Still a strong performance by BC in 2009 PISA reading results?

Still strong performance by Canada and BC in latest international assessment?  Check out what Janet Steffenhagen has to say, or read the report from StatsCan, Measuring Up: Canadian Results of the OECD PISA.  Here's how I see it: 

Interesting and predictable! For an underfunded and under-resourced system, despite the rhetoric that incited the system to strive to become -- remember this? -- the "most literate jurisdiction in North America," it should come as little surprise that the results for reading have declined.

26% of BC's teacher-librarians have disappeared since the Liberal government’s stripping of contract language that ensured every school had a teacher-librarian and since the inception of funding and programs to address this lofty Literacy goal. Some might consider it to have been cheaply “spun” grandstanding and political opportunism of the worst kind, given that we were at the time already a highly literate province for 15 year-olds, closely vying for that title of most literate with Alberta.

It comes as little surprise to us in school libraries that the results for PISA 2009 tests of 15-year olds for reading have fallen here in BC; so have the services of teacher-librarians and thus the capacity of strong school library programs to support reading and inquiry. Dr Ken Haycock said this would happen in his work Crisis in Canada's School Libraries (2003); it is what happened in the US, most notably in California. This same refrain is echoed by Stephen Krashen, an acknowledged expert on the value of the kind of free voluntary reading (FVR) that is enabled by school libraries and by children having access to qualified school librarians, adequate resources, and opportunities to read. School libraries in some BC school districts are now being staffed by clerks, technicians, parent volunteers, or administrators, or they are closed for some or all of the time.

Provincial funding has been directed to making the case for what some have identified as an “imported” educational crisis in Literacy and Numeracy. John Ralston Saul, Dave Bouchard, and Andy Hargreaves have reminded us of this folly, and yet, educational direction in Canada is still, amazingly, tied to American initiatives. The public's confidence in its education system, fed by the government’s unrelenting and narrowly focused attacks, has simultaneously been eroded.

Yes, interesting and quite predictable. It is, by the way, Krashen who is best known for his finding that “reading improves with reading”! And supporting school libraries as hubs of reading and learning in our schools is so much easier a case to make than continuing on with FSAs and provincial exams, and making school districts accountable for Literacy and Numeracy.  Yes, we can see the results of this government's ignoring the importance of school library programs and its failing to invest in the resources, technology, and qualified staffing that engage students with reading.

Here's Whazzup ...

Trustees Viewed "Sustainable" School Libraries in Action

In June every year our school library consultative committee teacher representatives present a report to Trustees on the state of school libraries in relation to measures or Strategic Directions set by Dr Ken Haycock's extensive report on Vancouver school libraries from 2001.

This year, the report to trustees consisted solely of Cheriee's video as it so amply provides evidence of what well-supported school library programs do to promote learning through building inquiry and free voluntary reading opportunities. It is the evidence too that, in pursuing Haycock's Strategic Directions, Inquiry, and free voluntary reading, children are deeply engaged in active and social/relational learning and working in safe and supportive learning environments; their needs, styles, and choices are addressed, as proscribed in the LEARNS acronym for Inquiry in Vancouver. Nicely embedded into the footage as well is the upending of notions that our littlest ones are the readers; here they are deeply engaged in reading, note-taking, explaining, presenting, and working with technology. The oldest students are the readers! Nice, nice, nice!

I would suggest that the report was a "good news" report that, along with the "Sustainable School Libraries" newsletter which took up my last weekend in its entirety, was well received. TLs and administrators should have copies in the schools now as well.

Whazzup with The Others' blogs?

It is always a good idea to flip into the related blogs to see what they are chatting up.

• Doug Johnson's Blue Skunk features a post (June 12, 2009) on the Reid/Mortenson book Three Cups of Tea which I have just added to my Shelfari, you may note, and which I had selected as one of three "must reads" for the summer (see newsletter: also suggested Lullabies for Little Criminals by Heather O'Neill and Digital Literacy by Jason Ohler).
  
• Peter Pappas' (of Copy/Paste blog) most popular search was Wordle, as you can tell from his cloud.
  
