Maryland State Department of Education Access Portal Upgrade coming April 26

 The Maryland State Department of Education (MSDE) will be releasing The Educator Application and Certification Hub (TEACH) in April!  TEACH will replace the current certification portal, which will be shutting down on April 20, 2022.  TEACH is expected to be released on April 26, 2022.  

All Maryland educators will have access to an online Dashboard where they may apply for certification, make payments, download their certificate, access various online services, and update their contact information.  With the release of TEACH, all certification applications will be submitted online!

 

Applicants and certificate holders will not be able to access their online portal accounts while the system is down from April 20th through April 26th.  We apologize for this inconvenience.

 

Existing applicants and certificate holders will need to complete a one-time registration by visiting TEACH after April 26, 2022.  

 

Continuing Education Hours for Staff Presented Programs

If your department or office is providing training to other staff members I wanted to remind you of a few things.

Any training that offers continuing education hours for staff needs to be approved by SD&T for those hours to count for r-certification.

Just send me a draft of your CEU form before your program and I'll check that it meets state requirements.  Forms not meeting the requirements will be discarded when they are received by our office even if staff have completed the program.

Actually, if everyone remembers to do this it cancels out the other things I wanted to mention.  Just be sure that I get a look at your forms before you send them out to participants.  Thanks.

Lisa

LATI fall participants graduate

On 4/17/19, five EPFL library associates completed their required Library Associate Training Institute program.  The graduation program was held at the Miller Branch of the Howard County Library System.  

Pictured are (left to right) Emilie Pichot, Suzanne Phillips, Stephanie Mavor, Ariel Greenaway, and Cicely Roberts.

  

Downloading SD&T Forms for submission

If you click on a document link on the Forms page and your document opens as "View Only," there are several ways to open the document in a form that you can edit.

On the File drop down menu are two easy options.  The first is "make a copy," whereby you can save a copy to your drive. 

You can also "Download as" and save the document in Word or Excel.

Either way, you can save the document/form to your computer, and complete the forms before printing them for submission.

If you have any problems, please contact SD&T.

Certification log in page link fixed

I fixed the link for the Certification log in page in the "Interesting Links" box.  It now takes you to the mdcert.org page.  Thanks Stefanie for letting me know it was broken.

Online Learning and CEU Requirements - a new form

For a training to be counted toward your CEU total it has to be at least 60 minutes long (and counted in 30 minute intervals after that). 

Many of the SkillSoft classes are now less than 60 minutes, but there is a way to complete these shorter classes and still receive credit.

For SkillSoft Classes that are less than 60 minutes long.

1.      Create a new, distinct title for each group of classes that you want to complete.  The title must reflects the subject or overall purpose of the programs in the group.  For example, several classes on sentences, grammar, and capitalization could be called “Business Writing Essentials.”  Other possibilities might be “Gender and Leadership,” “Update Your Customer Service,” “Excel Basics” and so on.  
2.      Find 2 or more classes on a similar topic that together total an hour or more.  
3.   Go to the "Forms" page of the blog and select "Learning Log for Online Programs

4.     Enter your general title and purpose of the classes in the space marked "What do I want to learn?" and put the name of the program or provider of the classes in the space marked "Program Used."

5.      As you complete the programs, add the names, length, and completion dates to the log.  Print your completion certificate for each class and attach the certificates to your log.

6.      If your total is over 60 minutes write down the number of complete hours and look at what is left.  If you have 30 minutes or more you can claim that extra half hour, but will lose any time less than 30 minutes.  For example, a 72 minute total is worth 1 hour, a 95 minute total is worth 1.5 hours, and a 130 minute total is worth 2 hours.  Put the “total” hours on the log in the "Contact Hours" space.

7.   Sign the bottom of the form and submit the log and certificates to SD&T.  The log takes the place of the CEU form in this case.

                                                                                                                                

You need to complete a separate form for each group of classes, and submit all of the paperwork together to receive credit .

As always if you have any questions, contact the SD&T Coordinator before you begin.

CEU forms from non-library programs

We received some questions lately about getting CEU forms for programs offered by other organizations. If you attend programs offered by SD&T, SLRC, MLA, or other Maryland libraries, you can expect to receive a completed CEU form at the end of the program.

Any other programs, including those from ALA or OCLC, will not provide ready-made forms for attendees.  Not all library systems require certification supported by continuing education, so they don't provide these types of forms for their programs.

If you attend a program/webinar that is approved by SD&T where a CEU form is not provided then you will have to create your own. The blank form is available on the Vine, and you will need to completed the form, including the program description and learning goals.

When you submit the form, be sure to include a copy of your completion certificate, "thank you for participating" email, or other proof that you completed the program so that the SD&T coordinator can approve your hours.

Any forms submitted for programs which do not meet the minimum requirments for continuing education credit will not be added to your file.  It is best to check with SD&T for approval of CEU hours before participating in a program.

If you have any questions about this issue, please contact SD&T.

Why is Professional Development Important for Librarians and Library Associates?

The continuing education requirement for public librarians and library associates in the state of Maryland is part of the Code of Maryland Regulations (COMAR) under Title 13A.05.04.02, and is the process is the responsibility of the Maryland State Department of Education (MSDE).  Certification is required not only for employment as a librarian/library associate in Maryland, but also for participation in the retirement system.

So this tells us the technical “why,” but not the actual “why” of library professional development.  Often, staff are so focused on the numbers (hours, due dates) that they forget why the requirement is there in the first place.  Professional development and continuing education are crucial to improving library related skills and to the development of the staff member as a professional:  

Education for the contemporary professional no longer ends with diploma, if it ever did. It has been recognized that continuing education strengthens not only knowledge and skills necessary for competent performance but also values and attitudes necessary for the service orientation of a profession.[1]

The ever-changing role of the library requires that the staff also be ever-changing, and ever-improving.  Some estimates show that human knowledge is doubling every 13 months[2], and between 600,000 and 1,000,000 books published every year in the US[3].  The need to learn new technologies, stay relevant, and restructure services based on the needs of our customers requires ongoing professional development. 

Instead of fixating on the number of hours needed, librarians and library associates should focus on gaining knowledge, updating skills, remaining “abreast of trends and developments in the field”[4], and improving both technical and inter-personal skills.  By recognizing that training and development is a “crucial element in ensuring positive user experiences within libraries,”[5]  staff can explore learning as a means of becoming better professionals.  We don’t take classes to get hours; we get hours to remind us that we need to take classes!  

Of course, we have the yearly Full Record reports and SD&T staff to help ensure that you stay on track with your hours, but if our librarians and library associates are constantly improving skills and pursuing educational opportunities, then the 90 hour requirement should take care of itself. 

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[1] Hurych, J. quoted in http://conference.ifla.org/past-wlic/2011/200-cooke-en.pdf

[2] Schilling, David Russell http://www.industrytap.com/knowledge-doubling-every-12-months-soon-to-be-every-12-hours/

[3] Morgan, Nick.  http://www.forbes.com/sites/nickmorgan/2013/01/08/thinking-of-self-publishing-your-book-in-2013-heres-what-you-need-to-know/

[4] Cooke, Nicole A. http://conference.ifla.org/past-wlic/2011/200-cooke-en.pdf

[5] Lockhart, Janine and Sulaiman Majal http://docs.lib.purdue.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1134&context=iatul