in video conferencing, leveraging a love of YouTube, engineering for assessments, building community through coding, and experiential learning with green screen technology.
3) The value of reflection for iteration and strategies to incorporate this into the learning (5 minutes): This will address the role that social media and being a connected educator can have on our ability to question our teaching and learning practices and contribute to professional growth.
4) Q&A (5 minutes plus): This will also conclude with an invitation to continue the conversation on a digital platform.

Supporting research

A book that I wrote on the topic of the library being the launchpad for innovation:
https://products.abc-clio.com/abc-cliocorporate/product.aspx?pc=A6053P
An article that I wrote for School Library Connection about strategies in distance learning to engage students:
http://schoollibraryconnection.com/Content/Article/2252086
A video that I made with a student to empower them to create Maker Challenges for their peers during distance learning:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RBg8maFy97s
A link to an Instagram post that outlines a collaborative project between myself and a teacher integrating writing, augmented reality, world travel, and QR codes:
https://www.instagram.com/p/BqpsB6yBSOQ/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link