Serendipitous Event - Guest Author Akemi Eddy

Serendipity 2011

GRAPHIC NOVEL EXTRAVAGANZA

With Matt Holm, Raina Telgemeier, Gene Yang, Aaron Renier, Jason Shiga and Valerie Wyatt

Saturday, February 26, 2011, at UBC

Report from guest author Akemi Eddy begins, Wow!  What a fabulous event!
 

The program began in the wee hours of the morning with a continental breakfast, book buying and author autographing.  After settling into our seats, we were welcomed by the witty chairperson of the Vancouver Children’s Literature Roundtable, Shannon Ozirny who appeared throughout the day in captioned frames in the comic tradition.

Matt Holm (illustrator of Baby Mouse) presented first, engaging the audience with photos and stories of his childhood which included sister Jennifer Holm (author of Baby Mouse).  His presentation culminated with an audience member helping Matt create a sketch of “Pirate Mouse.”  Be sure to keep an eye out for Jennifer and Matt’s new series, Squish.

Raina Telgemeier was up next with some not-so-fond childhood memories of dental mishaps and corrections upon which her graphic novel Smile is loosely based.   Raina demonstrated her artistic talent by showing us how she captures feelings in her illustrations.

 Finishing off the morning was Gene Yang, author/illustrator of American Born Chinese.  After introducing himself as Computer teacher by day, graphic novelist by night, Jason entertained us with his frank, honest, hilarious demeanor.  He concluded his presentation by demonstrating how he has successfully used the comic format to teach Math concepts to his secondary students.

Aaron Renier and Jason Shiga hosted a limited seating, lunchtime, hands-on workshop.

Valerie Wyatt, 2010 Information Book Award winner for How to Build Your Own Country, concluded the presentations with a Canadian perspective on authoring and publishing.

The day ended with a casual, fun-filled panel of the authors/illustrators mediated by Katherine Shoemaker. 

If you missed the Graphic Novel Extravaganza, next year’s theme for Serendipity is Asian Books for Children on Saturday, February 25, 2012.  Paul Yee is a confirmed speaker at this event.

 Also, the annual Illustrators’ Breakfast will be on Saturday, October 15, 2011, at the Mueum of Anthropology in conjunction with the opening of the temporary exhibit Hiroshima.

Thank you to Moira for the opportunity to attend … it was serendipitous!

And this News Flash, just in from the Vancouver Children's Literature Roundtable:  Oscar Win!

Saturday's Serendipity 2011 on the Graphic Novel was an eye-opening event, especially for those who dont follow graphic novels. It was a fine introduction to the art involved in creating these books. The graphic artists/cartoonists worked their magic before our very eyes (one participant went away with her own Matt Holm drawn-to-order illustration) and the presenters shared the various routes they took as writer/artists on their way to creating their books. We learned about mini-comics in the world of the graphic artists. The closing panel offered interesting interplay among the artists. As the saying goes, you had to be there.

And, we were also treated to Shannon Ozirny in rare form as MC for the program, wittily turned out in black and white, providing a frame or two and a speech balloon or two.

Here's a fitting, and serendipitous link for us, following the Graphic Novel Event: an item from a comic book site, noting Sean Tan's Oscar award. Yes!

(There are a few interesting links within the article, too, if you click on the accompanying URL. In addition, the Comic Book Resources site has news, reviews, videos and blogs, etc. for those of you pursuing graphic novels, etc.). 

Sean Tan wins the Oscar for Lost Thing

Australian creator Shaun Tan's wordless graphic novels have brought him considerable acclaim, including the 2010 Hugo Award for Best Professional Artist, and the French edition of his graphic novel The Arrival won the Angoulme International Comics Festival Prize for Best Comic Book.

Now he has another award to add to his growing collection: The Lost Thing, co-directed by Tan and based on his book of the same name, won this year's Oscar for Best Short Film (Animated).

In an interview before the awards ceremony, Tan told School Library Journal's Chelsey Philpot that Australian producer Sophie Bryne approached him after The Lost Thing won an award at the Bologna Children's Book Fair and proposed making it into a short film. After a bit of persuasion, Tan agreed, and he started what would become a nine-year process: The film was begun in 2001 and finally finished in 2010.

And he's already thinking ahead to the next film: Tan told SLJ that while he was in LA for the Oscar ceremony, he would be meeting with some people about making a feature-length film of another of his books, The Arrival.

AND FROM THE HERALD SUN (MELBOURNE AND VICTORIA)

This link is to a more conventional source the Australian newspaper in Sean Tan's home city, Melbourne ... a little story with a photo of Sean Tan holding his Oscar. Roundtablers who enjoyed Sean Tan at a VCLR Illustrators' Breakfast a couple of years ago will enjoy seeing his face once again.

