Blogworthy ...

EVENTS

• Further to the "Up Mary-scope" blog (see below) photos from last week, I have now identified in the captions the venerable people with whom Our Mary was conversing about literacy and school libraries. By following her around with my camera, I was lucky to meet them all too. Check out as well the answers now inserted into the questions in the Serendipity blog from last week so that now you can identify the quotes and personal factoids.
  
• Next week is TL Studio at Kerrisdale on Wednesday. Ithink we should try social bookmarking and Michele wants to show you Scratch. I promise the coffee will be de-caf as the experience alone is enough to get one wired! That's wired ... not weird!
  
• Are you wondering how Val H is doing? You can check out her latest blog entry. Or if you want to see if she has slowed down, how about this great collection of BC history and 150-year Anniversary websites which Val has created for the BCTLA website. I would suggest bookmarking this page. She is using a social bookmarking tool (it's Web 2.0 because a group could build a list together) called diigo which I confess to showing her. Val now accuses me of causing her to lose many hours of sleep. Here's my diigo collection-in-progress with lists, called TLBookmarks.
  
• Announcement: 2008 BC Book Prizes Winners! -- Finalists -- Author Tour includes Gladstone! Check out the Soiree, VPL Fair, Local Events, including an evening with Joy Kogawa at her heritage home in Marpole, and of course the Gala, all part of BC Book and Magazine Week, April 19-26. Mark your calendar.
  
• Annual District Purchases: Note that all shortlisted books for the BC Book Prizes will be included as items for your choice with 2007/8 District funds. We have expanded the choices of for BC Books to include current and past items in the various BC Book Publishers' catalogues, and more titles as well. You will receive lists of BC books to choose from both ULS and Kidsbooks, in conjunction with the current BC Books for BC Schools catalogue. Our goal is to ensure that Vancouver's children are raised on a fare of BC writers and with opportunities to build knowledge of their own landscape, history, heritage, literature, and culture, that they are immersed in a rich array of resources that describe their own experiences. We are also providing support for local and Canadian publishing.
  

RESOURCES

• Here's a great resource from the BCTLA Forum: The Encyclopedia of Life.
  
• Webbits this week highlights the VIRTUAL MUSEUM OF NEW FRANCE and invites you and your students to "celebrate the 400th anniversary of Quebec City with a visit to the Virtual Museum of New France .... virtual exhibitions, collections of artifacts, ancient images and maps, chronologies, educational games, glossaries, genealogical data, and suggestions for tourists interested in following in the footsteps of their ancestors."
  
• International Children's Digital Library: The mission of the International Children’s Digital Library is to excite and inspire the world's children to become members of the global community – children who understand the value of tolerance and respect for diverse cultures, languages and ideas - by making the best in children's literature available online. Check out some facts about the ICDL, especially that it is searchable, free, and available currently in 9 languages.
  
• Professional Reading: Are you feeling the need to keep up with directions in the field? Try Literacy, Libraries and Learning: Using books and online resources to promote reading, writing, and research (eds: Marlene Asselin/Ray Doiron. Markham, ON: Pembroke, 2003). I got my copy at the UBC bookstore -- it's a textbook, of course --but top-notch assistant Diane has found it is cheaper to use Amazon or Chapters online, and probably cheaper still from ULS. So far, I've read the Intro which tackles the outdated notion that the school library "provisions" the classroom or the TL teaches "library skills" in order to give the classroom teacher a "prep". It then examines the changed nature of the relationship in terms of literacy programs.
  
  There is an essential role for the TL who is needed to help navigate the new learning environment, in particular, the new and dynamic array of learning resources, and who is an instructional leader often with the key to ways to integrate these new resources into both teaching and learning. Further, Ray and Marlene point out that literature-based programs need access to "a greater and richer collection of resources than a single classroom could possibly have." Connecting just the right resources to the needs of instruction calls for building the connections between classroom teachers and TLs.
  
  School libraries offer opportunities for sharing both the rich, diverse, inclusive, and dynamic collections and the expertise of TLs in integrating technology across the curriculum by supporting teachers and students, by "scaffolding" the learning, and by being there to lead the way. Marlene and Ray have gathered the evidence, explored the territory, and examined the tools that are useful to the partnership of teachers and teacher-librarians as they make literacy and reading a priority. This book is a great item for your personal professional reading.

