Vision Blog Post #3 - Artifact and Reflection

While I was reading Richardson’s Why School?, many ideas popped out but one that remained in my mind was the aspect of ensuring that students were given the chance to create “real work for real audiences”. Heck, I want to make sure I was creating real work for real audiences!

"I'd rather know that my kids are creating something of meaning, value, and I hope, beauty for people other than just their teachers, and that those creations had the opportunity to live in the world. That they were thinking hard about audience. That they were learning how to network and collaborate with others." (Richardson, 2012)

What I feel was missing this year was a lot of that connection. My ties to the school felt out of whack with many of the normal school events not able to go on. I really wanted to be able to bridge across the students and teachers I work with. But the biggest piece for me was being tasked by my admin to ascertain the readiness of our school should we need to go to remote teaching. Speaking with teachers and students, then working on reviewing procedures and use of digital devices, I found that I kept directing attention to the same tools and information that were on multiple sites in our district. I was going from class to class and continually having to have them find these tools; having a web page that harnessed them all together and that I would be actively using with students felt like a win-win! I would build it and use it with students getting them used to its features and since I was learning too, their feedback will help me improve as we go along.

I read several useful blogs and websites to get general ideas of what to include on my web page. Overall, keeping things simple to start, easy to navigate and without too many bells and whistles seemed to be key. I read over blog posts from my peers to gather more ideas and then it was time to start.

My web page was built primarily with students in mind. My goal for them is to:

• Become comfortable navigating our library catalogue (find books, place holds, see their account status)
• Learn about the features and tools for research at their disposal
• Navigating safely and responsibly while online
• Be able to harness their work together using Office 365 tools
• Have a place to see the going-ons of their peers
• Provide feedback to develop our web page into a school digital hub

My collaborative time with teachers is quite minimal right now so I wanted to be able to collect some resources for them but plan to be more active in that stream a little later on.

I chose to use the free Weebly for Education platform as they do not have ads which I felt to be very important. I looked over a few how-to videos but I found the easiest way for me to learn was to get hands-on. For the most part, Weebly is quite intuitive and the tools are easy to use. I did go into their support page several times for information mostly on design aspects to get spacing, font, and sections to my liking. I am quite thrilled with my results.

Click HERE to access Our LLC Webpage!

ourLLC.weebly.com

I do plan to continue building this web page and improving as I use it with my students and later with teachers. I see it as a project that will continually shift with the needs of my school community. I look forward to developing it with and for them.

Some thoughts for the future:

• Adding a page for STEAM/coding - having my Challenge students collaborating on that would be a great project
• Adding "Outdoor Learning" resources for Teachers
• Having a page for student sharing - book reviews, Maker creations
• Developing some review videos and read alouds of my own (eek!)

This course has been a good ride! I appreciated the times I was able to meet virtually and hear about the happenings in other districts and with other TLs. I enjoyed being able to choose and delve into matters of interest to me at this time so that the work I did for this course was useful in my teaching world too. As this is my last course towards my TL Diploma, I will miss the camaraderie and sharing the most. My last few years working on this and other courses gave me the chance to explore and develop myself in ways I did not know I would. My teaching has become all the richer for it and I know that having seen all the myriad of wonders out there… I still have a lot of learning to do!

References

LaGarde, J. (2020). BFTP: Creating GREAT Library Websites for TODAY's Learners! [Blog]. Retrieved from https://www.librarygirl.net/post/bftp-creating-great-library-websites-for-today-s-learners

Moench, K. (2020). Website Building Resources for School Librarians | Book Riot. Retrieved 4 December 2020, from https://bookriot.com/website-resources-for-school-librarians/

Paciotti, B. (2019). 6 Steps to Create a Great School Library Website [Blog]. Retrieved from https://lookingbackward.edublogs.org/2019/12/04/school-lib-website/

Richardson, W. (2012). Why School? How Education Must Change When Learning and Information are Everywhere [eBook edition]. Ted Conferences.

Vision Blog Post #2

Learner Considerations

The Leigh LLC Webpage will be for the benefit of my learners and staff, and once I am better established… the greater school community. The wish behind my vision is to have a central location where information can be gathered and disseminated. 

