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.

TLs Rock ... and so do their kids

While on the indie-rocking theme (see previous posts), I have discovered I am not alone. One mother-TL knew what radio station I listened to from my description and sent me this clip of her son's band.

Check out ELIAS on MTV (you will have to skip through the ads) ... and then you can guess which TL-mother belongs to the red-headed guitarist.

Here you will see the band singing about being "drop out" kids. Of course, we know that this is where so many social problems associated with a "stripped" education begin, most often cut short because it has failed to engage, missed the chances to capture the imaginations and stimulate the creativities and talents of our youngest citizens, blown the places where it could respect their differences or valued their uniqueness.

These young and talented up-and-coming Vancouver-based performers got their start in school music programs; they know the value of strong school library programs because one has a TL-mother who is a constant and unrelenting advocate for high-quality SL programs. "Dropping out" is what happens when you strip a school system of its capacity to engage its young -- in reading, in music, in the arts, and in meaningful and relevant learning experiences.

School libraries are places that attend to the affective piece of the learning experience. You will see in the current blog entries the substantial investment Vancouver has made in literacy, in inspiring reading, and in creating just the right school library environments at the hub of our schools, all built on principles that place value on a reading culture.

Lots on Literacy

---

A TOUGH BEGINNING
BY DARAH HANSEN VANCOUVER SUN
The Vancouver Sun, 20 Sep 2008

Johnny Romah was 17 on his very first day of school. A member of the Montagnard — or mountain — people of Vietnam, Romah arrived in Vancouver in 2005 after an exhausting year spent in a refugee camp in Cambodia. He’d fled his impoverished village at...read more...

Why we do what we do ...

If you attended the VTLA meeting, you would have heard Denise from Killarney tell us a little more about her first meeting Johnny at Tupper, after he had attended Gladstone. His striving for confidence and competence in his new language is propelled by his digital confidence and new-found skills with technology. These technologies he has learned to use are the tools that have opened the doors to knowledge, reading, learning, and friendship for Johnny.

The support and caring of Vancouver educators such as Denise and the vision and leadership of our ESL colleagues like Sylvia cannot be underestimated in stories such as these either. Of course, we know that great things are happening in school libraries; for many of our students, they are sources of lifelines and the tools for navigating the very complicated terrain of school.

Raise-a-Reader Grants

Val H posted the Ministry Press Release on Canwest's Raise-a-Reader campaign to the BCTLA Forum this week:

For the fifth consecutive year, the Province will match all donations raised during CanWest's Raise-a-Reader campaign in B.C., Premier Gordon Campbell announced today. "Literacy is a key that opens the door to a world of knowledge, of learning and of opportunity," said Premier Campbell .... "Our government's commitment to improved literacy levels through initiatives like Raise-A-Reader is leading the country," said Education Minister Shirley Bond. "Partners like CanWest help us support children and adults and increase awareness about the need to raise literacy levels."

"Literacy involves continuous learning and enables us to reach our goals, develop our knowledge and achieve our potential," said Kevin Bent, president and publisher of the Vancouver Sun .... Since the inception of the campaign in Vancouver in 1997, Raise-a-Reader and its sponsors have made significant contributions to help improve literacy for children and families not only across the province, but also across Canada.

In response Karen Lindsay, BCTLA VP (Advocacy), posted: "I always apply for a Raise-a-Reader grant through the Victoria Times-Colonist, and get between $2,000 and $3,000. The fact that school library programs are not mentionned in this press release does not mean that schools do not apply or benefit. It's a great program with many beneficiaries."

Applications for school libraries are made through the Superintendents' offices in BC. If your school library program does not benefit from fund-raising, here's a great way to put more resources on the shelves for some of our neediest young readers.

Resources, Resources, Resources ...

Maryann and I presented to Learning Services this week and highlighted the importance of our centralized services for schools, including the Professional collections! We are encouraging everyone distributing resources in schools to see our wonderful staff in MLST first and to think school library and media services for retention, circulation, and promotion. There was great interest in the newspapers and the databases.

We are all working to build the information literate educational community ... here, we are helping our district colleagues move comfortably in and out of the webcat page to give them more teaching and learning resources to put into the hands of teachers; this important network in Learning Services are an important source of support for classrooms and school library programs.

