A Month on the Pro D Circuit

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The End of a 9-Day Conference?

For some of us, it has just begun. It was hard to get into the Transforming School Libraries Online Conference, to find the time to stay current on the presentations, and to learn our ways around. We will be in much better shape for the next one, I can assure you. Occasionally as I popped in an out of places, I virtually ran into people I knew. Thankfully, the conference will remain "up" for us to poke around and consider the artifacts for a month or two longer, and I found some fascinating things.

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But first, you just have to listen to and watch this beautiful international/global video version of the song Stand By Me where, performing together but in vastly separate stages, are artists from around the world. There is a youtube version of this, but the original and other songs performed on the global stage and the articulation of a vision of peace through music are found on the Playing for Change website. I found this, as I wandered through information about various conference presenters, on Edmonton TL Arlene Lipkewich's short-lived blog. She challenged her students to consider the youtube version (both blog and youtube are Web 2.0 tools) and the way in which it was created.

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As I started to say, some of us were just a little overwhelmed by arriving just-in-time at the very complicated Sosius platform and the various places and formats in which information and conversations were happening. I really enjoyed Arlene's voicethread presentation on various Technologies for Learning, old and new. In this Web 2.0 presentation, we looked at how hardware, software, and 'webware' can be used for both teacher and student learning. Now there remains no evidence I attended the session as I didn't actually log in, just observed and kept an eye on the discussions ... but you will find others we know there, like Pat from Gladstone and Karen from Victoria too.

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Arriving at a presentation a few days late didn't matter as participation was asynchronous. Notice that some of the participants in this discussion presented themselves in text and others used audio features. This was my first ever voicethread discussion; I think it offered a great learning opportunity for many of the conference attendees and you will see and hear their learning as they go along. While this is ultimately a long presentation and discussion, it is really interesting: how might this format be useful for working with teachers as well as students?

I also participated in a regional meeting of the westcoast conference attendees using a webtool new to me called Mobee. Needless to say, it cannot be accessed through our district filters as it is a chat program, or so we discovered at the TL Studio this week ... but you can enter the chat rooms at home using any chat tool. That is, you don't have to be using the same tool. I don't chat much but my gmail has chat capacity, so in I went to the "tsl" (transforming school libraries) chat room for a fun two hours of library-chatting one evening. James Henri and Sandra Lee were there too. I will have to go back as there were some fantastic "library" videos added to the discussion wall.

Not all the sessions are accessible from the outside but I am happy to be able to show you some of the tools being used for TL discussions and professional growth. Another open-access site within the conference is Coquitlam TL Judith Comfort's online consideration of the seamless and blended nature of collaboration between Ts and TLs at bestlibrary for online learning support, both for Ts and for students.

I also went to Anne Robinson's Librain blog of the online conference. Anne is in the UK. I think you will find lots here to think about from Anne's report and I see no need to repeat, only to recommend you peruse her discussions of the event at this link. Thanks, Anne, for this.

Does social networking produce cognitive side effects?

Facebook and Bebo risk ‘infantilising’ the human mind

Posted to IASL listserv by Gerald Brown, Winnipeg, from The Guardian (U.K.), Feb. 2

British physiologist Lady Susan Greenfield warns that social-network sites risk infantilizing the 21st-century mind, leaving it characterized by short attention spans, sensationalism, inability to empathize, and a shaky sense of identity. Greenfield, professor of synaptic pharmacology at Lincoln College, told the House of Lords that children's experiences on social-networking sites "are devoid of cohesive narrative and long-term significance ...."

Here is the audio link to Lady Greenfield speaking on social networking and your health.

BCTF Conference for New/er Teachers

What? These don't look "new/er" to you?

I stopped by the Radisson Hotel to see how Janet, Katharine, and Michele were doing in their presentation at the BCTF New/er Teachers' Conference about the ways they could collaborate with TLs. Put on out in Richmond on Friday, Val H was on duty for the provincial association at the BCTLA table. I scored lunch which was fantastic. So was this presentation. Thanks to all for the work that went into the session, as well as the commitment, to promoting collaboration with our teacher-colleagues to create meaningful learning experiences and enjoyable learning communities.