• Richard Byrne, the Maine SS teacher whose blog Free Technology for Teachers is an award-winner, has posted this fantastic flyer, The Twelve Essentials. This week (June 14) he's created a Conduit custom browser toolbar with drop-down menus that provide links to all kinds of cool things. I also thought Nibipedia (linked to Byrne's blog) might be worth some more time to consider as a video search tool with great prospects for sharing with science educators. And how about Google Lit Trips as something your English teachers might appreciate?
  
• Hey Jude! is talking about what she found on Byrne's blog and about using other tools like Twitter to blog less. Time magazine this week is also featuring Twitter as its feature piece. Also check out her Student Tools -- Let Them Fly!
  
• Heather's BCTLA In Circulation blog is talking about us and our video! Nice!
  
• Near as I can tell, Chris Harris of Infomancy became an administrator in NYC and hasn't been back to blog! But I do like what he has to show about the value of the job title teacher-librarian which he says is about $10 000 (and that's US dollars). I am hoping to talk more about school libraries with Barbara Stripling in charge of school libraries in NYC, so will not need to rely on Harris for insights!
  
• From Herring I skipped into Jamie McKenzie's research models. Will get back when I have done some more work on my new Stripling-based research cycle configuration.
  
• Kathy Schrock is into Google Apps and presents a model application for the superintendent's newsletter. This could be my next goal, to work with a superintendent to post the monthly newsletter which is really a googledoc. Also have a look at her weekly Google Goodies.
  
• Joyce Valenza of SLJ's NeverEndingSearch blog has posted her own Springfield Township High School Annual School Library Report. Interesting reading, including the noticeable decline which is hard to swallow in reading from grade 8s to grade 9s. Valenza compares database usage by searches. Pretty interesting stuff. Linked from Valenza to SLJ's Stories to Share, a blog by John Peters. Seems worthy of more time as well.
  
• Whoa! Phil Bradley writes this: There are lots of custom search engines around - Rollyo, Google Custom Search and so on, but the Lijit search is designed to take all your created content from your blog, website, Flickr account, twitter and so on and create a single resource for you. It seems very simple and straight forward -- we'll see, but it does sound like something that I need to pull out the resources in this blog. Thanks, Phil. A summer project.
  
• There wasn't much new on the Pageflakes for Literacy but the North Vancouver TL Booklady is making a Web 2.0 Pageflakes that promises to be cool. Will add Librarians' Internet Index to sidebar, thanks to Schlib in or near Winnipeg who is off her blogging for the present, unless I am somehow not seeing how to find current posts!
  
• Meredyth of LateLiteracy is reading but seems a saddened blogger. The LateLiteracy blog reflects on the loss of her Mac which has succumbed to abuse and on her four years in the Literacy consulting role. I think it will be quieter in our Literacy/Library corner of The Penthouse here but it will not be the same without her next year; having half of Jacob in her place will be very different.

Regardless, the blog-tour reveals connections, connectedness, and a richness that abounds in Web 2.0 sharing.

Had you been meaning to get in touch with me about participating in the YSL Web 2.0 online conference? Now would be good!

Have a great week!

Award and Gala Season for School Libraries

Canadian Library Association/CASL Awards Announced

BCTLA Winners Score "Triple Crown for BC School Libraries"

Whoo-hoo! It's official! For a third time in recent years, a Vancouver TL has won the Follett International Teacher-Librarian of the Year Award. Joining this list of prestigious winners that includes General Gordon TL Mary Locke and now-retired Prince of Wales TL Karen Cordiner is our long-time accomplished TL colleague Michele Farquharson who, you may remember, last year, won BCTLA recognition for her work. She will receive this award at the Canadian Library Association Conference in Montreal next week. When asked to write a letter of reference, Ken Haycock said, "I have only one question: What has taken so long?" We are pretty proud of you, Michele.

Whoo-hoo! It's official! We have another provincial winner not unfamiliar to local TLs in Karen Lindsay of our BCTLA Executive and Victoria School District note. Read about this year's winner of the Ken Haycock Award for Promoting Librarianship. This award was established in recognition of CLA/ACB past president Dr. Ken Haycock, distinguished educator, administrator and advocate, not unknown to us here in the Vancouver school district!

