Lifelong Learning ...

If you have contributed to the tlspecial wiki, you will have recently noticed a spate of emails, for example, the ones from our dear Mary asking to be let in! Well, pbwiki underwent an upgrade and it seems to have upgraded every previous contributor to the status of administrator and reduced me to helpless bystander! So I have reduced you all to writers again and seem unable to put myself into the elevated administrative position again. I probably should have left one of you as an administrator so this could be fixed. Oh well. For any of the rest of you, including Fred at Byng who has since graduated from wikis to Moodle, check out the wiki to see what's new ... and please contact me if you need to get in to post some new stuff. Mary, any luck yet?

Old Crock

Adapted from Ted Covington.
Pics4Learning. 5 Apr 2009

The really annoying thing about Web 2.0 is that it rarely stays the same -- it is in a continual state of beta (that's a relatively new term for me -- it means "test" or pilot version). Did you ever think you'd have to know so much and then have to learn more ... at exactly the same time as your mind is so overloaded that stuff is going missing all the time! In fact, I am thinking my mind has entered a continual state of beta as nothing seems to be working the way it used to. I chose the photo above as it seems sometimes to make more sense to have technology that doesn't change. It's an old crock of a machine, like me.

Here's an example of what I mean: On or about the time of this my most significant birthday, I began bravely loading the OS on my new netbook. User-friendly stuff, unquestionably, or why would they let me do it? What, you ask, was I thinking?

Windows is the operating system (OS), now located behind a partition in your computer which I learned this weekend while trying to fix an unfixable problem; partition, you ask? Well, it's all different now and you don't get the recovery disks. Netbook? Very small computer. Reading my regular computer screen and loading the OS, I didn't read carefully and thought "Canadian French" meant the Canadian version of Windows with some French options (as, for example, l'accent circonflexe) which is exactly what it means on my regular laptop. Thereafter, I spent the entire weekend trying to reverse this irreversible decision and now hate the netbook and the company that made it that I am packing it up and sending it back, fingers crossed that all will go well and I will get my money back promptly.

But that's not all -- I accidentally paid the wrong VISA bill and now have to wait to get the money back after an "investigation" because I didn't take the time to read what I was doing and paid a card I never use. This does not bode well. I am awaiting my RogersRocket, annoyed by On-Star which gets in the way of my beloved Bluetooth, confused by Twitter and overwhelmed by Tweetdeck and astounded that anyone would want these, blogging furiously because everything -- in particular my timeline -- is going to the hand-basket, and mentoring JO's Gloria for technology integration with teaching and learning (she's building wikis over there). How ironic! I may have to go back and re-think my position that all the so-called digital immigrants need to become natives is more time!

What's Val up to? Read this.

What's Mary up to? If you are reading this Monday morning, she will be back behind the circ desk at General Gordon relaxing into her work after a very busy few months of not working. Right! We are so so happy to be back on Mary's priority list! Thanks, Mary, for all the work you've been doing behind the scenes to ensure you are back in a system with the strength it takes to thrive.

What else is new? A Vancouver TL has won the CASL/Follett National Teacher-Librarian Award and will be off to Montreal in late May to collect her prize! You have to guess who. Suffice it to say that referee Ken Haycock wondered why it had taken so long!

We are loving Inquiry! And here's what we are reading. We looked at the Ontario Exemplary School Libraries (2009) and the Saskatchewan Teachers' Association Teacher Librarians Supporting Student Learning (2006) documents. You can follow along with us on our Inquiry wiki.

Sign up now!

Have you registered for your May Update session? If you are a new TL, have you also registered for April 28?

Testing, used properly, can lay the groundwork for success for all (The Vancouver Sun, 18 Mar 2009, Page A11)

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... better still, so can lots of reading! This blog post allows me to expound on my thoughts exactly on assessment for learning in school libraries, whether you like it or not!

Geoff Johnson, a frequent educational editorial contributor to The Vancouver Sun Op Ed page, is a former colleague from my very first years in New Westminster as a teacher of English. In light of the comments of some of our colleagues that emerged from the recent BCTF AGM, I do very much appreciate the perspective from which Geoff's article (below) comes.

In schools, we teach children and everything we do is about building their chances of success. And aren't you glad that we teacher-librarians work in the best place in the school to stimulate the love of words, that we don't have to administer spelling tests, for example, or deal with zeroes and speculate on curricular dumbing-down -- rather, we know that assessment for learning (AFL) in our space means knowing each child well enough that you have no difficulty finding "just the right book for just the right child at just the right time."

