MALONEY MASTER’S PORTFOLIO 1

Professionalism

The teacher engages in ongoing professional learning and uses evidence to continually
evaluate his/her practice, particularly the effects of his/her choices and actions on others
(learners, families, other professionals, and the community), and adapts practice to meet the
needs of each learner.

The teacher seeks appropriate leadership roles and opportunities to take responsibility for
student learning, to collaborate with learners, families, colleagues, other school professionals,
and community members to ensure learner growth, and to advance the profession.

One of my favorite professional development opportunities that I’ve had thus far was

the opportunity to completely revamp my school’s library and train other teachers across the

district on how to do the same thing to theirs. We have 12 schools in 12 different villages in our

school district. We also have district offices in Palmer and King Salmon. Of all the people that

work in those 14 locations, not a single place has a librarian. Thus, I jumped at the opportunity

to utilize my B.S.Ed in Library Science and Information Technology.

“The school library is a natural context for voice and choice, because it serves all

learners, and libraries have always adapted to new formats of information” (Ahlfeld, 2019, p.

680). My whole teaching career has grown into me listening more and talking less. I’ve adapted

my practice to meet my students and their community before all else. The library hadn’t been

updated in nearly two decades- books were disorganized and the space had become more of a

storage area than anything. It was in no way conducive to learning, as most of the kids didn’t

even want to go up there, let alone spend time learning and reading. I had noticed that it was

almost a habit at that point, for the students to be reluctant to use the space. There were still

good resources in the room, but without an aesthetically pleasing space, and no sensible

organization, no kids wanted to put in the extra effort it would take to get anything useful from

the library. The only way I was going to encourage an intrinsic desire to use the library resources
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was if I included them in the process of refurbishing it. Then finally, when my school district

received a very large literacy grant, I finally had the opportunity to make the space useful. One

aspect of the grant was specifically made for refurbishing the libraries in all 12 schools in our

district. In my library renovation, I wanted to "create a motivational climate for learning and

combine this with orchestrating the physical space" (Finley & Wiggs, 2016, p. 72) to be desirable

and welcoming to my students.

The grant would start with hiring one certified staff member (a teacher) and one

non-certified staff member (in all cases, this was a person/ parent from the community) to

complete the library revamp process. As in most libraries, volunteers were not only allowed but

highly suggested. This is where the student choice came in, in my library. I included them from

the very start, explaining the weeding process, giving away or tossing books, the selection of

new furniture and new books, and the reorganization of the space.

As the paid personnel were selected and hired, I helped to create a survey1 that was sent

out to all teachers in the district. The survey covered each school’s current library resources,

and what the staff believe could be improved. It was unsurprising to find that they all wanted

updated titles and collections in the library. What I was most excited to see, however, was that

many were asking about the appearance of their library as well: furniture, shelving, labels, wall

decor, etc. Appearance and organization are important for students to feel comfortable in an

academic setting. Organized material reduces confusion, making students “more likely to

engage in proacademic behaviors” (Finley & Wiggs, 2016, p. 70). I coordinated with the grant

supervisor and, in response to such heavy requests, we were able to distribute the funding and
1

https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSc4W9cGW8p-wgaXc3sTToZI6ZRmzuKYQZeFPSfmQOJcsf
QuaQ/viewform?vc=0&c=0&w=1
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materials for each site to request up to 1,000 books or $20,000 budget, with $5,000 of that

being allocated towards new furniture.

Once we had the funding, the partnerships with Follett (the library book and computer

system company), and the place for ordering furniture, I was given the time to create a training

manual2 and a presentation3 to go along with it. The manual and the training session were

intended to show the new library personnel all the little things that go into managing a library.

Creating this manual brought back all of my training from my undergrad degree. I used expertise

not only from articles but from the current Alaska School Library Coordinator, Janet Madsen.

She, my grant supervisor and I met multiple times to discuss what we thought the most

important parts of school library management would be, so we could put it all in a single

training session. Our collaboration brought us to the idea that we won’t cover everything that

goes into a library with the new library personnel, but we really wanted them to enjoy their

work in the library so that it was reflected in their work.

One of the most important aspects of the library that we came up with was that it went

beyond supporting the district and school curriculum. We wanted the atmosphere of the library

to match that of the schools’; an inclusive, open, and comfortable place for students to be. “A

lesser-known role is that of how a school librarian positively affects students’ feelings of being

cared for and how thoughtfully designed instruction, collocation of a collection, and the school

library facility all contribute to helping students who hurt” (Harper, 2017, as cited in Merga,

2020). Obviously our goal was not just for students who hurt, but the idea still stands. Between

2
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1Sz_P8W9N4HMICq0vj1vsW8kDmLnWF0yS/view?usp=sharing
3

https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1CTIm5mVWaZz8Fmd_o5Kh0JPd0JgQj1P30PVhq795SlA/edit?u
sp=sharing
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the furniture and books the personnel decided to request for their library, we wanted to make

sure that all students felt comfortable and welcome in the new library spaces. Every school

measures comfort and safety slightly differently, but it’s all based on the students. The only way

to truly ensure the path to success is including them in the building of that path. Offering

volunteer hours, and incentives to join the renovation process was the best way to get their

opinions and feedback on progress.

The library overhauls were scheduled to begin during summer 2021, so over the next

months, during the Spring semester, I worked closely with the teachers to collect questions

from my colleagues and add them to the training manual. However, I don’t believe someone

should teach something they have never experienced before. In an interview for PBS, author

Elizabeth Green mentioned that one aspect of poor teaching stems from teachers not,

“anticpat[ing] what students are going to have- the mistakes that students are going to have.