Did you know?

The Very Hungry Caterpillar is 40 years old!

From Twitter / School Library Journal: "Librarians and other educators are encouraged to download an activity kit,which includes a free commemorative 40th anniversary poster featuring classroom activities on the back, and a booklet with cross-curricular lesson plans, booklists, and arts and crafts projects such as a make your own Very Hungry Caterpillar mobile."

Posted from IASL: Manitoba - Brown / Stinson

And that, dear collagues, was quite a month of professional development, wasn't it! Don't worry if you couldn't keep the pace. I never quite caught up to the pace. Needless to say, we all have lots to learn. We can perhaps claim ground as leaders in modelling teachers-as-lifelong-learners!

See you next week.

Digitally Ours ...

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On December 1 and 2, a group representing "heritage professionals" and "users" of digitized resources convened at UBC at the West Beyond the West: BC Digitization Symposium . Heather Daly's In Circulation blog for December 3 provides a report on how teacher-librarians came to be involved and on the keynote address of Ian Wilson, Canada's Chief Archivist and Librarian.

Let's start with the question that Ian Wilson left us with: How will this affect education? What might we find if we were looking for made-in-Canada resources (that is, Canadian creators using Canadian primary source materials and reflecting current Canadian values and understandings about our history, culture, and education) to use in classrooms, and why is this an important consideration?

Your tour of online projects incorporating digitized artifacts includes:

The History of the Hudson's Bay Company: this site has timelines, people, and sites and draws on primary source documents

Manitobia: Life and Times is a really deep website, available in both French and English, provides free access to historic documents and publications. Manitobia.ca (Manitoba + Utopia) is perfect for finding information about the province and its people and includes a rich archive of newspapers, first-hand accounts from letters, memoirs and diaries, drawings, maps and photos - all of which record the early development of the province.

Exploration, the Fur Trade, & Hudson's Bay Company uses primary source documents, maps and images, and includes links to The Canadian Encyclopedia. Available in both French and English, this website provides insights into the history of the fur trade, Hudson's Bay Company and the exploration of Canada, so intertwined that they cannot be separated.

How about some Lesson Plans for Early Canadiana Online, including ideas for teaching information and historical literacy skills as well as content?

Have you been to the VMC (Virtual Museum Canada), which too is available in French, to see the exhibits, image gallery, teacher resources, and so much more? There are some amazing resources for use in classrooms here, including the amazing VAG Virtual Emily Carr Exhibition with ESL, elementary and secondary teacher resources.

LAC (Library and Archives Canada) has amazing activities to support student learning about Canada's history, culture, and geography, including the horrors of arrival in Grosse-Ile or the customs of love in Canada during the Victorian years, enslavement and the road to freedom, other immigrant experiences, and lessons in historical literacy, The Evidence Web.

More digitized Canadian primary sources have been fashioned into displays, exhibits, collections, and learning resources for teaching both content and the multiliteracies in places such as:

• The Royal Alberta Museum (check The Poster War Virtual Exhibit, for example, for 46 artistic posters in the Allied propaganda campaign of WWI)
• The Royal Tyrell Museum, specializing in paleontology, including a virtual tour of the Dinosaur Hall
• Multicultural Canada
• Digital Collections at UVic
• CKUA Sound Archives
• BC Digital Library Collections
• Canadian History on the Web
• Musée McCord Museum Eduweb, specializing in Canadian history themes, 1840 to 1945
• Museum of Anthropology at UBC Online Exhibits
• Glenbow Museum, an award-winning website (Flash option) that takes you into the northwestern plains, the home of the Blackfoot-speaking people, their relationships with the land, with their families, and with people from other cultures which are the foundation of their lives today
• The Virtual Museum of Métis History and Culture from the Gabriel Dumont Institute of Native Studies and Applied Research
• Our Roots / Nos Racines: Canadian Local Histories Online, with Educational Resources
• Historica, including Black History Canada, lots of resources, lesson ideas, and Peter Seixas's Benchmarks project for teaching for historical understanding
• Canadian Museum of Civilization / Muse Canadien des Civilisations - be sure to check out the Gateway to Aboriginal Heritage
• Canada War Museum
• LAC: Canada's Digital Collections, archived from Industry Canada Project includes many wonderful projects such as The Story of the Yip Sang Family and The Cariboo Gold Rush
• LAC: The Kids' Site of Canadian Settlement
• VMC: Beauty in the Beast: The Mill at Britannia Mine; this site uses Flash to explore one of the most important buildings in Canada’s industrial history. Recommend to SS 10 teachers.
• BC Archives Online Exhibitions, including The Amazing Time Machine

