My Vision for the Future project aims to fill a communication gap for my fellow teacher-librarians. My vision is that teacher-librarians in our District (and beyond!) will have a central location to network from. This network will (hopefully) include an area for general discussions, links to resources, ideas for libraries (learning commons, etc.), a student inquiry section, and...much more! I think that classroom teachers may also access the resources that I hope to provide such as links to literature, discussions about good read-aloud books, and 21st Century inquiry learning ideas for students. If things go well, I may include a section for students targeting inquiry based learning such as project ideas, links to research resources, and some sort of support for students as they conduct their projects (maybe a Q&A blog section...???). 
It seems I have more questions than answers at this point about what I need to include but I will get there! I am sending out emails to local colleagues to get ideas and working with my tech teacher to figure out some formatting. At this point, my website must be within the school district's portal. We are exploring some options to make it visible to others outside our district. Certainly this project is going to entail a little more "tech-savvy-ness" than I might currently be equipped with...but I'll get there!I looked at a few websites to narrow down some of the content for my own Vision project. I think one of the challenges will be to keep the website manageable by maintaining focus on the target audience. Even in my rationale above, I can see that it would be easy to "stray"! I need to focus on what my colleagues need in this network project. I can include students and parents on my school library website rather than my TL network. There are many Wikispaces "out there" to use as reference for my Vision...is it just me, or are many of them "cluttered"? It definitely is intimidating to go onto a space that has "too much" (webinars, events, classroom ideas, twitter feeds, digital imaging, book talks, tech knowledge...). I want a space that is a balance of easy to navigate, informative and resourceful, and of course welcoming to anyone looking for support, ideas and discussion in their endeavors as teacher-librarians.
Some Wikispaces for teacher-librarians:
https://teachlibrary.wikispaces.com/
http://tldl.pbworks.com/w/page/23364015/Links-to-Wikis-for-new-TLs
https://tlvirtualcafe.wikispaces.com/home
http://teacherlibrarianwiki.pbworks.com/w/page/19823570/FrontPage
Here's a great website to look at school library examples:
http://schoollibrarywebsites.wikispaces.com/Elementary+Examples
References for images:
1. Join hands with wikispaces - follow link here
2. Question mark: http://fc02.deviantart.net/fs37/i/2008/258/7/5/Question_Mark_by_Bushlemon.jpg
A good post that outlines your key goals and the community you aim to connect. I do hope you are able to find a way to make this site public so that TLs in and around BC can also benefit from your work. Having an open and accessible TL resource will allow greater collaboration, increase the size of your community, engage neighbouring districts and launch more Pro-D opportunities as well as help cultivate relationships among the community. Don't worry about starting off small, as this will be an on-going resource that will be build by the members. Also, don't forget to include Social media (twitter chats, Pinterest communities, key TL mentor profiles, etc, as part of your resource!)
ReplyDeleteFantastic idea! As a TL in the same district I am really looking forward to using this network. My communication with other TLs in our district this year has been very limited, so I applaud your efforts as I personally see a great need for such a network. :)
ReplyDeleteAwesome - thank you Nicole! Can't wait to get things rolling - we have so much to talk about!!
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