I've been thinking a lot about how to best support a mentee. There are moments when I doubt my credibility to do so and other moments when I know that my experiences and expertise can help guide a new librarian to hone their craft and develop achievable and relevant goals.
I used the six key areas of the AASL standards to help create a map or outline for creating goals around teaching. This is more of a framework for goal brainstorming rather than setting.
Using AASL as a guide for brainstorming your personal goal setting.
Inquire - What are the expectations? Take stock, think about and look into your school, district, state and national standards. Does your school have an improvement plan or a mission - what are they and how do you embrace the school culture?
Include - What is important to learn or get better at? Think about the areas of teaching where you feel the most confident and what needs the most support. Seek out resources (it could books, professional development, staff or administration) that prove information and clarity
Collaborate - What does the organization need? Think about the needs of your students and staff and how you can effectively meet those needs in a way that you feel connected to.
Curate - What do I love doing? It’s important to incorporate your strengths, passions and expertise into your goals. Use what you know and build on it
Explore - What excites my students? Listen to your students. What are they asking from you, what are their interests, what’s trending in the school and the larger world.
Engage - How can I reach the larger community? Think about your town library, local organizations or clubs. What are the connections you can make and with whom should you be making them.
Using AASL to outline a goal setting procedure it's a great way to model for your mentee the ways librarians use our own resources to do the work requested of us in our schools. So much of what we do will be to model best practice. One of your classmates reminded us that Laura Lipton says that “mentors of the masters of momentum and mentees are the keepers of content’. Sharing a list of questions like this with your mentee to reflect on not only provides them with a cohesive structure for goal-setting, but models reflective practice at its best. Thanks so much for sharing!
ReplyDeleteMandy,
ReplyDeleteI agree that organizing big ideas and essential questions around the shared foundations provides a starting point for exploring all the roles that school librarians play in a school setting. Great questions to continue to dig into and mess around with year after year. It could be overwhelming for a mentee, but if you both decide which one is most urgent, then, there you go!
Judy
Hi Mandy, I love this organization system you modeled after AASL's own Foundations and how it keeps the core values at the heart of the work. Your questions are open-ended, big picture and personal - they inspire some really thoughtful ideas and decision-making around goal setting. I think your doubts are valid and serve as a reminder that we all as educators have moments of trepidation and often those challenges are what bring us to the goals and plans we make for ourselves and our practice that stretch us beyond our comfort zone and bring us to our real potential! -Erin M.
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