Just for Starters: Bits and Pieces

Welcome back ...

Hello again, and, while I am having trouble keeping up with the speed of September, it was fabulous to see everyone back and keen to go. I have lots for you to read in the blog if you check the archives back through the summer, but I am not pushing this as I am fearful you will be overwhelmed. For those with some fortitude for professional development immersion, do read some of it. In fact, much of it will re-appear in an edited version in the next issue of The Bookmark.

Welcome Maryann to TL "blogworld" ... you will see the link in the left-hand sidebar to both Maryann's NeedtoKnow and to Meredyth Kezar's LateLiteracy blogs. The MKs should not be confused ... but have wonderful blogs.

From Meredyth Kezar:

[Here is] a neat contest with lots of possiblities [for rookie writers] - For more information on the Writers' Festival check here!


From Alan Zisman:

If you're a Google Earth user (and you should be!) check out the online article: 10 Great Google Earth Add-ons

Here's what Alan says about his favourite add-on: Content in Google Earth doesn't always have to focus on in-the-present information -- it often allows users to do a little time traveling too. David Rumsey, a renowned cartographer, has amassed a collection of over 150,000 historical maps, 120 of which he has used to create a fascinating layer of maps that shows how the world looked between 1680 and 1930. The highlight is the world globe from 1790, which demonstrates how dramatically the borders have shifted for many countries, especially in prewar Europe and the Middle East. (Toggle Earth's default Primary Database layers to get a better view.)

Alan also sends this along: SKYGUY - Do you or your kids have questions about space or astronomy? Ask the SkyGuy! Tom Vilot from Boulder Colorado has created a very cool site that present answers to astronomy questions in high-quality, entertaining short videos. So if you've been wondering... Why are galaxies shaped like a swirl? What is a solstice? Or how many stars are out there?

Awesome Stories - September Issue

Calendar:

A very few TLs still need to come for Updating ... our last session to be held after school here at the VSB on September 17.

Sept 8: International Literacy Day (UNESCO) -- this date never works with school start-up but you will be receiving A World of Stories book by blue box soon; this is a book that addresses goals for global literacy. Be sure to highlight this wonderful resource with your staff.

Sept 15: VTLA Exec Meeting, Gladstone

Sept 19: Talk Like a Pirate Day

Sept 22: VTLA AGM, Hamber Library 4 pm

Wed Sept 24 CanWest Raise-a-Reader Day

Sept 28: Word on the Street , Library Square, 11 am to 5 pm

October is International School Library Month

Oct 5: BC Coalition for School Libraries/CWILL BC author presentation called "Autumn Harvest" will be held on Sunday, from 1:00 p.m. – 3:00 p.m. at the Central branch of the VPL in the Alice MacKay room (lower level). Admission is free.

Oct 21-26: Writers' Festival -- A World of Words

Oct 24: BCTLA Conference in Victoria -- Mission: Literacy

Oct 25: Vancouver Children's Literature Roundtable Annual Illustrators Breakfast -- Shaun Tan (The Arrival) at the University Golf Club

Oct 27: We are working on a province-wide DEAR ("Stop...Drop...Read" or Drop Everything and Read) to celebrate International / National School Library Day. Suggested time: 11 to 11:20 am

Nov 5,6: Multi-Vendor Display and Update Sessions

Nov 12: YA and Children's author Kathy Stinson plus BC authors & illustrators presenting their new children’s books in a Vancouver Children's Literature Roundtable evening event at Hycroft Mansion

Nov 15 -22: TD Canadian Children’s Book Week

February: Serendipity (details to follow)

Feb 20: Faces of Technology Day, Magee

Feb 22 – 28: Freedom to Read Week

Wed Mar 5: World Math Day

Have a great weekend, everyone.

What's Up This Month?

Some Highlights for April

Workshops
(See Pro D Connections for details; register online)

April 9 -- TL Studio at Kerrisdale

April 10 -- LOMCIRA's Evening with David Ward at Waverly, 4 pm, with lively refreshments. $15-20. David is a children's author; drawing from his own research, he will look at two local projects where young readers and writers have imagined collaboratively to create story worlds. Contact Meredyth if you are interested in coming.