Whoo-hoo! It's official! The BCTLA Executive has won The Angela Thacker Memorial Award that honours teacher-librarians who have made contributions to the profession through publications, productions or professional development activities that deal with topics relevant to teacher-librarianship and/or information literacy. Well, this was a "win" for school districts and schools that undertook the DEAR initiative in the Fall. The Award also acknowledges the cross-sector collaborative work with public, academic, and special libraries and the Ministry of Education's Public Library Services Branch in a range of provincial initiatives, including digitization, literacy, and database licensing.

Your BCTLA Executive members who jointly received this award do include some local TLs (VP Sylvia Zubke, Liaison Chair Ekdahl -- that's ME -- and Web Steward Val Hamilton) all under the truly excellent direction of our amazing leader and Coquitlam's Chief TL, Heather Daly, with help from nationally recognized VP Karen Lindsay.

Note that, while we had awaited this announcement for some weeks, it was disappointing not to see the names of our winning BCTLA Executive members who have all worked as a team with such keen energies and passions, and most of them are returning! Next year we will welcome
Chris Evans as Treasurer and Michele Farquharson as co-chair for Continuing Education, with Lynn Turner. It has been a joy to work with such committed and visionary TLs.

Click here for a review of past BCTLA members who have won such significant awards.

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Chocolate Lily Book Awards 2009 Gala!

Kidsbooks 3083 West Broadway, Vancouver
Date: Tuesday, June 2nd, 2009
Time: 6:45 pm doors open; 7:15-9 pm

Because of the popularity of this event, tickets are $5.00 per person but can be redeemed for full value toward any of the nominated Chocolate Lily books available, during the event.

Meet BC children's authors, have a book signed, and see which authors’ books were voted the best by BC elementary school readers.

For more information, call 604-738-5335 or email general@kidsbooks.ca

_________________________________

From Patricia Carmichael, GiggleIT Team Coordinator, IASL:

GiggleIT with GiggleCritter!

Motivate, engage, encourage and support - but most of all have fun! Registration is FREE!

Cute, loveable Gigglepet prizes! Meet new friends from around the world! The GiggleIT Project is a global collaborative publishing project hosted by the International Association of School Librarianship (IASL), working in partnership with the International Children’s Digital Library (ICDL). Designed to help children around the world improve their English language literacy skills, the GiggleIT Project encourages students ages 10-14 to contribute their writings to an online book (eBook) celebrating stories and humour from their culture. Humour, just like tragedy, is a vehicle that can be used to promote cross-cultural understandings and collaboration for children and young adults around the world. Children’s work will be published internationally and will identify their culture through literature.

Written by children for children, the eBook will contain children’s stories, jokes and poetry. The project will inspire children to be creative and make cross-cultural connections with other children from around the world as they learn about humour from other countries, while improving their literacy skills.

A range of competitions, as well as teaching and learning packages, will motivate and stimulate reading and writing skills whilst supporting teaching and learning with examples and worksheets which can be downloaded into handouts for the class. Yes, all teaching resources can be downloaded!

Register now to be part of this incredible international project here at the IASL WEBSITE. Check out the global regions page for IASL as well.

__________________________________

As ever I have some out new and interesting school-library-related "stuff" of professional interest to 21st century TLs, from book news and launches to technology tools and insights; this week, have a look at:

• Twitter/Austen/bloggy mash-up? Yep! Check out the Mad-hatted mom-blogger friend of Maryann! Well, you had to guess that last part. Just consider the educational uses of Twitter.
  
• The new Related Blogger link, Free Technology for Teachers. What took me so long to find Richard Byrne and his blogful of reviews and suggested applications for technology integration! Winner, Edublogs Award, 2008. AMAZING AMAZING stuff here.
  
• Also the newly-added Related Blogger link, Dangerously Irrelevant. Amerian academic blogger Dr Scott McLeod reflects on insights of Canadian social historian and comementator Gwynne Dyer as he blogs to address some of the K-12 incongruities in technology, leadership, and the future of schools. Read Dyer quote: Why this title? This blog has archives worth checking and sharing with administrators.
  
• Gary Hartzell's guest posting to Doug Johnson's Blue Skunk blog, on being able to provide a ready defense when, "in today’s electronic environment and damaged economy, the value of libraries per se is ... questioned right along with questions about whether you can defend continuing to spend money on print as opposed to electronic resources."
  
