YSL6: Advocacy, Evidence and Image

School libraries are not a luxury item -- they are essential to learning. 

YSL6: James Henri and Sandra Lee are bringing us yet another timely, provocative, and important opportunity to learn in a dynamic, interactive, asynchronous, global online context how to work for advancement of school libraries. 

Sign up now for Your School Library's sixth online professional development conference, March 4 - 18, to work with such BIG names in the field as Gary Hartzell, Stephen Krashen, Buffy Hamilton, and Keith Curry Lance and more, always including our own BC BIG names, to develop strategies to help administrators, colleagues, parents, and others understand the value of the school library for student learning. 

Click here for more information about YSL and the conference and for registration; be sure to take advantage of the district or BCTLA promotional discount.

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!

Oh, DEAR ... and so we read!

Thank you, Minister Bond.
Education Report: 2008 October 31

and this Gold Star is also for Steve Mulligan for

drive-by readings at FIVE schools

on National School Library Day

and for his on-going attentiveness to school libraries --

Thank you, Steve, from all district TLs.

Vancouver schools took part in DEAR on October 27 National School Library Day with enthusiasm. Our Trustees and BCSSTA office staff read at 11 am, Education Minister Bond read at 11 am, colleagues at Learning Services and MLST were observed reading and eating "School Libraries: The Heart of Literacy" chocolate bars , and staff at The Vancouver Sun read too.

October 28, The Vancouver Sun:

Here's a "snapshot" of what you could have observed in our schools:

• Van Horne experienced a rare silence throughout the school
  
• Henderson featured some readers dressed as favourite storybook characters
  
• Trudeau readers with painted faces listening attentively as firefighters read to them
  
• Tillicum's “the reading train” ran down the entire central hallway, complete with whistle stops and loads of book-talking


• Mt Pleasant kicked off One Book, One Class for November and Steve Mulligan did two readings


• Weir's guest readers included Maryann Kempthorne, Angela Brown, Gary Little, Denise North, Steve Mulligan, and VPL children's librarian, Noreen Ma


• Carr students camped out and read in tents; Steve Mulligan appeared here too for a reading!
  
• Moberly invited Wally Oppal; see the picture with Wally Oppal (see blog, October 27) in the blog archives for October 27
  
• Gladstone has silent reading every morning; they read again in the afternoon and teachers were seen nibbling the same chocolate bars as were featured here in Learning Services and elsewhere (but then a student at Gladstone had designed them, so that made it okay to eat chocolate!)
  
• Tupper students got their heads into the brand new school library books
  
• Templeton stopped everything from 10:30 - 10:50 am, as agreed by Staff Committee, and it worked so well that a number of teachers will be incorporating a stop and read on a more regular basis

What's new?

Vancouver Children's Literature Roundtable Hycroft Event - November 12, 6-9 pm, 1489 Macrae Avenue, just east of 16th and Granville. Light refreshments after the presentations. Street parking only.

Special Guest Kathy Stinson plus BC authors and illustrators will be presenting their
new children's books

BCTLA Forum posting by Val H this week has generated a flurry of commentary. Read: "Flip This Library: School Libraries Need a Revolution/School libraries need a revolution, not evolution," by David Loertscher in School Library Journal, 11/1/2008. The article begs the question, so how might this look?

My new Australian friend, Patricia Carmichael, whom I met at the IASL Conference, is presently working on her PhD at Charles Sturt University in Wagga Wagga, New South Wales. To see how this might look read a summary of a program that offers one version of a program that incorporates the notion of "learning commons" click here and scroll down to the last summary. Consider also that our local university libraries both have Learning Commons within their campus academic library programs.

James Henri suggested revolution to us in August; we need to focus on the teachers, he said, and if we see that the learning that takes place in school libraries is integrally tied to the needs of 21st century learners, we need to find ways that it can evolve with our leadership to better support the learning styles, experiences, and interests of our educational community, including teachers and students. We need to explore ways of building our programs on the "google" concept ... if they build it (the program, the curriculum, the learning landscapes), they will use it. What we have built needs to be carefully considered for nudging along the continuum or we risk being rendered obsolete.

Remember, we are at the start of a revolution and the outcome will be uncertain and it will be stressful along the way. But we most assuredly need to ask ourselves, is what we have been doing working? Is it the best way to serve our educational communities?

Multi-vendor Display and Chapters Workshop

This year's event seemed a great success. Those of us who enjoyed Chapters/Starbucks hospitality had a great opportunity to shop in "gaggles" and hone in on the real bargain-price items, as well as hot new reads for students. Maryann's workshop provided plenty of direction for program and collection building. There were more secondary resources than last year and will be more next year too. Wednesday seemed busier than Thursday, but everyone seemed to be very focussed and deeply occupied with that most challenging part of our job, shopping!

Workshop with Judith Comfort

A few of us "secondary types" spent late Thursday afternoon at Churchill with Coquitlam TL Judith Comfort exploring the possibilities of her approach to technology integration, a strategy she calls multi-level resource-based online learning. Click here and check out some of the Teaching Activities. The group is going to try some out together ... stay tuned for how we do. And thanks, Judith, for a very interesting afternoon. We were a keen audience.