April 10 -- Access to Public Education with Kit Kreiger and John Young: The University Women's Club is sponsoring a series entitled The Impact of Bill 20 and Other Legislation in BC. "Access to Education" is a focus for the local, Canadian and International University Women's groups for the coming year. The impact of bills such as Bill 20 in the matters of school fees, the role of school boards, evaluation of achievement, early childhood education and daycare will be discussed by local leaders from education, public service, and parent groups. The second in this four-part series will be held on May 20: Changing Roles of School Boards with speakers Adrienne Montani and Dr Chak Au. 7 pm, Hycroft, 1489 McRae (16th and Granville). Register in advance: 604-731-4661. Cost: $5.

April 16 -- Google for Educators, Part 1 with Alan Zisman, David and me: This collaboration will focus on Google Earth, Picasa, Page Creator ... and more, if there's time. April 16, after school, at Chief Maquinna. You can sign up for Google for Educators, Part 2, to be held at Kerrisdale Elementary on May 21: Michele F will join us to focus on Google's collaborative capacities.

April 30 -- teachingbooks and other databases: A webinar in five places? We're trying this out. Sign up for one of five locations (After school, school libraries of Byng, Hamber, Killarney, Tillicum Annex, or the VSB Tech Lab, Rm 100). It's for teachers, literacy consultants, and TLs.

At the VPL in April

• Why not celebrate National Poetry Month by attending The VPL World Poetry Reading Series, April 28, 7:30 pm, Central Branch. Hear the works of six poets, Canadian-based with global roots.
  
• VPL also has on this month the Winning at Crime Evening with BC Crime Writers on Wednesday, April 30, 7 pm at the Central Branch.
  
• Here's a VPL event to share with secondary students: Make Your Own Graphic Novels, at VPL, with Artist/instructor Julian Lawrence, creator of Drippytown Comics and editor with Zeroes 2 heroes: Sat, April 19, 2 pm, South Hill Branch; Tues, April 22, 4 pm, Kitsilano Branch; Sat, April 26, 2 pm, Oakridge Branch; Wed, April 30, 6 pm, Hastings Branch. Julian will look at character creqtion, thumbnail sketching, story plotting, page layout, as well as pencilling and design techniques. And this is free!
  
• Why not attend The VPL World Poetry Reading Series, April 28, 7:30 pm, Central Branch. Hear the works of six poets, Canadian-based with global roots.

April 17 -- How about an evening of Extraordinary Canadians?

... with award winner David Adams Richards, historian and author Charlotte Gray, and acclaimed novelist Lewis deSoto. Shall I pick up tickets? See Blog Archives for last week for more details. It's 7:30 pm, Thursday April 17, H.R. MacMillan Space Centre, 1100 Chestnut Street, Vancouver. Tickets: $15/$13. Bring colleagues.

Awesome Stories in April

THE UNDERGROUND RAILROAD: It is believed that on the 20th of April, 1853, Harriet Tubman began the "underground railroad." What was it - and - how did it work?

THE SAN FRANCISCO EARTHQUAKE: While the people of San Francisco slept, the ground below them was moving. At first, during the early hours of April 18, 1906, no one knew that something was awry. But then the rolling motions came, causing streets to rise, and fall, and rise again. It seemed, to one observer, as though the earth itself was breathing. What happened next devastated one of America's most popular cities and traumatized her citizens. Learn the story from eyewitnesses and archived photographs.

RUINS OF POMPEII DISCOVERED: In early April, 1748, a team of excavators rediscovered Pompeii. Once a thriving town, it was completely destroyed by Vesuvius, a nearby volcano, in the summer of 79 A.D. Discoveries at the site, which is like a living museum, continue to this day.

For more monthly highlights from Awesome Stories, sign up for the newsletter here.

RESOURCES

e-Resources found at SLRCCC: Chris Ball, Head of the UBC Education Library and Associate U. Librarian for Collections and Scholarly Communications, has joined our School Library Resource Centre Consultative Committee, along with Colleen Alstad, former TL and now an SFU Education and Political Science Librarian. Chris's report to the committee on campus libraries could lead one to conclude, they have the same problems, only a much much bigger budget. 70% of UBC's library funding is spent on electronic resources -- big implications for how we prepare our students for post-secondary, right? He has sent the link to UBC e-resources which have remote and open access and which may be of interest to secondary schools. And so the mutually beneficial partnership begins!

