Each year, Jess Gilcreast (librarian) and I get together to talk about how we are going to support our staff. We evaluate what we have done in the past and how we think we want to move forward. We know that each ‘student’ learns differently and keep that at the forefront when making decisions.
The first thing we wanted to tackle was how we were communication with staff this year. Staff receive too many emails. Staff don’t have a lot of time on their hands. Staff have too much information coming at them at once. So how do we get staff to want to learn/understand new things? It is one of the trickiest things for those of us in our positions.
Every two weeks, we collaboratively share out “BHS Library and Tech Announcements”. In the past, we have shared out this information via a Google Document organized by month. Staff members have a one stop shop to find information that was during the entire year. We also use the Table of Contents feature so that staff can quickly locate the information that they want to learn more about.
As you can imagine, the Google Doc format has a lot of text. So, we determined that we should create an experience for our visual learners. After doing some digging, and finding some inspiration on Twitter, we can across a design from Jeremy Badiner. Below is what we came up with “Bytes of Info”, built in a Google Slide.
You will notice we have three different columns. First column will be the most current Library announcements. The second column are any announcements that I have to share out, while the third column will consist of spotlight information. One section will always highlight a staff member or a PLC that has tried something new. This will help with “planting the seed” and inspiring others. The other section will spotlight a quick tip/resource.
You will notice that there is an “Access the Archive” section on the top right corner. This link will open our original Google Doc format that we started a couple of years ago. This way, staff can always access content in the traditional text format – thus trying to meet more teachers with their preference. As we move forward, we envision duplicating the google slide, moving it to become slide 1, so that the next email announcement is the first thing staff will see.
Again, Gilcreast and I are trying to support our learners. We are hopeful that having both methods will encourage our staff to want to click on that link in the email. Well, I guess we are hopeful that they will want to even open up that email 🙂
For anyone that would like a shell of this Google Slide to work off of, click HERE.
And that is my Spiel…
Craig M Sheil 