This was honestly one of my favorite SLO’s to complete. The LIS 610 short writing assignments, LIS 654 Monitoring Professional Blogs assignment, and LIS 617 Professional Resources Evaluation were some of my favorite assignments through the semester. Each assignment helped me grow professionally and gave great insight into the topics covered.

In the short writing assignments, I learned about topics such as weeding, maker spaces, and building a collection. These topics helped me to gain a better understanding of the ins and outs of collection development and management as well as knowing that a collection is more than just a bunch of books. Through these assignments, I learned that a collection is a living entity that represents the community it serves and that it includes technology the community needs access to.

 

     During the monitoring the professional blogs assignment I was able to view several posts from a few different blogs. The blog post was from current practicing school librarians who are considered experts in the field. The knowledge I gained from these blogs helped me to implement new technology and strategies into the school library. The professional resources evaluation tool also helped me to gain knowledge on choosing professional resources to help build the collection.

 

     Since beginning my internship I was able to attend the North Carolina School Library Media Association’s (NCSLMA) annual conference in October as well as their AASL standards professional development in March. During this conference, I was able to attend sessions on Shero’s, the 2017-2018 North Carolina Children’s Book Award Nominees, and sit in sessions with distinguished published authors. This conference not only allowed me to gain the knowledge I could implement into the library but also helped me connect with authors and other school librarians. The connections I made at this conference have helped me grow professionally and has given me tangible resources that I could immediately implement in the school library. I look forward to attending this conference each year.

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     The NCSLMA AASL standards professional development helped me delve into the new standards and gave hands-on learning tools that I could implement immediately in the school library. The School Library Journal webinar also focused on the new AASL standards and eased into the new requirements by helping me see that the standards are already things I am doing in the school library. Another aspect of these trainings is the ability to collaborate and learn from other media coordinators. Any opportunity to attend professional developments, explore resources that help me grow, and connect with other media specialist is important to the continued growth of my professional career.  If you aren’t learning, you aren’t doing it right!