A hub that is inviting, inclusive and informative. 

Image by Gerd Altmann from Pixabay

I very much want to enable a gathering place for my school since we are in many ways designated to so many separate bubbles.

The student body
At this moment in time, I only see half of the school population quarterly and I have no contact with remote learners at all. It is a real loss to my students to not have access to the LLC resources. Foremost in my plans is to ensure easy access for my students to reach elements that would be beneficial to them:
- develop their skills at using the library catalogue to access our collection, see new titles, and place requests for books
- find reliable information via Destiny Collections built in conjunction with their teacher with specific projects in mind
- be able to find book reviews and recommendations
- engage in fun curated activities on the Leigh LLC Padlet for fun activities
- easily see and find notices for school events and book clubs
- continue to engage in digital citizenship

Image from Hatice EROL from Pixabay

Peers and Colleagues
Collaboration in regular circumstances can be difficult due to time constraints… now more than ever, I need to be flexible and able to support my colleagues in a way that matters. We had a lot of resources at our disposal during the shift to remote learning in the spring but many of those have shifted or are no longer available. Our focus changed to ensuring our in-school programs were safe and there were a lot of adjustments made in the fall. Now as my district asks our teachers to once again pivot to ensure online supports are in place should the need arise, many of my colleagues require a hand to reconnect to resources.
A webpage would:
- be a place to group resources or provide an index to them
- be able to provide resource highlights of digital tools
- have provisions of helpful advice, tips, how-tos
 
I feel like much of what I currently do is only seen by the people in the same schedule as me. I don’t want to “drop” half the school when I am not directly working with them. I am building skills with my students and building relationships with classroom teachers. A ten-week gap is a lot of time for these skills and bonds to atrophy. I plan to direct much of my teaching when I am with students, to go through the website so they will see and understands its components and its worth. With a platform that is engaging, maybe I can keep some of my audience and interest them to continue learning during this transition.

Vision Blog Post #1

The themes of connection and access have surfaced so much over our inquiry and discussions. At this juncture in time, it is of utmost importance to me and is really what is causing me the most strain in my work. Creating something that would alleviate this concern for this assignment is a win-win all around!

My biggest challenge at the moment is that I am not able to do my job to the best of my ability due to my displacement from my classroom (LLC) and the disjointed schedule I am working in. If I could harness all my parts and put them together into one location that is easily accessible and well promoted, I would feel more efficient and effective to the needs of the learners and teachers at my school.

1) I adore helping students find meaningful books. I am limited in my capacity to reach every class though, so a place where reviews, book talks or highlights of new items in the library would be wonderful. Also, tutorials for using the library catalogue to find and request these titles.

Image by Mary Clark from Pixabay

2) I know the teachers at my school are making use of a variety resources: outdoor learning, iPad apps, Adrienne Gear collections, new technology… I am helping them as I see it or if they inquire but I know there are far more that are not asking or whose classrooms I am not frequenting. Again, an easily accessible place to highlight new or existing resources with short FAQs or how-to’s would be so useful.

Image by April Bryant from Pixabay

3) Challenge and STEAM – I work with the gifted students at my school and safety precautions have greatly hindered the ability for me to meet regularly with them. Somewhere to showcase resources, have discussions or share interests would be beneficial.

Image by HensleyStudios from Pixabay

My goal is to create a digital space that will connect at school learners, at home learners and my fellow teachers at school. Having a library webpage would be my best bet. I like the idea of having my own digital space to share ideas and resources. While it was nice to be a part of every TEAMS during remote learning, it was difficult to post and ensure students were seeing my announcements.

Image by www slon pics from Pixabay

I have begun work on researching how to create a webpage, ideas for design, and which website builders to use. So far, I have been collecting articles and helpful articles that I will parse through this week as I focus and develop my plan.

Reflecting Back on Phase 2

 Connections, connections, connections!

That seems to be the on-going theme throughout Phase 2.

How to connect with students and staff to build a learning community centered around literacy and the love of reading; reaching out and connecting to local support groups and other TLs to gain skills and insight to develop in and around the LLC; connecting with staff to build-up their abilities and to collaborate; looking out into the world and seeing how places and spaces around the globe are working hard by forming alliances to help advance the ability of kids to read and grow.

