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"Communicating the great things that we are doing in our school libraries is so important to advocacy. Letting others know about the projects, new books, and countless other activities can be a challenge. When I thought about improving my communication with parents, students, and staff my idea was to create a short, one-page newsletter each month. The newest tool I have been using for promotional library materials is Canva. "

Engaging in an organized environmental scan is a key element of the overall program development process. The scan process allows an opportunity to gather key information on the local environment and build a shared understanding of ongoing activities, past accomplishments, and potential opportunities. By its nature, a scan is outward-focused; it looks at the larger institutional setting, outside of the library.

Expect More: Demanding Better Libraries For Today's Complex World, David Lankes walks you through what to expect out of your library. Lankes argues that, to thrive, communities need libraries that go beyond bricks and mortar, and beyond books and literature. We need to expect more out of our libraries. They should be places of learning and advocates for our communities in terms of privacy, intellectual property, and economic development. The book is now available as a free download from this web address.

"Nurturing the conditions for what the authors call "conflict-agility," a mindset that aims to ease discord by "harnessing conflict in the service of improving educational outcomes and relationships," is an ongoing process-and a critical one because, the authors note, "dissension does not simply vanish if it is ignored or driven underground." When skilled leaders don't shy away from conversations about, for example, "critical race theory, institutional power relationships, implicit bias, and inequitable outcomes," they help build the school's capacity for improvement and communicate a willingness to honor and hear all voices in the school community."

"Real World Learning is authentic to the learner, connected to the community, and valuable to both. It includes community-connected projects and entrepreneurial experiences, work-based learning, and credentials valued by employers. Five steps to expand access to high-engagement valuable learning experiences."

Employers require creative and problem-solving skills and an ability to adapt to changes. Those new skills and abilities kids can't polish by solving standardized tests. That's why teachers need to foster new skills in the classroom- skills of 6 C's education: Character Education, Citizenship, Communication, Critical thinking, Collaboration, Creativity.

"For administrators to move beyond operational management to true leadership, they need to understand the capacity of their staff, promote open communication, and provide useful feedback"

Potter looks at the shift from a hierarchical model to one of inclusiveness across the learning community and that acknowledges the expertise of others in different fields.

The Canadian Learning Commons Network provides a network for communication, professional development and advocacy for those who are involved with a Learning or Information Commons on their campus.

" There are many aspects to the role teacher-librarians. Teacher-librarians are curriculum development leaders as well as a collaborative teaching and planning partners for the classroom teacher. They can be leaders into integrating technology into instruction in the school. They are the information specialists who provide both physical and intellectual access to material through teaching the knowledge, skills and values required to use information and to communicate knowledge ethically and effectively. Teacher-librarians must also be involved in revising and rewriting policies and procedures that are important to meet the needs of the twenty-first century. They are resource managers and must be up to date in reviewing new materials in order to develop their collections."

Recent technological advances have affected many areas of our lives: the way we communicate, collaborate, learn, and, of course, teach. Along with that, those advances necessitated an expansion of our vocabulary, producing definitions such as digital natives, digital immigrants, and, the topic of this post -- "21st-century teacher."

Provides principals and school communities with a best practice guide for their school library.

"Teacher communities are a source of support, and even though we're geographically separated, this network can be expanded through virtual platforms."

Pat Kyle, librarian at the Washington International School (WIS) was presented with a rare opportunity. A private PreK-12 institution in northwest Washington, DC, WIS had launched a five-year redesign of the school in which she would take an active role, helping build a brand new media center.

Alan November considers school library design as a space that thoughtfully integrates online learning, and collaboration and content creation among students, and will serve the entire school community well into the future.

Social media-networked digital media such as Facebook, Twitter, blogs, and wikis-enable people to socialize, organize, learn, play, and engage in commerce. The part that makes social media social is that technical skills need to be exercised in concert with others: encoding, decoding, and community. I focus on five social media literacies: Attention, Participation, Collaboratio,n Network awareness and Critical consumption

Today's organizations are faced with an increasing need to adapt to new realities that almost always result in some organizational change. The process of implementing change in organizations is often complex and challenging for most managers. To help managers successfully implement change, it is recommended that they use some version of a change model to increase their chances of successful implementation. While there are many models for change management, most of them originate from the work of John Kotter's eight-step change model. Specific steps in the model include: establish a sense of urgency, create the guiding coalition, develop a vision and strategy, communicate the change vision, empower broad-based action, generate short-term wins, consolidate gains to produce more change, and anchor change in the organization's culture.

"The School Library Designing site site invites you to explore how you can participate in school library designing - and why purposeful school library design is important. "

Education and political leaders in countries around the world have recognized the imperative to prepare their youth for the 21st century, a goal that many believe requires the fundamental transformation of educational opportunities together with the integration of technology into teaching and learning. But educational change is complex. It takes place within an ecosystem of influences that range from national policies, programs, and supports to local community contexts and school-specific professional cultures. Part of Microsoft's commitment to education, ITL Research is a multiyear global research program designed to investigate the factors that promote the transformation of teaching practices and the impact those changes have on students' learning outcomes across a broad range of country contexts.

From JISC - have done a lot of research on the idea of a digital native.

Digital literacy looks beyond functional IT skills to describe a richer set of digital behaviours, practices and identities. This tool kit examines information literacy, media literacy, communication & collaboration, digital scholarship, career & identity management, learning skills and ICT literacy