A new kind of resume

Each year I get more and more requests from student teacher librarians to do observations and pre-practicums. This year  I will have my first full practicum student and am really looking forward to the experience.

Just as the requests start to roll in, Joyce Valenza once again delivers timely and useful advice. Apps for student teacher librarians is a great list of tools and skills I can use to frame the discussion with the graduate school students who will be visiting and observing. It is also an excellent checklist for me to self-assess my professional practice. What should I be adding to my repertoire?

This past summer I had the wonderful task of hiring someone for an assistant librarian position. The fascinating thing was recognizing what a game changer that skills and products proved to be when deciding which candidates would be asked in for interviews.

I'm going to add to Joyce's list and offer advice to people graduating and entering the field. Giving evidence of mastery is crucially important. It can be tough if you don't have experience, but with some imagination it can be done. Hiring someone is a huge commitment. Everybody needs to grow into a position, but in choosing between candidates I want someone who I know can hit the ground running on a series of fronts.

Skills and products I would look for:

• Build pathfinders for the library you hope to run
• Launch a Facebook fanpage for the teens you hope to connect with
• Blog about items in your RSS feed and share your ideas on how you might incorporate various tools and ideas
• Embed GoodReads and other widgets into your blog to promote reading
• Add your Twitter roll to give evidence of the educational leaders you follow
• Link to a Google site you created as a forum for the reading group you hope to start
• Create a wiki and turn it into your digital portfolio
• Upload a powerpoint to Slideshare and embed it in your wiki
• Add a YouTube video on 21st century skills that speaks to your philosophy on the skills we need to teach our students and faculty

Showing your vision for what is possible makes you an attractive partner on our team. Bring your ideas, your entrepreneurial spirit and your comfort with the tools and platforms necessary to turn your plans for a school library program of distinction into a reality.

Do some of these things and your resume jumps to the top of the stack.

Day 9 NaNoWriMo
(Not writing a novel. Using this as a prompt to blog daily for a month.)