A Break on the Horizon

News to report this week:

Collaboration in the Library

Last week I told you about the BCTF workshop offered by our Vancouver TLs Janet, Katharine, and Michele. This week I have added their blog into the "Related Bloggers" section of the sidebar. See blog Collaboration in the Library. New TLs, this is worth your time.


UBC Infolit Project

The long-time project in which retired and practicing TLs work with elementary and primary teacher-candidates in the UBC Education program is happening now. Recently Gwen showed UBC instructors and others supporting the students how to integrate the database and electronic resources with their information literacy lessons. This week Michele and I worked with the project, alongside retirees like Sharon, Vi, Bev, Carolynn, and more, to build understandings about inquiry, resource-based learning, and the collaborative capacity of TLs.

The Bookmark

The Winter 2009 issue of The Bookmark is online now. As usual, it is a remarkable piece of work that is drawing attention for its quality and innovative format. Editors and Okanagan TLs Angie MacRitchie and Al Smith are hard-working, active, and fun members of our BCTLA Executive; we are really proud of them both. By the way, rumour has it that some members of the BCTLA Executive are saving to go to Padua for the IASL Conference at the end of the summer; there are similar rumours that more than one Vancouver TL will be there too!

In this issue find articles by Marlene Asselin, Ray Doiron, Jennifer Branch, Diane Oberg, and Margriet Ruurs, as well as the regular contributions of Greg Smith, John Goldsmith, Stew Savard, Carolyn Cutt, and Pat Parker.


The Lieutenant Governor's Literacy Program

Each month, The Honourable Steven Point posts four pictures and invites students, children, and young adults to write stories for the pictures, stories he personally will read. Wouldn't this be a wonderful opportunity for further development with digital storytelling or more of what we saw with Dr Jason Ohler?

Literacy 2.0

The March issue of Educational Leadership features the theme of "Literacy 2.0" and Dr Jason Ohler as the lead contributor with his article "Orchestrating the Media Collage" (EL March 2009). In her introduction to the issue, Marge Scherer summarizes the content as articles that will examine "what this new 2.0 literacy entails; how it differs from, yet relies on, the skills of traditional literacy; which new possibilities and challenges it raises — including how to counsel the multitasking student and how to foster the endangered capacity to read deeply; and finally, where and how literacy 2.0 should fit in K-12 curriculum and instruction."

If you missed the opportunity to hear Jason Ohler, the link to the EL article I sent out would provide an opportunity to read about what we learned and what everyone is talking about. Don't forget that EL is included in the EBSCO database package so you can search for this and other articles.

Many people who attended Technology Day at Magee with Dr Ohler have requested copies of his recent book so we will be looking at taking and placing a bulk order. Information will follow shortly, but you as the TL might want to share your resource expertise -- check who in your school would like to own a copy and where the funds can be found to put one into the school's professional collection. How many copies for your school, then?

Digital Storytelling in the Classroom:
New Media Pathways to Literacy, Learning, and Creativity.
2008. Corwin Press.
ISBN: 9781412938501

CWILL and Planning for Author Visits

Mark at Cunningham reminds us that the very best place to find an author or illustrator for school library visits is the website for Canadian Writers and Illustrators BC (CWILLBC). We have so much local and easily accessibly talent here in Vancouver.

• Mark recommends former Vancouver teacher and award-winning children's author Robert Heidbreder for annex and elementary audiences.
  


• I can also recommend my neighbour Glen Huser, by the way, who is a former TL and TL Consultant from Edmonton as well as an GG award-winning author for his book Stitches.
  


• Melanie Jackson, local author and fellow denizen of the VSB here, is nominated for a Chocolate Lily award this year for her book Shadows on the Train.
  


• And don't forget Nancy Hundal, our very own practicing TL and children's author, whose tenth book -- a first chapter book, in fact -- is due in April.
  


• Did you hear Tiffany Poirier from Brock at Winter Tonic this year? If so, you will remember that her first book Q is for Question is due soon too.
  


• And Vi Hughes has another one coming soon too.

Great Resources -

Webspiration and Graphic Novels

Our new membership in the IASL has been worthwhile. The following info comes via IASL-Link's Gerald Brown from Winnipeg and retired consultant for Pembina Margaret Stimson:

• Did you know that the New York Times has added a new best seller list to the collection? It's the New York Times Graphic Books Bestsellers list. Librarian Joshua Carlson believes graphic novels are important for all libraries. Graphic novels have become important in our school library collections but there are still many obstacles to general acceptance this is an important format for engaging young readers. This bestseller list adds support. They are both worthwhile and worthy of recognition.



