I used to blog religiously on Saturday mornings. While not quite so religious about this any more, I have blogged (sometimes unrelentingly) since I started four years ago as the TL consultant for the Vancouver School Board. My thought is now that, while it was first about mentoring the local TL community, my blogging is bigger than that, bigger than Vancouver but always reflective of the threads and currents of discourse that impact our work and our place in teacher-librarianship in Vancouver. There is so much to know, in practical and professional terms, so much to think about and share, and to be engaged in with others. From resources to relevant videos to new tools and educational commentary, I have blogged on.
There is a flow of tweets today from the UBC Northern Voice 2011 blogging conference (#nv). Seems like interesting stuff and a pretty young crowd. But their blogs contain interesting content -- way too many other tweeting conference attendees simply emit messages, like "This is great stuff," so you never know what the stuff of the conference or un-conference has been. I must have missed the brochure, but then mentors miss at least half of what is going on. It's good there are VSB people there (@maryakem and @audreyvan) so we will undoubtedly get the feedback.
On becoming a member of the Twittyverse, I have to say what intrigues me is that it is something of a flat community. There are the active ones, the incomprehensible ones, the profound ones, the straight communicators of news, the political ones, and the lurkers. It's a good place to start, lurking, by the way. And linking -- you have to click onto some of the "bittlies" to get at the meat of Twitter.
One to follow is Superintendent Chris Kennedy (West Vancouver) who blogs at The Culture of Yes, contributes to the discourse frequently, and comments on the nature of the conversation on Twitter @chrkennedy. You would add him to your watchlist on Twitter. Kennedy describes the conversations that include all committed educators. Administrators, superintendents, trustees, teachers -- geographically disbursed -- share ideas and information both openly and privately without the barriers that hierarchical positioning within workplace sites and bureaucracies can create. That's what I mean by "flat." You share others' news as re-tweets, or openly add to the commentary on topics or in groups identified by hashtags (#). You get to follow and assess what others think is important enough to share. I am not seeing too much of the frivolous daily activity stuff, like, "Went shopping today" or "Just finished breakfast" that newcomers might expect to find.
Kennedy gets teacher-librarians and their role in relation to inquiry-based learning and leadership for change. Librarians, he suggests, are more important than ever. Working collaboratively with teachers, they bring a different and important skill set to the instructional conversation that helps make sense of information. He gets the importance of teaching for information literacy and for learning to be information literate. Tech-savvy administrators and TLs have powerful potential to engage and support teachers shifting into optimal pedagogical participation in the new digital environments. In the blog post "It's not the tools, it's the team" is a slide presentation Leading and Energizing Learning given to Ontario superintendents: check slide 15. In his recent half-hour Your Education Matters broadcast with Dr Paul Shaker at UBC, TLs are included as is discussion of inquiry, inquiry-based learning, and the significance of teacher professional judgement. Arlene Anderson's important groundwork with Points of Inquiry at Rockridge is included. In his role as West Van's Chief Learning Officer, he sees that we are moving beyond technology-as-place (that is, the lab); soon every child will have his or her own personal device, and thus a new learning space. Students will engage in real-world or authentic publishing; literacy is reading and writing a blog, for example.
In direct "tweets" with Chris, I have appreciated his vision that sees TLs as worthy lead partners with admin in the move to digital literacy. Schools moving ahead with digital literacy have strong teacher-librarians and dynamic and responsive school library programs. I for one am happy to have his voice in the provincial conversation.
2011 May YEM from SFU Education on Vimeo.
In Vancouver, we have a small but active community of educational tweeters. I have a watchlist and I follow trustees @janebouey, @lombardimike, @pattibacchus. I follow administrator @gmbondi and teacher colleagues @solitaryvox, @zzsu, @aaronmueller, @physicstweet. I follow VSB tweeters like our superintendent @myphronesis, our district librarian @maryakem and our new District Principal for Learning Technologies @audreyvan. In fact, I follow over 50 tweeters and about that many follow me. And so I have been lured from the lurking -- I feel bound to have profound tweets occasionally! No time for conferences -- too busy with my social networking on Saturdays.
