HAPPY THANKSGIVING!

In case I haven't mentioned it, I am ever so thankful for my great TL and MLST colleagues here in Vancouver and promise to toast them all over the family turkey dinner. My work is enabled by being able to tap into the remarkable spirit of sharing the load, working collaboratively, learning about new tools and directions for school library programs, and focussing on the successes.

The DEAR Campaign

This week will be the time to begin to promote the Drop Everything and Read (DEAR) project in your school. Here's what you need to know:

On Wednesday evening October 15, our Trustees will consider a submission from District Management, in response to a request from the VTLA, to endorse DEAR. I expect to be able to confirm this endorsation by the Trustees on Thursday. Your administrators will all receive information at their Area meetings this week. Here's the history:

For many years, teacher-librarians have organized special school events to mark National School Library Day (NSLD) on the fourth Monday in October. This is the first year they are taking their celebration to the general public.

Many studies have shown that daily silent reading is a very effective way of improving reading comprehension, increasing vocabulary, improving spelling, and broadening understanding of others. When students choose what they want to read from a well-stocked school library or from home, when they have the time and space in which to read and are free of tests and assignments, even twenty minutes a day of independent reading can make a difference.

The Drop Everything and Read (DEAR) Challenge was tested in many schools across the province on National School Library Day last year. Hundreds of BC students engaged in silent reading from 11:00 to 11:20 that day, and the response was terrific: "You could hear a pin drop!" "Kids didn't want to stop after 20 minutes."

The Province of British Columbia has declared October to be Library Month. “B.C.’s libraries help British Columbians of all ages access the information and tools that they need to live, work and learn,” said [Minister] Bond. “Library Month is an excellent opportunity for all of us to recognize and celebrate these valuable public resources and the amazing people who work in them.” Minister Bond thanked the B.C. Library Trustees’ Association, the Public Library Services Branch, the B.C. Library Association, the B.C. Teacher Librarians’ Association, as well as all of the library staff and information professionals from across the province for the excellent services that ensure that the goal of making BC the best-educated, most literate jurisdiction on the continent is achieved.

Recently the BCTF announced its support for DEAR as a province-wide initiative and asked the government to proclaim October 27 as BC School Library Day. They have provided and distributed posters (which have been distributed to schools).

Teacher-librarians around the province, with support from the BC Teacher-librarians’ Association, have been promoting this event with district management, administrators, colleagues, parents, students, and trustees with a goal of 100% school and district participation this year!

The Vancouver Teacher-librarians’ Association had requested that District Management support the BCTLA initiative called DEAR or “drop everything and read” on October 27, National School Library Day. District Management is supportive and in turn, will recommend that the Vancouver Board of Education endorse the special school event “Drop Everything and Read" (DEAR) Challenge to mark National School Library Day (NSLD) on October 27 from 11:00 to 11:20 am or at some other appropriate time during the school day.

Share this news:

• Here's a couple of great resources for your Social Studies colleagues as we approach Remembrance Day: Passchendaele -- see also Charles Best Library Remembrance Day collation of resources.
  



• How do you like my new widget called Shelfari (see my shelves in the sidebar)? Thanks, Heidi, former literacy mentor and Learning Services colleague, now back in a school. Why not explore this new Web 2.0 tool and consider how this might be useful for adult and school-age book clubs. I am now reading Follett's second historical novel, World Without End. It could take a while for this fat book to hit my shelves!
  



• From my August email, I found John Goldsmith writing about another new Web 2.0 tool called Digital Book Talks (from the U of Central Florida and the Orange County Public Schools in Orlando): “Take a look at this high-tech variation [of booktalking]. After watching a couple of the booktalk video clips, it occurred to me that most of what I was seeing would be easy to replicate with a digital camera, a computer and a group of tech savvy students. The finished product would look great on a library website.” Victoria TL and BCTLA Exec member Karen Lindsay is enthusiastic about booktalking and this resource. “This looks very cool - and useful. I've signed myself up.”
  