I am looking forward to seeing the work that Mark is doing to promote these resources with his colleagues at Cunningham as well ... he`s using Inspiration!

Upcoming Events Reminders

• Will we see you on Sunday (September 28) at the Word on the Street , Library Square, 11 am to 5 pm?
  
• On Monday look for the FAXed flyer sent to your attention about the event sponsored by the BC Coalition for School Libraries/CWILL BC , Kidsbooks, and the VPL called "Autumn Harvest." It will be held on Sunday, from 1:00 p.m. – 3:00 p.m. at the Central branch of the VPL in the Alice MacKay room (lower level). Admission is free. Details of how to enter the contest for an author visit for your school are on the flyer.
  
• Have you registered yet for the PSA Conference on Friday, October 24: BCTLA Conference in Victoria -- Mission: Literacy. If you need a ride or want to share accommodations, check the email discussions.

Keep up the good work, everyone!

Travelling Road Show

As many of you will know, I have been a one-person travelling road show since the beginning of May. I delivered or oversaw the delivery of ten workshops, one important literacy-planning luncheon where the "caterer" (next year's TL at Tupper) got sick at the last minute, a SLRCCC meeting with a huge agenda, and a presentation to the Trustees. Thanks to everyone for your support, patience, and initiative in keeping the show on the road. I was also grateful for the opportunity to share the directions for teacher-librarianship that are transforming our work and to solicit feedback on the themes of literacy and technology integration.

I had no idea that May in this job would have been so busy -- at least as busy as it is in the schools -- but I will be much smarter next year. I have also been working alongside Maryann as she gets back up to speed -- no, really, it's more like just trying to keep up with her! She's exhausting me. Does the energy and enthusiasm for the work and her return to "the chair" permeate the email lines?


This morning I finally retrieved all the space in my car, space that has been occupied by books, snacks, utensils, equipment, and the evidence that I am a regular patron at Starbucks as a regular stop in getting to the next destination. I only went to the wrong school once (and it got even more confusing when I ask for Hugh, and the secretary replied, Who?). On the wind-down to year-end in a cubicle, I forgot to go to the school visit entered on my calendar weeks ago. The TLs, in best TL style, were incredibly gracious and will likely enjoy the snack they had prepared and the peace and quiet until our next try at meeting.


Here's what you need to know:

• there was great interest in the elementary/primary library applications of Smartboards; more than two attendees at Updates where Sylvia demonstrated Smartboards have begun the search for means to bring this tool to their schools, often a search that begins by pressing the administrator!
  
• ironically Sylvia and Maryann could not get the Smartboard to work during the SLRCCC presentation to Trustees! One or two of us may have been making jokes about a "dumb-board."


• French Immersion TLs debated the fine line between supporting on-site Literacy initiatives and being recognized as literacy experts in their own right, experts who work with different but important specialist understandings about what works to encourage students' reading


• some elementary sessions grappled with the role technology integration plays in their instructional programs


• there was generally a really positive response to the draft Literacy and School Libraries document as a source of ideas and of information for those who might have missed the connections
  
• the draft Literacy and School Libraries document was shared both with Trustees in the SLRCCC presentation and with the writer for the District Literacy Plan; there is always the chance that it provides new information about the relationship between school libraries and literacy


• there is an emerging sense of the state of technology in elementary school libraries; one school fully meets exemplary criteria; there is a positive correlation between acceptable standards for technology and administrative support, with help from parent funding being another significant factor

Best Practice: Literacy and School Libraries

The Critical Perception:

What Does Literacy Look Like?

Have you notice the fade-out of media focus on problems for most BC children with literacy. Instead the focus is on the issues of low literacy skills for the 40+ group, as well as some identified groups within communities.

Did you see how well young adolescent British Columbians did on the OECD international tests of 15-year olds, the PISA rsults? If we are in the top group globally, along with the Scandinavian countries who don't impose standardized testing on their young people, is it possible we are already the most literate jurisdiction (for young people) in North America?

Our system does some things right and is a model for other jurisdictions in North America, not the other way around. The issues in Canadian education are too often, as John Ralston Saul points out, "imported crises." If you attended the BCTLA Conference this year, you would have heard David Bouchard state the same thing.

