Friday, February 1, 2008

WINTER TONICS

Have you registered for Winter Tonic?

Here are some other February "tonics" if you are looking for something to replenish your spirit, a little flair or fun or food for thought or passion to enhance your work in school libraries. Why not choose one or two --

  • find a great gift or "branding" item for a teacher-librarian or for yourself at Cafepress. Here's where Sylvia got her bumper sticker that reads, "I am the librarian your mother warned you about." A new wardrobe item always helps the spirit.
  • check out the best source of powerpoint templates at Brainy Betty. Put PIZZAZZ into your presentations.
  • how about something fun to do on FAT Tuesday (Feb 5) or Mardi Gras? Try heading out to hear The Burke Street Blues Band now booked for Mardi Gras night (8-11 pm) at DaDeO New Orleans Diner and Bar, 3305 Cambie (at 17th-- former Tomato Restaurant location) 604-874-1053 -- and it's our friend Alan Zisman on keyboards!
  • read this article to affirm the importance of your work as the information literacy specialist in your school: The more things change ... by IVOR TOSSELL from Friday's Globe and Mail, January 24, 2008.
  • read this Richmond News Community Profile for Family Literacy Day; it's about Richmond TL Carole Wilson who is still making a difference after thirty years in the teaching business. Some of you may know Carole in her capacity as an instructor with the UBC Teacher-Librarianship program.
  • find out more about blogging and its applications for school libraries: Teacher-Librarians Connect ... by Publishing Online, from Charles Best (Coquitlam) TL Judith Comfort provides lots of ideas. Check out her BCTLA workshop, online resources and activities which are blogs.
  • register for something -- Feb 8 is Literacy Day at Killarney or Technology Day at Magee; Feb 12 is Winter Tonic at Gladstone; Feb 6 is Shari Graydon here at the VSB; Feb 18 is TL Studio at Kerrisdale; Spring Weeding (two sessions, last week of Feb and first week of March) at Dickens and Cheriee is promising much livelier refreshment to make the session fun... see VSB website and click onto Current Professional Opportunities.
  • choose to attend one or two events put on by the Vancouver Children's Literature Roundtable: Authorfest 2008 is Feb 6 at UBC. Serendipity 2008 is, this year, to be a celebration of First Nations Children's Authors and Illustrators and is being held at the First Nations Longhouse at UBC all day Saturday, Feb 23. Membership to the Vancouver CLR is $15. For more information, read Tough City Writer's blog.
  • bone up on the issues around new proposed Canadian copyright legislation which, as secondary TLs heard from Aaron M at their monthly meeting, could seriously affect us in schools because of the omission of educational fair-use clauses and of any educational representation. Aaron referred us to Michael Geist's blog for more information. Dr. Geist is the Canada Research Chair of Internet and E-commerce Law at the U of Ottawa and was educated at Osgoode Hall Law School, Toronto, Cambridge University, UK and Columbia Law School in New York. He is concerned with internet and technology law as well as privacy issues.
  • read some more: I am passing along this Michael Geist article "Law Eases Net Snooping: Privacy watchdog fears new copyright regs" (Tuesday's The Tyee). Anne S forwarded it after our discussion at our secondary TL department heads' meeting.
  • check out this article from eSchool News to consider the perspectives of American educators on educational fair-use clauses: "'Fair Use' confusion threatens media literacy."
  • attend a lecture at the VPL: Speak Up 2008: My Virtual World, Tuesday Feb 19, 2008, 7:00 PM - 9:00 PM, Alice MacKay Room. The Speak Up series brings together many voices, perspectives and experiences, and provides an opportunity for public dialogue. This year's series explores the role of technology in our lives. "Online Privacy: Is There Any?" will feature panelists Mary Carlson (Office of the Information and Privacy Commissioner, Province of BC); Inspector Kevin McQuiggin (Vancouver Police Department); Richard Rosenberg (BC Freedom of Information and Privacy Asosciation). And it's free!
  • find out who's blogging and what they are talking about. Click onto one or more of the Related Bloggers in the sidebar of this blog to see what the discourse is, more globally, for school libraries. Susan at Magee suggests Kathy Schrock's Kaffeklatsch blog January entry entitled Youtube is Cool! which would follow nicely with the secondary TL department heads discussion last week.

    I have recently added Doug Johnson's Blue Skunk blog. I enjoyed reading, amongst his archives, articles with such enticing titles as Rules for Pod People..., "BS" Literacy, and Librarians Behaving Badly. Joyce Valenza's Neverendingsearch on SLJ offers such articles for your consideration as these: Google as white bread? (and ICT lit matters) or Databases: Can We Get Teachers to Love Them? I have also added James Herring's Weblog. Schrock, Valenza, Johnson, Herring ... have I missed any of the BIG names in the world of school libraries?

    Thanks, Lana at Byng, for passing along this link to school bloggers with loads of examples, as well. Reading Rules is only one example of a school library application for blogging. And we are awaiting a new blog from one of our own French Immersion TLs, to be launched next week, I believe. I will be linking it here.

3 comments:

doug0077 said...

Thanks for the mention!

All the very best,

Doug

Moira Ekdahl said...

Thanks so much for dropping by!

meredyth kezar said...

You may think twice before eating at the restaurant-there was a very unflattering review in the Globe and Mail!