• Karen also describes her TL-on-Wheels approach to booktalking in a school where students are not always prepared with a book for silent reading: “I do book talks every chance I get …. However, an ongoing problem is the small minority of kids who arrive without books, refuse to read, hate reading, etc. To help with that, I do a "books on wheels" thing about once a term. I pass around a sign-up sheet at a staff meeting early in each term. Teachers choose their slot and I load up a cart full of books I hope will appeal to a broad spectrum of students.
  
  "Then I take my show on the road …. In each class, I booktalk half a dozen books, and then let the kids have-at the cart. I have a remote scanner with me, and kids and teachers can sign things out on the spot. It's been pretty effective at getting the word out that the library has cool stuff for just about any taste and that we're willing to do outreach. This year, I plan to bring along my "Recommend a Resource to Reynolds" forms, so that I can gather student requests and suggestions at the book talks, too. When I have a new book that I know I want to recommend, but that I haven't read yet, I go to EBSCOHost's NoveList database for a plot summary. I use it a lot for acquisitions, too …. We all need as many arrows in our quivers as possible.”
  



• Are you or your colleagues concerned about the copyright issue for Canadian educators? On Thursday, October 23, 7:00 - 8:30 pm at the VPL Central Branch, Alice MacKay Room, why not attend the free public lecture, "Why Copyright? The Fight for Canada's Digital Future" with Michael Geist, Canada Research Chair in Internet and E-commerce Law. This event is sponsored by the The Information Policy Committee of the BC Library Association as part of their conference, Jumpstarting the Public Sphere: Information Policy Issues for the 21st Century. Issues include net neutrality, media concentration, telecommunications policy, access to information, and intellectual property. Registration is required and closes October 22nd, 4 p.m., or when all seats have been reserved.
  
  Synopsis: In June 2008, the Canadian government introduced Bill C-61, new copyright legislation that closely followed the U.S. Digital Millennium Copyright Act. The public response to the bill was both immediate and angry - tens of thousands of Canadians wrote to the Minister and their local MPs, leading to town hall meetings, negative press coverage, and the growing realization that copyright was fast becoming a mainstream political and policy issue. The "Canadian copy-fight," which includes many new advocacy groups and the Fair Copyright for Canada Facebook group that has over 90,000 members, has attracted considerable attention from the mainstream media, with many wondering how copyright had emerged as a contentious policy issue. This talk will assess both the legislative proposals and the Canadian copyfight experience in an effort to answer the oft-asked question, "Why copyright?”
  



• SSSHHH! Word has it that a Vancouver TL is to receive recognition at the BCTLA conference in Victoria for her work in school libraries ... and so it is really important for us to be there! Great online registration for this conference too.
  

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.

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.

WINTER TONICS

Have you registered for Winter Tonic?

Here are some other February "tonics" if you are looking for something to replenish your spirit, a little flair or fun or food for thought or passion to enhance your work in school libraries. Why not choose one or two --

• find a great gift or "branding" item for a teacher-librarian or for yourself at Cafepress. Here's where Sylvia got her bumper sticker that reads, "I am the librarian your mother warned you about." A new wardrobe item always helps the spirit.
  
• check out the best source of powerpoint templates at Brainy Betty. Put PIZZAZZ into your presentations.
  
• how about something fun to do on FAT Tuesday (Feb 5) or Mardi Gras? Try heading out to hear The Burke Street Blues Band now booked for Mardi Gras night (8-11 pm) at DaDeO New Orleans Diner and Bar, 3305 Cambie (at 17th-- former Tomato Restaurant location) 604-874-1053 -- and it's our friend Alan Zisman on keyboards!
  
• read this article to affirm the importance of your work as the information literacy specialist in your school: The more things change ... by IVOR TOSSELL from Friday's Globe and Mail, January 24, 2008.
  