I also saw the importance of connection in our learning group. Seeing how my classmates navigated through the modules we were exploring helped me evaluate my own thoughts. From Bill, I saw the generosity of spirit in putting out resources to share with other educators near and far. From Jennifer, I read about the importance of strong support networks and having a common vision to advance learning goals across a district. From Laura, I was inspired to create more opportunities in my school for teachers to have meaningful ventures in their professional learning whether it was to bring sources into the school or to create a platform for sharing what we know and what we want to learn more about. From Linda, I saw the honesty of acknowledging that sometimes putting ourselves out there can be a daunting task – we are seeking others out who may not yet want us or value our skills because they don’t know what we have to offer. From Katy, I was reminded how small things set in motion can carry to so much more - an accidental buying of several copies of a book leading to class book clubs and then school-wide initiative that carried even through remote teaching; providing connections when we were apart.

I feel now more than ever, I need to push to work with my colleagues. My school is divided due to timetable constraints, the usual avenues for teachers to talk together, work together and plan together are few or non-existent; the connections we use to have are not presently there. I recognize that this is not for the long-term but even in the short-term, the strain is being felt. While I don’t have the luxury of seeing the whole school at one time as in previous years, I am seeing half the school and therefore, half the teachers concretely over quarters. I hope to be able to bridge some of that lost connectivity while seeing this half population. I want to be able to highlight the amazing teaching I see from one classroom to the next. Laura spoke of creating a platform to share resources, a blog or a social media account for teachers to follow. Hers was specific to professional development opportunities but it could equally be a place to showcase the going-ons in the classes, successes and accomplishments so we can all celebrate together. As a part of my school-wide events to promote a strong reading culture, I ensure having students see what each other is doing. There is always a portion where they see beyond their classroom – lining the halls with other classes to read, an assembly together to see an author presentation, or showing their artistry by adding their work to a bookmark contest display. They want to see the happenings of others in the school, they want to know that they are connected and sharing things together. Now more than ever, the staff and students at my school need to be reminded that we can lean on each other and we are not on our own. I hope to help by working on a sharing forum and filling it with these highlights and pops of positivity.

References

Bosch, L. (2020). LIBE 477: Inquiry Blog 3: Supporting Teachers' Professional Development [Blog]. Retrieved from https://laurarbosch.blogspot.com/2020/10/libe-477-inquiry-blog-3-supporting.html

Dekens, K. (2020). Peruse Joyfully [Blog]. Retrieved from https://kthlyndk.wordpress.com/2020/10/12/peruse-joyfully/

Kroeker, J. (2020). Searching for Network Connections [Blog]. Retrieved from https://learningtolib.blogspot.com/2020/10/searchingfor-network-connections-libe.html

Mei, L. (2020). LIBE 477B: Supporting Teacher Professional Development of ICT Curriculum and Pedagogy [Blog]. Retrieved from https://transdisciplinaryinquiry.wordpress.com/2020/10/19/libe-477b-supporting-teacher-professional-development-of-ict-curriculum-and-pedagogy/

Trickey, W. (2020). libe 477b – Inquiry Blog Post #2 [Blog]. Retrieved from  http://blogs.ubc.ca/libe477b/2020/10/18/libe-477b-inquiry-blog-post-2/

Developing World Libraries

I started this week looking at the challenges faced by school libraries in developing countries. Shonhe's (2019) study brings up the following deficiencies:
1) Lack of library policies
2) Poor staffing practices
3) Lack of adequate funding
4) Poor ICT infrastructure
5) Poor library facilities
6) Lack of awareness of the significance of libraries

Thinking upon these and of technology and developing countries, I remembered coming across One Laptop Per Child (OLPC) in my early years of teaching. I was looking up information for teaching my computer class and stumbled on an article. I remembered how intrigued I was by it and how amazed I was that such a formidable goal of providing a cost-effective device to every child in developing countries was generating steam. I am pretty sure I brought it up to my grade eight students and we discussed the magnitude and significance this might have for those learners. Then, it faded away and other things came up. From time to time, I would think about that little green and white computer with a hand crank but I never really followed-up.