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Freedom To Read Kits -- As promised, these were ordered and will be in the secondary schools on Friday ... that's today.

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Has anyone seen the free DVD The Boy Inside, the one the Ministry was sending out to all schools?

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February is Black History Month:

This month AwesomeStories includes a feature about Slavery, amongst other topics. Check out the site ... I have recommended this one before. We have an academic membership. I can email you the password if you want to join.

And check out teachingbooks (see Databases page off "webcat" -- you will need the password) for more Black History month resources as well.

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Dragon Books:

I need these next week.

Please let me know if you have

some really good ones set aside for me.

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I checked this Google Maps mashup (click here for Wikipedia definition of mashup) just as someone edited the entry for "Windermere Secondary School" on Wikipedia ... at 11:33 pm! How can this be? or rather, who? Thanks, TL Annabelle, who emailed this really cool tool to explain how it all works but I am not sure how the tool works -- I just can't imagine how it works! I think mashup refers to my brain under the influence of too much technology! "...this Google Maps mashup shows additions to the Wikipedia in REAL-TIME based on where the person is who added it..."

Happy New Year!

I have saved this link to as a reflective holiday greeting: What is eaten in one week (by one family around the world) is for consideration in our own New Year’s planning or for use with social studies or social issues lessons.

I will be away from my desk on Tuesday and Wednesday next week. Yes, I am off to give a workshop in School District #6, Rocky Mountain, in Invermere, BC. I will be using our "Role and Responsibilities" document (sent to new and nearly-new TLs this week). For anyone else who may wish to review the scope and nature of the wonderful work you do, check this 6-page document in section 1 of your TL Handbook.

Heidi, Literacy Mentor here at the VSB, sends the following clever “marketing” youtube link of interest for TLs.

Our first TL Studio Workshop of 2008 had 15 registrants but only 5 showed up. I hope that people just forgot and have not lost interest. Michele showed us all kinds of new “open source” resources like Froguts and Scratch, as well as what can be done with the Smartboard. We met John, the new Online Learning Consultant, resisted chocolate, and considered how we might use the new tools. Attendees submitted comments in response to my blog!

I hope you find you can respond to this blog by going to the end of this January 11 entry and clicking onto “Comments.” You can mark this http://tlspecial.blogspot.com/ as a favourite and come back to it at any time.

NOTE: A blog is an online diary – we discussed possible applications for Reader Response but the jury is out on educational applications for these. It is a Web 2.0 tool in that it is interactive. Where wikis are a tool that can be collaboratively developed, blogs are written by one person and responded to by others. In blogs, the first entry is the most recent. Older entries are “archived” or scrolled through. I am still learning how to do this and will be looking for how to make it searchable. But I did choose the background and video clips, post my photo taken from a window of the Bodleian Library in Oxford, and successfully enter the emails I sent you previously. Stop reading when it begins to feel as though you’ve seen this before!

Little Library in Malawi: I got a call this morning from Deanna to say thanks for the donations of really fine reading materials and supplies for the new library in Malawi. She was able to take some books with her and has just sent off 90 lbs more (with the help of a $450 community donation).

UPCOMING EVENTS:

District Literacy Day, Feb. 8: Information will be in the schools next week. 34 workshops to choose from. Be sure to promote workshops with your colleagues, and check out the ones given by TLs.

District Technology Day, Feb. 8: Check the workshops for the Faces of Technology Conference 2008 online.

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Don't forget to register for:

EBSCO Training for Teacher-Librarians

Wednesday, January 16, 2008, 4:00 pm - 6:00 pm

Prince of Wales Secondary Library, 2250 Eddington Drive (just north of 25th and west of Arbutus) with our David and presenter Dennis Staples, Education Specialist, EBSCO Publishing.

This is the last opportunity of the year to get first-hand answers from the company rep. We have asked Dennis to be prepared to "customize" his workshop for the questions and interests you have.