I found it interesting that also doing well, alongside the young British Columbians, are young Albertans who are educated in a province where there are very few school libraries with qualified teacher-librarians. Is it possible -- dare I ask? -- that school libraries in Western Canada do not have an integral role to play in creating a learning environment for success in reading and writing. I have wondered.

When I asked her recently, Susan Lambert, 1st VP, BCTF, (and prior to that, a teacher-librarian) indicated that Federation researchers asked the same question and found quite simply that:

(1) Alberta does not have the same diversity in its population,

(2) Alberta does not have the same disparity in its population, and

(3) the Alberta curriculum is closely tied to the OECD testing!

For more information, here's

• Wikipedia on the subject of the PISA and PIRLS.
  
• IRA article "PISA, PIRLS spotlight global trends" includes information about where school libraries are located and "the analysis of the PISA results [which has provided] three very interesting insights on the impacts of curriculum reform on equity.
  

• The standard deviations give us some evidence of the “tops” and “tails” of achievement, with some systems having extremely large differentials between their best and worst achievers.
  

  PISA allows the disaggregated analysis of results for migrants and indigenous groups, indicating that some systems (e.g., Canada and Australia) do an excellent job of bootstrapping migrant and second-language performance.
  

  Most important, PISA provides important data on the relative impacts of socioeconomic background on achievement. The results indicate that systems
  needn’t trade off “quality” for “equity.” In fact, many systems, including
  Finland and Canada, are “high quality/high equity.”

• The BCTF report on the 2006 PISA testing, released in December 2007, for achievement in young British Columbians.
  
• The full PIRLS 2006 report, downloadable by chapter, including the Executive Report.

Describe how literacy looks in your library:

We can continue to take comfort in knowing that the research that connects higher achievement in schools to the presence of a qualified TL and a well-resourced school library collections -- in short, a system that values the place of school libraries in the formula for achievement and success in learning-- seems to apply to the BC education system.

When we work to put just the right book or resource into the hands of just the right child at just the right moment ... whether that is because the child is looking for something to read for enjoyment or to use for information to undertake research -- we all know the feeling of accomplishment as the child expresses gratitude or when the child returns to say, "Find me another book like the last one, please -- you know what I like!" When we work with students to draw out and apply their background knowledge, or we show them how to take notes or how to preview the text to understand its structures and organization or how to work with keywords for research or how to find a key term in the index or glossary of a book or how to build search strings that incorporate Boolean logic or how to read the address of a google-based source for credibility and/or reliability ... these recurring literacy practices that denote the work of a teacher-librarian can be generalized to describe "best practice" in libraries for literacy development.

You have received a survey that will be important in beginning to describe how Literacy works in school libraries and when TLs work with students and colleagues to promote goals for literacy development. What are the best literacy practices we can describe in school libraries here in Vancouver? Let's tell the District and the Ministry how we do it.

Have a great week, and thanks for help with the informal survey you received in your email this week above.

Some quotes for your consideration:

"What a school thinks about its library is a measure of what it thinks about education."

~ Harold Howe, former U.S. Commissioner of Education

"I don't water rocks."

Pat P found this quote noteworthy; a Google search indicates what might be the source, the recorded response of an unidentified school district ICT co-ordinator who was the subject of a study of technology integration, speaking about "laggard teachers," those who were reluctant to embrace technology innovation! It was recorded in a 2003 Australian PhD thesis study: "Integration or Transformation: A Cross-national Study of Information and Communication Technology in School Education" by Andrew E. Fluck. No rocks here in our libraries, though!

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.

__________________________________________

"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!)

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 ....

Trudeau’s Family Games Night

Literacy Games Night

December 2007

From Alanna, Trudeau TL:

It was during the lunch hours that I noticed our students loved playing the library games, games like Scrabble, Arthur’s Library Game, Clue Junior, and so on. Even the students who were considered weak readers were able to play the games with much enthusiasm. Parents who often were in the library with their children did not interact with their children when they played these games. I realized that the parents didn’t know that many of the board games were strengthening their children’s skills in numeracy as well as reading!

I brought the idea of a Games Night to the staff, and they were all in agreement that this would be a good way of showing the parents another way they could help their children.