• Film Showing: June 1, Rm 400, Ed Centre, 4 pm: FREE showing of Mr H and his Unruly Puppets, featuring Mr Heidbreder himself and film director/producer, as well as Vancouver educator, Annie O'D from Dickens.
  
• Book Launch: Some of you met Tiffany Friesen (Poirier) for the first time at Winter Tonic. This young Vancouver "gifted" educator (third in a line of well-known local educators) will have her first-ever book launch event for Q is for Question: An ABC of Philosophy on Wednesday, May 27, at 7:00 pm at Kidsbooks, 3083 West Broadway. There will be prizes, snacks, special presentations, speeches, and fun mingling with local teachers, librarians, parents, children, and more. Please pass this invitation on to anyone you know who may be interested. Tiffany is very excited.
  
• Reading Rules, a student reading blog which is an excellent model for consideration with classroom reviewing and reading activities.
  
• The original logos captured in this 2006 Flickr graphic of Web 2.0 companies compared with British social photographer Meg Pickard's 2009-adapted Flickr graphic of those Web 2.0 companies still around.
  
• The new-look sidebar of this blog that includes new links, like the new-look BCTLA webpage under Wikis and Links.
  
• The latest from the various Related Bloggers: Joyce Valenza (SLJ), Phil Bradley, and Kathy Schrock have all made recent blog-posts about WolframAlpha, interesting as extensions of the comments posted here just last week! Blogs like these are where you find out what the "big names" in TL'ship are talking about ... well, unless you take up Twitter-ing.
  
• Twitter: You can mass-monitor tweets with the help of a beta desktop downloadable feature like Tweetdeck set to capture particular twitterings! While I have actually downloaded this, I tend to belong to and attract a group that is following each other but going nowhere! I think we must all be waiting for someone else to tweet (or re-tweet)! Twittering immigrants? No, largely tentative and rendered tweetless.
  
• Learn more about Creative Commons licensing for copyright:
  
  
  

Have a great weekend.

Congratulations are in order!

The TL Scene / Seen:

It's the busy time of year. That's my excuse for slowing down with the posts ... and besides, I need you to catch your breath on the school library roller-coaster ride. We are moving along at quite a clip and it's hard to take it all in.

There are a couple of national awards of interest to Vancouver TLs ... but I am overstepping the official CLA / CASL announcements next week and can only suggest you stay tuned. We remain Haycock's Legacy! By the way, I saw Ken two weekends ago at the BC Librarians' Conference in Burnaby. Look for more Haycock by summer's end.

All kinds of events for the BCTLA are recorded by our President Heather Daly on her BCTLA blog In Circulation. Read, for example, about:

• this year's Distinguished Service Award recipient Coquitlam principal Ross Davidson who supports literacy by making sure his school has a strong school library program with full-time staffing and by continuing his involvement in the partnership of principals and vice-principals whose Hog Wild About Reading motorcycle ride campaign has, for the past nine years, raised funds for Coquitlam's school library collections. Yay, Ross!
  
• our VTLA President Chris Evans' receiving this year's BCTLA Ken Haycock Grant for Professional Development to help defray costs of coming to the 2009 IASL Conference in Italy. Mary's in for sure, and we have three others considering coming.
  
• Michele Farquharson and Chris being elected to the 2009/10 BCTLA Executive, joining me and Sylvia from Vancouver as well as the retired Val H who, when not geo-caching, continues her web-working-wonders for TLs.
  
• this year's TL of the Year, Victoria's Karen Lindsay, our BCTLA second VP, particularly well-known for her work in advocacy for school libraries and for promoting DEAR: Drop Everything and READ.
  
• now retired Richmond TL phenom Judith Kootte who won this year's Val Hamilton Lifetime Achievement Award. Judith continues her fine leadership role in learning resources and technology learning with ERAC.
  
• the new BCTLA Position Statement on Book Levelling and School Library Collections which is to be ready next week.

Amazing morning! See you Tuesday for Tea ...

Earlier this week the Churchill school library, a-buzz as ever with herds of students, was filled with rookie TLs, most of whom couldn't be distinguished from the kids. The 30 or so of our newest TL-colleagues were delightful to work with -- I know Maryann, Katharine, and Linda will agree -- and Mark Roberts too, as he has shed his "rookie" mantle after the first year back in our ranks from several years in a classroom. It was crowded but the energy and enthusiasm was fantastic. Thanks also to the VTLA, Kam at Fleming and Gwen in particular, who have identified the need for our new TLs to have the support of seasoned TL colleagues and time to talk. Don't miss their invitation to have tea and share experiences and ask questions ... May 5, Fleming School Library. See you there!

