Module 3: Connecting with Teachers

Offer ideas on ways to develop important connections with your staff and to entice teachers to
visit the school library to work collaboratively. Select 1 original idea to contribute.

Building Connections - submitted by Katrina Crawshaw

Aside from the primary steps of spending time observing and engaging in casual conversations
with teachers to build rapport, one of the ideas from the readings that I would like to try is to
leave notes in their mailboxes with invitations to come check out a new resource that I think
would be relevant to them, based on conversations we have had or information I have gathered
from meetings, conversations with students and teachers, and admin.

Building Connections- Shelby Steeves

First off I think it is important to share your teaching philosophy with the staff and share what a
learning commons should look like. I also think it is important to build connections with the staff
and community. Some of the articles I read suggested hosting game nights for families, and
starting a club. After connections are made the librarian can then suggest ways that they can
support teachers.

Submitted by Devon Allen

One of the greatest challenges this year has obviously been Covid protocols in high schools.
Whereas, my son’s library schedule at his school has remained fairly normal, that has not been
the case at my high school. Students are limited to specific zones in the school and cannot
wander outside of them.

What the TL did was make an effort to reach out to each teacher in the building and offered two
services.
1. A library orientation session for Covid Protocols. This classroom visit by the TL
outlined how the library would continue to work for staff and students.
2. Because he is a very tech forward teacher, the TL also put together a series of tech
lessons that he offered to everyone. He came into whichever classroom requested
him, and he taught how to use different programs for different purposes. These
lessons came with the follow up promise of partnering with the teacher to use the tech
with whatever curricular assignment the teacher decided upon.

In short, making connections in the building during Covid, was about the TL leaving the library
and actively seeking to help teachers in ways that he believed best suited his skill set.
Clea King - Ideas on How to Build Strong Relationships and Connections with Staff

Make sure teachers see you as a teacher first, not just the traditional librarian. Make sure
everyone understands your philosophy of the school library commons and its role, so that they
see you as not only an ally in their teaching but a central figure in the hub of a school and a
resource for teaching critical thinking, technology and digital literacy. Tell your peers about how
you are developing yourself and the library commons and how that development positively
impacts student learning and their teaching.
Make sure to not only develop relationships with teachers but with administration as well. Be
realistic about where you can take the library in short time if you are new to the school, but
make sure administration understands your vision and sees how it supports student development
and learning.

Laura Syms-Building Instructional Partnerships

My school TL is integral to the running of many of our school programs. She is one of the school
staff reps and is a strong advocate for teachers in our school. When asked for advice on strategies
to build connections with teachers, she stressed the importance of being involved in pro-d and to
help teachers see that you will go to bat for their programs and ideas. In addition, she co-
facilitates primary reading groups for vulnerable readers, collaborates and implements programs
with our aboriginal liaison, and provides technology instruction. Overall, she has built a program
that we (classroom teachers) could not do without. She comes into our intermediate classes and
helps with novel studies and facilitates book talks. I think that most teachers in our school are
welcoming because she is diplomatic and never pushes. We are given a choice and the decision
is ultimately ours. I hope that I am able to provide a learning space as welcoming and inclusive
as hers.

Nina Ruck - Building a connection with Staff and students

My school TL needs to change and evolve into the new times. I strongly feel that all staff need
to be educated in what the benefits of a TL. Before even getting there, I feel the TL needs to get
to know the staff. Perhaps being more involved in inquiry, school events, and leadership will
help make the TL be more visible. Having informal conversations or even luring colleagues with
food to enlighten them with some library possibilities. Libraries are now far more than just book
and computer resource hub and that needs to be celebrated and showcased. As for the
students, ensuring respect, offering help, and just getting to know each an every student will
make it more appealing and welcoming for students to want to go to the library. I hope to make
it welcoming to all and teachers will be excited to come and work together whenever possible.

