Tracy Howse

School Library Media PD (District-Wide)

Meeting Agenda: 8/29/2018

8:00-8:40 Collaborative Planning- ES School Library: Stephanie and I used this timeframe to
review our lessons for the first two weeks and share ideas with colleagues. We exchanged ideas
on teaching on social and emotional growth lessons.

8:45-9:40 Diversity in the Library (Matthew Winner): This diversity session gave me the chance
to further explore implementation of diverse materials. Matthew Winner discussed determining
“best” books, “windows and mirrors,” We Need Diverse Books, and #ownvoices. He also taught
us how to audit our library, looking at students’ access to a variety of authentic books.

9:45-10:40 ES SL Updates (Required ES School Librarians): We discussed goals for Future

Ready Librarians, AASL Standards, and our Strategic Call to Action. This session focused on
curriculum for elementary school media.

10:45-11:30 Large Group Opening Session (Required for ALL attendees): We expanded upon
the previous School Library session, looking at county-wide initiatives and upcoming projects.
This shed light on the connection between school library media and technology as well as our
programs and the school system as a whole.

11:30-1 Lunch and Makerspaces/Vendors: During this timeframe, we had time to eat lunch,
network, and see displays from various vendors. TLC set up a hands-on makerspace display
throughout the media center. I also met with the following vendors: Howard County Library,
How Girls Code, Mackin, Follett, Taylor Book Group, Capstone, Perma-bound, NewsELA.

1-1:45 Workday for SL: In this session, we learned the purchasing procedures for School
Librarians. We were given time to look at our school’s Library/Media budget through workday,
practice ordering, and analyze previous purchases.

1:45-2:45 Self-Paced Quiet Learning: My mentor and I decided that I should use the final hour to
collect my information, review the resources I had collected, and plan ahead.

Role of the Media Specialist

This School Library Media PD provided a wealth of resources and opportunities for

collaboration amongst fellow librarians and tech teachers. When analyzing the sessions and

requirements, the leadership skills from School Library Media Administration (ISTC 601) are

prevalent.
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The Collaborative Planning session corresponded with the concepts Collaboration and

Inquiry Learning/Information Literacy found in ISTC 601 text The School Library Manager

(Wools, Weeks, & Coatney). PLES is focusing on social and emotional development through

restorative circles and we spent much of our time discussing ways to incorporate that into SLM.

My mentor discussed a dot/circle activity that gives them chances to state things they like and

things they do not know much about. The students will then be able to discuss interests with

peers. We determined that this goal is a perfect place for guided inquiry, in that students would

be able to learn social development through investigation.

The diversity session, which I discuss more in the “Agents of Change” section, also

showed the ways librarians can utilize their budget and assess their program for the benefit of

their collection. Similarly, in our ES SL Update meeting, we discussed the mission statement

analyzed our media center in comparison to the AASL standards. The statement is as follows:

“Every student and staff member embraces diversity and possesses the future ready skills,

knowledge and confidence to positively influence the larger community.” After reflecting upon

that statement, we circled areas of the standards in which we could improve. We were also told

to highlight areas where we were “close to success.” I appreciated this section of the meeting

most, because it allowed us to brainstorm further improvement.

Our large group meeting was a continuation of the mission statements and goals. We

learned about the new tech plan, which will be providing Chromebooks for all schools over the

next three years. The ratio of computers per students will be a percentage based on schools: High

school 70%, Middle school 60%, elementary school 50%. Continuing a look at education plans

and budgets, I went to the Workday session. This was helpful for me to see some of the bigger

picture regarding financing within Howard County.

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Agents of Change

The diversity session stressed that school librarians are the agents of change necessary for

providing students with the best, diverse, and representative resources. Throughout his

presentation, Winner presented his data analysis about publishers, distributers, and schools

regarding diversity. He maintained that it is up to us to analyze books, notice deficiencies, and

fill gaps. Although there may be a lower percentage of books published in “own voices,” we

must seek them. Overall, this session gave me the chance to reconsider diversity and book

selections.

In the following ES SL Updates session, we continued the discussion of diversity through

analyzing curriculum. Melissa Daggett presented the revamped Grade 2 curriculum for school

library media, which is the first of all grades to be improved. Some librarians expressed their

concern about the “Fairy Tales Around the World” unit, which utilizes Little Red and the Very

Hungry Lion and Three Ninja Pigs. These texts were intended to give students a chance to

analyze similarities and differences from stories around the world. However, neither of these

texts are presenting an authentic representation of their respective cultures. There was a

consensus to re-edit the curriculum with traditional stories from cultures.

I agree with this stance and was pleased to see such an open and responsive dialogue

between the school librarians. Most decided they would be using different books for their units,

but it does not seem that there will be a chance to the curriculum at the moment. This was

another instance of librarians being agents of change for promoting diverse, authentic resources;

although these books may be “fun,” they do not seem to be appropriate for a unit designed to

show students global viewpoints.