More next week ....

"Up Maryscope" at the Longhouse Serendipity

Here's a look at "our Mary" working the Longhouse as ambassador for school libraries: can you name the well-known -- even venerable -- local personalities she's telling about school libraries and their important relationship to literacy?

Mary meets Lt-Gov Steven Point ...

... and then can be found chatting up Bob Heidbreder and Jo-Anne N.

Here she is with Marisa and 2003 Gov-Gen
award-winning author Glen Huser (Stitches).
NOTE: Glen is also a TL who worked as
the Edmonton School District TL Consultant.

_____________________________________

Here are some more skill-testing questions, the answers having been shared with those of us who attended Serendipity this year:

Author Nicola Campbell (Shi-shi-etko), named for the Nicola Valley, has an auntie who is a well-known writer. Do you know who that writer is? (Maria Campbell, author of Half-breed)

Do you know where author Earl Einarson (The Moccasins) grew up and where he works? What part of BC is the ancestral home of Earl Einarson (born Earl Stanley)? (Earl is from the East Kootenays but grew up in a large foster family in East Vancouver and currently teaches at BCIT).

Who said, "Writing for me began as reading ... the deep seeds of humanity were planted ... it allowed me to fly"? (Earl Einarson)

Who said, "You should save your best writing for children"? (Leo Yerxa, author/illustrator)

Who said, "Our people don't come unscathed to the pen"? (Lt Gov Steven Point)

Do you know what the language of the Metis is called? Who is writing and illustrating the alphabet book for this language? (Michif. Julie Flett is writing and illustrating the Michif Alphabet Book; she recently illustrated Zoe and the Fawn. The Michif language is still spoken in the midwestern US and some scattered Canadian locations. Michif, according to the website Native Languages of the Americas, is "a unique French-Cree creole using French nouns, Cree verbs, and some local vocabulary borrowed from Indian languages like Ojibway or Dene.")

Do you know to what nation Richard Van Camp belongs and what book he has recently released? If you know the book, do you know which child is the Dogrib baby? (Van Camp is a member of the Dene Dogrib Nation of the Northwest Territories.)

Do you know how Leo Yerxa put the magic into the illustrations for Ancient Thunder? (The Canada Council for the ARts 2006 Jury's comments: "Through a unique creative process, and with poetic honesty, Leo Yerxa’s emotionally powerful images transport us, with the echo of ancient hoof-beats, over the Great Plains. Using the motif of traditional dress and a rich palette, Yerxa creates compositions that illustrate the mystical connection between horse and humanity." Yerxa, an Ojibway from Ontario, spent years creating leather-like paper to create the realistic fringes on the shirts that depict the plains horses.)

The answers to all these questions unfolded for us last Saturday, and (aside from occasional squirrel discomfort), most of us sat spellbound for all of it.

So what do I mean by "squirrel discomfort"? Ab Ed Administrator Deb and I, along with a number of our district colleagues, attended Serendipity last Saturday, to listen in awe to the welcome by Dr Richard Vedan, to the words of Lieutenant Governor Steven Point, and to a number of First Nations and Metis writers and illustrators.

It was during the talk by Writer/Illustrator Leo Yerxa that I became aware that a squirrel had entered the Longhouse and that it seemed to be drawn to his words, despite efforts by some to shoo it out. Not one who always appreciates opportunities to commune with the natural world, being somewhat unaccustomed to creatures other than my retired dog Molly and the coyote we avoid in our nightly walks, I muttered uncomfortably to Deb -- she recalls it as quite possibly something about the furry rat! Thank goodness Deb was there to point out the remarkably spiritual event of the attendant creature ... I, being less attuned and perhaps too pallid, would most certainly have missed that point!


One more question -- What is a googlemoment? (I am going to share that answer: It is some inquiry so profound you need to run to the computer to find out everything you can about the subject!)