We need more sign-up for this session!

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What Research Says About Improving the Literacy Achievements of Students of Diverse Backgrounds

Sponsored by BCLCIRA, this evening of professional development with Dr Kathryn Au will be held on Thursday, January 31, at the Italian Cultural Centre from 5 pm to 8:30 pm. For the registration fee of $55 (before Jan 17) and $65 (after Jan 17), you will have a full Italian dinner, an educational evening, and an opportunity to socialize with other literacy-minded educators.

Dr. Au, VP, International Reading Association and Dai Ho Chun Professor of Education at University of Hawaii, has authored numerous books and chapters on multicultural classrooms, diverse learners and effective literacy instruction for all students. Based on research on language and culture, Dr. Au will present evidence-based, practical instructional strategies that address the needs of all literacy learners.

Email Meredyth - mkezar@vsb.bc.ca – if this sounds like an evening for you:

Nick Glass, Founder and Principal of TeachingBooks, makes a webinar offer

If you would be interested in attending a free TeachingBooks.net web seminar, or if you think a group of our colleagues might like this, let me know. Glass writes, “This live training session would enable your librarians, reading teachers, and anyone in your district who uses books to learn directly from TeachingBooks staff about how this electronic resource supports their existing library and reading initiatives.”

He continues, “What we ask is that we have an audience. Your colleagues could be gathered in one place, spread out throughout the district, or a combination of the two. Webinar attendees need only a computer with Internet access and headphones or speakers …. The webinar would have value both live and beyond. We will record the seminar and provide you with a link to share the recording throughout your district.” Call Moira if you would like this set up.

From VPL and Hastings Library -- Teen Book Club and Palmistry for Teens

It’s back! Saturdays, 2:30 to 4:30 pm, Jan 19, Mar 1, Mar 29, Apr 26, May 24. It’s FREE. They provide the books and snacks. Registration is limited to 15 and has started already. Call 604-665-3959 to register or to get more information.

Or how about another exciting program, Palmistry for Teens, coming on Jan 26, 11:30 a.m. to 1:30 pm. Again, registration has started. Limited to 15.

More Teen-focused workshops are anticipated. Says Karen Sharkey, Teen Services Librarian at the VPL: “We will be having a gaming program, a beauty bootcamp and a graphic novels workshop coming later in the spring and I'll keep you posted.”

Karen also thanks TLs in Vancouver for promoting the Teen Bookmark Contest. “We had over 200 entries and the 2 winners are both from Vancouver. I am working on finding an event to present them with their cheques and the big 4 foot bookmark that we give them with their art. If you have any suggestions about school events where we could do the presentation, that would be great! I am going to see if the city youth team has anything where we could do the presentation.” Stay tuned.


RESOURCES

Vancouver Kidsbooks: Pre-Sale Event for Teachers and Teacher-librarians

Phyllis Simon sends her personal invitation:

"To all our wonderful teachers!! We invite you to our Annual Sale Teacher's Night Preview for fun, refreshments and first kick at our 20% off sale."

The Pre-Sale Evening will be held at all three stores (Broadway, Edgemont, and South Surrey) from 6:30 to 9:00 pm. RSVP 604-738-5335.

The Annual Sale with 20% of all stock and 30% off Christmas stock will run from Thursday Jan 17 to Sunday Jan 20.

Please promote this event … and come with teacher colleagues. Flyer sent by email.
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NFB Learning Resources Catalogue:
Order by calling 1-800-267-7710

Lots of new titles on the environment, diversity, history, government, Language Arts, aboriginal studies, science and nature, media issues, teens, and more.

