GLMS 616: In-Service Workshop - Planning Sheet

Name: Christine Kafkalas Lopez

What is the focus of your In-Service Workshop? Why do you believe it is important to provide
assistance in this area?

For this Workshop, I spoke to my principal and received permission to survey the grades and
ask if any grade would like me to present during their upcoming weekly PD periods. I sent an
email to all the grade leaders with a flyer of different topics that I could present for their
grades along with an email to explain the situation. I believe that giving people choice in
their PD is very important and I had an overwhelming response from many of the grades. Of
the 7 groups I surveyed, 4 immediately responded and wanted me to visit them during their
PD periods. Just like we differentiate content for our students, administration, and presenters
need to differentiate the PD given to teachers. Grades 2, 3, and 4 all had very similar requests
so they will be combined for an upcoming PD. I will meet the ACES teachers separately since
their needs are vastly different from the other teachers. For this particular in-service
workshop, I will be focusing this assignment on grades 2, 3, and 4 because they all asked for a
very similar workshop. They loved so many of the ideas presented on the flyer that they
wanted me to give a workshop that touched upon all of the resources the library has to offer.
They all expressed that everything sounded great and they wanted to learn about everything!
Our time is limited, however, and we have only 30 minutes to present a lot of information.
Therefore, I will be giving an overview of some of the library resources that would be most
helpful in their classrooms. I think it’s important to showcase a little of what we offer so that
the teachers are more apt to sign up for open library periods or additional PD sessions.
Ironically, the grades that asked me for PD are the grades that rarely sign up to visit the library
with their students. I’m hoping this PD will hook them and motivate them to sign up for an
open library period this month.

Who is the audience for your In-Service Workshop?

As stated previously, I will be giving this particular workshop to grades 2, 3, and 4. There will
be approximately 30 teachers in attendance for this workshop. General education teachers,
G&T teachers, ICT teachers, 12:1 Special Education Teachers, and ESL Service Providers on the
grades listed will be present for this PD.

What method of delivery will you use to employ your In-Service (small group, 1:1
consultation, asynchronous recording, etc.)?

I will be giving one large, live PD session to all three grades in the library on a Monday PD
afternoon. The principal was able to squeeze me in between a testing meeting and the 40
minutes designated for other professional work. I will be meeting these teachers for 30
minutes on Monday, March 18, 2024. The teachers will also be sent the presentation slides
so that they can access all the links and I will invite them to stay to get more individualized
help once the meeting is over. They can choose to stay for the additional 40 minutes on
Monday afternoons if they do not want to return to do their own work.
Describe the research/planning that you conducted to create your In-Service Workshop.

Since the three grades mentioned above have not had much PD in the library with me as a
grade, I decided to focus on three areas as an overview of what the library has to offer: Books
& ebooks, Databases, and Digital Tools. I took a look at all the options listed on my flyer and
decided that I would highlight resources that I would’ve loved to have at my fingertips as a
classroom teacher. When I visited the grade leaders to get some feedback on what they’d like
presented, all three grades were vague about what they wanted so I thought about what
might be immediately useful for these teachers and their students. Many of these teachers
do not know we even have an online digital catalog and will come by my room occasionally to
ask if I have certain books. I want to give them the opportunity to look through the catalog
and also learn about Sora so that they may use these tools in their classrooms, with their
students. I thought that was the most pertinent content for the grades at the moment. I also
thought that touching upon databases would be smart since they’re all entering their units on
non-fiction and these resources are ideal for the children to use in the classroom. I
remember searching for material when I taught in the classroom and both Gale and
Britannica are perfect resources for the children to learn with little to no teacher prep
involved. I also wanted to share a few digital tools that I think these teachers would love.
Some of the 4th-grade teachers have signed up for open library periods where I’ve set up
Canva classrooms for them and have taught their students how to use this program. They
have loved what the students were able to create and present to the class so I thought this
would be a wonderful tool to share with teachers who aren’t yet using it in their classrooms
(either with their students or personally as a tool to create an endless array of content).
Additionally, I wanted to share a site I learned from Kelly in our cohort because Slides Carnival
has been a game changer for me when creating presentations.