ADDENDA:

• If you undertook last week's visual and geographic literacy challenge and studied the photographs of the new Ike Barber Learning Centre at UBC a little less than a week before the official opening, you would have seen the card catalogue area of the Old/Main Library in the finishing stages of restoration. You would have seen the clock tower from inside the SLAIS reading room in the new Learning Centre, as well as the Koerner Library from the same vantage point. New structures included the lecture hall and a view of the industrial-design main staircase in the new central foyer. If you had attended the opening, Chris Ball of UBC Libraries told us at our SLRCCC meeting this week, you might have mistaken the friendly fellow at the main desk for a librarian ... but it was, in fact, Ike Barber himself thoroughly enjoying the opening-day awe of the many visitors to this fabulous new facility.
  
• Two comments appeared on last week's blog in response to the social bookmarking article. Yahoo! Lana and Val H were ready to talk about this tool. Lana used a new gmail account to post her comment after several unsuccessful attempts. If Lana persisted and grappled with problems in being able to comment, know that she is very tech-savvy. I had sent her a gmail invitation as gmail is a great tool but it does appear to be the easiest way to respond to blogger. Go back in the archives to last week's three blogs and check the comments.
  
• The weeding article I offer in the blog below is by Doug Johnson. Some of you may have noticed that Doug commented on this blog on February 3 (see blog for Feb 1). Doug is the Director of Media and Library Services in Mankato, Minnesota, and is a prolific writer, blogger, and presenter on the subject of school libraries and technology integration with teaching and learning. Blue Skunk is his blog (see sidebar).
  
  
  

Happy Rabbie Burns Day!

Lib/bloggin’ away …

Although I can’t imagine why, the title of this week’s blog is sung to the tune of Simon and Garfunkel’s song, the refrain for which is:

Slip sliding away, slip sliding away
You know the nearer your destination,
the more you slip sliding away …

This week's blog is a late Friday posting … lots of meetings this week as well as planning for meetings, scheduling and preparing for Pro D, and getting out to schools. Wednesday evening I attended Marlene Asselin and Keith McPherson’s Literacy for Today’s Youth session at the Burnaby Public Library, a Family Literacy event sponsored by the BC Coalition for School Libraries. This afternoon I was off to Maple Grove and Linda’s bright, inviting, and organized collection was a joy to behold. I checked up on Joanne there as well … she’s just fine, but who would doubt that!

If you haven’t seen the National School Library Day youtube clip in which Dave Cubberly speaks in the Legislature about his meeting with TL Aaron Mueller at Killarney, you can click onto it on the lefthand sidebar of this page. It brings tears to your eyes.

With feedback from Aaron, as well, I thought I had figured out how to implant comment options within a weekly entry so you don't have to scroll down to the very bottom but I didn't. I guess I need a one-on-one lesson, Aaron! Soon you will be able to comment on information within the sections. That is, it is my hope that you will soon be able to use the interactive feature of this social networking (Web 2.0) tool.

I have been checking out some really cool ways that blogs are used for teaching and will soon have some local blogs for you to use. Lana at Byng suggests that webpages have been replaced by blogs and wikis -- food for thought, my friends.

The biggest joy this week has been having a parent thank me for access to the free newspaper subscription ... her TL had sent the information home to parents in a newsletter about this resource and so she was now reading the news online. I told her to look at the other resources on the Databases page of Webcat but she knew this too. Way to go, Chris!

RESOURCES

From this week’s Webbits by Linda Hof from SFU: Google for Educators – The Best Features for Busy Teachers is an article by Sara King from Edutopia that identifies “user-friendly tools to you’re your [classes] inspired, inventive, and organized.”

Karen Lindsay, BCTLA VP, Advocacy, posts regularly and frequently to the BCTLA Forum. This week she draws out attention to these great resources:

• Docfish/Pageflakes: Karen writes, "Please share this page with your science teachers. I don't think I've ever seen anything so rich. It has also blown the doors off what I think a web page is. Enjoy. (Warning, the page loads slowly, even with cable, but it's worth the wait.)"
  
• “The IFLA/UNESCO Information Literacy Resources Directory has been redesigned and includes the just-published latest version of the State-of-the-Art report on Information Literacy in different countries.”
  
• Joe Landsberger’s Study Guides and Strategies in multiple languages.

HOT NEWS! FOR FRENCH IMMERSION SCHOOL LIBRARIES! World Book Kids (French) is due in mid-March: This news item comes from David this afternoon.

