As I began reflecting on my own professional goal setting, I noticed some patterns emerging. One key thing is I try to focus on one goal at a time and am realistic and confident that it will be manageable. Not that the goal is necessarily a piece of cake, but attainability matters- especially when you are new to your school or position. When I was beginning at my current school, my goals focused on getting to know the school culture and community, as well as learning about the policies and procedures, and of course the collection. Each year my goal showed a greater understanding of the needs of both the school and my library program.
In terms of planning and identifying goals, I think that the time-bound piece of SMART goals in important in order to take the pulse of where your program is, as well as what your priorities are as a professional. Some goals however, may need to be bigger than that. When you add the IE to SMART, you are bringing in the lenses of equity and inclusion. My SMARTIE goal is a little fuzzy when it comes to the time-bound requirement because I believe that the work towards equity and inclusion needs to be ongoing and incorporated into all goals.
I think that my experiences in prior professional goal setting will absolutely inform my work with a mentee. I have worked in 6 school libraries and 7 public libraries which has given me many opportunities to be the newbie. I think that this has given me a good understanding of how it can feel overwhelming when you are not only being asked to do your job, but also learn and navigate all of the systems and institutional history that comes with a new institution. In some cases I was supported by a formal mentoring system, and at some libraries there was little more than an empty desk for me. Each one of the libraries, mentors, supervisors, colleagues, and patrons/students, allowed me to learn something new about myself and librarianship. I hope that those experiences and lessons will help
me to be a supportive mentor. I also acknowledge that I will need to be fully present and cognizant of my my natural instinct to fill silence and share stories.
I appreciate your thoughtful reflection about your own goal setting experiences. You have provided a lot of background about the various positions you have held as a newbie, and those will inform your approach with a mentee in the fall. You have the advantage of familiarity with the Danielson Framework, and have used it to guide your professional goals across the domains. Now that we are doing a dive into the AASL Standards, I am wondering if you are looking at aligning them into your own goals as you move forward. I have found that using the NSLS School Library Evaluation checklist can help as another tool for focusing on areas of improvement within the School Library Program. You might consider this as you consider a framework or process to help your mentee with goal setting. I look forward to seeing your thoughts about that process in the Mod 2 PT.
ReplyDeleteThanks for sharing.
Wow, you have had such rich experiences with your work in so many libraries. I'm sort of jealous that I've only had my one experience for a really long time. I appreciate what you said about institutional history as that itself is so much of what we all did in our first few years in our school libraries. Our jobs are so unique and require us to connect with virtually everyone in our school and that can be so overwhelming. I'd love to pick your brain about your library Instagram feed and what can of feedback you've received from students and staff. Lastly, it's very reassuring to note that I am not the only one compelled to fill silence and share stories.
ReplyDeleteI just added my library's Insta feed to the side off this blog. Summer posts tend to be more about staying connected than about book recs, but it depends on the year. I tend to intersperse things happening around the school and neighborhood and occasionally throw in something to let students get to know me a bit better. The widget only allows for 50 posts, but I've been running the account for years and have over 450 posts total. Oftentimes the main school account will repost my stuff which then brings in a wider audience.
Delete"Institutional History" is such an important variable! Thanks so much for sharing your journey. Goal setting doe not have to be an EXTRA task, but might simply be an enhancement of something already in place. You will be a great model for your mentee in this practice!
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