The Final Chapter / May Year-end Update Sessions

Still more than 50 need to sign up for these important in-service sessions to prepare you for the busiest time of year, June, and for what to expect in September. The first session is scheduled for Thursday this week. Sign up online please if you haven't done so. Contact ME if you need help organizing to attend. An important workshop for a number of you will be Bombino's Inventory Basics as well, scheduled for this month.

Very Last Minute Notices

Perhaps if you are checking this and if I finish in time, you will want to rush down to the CWILL Spring Hatching event at the VPL ... that is, if you didn't get the notice sent out earlier this week --- or to the Histori.ca Fair event at the Museum.

On things historical, by the way, I loved every minute of the presentation made by Wes Knapp at the Kitsilano workshop to share the DVD and teaching package for 1907 / Vancouver / 2007. Now every high school has the kit and there are two sets for lending at Media Services. Elementary teachers are using it as well. All this has been funded by the Vancouver Historical Society and is an amazing resource for Vancouver students. Wes and Charlie Hou will be presenting this again in October.


Web 2.0, Part 2: Online Conference June/July

Check here for more Henri/Lee Your SchoolLibrary Pro D, an online conference entitled Information Literacy and Web 2.0. This conference features our own Pat Parungao as a presenter alongside names like Mike Eisenberg of BigSix fame. If you "attended" the last one, there is a discounted price. There is also a group price. Let me know how many will be "coming" to this session which has more presenters and which runs from June 13 to July 5. Let me know ASAP if you are in for this one and I will set about negotiating our participation.


Educators to Watch

Maryann and I spent time together at the annual Fast Forward event which, despite the lack of ERAC participation, continues to provide public and academic librarians, as well as K-12 educators, a chance to pre-view and select DVDs and other related tools and resources for their patrons. I worked alongside Joan from Hamber and Steve from the VSB, as well as two of our French Immersion colleagues. We were all excited about some great programs that had been nixed or missed by the ERAC selection process. Mostly I loved the NFB videostreaming database ... you'll see this at the Update sessions. Oh, and lunch with a guy to watch ...

So we watched DVDs ... and then dashed to a lunch-time talk to hear Assistant Superintendent (West Van) Chris Kennedy's energetic presentation. Well, began, Kennedy, the world needs more librarians in the 21st Century (don't need to worry about hooking this audience) -- kids need to be taught how not to plagiarize, not learn by getting caught by mechanical plagiarism detectors. Using wikispaces as a presentation tool, he talked about the world-class product of our education system that we have here in BC, as evidenced by the PISA tests, measuring 15-year-olds for international comparison, that clearly place us at the top alongside countries like Finland. His District's literacy goals next year will feature Digital Literacy ... how much fun will that be! After the little shot of professional adrenalin to keeps us thinking about how best to work for our teacher-colleagues and with the needs of the children of the 21st Century in mind, we headed back to the viewing tables. Yes, it's all exciting stuff.

Budget Presentations

Kudos to the parents who are Friends of the School Libraries here in Vancouver, for the astounding level of support given to us in the recent budget process. Thank you, Trustees, for your support under the most trying of times, as well. It surely isn't the best part of your leadership role, having to cut the very services, resources, and tools that you know enable and empower our young learners to enter the adult world better able to read, think, learn, and prosper. It's been lean here in public schools for way too long now.


IASL Conference 2009

Planning-for-Padua Update

Are you looking for a great travel opportunity with fantastic company? If you haven't looked at the IASL Conference information, you may want to see what's up for TLs in Italy this summer. And we are so excited we have organized a group tour with our Italian travel consultant, Pre-conference Tour Organizer Francesca della Hastings (as in our Frances). We are pretty close to having a package together that we will send out for your summertime consideration. Vancouver and other TLs, educators, and friends might want to consider the 10-day Tour that brings us to Padua in time for the Workshop Day (August 31) with Dr Ross Todd and Dr Carol Kuhlthau -- I emailed for details which are too follow but they are pleased to hear a group from BC is coming! The Pre-conference Day, September 1, is fully posted. The workshops and papers have been selected so more detail on conference presenters will be coming soon. The actual conference, School Libraries in the Picture: Preparing Pupils for the Future, is September 2-4. Email ME for the information package.