I met the Discovery Toys rep at the Vendor display at the Librarian’s Fall Conference in Surrey. I talked with her of my idea and asked to use some of her games. I wanted another store to also sponsor the Games Night as I didn’t want it to appear that we were endorsing any one store or product. My plan was to visit some of the smaller toy stores such as Kaboodles or Splash, but I just happened to be in Chapters when I noticed they also sold games. I talked to the manager of the Richport Chapters, and she said right away she too would love to come to the school.

Games we chose were: Scrabble Jr, Trouble, Wiz Kids, Boggle, Pictionary Jr, Brain Game, A to Z kids. and What’s Gnu.

The evening was very successful: 42 families came, 116 people, so we had to limit the families attending as we only had 7 teachers sponsors.

The school purchased all the games played that night and they were distributed to the teachers who helped and to the library, and we also started a rainy day games collection for the gym.

For more information on organizing an evening like this, check the TL Special Weekly Report on pbwiki:

Literacy Across the Curriculum, Section 5

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!

Happy New Year!

I have saved this link to as a reflective holiday greeting: What is eaten in one week (by one family around the world) is for consideration in our own New Year’s planning or for use with social studies or social issues lessons.

I will be away from my desk on Tuesday and Wednesday next week. Yes, I am off to give a workshop in School District #6, Rocky Mountain, in Invermere, BC. I will be using our "Role and Responsibilities" document (sent to new and nearly-new TLs this week). For anyone else who may wish to review the scope and nature of the wonderful work you do, check this 6-page document in section 1 of your TL Handbook.

Heidi, Literacy Mentor here at the VSB, sends the following clever “marketing” youtube link of interest for TLs.

Our first TL Studio Workshop of 2008 had 15 registrants but only 5 showed up. I hope that people just forgot and have not lost interest. Michele showed us all kinds of new “open source” resources like Froguts and Scratch, as well as what can be done with the Smartboard. We met John, the new Online Learning Consultant, resisted chocolate, and considered how we might use the new tools. Attendees submitted comments in response to my blog!

I hope you find you can respond to this blog by going to the end of this January 11 entry and clicking onto “Comments.” You can mark this http://tlspecial.blogspot.com/ as a favourite and come back to it at any time.

NOTE: A blog is an online diary – we discussed possible applications for Reader Response but the jury is out on educational applications for these. It is a Web 2.0 tool in that it is interactive. Where wikis are a tool that can be collaboratively developed, blogs are written by one person and responded to by others. In blogs, the first entry is the most recent. Older entries are “archived” or scrolled through. I am still learning how to do this and will be looking for how to make it searchable. But I did choose the background and video clips, post my photo taken from a window of the Bodleian Library in Oxford, and successfully enter the emails I sent you previously. Stop reading when it begins to feel as though you’ve seen this before!

Little Library in Malawi: I got a call this morning from Deanna to say thanks for the donations of really fine reading materials and supplies for the new library in Malawi. She was able to take some books with her and has just sent off 90 lbs more (with the help of a $450 community donation).

UPCOMING EVENTS:

District Literacy Day, Feb. 8: Information will be in the schools next week. 34 workshops to choose from. Be sure to promote workshops with your colleagues, and check out the ones given by TLs.

District Technology Day, Feb. 8: Check the workshops for the Faces of Technology Conference 2008 online.

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Don't forget to register for:

EBSCO Training for Teacher-Librarians

Wednesday, January 16, 2008, 4:00 pm - 6:00 pm

Prince of Wales Secondary Library, 2250 Eddington Drive (just north of 25th and west of Arbutus) with our David and presenter Dennis Staples, Education Specialist, EBSCO Publishing.

This is the last opportunity of the year to get first-hand answers from the company rep. We have asked Dennis to be prepared to "customize" his workshop for the questions and interests you have.

We need more sign-up for this session!

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What Research Says About Improving the Literacy Achievements of Students of Diverse Backgrounds

Sponsored by BCLCIRA, this evening of professional development with Dr Kathryn Au will be held on Thursday, January 31, at the Italian Cultural Centre from 5 pm to 8:30 pm. For the registration fee of $55 (before Jan 17) and $65 (after Jan 17), you will have a full Italian dinner, an educational evening, and an opportunity to socialize with other literacy-minded educators.