SEAN TAN WINS THE OSCAR FOR BEST SHORT FILM (ANIMATED)

October 16: VCLR Breakfast at UBC Golf Club

To register or for more information, go to the VCLR website:

The Vancouver Children's Literature Roundtable

Reading the Times ...

Happy Thanksgiving!

Shopping in Abano Terme: Not sure they need a special day to say Grazie! Note
the Parma hams and other epicurean delights, and no turkeys here in September!

With Special Thanks to ...

• all of you for a clean start and your energy and enthusiasm for the work.
• Kim Turner for the clarity with which she helps make sense of "the books" in the Accounting for TLs 101 workshop this week.
• Kam for the Kidsbooks excursion where, all reports have it, much buying and chatting and sharing took place.
• Nanci Farrell whose place I was able to take this week to hear the remarkable educator Andy Hargreaves talk in Coquitlam about The Fourth Way, a direction in education that draws on the directions education has taken since the '60s and that offers inspiration and hope for educational change that respects the knowledge of teachers; Andy was also the keynote speaker at this year's BCTF Summer Conference. I am into the book now.
• our team in MLST and the wayward, ever-moving Maryann who might be entering a new decade in her thinking about life and work later this month.
• those who enabled five Vancouver TLs to journey to Europe this summer to affirm and enrich and provide momentum for the work of teacher-librarians.

Nope. Not Scaredy Squirrel! Book shopping in Ferrara en route to the IASL Conference,

lest you think we weren't the hardest-working TLs ever!

Readings ...

Getting into the spirit of professional development and October (school/library month), I pass along these readings:

• Things That Keep Us Up at Night: Joyce Valenza and Doug Johnson have an eye to the future. Read their SLJ article for October 2009. Seems we may be expendable if we don't attend to the shifting landscapes of learning. Hmmm! I think I said just such a thing on Monday night at the Secondary TLs' Department Heads' meeting. I think James Henri hinted at this point a year ago August when he came for our VSB Summer Institute, The Changing Landscape for School Libraries.
  
  What do Joyce and Doug suggest for teacher-librarians? In the face of rapid educational and technological change, with severe economic conditions forcing re-thinking about all aspects of schooling, we could, with just 14 changes in the way we conceptualize and undertake our work, sleeping soundly knowing that we have viable and meaningful "libraries" that meet the needs of the whole educational community.
  
  Thanks, Annabelle, for this timely reminder. There's sleep coming ... but maybe from exhaustion of just trying to keep the pace! The biggest nightmare, Valenza and Johnson remind us, will be not attending to the urgency for change.

• Tough Choices, Tough Times: This next reading is related, substantial, and predictive of important changes for the American education system which inevitably seems to impact our system in Canada.
  
  While acknowledging that it refers to the American labour force, our Italian connection and IASL Conference Organizer Luisa Marquardt of the Faculty of Education at the University of Roma Tre the Executive Summary from the New Commission on the Skills of the American Workforce, suggesting it provides opportunity "for reflecting on the relationships about the poor/high quality in education/training and the quality of less/more skilled workforce. World class education for a world class economy is based on the combination of several skills and competencies (p.6) which contribute to building imagination, creativity, vision."
  
  I like the parts about re-thinking teacher compensation, meaningful assessments that are grounded in important learning, "second chance" learning, early childhood education, and resourcing schools for success. While I wonder about "contract schools," it is note-worthy that the NCSAW based its findings on research in Australia, Belgium, Canada, China, Czech Republic, England, Finland, France, Germany, India, Ireland, Italy, and New Zealand.

• "Beyond the Stacks: The School Librarian in the Digital Age" by Cindy Long (NEA): An interview with a high school TL places things in perspective -- kids need to learn to think critically to find reliable information sources, they need to be digitally literate, and educators needs to be working with TLs!

DEAR: The BCTLA Executive won the Angela Thacker Memorial Award last year for its DEAR (Drop Everything and Read) campaign. Sylvia and I are very proud of this award and of our district's participation and support. Again, our Trustees and District Management have endorsed the initiative which is a wonderful thing.

Largely through the efforts of Victoria TL and BCTLA VP Advocacy Karen Lindsay last year and again this year, the momentum is picking up. Can Vancouver boast 100% participation on October 26, with every child and every member of the school/educational community dropping what he or she is doing to read for 20 minutes to celebrate school libraries and the joy of reading? Did every school get the lovely poster with photo by Kelowna TL Al Smith, our BCTLA publications guy? And we are awaiting word of Legislative participation this year so things are looking very exciting for this project.

