Future Ready Librarians: Cultivating Community Partnerships
Future Ready Librarians: Cultivating Community Partnerships
Part of the Future Ready Librarians Webinar Series
Presenters
Sue Kowalski, Librarian, Pine Grove Middle School (East Syracuse Minoa School District, NY)
Gina Seymour, Library Media Specialist, Islip High School (Islip Union Free School District, NY)
Moderator
Shannon McClintock Miller, Spokesperson, Future Ready Librarians; Spokesperson, Project Connect
On December 12, 2017 Future Ready Librarians held a webinar discussing how school librarians can support Future Ready Schools® (FRS). The Future Ready Librarians (FRL) program responded to this challenge by identifying ways librarians can lead, teach, and support personalized student learning. The FRL framework is based on research-based components used by FRS.
This webinar examined how teacher librarians can cultivate partnerships within the school and local community (families and caregivers, nonprofit organizations, government agencies, public and higher education libraries, businesses, etc.) to promote engagement and a lifelong learning process.
Sue Kowalski, librarian at Pine Grove Middle School in the East Syracuse Minoa School District (NY), shared her approach on maximizing awareness and impact of the school library program through empowering student leadership, aligning library outreach with school and district goals, and focusing consistently on everyday advocacy both through and in the library.
Gina Seymour, library media specialist at Islip High School on Long Island (NY) and member of the Library Journal’s Movers & Shakers 2017 list as a “change agent,” shared how she espouses a platform of empowering students to become compassionate leaders at school, within their community, and beyond through the implementation of makerspace activities and instructional collaborations. She also shared information about the annual multidistrict Compassion Without Borders Student Leadership Conference and how carefully cultivated partnerships promote youth service, empathy, and compassion.
Librarians, district leaders, and all educators are invited to watch this webinar to learn more about the FRL program and how these librarian leaders cultivate community partnerships to make a difference in their library, school community, and for the students with whom they work every day.
Presenters also answered questions submitted by online viewers.
Additional Materials
Please direct questions concerning the webinar to alliance@all4ed.org. If you are unable to watch the webinar live, an archived version will be available at the link above and in the FRS leadership hub one to two business days after the event airs.
Support for the FRL program is generously provided by Follett.
Future Ready Schools® (FRS) is a project of the Alliance for Excellent Education, a Washington, DC–based non-profit, bi-partisan national policy and advocacy organization dedicated to ensuring that all students, particularly those traditionally underserved, graduate from high school ready for success in college, work, and citizenship. www.all4ed.org and www.futureready.org
Follow FRS on Twitter (twitter.com/FutureReady); Facebook (facebook.com/futurereadyschools); and on the FRS leadership hub (futureready.org/hub).
Follow Future Ready Libraries Facebook group and #FutureReadyLibs on Twitter.
If you are interested in renting the Alliance’s facilities for your next meeting or webinar, please visit our facilities page to learn more.