OLPC's XO laptop, Creative Commons

This week’s blog post gave me the chance to go back for another look; an update to the story of that green and white laptop. Unfortunately, it hadn’t turned out as glorious as I had hoped. According to Robertson’s (2018) article in The Verge, it was too lofty a goal to attempt to keep the cost of each laptop to $100 each and that created a lot of hardware and software issues to overcome but I think the largest hurdle was as Robertson writes, “thirteen years ago, OLPC told the world that every child should get a laptop. It never stopped to prove that they needed one” (2018). As important as internet devices are in our daily lives, these tools are not miracle workers that will suddenly enable children to becoming lifelong learners; they still require much guidance. OLPC still exists today but on a much smaller scale than its beginning.

Following up on OLPC did lead me to two other organizations: Library for All and Room to Read.

Library for All does not focus on getting devices into the hands of children in developing countries, rather, the organization wants to “help turn access to tablets, smartphones, and legacy phones into substantially improved access to content at resource-starved schools” (Quillen, 2013). Their idea is to formalize a central repository of information curated from free resources on the web for teachers to use, many of whom may be in the early stages of learning how to use technology themselves. The repository features a simplified format with less graphics to save on bandwidth which is often at a premium in many remote locations. Their hope is to be able to tailor these resources to the specific needs of developing countries – teacher comfort, language, subjects, reading levels. The Library for All platform is designed to operate on devices already in the developing world, specifically mobile phones that are more prevalent and accessible and to that extent, they have worked with national telecommunications companies in each country to ensure that users incur zero data charges while reading on the platform (Stephans, 2015). The most important part in my eyes is that this organizations works with local educators to ensure that content is relevant and work with local curriculum and offered in the language of that region. They “believe having access to culturally and linguistically relevant information is crucial in allowing people to lift themselves out of poverty (Stephans, 2015).

Meanwhile, “Room to Read works with local authors, illustrators and designers to create and publish books that reflect the experience and culture of the children learning to read in their libraries. The stories have lessons from local life and culture, relying on fewer and fewer translations of Western stories about hot dogs and snow” (Truong, 2019). The child-centered, friendly and approachable setting of the libraries built by this foundation creates safe spaces for children to explore, develop a love of reading and invite their families into their learning. Further there is funding to empower girls by covering their basic needs so that they will be motivated to develop more academically. I love how in the Vietnam story shared by Truong, a field manager for Room to Read, after encountering a boy who was teased for loving flowers, she brought it to the attention of her team and they are developing more diverse stories, including one of a boy who loves flowers and others to deconstruct stereotypes.

Finally, I found an opinion piece for Tech for Impact, it was noted that COVID-19 has really highlighted a disparity of technology especially in low-income communities across Asia. In it, Sayres points to leveraging cloud technology to give more free access to education and using smart phone apps can be beneficial as those devices are usually most common for access in developing countries. The article also highlights some older tech; many governments and organizations are using broadcast technology, radio and television, to get lessons and educational programming out as well. The article finishes by stating “[a] layered response, of old and new, remote and physical, is the way to truly bridge the digital divide” (Sayres, 2020). I have found the need for this balance in my own school library. We need to be attuned to what our students have accessible to them in order to be able to facilitate what we can.

References

Bernard, S. (2008). Room to Read: Building Libraries, Schools, and Computer Labs in Developing Countries. Retrieved from https://www.edutopia.org/global-education-libraries-developing-countries

Cameron, J. One Laptop per Child. Retrieved 1 November 2020, from http://one.laptop.org/

Knight Foundation. (2015). Library for All [Video]. Retrieved from https://vimeo.com/135565695

Quillen, I. (2013). Mindshift Library for All: Free Digital Content for Developing Countries. Retrieved from https://www.kqed.org/mindshift/29339/library-for-all-free-digital-content-for-developing-countries

Robertson, A. (2018). OLPC’s $100 laptop was going to change the world — then it all went wrong. Retrieved from https://www.theverge.com/2018/4/16/17233946/olpcs-100-laptop-education-where-is-it-now

