I am constantly striving to keep up with trends in the profession and improve my skills. My two primary areas of focus are technology and instruction, as well as the intersection between these two areas.
This summer I hope to complete the LCC/CTE online teaching certification to learn how to better serve the needs of online students. Over the summer, I plan to learn more about Google Analytics to be able to take more actionable steps based on the statistics collected about website usage. Next spring, I would like to participate in CTE’s Transforming Learning Through Teaching 12-Week Seminar to take the opportunity to reflect on my teaching and learn from my colleagues outside of the Library.
Summer of 2012 I plan on applying for ACRL’s Immersion program which focuses on Information Literacy. In particular, I would like to participate in the Assessment track to learn about how to evaluate effectiveness and prove the importance of information literacy instruction at LCC.
Throughout the semester, I keep up with trends in the field by reading scholarly journals, as well as a variety of blogs focusing on libraries and technology. I would like to work to incorporate reading of literature outside of libraries to broaden my knowledge. I often attend webinars on teaching and technology offered by organizations such as LITA and ACRL. I have completed self-paced courses from Lynda.com on topics such as Website Redesign and Sharepoint. I also attend CTE workshops and the MLA Conference.
My teaching goals include incorporating more active learning activities into my instruction sessions and paring down my sessions to the essentials. Both of these goals serve to meet one of the biggest challenges in the classroom, meeting the needs of students with a wide range of abilities. I would like to learn more about the Universal Design for Learning, a framework for developing flexible learning environments that can accommodate individual learning differences. In turn, I would also like to learn more about assessment, to be able to see how the new techniques I am using are working.
At LCC, I would like to reach out more to faculty in my liaison areas and across campus. This also includes involving more students in the library. To this end, I have invited students from the Student Leadership Academy to serve on the Web Improvement Team and I will be serving on the eLearning Advisory Board next year.
As I get more experience as a librarian, I am being asked to take more of a leadership role in the library and by serving on college wide teams. To this end, I would like to find ways to develop my leadership and project management skills. One step I will take to do this is to volunteer with MLA for the upcoming academic year.
Another goal is to start writing and presenting on a more regular basis. Since I started at LCC Library, I presented one session at MLA and published one article in a book. I recently submitted a proposal that was accepted for MLA next fall. I would like to continue on this path and present and write at least one article a year. This will help me continue to strive to explore new ideas and to share what I have learned with others.
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