Great Unsolved Mysteries in Canadian History where students are invited to check their preconceptions about "History" at the door: I saved this to last as these are surely worth the secondary TL's time, and they are what won our dynamic Digi-Symposium speaker Dr John Lutz of UVic's History Department his recent Pierre Berton Award for Disseminating Canadian History information. Students are told as they set out to solve the history mysteries that "Doing History" is not memorizing dates, politicians and wars. That is all just context. "Doing History" is the work of the detective, the gumshoe, the private eye. Students are invited to take on this job. When all that is left are traces, artifacts, clues, hints and allegations, putting those together, weighing the evidence, assessing the credibility of witness accounts, sorting out contradictions, and finding the best solution to the mysteries -- that is "Doing History," and so begins the "gumshoe" work for our students.

Choose from 12 different history mystery quests about Vinland, the burning of Montreal, the Chilcotin War, a killing on Salt Spring Island and another in Montreal, the discover of gold in the Klondike, the death of Tom Thompson, and the mysterious deaths of a Doukhobor leader in the 1920s and a Canadian diplomat in The Cold War. Find also student-friendly lesson plans and discussions of methods of teaching for historical understanding. Read more about using web-based archives to teach Canadian history in this 2004 article by Ruth Sandwell.

All these sites build students' historical literacy; they select and build on digitized source material, construct an account or use displayed artifacts within a narrative. These sites build students' skills with additional multiliteracies as visual, critical, information, and technology literacies, as well as reading; they "integrate technology with teaching and learning" as well as with curriculum, creating engaged learning in a context that students like. Again, as per Henri, TLs can meet teachers in curriculum (and students, of course) in truly exciting and innovative ways.

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Last week's posting included an invitation to look at the Cedar Cottage Walking Tour. All grade 10 Social Studies classes at Gladstone "walk" the curriculum here with teachers and the teacher-librarian, studying the landscape and heading to the VPL special collections to dig for the history. Can this project provide a template and a challenge for other schools to turn their own communities into "neighbourhoods for learning"? How much more could be made digitally accessible to enable our students to learn about their communities, histories, and landscapes?

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Teacher-librarians invited some Social Studies and English teacher colleagues to the Digitization Symposium. We listened to digital experts from other provinces and our own. This event was, for educators, a unique opportunity to think “big picture” about a new topic with new and unfamiliar partners and to consider questions of knowledge creation in BC, authority for knowledge about BC, as well as issues of information management and resource promotion, for British Columbians, over time. From the BCTLA In Circulation blog:

For the youth of today, knowledge has become something that hangs around their necks on strings, Wilson suggested; they no longer memorize the facts but have a search strategy and expectations of access. While American content is readily available as authoritative source material, we need to expand this base in sustainable ways that are ours, that are reflective of Canadian goals and values, and that provide the tools and support to enable equitable access. How do we “converge", Wilson asked, to work with each other and to teach people what they need to know. The national myth that our history is boring is being re-shaped as history is personalized, made first-person, and singular. And what is this doing to education in the schools?

We the assembled invitees, the archivists, librarians, curators, teachers, technologists, writers, historians, academics, aboriginal community leaders, genealogists, and educators, including Ministry of Education representatives, are the “stewards” and have common interests in what constitutes enduring knowledge here in Canada and in BC.

There is lots to be done to "digitize" BC, but it would seem an important project for us to support.

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 ....

Here There be Dragons ...

... and much much more:

Dragons, bats, and treasure ...