Here's one TL's idea of a deeply engaging "authentic" DEAR project:

Parkland's librarian presents human books
By Jeff Bell of The Times-Colonist, October 8, 2008
Shared via AddThis

TL Studio 2 at Gladstone: Wednesday, October 14. Pat, Alan, Frances and I will be there with great anticipation of the many technology-related interests you will bring!


The Vancouver Children’s Literature Roundtable’s
Fall Breakfast with Gregory Maguire

Saturday, October 17, 2009UNIVERSITY GOLF CLUB
5185 University Boulevard
8:30 am. Registration & Book Sales
9:00 am. Breakfast

Dress code: Something Wicked!

Gregory Maguire is the author of more than a dozen novels for children and, to date, five novels for adults, including WICKED, the basis of the Broadway musical of the same name.

Word from Linda Dunbar is that there are still a few more seats. Call Linda at 604-822-8783 to reserve a seat and you can pay by cheque at the door, after reserving.

FOSL

I am sending out the most recent Friends of the School Library forms by email attachment. Note that there is a new location for submissions. There are also translations in progress. Watch for these. Our first event for our Friends will be held on Tuesday, October 27, and will celebrate National School Library Day and the critical role school libraries play in relation to student learning and enrichment.

Have a wonderful weekend, everyone. Mine starts now.

Celebrate Canadian Children's Book Week!

Check the CCBC website for resources that encourage, promote and support the reading, writing, illustrating and publishing of Canadian books for young readers. Programs, publications, and resources help teachers, librarians, booksellers and parents selet good books for young readers. Click here for resources for use in schools or at home. Shall we order the CCBC publication Best Books for Kids and Teens: Annual, 2008 ($5.95)? This guide contains over 425 recommended books for kids and teens ages 0-18 deemed the very best books Canada has to offer by expert committees of educators, booksellers, school and public librarians from across Canada, so every book included in the guide is guaranteed to be a great read!


Considering an author visit to extend the "book celebrations"? Check the list of local authors at CWILLBC (Children's Writers and Illustrators of BC) -- under H, you will find our Nancy Hundal, author of nine picture books and soon to publish her first chapter book, and Glen Huser, my neighbour and Governor-General Award winning author of Stitches and more.

More Professional and Practical Resources

Journey back in time with The Vancouver Sun . On Wednesday Nov 19th check the feature "An Immigrant's Journey: 150 years of Newcomers to B.C." and join in celebrating BC’s birthday by engaging your students with articles, photos and video from the past 150 years.

Have you checked out the Newspaper Resources on our Databases page of the Webcat, yet? These are worth sharing with your teacher colleagues.

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Ministry-provided BC150 Resources are available online -- website BC Education: The Story of the One-Room Schoolhouse; Far West: The Story of British Columbia Teacher's Guide (pdf) and text; The Rush to BC: A Social Studies Resource Teacher's Guide and Student Activities; BC History in Action: A Guide to Teaching History through Drama (pdf) K-7 and 8-12.

Shall we Bulk Buy?

Vancouver: Stories of a City, by Lisa Smedman, published by The Courier. $47.20, or multiple book order deal available. More than 300 pages with historic photos, maps, and illustrations of the history of our city, neighbourhood by neighbourhood.

New Resource for Teaching Research in the Digital Age

Meredyth, ever watchful for resources that work in school libraries to promote the multiliteracies, including information literacy, brought this to my attention. I hope to have a copy for preview by Monday; Meredyth's disappeared before I could grab it. My reviewing question will be, Would this make a nice Christmas gift for school libraries? Being a huge fan of Toronto-based Koechlin and Zwaan (who often work with American school library researcher at San Jose State, David Loertscher), I can't help but think so, but I would like to check that it works for all grades first. You can check this new publication description (from Pembroke Publishing online catalogue):

BUILDING INFO SMARTS: How to work with all kinds of information and make it your own by Carol Koechlin & Sandi Zwaan.(Pages: 32 ISBN: 9781551382265 Price: $ 12.95). The online catalogue describes this as an "innovative flip book [that] shows students how to identify their learning style as they build important information literacy skills. The book explores strategies learners need to be successful when working with digital media, as well as global and more traditional literacies. Students will investigate effective strategies for finding and using all kinds of information and making it their own from reading books and analyzing a movie to working on a research project. As they work with data that they gather, students are encouraged to build personal understanding so their projects reflect original thought. The book is committed to nurturing confident learners who go beyond mere retelling of information and focus on a deeper understanding of the information they experience."

