“That’s what she said” – wait, who let Michael Scott in here? Sorry, I should have written – it’s not that difficult!
I’m trying, as any good educator should do, to improve what I do. As the school librarian/library media specialist, I serve the entire school community, both students and teachers. It’s my job to make sure the library services I provide are meeting the needs of my patrons. I’ve been spending a lot of time the last few days working to improve the collection. I’ve been running reports to find out usage statistics, weeding the fiction and nonfiction sections of the library, and opening boxes of new books that have arrived. Yes, these are things everyone in my position does, but these are also things most teachers don’t realize occur.
I enjoy learning and as an excuse to learn something new, I decided to ask for input from the teachers at school regarding my library services – using Wallwisher. I figured this was a pretty simple tool for anyone to use, simply double click on the wall and type a quick note. I created a wall and sent out an email to my staff explaining what I was looking for, directions on using Wallwisher, and a link. My hope was that the teachers would take a couple of minutes to provide comments and suggestions to the library services I provide.
Apparently, what I asked was too hard, I mean difficult 
. Only 1 (ONE) person responded. The person also did not attach their name to the comment even though they didn’t say anything negative. Hmmm. The comment was centered around our collection and basically asked if we have a good collection and how it compares to other school library collections, if that’s possible. I posted a response on the wall, but I doubt the person will visit the wall again to read it. If I knew who it was, we could have a conversation. However, that can’t happen.
I can’t read the minds of the teachers who use the library. I can’t improve my services if I don’t know what users need. I can’t improve my services if people don’t respond to my requests. Maybe I’ll return the favor and start ignoring their requests. Of course I won’t, but the communication can’t be a one way street.
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My name is Chad Lehman. I'm currently an Elementary Library Media Specialist. I spent eight years teaching third grade prior to moving to the school library. When I'm not at school, I'm probably online, playing or watching sports, or driving my two kids to one of their activities.
Interestingly enough, I found it to be harder than I imagined for students to add something to my wall, and I had it up in the library and showed them how to do it! At one point, I asked some students to do me a favor and help me out by adding to the wall. I had enough to make it worth my time and got good info, but still…
Any way you get 5 minutes at a staff meeting to intro the tool and then ask teachers to add a sticky? What I found powerful with Wallwisher was physically showing each teacher how it works when they came in with their class and how I would use it in the classroom. Now they are keen.
good luck!
I’m going to wear two hats when I respond to this post.
First hat- my previous “staff developer” hat: I agree with you. Your job is important- as important as anyone else, and you need feedback from your colleagues in order to help support them. Too often, educators get stuck in that “I’m so busy” line that they don’t take the time to help each other out.
Second hat – my current back-in-the-classroom hat: This is a rough time of year to ask anything extra from staff. If your district is like mine, you’re in that February rut, probably somewhere around P/T Conferences, kids are crazy with holidays and weather issues… February has always been my least favorite month as a teacher. Even when I try my best not to let it get to me, I’m almost always totally overwhelmed at this time. So, I would recommend asking again in about a month (or even in another 2 weeks), if that’s possible. Also, do you need to do a quick demo to show how truly simple and quick this option is for communicating? I find that the people I work with are more willing when they see it’s not… difficult.
Funny you should post this today. I’ve been trying to get my teachers to use this tool as well. At our district in-service on Monday the focus was on collaborative learning. I can see something like WallWisher being quite useful in getting an entire class involved in a discussion, rather than just those one or two kids who always raise their hand.
Here’s what I made to share with our teachers. Are They Paying Attention?
How about that Duke-UNC game last night? Was that just painful to watch, or what? What an incredibly horrid game!! You guys looked awful, we looked awful, it was just ugly all the way around…
I don’t like filters. One of my teachers emailed me and told me the link to the site was blocked. I guess what explains why no one filled out the form. Maybe it’s more impressive that one person did this from home. I’m not sure what to say.