Leigh Richardson- Building a connection with staff

Getting to know your community is important to make your connections. It is important to figure
out what the needs of teachers are. For example, once you figure out how many of the teachers
do a unit on life cycles, the TL could offer a resource tasting where they showcase all the
resources on life cycles that might benefit the classroom teachers. Throughout the year, the TL
could host a monthly event or two (one for intermediate, one for primary, perhaps). These
events could range from resource tastings, mini-lesson ideas, introductions to new technology,
teacher book club and much more. Opening up the library to the staff to explore, play and
connect in a fun way will help you build relationships and show your staff that you have
knowledge and are available to help them.

Guillaume Robidoux - How to connect with teachers/staff within your school

Having a good connection with the staff within your school is vital as the librarian - one of the
few roles that required contact with all members of the school. There are many ways that one
can approach staff and make the library a welcoming place for all. After completing some of the
suggested readings, some ideas that I had were as follows: Hosting new books presentation for
teachers during lunch times; keeping goodies in the library; suggesting cool books for specific units;
being flexible when teachers ask favours; organizing library tours in September (specifically to new
teachers); being friendly and willing to help; continually asking teachers if they need specific
resources in specific subject areas; chats and reinforcement about collaboration and explaining to
them the benefits of working together; making sure you offer some of the library space (if possible)
as another working space for their classes/specific students; organizing resource info talks over
lunches (to know what is in the library); be a good listener and don't be shy to start friendly
conversations with all. All in all, smile and just be yourself.

Kathryn Boyd --Connecting with Teachers and Staff

After reading the article and speaking to my TL. I believe that there are very subtle ways to get
teachers and classes into the library. Some simple opportunities that my TL proposed is
opening the library for 20 minutes of silent reading once per week. This isn’t a prep but instead
includes the teacher. It may give the TL an opportunity to connect with students about books but
also allows them to connect with a teacher and chat briefly about how things are going. This
could lead to deeper/longer conversations about co-planning and teaching. Another thing our TL
does is have a quick five minute presentation during staff meetings about what is going on in the
library, new resources, or new opportunities for planning and teaching. My TL also suggested
little things like being part of the “kindness committee”. This will show teachers that you care
about them and what is happening in their lives.
I think the key piece that has stuck out to me is building relationships. This is key for both
students and teachers. If you establish a relationship, they are much more likely to come and
chat with you and potentially make plans for collaborating in the future. I think focusing on the
relationship piece will go along way when trying to build up connections in the library.

Andra Lincke - Making connection and supporting staff

From a teacher perspective, the most powerful and effective method that TLs, counsellors,
Resource teachers or admin made meaningful connections with me that were productive and
immediate was by dropping by my classroom. I found in high school I always have students in
my class, or I am running to photocopier, or trying to mark. Moving around a large institutional
space to connect with teachers who have flexible schedules is often challenging. I would
regularly go down to the library, or office and would not be able to find the person I wanted to
connect to. As a TL, I would make it a routine in high school especially, but elementary as well,
to wander around and catch teachers in the hall, on a prep, or in their room. These often brief
spontaneous interactions proved to provide the most benefit. We have read in numerous article
how collaboration is key element to the job, but I believe as TLs we have to make it happen,
especially in high school.

Brynn Hendrix - Connecting with Staff

With health and safety protocols currently in place, eating in groups or with others is not
possible. However, one way to build connections with all staff would be to utilize your lunch
break to talk with different teachers. It can be easy to work through lunch and eat on your own
when things are busy. Try to focus on connecting with a different teacher during each lunch
break.Take some extra time to welcome and introduce yourself to new teaching staff. Focusing
on building relationships with each staff member will allow for others to feel comfortable to
approach you when they might need some help. In these conversations, you can check in to
see what teachers are doing in their classes and you could offer suggestions of ways you could
come into the class to support learning. Once you have worked together once, you could
discuss future ways that you can co-plan and teach. Another suggestion is to share frequently
on online staff groups (such as Teams). If you are sharing new resources within the library or
some example lessons that you have taught collaboratively, teachers might be exposed to
different ways the teacher librarian can get involved within the classroom.