New Issue of Teacher-Librarian, April 2009

This is the Best-of Issue (best fiction, picture books, websites, graphic novels, software, adult books for older teens, and so on) of Teacher Librarian and it includes the BEST from Canada's Resource Links 2008. Two articles I intend to savour: Tips from National School Library Media Program Winners for Success, in "A Recipe for Your School Library," and an article entitled "From Library to Learning Commons: A Metamorphosis." Great Advisory Board here everyone ... includes Ray Doiron, Michele Farquharson, Doug Johnson, Joy McGregor, Marcia Mardis and more. Try the magazine's TLToolkit for great websites.

Inquiry

Project continues. Inquiry TLs are invited for Monday morning to join SLRCCC sub-committee to look at IL Benchmarks and to consider project timeline and products for June. Academic librarians from UBC and SFU will join us for half the meeting. I am looking forward to this. Our TLs showcase so well!

Catching up ...

The Miracle of the Ass, by Donatello

The BC Teacher-librarians' Association AGM and CC meeting was held in conjunction with the BC Librarians' Association (our public, academic, and special librarian allies) conference in Burnaby this weekend. TLs who come to the meeting from around the province were able to attend some of the sessions held on Saturday afternoon. First reports are "rave reviews" for the joint venture, so we are hoping to do this again in Penticton next year. Found at the exhibition place during lunch -- the venerable Dr Ken Haycock who will be returning to our northern regions by late summer and who will be in Padua this summer. I don't mention this Padua thing solely to annoy those of you who won't be in Padua this summer ... oh, but I have digressed!

If you'd been in my cubby last week, you'd have seen me under the extreme weight of panic as I was preparing the presentation wiki for a first draft of a "new" approach to Information Literacy K-12. This first-draft model will move away from the traditional scope-and-sequence to the use of benchmarks that are further proscribed by dimensions of student learning. While I am happy to post the presentation wiki, please know that we are already making plans for changes. Michele, Julie from West Van, Lynn from Terrace, and I have been working on this for over a year. Many many thanks to Janet from Churchill who came to the rescue in the re-writing process. School libraries are where angels hang out in schools. And if you missed that part of the training program -- how to be a school angel -- I have a workshop in mind for you.

At the Chapter Councillors meeting, VTLA co-president Chris from Tyee received the Ken Haycock Award for Professional Development to help her on her way to Padua in early September where she will gather information for a Bookmark article. Chris also became the third Vancouver TL on this BCTLA Executive when she agreed to take on the Treasurer's role. We know she is good at that.

All right, so I have to ask: Is anyone else coming to Padua? It will be THE place to be if you are a teacher-librarian this year. Check out the reason we're there -- IASL Conference 2009 and cute guys like Longhi's Jacopo, pictured here but all set to party with us when we get to Padua. Side trips -- like the poet Petrarch's beautiful farmhouse, the Bertiolana and Marciana Bibliotecas, and the boat tour of Padua by night -- these and the fact that Padua is famous for its history, its Basilica of St Anthony and its natural Euganean spas, its being very close to Venice and also being a wonderful place to view Giotto's frescoes and Donatello's bronze sculptures -- promise to make this teacher-librarians' conference a really memorable event in global teacher-librarianship. Above is Donatello's Miracle of the Ass which I am assuming is short for Association, as in BCTLA's AGM or International ASS'n of School Librarians!

Will be sending out details of the ten-day special teacher-librarian and like-minded educators' tour of Tuscany and Northern Italy soon. This tour is being organized via our TL Francesca from Hastings and is customized to TL needs. It features, for example, spa time and one whole day for the outlet mall for D & G, amongst other Italian designer hotspots, for those of us who simply must have those can't-come-back-without and other must-buy fashion items. Conference is optional but available at a very reasonable additional cost! What better way to get in the spirit for the year of the Olympics than a visit to Western classical roots.

The images used in this blog are from a wonderful Western classical art teaching resource called The Web Gallery of Art.