• read this Richmond News Community Profile for Family Literacy Day; it's about Richmond TL Carole Wilson who is still making a difference after thirty years in the teaching business. Some of you may know Carole in her capacity as an instructor with the UBC Teacher-Librarianship program.
  
• find out more about blogging and its applications for school libraries: Teacher-Librarians Connect ... by Publishing Online, from Charles Best (Coquitlam) TL Judith Comfort provides lots of ideas. Check out her BCTLA workshop, online resources and activities which are blogs.
  
• register for something -- Feb 8 is Literacy Day at Killarney or Technology Day at Magee; Feb 12 is Winter Tonic at Gladstone; Feb 6 is Shari Graydon here at the VSB; Feb 18 is TL Studio at Kerrisdale; Spring Weeding (two sessions, last week of Feb and first week of March) at Dickens and Cheriee is promising much livelier refreshment to make the session fun... see VSB website and click onto Current Professional Opportunities.
  
• choose to attend one or two events put on by the Vancouver Children's Literature Roundtable: Authorfest 2008 is Feb 6 at UBC. Serendipity 2008 is, this year, to be a celebration of First Nations Children's Authors and Illustrators and is being held at the First Nations Longhouse at UBC all day Saturday, Feb 23. Membership to the Vancouver CLR is $15. For more information, read Tough City Writer's blog.
  
• bone up on the issues around new proposed Canadian copyright legislation which, as secondary TLs heard from Aaron M at their monthly meeting, could seriously affect us in schools because of the omission of educational fair-use clauses and of any educational representation. Aaron referred us to Michael Geist's blog for more information. Dr. Geist is the Canada Research Chair of Internet and E-commerce Law at the U of Ottawa and was educated at Osgoode Hall Law School, Toronto, Cambridge University, UK and Columbia Law School in New York. He is concerned with internet and technology law as well as privacy issues.
  
• read some more: I am passing along this Michael Geist article "Law Eases Net Snooping: Privacy watchdog fears new copyright regs" (Tuesday's The Tyee). Anne S forwarded it after our discussion at our secondary TL department heads' meeting.
  
• check out this article from eSchool News to consider the perspectives of American educators on educational fair-use clauses: "'Fair Use' confusion threatens media literacy."
  
• attend a lecture at the VPL: Speak Up 2008: My Virtual World, Tuesday Feb 19, 2008, 7:00 PM - 9:00 PM, Alice MacKay Room. The Speak Up series brings together many voices, perspectives and experiences, and provides an opportunity for public dialogue. This year's series explores the role of technology in our lives. "Online Privacy: Is There Any?" will feature panelists Mary Carlson (Office of the Information and Privacy Commissioner, Province of BC); Inspector Kevin McQuiggin (Vancouver Police Department); Richard Rosenberg (BC Freedom of Information and Privacy Asosciation). And it's free!
  
• find out who's blogging and what they are talking about. Click onto one or more of the Related Bloggers in the sidebar of this blog to see what the discourse is, more globally, for school libraries. Susan at Magee suggests Kathy Schrock's Kaffeklatsch blog January entry entitled Youtube is Cool! which would follow nicely with the secondary TL department heads discussion last week.
  
  I have recently added Doug Johnson's Blue Skunk blog. I enjoyed reading, amongst his archives, articles with such enticing titles as Rules for Pod People..., "BS" Literacy, and Librarians Behaving Badly. Joyce Valenza's Neverendingsearch on SLJ offers such articles for your consideration as these: Google as white bread? (and ICT lit matters) or Databases: Can We Get Teachers to Love Them? I have also added James Herring's Weblog. Schrock, Valenza, Johnson, Herring ... have I missed any of the BIG names in the world of school libraries?
  
  Thanks, Lana at Byng, for passing along this link to school bloggers with loads of examples, as well. Reading Rules is only one example of a school library application for blogging. And we are awaiting a new blog from one of our own French Immersion TLs, to be launched next week, I believe. I will be linking it here.