Librarians and the Washington Digital TeachKit: Partnerships in the Pandemic

by Mark Rey

Throughout my career as a teacher librarian and district leader, I’ve reveled in professional collaboration. As I continue my 29th year as a teacher librarian / instructional coach / teacher of the year / administrator / now free range educator, my rich professional friendships and diverse PLN have made me a better educator. 

But collaboration in a pandemic is hard. Social distancing has translated into professional isolation. A virtual breakout room is simply not the same as popping into a colleague’s classroom or meeting in the break room to forage for snacks. For teacher librarians who once regularly connected with fellow educators to lead, teach, and support the work of the school, it’s increasingly difficult to sustain collaboration as classroom colleagues struggle with remote and hybrid learning. 

The very real challenges of student engagement, management, and effective instructional design using diverse digital tools and services are yet to be solved. Despite an increased use of educational technology among educators, quoting Robert Frost, we have miles to go before we sleep. I quipped in another blog that Zoom is not a teacher. YouTube is not a textbook. And Powerpoint is not a lesson. 

Thanks to WLA, the School Library Division, and the creative collaboration of teacher librarians across the state, the new Washington Digital TeachKit offers librarians and other educators a survival kit to effectively use digital learning tools and services. More importantly, teacher librarians can leverage this free resource to lead, teach, and support alongside colleagues, thereby growing and sustaining important instructional partnerships with fellow educators. 

Step one: Review Your First Aid Kit

The TeachKit provides curated training and professional learning links to a variety of digital tools and services that are already likely used in your school or district. As you ready yourself as an instructional partner for your colleagues, do these things:

1. Identify those tools which your colleagues are already using. The TeachKit has grouped tools into guides to help you and others -- learning management, virtual classrooms, student interaction, etc. Tool-specific pages feature curated links and resources for solutions ranging from Audacity to Zoom. 

2. Build up your own expertise in those tools. If they are new to you, start with the First Steps in the TeachKit tool pages. If you have some skills, seek out the Next Steps to build your fluency. 

3. Orient yourself to all the TeachKit resources so that you can help your colleagues use this site as a means to help themselves. Additional guides provide information on Planning for Effective Remote and Hybrid Learning, Social and Emotional Health and Learning, Copyright/Fair Use, Student Safety and Privacy, and Educational Technology Standards. 

Step two: Survey The Situation

Do some initial triage to get a sense of who needs what. Not everyone is in the same place. As the torrent of remote and hybrid learning rises around us, some have found their way while others sit on the roof anxiously looking for help.

1. Identify those who have advanced skills in the digital tools and services used in your school and district. These are natural partners and resources to help you and others build their own fluency.

2. Create a list of ‘go-to’ experts for each of the tools you’ve identified. As you begin working with your colleagues, this can help you answer questions and, if necessary, connect those who need help with those who can help. 

3. Seek out those who could benefit from your instructional partnership. Because of our professional isolation, this may be difficult. Professionally reach out to your principal, instructional coach, or others who can help you identify those who might need a hand.

Step three: Lend A Helping Hand

It’s not enough to simply post ‘who needs help?’ via email and wait for the responses. Strategically target your outreach to individual educators, one at a time. 

1. Share information about the TeachKit with your colleague, encouraging them to take a look at the professional learning resources available. Ideally, point them to specific pages or guides in the TeachKit focused on the tool or tools that they’re using. Each page has its own link to make this easy.

2. Offer your support not as an expert but as an instructional partner -- recognizing that everyone is learning how to use these tools better and that you’d be happy to solve problems together.

3. If they’re interested, schedule a one-to-one call or virtual meeting to review the TeachKit resources together and identify their specific needs or questions.

Step four: Plan For the Next One

Once you have started building instructional partnerships, keep at it! There are likely more needs than meet the eye. It is also likely that needs will change over time -- not only will new tools and challenges emerge, but educators will evolve their skills and build fluency. Consider these next steps.

1. Complement existing professional development and teams. Since everyone in the school might be using Zoom or Meet, there are likely to be plenty of classes and support for these tools. There are likely fewer educators who are creating their own videos or interactive lessons. That could be a sweet spot for your support and expertise.

2. Identify and support other tools beyond the TeachKit. There are thousands of other digital tools and services which are used in classrooms. When you see a critical mass of use or interest, don’t hesitate to begin curating your own TeachKit Lite by locating and sharing useful training and guides. And if you do, let TeachKit know. WLA hopes to continue adding and improving the resource in the future. 

3. Move beyond basic to transformative technology use. Once educators master the basics, expand your instructional partnership to collaboratively redefine lessons, resources, and tasks to promote student choice, agency, and creativity. Use educational technology standards to inform instructional design. 

The Washington Digital TeachKit was designed by teacher librarians to help educators in our schools across the state, in part because not every school has a teacher librarian. But if you’re reading this, your colleagues are lucky to have more than just this virtual resource -- they have you! We hope you use the TeachKit as another tool to lead, teach, and support fellow educators.

--Mark Ray conceived and helped design the Washington Digital TeachKit alongside his colleagues at the WLA School Library Division. Named 2012 Washington State Teacher of the Year and a 2015 NSBA "20 to Watch,” for 27 years Mark has served students and teachers as a teacher librarian, instructional technology coach, and district leader. At the national level, he helped create and launch Future Ready Librarians and now serves as Future Ready Librarians Lead with the Alliance for Excellent Education. He presents internationally and has written for over a dozen professional publications and blogs.