Sunday, April 15, 2018

Thing 32: Annual Reports – Make Them Matter & Report More Often!

I realize that I am doing an extra post, and think I may even do Thing 50 on the new AASL standards.  I really can't stop and I can't thank Polly enough for energizing me!  There are so many of these topics that I find could have such an impact on my learning and teaching.  I am hoping we will have access to the google classroom, links and materials even after this project has ended.  There are so many more I would like to explore!  So, I am squeezing Thing 32 (and maybe Thing 50) before I do my final reflection blog to conclude the class.

Thing 32: Annual Reports – Make Them Matter & Report More Often!
I traditionally do a monthly report that I give to my principal, and have done so since starting as a librarian 20+ years ago.  I also do a more cumulative  annual report for not only my principal, but for our superintendent and assistant superintendent for secondary education as well.  My reports includes some statistics (circulation, scheduled class visits, attendance, collection development etc...) and an anecdotal summary of the month (or year).  I try to keep it to the highlights and make it fun and interesting. I talk about collaborations, successes (and failures), special projects or programs, and try to include any fun or humorous stories...and when working with high school students, these abound!  I have always done this in Word format with a table for stats.  Boring!  I always thought I should try to find a way to jazz things up...but did not have the time to explore all the options out there...enter Thing 32! 

Once again, I immersed myself in this "Thing" and explored the links, video, articles and samples. The samples in particular inspired me.  And, I did end up exploring parts of Thing 18- Infographics and Data Visualization.  I was especially intrigued with David McCandles TED talk, and loved the quote, "Information is Beautiful" from McCandles.  If only I could make my information beautiful!  I would settle for less boring!

It was easy to feel overwhelmed with all the options out there for jazzing up a report.  I decided to pick one, jump in and just try it.  I decided on giving Piktochart a try for my March monthly report.  I am including a link to it.  I have to say two things...I liked it but I was frustrated with not being able to include more of the anecdotal information.

I looked back at the sample reports provided in Thing 32, from Jennifer LaGarde.  I spend a lot of time checking these out and realized I like the combination format...those reports that included colorful charts and grafts for the data, but still left room for text.  I saw some in formats that I liked, but they were uploaded as PDFs so I am not sure which product(s) the authors used to create these.  I may reach out to the various creators for more details.  So, I would say my foray into jazzing up my reports was enlightening, but I think I still have a good amount of work ahead of me.

However, I can say that this exercise has confirmed for me the importance of reporting what we do on a regular basis.  Our administrators and other stakeholders need to know what we do and we need to demonstrate to them the value of our roles in our schools.  I now realize that other formats could work  for me (videos,  pictures, infographics).

March Monthly Report using Piktochart







2 comments:

  1. Darn, the link to your Piktochart didn't work. You might need to make it public? Regardless, great post on this topic. Reporting regularly really is key isn't it, no one wants to read a 20 page end of year report! Glad you're so enthused about the lessons here. Puts a smile on my face to hear that! :)

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    1. I changed the status to public and added a new link. See if that works! I did not see the status button in my first go around...sorry about that.

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