7 from Greg Smith's Social Studies "Top Ten" List

Being Victorian. Welcome to Victoria BC circa 1858-1914! Visit this great new site with an innovative format and written for Social Studies

Green Learning. Comprehensive, fun and free lessons aligned to the BC curriculum and designed to help students participate in their own learning regarding today’s complex energy and environmental issues.

History of Quebec. Get to know La Belle Province a little better. This site has all the information plus great self scoring tests and tutorials.

History Wire. HW invites your perspectives, stories and opinions on the relevance of history in understanding current events, the importance of history education and much more.

Law Courts Education travels BC. The Law Courts Education Society of BC will hold 6 regional law workshops for teachers in early 2009. Kelowna, Prince George, Surrey, Coquitlam, Vancouver and Victoria. Contact Marylou Leung at marylou.leung@lawcourtsed.ca or call 604-660-9874 to attend.

Online Publishing for Social Studies Teachers. Check out Judith Comfort’s site on why, what and how to publish as well as a portal to other great Social Studies resources.

Women in World History. This unique site is full of information and resources to help you learn about women’s history in a global context.

Important News ...

From Pam at Waverly:

"Every Monday during the month of September, beginning September 8, teachers across Canada are invited to a complimentary cup of coffee at their local Starbucks coffee house. In order to receive their complimentary coffee, teachers are asked to provide proof of teacher status such as a teachers' federation card or school district badge, though any form of identification will be accepted. The Great Start for Great Teachers special offer ends Monday, September 29."

From Rick Mulholland for IASL and International School Library Month: "The International School Library Month committee is proud to announce the availability of the 2008 posters and bookmarks. These can be downloaded from the ISLM resources webpage. These posters were revealed at the 2008 conference and were well received by the delegates. The poster comes in two styles and two sizes. ISLM 2008 Flyer is approx 8.5 X 11 inches and the ISLM 2008 Tabloid is approx 11X17 inches.

ISLM 2008 Bookmarks -- Literacy and Learning at Your School Library [PDF 111 k]
ISLM 2008 Flyer [PDF 181 k]
ISLM 2008 Flyer [PDF 126 k]
ISLM 2008 Tabloid format [PDF 221 k]
ISLM 2008 Tabloid format [PDF 323 k]

These files can be downloaded and printed out to assist you in your ISLM 2008 celebrations."

Thanks, Rick.

From Karen Cordiner, somewhat retired and still a national force for TLs: "Thought that this bibliography builder might be of interest. It got good reviews on IASL." BibMe

From Karen Lindsay on BCTLA Forum: "This is very good news for teacher-librarians, who may have been contravening copyright in order to beautify their OPACs and webpages. Hooray for LibraryThing!" LibraryThing Releases One Million Free Covers [Library Journal]

From Linda Hof's (SFU) Webbits:

BC Teacher-Librarians' Conference:
Mission Literacy: Teachers and Teacher-librarians -
not-so-secret agents of change

If you're still undecided as to what to do on the Provincial Professional Development Day, make plans to attend the annual conference of the BC Teacher-librarians' Association at Spectrum Community School on October 24, 2008. It's not just for teacher-librarians, but for classroom teachers who want to learn more about literacy strategies, research skills and collaboration. The conference is preceded by an Author's Festival throughout Greater Victoria schools on October 23rd. The concept of "change" is key to this Conference.

Change is one of few constants in the work of educators, as teachers and teacher-librarians work together in many different ways to support literacy. Change in technology, change in attitudes, and change in expectations demand changes in pedagogy, and it's hard to keep up if you're trying to do it alone. Working together to change students' attitudes towards reading and learning opens doors and levels playing fields -- positively affecting students in school, beyond the classroom, and into their adult lives.

To register, click here.

Blogging to the Finish Line ..

POSTPONED SUMMER INSTITUTE WILL BE RE-SCHEDULED ...

August 25-26, 9:00 am to 3:00 pm
Byng Library, 3939 W 16th (west of Dunbar)

Maximum increased to 40 registrants

Register online

Space had been filling up briskly in the Summer Institute, "The Changing Landscape of School Libraries," and we were almost full when word came from Sandra Lee that James Henri, the travelling InfoLit guru, had had a mild stroke. That might explain why my emails had gone unanswered.

Even as Sandra and I have both been very concerned about his intense schedule, one that includes Vancouver, Victoria, PEI, Berkeley (IASL Conference), and Hong Kong before the end of August, we were both under orders to re-schedule, not cancel! What a guy -- all for the important work of spreading the gospel of information literacy and school libraries. James has undergone tests and his doctor is now allowing travel later in July.

We are confirmed for the new Vancouver location at Byng Secondary on 16th Avenue, three blocks west of Dunbar. The dates for the Summer Institute are August 25 and 26. If you have sent in a cheque and can come on these dates, please let my assistant Diane know, or you can register / de-register online. The online registration now reflects the date changes and is opened up again for up to 40 attendees, due to the popularity of the event. Whoo-hoo!

LIBE 477A (August 1999) Reunion!

When James gets here, he would like to meet up with "the summer LIBE 477A class of 1999" during his stay in Vancouver. Here's a game for you ... who can you identify?

This is a picture of us hamming it up for the camera
at U Hill Secondary in August 1999.