How do you plan to leverage this In-Service Workshop to alert your learning community of
the resources/services available through the school library program?

Because the grades have asked for an overview of library resources, I feel that the PD in and
of itself is an advocacy tool for the school library and the resources and services available.
My hope in presenting this PD is to alert staff of all the opportunities they and their classes
have when they visit the library. I hope that it also illustrates the possibilities of collaboration
with teachers, too. Within my presentation, I also remind them of the open library periods
and have the sign-up calendar right outside my door so when they leave, I’ll be sure to point
that out. I’ve also included the next few months so that multiple sign-ups can occur (since
there are so many people attending the PD). I’m also encouraging them to reach out to me at
any time and give links to my website, my email, and will remind the new teachers of my
phone number in the school building. I plan on stressing that I am always available and am
willing to help in any way that I can. I’ve always appreciated PD sessions where I had tools or
content that was premade and ready to go because I firmly believe that workshops given
should help take things off teachers' plates, not add onto them. So I am sending a follow-up
email with links and video tutorials for some of the content we explored during the
workshop.
Upon delivery of your In-Service Workshop, reflect upon the experience. How was the
In-Service received? What would you have done differently? What would serve as a good
follow-up for the Workshop?

I think that this workshop was very well received judging by the amount of people who stayed
past their allotted time and used their personal time to continue to learn in the library. I was
able to work individually with a few teachers who wanted more information. There were
times during the workshop when teachers were chatting and trying resources out in real-time
and I think that made all the difference. They especially loved that some of the resources
could be translated (and read!) into multiple languages. This is such a huge help to a
classroom teacher who might have 4 or more different languages spoken in their classroom.
When we clicked the read-aloud feature on Gale, you could hear gasps and happy chatter.
Additionally, the feedback I received on the feedback forms was all positive and many wanted
to learn more about certain resources presented. I will be asking for time to hold more PD
sessions for the requested resources and will work with small groups of teachers who asked
for specific information. If I were to do this workshop again, I would want a little more time
to work with teachers and maybe even ask for it to be done in smaller groups. Having such a
large group made it a little more difficult to personalize the session.

Provide MLA citations for all the resources you referenced in creation of your In-Service
Workshop.
Works Cited

"About Canva for Education." Canva, www.canva.com/help/about-canva-for-education/.

Accessed 15 Mar. 2024.

"About Us." NOVELny, novelnewyork.org/about.php. Accessed 15 Mar. 2024.

Britannica School: Elementary. school.eb.com/levels/elementary. Accessed 18 Mar. 2024.

Canva. www.canva.com/. Accessed 18 Mar. 2024.

Destiny Discover. Follett, search.follettsoftware.com/metasearch/ui/3581. Accessed 18 Mar.

2024.

Gale In Context: Elementary. go.gale.com/ps/start.do?p=ITKE&u=nysl_me_clarion&aty=ip.

Accessed 18 Mar. 2024.

My Library NYC. www.mylibrarynyc.org/. Accessed 18 Mar. 2024.

"Presenting Your Design." Canva, www.canva.com/help/presenting-designs/. Accessed 15

Mar. 2024.

QR Code Generator. www.qr-code-generator.com/. Accessed 15 Mar. 2024.

Slides Carnival. www.slidescarnival.com/. Accessed 18 Mar. 2024.

Sora. soraapp.com/welcome. Accessed 18 Mar. 2024.

Provide access links to any documents from your In-Service Workshop that you wish to share.
Library Menu Given to Grade Leaders - This document was given out at the beginning of the
year to promote classes coming to visit the library and to spread the word about teacher PDs
as well. I included this in the email that was sent to all grade leaders so that they could
choose topics they’d like to explore during our time together.

Presentation for Grades 2, 3, and 4 (with clickable links) - This presentation is what was used
during the PD. In addition to this slideshow, I was able to run through each program that was
listed very quickly to give them an overview of what the resource offers them and their
students. That is not shown in the slideshow because it was a live demonstration of each
linked resource.

Feedback Form for the Presenter - At the end of the presentation, I asked for feedback to help
me become a stronger presenter and better meet the needs of the teachers. I also included a
question to see if they’d be interested in an additional PD that would explore any of the
resources from today’s presentation a little more in-depth.