Email from Maryann Kempthorne: “I noticed this course …” and, well, she thought of you! (She hopes you are all well.) Please check out the schedule for web conferences and workshops offered by the “ei” (education institute) of The Partnership (Provincial and Territorial Library Associations of Canada). Let me know if I should be looking into scheduling us into any of these in the upcoming months.

For Secondary School Libraries, News about Freedom to Read Week: Click here for information about Freedom to Read Week Feb 24 to March 1. Thanks, Anne S., for bringing this to my attention. Kits have been ordered for the secondary schools.

Reminder -- I need DRAGON BOOKS for upcoming VSB Display (Note: opportunity here for student field trips).

EVENTS

Technology Day at Magee has big-name keynote speaker Alan November. Check out his weblog and website. There are 21 different workshops to delight both TLs and their colleagues. There are 7 TLs from Vancouver giving workshops and 2 from North Vancouver as well. These sessions are for teachers as well as TLs so encourage your colleagues to attend. Register online (see "Information Technology.") Although there are lots more to choose from, here are brief summaries of workshops provided by TLs:

Mary Locke and Gwen Ingham will work with Susan Atkey from the UBC Libraries to present a session about "the new learners," including teachers (and TLs) as
newcomers to learning about and within the more highly technical learning
environment.

Katharine Shipley and Frances Renzullo-Cuzzetto are presenting a session on electronic resources that are successful with French Immersion teaching. Look for information about a blog that is under development with electronic resources for using in French Immersion classrooms.

David Brear from Coquitlam -- yes, he's related to one of ours so he counts! -- will bring everyone up to date on the Web 2.0 phenomenon.

Virginia Lam and Ciara Kelly are doing an introduction to using electronic databases with both elementary and secondary students. These two TLs are the BIG users of the databases as resources to support inquiry so they will have lots to share about what works.

Sylvia Zubke is presenting with teacher Heidi Cyr on using Smartboards in classrooms and school libraries and again later you can see Sylvia with student William on social networking software.

Pat Parungao and I are doing our session on plagiarism – "Just Copy, Cut, and Paste: Phooey on Academic Integrity" - strategies for teachers and TLs on making it hard to do, not on how to do it!

North Vancouver TLs Lesley Edwards and Hazel Clark will show yograydonu how to enhance research through the use of MS Word, including new note-taking techniques such as highlighting, commenting, and creating tailormade graphic organizers. You may also want to check out how Lesley is using blogs as a means to build online assignments with appropriate resources. The example: Canadian poets.

Other sessions of interest: Raza Mirani from Gladstone on videostreaming; Diane Potts from UBC on the Multiliteracies; Drs. Wanda Cassidy and Margaret Jackson from SFU on the Cyberbullying research in Vancouver schools; Alan Zisman on using technology to create School Newspapers; Gerry Kent on Classroom Discussion using
technology; Alan November has a workshop for teachers and there are lots more
… see online registration for more information.

Register NOW for Literacy Day (see last week’s blog for more information) or go online to view Current Professional Development Opportunities. You can’t register online but you can go online to print out the form, than attach your cheque, and blue-bag it in to Pat Dymond ASAP.

Shari Graydon – she’s here to speak to Vancouver educators about on Feb 6, Room 400, VSB 4 pm to 5:30 pm. I sent out the electronic flyer this week. Please post/copy the flyer liberally, and promote/attend this event. Register online. [NOTE: Please encourage your colleagues, including counsellors, Home Ec and Planning 10 teachers, teachers involved with school-based social responsibility initiatives, Language Arts/English teachers, and others.] Or see Shari later the same evening at 7 pm at the Metrotown Burnaby Public Library, a free event sponsored by the BC Coalition for School Libraries.

ANNOUNCEMENTS

Excerpted from Val H's Vancouver Retired Teachers' Association blog, sad news:

Karen Bailey (1942 - 2008) passed away peacefully on January 5 at VGH after a long and courageous battle with breast cancer. Born in Vancouver, Karen completed high school in Vancouver, graduated from Simon Fraser University, and later completed her library science training at UBC. Karen was an active member of VESTA who will be remembered as an amazing classroom teacher and teacher-librarian at several East Side Vancouver schools. After her retirement in 1999, Karen continued to be involved with children with special needs. No service will be held at her request, but donations may be made in Karen's memory to the BC Cancer
Agency or to the SPCA.