Please read Meredyth`s lateliteracy blog this week (Teacher-librarians, April 4) as she describes the delight with which she viewed our Pam of Waverly in a frenzy of matching books and kids. To my Literacy colleagues I do need to ask, can you see it? Are there those places where you see classrooms committed to reading by using the school library program and you know that success in that building hinges on the relationships that have been developed to promote the love and culture of reading. Thanks, Meredyth, for this description. Oh, and for posting the very cool poster of Obama in the library.

Thanks, Meredyth, for this description of our super-colleague. Oh, and for posting the very cool poster of Obama in the library which I am blatantly borrowing because he belongs here too.

We know, and would love someone like Geoff Johnson to write about this phenomenon called school library, where reading improves with reading, and reading also improves spelling, vocabulary, grammar, writing ... well, Krashen argues this best, and I am preaching to the converted here! But for all the Ministry-driven rhetoric about improving literacy and student achievement, it still amazes me that decades of research correlating strong school library programs and student success, as well as free voluntary reading and student success, are ignored as we continue to face erosion of our capacity to administer the treatment that works best. Did I see a report that literacy scores are down, Mr Gorman? Stephen Krashen has something to say about that. Hello, is there anyone over there?

I am reminded of Krashen`s question: What, he asked metaphorically, if there was a country experiencing a drought and famine, and the experts deemed that the children there needed painful and expensive surgery? Everyone would say, no, feed them! Similarly, children don’t need painful and expensive intensive phonics programs (and perhaps I can add, more testing), they need books!

If you need to re-read about Krashen and his work, check my summary of his talk at the IASL conference in Berkeley this summer (Fall 2008 Bookmark, pp 10-11). And, Geoff, you were there in New West when Hooked on Books was what drove our instruction in English. I'll be in touch! Read Geoff Johnson (Sun, 18 March 2009) below ... .

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Testing, used properly, can lay the groundwork for success for all
BY GEOFF JOHNSON
The Vancouver Sun
18 Mar 2009

It was 1968 and like every “ newbie” teacher in New South Wales, Australia, I was subject to inspection by a state-appointed inspector. And I wasn’t doing well. Grade 12 English in those days still included the teaching of spelling — thought to be an...read more...

Related:
Assessment for learning not â€�dumbing down’

Tech Tags: The Vancouver Sun newspaper Opinion

A Break on the Horizon

News to report this week:

Collaboration in the Library

Last week I told you about the BCTF workshop offered by our Vancouver TLs Janet, Katharine, and Michele. This week I have added their blog into the "Related Bloggers" section of the sidebar. See blog Collaboration in the Library. New TLs, this is worth your time.


UBC Infolit Project

The long-time project in which retired and practicing TLs work with elementary and primary teacher-candidates in the UBC Education program is happening now. Recently Gwen showed UBC instructors and others supporting the students how to integrate the database and electronic resources with their information literacy lessons. This week Michele and I worked with the project, alongside retirees like Sharon, Vi, Bev, Carolynn, and more, to build understandings about inquiry, resource-based learning, and the collaborative capacity of TLs.

The Bookmark

The Winter 2009 issue of The Bookmark is online now. As usual, it is a remarkable piece of work that is drawing attention for its quality and innovative format. Editors and Okanagan TLs Angie MacRitchie and Al Smith are hard-working, active, and fun members of our BCTLA Executive; we are really proud of them both. By the way, rumour has it that some members of the BCTLA Executive are saving to go to Padua for the IASL Conference at the end of the summer; there are similar rumours that more than one Vancouver TL will be there too!

In this issue find articles by Marlene Asselin, Ray Doiron, Jennifer Branch, Diane Oberg, and Margriet Ruurs, as well as the regular contributions of Greg Smith, John Goldsmith, Stew Savard, Carolyn Cutt, and Pat Parker.


The Lieutenant Governor's Literacy Program

Each month, The Honourable Steven Point posts four pictures and invites students, children, and young adults to write stories for the pictures, stories he personally will read. Wouldn't this be a wonderful opportunity for further development with digital storytelling or more of what we saw with Dr Jason Ohler?