Dr. Au, VP, International Reading Association and Dai Ho Chun Professor of Education at University of Hawaii, has authored numerous books and chapters on multicultural classrooms, diverse learners and effective literacy instruction for all students. Based on research on language and culture, Dr. Au will present evidence-based, practical instructional strategies that address the needs of all literacy learners.

Email Meredyth - mkezar@vsb.bc.ca – if this sounds like an evening for you:

Nick Glass, Founder and Principal of TeachingBooks, makes a webinar offer

If you would be interested in attending a free TeachingBooks.net web seminar, or if you think a group of our colleagues might like this, let me know. Glass writes, “This live training session would enable your librarians, reading teachers, and anyone in your district who uses books to learn directly from TeachingBooks staff about how this electronic resource supports their existing library and reading initiatives.”

He continues, “What we ask is that we have an audience. Your colleagues could be gathered in one place, spread out throughout the district, or a combination of the two. Webinar attendees need only a computer with Internet access and headphones or speakers …. The webinar would have value both live and beyond. We will record the seminar and provide you with a link to share the recording throughout your district.” Call Moira if you would like this set up.

From VPL and Hastings Library -- Teen Book Club and Palmistry for Teens

It’s back! Saturdays, 2:30 to 4:30 pm, Jan 19, Mar 1, Mar 29, Apr 26, May 24. It’s FREE. They provide the books and snacks. Registration is limited to 15 and has started already. Call 604-665-3959 to register or to get more information.

Or how about another exciting program, Palmistry for Teens, coming on Jan 26, 11:30 a.m. to 1:30 pm. Again, registration has started. Limited to 15.

More Teen-focused workshops are anticipated. Says Karen Sharkey, Teen Services Librarian at the VPL: “We will be having a gaming program, a beauty bootcamp and a graphic novels workshop coming later in the spring and I'll keep you posted.”

Karen also thanks TLs in Vancouver for promoting the Teen Bookmark Contest. “We had over 200 entries and the 2 winners are both from Vancouver. I am working on finding an event to present them with their cheques and the big 4 foot bookmark that we give them with their art. If you have any suggestions about school events where we could do the presentation, that would be great! I am going to see if the city youth team has anything where we could do the presentation.” Stay tuned.


RESOURCES

Vancouver Kidsbooks: Pre-Sale Event for Teachers and Teacher-librarians

Phyllis Simon sends her personal invitation:

"To all our wonderful teachers!! We invite you to our Annual Sale Teacher's Night Preview for fun, refreshments and first kick at our 20% off sale."

The Pre-Sale Evening will be held at all three stores (Broadway, Edgemont, and South Surrey) from 6:30 to 9:00 pm. RSVP 604-738-5335.

The Annual Sale with 20% of all stock and 30% off Christmas stock will run from Thursday Jan 17 to Sunday Jan 20.

Please promote this event … and come with teacher colleagues. Flyer sent by email.
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NFB Learning Resources Catalogue:
Order by calling 1-800-267-7710

Lots of new titles on the environment, diversity, history, government, Language Arts, aboriginal studies, science and nature, media issues, teens, and more.

You can shop online at www.nfb.ca/store, search the free online study guides at www.nfb.ca/guides, and know that NFB DVDs are cleared for classroom use and public performance where no entry fee is charged.
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From Elizabeth Graves of ULS comes news of the January Blowout Sale:
January 14 - 19, 2008
Discounts up to 36% off on all Hardcovers (in house purchases only)

Extra bonuses include:
• A huge clearance section of 80% off titles
• 50% off selected French Books
• Free Shipping
• Lots of Reading Power titles in stock

Sale Hours:

Mon., Jan 14: 8:30am - 5:00pm; Tues., Jan 15: 8:30am - 5:00pm; Wed., Jan 16: 8:30am - 5:00pm; Thurs., Jan 17: 8:30am - 5:00pm; Fri., Jan 18: 8:30am - 4:00pm; Sat., Jan 19: 9:00am - 2:00pm (NOTE: Saturday opening)

101B - 3430 Brighton Avenue, Bunaby BC V5A 3H4
604-421-1154 or toll-free 1-877-853-1200

Elizabeth Hennessey Graves, Sales, BC Schools & Libraries
United Library Services, 101B 3430 Brighton Avenue, Burnaby, BC V5A 3H4
T: (604) 605-8926 F: (604) 605-8961 e: egraves@uls.com


Awesome Stories – The January issue

I know I’ve talked about this site before. The January Issue is available now. And there is a subject index , a separate section for learning tools such as animations, online games, and virtual field trips, and streaming audio recordings of their stories. You don’t have to load a player; just click on the green arrow at the top of each recorded chapter and off you go. Look for podcasts of stories soon. We have now got an academic membership using 39vsb as the password.