Showing posts with label kennedy. Show all posts
Showing posts with label kennedy. Show all posts
Saturday, May 14, 2011
Saturday, June 19, 2010
Summer Review: 21st Century Education
Ten Links to Thinking Widely
About 21C Learning and Systemic "Revolution"
A 21st Century Education: 12 leading innovators, including Alan November, Stephen Heppell, and Randall Fielding, use documentary film to explore technology, student-centred learning, and social justice.
The Innovative Educator: Ten 21st Century Education Quotes I Carry With Me. Add Lisa Nielsen's IE blog to your RSS feeds.
Click above to look at this New Brunswick video perspective of 21C learning.
What If? Technology in the 21st Century Classroom: OPSBA (Ontario Public School Boards Assocation) trustees' paper calls for meaningful discussion, shared vision, and classroom strategies that create connected and relevant learning.
21st Century Learner: presentation by Kim Cofino, international school educator and ed tech consultant.
TED Talks: Can I suggest these people whose thinking is outside the box that we know as school?
Schools Kill Creativity (2006), also referred to as Sir Ken 1
Bring on the Learning Revolution! (2010), or Sir Ken 2
OnceUpon a School -- Dave Eggers' Pirate Supply Store
TheFringe Benefits of Failure: J.K. Rowling draws on the ancient wisdom of Plutarch to encourage Harvard graduates to use their unique status to make a difference by imagining and creating a better world; of Seneca, who wrote, "As is a tale, so is life; not how long it is but how good it is is what matters.")
UBC: 1-Day Faculty of Education Conference
So, what were a number of Vancouver's TLs doing out at UBC on Friday, all day? We were part of the Information Literacy Day, "Digging Deeper for Understanding -- Using Information Smarts in a Digital World," for secondary teacher candidates. Keynote speakers included Vancouver's new Superintendent Steve Cardwell and Deputy Superintendent Chris Kennedy from West Van. Presenters include TLs Parungao, North, and Ekdahl from Vancouver, Finlay from Burnaby, and Daly from Coquitlam, as well as UBC librarians Naslund and Giustini.
Here is a link to the Top 20 TED talks recommended in Kennedy's keynote address; these are suggested for busy school administrators. He includes all but Rowling listed above. This list was posted in his conference wiki along with many other 21C-related links that made up his presentation.
Saturday, May 2, 2009
Congratulations are in order!
The TL Scene / Seen:
It's the busy time of year. That's my excuse for slowing down with the posts ... and besides, I need you to catch your breath on the school library roller-coaster ride. We are moving along at quite a clip and it's hard to take it all in.
There are a couple of national awards of interest to Vancouver TLs ... but I am overstepping the official CLA / CASL announcements next week and can only suggest you stay tuned. We remain Haycock's Legacy! By the way, I saw Ken two weekends ago at the BC Librarians' Conference in Burnaby. Look for more Haycock by summer's end.
All kinds of events for the BCTLA are recorded by our President Heather Daly on her BCTLA blog In Circulation. Read, for example, about:
Are you looking for a great travel opportunity with fantastic company? If you haven't looked at the IASL Conference information, you may want to see what's up for TLs in Italy this summer. And we are so excited we have organized a group tour with our Italian travel consultant, Pre-conference Tour Organizer Francesca della Hastings (as in our Frances). We are pretty close to having a package together that we will send out for your summertime consideration. Vancouver and other TLs, educators, and friends might want to consider the 10-day Tour that brings us to Padua in time for the Workshop Day (August 31) with Dr Ross Todd and Dr Carol Kuhlthau -- I emailed for details which are too follow but they are pleased to hear a group from BC is coming! The Pre-conference Day, September 1, is fully posted. The workshops and papers have been selected so more detail on conference presenters will be coming soon. The actual conference, School Libraries in the Picture: Preparing Pupils for the Future, is September 2-4. Email ME for the information package.