You can shop online at www.nfb.ca/store, search the free online study guides at www.nfb.ca/guides, and know that NFB DVDs are cleared for classroom use and public performance where no entry fee is charged.
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From Elizabeth Graves of ULS comes news of the January Blowout Sale:
January 14 - 19, 2008
Discounts up to 36% off on all Hardcovers (in house purchases only)

Extra bonuses include:
• A huge clearance section of 80% off titles
• 50% off selected French Books
• Free Shipping
• Lots of Reading Power titles in stock

Sale Hours:

Mon., Jan 14: 8:30am - 5:00pm; Tues., Jan 15: 8:30am - 5:00pm; Wed., Jan 16: 8:30am - 5:00pm; Thurs., Jan 17: 8:30am - 5:00pm; Fri., Jan 18: 8:30am - 4:00pm; Sat., Jan 19: 9:00am - 2:00pm (NOTE: Saturday opening)

101B - 3430 Brighton Avenue, Bunaby BC V5A 3H4
604-421-1154 or toll-free 1-877-853-1200

Elizabeth Hennessey Graves, Sales, BC Schools & Libraries
United Library Services, 101B 3430 Brighton Avenue, Burnaby, BC V5A 3H4
T: (604) 605-8926 F: (604) 605-8961 e: egraves@uls.com


Awesome Stories – The January issue

I know I’ve talked about this site before. The January Issue is available now. And there is a subject index , a separate section for learning tools such as animations, online games, and virtual field trips, and streaming audio recordings of their stories. You don’t have to load a player; just click on the green arrow at the top of each recorded chapter and off you go. Look for podcasts of stories soon. We have now got an academic membership using 39vsb as the password.

Writers In Electronic Residence Launches 20th Year

Jan. 14: Linking Canada's Writers with Canada's Schools

Imagine having Wayne Gretzky assess your stick work, or Elizabeth Baird test your butter tarts. Then imagine that their advice was part of a free exchange of ideas among other students, teachers, and the pros, culminating in everyone joining in a practice hockey game or sitting down to eat the final creation. This captures the reality of Writers In Electronic Residence, where the coaches are prominent Canadian writers, working online wth students and teachers in elementary, middle and secondary classrooms across Canada--Iqaluit to Toronto, Vancouver to St. John's.

WIER's winter term will open with its usual two-week "introductory period" on January 14, 2008. Space is available in each of WIER's online writing programs--elementary, middle school, and secondary school levels. The term will run until April 5.

Please visit http://www.wier.ca/ for program information, student writing samples, author biographies and the like. Here's a quick link to WIER's registration FAXBACK FORM.
WIER is administered by the Canadian Education Association in alliance with OISE/UT.

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From former TL Val, now Co-ordinator, Artists-in-Residence Program, here at the VSB:

WORKING LIVES: A MUSICAL HISTORY OF LABOUR AND ENTERPRISE IN BRITISH COLUMBIA

This year celebrate BC’s 150th birthday using this new online learning resource: http://www.workinglives.ca/. It provides a uniquely creative perspective on BC's social and economic history. Collaboratively developed by a TL and a singer/songwriter John McLachlan, Working Lives works well with the Social Studies 10 BC Resources unit. Historical figures are kept alive through the songs they inspired.

Each of the 10 songs can be downloaded. Archival photographs and pen and ink drawings give the songs a visual context, while background information and learning activities in a PDF format encourage students to actively engage with the website. Extension activities and extensive bibliographies enable further research. Working Lives was classroom tested during the development process.

To launch Working Lives as a classroom resource in BC schools, request one of the FREE CDs (limited number) from BCTF Lesson Aids: 604- 871-2180. A $5.00 charge for postage and handling will apply.

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New Book The Evergreen Country: A Memoir of Viet-Nam
By Thuong Vuong-Riddick

Some of you may know Mimi, Settlement Worker in School (SWIS) at Churchill. Her sister Thuong Vuong-Riddick has just published her second book. Mimi has emailed me to say Chapters doesn’t have enough copies at the moment so you can contact Thuong directly thuong_riddick@hotmail.com with questions or ordering information. Five secondary schools have her first book of poems, Two Shores : poems = Deux Rives: poemes

From EdInfo Digest, Jan 3: A BC ARCHIVES Website: THE AMAZING TIME MACHINE

If you haven’t looked at this resource, you should do. It caters to school age children and provides access to British Columbia historical documents, images, and other multimedia information in a format that they can relate to.

http://www.bcarchives.gov.bc.ca/exhibits/timemach/index.htm

Archival documents (photos, newspaper clippings, drawings, paintings and pages from people’s journals etc.) are grouped into 11 collections that range from “Families in B.C. History” for grades K–1, “First Nations Art in B.C.” for grade 4 and “Women in B.C. History” for grade 11.

http://www.bcarchives.gov.bc.ca/exhibits/timemach/galler01/frames/index.htm

http://www.bcarchives.gov.bc.ca/exhibits/timemach/galler03/frames/index.htm

http://www.bcarchives.gov.bc.ca/exhibits/timemach/galler10/frames/index.htm

The Time Machine is the winner of various awards and “best-of” lists and received a five-star rating from the Encyclopedia Britannica Online.