Literacy 2.0

The March issue of Educational Leadership features the theme of "Literacy 2.0" and Dr Jason Ohler as the lead contributor with his article "Orchestrating the Media Collage" (EL March 2009). In her introduction to the issue, Marge Scherer summarizes the content as articles that will examine "what this new 2.0 literacy entails; how it differs from, yet relies on, the skills of traditional literacy; which new possibilities and challenges it raises — including how to counsel the multitasking student and how to foster the endangered capacity to read deeply; and finally, where and how literacy 2.0 should fit in K-12 curriculum and instruction."

If you missed the opportunity to hear Jason Ohler, the link to the EL article I sent out would provide an opportunity to read about what we learned and what everyone is talking about. Don't forget that EL is included in the EBSCO database package so you can search for this and other articles.

Many people who attended Technology Day at Magee with Dr Ohler have requested copies of his recent book so we will be looking at taking and placing a bulk order. Information will follow shortly, but you as the TL might want to share your resource expertise -- check who in your school would like to own a copy and where the funds can be found to put one into the school's professional collection. How many copies for your school, then?

Digital Storytelling in the Classroom:
New Media Pathways to Literacy, Learning, and Creativity.
2008. Corwin Press.
ISBN: 9781412938501

CWILL and Planning for Author Visits

Mark at Cunningham reminds us that the very best place to find an author or illustrator for school library visits is the website for Canadian Writers and Illustrators BC (CWILLBC). We have so much local and easily accessibly talent here in Vancouver.

• Mark recommends former Vancouver teacher and award-winning children's author Robert Heidbreder for annex and elementary audiences.
  


• I can also recommend my neighbour Glen Huser, by the way, who is a former TL and TL Consultant from Edmonton as well as an GG award-winning author for his book Stitches.
  


• Melanie Jackson, local author and fellow denizen of the VSB here, is nominated for a Chocolate Lily award this year for her book Shadows on the Train.
  


• And don't forget Nancy Hundal, our very own practicing TL and children's author, whose tenth book -- a first chapter book, in fact -- is due in April.
  


• Did you hear Tiffany Poirier from Brock at Winter Tonic this year? If so, you will remember that her first book Q is for Question is due soon too.
  


• And Vi Hughes has another one coming soon too.

Great Resources -

Webspiration and Graphic Novels

Our new membership in the IASL has been worthwhile. The following info comes via IASL-Link's Gerald Brown from Winnipeg and retired consultant for Pembina Margaret Stimson:

• Did you know that the New York Times has added a new best seller list to the collection? It's the New York Times Graphic Books Bestsellers list. Librarian Joshua Carlson believes graphic novels are important for all libraries. Graphic novels have become important in our school library collections but there are still many obstacles to general acceptance this is an important format for engaging young readers. This bestseller list adds support. They are both worthwhile and worthy of recognition.



• Webspiration? It's the public beta version of Inspiration, software created for your use FREE by the same company. "Use Webspiration's diagramming environment to create bubble diagrams, flowcharts, concept maps, process flows and other visual representations that stimulate and reflect your thinking."

WebWord and Netbooks, Reviewed

From Online Edition of Costco Connection and high-tech reporter Marc Saltzman: check page 13 of the March/April 2009 edition for his "latest" on the little laptops (called "netbooks") you may be seeing around and for this valuable tool:

• WordWeb: this is a FREE downloadable dictionary and thesaurus that, if you hold down the CTRL key and right-click on any word, activates a pop-up window with the definition, synonyms, antonyms, as well as links to other sites such as Wikipedia. It can be used offline as well. It takes up 7.4 mb and has more than 150 000 root words and 120 000 synonyms. It is available in "Canadian" English.
  
• Of the new Netbooks, Saltzman says they are one of today's hottest tech tools (although I am still thinking I need a video camera like Alan Z's Vado) ... So, for cost-savings, netbooks often use Linux open-source operating systems, as opposed to Windows. The small keyboard is ideal for kids (and the lightweight affordability makes them ideal for geo-caching, I am told). They have small storage capacity and do not have the gaming or video capacity of laptops. But they are perfect for email, word processing, and checking the internet. At under $400 each, might these be the solution to some of our technology needs?

Obama cares about libraries:

"At the moment that we persuade a child, any child, to cross that threshold, that magic threshold into a library, we change their lives forever, for the better. It's an enormous force for good."

Barack Obama, keynote speech

American Library Association Conference, 2005