Writers In Electronic Residence Launches 20th Year

Jan. 14: Linking Canada's Writers with Canada's Schools

Imagine having Wayne Gretzky assess your stick work, or Elizabeth Baird test your butter tarts. Then imagine that their advice was part of a free exchange of ideas among other students, teachers, and the pros, culminating in everyone joining in a practice hockey game or sitting down to eat the final creation. This captures the reality of Writers In Electronic Residence, where the coaches are prominent Canadian writers, working online wth students and teachers in elementary, middle and secondary classrooms across Canada--Iqaluit to Toronto, Vancouver to St. John's.

WIER's winter term will open with its usual two-week "introductory period" on January 14, 2008. Space is available in each of WIER's online writing programs--elementary, middle school, and secondary school levels. The term will run until April 5.

Please visit http://www.wier.ca/ for program information, student writing samples, author biographies and the like. Here's a quick link to WIER's registration FAXBACK FORM.
WIER is administered by the Canadian Education Association in alliance with OISE/UT.

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From former TL Val, now Co-ordinator, Artists-in-Residence Program, here at the VSB:

WORKING LIVES: A MUSICAL HISTORY OF LABOUR AND ENTERPRISE IN BRITISH COLUMBIA

This year celebrate BC’s 150th birthday using this new online learning resource: http://www.workinglives.ca/. It provides a uniquely creative perspective on BC's social and economic history. Collaboratively developed by a TL and a singer/songwriter John McLachlan, Working Lives works well with the Social Studies 10 BC Resources unit. Historical figures are kept alive through the songs they inspired.

Each of the 10 songs can be downloaded. Archival photographs and pen and ink drawings give the songs a visual context, while background information and learning activities in a PDF format encourage students to actively engage with the website. Extension activities and extensive bibliographies enable further research. Working Lives was classroom tested during the development process.

To launch Working Lives as a classroom resource in BC schools, request one of the FREE CDs (limited number) from BCTF Lesson Aids: 604- 871-2180. A $5.00 charge for postage and handling will apply.

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New Book The Evergreen Country: A Memoir of Viet-Nam
By Thuong Vuong-Riddick

Some of you may know Mimi, Settlement Worker in School (SWIS) at Churchill. Her sister Thuong Vuong-Riddick has just published her second book. Mimi has emailed me to say Chapters doesn’t have enough copies at the moment so you can contact Thuong directly thuong_riddick@hotmail.com with questions or ordering information. Five secondary schools have her first book of poems, Two Shores : poems = Deux Rives: poemes

From EdInfo Digest, Jan 3: A BC ARCHIVES Website: THE AMAZING TIME MACHINE

If you haven’t looked at this resource, you should do. It caters to school age children and provides access to British Columbia historical documents, images, and other multimedia information in a format that they can relate to.

http://www.bcarchives.gov.bc.ca/exhibits/timemach/index.htm

Archival documents (photos, newspaper clippings, drawings, paintings and pages from people’s journals etc.) are grouped into 11 collections that range from “Families in B.C. History” for grades K–1, “First Nations Art in B.C.” for grade 4 and “Women in B.C. History” for grade 11.

http://www.bcarchives.gov.bc.ca/exhibits/timemach/galler01/frames/index.htm

http://www.bcarchives.gov.bc.ca/exhibits/timemach/galler03/frames/index.htm

http://www.bcarchives.gov.bc.ca/exhibits/timemach/galler10/frames/index.htm

The Time Machine is the winner of various awards and “best-of” lists and received a five-star rating from the Encyclopedia Britannica Online.