If you recognize anyone in the photo above, can you have him/her get in touch with me so we can set a date to compare progress notes on how succesfully we have been advancing and realizing our own information literate school communities. I do, by the way, know that the picture includes James, Daphne, Gwen, Val, Noel, and me ... but I don't have any contact info for for Noel and others.

Workshop: Faye Brownlie, June 20, DT:

Oral Language and Small Groups in the
Secondary English and Humanities Classroom

Faye's presentation was the usual: practical, engaging, thought-provoking, and designed to be something readily adapted to core curriculum teaching. It is, after all, not just English teachers who are responsible for engaging students with text and enhancing their thinking and understanding while they read.

Lit Circles are a strategy that, when used in English, encourage students to choose to read 2 to 6 novels (or non-fiction) from amongst a group of multiple copies of pre-selected titles with a range of readability. The novels are booktalked; randomly selected passages are read. The students are in groups, make their own choices, read at their own pace, engage in conversations, keep journals, but are never assigned roles. The Lit Circles unit would take a month; the objectives include building oral language proficiency, developing skills of self-awareness, reflection, and critical thinking, and enhancing engagement with reading and writing. What more could you ask for!

The conversations have rules: every voice will be heard, and if you pass someone by, the conversation will come back. Conversations focus initially on a student-selected passage or quote. Once everyone has spoken in response to the passage, the conversation is more open. The teacher takes a place in one discussion while other students read.

Assessment might focus on (1) the nature of the contributions -- interest in participation, insightfulness, inferential thinking, connections within and beyond the text, use of vocabulary, oral syntax, and ability to respond to others' comments; (2) social skills -- affirmation of others' contributions, patience, listening, prompting others, time-sharing; (3) personal skills -- engagement, interest, body language, enthusiasm, etc. Criteria for assessment are the subject of class discussion and is assessment for learning, providing students with descriptive feedback. Students are deeply engaged in self-assessment and questioning. They can say, "I will be able to think more deeply because I have shared ideas with others, and I think better for sharing than I could on my own."

Faye also demonstrated how the Lit Circle strategy is readily adapted to Poetry Circles where groups work with a poem and conversations focus on student-developed questions about the poem, its images, language, emotions, tone, theme, and so on; they then write a response to the poem.

Information Circles are great for enhancing student understanding of the content of Social Studies and Science. Group members read a passage, chapter, article, or book. They have a discussion that is prompted by their own thinking in the form of a sticky note comment, a selected quote, a completed graphic organizer -- the starting place is the personal response, question, or connection to the prompt. Groups may share highlights. The teacher observes and facilitates but does not lead. New reading choices generate a new cycle of reading, responding, and discussing.

For TLs, Lit Circles (as well as Poetry and Information Circles) offer opportunities for collaboration. Teachers unfamiliar with the strategy will appreciate your support in selecting novel titles, demonstrating the approach, and participating in the assessment. Science and Social Studies teachers might appreciate your finding appropriate articles and resources for the discussions.

Being a former teacher of English and Social Studies, I am thinking about ways to use the strategy for reading historical fiction (or pre-selected passages) to have students read and think more deeply about the Gold Rush, Immigration/New World experiences, the Industrial Revolution, Revolution in general, life in early Canada, the Victorian era here and in Britain, the various decades of the 20th century, wars, Enslavement, Middle Ages, Renaissance, First Nations, and the ways these and other relevant historical themes or topics "extend" or connect to the present day or other countries. Being a teacher-librarian, I am excited about the ways we can work collaboratively with teachers, students, and Circles.

Resources for further reading: Grand Conversations, Thoughtful Response – Brownlie; Student Diversity, 2nd ed – Brownlie, Schnellert, and Feniak.

For more ideas, see the page Denise is building on the wiki.

_______________________________________

WHAT IS THE MARBLES PROJECT?

It is a Canadian K-12 Multicultural/Anti-Racist
Annotated Bibliography created by the

Multicultural Anti-Racist Book-Loving EducatorS (MARBLES)

The MARBLES Project was a response to the need for a Multicultural/Anti-racist annotated bibliography that focused on Canadian content and/or by Canadian authors, which reflected the lived experiences of the diverse backgrounds of our Vancouver students and families. Inspired by the 1997 Canada’s Year of Asia Pacific Multicultural Bibliography by the British Columbia Teacher-Librarian’s Association, this K-12 bibliography is a list of recommended fiction and non-fiction books from 1997 to the present.

A Portable Document Format (PDF) of this bibliography is available on the Vancouver School Board website under Programs / Libraries & Learning Resources / Resources / Booklists, or click here. The books from the list are available for loan from Vancouver elementary and secondary schools and can be searched through the VSB Webcat by title and author.

This bibliography is organic and is a work in progress. New annotations will be included by the MARBLES group on an ongoing basis. We hope that the richness and complexity in these books will encourage powerful dialogue and will assist elementary and secondary teachers, teacher-librarians and staff in their ongoing efforts to implement and maintain multicultural, anti-racism initiatives that are responsive to the diverse social and cultural needs of their school communities.

MARVELLOUS MARBLES:

Thanks to teacher-librarians (from left front) Karen Cordiner, Colleen Tsoukalis, Bill Raikes, Pat Parungao, guest Moira at the end, Eileen Harrison, Annabelle Pendry, Angela, and Sylvia Zubke (right front). Patti Baldwin was unable to join us. It was their time, commitment to the project, and on-going efforts that have ensured the development of this bibliography.