New Issue of Teacher-Librarian, April 2009
This is the Best-of Issue (best fiction, picture books, websites, graphic novels, software, adult books for older teens, and so on) of Teacher Librarian and it includes the BEST from Canada's Resource Links 2008. Two articles I intend to savour: Tips from National School Library Media Program Winners for Success, in "A Recipe for Your School Library," and an article entitled "From Library to Learning Commons: A Metamorphosis." Great Advisory Board here everyone ... includes Ray Doiron, Michele Farquharson, Doug Johnson, Joy McGregor, Marcia Mardis and more. Try the magazine's TLToolkit for great websites.
Inquiry
Project continues. Inquiry TLs are invited for Monday morning to join SLRCCC sub-committee to look at IL Benchmarks and to consider project timeline and products for June. Academic librarians from UBC and SFU will join us for half the meeting. I am looking forward to this. Our TLs showcase so well!
It's the busy time of year. That's my excuse for slowing down with the posts ... and besides, I need you to catch your breath on the school library roller-coaster ride. We are moving along at quite a clip and it's hard to take it all in.
There are a couple of national awards of interest to Vancouver TLs ... but I am overstepping the official CLA / CASL announcements next week and can only suggest you stay tuned. We remain Haycock's Legacy! By the way, I saw Ken two weekends ago at the BC Librarians' Conference in Burnaby. Look for more Haycock by summer's end.
All kinds of events for the BCTLA are recorded by our President Heather Daly on her BCTLA blog In Circulation. Read, for example, about:
- this year's Distinguished Service Award recipient Coquitlam principal Ross Davidson who supports literacy by making sure his school has a strong school library program with full-time staffing and by continuing his involvement in the partnership of principals and vice-principals whose Hog Wild About Reading motorcycle ride campaign has, for the past nine years, raised funds for Coquitlam's school library collections. Yay, Ross!
- our VTLA President Chris Evans' receiving this year's BCTLA Ken Haycock Grant for Professional Development to help defray costs of coming to the 2009 IASL Conference in Italy. Mary's in for sure, and we have three others considering coming.
- Michele Farquharson and Chris being elected to the 2009/10 BCTLA Executive, joining me and Sylvia from Vancouver as well as the retired Val H who, when not geo-caching, continues her web-working-wonders for TLs.
- this year's TL of the Year, Victoria's Karen Lindsay, our BCTLA second VP, particularly well-known for her work in advocacy for school libraries and for promoting DEAR: Drop Everything and READ.
- now retired Richmond TL phenom Judith Kootte who won this year's Val Hamilton Lifetime Achievement Award. Judith continues her fine leadership role in learning resources and technology learning with ERAC.
- the new BCTLA Position Statement on Book Levelling and School Library Collections which is to be ready next week.
Amazing morning! See you Tuesday for Tea ...
Earlier this week the Churchill school library, a-buzz as ever with herds of students, was filled with rookie TLs, most of whom couldn't be distinguished from the kids. The 30 or so of our newest TL-colleagues were delightful to work with -- I know Maryann, Katharine, and Linda will agree -- and Mark Roberts too, as he has shed his "rookie" mantle after the first year back in our ranks from several years in a classroom. It was crowded but the energy and enthusiasm was fantastic. Thanks also to the VTLA, Kam at Fleming and Gwen in particular, who have identified the need for our new TLs to have the support of seasoned TL colleagues and time to talk. Don't miss their invitation to have tea and share experiences and ask questions ... May 5, Fleming School Library. See you there!
The Final Chapter / May Year-end Update Sessions
Still more than 50 need to sign up for these important in-service sessions to prepare you for the busiest time of year, June, and for what to expect in September. The first session is scheduled for Thursday this week. Sign up online please if you haven't done so. Contact ME if you need help organizing to attend. An important workshop for a number of you will be Bombino's Inventory Basics as well, scheduled for this month.
Very Last Minute Notices
Perhaps if you are checking this and if I finish in time, you will want to rush down to the CWILL Spring Hatching event at the VPL ... that is, if you didn't get the notice sent out earlier this week --- or to the Histori.ca Fair event at the Museum.
On things historical, by the way, I loved every minute of the presentation made by Wes Knapp at the Kitsilano workshop to share the DVD and teaching package for 1907 / Vancouver / 2007. Now every high school has the kit and there are two sets for lending at Media Services. Elementary teachers are using it as well. All this has been funded by the Vancouver Historical Society and is an amazing resource for Vancouver students. Wes and Charlie Hou will be presenting this again in October.