Dragons, books, a list, and a T-shirt contest ...

Dragons, rats, and spiders --
Thanks to those TLs who sent in books,
to Peggy and her creative energies, and
to the Works yard for this great display
in the lobby of the school board.

Field trip, anyone?
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TL Studio: Jings and blogs ... and we're all none the wiser! Michele took us into jing world ... here you can capture an image from your screen, record your screen actions and commentary, and upload for instant replay. If you saw Alan November use this open source program, you would have seen the potential for student assignments, for sharing ideas and information about technology, and for demonstrating a technical lesson for students who may have missed the class or the point.

We also used blogger (a google tool) to create blogs, comparing uses of these with wikis.

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Serendipity Saturday -- UBC First Nations Longhouse -- hope to see you there.

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Spring Weeding, Part 1 is on Thursday, 4 pm, Feb 28, Dickens. Part 2 is Thursday, Mar 6. David is off in Morocco but we plan to get everyone on board for the annual inventory. (If you already have a process for taking inventory, ignore this.) For those of you who haven't ever done inventory or who have but have forgotten everything, we are going to set up some training sessions. We are particularly concerned about school libraries where inventory hasn't been done for a number of years. Here's the inventory cycle we would propose:

• Year 1, do everything except non-fiction.
• Year 2, do non-fiction.
• Year 3, REST!

If we set up and followed this pattern, MLST would know which one-third of schools would not be doing inventory in June.

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TOC Training on Horizon; General Operations of a School Library Program: Horizon, Mar 4 -- Rm 100 (lab), VSB; General Ops, Mar 5, 4 pm -- Moberly Elementary School Library, with Gwen Ingham and Denise North. Please tell TOCs about this training opportunity. They must attend both sessions.

ORDER THIS RESOURCE --

This recommendation for Eco Kits for B.C. Schools comes from SFU Media specialist Linda Hof's Webbits: As part of the Green Schools strategy, the Ministry of Education is offering all schools (K–12) a BC Green Schools Eco Kit. The deadline for ordering free Eco Kits is March 31. French or English.

Readings: did you read this one?

• Another article on the implications of the proposed new copyright law from The Georgia Straight, Jan. 31, 2008: You can get your ... , by Blaine Kyllo
  
• Downloadable Book posted by Val H to the BCTLA Forum -- Journalism 2.0: How to Survive and Thrive -- A digital literacy guide for the information age by Mark Briggs, who makes me feel really stupid when he writes, "Can you send an attachment with email? Then you have what it takes to publish a blog with pictures." He also notes that, "Blogs aren't always pretty to look at, but they can be published by anyone who can click a mouse and type" (54).
  
  I am going to read carefully Chapter 5: "How to Blog!" Here Briggs tells us, "A good blog is an ongoing conversation. It is facilitated by you, but, if it works, it may be dominated by your audience. If that happens, you win ... and most importantly, the readers win." Of course, he is writing for journalists, so I needn't be feeling as though I am having a conversation with myself if you are not commenting online, right? I will also see, in Chapter 8, how to add digital photos ... then I'll be blogging at full capacity. In his chapter on Web 2.0, Briggs writes about YouTube: "Sites such as Wikipedia, MySpace, YouTube, and Flickr create sophisticated warehouses of content -- without creating any content at all. It is ... an upside down model for creation when compared to the traditional methods anyone over 30 has grown up with" (27).
  
• Tyee TL Chris's email this week about her trip to Christianne's Lyceum of Literature and Art ; the electronic flyer of professional development opportunities is a downloadable pdf on this site and registration information is there as well. Chris told us she was very impressed! "The space is beautiful, the programs extensive and Dr. Christianne Hayward is unpretentious, extremely talented and knowledgeable." Chris pointed out the 'light dinner' offer with these evening events and would probably love to get a group together for one or more of these. Aren't we lucky to live so close to opportunities such as these. Christianne will be presenting at Winter Tonic, so be sure to come and check her out!
  