Angela Brown
Anti-Racism & Diversity Consultant
Vancouver School Board

Have a great summer, everyone!

What's New?

HOT NEWS FLASH!

Check out this Summer Institute: The Changing Landscape of School Libraries

In a rare opportunity, teacher-librarians will spend two days learning about new developments in the world of school libraries with visiting Australian educator and “Information Guru” James Henri, president of the International Association of School Libraries. James will work with Sandra Lee, currently the Librarian at University Canada West and teaching UBC TL courses, to provide a framework for re-thinking the idea of the school library and of the teacher-librarian, to examine leadership and information policy, and to apply Web 2.0 and other technologies to working with students. Yes, all this in just two days!

Using a framework of key practices, research findings, hands-on and interactive session, James and Sandra will present strategies for:

• communicating the role of the teacher-librarian to colleagues and administrators
• building information policies that address the many responsibilities you have in school
• using podcasts, photosharing, blogs and wikis to support learning
• advocating for library resources
  

We are all overwhelmed by the complex and rapidly transforming technology landscape. Here’s your chance to learn with colleagues from around the province.

For more information, check out the VSB Pro D Opportunities online registration.

_________________________

VPL Librarian Janice Douglas, who started the One Book, One Vancouver protram and a host of the VPL's other community-minded programs and whose trademark is her jewelry and spike heels, has retired after a 41-year career. Janice has been the VPL rep to the School Library Resource Centre Consultative Committee (SLRCCC, or "Slirk" as we have come to call it) since its inception, an outstanding supporter of the work of teacher-librarians and of strong school library programs. She will be missed here in the VSB.


This year's selection is The Five Books of Moses Lapinsky, a 500-page novel about the Jewish immigrant experience in Canada by Karen X. Tulchinsky.


Vi Hughes -- Book Launch: Vi, who retired last year and who sat as a VEPVA rep to SLRCC for several years, is an author of several picture books. She has just completed The Graveyard Hounds, a "chapter book," published by Tradewind and aimed at young readers in the middle elementary grades. It is a gripping school mystery told with Vi's wonderful sense of humour. The illustrations will engage reluctant and voracious readers alike. Kidsbooks will host a book launch on June 24 at 7:00pm. Everyone is welcome -- Bev Price hopes to see us all at the celebration of the arrival of a good new book for school libraries.

Great Resources

More information will follow in a subsequent blog about the amazing MARBLES project, but check out the annotated list of multicultural, anti-racist titles prepared for use in classrooms and school libraries by elementary and secondary TLs in Vancouver: MARBLES

From Webbits:

Spotlight: Free Social Media Tools for Educators -- Writer Dave Nagel looks at some of the free tools that educators are trying out, tools that engage students in the processes of learning.

Canada Year Book Historical Collection [Macromedia Flash Player] -- Access one hundred years, 1867 to 1967, of The Canada Year Book to teach about social and economic history. Browse by year or topic, or check out tables, charts, and maps. See the "Tools and Reference" area for lesson plans and links to related sites.

Blogging off -- on holidays!

The wonders of learning: This is Parent Night.

A primary student brings her family to show the Smartboard

work she and classmates have done under Michele F's direction.

C'est merveilleux, oui? It was also TL Studio night.

Blogworthy Resources:

• Alan Z sends this great online resource: The Encyclopedia of Earth
  
• Karen C (recently retired - yeah, right!) sends Olympics educational information from this issue of the EdInfo Digest: check Canadian School Portal For the Vancouver 2010 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games and the new Canadian Olympic School Program that includes learning resources for students, Grades 2 to 12, and a new website for teachers and students with lesson plans, athlete videos, polls, puzzles and information surrounding the Beijing 2008 Olympic Summer Games.
  
• Meredyth K has just sent the Hot Topics in Literacy (2008) "picks" from the International Reading Association ... and guess what, phonics aren't on this list! But hottest topics include adolescent literacy; check the International Reading Association's position statement on Adolescent Literacy which I have always thought a great paper and see other IRA related resources. [Hey, Meredyth and Gwen, maybe we need to get a life -- it's late on the Friday night that starts Spring Break! Meredyth is sending email, I'm blogging, and Gwen is marking wikis. Just so you all know ... ]
  
• The Coquitlam SD #43 Teacher-Librarian information page has lots of information that is worth having a look at. Love the fact that this page links to this very blog, don't you! This great page is created by BCTLA co-president Heather Daly. Anyone wanting to take on the defence of school libraries against the challenge to our relevance and the argument that school libraries are "redundancies" might want to look at Heather's posting for 26/02/2008.
  
• Greg's Top 10 SS Sites for March are available. Here's a sample -- check out the portal that celebrates Samuel de Champlain's founding of Quebec City 400 years ago in 1608 -- see also the student activities. Greg also picks the Historica professional development site, and a paper: The Purposes of Teaching Canadian History, by Peter Seixas. If you have a keen history or social studies colleague, anything Peter is writing about is worth keeping up with -- it's cutting-edge and interesting stuff.