And they just try to have answer-getting strategies” (Green, 2014). Teaching adults, while

intimidating, is no different than teaching kids. I listened to my coworkers, and anticipated their

needs, and found the best way to present the new information.

So, I started my library cleaning early. A month in advance, I weeded out old books in the

Perryville library, hosted a “free book fair” for everyone in the community, utilized student

volunteers (teaching them the set up of the library, how to weed books, and more), and

documented the entire process through notes and photographs. In doing this early, I was able to

better understand what I was about to present to my coworkers and the struggles they may run

into. I was also glad I thought to take pictures along the way, because visuals in any professional

development opportunity are more helpful than any lecture. Research conducted by Eliza Bobek
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and Barbara Tversky (2016) studied the effects of visual communication in learners’ process and

spatial abilities. They concluded that, “the effectiveness of visual explanations is because they

represent and communicate more directly than language” (p. 12). Any knowledge or

information that I couldn’t portray about the revamp process was effectively shown in the

images I compiled throughout the work.

When summer hit and it was time to start the process, the training took place early on

so that there was time to finish the process before school started. It was a huge learning

experience for me to be teaching adults rather than small people under the age of 17. I made

sure, as I do with classroom teaching, to make my presentation a chance for active learning. “In

active learning, the main source of knowledge is hands-on observation, practical application,

experiments, etc., whereas in passive learning the main source of knowledge is the

teacher/instructor, books or online resources” (Surbhi, 2016, unp.). I included pop quizzes and

challenges on the Dewey Decimal System, group discussions, hands-on alphabetization, and

application of knowledge on library management.

The literacy grant also went further with its requirements, not just revamping the library

but requiring us to create activities that would promote literacy and library use. Janet Madsen

sent a Toolkit from the AASL. It includes “...an idea you are willing to try, a quote to use in your

elevator speech, or simply validation that you are on the right track, and are (or are becoming) a

leader in your own building/district/community” (“Toolkit”, 2015). Inspired by the kit, I created

a scavenger hunt, dewey decimal puzzles, and an alphabetizer race for my students. These

activities helped them learn the layout of the new library, work on everyday number and letter

skills, and got them actively engaged in a new learning style. It took a few tries, but throughout
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the rest of the year, I saw them using what they learned from the games more and more often.

They’re not quite experts on the library systems yet, but I’ve observed their confidence grow

significantly since introducing the activities!

The library revamp process was one of the most fun professional development

opportunities the district has given me. I was excited to utilize my undergrad degree, but

moreover, it was an amazing opportunity for me to teach adults. I spent more time thinking of

my teaching methods and activities, rather than focusing on the classroom management and

discipline techniques. I was able to see more discussion and willingness to learn, to where we

were able to dive more deeply into content rather than background knowledge. Beyond my

growth as a teacher, the professional development benefited my classroom by providing

resources that complemented the curriculum and were fit directly to my students. As someone

that has known these students for four years, and works with almost all of them on a daily

basis, it was more effective for me to choose the resource. Instead of an administrator or

outside professional trying to guess what may fit my students best, myself and my kids were

able to do it ourselves.

Professional development, networking and growth are important for any teacher, but

more so in my district. In many other larger schools on the road system, there are dozens of

teachers that can provide feedback, assistance, or simple tips-and-tricks to improve teaching. In

my district, we’re so spread out, with very different climates and cultures in each village, that

professional training(s) can sometimes feel inefficient and unrelatable. I chose to take part in

this leadership opportunity in order to collaborate with my distant coworkers. The discussions

gave me the chance to take note of what potential they saw in their library, and the choices they
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might make in making the space fit to their students. It was also a chance for new ideas. Some

of the teachers I collaborated with, though in different villages, have been in the school district

for over a decade. I was able to apply my relatively new take on education to that of veteran

educators, and adapt what I learned by mixing new and old concepts. We are constantly

preaching and encouraging student collaboration with each other, and forget that educators can

benefit from the same practice to advance our knowledge in the profession.
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References

Ahlfeld, K. (2019). On the field, not in the stands: Shared foundation VI: Engage in the National

School Library standards for learners, school libraries, and school librarians. Journal of

Library Administration, 59(6), 673-683.

https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/01930826.2019.1626645?journalCode=

wjla20

Bobek, E., & Tversky, B. (2016). Creating visual explanations improves learning. Cognitive

Research: Principles and Implications, 1(1), 27.

https://doi.org/10.1186/s41235-016-0031-6

Brown, J. & Green, E. (2014, September 16). What’s the best way to teach teachers? [Recorded

interview]. PBS NewsHour.

https://www.pbs.org/newshour/show/whats-best-way-teach-teachers

Finley, T. & Wiggs, B. (2016). Rethinking classroom design: Create student-centered learning

spaces for 6-12th graders. Rowman & Littlefield Publishers. shorturl.at/dijz0

Merga, M. (2020). How can school libraries support student wellbeing? Evidence and

implications for further research. Journal of Library Administration, 60(6), 660–673.

https://doi.org/10.1080/01930826.2020.1773718

Surbhi, S. (2021). Difference between active and passive learning. Key Differences.

https://keydifferences.com/difference-between-active-and-passive-learning.html

Toolkit for promoting school library programs. (2015, June 8) American Library Association.

https://www.ala.org/aasl/advocacy/tools/toolkits/promoting