Librarian Collaborative learning communities

In September 2018, school librarians attending the Collaborative Learning Community (CLC) were asked to set goals for the new school year. Some chose to look at their school’s student achievement goals while others focused on developing relationships with students and increasing collaboration with faculty.  Meeting as a CLC throughout the year provided school librarians the opportunity to revisit goals and share success stories.  Following are just a few highlights:
Amber Cheladyn, high school librarian at Allegany-Limestone, focused on building relationships with students. What started out as one teacher bringing special education students to the library has developed into a domino effect.  More teachers have visited the library with their students where Amber has guided them through the process of borrowing OverDrive’s audiobooks and ebooks.  Students are thrilled with being able to listen to popular fiction as well as those required for the curriculum.  
Jody Thiel, PreK-12 librarian at West Valley Central School, focused on the long-term goal of increasing student achievement on the Regents and state assessment tests for ELA and Math. Increasing collaboration with teachers was her first step and has resulted in more projects this year.  Jody has provided expertise to teachers on how to access CABOCES’ Insignia for borrowing items from CA BOCES and using the library’s online catalog for accessing databases and resources from the school’s library.   
Elizabeth Brisky is the PreK-12 librarian at Franklinville. This year her school has been staircasing major subject areas and the specific writing and reading strands for each grade level. Elizabeth has participated in grade level meetings and programmed library instruction that builds on students’ areas of weakness.  When she learned that genre was a difficult concept for students, Elizabeth created an entire unit on center-based activities that used genres, categorization of books, and writing activities for increasing student success. 
In March, Dani Newman, PreK-12 librarian at Fillmore, recruited 30 students in grades 3-6 to participate in the IU9 Interscholastic Reading Competition in Bradford PA. When Dani shared her experience and her students’ excitement, other school librarians expressed an interest in recruiting their students to join in for next year’s event.  Each team reads a total of forty pre-selected books and are responsible for knowing answers to questions asked during the competition.  Librarians have received a list of titles for November’s competition which can also be used for summer reading. 
Carli Wright is the new librarian at Randolph High School this year.  Her goal of fostering relationships with students and getting them into the library led to many creative endeavors.  Inspired by Dani’s success with the reading competition, Carli has connected with the Randolph Public Library to make sure her newly formed middle school team has what they need to read over the summer. 
The Librarian’s CLC provides important networking for school librarians and has consistently seen high participation  levels. Thank you, school administrators, for recognizing the unique professional development needs of school librarians!

​By: Cece Fuoco, CA BOCES Learning Resources

Pi Day Celebration

High School students reading with PreK-2nd graders for PARP.

Speed Dating with a book.

High School students reading with PreK-2nd graders for PARP.