Room to Read. (2014). Room to Read | Learn More in Under 3 Minutes [Video]. Retrieved from https://youtu.be/qNhLgn1VsG4

Sayres, N. (2020). Tech can drive equality in education. You can help. Retrieved from https://techforimpact.asia/tech-can-drive-equality-in-education-you-can-help

Shonhe, L. (2019). A consolidation of challenges faced by school libraries in developing countries. Library Philosophy And Practice. Retrieved from https://digitalcommons.unl.edu/libphilprac/2467

Stephans, K. (2015). Library For All breaks down barriers to knowledge in developing world. Retrieved from https://knightfoundation.org/articles/library-all-breaks-down-barriers-knowledge-developing-world/

Truong, L. (2019). Libraries Changing the Margins of the World | Room to Read. Retrieved from https://bittersweetmonthly.com/stories/room-to-read#

Supporting Teachers’ ICT Curriculum and Pedagogy: On-going Professional Development

As the teacher-librarian at my school, I fully feel that a large part of my role is to support the teachers and aides at my school. I have always felt that I am in a unique position where I have the flexibility to see and visit different learning spaces around my school while also welcoming and working in my own LLC. I love being able to bring new ideas and resources with me to work with all these groups so that we can all learn and teach better.

This Infographic made the rounds a few years back but it still so relevant…

(J. Murphy, 2013)

In order to respond to the needs of our school community, there are a few things I feel need to be in place.

Accessibility

The most important aspect of being able to support teachers in their development and learning is to be easy to get to. I always ask the teachers at my school to shoot me a message if there is anything that is needed or that they would like a hand to organize for upcoming projects. I often get emails or texts during the day which keeps me in the know of what is happening. Being accessible means that the teachers feel comfortable and able to reach out to me when they need to. My library space is also always open for them to come in and peruse materials or to talk things out.

*A note about the “Professional Collection”: I used to have a section in the library for teacher resources and a parent section as well. Due to district and administrative policies, I am no longer able to offer those. I feel it is a real loss since we have new staff nearly every year, it can be difficult for them to get started or have materials at the ready right away. Having a central area for resources with someone at the helm who knows what is available is invaluable, in my opinion. I would always have a welcome back session at the start of the year to highlight and remind teachers of what amazing resources we had so that they would be utilized to their full potential. Housing professional readings and journals were also useful because I could see what was being circulated and it would give me a good indication on where to offer service.

 

Listen, listen, listen some more

The biggest part of my job is to pay attention and know what is happening in the classrooms so that when the students come to me in the library I can support or enhance their classroom learning. This can be great when a teacher lets me know ahead of time – at one of my past schools, my admin availed me to year plans at the start of the year so I could see at a glance what fell where. Other times, I have created surveys so that I can track monthly happenings. My district is on MS Teams so creating a Form to send out to teachers would be an easy method of surveying their needs. Beyond these more formal methods, simply listening (okay I may be a bit of snoop) when I walk down the hall or in the lunchroom, I often hear conversations that can alert me to trends that I can support. For example, a quick conversation with our pro-d chair where she said there were a lot of teachers going to outdoor learning sessions is leading me to create a Collection of books and resources to ease that transition.

 

Curating things that matter

There is SO much information out there! Thinking back to June and the amazing and fantastic resources flying at us left, right and center, I recall how overwhelmed so many teachers were. Our district had an amazing IT team who worked hard to put tools in place for us but there were daily emails from them, from our admin, from district resource teachers sharing helpful things but also too many things. Not all of it was relevant to my teachers, our level or our school. I became a gatekeeper of sorts, weeding out what was needed and helpful. Likewise, I do the same for many of the subscriptions we have to educational sites or organizations. I peruse them and offer highlights of useful items to teachers for their grades and interests.

Advocating

The best thing I can do to help them meet the ICT professional needs of the staff at my school is to advocate for them. In my position, when I work in different classrooms and with every teacher, it becomes quite apparent where deficiencies lie. When I see inequity of tech equipment because a teacher was new to the school and did not know what was available, or that there is one classroom where the WiFi connection is truly deplorable, or seeing that moving more of our teaching online is really tough for a lot of my peers – I speak up. I ask for more tech and facilitate acquisition, I tell them that it isn’t normal to be constantly dropped from Zoom meetings and get IT to investigate, I ask for time and organize after school sessions to work with the teachers who could use some time acclimatizing to online apps and tools.