And finally, this week …

A REMINDER: Sun/Province AFFIDAVIT WEEK IS COMING UP! Here's a suggestion from a TL colleague: Fill in every blank except the date (# of licences = the number of students in your school), photocopy it 6 times so you have enough to send in until June, then each month you only have to fill in the date and FAX as required.

New TL Directories have been sent out. Please replace the ones from the Fall. Some changes have been coming in. We will send these out by email so that you can make relevant changes on your print copy.

Have a great weekend!

Time for a Break!

Time for a Break!

Rather than add to the size of your email with large summary email missives each week, I am blogging and will be sending out the link.

More Changes in School Libraries

The new TL at the Gladstone library is doing her course work in the TL diploma program and is rumoured to work part-time as well at Kidsbooks.

We will update the TL Directory in January to reflect the many changes.

I have a new assistant.

FPinfomart Training

The FPinfomart Training and Professional Services team will hold classroom training sessions in Vancouver on Wednesday, Jan. 30, 2008.

If you would like to participate, can you contact Moira before registering with Yvonne Yip at yyip@canwest.com.

If you are unable to attend, please contact Yvonne to set up an alternate virtual or phone training session. For more information on all of the different training opportunities, as well as details on the on-site venues, please visit the Training Schedule.

DVD: The Boy Inside

The Ministry of Education is sending out copies of this DVD for schools, as you will have seen in my earlier email today. We need to catalogue one copy be sent in for cataloguing. Can someone let me know when one is available. Remind your administrator that our centralized resource and expertise services are the best way to retain and promote resources in schools. If anyone should happen to get two copies, we could always add one to the district Media collection!

Lunch with Jamie McKenzie –

I can't tell you how great it was for me to be invited to share in the Nootka potluck luncheon with guest Dr Jamie McKenzie, former superintendent for the Bellingham School District. For those of you who want to find out more about his work in supporting teachers who are integrating technology with teaching and learning and in building strong school library programs go to his From Now On website. And the lunch was fantastic, especially the cream puffs!

Cancelled/un-cancelled/re-scheduled -- Workshop on Accounting --

As I drove back to the VSB from Nootka on Thursday afternoon, the snow appeared to be sticking so, on seeing that most were coming from the East Side, I thought it best to cancel the workshop. In addition to emailing, we phoned the schools. You will have seen the email -- several were also sick. But TLs are a hardy and dedicated breed. Six came, two by bike. And the snow turned to rain. So we had a small but successful workshop. I am planning another one for January as Accounting will still send someone.

Lunch with Author Hadani Ditmars

Author Hadani Ditmars and I had lunch this week ... I don't get out very often like this, I swear! She is widely published with a major article on the loss of culture due in the March issue of The Walrus.

Here is a link to her literary agent's page: http://www.tla1.com/Talent/Hadani_Ditmars/HADANI_DITMARS.htm.

Hadani is going to be available in January and February for sure and is well suited to social studies global issues topics. I have several schools already interested in setting dates. Here's the "blurb":

Hadani Ditmars’ Dancing in the No Fly Zone chronicles 7 years of reporting from pre and post invasion Iraq. She has read and lectured on Iraq internationally, from the Vancouver Public Library to London’s Royal Institute of International Affairs to Dublin’s Abbey Theatre. Hadani has had a particular interest in the plight of children and youth in war zones, having documented the experience of Lebanese “children of war” in post civil war Beirut, Somali and Palestinian refugees, as well as children in Iraq. Her work lends itself to elementary and secondary social studies. The chapter of No Fly Zone entitled “The Pool People” describes the plight of displaced children and their families camped out in an abandoned aquatic centre in a north Baghdad slum. “In Hospital” focuses on the Baghdad Pediatric Hospital – sadly in worse shape post invasion than it was under draconian sanctions that restricted the importation of basic medicine and supplies.

