Thing 50: The New AASL Standards

Standards are always a very overwhelming topic to think about no matter who you are or how long you've been in the field. Anytime you hear the words "new standards" are coming you cringe just a little bit or maybe a whole lot. New standards can be scary if you're not given to opportunity to view them and learn with them before being told you have to use them. It is very difficult to be handed new standards and expected to be able to interpret them and work with them all in one day. This "thing" is helpful in the fact that it allows for librarians and teachers to view the new standards, look at them and find the areas that they need/want to find out more about. 

I found the shortened link with key details to be the most useful. The common beliefs page with the six explanations along with the Standards Framework for Learners were the most useful for me from this document. 

I agree heavily with the six common beliefs. It is important to know about these beliefs and how they are broken down. This would also be a great piece to share with administration and teachers so that they are aware of what our standards focus on. 

The framework is broken into six foundations and key commitments with four domains and competencies. 

I find the domains/competencies to be fantastic. As a relatively new librarian (finishing year four) I find that having these domains will help me to connect to the IFC along with developing better learning objectives for my students. 

As stated in the article we are already doing a lot of these pieces of the new standards they are just worded differently or moved to a different part of the standards. It is important to take the time and go through and circle or highlight what you're doing, what you need to work on and what you need to start doing. I did this activity for just the Inquire foundation and found that almost all of those steps in the domains I am already doing and that there are a few of them that I need to focus on a little bit more. 

As I have been working on this BLOG post I have discovered that some of the other foundations need more focus a bit more than the Inquire phase and that is a great starting point. I can focus on creating my school goals for next year to incorporate the addition of some of the new pieces I am missing. This will help me to develop a stronger curriculum for the future. 

I will be getting my own copy of the standards book as right now I am just using the copy from our BOCES which has a professional library for our librarians. The book is definitely a lot bigger than I thought it was going to be although it still is not as big as the IFC 😅.  

I look forward to continuing to grow in my library field and this standards book will help me to do that. I will be able to learn and grow as I go forward in my career. The breakdown of the standards is simple and easy to understand as opposed to other formats.