Raman Badesha - Connections with Staff

After speaking with a Teacher-Librarian in my district, she gave me many great ideas for
building relationships with teachers and getting them to visit the school library.

❖ She mentioned how she is always listening when talking to teachers about what they
might need and then advocate to the appropriate people at the appropriate times as
opportunities arise.
❖ She has positioned herself in the school as the hub. She talks to the head clerk a lot as
well as the principal to make sure to always know what is going on. This leads to staff
approaching her to ask about things that are happening around the school.
❖ She opens the library at lunch for teachers to eat spaced out in. They are appreciative
and respectful, and this helps to build community. Sometimes they will talk about what
they are doing in their classrooms and if she has something that could help them with
what they are doing in their classrooms, she offers it.
❖ When she does a book order at the end of a term, she asks teachers if there are a
couple picture books, they want her to put on the list or read aloud books they would
want on the list.
Kathleen Grainger - Connecting with Staff
One of the things the TL in my current school does is make sure she’s on the Staff Meeting
agenda. She updates us on new resources, reminds the staff about ways she can help our
programming, makes suggestions based on what she hears from students. She also shares
with newer staff the resources that are in the ‘Dungeon’ (the storage basement). The biggest
thing she emphasized is that the TL is there to support the classroom teacher and students in
whatever way they need her.

Angela Stevens: Connecting with Teachers

When ordering resources for the library, whether that be print, digital or for the makerspace, we
have learned that it is valuable to have staff input. When the resource that they requested
arrives, it would be beneficial to create a “what you could do with this resource” brief lesson or
activity and post it online (library website, TEAMS, etc). As much as teachers like new
resources, sometimes they may not get used often or quick enough if a lot of planning now has
to go into the “how” and “why”. Taking some of that load or pressure off will show that we care
and help build trust with teachers to collaborate or come down to the library to see how the
resource could be used or how we could collaborate on using it. I think this would be a helpful
and fun way to open communication and build relationships.

My admin also post new library resources to our staff meetings, and sometimes give me the
floor to briefly talk about what is in and when it will be available. I have requested a channel in
our school Microsoft TEAM to update or showcase the library. When teachers see what is
available to them (without having to go back and search emails), they may engage more. To
highlight new tech tools, I frequently post to our TEAM channel, Online Learning Resources. I
have found that this year due to COVID, there has been a lot of hesitation to collaborate,
therefore, I have focused on the technology aspect and how I can help make their job easier
and sometimes even more fun! For example, I made weekly, informative and dynamic videos for
Black History Month for teachers to share with their classes (if they chose to) and received a lot
of positive feedback, which facilitated a lot of new connections and conversations.

Jazmine Ghuman - Connecting with Staff

I spoke to a Teacher-Librarian in my district who I often TOC for. She listed some great ideas for
building relationships in the school.

● She makes a point to visit classroom teachers just to chat (be friendly) and build a
relationship and then they often ask “can you help me with ___” and she is able to jump
in with what she knows and help.
● “The projects I usually do have some sort of whole school element to it as well so
teachers get to see what I am doing in the library. Last year I did a term project “Caine’s
Arcade” that I modified from the internet to last an entire term and then we had a
 showcase day where they set up all their arcade games in the gym and classes would
sign up to come and play for half an hour in the day. Teachers would get a glimpse of
● what I was doing and that I wasn’t afraid of hard work and that would get them to want
to collaborate with me or ask me about what I was doing.”
● “For Pink Shirt day this year I made an interactive classroom board with resources and
videos in lieu of an assembly and sent it to all the teachers as something that they can
do in their classrooms. This gives the teacher something to do with their class which
takes some planning off their plates but also showcases something I can do and they
might come and ask me if I can help them in the future.”
● “Sometimes I will use collaboration time to go into other classrooms while the teacher is
there for 20 minutes once a week and do a novel read aloud while the teacher is there.”