• Webspiration? It's the public beta version of Inspiration, software created for your use FREE by the same company. "Use Webspiration's diagramming environment to create bubble diagrams, flowcharts, concept maps, process flows and other visual representations that stimulate and reflect your thinking."

WebWord and Netbooks, Reviewed

From Online Edition of Costco Connection and high-tech reporter Marc Saltzman: check page 13 of the March/April 2009 edition for his "latest" on the little laptops (called "netbooks") you may be seeing around and for this valuable tool:

• WordWeb: this is a FREE downloadable dictionary and thesaurus that, if you hold down the CTRL key and right-click on any word, activates a pop-up window with the definition, synonyms, antonyms, as well as links to other sites such as Wikipedia. It can be used offline as well. It takes up 7.4 mb and has more than 150 000 root words and 120 000 synonyms. It is available in "Canadian" English.
  
• Of the new Netbooks, Saltzman says they are one of today's hottest tech tools (although I am still thinking I need a video camera like Alan Z's Vado) ... So, for cost-savings, netbooks often use Linux open-source operating systems, as opposed to Windows. The small keyboard is ideal for kids (and the lightweight affordability makes them ideal for geo-caching, I am told). They have small storage capacity and do not have the gaming or video capacity of laptops. But they are perfect for email, word processing, and checking the internet. At under $400 each, might these be the solution to some of our technology needs?

Obama cares about libraries:

"At the moment that we persuade a child, any child, to cross that threshold, that magic threshold into a library, we change their lives forever, for the better. It's an enormous force for good."

Barack Obama, keynote speech

American Library Association Conference, 2005

In the Forefront for School Libraries

The VSB Summer Institute:
The Changing Landscape of School Libraries

August 25 and 26, Byng Secondary School

How smart am I! I invited Val Hamilton. So here's her blog: VSB Summer Institute where you can find links, content, and photos of our learning about The Changing Landscape of School Libraries.

Information Literacy and Learning

Can I believe my ears? James Henri, president of all the world's teacher-librarians, suggested on the first morning ... before the first coffee break ... that we need to re-engineer our thinking about our role as teacher-librarians to serve teachers instead of students. This change made, we will be at the beginning of the revolution. If the teachers love learning and understand what it means to be information literate, then the students will too. This is the only way to have influence in the school. And what are we doing for the principal? how can we make ourselves indispensible to both? We took the wrong direction when we implemented our programs to serve students.

Stephen Heppell, say James, is THE MAN. Check his blog for think-aheads! To address the high drop-out rate in the UK, Stephen was approached to create Notschool.com for online learning where students were connected to learning by mobile phone. Within four years, students of Notschool were achieving better results than regular school students.

Are the Learning Paradigms in which we find ourselves working to advance learning or do they simply sustain teacher comfort? When re-thinking curriculum, how about throwing it out, putting in learning, letting the learners make the curriculum, and then analyzing whether the learning is happening? That is, put the process to the front and the discipline or content to the back; hire or re-locate learning specialists, not content-area teachers; that is, make the curriculum.

If a TL is to be an Information Leader, what will be important in the school? Information Literacy, Knowledge Building, Knowledge Management, and Information Policy -- on these can be built the platform to launch the changes that will meet the learning needs of our 21st century students and teachers. What are the roadblocks to the path of change? Politicians, a closed infrastructure, teacher recruitment, teacher training, testing, our sustained love affair with content!

James moves forward fearlessly telling us that we need to be prepared to be afraid! We followed ... interestingly we can see the danger of what lies ahead on the path to change but not the inherent dangers of where we are at present. Yet we must hook onto the journey ... teacher-librarians are important for leadership in schools and have a vision to share. The role of the teacher-librarian includes teaching & learning, leadership, curriculum involvement, management, literature promotion, and services to the school community. Two of these target teachers ... leadership and curriculum involvement ... so we need to "hang out there"! Stay with services and teaching & learning because teachers are there too and they will implement change they are convinced of. Start with curriculum: re-focus as content-on-process, assessing where you are, where you want to go, and what tools you have to get there.

And so it begins ...