CLA Announcement: CLA Children's Book of the Year Award Finalists

The Canadian Association of Children's Librarians (CLA/ACB) has announced the shortlist for the 2008 Book of the Year Award for Children. This award recognizes a Canadian author of an outstanding book published in Canada in 2007, for children to age 12. Look for the winners to be announced prior to the CLA/ACB National Conference & Tradeshow, Vancouver, May 21 -24, and the award will be presented there on May 22. The finalists are:

• Becca at Sea by Deidre Baker (Groundwood Books)
• Elijah of Buxton by Christopher Paul Curtis (Scholastic Canada)
• Jakeman by Deborah Ellis (Fitzhenry and Whiteside)
• Baboon by David Jones (Annick Press)
• Schooled by Gordon Korman (Scholastic Canada)
• Darkwing by Kenneth Oppel (HarperCollins Canada)
• Eye of the Crow by Shane Peacock (Tundra Books)
• A Perfect Gentle Knight by Kit Pearson (Penguin)
• Porcupine by Meg Tilly (Tundra Books)
• Rex Zero King of Nothing by Tim Wynne-Jones (Groundwood Books)
  

MARK YOUR CALENDAR

• The Writers' Festival is a wonderful "resource" for those of us who live and teach in the Lower Mainland. Anyone interested in an evening of Extraordinary Canadians with award winner David Adams Richards, historian and author Charlotte Gray, and acclaimed novelist Lewis deSoto? Hal Wake will moderate as the guests speak of their recent works on a series about the extraordinary Emily Carr, Lord Beaverbrook, and Nellie McClung. If you are interested in getting a group together, give me a call or email. 7:30 pm, Thursday April 17, H.R. MacMillan Space Centre, 1100 Chestnut Street, Vancouver. Tickets: $15/$13.
  
• TL Courses for the Summer: Word from Marlene at UBC

Department of Language & Literacy Education
On-Campus Summer 2008 Courses in Teacher Librarianship

LIBE 477A/951: School Library 2.0 *
(July 2-18, Monday-Friday, 1:30-4:00 p.m., 3 credits)
Instructors: James Henri and Sandra Lee

Course Description - Web 2.0 is a metaphor for a spectrum of emerging novel Internet applications. Examples of these are blogs, wikis, social spaces and casting. These innovations are not just novel applications; they provide new ways of understanding the Internet. In this context, Web 2.0 is often seen as a“paradigm shift” to a new level of human understanding and expectations of the Internet and associated technologies.This course is designed to introduce teachers and teacher librarians to a variety of Web 2.0 tools and to facilitate an exploration of how these might be applied to enhance productive student and information-centered pedagogies in K-12 schools.

LIBE 463: Selection of Learning Resources I
(July 2-18, Monday-Friday, 8:00-10:30 a.m., 3 credits)
Instructor: Sandra Lee

Course Description: To select learning materials for school library resource centres, teacher-librarians learn to apply good selection practices to build an effective school library program. They establish a sound program for collection development, assess school and its collection requirements, create effective development and selection policies, understand and apply accepted principles in acquiring resources, and select print, non print and digital resources for a school library, using accepted selection aids. They also weed the school library collection using accepted practices. They understand issues related to Canadian copyright legislation, as well as to censorship concerns expressed by members of the school community.

Biographical Notes on Instructors James Henri and Sandra Lee

James Henri was an Associate Professor in the Faculty of Education at the University of Hong Kong and Sub Dean responsible for teacher librarianship and information literacy at Charles Sturt University in Australia. James previously taught a summer graduate course at UBC regarding the information literate school community. James is President of the International Association of School Librarianship (IASL) and the author of more than 250 papers. His most recent publication is a Scarecrow Press title co-authored with LesleyFarmer, "Information literacy assessment in K-12 settings."

Sandra Lee teaches the more technical courses in the UBC LIBE program, including Information Services. She taught at the University of Hong Kong with James Henri. Her research and teaching interests have included information literacy, information policy, information retrieval, cataloging and children's literature. Sandra lives in Victoria and is the librarian at University Canada West. She also works for the BC Network for Aging Research at the University of Victoria.

* Gwen and I took the course James offered the last time he was a visiting summer instructor and would recommend this as an excellent opportunity to learn with an internationally known authority on information literacy. I have gotten to know Sandra since she has come to BC and think that course with her would be great too.

Check the link here for further information about these courses and a complete schedule of summer 2008 courses from the Department of Language and Literacy Education.

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"Captured" photographically recently were Betty-Ruth Dragon and some of my co-workers. B-R was later observed being stuffed unceremoniously into a blue bin. This, after weeks of dragonly duty on display here in the lobby. That there was some talk about ransom may be mere rumour. I hope she makes it to the right place. Check your blue bin carefully. She is hoping to reach her HappyRock Home.

Have a wonderful Spring Break.

READ, REST, and RELAX -- this is what I would like to do!

(Maybe I can do this after my four days of knitting at the Hyatt Hotel
downtown where I will be serving for the 12th year as a local delegate
at the BCTF AGM -- so how's that for a holiday!)

Three Weeks to Winter Tonic

Here we are at Friday, again:

So now the whole blog including the archived entries is keyword-searchable, and I have separated each entry into separate pages so it doesn't scroll into eternity. Try out the video clips, too. To re-read the previous blogs, you can check the Blog Archives on this page ... or any page.

