What Is My Why?

Another theme that was common between The Innovator's Mindset and Joyce Valenza's IASL presentation was knowing your why. 

George Couros: "If we don't know the why, we'll never get to the how and what."  

Joyce Valenza's Questions for transforming teaching and learning:

1. What are my whys?
2. What if I could?
3. Why not?

In her presentation, Joyce asked the teacher librarians to share their "Whys." Why does your library exist? What is your purpose? I wish I could say I jumped up and shouted something eloquent and profound. But that was not the case. I need time to think, process, revise and think some more. Then ... maybe ... if the stars are aligned just right, I might say something ... or not.

One thing I thought might be helpful was to ask my students what they thought. So, as the end of the year approached, I posed the following question: When you hear the word library, what comes to mind? The top two answers: Reading and books. This is no surprise as I would say that, generally, that is the focus of most of the activities in the library. We've been working really hard to establish a culture of readers at Bridgeview. The third most mentioned item was research. Also, not surprising because I am fortunate in that the teachers in my building let me collaborate and team teach with them on their research projects. And then, because just a couple weeks earlier we had had an amazing Skype with Bob Staake, several kids mentioned Skyping with authors.

So as I thought about what my students said and also what I had been reading and hearing about innovation, plus reviewing the Future Ready Librarians initiative, I started drafting my "Why." I asked myself "How do I want my students to answer that question? What experiences do I want my students to have through the library?" That's been swirling around in my head for several weeks. Once again, I consulted my "go to" people for great feedback: Megan, my instructional coach, and Beth, our district Tech Integrationist. It's so nice to get outside yourself and hear what others think.

Okay, Joyce, now I'm ready to answer your question. 

The why of Bridgeview Library is to empower our students to think, create, collaborate and communicate.  

How will I do this? By creating an environment that inspires

• The Love of Reading & Learning
• The Use of Critical Thinking & Curiosity
• The Development of Imagination
• The Power of a Student's Voice and Reflection
• The Courage to take Calculated Risks

As I make my plans with teachers, I want to be able to connect those plans with one or more of the above statements. This statement will be permanently affixed to my planner.

I intend to survey the same group of students next year with the same question. Do I expect them to spout these phrases verbatim? No. I just hope that they describe experiences to me that show evidence of these five areas.

Up next: How does research support the Innovative Mindset?

And so it begins ...

It was the perfect storm, as they say. Our district elementary schools were doing a book study on George Couros' The Innovator's Mindset. At the same time, looking to re-energize my teaching, I registered to attend the IASL Conference in April. The theme of the conference was The Perfect Blend: Innovative, Grounded, Future Ready. The keynote speaker was the amazing Joyce Valenza and the title of her keynote address was There is no box: Innovation and your whys, what ifs and why nots.

Bam! The inspiration hit with the force of a hurricane. I was suddenly evangelizing about innovation to anyone who would listen: Megan Halverson, my Instructional Coach ... Beth Campbell, our district Tech Integrationist ... strangers on the street. Megan and Beth were both very supportive of my enthusiasm. The strangers just backed away slowly. 

While Couros' book talks to a more general audience, Valenza challenged the Teacher Librarians in the room. "School librarians can transform cultures and creatively move communities forward." Librarians have more flexibility in their job description and, therefore, are in a stronger position to lead the charge. But it was Couros' book that inspired me to blog about this journey. See? The perfect storm.

And just as both Couros and Valenza talk about innovators being risk-takers, this is a huge risk for me ... sending my (usually very private) thoughts out into the world. But it's a risk I'm finally ready to take. Because this is a journey for which I have passion. A journey I know will make a difference in the lives of our students. And, I hope that there might be one person out there who reads this and gets inspired to try something new.

Next time: What is your Why?