Web 2.0, Part 2: Online Conference June/July
Check here for more Henri/Lee Your SchoolLibrary Pro D, an online conference entitled Information Literacy and Web 2.0. This conference features our own Pat Parungao as a presenter alongside names like Mike Eisenberg of BigSix fame. If you "attended" the last one, there is a discounted price. There is also a group price. Let me know how many will be "coming" to this session which has more presenters and which runs from June 13 to July 5. Let me know ASAP if you are in for this one and I will set about negotiating our participation.
Educators to Watch
Maryann and I spent time together at the annual Fast Forward event which, despite the lack of ERAC participation, continues to provide public and academic librarians, as well as K-12 educators, a chance to pre-view and select DVDs and other related tools and resources for their patrons. I worked alongside Joan from Hamber and Steve from the VSB, as well as two of our French Immersion colleagues. We were all excited about some great programs that had been nixed or missed by the ERAC selection process. Mostly I loved the NFB videostreaming database ... you'll see this at the Update sessions. Oh, and lunch with a guy to watch ...
So we watched DVDs ... and then dashed to a lunch-time talk to hear Assistant Superintendent (West Van) Chris Kennedy's energetic presentation. Well, began, Kennedy, the world needs more librarians in the 21st Century (don't need to worry about hooking this audience) -- kids need to be taught how not to plagiarize, not learn by getting caught by mechanical plagiarism detectors. Using wikispaces as a presentation tool, he talked about the world-class product of our education system that we have here in BC, as evidenced by the PISA tests, measuring 15-year-olds for international comparison, that clearly place us at the top alongside countries like Finland. His District's literacy goals next year will feature Digital Literacy ... how much fun will that be! After the little shot of professional adrenalin to keeps us thinking about how best to work for our teacher-colleagues and with the needs of the children of the 21st Century in mind, we headed back to the viewing tables. Yes, it's all exciting stuff.
Budget Presentations
Kudos to the parents who are Friends of the School Libraries here in Vancouver, for the astounding level of support given to us in the recent budget process. Thank you, Trustees, for your support under the most trying of times, as well. It surely isn't the best part of your leadership role, having to cut the very services, resources, and tools that you know enable and empower our young learners to enter the adult world better able to read, think, learn, and prosper. It's been lean here in public schools for way too long now.
IASL Conference 2009
Earlier this week the Churchill school library, a-buzz as ever with herds of students, was filled with rookie TLs, most of whom couldn't be distinguished from the kids. The 30 or so of our newest TL-colleagues were delightful to work with -- I know Maryann, Katharine, and Linda will agree -- and Mark Roberts too, as he has shed his "rookie" mantle after the first year back in our ranks from several years in a classroom. It was crowded but the energy and enthusiasm was fantastic. Thanks also to the VTLA, Kam at Fleming and Gwen in particular, who have identified the need for our new TLs to have the support of seasoned TL colleagues and time to talk. Don't miss their invitation to have tea and share experiences and ask questions ... May 5, Fleming School Library. See you there!
The Final Chapter / May Year-end Update Sessions
Still more than 50 need to sign up for these important in-service sessions to prepare you for the busiest time of year, June, and for what to expect in September. The first session is scheduled for Thursday this week. Sign up online please if you haven't done so. Contact ME if you need help organizing to attend. An important workshop for a number of you will be Bombino's Inventory Basics as well, scheduled for this month.
Very Last Minute Notices
Perhaps if you are checking this and if I finish in time, you will want to rush down to the CWILL Spring Hatching event at the VPL ... that is, if you didn't get the notice sent out earlier this week --- or to the Histori.ca Fair event at the Museum.
On things historical, by the way, I loved every minute of the presentation made by Wes Knapp at the Kitsilano workshop to share the DVD and teaching package for 1907 / Vancouver / 2007. Now every high school has the kit and there are two sets for lending at Media Services. Elementary teachers are using it as well. All this has been funded by the Vancouver Historical Society and is an amazing resource for Vancouver students. Wes and Charlie Hou will be presenting this again in October.