Going forward…

I know this year is not the norm. I know this year is not what I am used to. I know this year is very different and that my school needs me to operate differently. I know I can’t fully offer all the services I was offering before. I know I need to be patient and kind to myself and know that I am doing my best while working with the constraints placed upon me. It is hard and I have been frustrated but I know that my colleagues are all feeling it too. I have really made it a point to focus on the present and the half of the school I currently service – it has allowed me to get to know those teachers better and I think in the long-run, as I build these stronger connections, it will be beneficial to us all.

References

Murphy, J. (2013). I am a {social} librarian [Image]. Retrieved from https://www.elsevier.com/connect/infographic-portrait-of-a-social-librarian

Developing your own ICT Skills and Pedagogy

A large part of why I have so enjoyed taking the courses towards my TL Diploma is that it has kept me fresh and given me so many ideas to implement even as I learn. These past few years have been some of the most interesting and rewarding in my years of teaching. Most of this is due to having access to and new ways of thinking, conversations with peers and instructors and resources to engage with in my teaching.

When I had the chance to teach in a new district a few years ago, I made it a point to find out what local supports were in place for me. Once I was able to contact the teacher-librarian group in the district and joined their professional learning network (PLN) I found it much easier to learn about my role in the district and resources available to me, it also gave me the chance to get to know my colleagues a lot faster through meetings, sessions, and workshops that were offered. Provincial Specialist Associations (BC-list) such as the BCTLA offer the chance to attend conferences and get support.

I also make it a point to keep track of up and coming books or items of interest by reading publications such as the School Library Journal, it can be quite expensive for a subscription individually so when I first started in the library, I actually got together with a couple other schools to split the cost and we shared the print copy. However, they have free digital access right now due to COVID so it might be worthwhile to sign-up. A few other resource sites I subscribe to include: Edutopia, Common Sense Media Education, Brightly, and A Mighty Girl.

Access digital copies of current and past publications for free!

Personal development can happen at any time and I try to take full advantage when I can. Through word of mouth this past summer, I was able to participate in Pro-D opportunities such as STEAM Days of Summer at Science World. I spent two weeks learning about teaching computational thinking, coding and having the chance to have hands-on experience with coding hardware and software. It was intense but so worthwhile and I felt very lucky for the opportunity.

Edison Robot (Photo by author)

Micro:bits (Photo by author)

LEGO Education (Photo by author)

Most importantly, I get inspired by fantastic colleagues and other teacher-librarians who share the amazing work they do. I attended a workshop by Anna Crosland and follow her blog to see the engaging makerspace activities she does with students at her school: @crosland_a (Twitter). And this past June, I connected with another TL, Christopher Hunt @ExLibrisMrHunt on Twitter who was looking for resources for the teachers at his school and we collaborated to create resource lists.

As with every other course I have taken so far, I hope to gain new friends and follow more people as they continue their learning journey. We guide and inspire each other.

References

A Mighty Girl. (2020). Retrieved 18 October 2020, from https://www.amightygirl.com/

BC Teacher-Librarians' Association. (2020). Retrieved 17 October 2020, from https://bctla.ca/

BCTF. (2020). Provincial Specialists Associations 2020-21 [Ebook]. Retrieved from https://bctf.ca/uploadedFiles/public/AboutUs/ServicesHandbook/15PSA.pdf

Brightly | Helping Parents Grow Lifelong Readers. (2020). Retrieved 18 October 2020, from https://www.readbrightly.com/

Common Sense Education. (2020). Retrieved 18 October 2020, from https://www.commonsense.org/education/

Crosland, A. (2020). [Blog]. Retrieved from https://annacrosland.edublogs.org/

Edutopia. (2020). Retrieved 18 October 2020, from https://www.edutopia.org/

School Library Journal. (2020). Retrieved 17 October 2020, from https://www.slj.com/