Thing 5 Reflective Practice

My awareness of reflective practice increased when I did my MA in Library and Information Management.  Although not termed ‘reflective practice’ I have done this for several years within my employment.  As a school librarian each year I have had to write a departmental development plan and this is based on the three components of reflective practice: Review, Plan, Do.

The whole process, and my increased development as a reflective practitioner, grew when I undertook the Chartership programme.  Those who have undertaken the programme will be all too aware of the requirement for candidates to demonstrate their ability to reflect on what they have done and learned from any particular activity.  When doing this, the thing that I initially found difficult was writing in a reflective manner.  I guess that I had got into the habit of writing for the university and changing to the reflective personal style, using the personal pronoun (I), seemed difficult at first.

Being reflective allows us to evaluate what we have done and consider ways to develop and improve upon our performance in the future.  It’s a good way of learning.  Recording ideas in such as a journal, even a blog, enables thoughts to be revisited at a later date.  The skills involved in becoming a reflective practitioner can be developed over time and these can have a positive impact on the individual and their library service.

Thing 4 Current Awareness

I’ve heard of RSS years ago, but never used it before.  I’d seen the icons on sites such as the BBC’s news pages but didn’t know how to actually use them.  Having set up the google reader account I can see the value of having information feeds in one place, and the process of developing this is relatively simply to do.

It appears to be extremely valuable for keeping track of blogs that you follow.  Being able to organise them in folders and see updated items makes the process of reading them quite efficient.

Twitter is also new to me.  Personally I prefer to write articles rather than snippets and I feel the same about reading, but I can see it has some use.  For example, I looked at the CILIP’s New Professionals Day 2012 tag, but didn’t feel that this compared with conference notes found on blogs or presentations that can be read elsewhere on such as slideshare or prezi.  Maybe I’ll have to spend more time using the site and investigating what’s out there.

I do feel that I have learned new skills as I can now use these tools, which previously I hadn’t made use of.  I think that they are both useful, along with storify, for current awareness and for organising and keeping track of items of interest.

Thing 3 My Personal Brand

Trying out the google search exercise on my name is quite interesting.  I have done it before but it was quite sometime ago.

I didn’t expect to find much as I don’t use personal pages on social media networks.  Due to the fact that I work in a school I prefer that personal information is not available on the web.  I did however turn up a few items that I have contributed to CILIP publications in the past.

It’s my intention to only publish items that are in a professional context and with that not to disclose personal or confidential information regarding my work.  I hope that by following these principles that I will end up with a blog that demonstrates my professional capabilities as a librarian and one that I am happy for anyone to see.

In terms of branding the visual look is important.  Again it says something about you as a person.  I’ve happily included a photo which is a suitable portrait.  I have also had a play around in the blog page editor:  I’ve done a little tidying of my site from the basic template.  As it is in the public domain then the look is important as it is a reflection of me and it portrays the work that I do.

I decided to create a gmail account for use with my blog.  I did this with branding in mind as I think that a common approach is best (colour schemes, name format etc) so that it is recognisable across multiple platforms (although I’ve only this site at the moment).  With this in mind, when creating my gmail account, I have used my profile (and real) name and my blog name.  So markn.aschoollibrarian@gmail.com is also part of the brand.

Thing 2 Looking at other blogs

It's good to see a number of people who also work in a school setting taking part in the programme.  Hopefully all of our blogs will be valuable to others.  It's a good way pick up new ideas and see examples of good practise in the workplace.

It seems there's quite a few people who are doing this for the second time round.  Determination!

CPD23 for 2012

I haven't done this for a while!  It has been my intention to pick up the 23 Things programme but never got round to it.  Having just read the email and found that the programme is to be run again this year, I have promptly signed up.

No excuses this time for not completing it!  I must be deteremined and disciplined, and certainly not lapse when the school summer holidays start.  Playing catch-up doesn't always work.

Anyhow, its a good opportunity to learn new skills and keep abreast of the technology available.  Despite not getting very far last year, I had recorded a list of other blogs and have found them useful for gaining greater professional insight and awareness.