Web 2.0, Part 2: Online Conference June/July
Check here for more Henri/Lee Your SchoolLibrary Pro D, an online conference entitled Information Literacy and Web 2.0. This conference features our own Pat Parungao as a presenter alongside names like Mike Eisenberg of BigSix fame. If you "attended" the last one, there is a discounted price. There is also a group price. Let me know how many will be "coming" to this session which has more presenters and which runs from June 13 to July 5. Let me know ASAP if you are in for this one and I will set about negotiating our participation.
Educators to Watch
Maryann and I spent time together at the annual Fast Forward event which, despite the lack of ERAC participation, continues to provide public and academic librarians, as well as K-12 educators, a chance to pre-view and select DVDs and other related tools and resources for their patrons. I worked alongside Joan from Hamber and Steve from the VSB, as well as two of our French Immersion colleagues. We were all excited about some great programs that had been nixed or missed by the ERAC selection process. Mostly I loved the NFB videostreaming database ... you'll see this at the Update sessions. Oh, and lunch with a guy to watch ...
So we watched DVDs ... and then dashed to a lunch-time talk to hear Assistant Superintendent (West Van) Chris Kennedy's energetic presentation. Well, began, Kennedy, the world needs more librarians in the 21st Century (don't need to worry about hooking this audience) -- kids need to be taught how not to plagiarize, not learn by getting caught by mechanical plagiarism detectors. Using wikispaces as a presentation tool, he talked about the world-class product of our education system that we have here in BC, as evidenced by the PISA tests, measuring 15-year-olds for international comparison, that clearly place us at the top alongside countries like Finland. His District's literacy goals next year will feature Digital Literacy ... how much fun will that be! After the little shot of professional adrenalin to keeps us thinking about how best to work for our teacher-colleagues and with the needs of the children of the 21st Century in mind, we headed back to the viewing tables. Yes, it's all exciting stuff.
Budget Presentations
Kudos to the parents who are Friends of the School Libraries here in Vancouver, for the astounding level of support given to us in the recent budget process. Thank you, Trustees, for your support under the most trying of times, as well. It surely isn't the best part of your leadership role, having to cut the very services, resources, and tools that you know enable and empower our young learners to enter the adult world better able to read, think, learn, and prosper. It's been lean here in public schools for way too long now.
IASL Conference 2009
Planning-for-Padua Update
Are you looking for a great travel opportunity with fantastic company? If you haven't looked at the IASL Conference information, you may want to see what's up for TLs in Italy this summer. And we are so excited we have organized a group tour with our Italian travel consultant, Pre-conference Tour Organizer Francesca della Hastings (as in our Frances). We are pretty close to having a package together that we will send out for your summertime consideration. Vancouver and other TLs, educators, and friends might want to consider the 10-day Tour that brings us to Padua in time for the Workshop Day (August 31) with Dr Ross Todd and Dr Carol Kuhlthau -- I emailed for details which are too follow but they are pleased to hear a group from BC is coming! The Pre-conference Day, September 1, is fully posted. The workshops and papers have been selected so more detail on conference presenters will be coming soon. The actual conference, School Libraries in the Picture: Preparing Pupils for the Future, is September 2-4. Email ME for the information package.New Issue of Teacher-Librarian, April 2009
This is the Best-of Issue (best fiction, picture books, websites, graphic novels, software, adult books for older teens, and so on) of Teacher Librarian and it includes the BEST from Canada's Resource Links 2008. Two articles I intend to savour: Tips from National School Library Media Program Winners for Success, in "A Recipe for Your School Library," and an article entitled "From Library to Learning Commons: A Metamorphosis." Great Advisory Board here everyone ... includes Ray Doiron, Michele Farquharson, Doug Johnson, Joy McGregor, Marcia Mardis and more. Try the magazine's TLToolkit for great websites.
Inquiry
Project continues. Inquiry TLs are invited for Monday morning to join SLRCCC sub-committee to look at IL Benchmarks and to consider project timeline and products for June. Academic librarians from UBC and SFU will join us for half the meeting. I am looking forward to this. Our TLs showcase so well!
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