Free, online, continuing education events for the week of March 25 from the Wyoming State Library Training Calendar. Descriptions are below. You can subscribe and view the events in your calendar software, or you can find all the events at library.wyo.gov/services/training/calendar.
All times MST
Monday, Mar 25 (10-11:30 am)
The Art of Communication (Utah State Library)
In this 90-minute webinar, we’ll take a close look at how you communicate – and why it matters. We’ll also discuss our listening skills – or lack thereof! We’ll find out whether you are auditory, visual, or kinesthetic, and how to identify those communication styles in others. We’ll talk about just what that means in your everyday interactions. Want to know how to best get your message across to a specific person? This session will help you figure that out! And if you’ve ever been guilty of “not listening” (who, me??), we’ll also look closely at how you can become a more effective listener – and improve your life! We’ll come up with a list of at least 20 tips you can use to make sure you are really listening to those around you.
Tuesday, Mar 26 (12-1 pm)
Volunteerism in the Digital Age (TechSoup)
We live in the 21st century, and volunteerism is shifting and changing to meet the times. More and more volunteers are looking for ways to use technology to support the missions they hold dear. With the rise of digital volunteers, nonprofits need to have systems and practices that encourage, validate, and support this new trend. We will review ideas and strategies that other nonprofits have used to capitalize on the digital volunteer. We will have plenty of time for live Q&A, so prepare your largest concerns for discussion.
Tuesday, Mar 26 (12-1 pm)
The Compassionate Librarian (Colorado State Library)
Big issues like homelessness, addiction, mental illness, and poverty are at the height of our current conversations, and can sometimes feel overwhelming. You might even start to feel burnt out or afraid to face your customers. This session is going to address ways that you can build your own personal capacity to deal with challenging situations at work, give you the tools to understand how trauma and mental illness might be impacting your patrons, and actionable ways you can avoid compassion fatigue.
Tuesday, Mar 26 (12-1 pm)
What We Say and How We Say It Matter: Teacher Talk that Improves Student Learning and Behavior (Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development [ACSD])
As educators, we all end up talking with students in ways that don’t actually align with our best intentions and positive goals for them. In this webinar with Mike Anderson, author of What We Say and How We Say It Matter: Teacher Talk That Improves Student Learning and Behavior, you’ll learn about several common language habits and patterns that many educators find themselves in and have a chance to explore better alternatives. You’ll also learn about a process for changing language habits so that your language better aligns with your best intentions and positive goals for students.
Tuesday, Mar 26 (12-1:30 pm)
Skills for Overcoming Burnout – Refueling the Fire (GrantSpace)
This live, online training will enable you to cultivate resilience-based practices in your own lives and in your organizations, to create a culture of sustainable activism. In the session, you will be guided through an assessment of your individual, team, and organizational resilience. You will learn how to develop effective methods of self and collective care, understand how stress and trauma impact individuals and teams, and learn strategies to cultivate stronger team communication to address conflicts and resolve tensions.
Tuesday, Mar 26 (1-2 pm)
Strategic Planning in a Deeply Weird World: The Flexible Roadmap Field Guide Approach (WebJunction)
It’s a big task to define the library’s future over the next three or five years, and strategic planning is becoming less and less effective in a rapidly changing world. The Salt Lake City Public Library (SLCPL) has created a new approach that is flexible, staff-driven, and human-centered. SCLPL’s Strategic Roadmap is not a 100-page plan in a binder-on-a-shelf; it’s an experiential learning tool that invites all staff to participate in the co-creation of meaningful outcomes and experiences for the community. The Roadmap focuses less on planning and more on building capacity of staff to adopt a human-centered service design mindset and skillset. SLCPL staff are adopting a new perspective, continually experimenting with and adapting spaces, collections, services, programs, and their own roles, to responsively address community needs and aspirations in an ever-changing landscape. Join us for this webinar to learn how to cultivate new skills to help bring the Roadmap to life for your library’s strategic planning.
Wednesday, Mar 27 (12-1 pm)
Literacy as a Tool for Student Engagement (Education Week)
Join this webinar with the Executive Director of Research at ThinkCERCA Chris Balow, who will explain how district leaders can use a literacy initiative to cultivate student engagement. By emphasizing reading, writing, speaking, and listening skills across the curriculum, educators can provide students abundant opportunities to collaborate with peers, develop deeper connections to learning, and see the real-world applications of their classroom instruction.
Wednesday, Mar 27 (1-2 pm)
Using Reddit and NextDoor to Engage with Your Library’s Local Community (Texas State Library and Archives Commission)
Reddit, also known as “the front page of the internet,” is an incredibly popular web forum–with thousands of sub-forums (“subreddits”) for any topic you can think of–and many of your local community members of all ages are on there reading news, browsing, and engaging with content. While anyone can post anonymously on Reddit, another community-oriented website, NextDoor, allows verified neighbors in defined geographic regions to discuss real-time happenings specific to their neighborhoods. Libraries have a unique opportunity to connect with their users on these platforms, and two library tech enthusiasts will explain why you should, and how to get started!
Thursday, Mar 28 (11-12 pm)
3 Ways to STAND OUT and Win the Grant! (Bloomerang)
Margit Brazda Poirier will show you how your nonprofit can stand out from the competition so they are eager to fund you!