Staying on top of new teacher-librarian learning materials, apps, and technologies

          Some of the goals of teachers and teacher-librarians are to prepare students for life after school. Because of this, teacher-librarians always need to keep up with the ever-evolving present. They can’t stick with only the skills and knowledge they learnt from their schooling. Because of this, teacher-librarian online communities are helpful to keep up with what new skills should be enforced, what new helpful learning apps are now available, and what new technologies are “taking off”. One of the great advantages of going to school is developing connections with others in the same profession, and, with the internet, even more connections with fellow professionals and resources is possible. I’ve only just started my search for such online community connections. The sites I came across that look promising include:

http://www.canadianschoollibraries.ca/school-library-associations/

Canadian School Libraries: This site connects teacher-librarians with provincial teacher-librarian associations, which can be perused to find local professional development opportunities, financial aid, news, awards, grants, and more…
Link: http://www.canadianschoollibraries.ca/school-library-associations/

https://teacherlibrarian.org/

The Global Teacher Librarian Network: Get connected and/or contribute to: members’ blogs, forum conversations, events, chats, twitter feeds, videos, webinars, groups, and tech news with this site.
Link: https://teacherlibrarian.org/

https://plus.google.com/communities/100269117411541642215

School Librarians Network: It doesn’t look like one could really search for anything specific, but to get a random fix of teacher-librarian posted content to peruse, this link is an option.
Link: https://plus.google.com/communities/100269117411541642215

http://www.ala.org/aasl/standards/best/apps

American Association of School Librarians: Stay up-to-date on the “best” teacher-librarian apps with AASL’s yearly “best of” list, past best app lists, nominate an app, or check out their “best websites” with this site. It also has links to eLearning.
Link: http://www.ala.org/aasl/standards/best/apps

https://www.slj.com/?subpage=technology,Ed%20Tech

School Library Journal: Keep up with technology being used/provided at other, with-it, school libraries (and opportunities for free stuff!) with the School Library Journal website. The site also has links to news, reviews, blogs, and more.
Link: https://www.slj.com/?subpage=technology,Ed%20Tech

Conclusion

     Just by browsing Google one day, I was able to find all sorts of interesting links to keep up with teacher-librarian resources, thoughts, apps, technology, professional development (events and e-learning), grants, awards, blogs, and more. To the teacher-librarians reading this post, which sites do you use to keep up with learning materials, communities, apps and technologies?

References

"Best Apps for Teaching & Learning." American Association of School Librarians, http://www.ala.org/aasl/standards/best/apps.

School Librarians Network, https://plus.google.com/communities/100269117411541642215.

“School Library Associations – Canadian School Libraries.” Canadian School Libraries, www.canadianschoollibraries.ca/school-library-associations/.

"Technology." School Library Journal, https://www.slj.com/?subpage=technology,Ed%20Tech.

The Global Teacher Librarian Network, https://teacherlibrarian.org/.