BOOK YOURSELF OFF TO AN EVENT

Dr. Lorna Williams is at the VPL TONIGHT

The Minerva Lecture Series was created by the Canadian Council on Learning to foster discussion between Canadian learning researchers and citizens from across the country. It is a unique opportunity to understand how research can inform and affect students' learning and the everyday work of educators across the country. Come to discover why learning and education are topics that matter to everyone. Dr. Lorna Williams will be giving a free, public talk on March 28 at 7:30 PM at the Central Branch of the Vancouver Public Library. The title of her lecture is "Weaving Worlds: Enhancing the learning of Aboriginal Students".

Anyone interested in issues pertaining to Aboriginal Educational will know of Dr. Williams, a renowned scholar of Aboriginal Education, an Assistant Professor of Education and Linguistics, and the Canada Research Chair in Indigenous Knowledge and Learning. Lorna also worked for the VSB before pursuing scholarly goals. Visit the Minerva Lecture Series page on the Canadian Council on Learning's website for more information.

LOMCIRA'S SPRING FLING

Waverly is hosting an evening with David Ward, children's author and researcher on Thursday, April 10, from 4 to 6 pm. The event, called "Collective Imagination: Reading and Writing with Children," will explore how we can further support young readers and writers in literacy as we collaboratively write and read with them.

Call Meredyth at 5328 for more information. Tix are $20 for non-members. Alanna at Trudeau writes, "I took a Multicultural Literature course with David last summer at UBC. He was an insightful professor. I was inspired by his passion for literature and his respect for all cultures. I will definitely be going to hear him speak and will be encouraging my staff to go as well." Anyone going to join them?

EXTRAORDINARY CANADIANS

Did you see this entry on last week's blog? I am still waiting to hear from anyone interested in joining me for 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.

PRO D CONNECTIONS for April

TL Studio is April 9 at Kerrisdale. Online registration.

Google for Educators: Well-known Maquinna computer educator Alan Zisman is working collaboratively with David, Michele, and me in a 2-part session to learn more about Google Tools for Educators, including Google Earth, Picasa, and more. Online details and registration. April 16, 4 pm. Chief Maquinna Elementary, 2684 East 2nd Avenue (between Nanaimo and Renfrew Street), Room 102. Also, May 21, Kerrisdale School Library, on 41st, east of Blenheim. Bring colleagues.

teachingbooks and other databases: We are going to try something a little different by offering this webinar in five different locations. Bring teaching colleagues to find out about this wonderful resource for teaching literature. Online details and registration. Sessions number 409.0 to 409.4, depending upon whether you are planning to go to the school library at Byng, Killarney, Tillicum, Hamber, or room 461 at the VSB.

February is Black History Month

Here are two great Black History resources for high-school students:

Library and Archives Canada presents Under a Northern Star, a virtual exhibition of accounts of early Canadian settlers whose lives represent true and successful challenges to racism and slavery. Dr Afua Cooper from the U of T introduces the exhibition: "What is brilliant about these collections is that each one speaks to the historical experience of African Canadians in different parts of the country at different time periods. Moreover, each one tells a story of the important contributions Blacks made to Canada as pioneers, enslaved persons, explorers, citizens and settlers."

BC's Amazing Black Pioneer: Crawford Kilian's book Go Do Some Great Thing: The Black Pioneers of British Columbia tells the stories of Black settlers in British Columbia. Kilian has been revising the book for a new edition. In this The Tyee article he discusses Mifflin Gibbs: "Abolitionist agitator and a worker on the underground railway in Philadelphia. Shoeshine boy, boot merchant, and newspaper publisher in gold-rush San Francisco. First competitor with the Hudson's Bay Company in gold-rush Victoria. Builder of B.C.'s first railway, in the Queen Charlotte Islands. Victoria city councillor and acting mayor. Member of the Yale Conference that framed the terms of B.C.'s entry into Confederation. America's first elected black judge, in Little Rock, Arkansas. U.S. consul in Madagascar in his 70s, and founder of a bank on his return. He died rich in 1915, aged 94." Look for excerpts from the revised edition in upcoming issues of The Tyee and check Kilian's Pioneers blog.


MORE RESOURCES

Google for Educators

The 2Learn.ca Education Society -- Alliance of Alberta Education, Alberta Teachers' Federation, U of A Faculty of Education, Telus

eScrapbooking -- Here are some great electronic, educational, experiential, engaging strategies that combine photos, memorabilia, poetry, narrative, quotes, stories, and more. Sample projects included on the site.

Ever read Mental Floss? Try this online blog, Fun with Venn and Euler

HOT TOPICS

CLA Copyright Press Conference - This 8-minute video press conference features Don Butcher, Executive Director, Canadian Library Association, who speaks up for the rights of average Canadian users which are ignored by the proposed new copyright legislation influenced by the Hollywood lobbyists and the American Digital Millennium Copyright Act.

AUTHORS

Writer/Illustrator Ian Wallace will be in town and is available for full or half days of readings on May 6, 7, and 8. Contact Meredyth or me for more information.

Julie Burtinshaw: In an email earlier this week, Rennie wrote, "If you would like a name for a terrific upper intermediate, early high school author visit, try out Julie Burtinshaw, a local author/presenter. She is very interactive with the students and well prepared. Some titles by her: Adrift, Dead Reckoning, The Freedom of Jenny, and a new one coming out for high school students called The Perfect Cut. You can contact her at burtinshawtrue@gmail.com or #604-878-7144." Or try her blog. Karen C adds, "The Freedom of Jenny ... is based on the migration of an African American family to California, then Victoria and then the Gulf Islands prior to and into the Civil War."

EVENTS

Serendipity 2008 First Nations Writers at the Longhouse

A Celebration of First Nations Writers and Illustrators of Children's Books

Saturday, February 23, 2008. 8:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m.

First Nations Longhouse, 1985 WEST MALL , UBC.

Registration, coffee and book sales 7:30-8:30 a.m. Program begins at 8:30 a.m.

For more information go to VCLR website -- http://www.library.ubc.ca/edlib/table/index.htm

This year, come to hear Leo Yerxa, author and illustrator of Last Leaf, First Snowflake to Fall , A Fish Tale, and Ancient Thunder; Richard Van Camp, author of A Man Called Raven and What's the Most Beautiful Thing You Know About Horses?; Diane Silvey, author of The Kids Book of Aboriginal Peoples in Canada; Julie Flett, illustrator of Zoe and the Fawn and The Moccasins; Earl Einarson, author of The Moccasins; and Nicola I. Campbell, author of Shi-Shi-Etko.

TL Studio

Monday February 18 - Come jing and blog with us! Online registration -- or just come.

VPL "Speak Up 2008 Series: My Virtual World"

Tuesdays Feb. 19, 26, March 4, 11 at 7:00pm, VPL Central Branch.

The "Speak Up" website is not yet functioning, but you can find details by looking at the VPL Current Events Calendar. Here are the topics: Feb. 19: On-line Privacy; Feb. 26: Gaming; Mar. 4: Information Online; Mar. 11: Social impacts of our Virtual World.

TOC Training for Horizon and Library Operations - March 4 and 5 (2 parts)

Tell TOCs to sign up now online for this two-part training: Mar 4, Room 100 (Lab), VSB - Horizon Training; Mar 5, Moberly School Library - Library Operations.

They will need to attend both to get priority call-out for school libraries. Thanks, Denise and Gwen, for agreeing to present with David and me.

Spring Weeding - Feb 28, March 6 (2 parts)

See you at Dickens for two workshops, Thursday, February 28, and a week later on Thursday, March 6. Online registration.