How to build respect and make connections from your colleagues - Craig Newson

As a teacher librarian I first see myself as a colleague and a co-teacher. To the most possible
extent I want to be teaching. I think it crucial that teacher librarians, first of all are teachers,
and need to be working with students and teachers for the majority of their day. Just like a
classroom, or enrolling teacher, planning and exploration needs to be done during non-
instructional time. Clearly, there is some time that needs to be set aside for administration and
clerical work, but for the most part I think classroom teachers you work with appreciate when
you are supporting students and teachers - whatever capacity that may be. Enrolling teachers
have to plan after school, so should we. I want to set an exemplary example.

I also would see my job as a teacher librarian as an information specialist. This mean
information about literacy, the curriculum and technology. One person cannot know
everything so it would be necessary to lean on colleagues, EAs, administration and students to
gain knowledge and information. I would take pride in being able to be the “just in time”
person, who could be there to help with various troubleshooting and problem solving. Be there
to provide the support that I would like others to provide to me. Be there for them - staff and
students.

Connecting with Teachers - Submitted by Lisa Jensen

Whew, it’s tough being near the end of the document but I still have an original idea! When I
talked with a TL colleague, she told me that after supplying help with a unit that is being taught,
she will offer to do a project with the class in which she does 90-100% of the planning. This
helps the classroom teacher feel like teaching with the TL is more of a help than a burden.

Connecting with Staff and Students- Submitted by Maranda Turner

When I spoke with one of my TLs she outlined some of the things they do as a TL team to
connect with staff:
● We create different themes so we can go into the classrooms and teach mini lessons to
students.
○ This could be done through an author study
○ We also present themes such as kindness, gratitude, inclusion, etc.
● We extend collaboration times with teachers where we can do a unit together with their
students. Usually a social studies or science problem-based learning or inquiry based
unit.
● We also send out monthly newsletters about programs or projects happening in the
library and how teachers can access them.

I also spoke with her about how positive relationships are built with students as a TL. She said:

● Relationships are built with students as all three of us TLs work with most of the students
through our other roles in the school. The more we go into classes, the more familiar we
become to the students and they start to seek us out when they see us outside or in the
hallway, to just say “hi” or to come to us when they need help. We also start to learn
their names and hear their stories.
○ For reference my 3 TLs other roles are 1) VP, 2) Learner Support/ELL, 3) Prep
Coverage (PE).

Marhielle Gelera - Connecting with Staff & Students

The TL whose position I’ve been covering on Wednesdays gave her answers as to how she
builds relationships with the staff and students at our school:
● Know the students’ names as soon as you can and say them out loud when you can
● Ask students what books they’ve liked so far and give recommendations for books of
similar genre/content
● Be excited about the books that students pick out and let them know to tell you how they
like it and that it’s okay if they don’t
● Always greet the teacher when they drop off their kids to the library
● Be flexible with time and schedule
● E-mail the staff every term to remind them that they are welcome & encouraged to use
library books to support their lessons, and if they need help finding something, you can
help for sure!
● Visit staff at the end of the day just to ask about their day or how the week’s been

Rupert Gadd - Connections with Colleagues and Students

My TL likes to build relationships with her colleagues informally, especially in discussions as to

their needs. Each class has a scheduled library time. She uses this to make connections with
other teachers to see what resources they may suggest for the library, or what support they may
need. Our TL also has a regular spot in staff meetings to introduce any resources or initiatives in
the library. She checks in and out the kids books, so makes connections with them every week.
She takes suggestions of books they might like, and lets them reserve books that they want.
My interest extends to struggling and needy learners, so I may focus my attention on
reluctant or low readers. The LSIS teacher is an excellent resource, and I would want to make a
connection with each classroom teacher on how these students are doing. Often older kids,
especially reluctant readers, like to help out younger kids, so I would facilitate this cross-class
learning to benefit both students. Building relationships with students is the most important
thing, and doubly important for vulnerable kids.