Web 2.0 and New Directions for Learning

Sandra Lee has arrived on Tuesday to put some practical tools into our hands, the tools that we can employ to engage our students in the work of creating and sharing learning. First went the novices to learn about Web 2.0 ... everyone wanted to be a novice, so new is the set of tools to teachers. (See Val Hamilton's vsbsummer blog for the links). Laptops and computers flashed in and out of the new open source software option as teachers and teacher-librarians tried out skype, audacity, flickr, picassa, voicethread, igoogle, and more. We will need more of Sandra; half a day was not nearly enough!

And James worked out the solutions with the other half of our group. He draws on the work of UPEI professor Ray Doiron (see IASL summary for more on Ray) and his wiki that introduced some of us teacher-librarians as well as public, academic, and special librarians to the concept of lifelong/lifewide libraries,. Ray set the pace for on-going discussions in this talk as the keynote speaker at the Fall 2007 BCLibrary 2020 Symposium. We are asked to consider whether the school library is a place, a concept, a function, or a learning commons; could we re-vision school as something happening within library? We think about the leadership role of the teacher-librarian and consider the Australian model. This year, as SLRCCC (Vancouver's school library consultative committee) re-visits its own Role statement, we have another model to compare it with. We assessed our own educational contexts as information literate school communities, using the Henri, Hay, and Oberg rubric.

And we planned for the future: what's next? Stay tuned. We are in the planning stages for an online conference in late February. This group that came together this summer, each teacher and teacher-librarian on his or her own time, left connected, thinking, and "wired" for the upcoming year. The dialogue has been rich and sometimes challenging. No one has left believing the journey will be easy; but it is right and mostly it is right for kids.

Some comments and possibilities have begun to appear on the blog ... check these out. Add your own ideas.

Weeks, Asselin, and Doiron

Day 6

In her keynote address, "Strengthening Global Understanding Through Children's Books," Dr Ann Carlson Weeks of the University of Maryland spoke about progress to date with the International Children's Digital Library (ICDL). This wonderful resource -- A Library for the World's Children -- encourages both reading and shared global understandings. You will find books in 46 different languages from 56 countries. There are 2657 books, of which 961 are picture books, 244 award-winning books, persistent links, popout text, kids' reviews, Big Books, and links to Amazon. You can search by location and other descriptors. There is cover-to-cover scanning, as well as translation and activities suggested for teachers, parents, librarians, and the children themselves. New features include Historical Collections, Exhibitions with global themes, and lists of the titles available in translation. Books included are free to read or use with classes, have been cleared for use through various local copyright conditions. Chosen from "inside" the culture they depict, the books promote tolerance and understanding. Presently Canadians represent 5% of the users; recently the World Bank approved funds to provide XO computers and training and to digitize Mongolian children's stories so that children in rural Mongolian schools can access these stories.

If you haven't seen this, it's truly worth a look ... and then share it with your teaching colleagues.

Another presentation of great interest was given by Marlene Asselin and Ray Doiron: "Sparking a Worldwide Conversation on School Libraries 2.0." We heard about what emerged from the processes of their guest co-editing the open source online publication of School Libraries Worldwide (14:2 July 2008), "New Learners, New Literacies, New Libraries."

As they sought to mediate the journalized discussions of who the new learners are, what literacies they need, and what pedagogies we use to teach them, they were surprised at the emergent tensions that pointed to an urgent need to address the shifting nature of learning, literacies, librarianship, and our understandings about knowledge and knowledge-construction. These changes, suggests Doiron, we can ignore -- but at our own peril! The long-held tenets and perceptions of what we do need to be reassessed in the face of issues of social justice and equity. Our reticence to face the changes represented by the new learners and the multiliteracies needs to be faced; our role in teaching for information literacy is now too narrow.

Even as the co-editors modelled a broader conversation in their construction of the journal, they identified the absence of models. What was clear to them was that School Libraries 2.0 are uniquely created by the users from the resources at hand and afar. Teacher-librarians are called upon by active users to help with constructions and with dissemination of the new knowledge. The vision of SL 2.0 is holistic, both virtual and physical, and ultimately accessible 24/7, where all the learning tools are combined with a wide range of teaching and learning resources; see iBrary.

Our challenges as teacher-librarians are to set aside the tacit assumptions that we are already addressing the learning and other needs of our students and then to shift our place in relation to the learning, from observing behaviours to helping students access and then shape new knowledge. Not only must students think critically, they must be supported as they think locally and act globally. Our students' needs for connection need to be acknowledged and facilitated. They need to be involved in the discussions about the vision for school libraries.