Thanks Carolyn for the email that the first attempt to post this was in a font way too small. Blogging can be just a little finicky and you will note that I haven't been able to enlarge the font of the last entries. Check out the comments from the outside community added when Val H posted this to the BCTLA Forum. So now "the world" knows what we are up to and is capable of engaging with feedback. If you want to post a comment (which would be lovely), you need a gmail account. If you email me to request an invitation to open a gmail account ... and you should as it is a remarkable tool ... I will send you one. Here's the news for the week:

Cohort -- of course not!

Well, I liked the "rhyming" / metrical aspect of this subtitle, without really intending to make too light of the message. Some of you have asked the possibilities of another UBC/VSB or Metro-area Cohort to continue your courses towards the TL diploma. I have just received word from Marlene Asselin that there will not be another one this year. For information about courses being offered, I was delighted to find that my counterpart Heather in Coquitlam has a wonderful TL webpage with the information (choose Courses under sidebar "What's Happening?"). Heather also includes a link to this blog!

School Library 2.0

Please consider my recommendation of a special course in teacher-librarianship LIBE 477/565 being offered this summer called School Library 2.0 with Instructors James Henri and Sandra Lee. Several of us who were lucky enough to take "the Great Henri's" course at UBC nearly ten years ago -- well, Gwen and I -- would highly recommend this opportunity. And Sandra, who has worked with James in Hong Kong but now lives in Victoria, is delightful.

Here's the intro to the course description:

Web 2.0 is a metaphor for a spectrum of emerging novel Internet applications. Examples of these are blogs, wikis, social spaces and casting. These innovations are not just novel applications; they provide new ways of understanding the Internet. In this context, Web 2.0 is often seen as a “paradigm shift” to a new level of human understanding and expectations of the Internet and associated technologies.

This course is designed to introduce teachers and teacher librarians to a variety of Web 2.0 tools and to facilitate an exploration of how these might be applied to enhance productive student and information-centered pedagogies in K-12 schools.

Throughout the course, attention will be paid to the linkages between Web 2.0 and the provision of information services in schools to enhance teaching and learning. This field of study is known as School Library 2.0 and it places emphasis on information as construction of meaning, rather than on information as packaging of ideas.

For a much more detailed description, let me know and I'll email you the course description.

EVENTS

Don't forget to send in your registration and $30 to Jan Berney at False Creek for the annual Winter Tonic event which, this year, is at Gladstone on Tuesday, Feb 12, and is a celebration of The Year of the Rat! Don't, like me, forget to check off the workshops you would like to attend. We regular attenders have come to know this as the professional highlight of the year.

Wine and Cheese 4 pm.

First Session, 4:30: Choose one of Creating Web Pages with Gordon Powell, Adult Reads with Wendy Cowley, and Book Clubs and Books that Spark Discussion with Dr Christianne Hayward of the Lyceum.

Second Session, 5:30 -- Choose one of Cyberbullying with Danielle Law, or Wendy's or Christianne's sessions which will be repeated.

The lavish feast will again be provided by Paul et al and starts at 6:30 pm.
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Accounting Workshop

See you Tuesday after school at the VSB, Room 100. This is the session that was cancelled/uncancelled/re-scheduled from the "snowy" day in December. If you haven't signed up, come anyway ... well, that's what happens, isn't it! New and Nearly New TLs, this is for you.

TL Studio Workshop for February

Presently this is scheduled for the same week as Winter Tonic. Would anyone mind if I re-scheduled it? And if I had it on the Monday 18 Feb in the next week, Akemi could come too. I will try to contact everyone who is already registered, but I am hoping you are reading the Pro D Connections booklet and to dates posted here. All new and nearly-new TLs are welcome and encouraged to attend. Watch also for the upcoming two-part Weeding Workshop in February and March as well. We're having it at Dickens Elementary to help Cheriee get ready for her move to the new and greenest elementary school in the city. We will have to come back when she's moved in as well. The plans look fantastic.

Call for Dragon Books for VSB Dragon (with Rat) Display

Thanks to those of you who offered to provide books for this display in the VSB lobby during the second week of February. A reminder that I will need those books very soon. I am willing to pick up a pile of books but, if you have a special one you believe should be amongst the items, please blue-bag it ASAP. Make sure your name or school identification is with the book please.

Livromanie!

Thanks yet again to Elly and Marianne for all their hard work in selecting the titles for this year's event, and to Louise for offering Ecole Bilingue as the venue for the May 27 event. Here are the titres:

Liste des livres de Livromanie 2008

4/5/6/7

Noémie: Grand-maman fantôme, Gilles Tibo
Pas de chance, c’est dimanche, Danielle Simard
Mission Ouaouaron, Alain Bergeron
Le père Noël travaille à mon école, Élaine Turgeon
La grande peur de Simon, Andrée-Anne Gratton

5/6/7

La fatigante et le fainéant, François Barcelo
Le Trio rigolo: Ma plus grande peur, Johanne Mercier
Mon plus grand exploit, Johanne Mercier
Mon plus grand mensonge, Johanne Mercier
Brad: le génie de la potiche, Johanne Mercier
Les malheurs de Pierre- Olivier, Lyne Vanier
Einstein, chien-guide?, Pierre Roy

6/7

L’Île d’Aurélie, Véronique Drouin
Darhan: la fée du lac Baïkal, Johanne Mercier


What's New at Christianne's Lyceum of Literature and Art?

