Over the last year, I have been running a weekly chat with a group of school librarians who just fancy getting together to informally chat about school library stuff. We have a laugh and enjoy being together and I've learnt lots from them. We have covered things like report writing, book awards, Inquiry frameworks and this week we discussed Blogging and social media.
All of them were on social media and mostly for the connections it gave them to learning, however, not many were really into blogging so this is where our chat focused. We talked about the CPD opportunities blogging gave in order to critically evaluate your learning and the kinds of things that we could share. One of the problems was knowing what to share and finding time to write so we came up with a shortlist of ideas.
Read an article, listen to a podcast, watch a TEDtalk etc. and critically evaluate and link it to your job if appropriate
Write about something you have joined in (like our group chat, a conference or training) and share your learning
Write about an initiative that you have carried out at school (It is a great advocacy tool)
Time can be found for something that interests you. Especially if you can use it to link to your own CPD and even use it in your appraisal as evidence.
We discussed the advocacy opportunities that blogging gave by having something to share on their social media channels. However, one of the issues that was highlighted was schools allowing them to blog or to have library social media accounts. This is difficult as it is important that they get the opportunity to share what they are doing in schools highlighting the huge contribution they bring to the curriculum, wellbeing and teaching and learning in their schools. If school librarians don't do this then who will?
We discussed having our own personal account that we use for 'library-related stuff' but this can be difficult as it is important to make sure that it is not linked the place where you work. If you have an opinion on something it could look like a criticism of the place you work even if the intention was not there. There really is a fine line especially if you are passionate about what you do and the impact that it can have. The push to have school library accounts is important but it is very difficult if the answer is no.
I don't have all the answers to this problem but one thing I do know is worth a shot and it is to be 'more Hopper'. To find out more about Grace check out this Britannica article here. Grace Hopper said...
" If it is a good idea go ahead and do it. It is much easier to apologise
than it is to get permission"
We often get told no when asking something and I do believe that in the right circumstances we need to take a few risks and see where it takes us.
If you want to know more about blogging here is another one I wrote a while back Why Blog? 6 concepts I've learnt along the way
Finally, if you are interested in learning more about the training I offer check it out here...
My latest small group training is Reading for Learning available in March and April and my new session IFLA and FOSIL explained can be found here.
Thanks, ladies for giving me an idea for this blog! You know who you are 😊
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