You can read more about what Asselin and Doiron have found about new learners (the Millennials who say, "I want to be / to stay connected" and who wear their technology) in their wiki and in their paper "Towards a Transformative Pedagogy for School Libraries" presented at the American Educational Research Association Annual Meeting (AERA) in New York in March, 2008.

BC Books and other Blog Bites

BIG NEWS ABOUT BC BOOKS FOR VANCOUVER KIDS -- check your email on Monday.

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Let's practice visual literacy skills again! Do you know some or all of these people? Do you recognize where they are meeting? How about a little reflection now: Are you looking for a retirement project?

Here in the picture are most of the members of the UBC Infolit group, a group of specially-recruited retired TLs and others who work collaboratively with elementary teacher-candidates to prepare an extended resource-based inquiry unit that features specific instruction for information literacy. The group gathered on Thursday to celebrate another successful year with the project.

You will see Marlene Asselin in the picture. She showed us this cool "mashup" project submitted for a recent class in Web 2.0: Our School Libraries

Marlene presented with Ray Doiron at AERA in New York in March. Their presentation is captured in this wiki entitled New Literacies, New Libraries, New Learners. Sit down with a cup of coffee ... you'll have lots to ponder here as did the many who attended this noteworthy session.

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Alan Zisman sends this interesting 5-minute video clip: Internet Dangers for Kids ... and speaking of Alan, the Google for Educators workshop that David and Alan are co-presenting at Chief Maquinna is rapidly filling up. Sign up online for this Wednesday opportunity to build more tech tools into your teaching.

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According to my little blog-counter, last Friday there were 80 unique visitors to this blog; on Monday, there were 108 unique visitors. While not much happens in between, it is really fun to see the how the bar graph jumps on the day I post and on the first day back from a weekend. I find it all so fascinating ... especially the fact that many of the "hits" are not from Vancouver.

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Quotes from Kit Kreiger at his talk with John Young at the University Women's Club on Thursday evening in the first of a series of four talks entitled Access to Public Education:

Today we have teachers who know more [because of all the research that's available to inform their teaching] but who have less ability to teach [because of the accountability agenda that drives what happens in classrooms].

How astounding that the state of Texas should act for children before the province of BC!

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If you worked with student teachers in your school library, you are entitled to a UBC tuition waiver. Make sure you let your administrator know to request one in your name. The tuition waiver pays for you to take one undergraduate or graduate-level course. There are several of interest this summer, especially the one with James Henri and Sandra Lee. You cannot transfer the waiver. If you are still working at completing the TL diploma, don't miss out on this -- and they are worth twice as much when you are completing a masters.

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This week's TL Studio was probably the most fun one to date, thanks to Michele working with Lana from Tupper. We all donned headphones with mikes and began making jings about the five ways one can cut-and-paste with a computer. Jings allow creators to use "thinkaloud" descriptions to make little videos with sound about what they are demonstrating on the desktop. Ever the keener, I jumped ahead to create a jing about how to read an electronic newspaper, as well as how to print the Sudoko. Now what I didn't fully register is where I will find my cut-and-paste and electronic newspaper jings when I need to show them again ... Lana? Michele?

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Who Dared To Enter the Dragon’s Lair?

from Peggy Bochun

Dangling spiders, slithering snakes and bloodcurdling bats and rats were all part of the imaginative Dragon’s Lair in the Education Centre lobby during the month of February and beginning of March. The display, complete with a fire water breathing dragon, a goblet of dragon’s blood and an fountain full of dragon’s eggs was created by Chris Foxon from the Nursery and his grounds crew to celebrate literacy and the theme of dragon’s in literature. One of the dragons in the display, guarding a treasure chest filled with jewels, was even a celebrity that had starred alongside Ben Stiller in the movie “Night at the Museum”. Moira Ekdahl, library consultant for the VSB, assisted by collecting books from school libraries featuring magical dragons and created a bibliography for young readers. Staff and students viewing the display were invited to weave their way amongst creepy twisted boughs of dragon’s bain and enter the Dragon’s Lair Writing Challenge. The goal was to create a 250 word story using elements of the display in order to win a dragon T-shirt.

Thanks to TL Jan A for bringing Rosemarie and her class here for the display.

Pictured above are contest winner Rosemarie
with Peggy and Chief Dragonslayer Kelly!
Congratulations, Rosemarie.

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 ....