More Wine for TLs! Can you believe it! Check out this invitation and it's a FREE event ... but call to register by Tuesday Jan 29.

Hello Everyone,

We would like to invite you to a special evening at Christianne's Lyceum of Literature and Art on January 31st [6:30 to 9:00 pm]. We are hosting an open house especially for educators and teacher-librarians to showcase a new series of Professional Development Seminars. [An informational flyer has been circulated by email.] Please call the Lyceum at 604 733 1356 if you have any questions. ... We look forward to seeing you at the Lyceum on January 31st!

Christianne Hayward, Susan Ma, and Vanessa Braun
Christianne's Lyceum of Literature and Art
3696 West 8th Ave., Vancouver
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Literacy Day -- Feb 8 at Killarney

Here’s what is going on at Killarney on Feb 8. Lots of interesting things but we need you to promote these with your colleagues. Only three weeks left and registrations are due now. Cost $25.00

I am excited to have so many TLs involved. We are often found presenting to ourselves while what we have to say is worthwhile for our teacher colleagues. We are too often the “converted” preaching to the converted!

Look for TLs presenting four workshops this year amongst the other 30 being offered …

Nancy Hundal will be working with Cynthia Nugent on a session about the process of creating picture books, on using them in classrooms, and on the reading-engagement factor that is so important. Both are published authors; Nancy is one of our own, and Cynthia, a well-known illustrator, is also an instructor on Writing for Children. Should be interesting. I would say that, while this is classified as primary, it would be of interest to anyone who has ever thought about writing and illustrating for children.

Celia Brownrigg is working now in the Gladstone school library, part-time, as well as at Kidsbooks. She will work with Susan Ma, also from Kidsbooks, to present one-third of this workshop on Graphic Novels. Also featured in this session will be English teacher Leonard Wong from Templeton, local expert and seller of graphic novels … look for his display booth as well … and Tim Everett of The Comic Shop who you might have met at the BCTLA Conference in Surrey this year.

Denise North and Aaron Mueller are doing databases. Both are dynamic presenters. Encourage your lilteracy-minded colleagues to find out how to use these for professional resources that support literacy as well as for age-appropriate non-fiction informational materials for students.

Janet McKinlay will be working with Teresa Diewert who teaches at Tupper and Maryam Moayeri (formerly my student teacher, now a PhD student at UBC). Maryam, having taught in Richmond and West Van, recently won the Prime Minister's Award for Teaching. Maryam's initial published resource package which she presented years ago at a workshop has taken a different shape depending on the context, from what Teresa and Janet began in the Churchill school library to what Teresa uses in her classroom at Tupper. They will be sharing their experiences in building an independent reading program with you and with each other. There's even talk of a new and more comprehensive resource package. And the library at lunch time at Churchill provides real evidence of its success.

Next week: details of TL presentations at Technology Day.

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Take in one or more of the following three events
co/sponsored by the BC Coalition for School Libraries:

Literacy for Today's Youth - Wed, Jan 23, 7pm
Metrotown Branch, Burnaby Public Library

Today’s youth are active users of technology in their personal and social lives. This presentation will discuss bridging the gap between their school and home use of technology and preparing our youth for their future participation in the larger world.

Dr. Marlene Asselin and Mr. Keith McPherson

Free admission. All are welcome. Free underground parking.
Easily accessible from the Metrotown skytrain station.

Good Medicine Stories -- Thursday, Jan. 24, 7 pm,
Vancouver Public Library

"Good medicine stories" -- for families and the child in everyone
Author Richard Van Camp, a proud member of the Dogrib (Tlicho) First Nation, presents a hilarious, empowering evening of stories for the whole family -- about the beauty of life and how time is a friend.

Media literacy for kids
Wed., Feb. 6, 7:00 pm, Burnaby Public Library

"Critical thinking about media for today's kids"
for parents, teachers, tweens and teens

Media critic, educator and award-winning author Shari Graydon equips students (their parents and teachers) with the tools they need to evaluate and challenge what they're seeing in the media.
Her presentations are always both entertaining and informative.

We are also planning an after-school session here at the VSB with Shari for Feb 7 with the Social Responsibility co-ordinators. Watch for the flyer in the Pro D booklet and sign up online.

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Resources

From BCTLA Forum's Rick, in Surrey: For a great way to focus on Victoria and the Victorian era in Canada, take a look at this: http://www.victoriasvictoria.ca/

Victoria's Times Colonist newspaper is celebrating its 150th anniversary and is in the process of scanning all of the old newspapers to be put online and it's to be free of charge. Here is the site to check out the announcement.

From Linda Hof's Webbits:

The Quality Information Checklist (or QUICK)
We first heard about and saw this info-lit website for evaluating information with Michele Farquharson's Research Process powerpoint. Now reviewed by SFU Faculty Advisor Holly Stibbs, you will want to make sure you have this resource on hand: "I've used with middle school students as an online tutorial to help them understand how to evaluate online resources. I'd recommend it for older grades as well. It's quite self-explanatory, and comes with a built-in teacher guide."