• Brad at Point Grey recommends this books: "We just got a book back from cataloguing, and it is a great resource." It's K-12. Click here for more information: PowerPoint for Teachers: Dynamic Presentations and Interactive Classroom Projects (Finkelstein/Samsonov, Jossey-Bass Teacher, 2008)
  


• Jackie, Consultant, Social/Emotional Learning, here on the 4th floor "downtown" recommends this 26-page pdf package from the UK: Confident, capable, and creative: supporting boys' achievements.

Kudos for Their Brilliant TL Performances

• Nancy at Weir: Was that you we saw at the BCTF news conference sharing your experience of the impact of e-testing on schools and, in particular, on school libraries? Check here.
  
• Marisa at Fraser: Was that you we read about in the Murray Dobbin article in The Teacher magazine. It was about the school's Peace Choir and the work of our talented TL Marisa Orth-Pallavicini. Read "Songs of Peace: Making the world a better place", as posted by Val H to the BCTLA News blog. Check out Val's archives as well.
  
• Frances at Hastings has started a blog of great resources for elementary French Immersion students. It was launched at the Technology Day workshop "French Electronic Resources" co-presented by Frances and Katharine from Churchill: http://mmerenzullo.blogspot.com/
  

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More next week on the TL workshops at various District Pro D Day and also Winter Tonic events.

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Be sure to check out the Dragon's Lair flyer from Peggy

... and do let me know if you're bringing a class here.

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See you at Winter Tonic

Gladstone on Tuesday at 4 pm ...

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Resources

Always Worth a Look: Greg's TOP 10 Picks February 2008 (click on Links): Exciting Ideas and Opportunities for Social Studies Teachers and Students! Note that Greg is recommending Awesome Stories.

From Val O: FREE Resources for the first 100 people to complete a short feedback form -- The Gathering Place: An Exploration of Canada's Capital (Grades 5 – 8 Social Science) has now been delivered to over 10,000 schools across Canada, and they want to know what you think! This resource is available in French as well.

Looking for First Nations titles and resources? Deb, our administrator for Aboriginal Education, recommends GoodMinds.com as a great tool.

Web 2.0 - Why Should We Know About It?

What is this Web 2.0 phenomenon? What makes Web 2.0 dramatically different from Web 1.0 that in itself has radically transformed our notion of what constitutes information and resources is its social / interactive / collaborative capacities. Yes, I know it's hard to keep pace with the rapid pace of technology change and ways to work with it in schools. In fact, as many of you know, the tendency to embrace change is neatly and quite definitively offset by the natural inclination to stasis until such time as the pressure to change is overwhelming. This means technology learning is often called "just-in-time" learning and is usually accompanied by heightened anxiety.

CommonCraft video clips make plain sense of some of the Web 2.0 applications. The webpage says their product is explanations in plain English.

TLs Gwen and Mary, along with Susan from UBC Libraries, gave their "New Learners" workshop at Technology Day. Mary addressed the nature of the very steep learning curve for many educators as well as the benefits of the ascent from her own experience. I can tell you that the hardest course I ever took was David Brear's online session, "On the Ramp to the Information Highway." Those who attended David's workshop today left with insights and ideas about how teaching and learning are being transformed yet again by the Web 2.0 phenomenon.

At the blogging mini-workshop I gave for some co-workers at the "mother ship" this week, the STAR pupil was Meredyth: check this one out! There are more coming ...

DE Tools of the Trade is John Goldsmith's technology blog for educators and it's full of news and ideas about new applications of technology. John recently forwarded this Digital Natives video clip to the BCTLA Forum.

Whoo-hoo! Now you can go to TeacherTube.

Here are some more Youtube clips worth checking out:

A Vision of Students Today
NOTE: This clip from the U of Kansas Anthropology Dept was used by Gwen, Mary, and Susan in their workshop at Tech Day earlier today.

Bringing 21st C Learning to Your Classroom

A Vision of K-12 Students Today

The Machine is Us/ing Us

Information R/evolution

Did You Know 2.0 -- Thanks for this one, Lana.

ShiftHappens -- Love that U2!

Happy Viewing!

See you Tuesday .... Gladstone, 4 pm

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!