Iraq, like Canada, was once a secular, multicultural society with one of the best public health and education systems in the world. Today, infant mortality rates are on a par with sub-Saharan Africa and the literacy rate has plummeted. Baghdad’s libraries, museums, schools and public institutions have been burned, looted or co-opted by sectarian militias and a whole generation of children have had their education interrupted or severely curtailed.

Hadani’s book as well as her video and photographic presentations offer a very human and easily accessible way into the lives of average Iraqi men, women and children caught up in war and conflict, and can greatly contribute to widening the worldview of young people in Canada.

Awesome Stories

Membership to this databases of stories, audiostreaming, audio/video clips, online games, and virtual field trips is free. I am getting the monthly newsletters -- December features Beowulf, Who was St Nicholas?, and The Story of Peter Pan. There is a newly located Learning Tools section.

Check out the site, sign up for the newsletter, or subscribe as an individual member: http://www.awesomestories.com/. We could also subscribe as an academic group if there were interest.

SLRCCC (School Library Resource Centre Consultative Committee)

We had our second meeting of the year on Tuesday morning this week. The committee was pleased to welcome two academic librarians from the SFU libraries and will be joined by one from the UBC Education Library in January. The introduction of academic librarians to the committee structure is exciting for us. The "big picture" for our students who go on to post-secondary and for what happens to prepare their students who undertake practica in our schools to work with TLs is just a hint of the possibilities of conversations.

"The Role and Responsibilities" document (see Handbook, section 1, pages 10-16) was reviewed and we are now able to announce that it looks as though both VEPVA and VASSA will "endorse" the document as a statement of best practice for TLs. The first page (page 10) will be revised for The Handbook to include the following paragraph and to reflect the additional endorsements:

The “Role and Responsibilities” document is not intended as written policy; rather, it is a working document, a set of guidelines to help new teacher-librarians, those considering teacher-librarianship, and those who work with and support the work of teacher-librarians in schools. As a reflection of what constitutes best practice for Vancouver’s teacher-librarians, it can be used as a tool for assessing professional development needs and a framework for discussions of school library programs where it is important to have common understandings about the work of teacher-librarians.

We wished my assistant well in her new year-long position gifts for our Media and Library Services support staff, as well as for the technicians who keep school libraries up and running, were delivered. We also were informed that there will be no change in the Systems Librarian position.

Handbook Revisions

I will begin to work with my new assistant on the latest revisions to The Handbook. The version in the portal is a little out of date but we are now downloaded and ready to go with updating in January. Input from TLs would be important. If you haven't printed out a copy, you could wait but access the electronic version for your own needs.

Get Carded Info

This is a reminder to those secondary schools who have not yet responded with the number of classes of grade 9s who would be involved with this VPL initiative that it would be important to respond this week coming. Thanks for your help.

Ressources: Encyclopedie Decouverte and World Book for Kids (French)

Always in search of resources to meet the needs of Vancouver's French Immersion students, we have been working with the World Book rep on pricing out the French version of the Discovery Encyclopedia as a district/French Immersion purchase. More information will follow. The actual copies are not due out until the Fall of 2008. The electronic database World Book for Kids (French) is due in February. This is not going to be a cost item to schools.

"That's a Family" DVD and Teacher Guide

The Anti-homophobia Consultant has ordered copies of this kit for every school. You may remember I announced at the multivendor display that we are participating, along with the Anti-racism Consultant, in this acquisition for all elementary schools. We will discuss cataloguing with our "catstaff" and then get them out to the professional collections of our elementary school libraries thereafter. We would anticipate that you will want to promote this engaging and significant resource at professional development opportunities and/or staff meetings.

And finally ...

I hope you have a wonderful, lively, and productive last week of school. Unless there is an accumulation of important news, I don't expect I will need to do a summary next week. Here's wishing you a lovely break and a fulfilling new year. Thanks for all the support you have given me. It has been a busy time but I think I'm getting a handle on the pace and expectations. Now if I could just adjust to life in a cubicle!