Arden: World of William Shakespeare
The immortal Bard knew his fair share of discontented winters, and it would be interesting to know what he would have thought about this rather fascinating online interactive game created by the Synthetic Worlds Initiative at Indiana University. Arden allows users to explore the world of Shakespeare's many plays in a highly interactive and user-friendly fashion. With funding from a variety of sources (including the MacArthur Foundation) Edward Castronova and his colleagues have created this virtual world which allows users to move around in 17th century clothing and even join guilds. For anyone interested in virtual worlds, Shakespeare, and any number of related matters, this website and accompanying game will be a very welcome find. Users should note that the game will run on computers running Windows 98 and newer. [KMG]

From Denise:

The Stellar Award book checklist and posters created by Denise for staff and for library displays were sent out by email earlier this week. Denise suggests that you may find the booktalk/author summaries of the books on the Stellar Award site to by useful: http://www.stellaraward.ca/2008/

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Rocky Mountain "High": Insights from a Winter Workshop

And finally, for those of you who have come to this on Saturday and who have read through to the end, I had intended to include some thoughts about being "away from my desk" for a day and a half this week, off to the East Kootenays as a workshop presenter, but I hit a wrong button and lost the first thoughts! My excursion was wonderfully refreshing -- cold, bright, and thought-provoking. Although I spent a long time hesitating -- winter travel conditions, avalanches, planes dropping from the skies, the constraints of time -- I was so glad I went.

So how was it wonderful? As a geographer, I have a fascination with mountain terrain and Tuesday was a brilliantly clear day for a short flight! My mid-afternoon escape aboard a 30-seater plane which left from the south terminal was immediately captivating and my novel was set aside. I had crystal clear views of the city and then cirques, aretes, towns, rivers ... and an arrival to the cold of Cranbrook as I would stay through the coldest day yet, reaching minus 19! My host Raydene had been jogging while she awaited my arrival so I might suggest the eastern edge of the province appeals to hardy souls!

The window of my mountain suite at the Kimberley Marriott hotel overlooked the skilifts. The hotel was full of British tourists on ski holidays. Raydene and I spent the evening planning, with a 7:15 am departure in mind, to arrive in Invermere by 8:30 am. A flat tire meant that the Associate Superintendent Barb Morris -- a former TL -- carried the show until 10:00 am, speaking to 17 TLs (including four administrators and four from nearby SD #5 Cranbrook) about, amongst other things, the work of Learning Coaches, a newly created position in their schools. Even the flat tire proved to be perfect! It meant we were delayed enough that I saw the sunrise over the Rockies in vivid colour lighting up the snowy peaks and valley floor, and Raydene pointed out the head of the Columbia River, the lake and ice huts, the wall of hoodoos, the frozen wetlands, and Cariboo-like topography with the mountain "teeth" to the east and west ... but enough of my waxing poetic.

Imagine, as I did, being Raydene and providing quality library leadership and support for the building of strong programs in a district that takes three hours to drive from one end to the other, where library funding is a school-based decision, and where the student population is less than a tenth of ours. I had been invited to share the story of our writing the Role document. This story begins of course with the Haycock Report and the creation of the School Library Resource Centre Consultative Committee to implement the recommendations of this report. It also begins with the Ken's work that identifies the factors that account for the Crisis in Canada's School Libraries. It begins with an identified need for common understandings. We reviewed a summary of the research that relates school libraries to success with learning, and each group took on the advocacy role to share the findings about funding, staffing, collections and achievement.

Our VSB Role document, four years in the creation process, began with the Haycock recommendation that there needed to be clarification of our role and responsibilities. Teacher-librarians wrote, reviewed, and re-wrote collaboratively until there was agreement that this fully described our work and that we could take it to the unions for review. The union concerns brought more changes and took more time. But two years ago we took it to SLRCCC with a view to getting agreement from administrators and management that this was a set of guidelines that could be used and shared in describing what we do. We are almost -- but not quite -- there as we await review and acceptance from the administrator associations. These guidelines will provide the missing "common language" -- those all-important shared understandings -- about what we do, understandings that we can share with colleagues, administrators, and those considering the specialized nature of the job or their own needs for professional development. Finally to be on the same page ... what more could we ask!

Those who wrote our document considered the process to be amongst the most valuable professional development experiences of their TL careers. I would agree. Taking it out to "the world" made it easier to see not only how important the process has been but how good it will be for us to finish the approval process. Not set in stone as policy but "fluid," the Role document is intended for annual review by SLRCCC to be able to reflect the way our work is being transformed by technology, to move with the times, to capture in language the changing nature of our role in the learning equation for schools. TLs in the Rockies are on the edge of the process now, considering the differences for their libraries which do not have a union catalogue, for example, visualizing their programs, and considering the nature of their work in schools and the ways this can be captured in language.

Barb finished the afternoon with a return to the notion of learning coaches in schools, stating clearly that she saw that TLs were learning coaches whose work with students was valued and important.

I want to thank everyone there for what was a wonderful professional development "boost" for me! While our districts don't have a lot in common, TLs do in their shared passion for the work and their commitment to student learning. Thanks, Raydene, and East Kootenays TLs for an inspiring day!