Tech tools to communicate with stakeholders

Editor's Notes

• #3: I surveyed some of my students, teachers and the administrators in my district The AASL School Libraries Health and Wellness Toolkit – identifies some common priorities – Students – having a safe place to go and relax, time, the feel overhwhelmed Teachers and Admin – high stakes testing, student safety and success – teachers in particular time Parents – students safety and success, ACT prep etc
• #4: Research your stakeholders by directly asking them using polls – google forms, SurveyMonkey – things like that Use your school/district mission statement Tell Survey results if your state participates in that School improvement plan goals/objectives
• #5: I found Admin and Teachers in my building agreed that priorities were Student Growth and Success Fostering a culture where students could be creative, curious and innovation Creating a culture of collaboration Teachers specifically mentioned differentiation, technology support Students were more interested in being able to find books they are interested in – fiction and nonfiction
• #6: Talking points When talking to admin make sure you can share some vital stats about how your program supports student growth and learning Have a story to share that shows your program success or impact Have some quick details about a new program that supports the mission of your school/district The ALA has some good tips on crafting your message http://www.ala.org/advocacy/advleg/advocacyuniversity/frontline_advocacy/frontline_school/everyday/crafting
• #7: Video Tools: - are good because they help you to keep your message short and to the point – also establishes a consistent message when you have to share with many stakeholders PowToon – to create professional looking cartoons to communicate a consistent message – use with Audacity t Screencasting tools – like screencast-o-matic, jing, and Camtasia are good for tutorials Graphic Design Tools Picasa – has a free photo editor download – it’s easy to use to alter photos and you can add text to create JPEGS – Canva – web based tool that allows you to design graphics for a variety of media outlets like facebook. You can even create poster size designs. You can choose to only use free elements, or you can pay to use photos – exports your design as a PDF or JPEG Reporting Tools Publisher – oldest one I use, primarily for parent communication or to create a print source or something I need to directly embed to an email Smore- recently started the subscription services – online flier creation service that allows you to easily embed websites and videos Piktochart – great tool for creating infographics – has many free designs or you can build from scratch. Helps you to keep your message short and to the point General Web Tools Social Media – Facebook, Twitter, Instagram Websites – school sponored or individuall created on something like Weebly or Google Sites Blog - blogger or wordpress Destiny catalog BYOD Tools Aurasma – Augmented Reality – allows you to create interactive displays where you overlay video content onto a static image on a book or bulletin board QR Codes I did create a Thinglink of resources using this page – post link http://learninprogress.blogspot.com/2014/10/cld14-your-connected-librarian-toolkit.html
• #10: I ordered these shelf markers from Demco and used modpodge to adhere pictures of favorite characters, series, books Helps students see where things are in the picture book section Students have reported being able to find things much faster and are excited at discovering things they didn’t know we had.
• #12: Aurasma and augmented reality will blow your mind – it is a great way to create an interactive display of a static image. Intro to augmented reality http://learninprogress.blogspot.com/2014/01/intro-to-augmented-reality-aurasma.html All of these things are ways that I communicate to students and try to help them find what they are looking for
• #13: Screencasts save my life – A little effort on the front end helps to create a consistent message that students and other stakeholders can hear. I make screencasts of common tasks like how to write a works cited page or how to log on to email and post on my school web page so students and teachers can refer back to it as often as needed. I also use PowToon to make professional looking videos for tougher lessons like How to Use a Dictionary, The Big 6 Research Skills and I use it to intro programming like our yearly theme or 1 book, 1 school which is coming up. PowToon 1 book, 1 school http://youtu.be/AALd1_CcxwQ
• #14: Use the Destiny home page to advertise hours Embed a Symbaloo of safe sources for kids to use to pursue interests Kindergarten student beg to be allowed to go to the JES Destiny page – this is creating awareness of what the library can offer students from a very early age.
• #15: Teachers reported being concerned most about student success and growth, collaboration, creative curious and innovative thinkers as well as differentiation and RTI
• #16: Tuesday Teacher Tips – I send usually weekly – I try to keep it to three things – a resource in the library they might need with a way they can use it with their class, a tech tip, and a tip that directly relates to something they are currently concerned about – student growth goals, rubrics, differentiation etc. I use Smore - easy drag and drop feature, you can also embed it in a webpage or blog post Like the analytics page – let’s me know how many views I have had, what links people clicked on, how long they spent You can share with email – send a test email to yourself and it will embed the content, then you can forward to individuals
• #17: I try to create ways that we can connect face to face Summer – I ask them what kind of PD they want and then design PD for them – iPads, Genius Hour, Flipped Class are some examples Power Lunch – through the school year – meet with teachers on their lunch to show them a strategy or tool – no more than 10-15 minutes I like to use Canva and/or Picasa to create graphics for these sessions
• #18: Infographics like Piktochart are a quick way to visually share lots of information – it also forces me to be concise because I like to keep them to a 1 page print out if I’m going to put things in mailboxes or share at a PD App smash it with Thinglink and embed on your blog and webpage and you can beautifully curate resources teachers can come back to over and over
• #19: Priorities review
• #20: Library reports – really need to connect to priorities – show how you support student learning I’m working on relating information about how students who participated in our summer reading program performed on diagnostic tests at the beginning of the year – STAR enterprise and iReady diagnostic in reading. Initial reports are positive – but I need to get more involvement to really make the information worthy I’ll also share how changes to fiction organization is improving circulation to show that I am responding to student needs
• #21: Share programming that relates specifically to administrator goals. I’m developing a 1 book, 1 school program where I’ve used library funds to buy every adult in our building a copy of the same book, and classroom teachers will read it aloud to classes. I think my admin will view this as an innovative new thing to try and I think it will do a good job of showing collaboration – our cafeteria is even getting involved with special food days, I’m hoping to promote public library programming, our guidance counselor will have it as an example to use when discussing character education, for the next few years teachers will know that their students had that shared story and will be able to use it to connect to new learning. I am hoping that it also sparks some curiosity and leads to discussions with new people or discussions at home. I’m going to send copies of the book with an explanation of what we are doing to our district administrators and school board as a thank you for all they do for our kids and also as an invitation to join in and share on this great literacy building program. I used Canva to create logos for the event and to visually tie a picture of the school library to what we are doing.
• #22: Haven’t had a chance to officially poll parents yet From the AASL list I know that parents are often most concerned about knowing students are safe, are going to be ready for the future, and knowing how to help students with homework
• #23: I like to share content with parents about how to keep students safe online, as well as recognizing student achievement
• #24: I connect with parents mostly through Social Media where I often link them back to our library web page. I used Canva to create our profile picture and wall banner – the wall banner highlights our library theme for the year and it makes for an identifiable image when parents are scrolling through their newsfeed.
• #25: I also share those big PowToon announcements with parents via email blasts, our webpage and social media. I often have to share info with them about the book fair, programs like 1 book, 1 school and summer reading. I try to keep it short and entertaining when it comes to videos