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"How Canada Came to Be" CD from Rhonda Draper, SD#23 Kelowna, Governor General's Teaching Award winner for the Teaching of Canadian History. This CD, the story of our country through song and oratory, includes 14 folk songs representing the many regions and eras of Canada's history. You can order this for $20.00, including tax; S/H, add $7.00. As well, a teacher's resource package ordered for $15. Rhonda is a music specialist, children's performer, and recording artist. Order directly: rdraper@sd23.bc.ca. Might your social studies teachers be interested in this? Suitable for grades 3-6 and younger children like the songs.

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Evaluating, Selecting, and Managing Resources: A Guide (revised 2008) replaces the previous version (last revised in 2002) and has been specifically revised to include the role of ERAC in evaluating resources for districts. This document articulates the current criteria for resource selection in schools, the role of teacher-librarians as site-based resource experts, and the role of the centralized media and library services and personnel in district resource management processes. It's long and full of forms but it would be well worth your while to review it yourself and to make an appointment to review this with your administrator and staff (but do make a point to see pages 61, 62, and Appendix 10).

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Interesting Readings:

Edutopia article: Google for Educators -- The Best Features for Busy Educators by Sara Ring

Educational Leadership (Nov 2008) article: Footprints in the Digital Age by Will Richardson

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The Latest From The Critical Thinking Consortium:

Interested in a repertoire of thinking concepts and strategies to improve the ability of students Grades 5 to 10 to think critically about a variety of topics? Download the inaugural issue of "Tools for Thought" from TC Squared. Let me know what you think. Is this something your school might be interested in purchasing?

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2009 Canada-Wide Virtual Science Fair: Connecting Scientific Minds from Coast to Coast. Here you will find an annual online science and technology contest open to all Canadian students in grades K-12. This year there will be special awards for Going Green. Share this with the keenest science teachers in your schools.

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Find the right video for what you are planning to teach on The Futures Channel: Connecting Learning to the Real World. It's free videostreaming and it's worth looking through their collection.

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ALA's Great Websites for Kids: The Association for Library Service to Children (ALSC), a division of the American Library Association, has added Web sites this fall to Great Web Sites for Kids, its online resource containing hundreds of links to commendable Web sites for children. "Sites must stand up to an evaluation and voting process by the committee before being deemed ‘great’ and added to the GWS page.”

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VPL Events of Interest:

• Alice MacKay Room, Lower Level, Central Branch, 7:30 to 9:00 pm, November 20: Stephen Hume presents his book, Simon Fraser: In Search of Modern British Columbia. Journalist and poet Hume followed in Fraser's footsteps and canoe wake for four years.
  
• Alice MacKay Room, Lower Level, Central Branch, 7:00 to 9:00 pm, December 12: City Reflections: 1907 - Vancouver - 2007: Join the Vancouver Historical Society in viewing Vancouver's earliest surviving film, taken from a moving streetcar in 1907. The film has now been replicated 100 years later. The viewing will be followed by a question and answer session.

Kidsbooks Event Features Adrienne Gear

There is a group of TLs going to Adrienne's Book Launch at Kidsbooks on Broadway, Monday, November 17, 7 - 9 pm. Why not come along for the event.

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The Children’s Literature Roundtables of Canada have announced the 2008 INFORMATION BOOK AWARD for excellence in Canadian non-fiction aimed at informing, inspiring and connecting young readers from coast to coast. The 2008 Information Book Award of $1000 will be presented on February 28, 2009, at the Vancouver Children’s Literature Roundtable Serendipity Conference.


WINNER: One Well: The Story of Water on Earth by Rochelle Strauss, illustrated by Rosemary Woods (Kids Can Press)

HONOUR BOOK: Carnation, Lily, Lily Rose: The Story of a Painting by Hugh Brewster, paintings by John Singer Sargent (Kids Can Press)

Oh, DEAR ... and so we read!

Thank you, Minister Bond.
Education Report: 2008 October 31

and this Gold Star is also for Steve Mulligan for

drive-by readings at FIVE schools

on National School Library Day

and for his on-going attentiveness to school libraries --

Thank you, Steve, from all district TLs.

Vancouver schools took part in DEAR on October 27 National School Library Day with enthusiasm. Our Trustees and BCSSTA office staff read at 11 am, Education Minister Bond read at 11 am, colleagues at Learning Services and MLST were observed reading and eating "School Libraries: The Heart of Literacy" chocolate bars , and staff at The Vancouver Sun read too.

