I have mixed the activities together because I did a little bit of everything. I read "Why 20% is Good for Schools", and "Genius Hour". I love the idea behind students and teachers having time set aside each week to pursue their own interests. I have found, however, because this is not common practice in our District, when high schoolers are given the option to choose a topic of their own to research, they have a difficult time getting started. They are so used to being told what to do and how to do it, they shut down when they have to make their own decisions. I looked at the Library Advocacy Unshushed course---that would have been a great course to take. I will watch for others like it in the future. I looked at Global Education DB eCourses.
I also registered for the Killing Dewey webinar scheduled for April 16th through WebJunction. I personally hate browsing bookstores because I am so used to how my school library is organized. I am hoping this webinar will open my eyes to other options.
I already have a kind of learning plan for myself for the next year or so. I am taking this course now;I am attending the SSL conference in Syracuse in a few weeks for the first time (and have convinced my district to give me PD credit for it); I am attending the Leadership Institute at Cornell in August for the first time (and will be receiving inservice credit for it); and as a SLMSSENY board member, I am helping SLMSSENY plan the 2015 SSL conference that will be held at the Doubletree in Tarrytown next year. If I survive the next year, I am planning to start taking some online Library and Information Science Courses for inservice credit. It is frustrating that I have to spend money to take graduate level courses for inservice credit, but the classes offered through our Teacher Center often don't apply to librarians. When the time comes, I will revisit this module for links to free courses and will have to do some creative writing to convince administration to give me inservice credit for them. http://cooltoolsforschool.wordpress.com/thing-19-online-learning-diy-pd/