October 28, The Vancouver Sun:

Here's a "snapshot" of what you could have observed in our schools:

• Van Horne experienced a rare silence throughout the school
  
• Henderson featured some readers dressed as favourite storybook characters
  
• Trudeau readers with painted faces listening attentively as firefighters read to them
  
• Tillicum's “the reading train” ran down the entire central hallway, complete with whistle stops and loads of book-talking


• Mt Pleasant kicked off One Book, One Class for November and Steve Mulligan did two readings


• Weir's guest readers included Maryann Kempthorne, Angela Brown, Gary Little, Denise North, Steve Mulligan, and VPL children's librarian, Noreen Ma


• Carr students camped out and read in tents; Steve Mulligan appeared here too for a reading!
  
• Moberly invited Wally Oppal; see the picture with Wally Oppal (see blog, October 27) in the blog archives for October 27
  
• Gladstone has silent reading every morning; they read again in the afternoon and teachers were seen nibbling the same chocolate bars as were featured here in Learning Services and elsewhere (but then a student at Gladstone had designed them, so that made it okay to eat chocolate!)
  
• Tupper students got their heads into the brand new school library books
  
• Templeton stopped everything from 10:30 - 10:50 am, as agreed by Staff Committee, and it worked so well that a number of teachers will be incorporating a stop and read on a more regular basis

What's new?

Vancouver Children's Literature Roundtable Hycroft Event - November 12, 6-9 pm, 1489 Macrae Avenue, just east of 16th and Granville. Light refreshments after the presentations. Street parking only.

Special Guest Kathy Stinson plus BC authors and illustrators will be presenting their
new children's books

BCTLA Forum posting by Val H this week has generated a flurry of commentary. Read: "Flip This Library: School Libraries Need a Revolution/School libraries need a revolution, not evolution," by David Loertscher in School Library Journal, 11/1/2008. The article begs the question, so how might this look?

My new Australian friend, Patricia Carmichael, whom I met at the IASL Conference, is presently working on her PhD at Charles Sturt University in Wagga Wagga, New South Wales. To see how this might look read a summary of a program that offers one version of a program that incorporates the notion of "learning commons" click here and scroll down to the last summary. Consider also that our local university libraries both have Learning Commons within their campus academic library programs.

James Henri suggested revolution to us in August; we need to focus on the teachers, he said, and if we see that the learning that takes place in school libraries is integrally tied to the needs of 21st century learners, we need to find ways that it can evolve with our leadership to better support the learning styles, experiences, and interests of our educational community, including teachers and students. We need to explore ways of building our programs on the "google" concept ... if they build it (the program, the curriculum, the learning landscapes), they will use it. What we have built needs to be carefully considered for nudging along the continuum or we risk being rendered obsolete.

Remember, we are at the start of a revolution and the outcome will be uncertain and it will be stressful along the way. But we most assuredly need to ask ourselves, is what we have been doing working? Is it the best way to serve our educational communities?

Multi-vendor Display and Chapters Workshop

This year's event seemed a great success. Those of us who enjoyed Chapters/Starbucks hospitality had a great opportunity to shop in "gaggles" and hone in on the real bargain-price items, as well as hot new reads for students. Maryann's workshop provided plenty of direction for program and collection building. There were more secondary resources than last year and will be more next year too. Wednesday seemed busier than Thursday, but everyone seemed to be very focussed and deeply occupied with that most challenging part of our job, shopping!

Workshop with Judith Comfort

A few of us "secondary types" spent late Thursday afternoon at Churchill with Coquitlam TL Judith Comfort exploring the possibilities of her approach to technology integration, a strategy she calls multi-level resource-based online learning. Click here and check out some of the Teaching Activities. The group is going to try some out together ... stay tuned for how we do. And thanks, Judith, for a very interesting afternoon. We were a keen audience.

7 from Greg Smith's Social Studies "Top Ten" List

Being Victorian. Welcome to Victoria BC circa 1858-1914! Visit this great new site with an innovative format and written for Social Studies

Green Learning. Comprehensive, fun and free lessons aligned to the BC curriculum and designed to help students participate in their own learning regarding today’s complex energy and environmental issues.

History of Quebec. Get to know La Belle Province a little better. This site has all the information plus great self scoring tests and tutorials.

History Wire. HW invites your perspectives, stories and opinions on the relevance of history in understanding current events, the importance of history education and much more.

Law Courts Education travels BC. The Law Courts Education Society of BC will hold 6 regional law workshops for teachers in early 2009. Kelowna, Prince George, Surrey, Coquitlam, Vancouver and Victoria. Contact Marylou Leung at marylou.leung@lawcourtsed.ca or call 604-660-9874 to attend.

Online Publishing for Social Studies Teachers. Check out Judith Comfort’s site on why, what and how to publish as well as a portal to other great Social Studies resources.

Women in World History. This unique site is full of information and resources to help you learn about women’s history in a global context.