And finally, this week …

A REMINDER: Sun/Province AFFIDAVIT WEEK IS COMING UP! Here's a suggestion from a TL colleague: Fill in every blank except the date (# of licences = the number of students in your school), photocopy it 6 times so you have enough to send in until June, then each month you only have to fill in the date and FAX as required.

New TL Directories have been sent out. Please replace the ones from the Fall. Some changes have been coming in. We will send these out by email so that you can make relevant changes on your print copy.

Have a great weekend!

I HAD LUNCH WITH JAMIE MCKENZIE!!!

... MORE ON THAT LATER!

Who’s Going Where?

Lots of movement in school library positions this year; here are more TL staffing changes and there are more to come! New faces will be found at Windermere and at Kingsford-Smith.

Workshops this Week and 2008:

Have you marked your calendar for the second TL Studio Workshop at Kerrisdale Elementary Library on Monday December 10 at 4 pm? There’s room if you decide you would like to join us.

The TL Accounting 101 Workshop for TLs who are new and nearly new (or always seeking new and interesting ideas) still has lots of spaces on Thursday, December 13 at 4 pm. VSB Accounting always has important information about processes and paperwork.

Planning continues for Technology Day and Literacy Day where a number of TLs will be featured as presenters – there will even be the husband of one!

NOTE: While registration is online and you may want to make sure I order enough snacks by registering ahead, there are more than enough spaces for you to decide at the last minute to join us!

Thanks to …

• TLs who invited me to Collingwood, Carleton, Gladstone, Trudeau, Nootka, and Moberly. I loved the Board Games and Literacy Night and teaching powerpoint to grade 6s.
• IT for help with content server management. I can change the TL webpage now. The current and past Livromanie titles are now up under "French Resources."*
• TL Fred who created a wiki for Modern Languages
• TL GS for inviting me to lunch with Jamie McKenzie.

What a great week!

* TL Webpage is linked below -- and you have access to the portal from here.

Resources / Learning Resources / French Language Learning Resources as a link https://www.vsb.bc.ca/vsbprograms/MediaLibraryServicesTech/frenchresource/default.htm

or go to the VSB webpage – choose the Programs drop-down menu – click onto Libraries & Learning Resources to see what else is on this page

Canadian Children's Book Week and More ...

You e-read this somewhat abridged version:

Information required: Who’s going where? I would like to “announce” and congratulate the TLs who are moving into new positions in the vsbemail. Can it be done in the blog? Can you let me know where you are going – or who will be replacing you -- for next Friday’s release. It would seem that leaving the phoning to get information until Friday afternoon doesn’t work well with many elementary schedules! I’m new but a “quick learner” -- I have some information but I would like to be inclusive of all changes. Thanks.

Inspiration needed? Worth keeping in mind as you do your work today (or this week if you are opening up on Monday) is that there are fewer than 70 TLs left in Alberta. I have taken this quote from an email sent recently: "How is it, [John Ralston] Saul asked, that in one of the richest societies the world has ever known we have convinced ourselves that we are too poor to have libraries? Knowing as we do, without question, that the make or break point for real literacy comes when we are very young - how can we think that we are advancing civilization by reducing children's access to books?" TLs ensure both physical and intellectual access to resources. What you do is important. Many children in Vancouver received a new book from the Canadian Children's Book Centre and TD Financial. Have a really good day as Canadian Children's Book Week comes to a close.

Distribution of The Zlooksh: While this didn’t go without a glitch, it seems to have been okay. If you still don’t have enough, contact my assistant here.

Magazines: Thanks to those who have invited or welcomed me to their school libraries recently and to those of you who have been available to answer my many questions or to help resolve problems. Today one secondary TL and I met with the new Purchasing Manager here and we hope to have some answers for the next round in May to the problems of magazine ordering that will make life simpler for everyone involved. Soon, you will get a list of the mags you apparently ordered, check off the mags you are actually receiving, and send back the form in order that adjustments can be made to make sure you aren’t billed for the ones that haven’t shown up or weren’t filled.

FREE Sun/Province subscription: If you are worried about your access to the free digital newspapers, don’t be. You are not alone. In my visit today to DLG, the only computer that could access the paper was the circulation computer! Ask your technician to assess the capacity of your student access computers for databases and digital resources – you may simply need a relatively easy upgrade. And of the 43 subscribers to the Sun that were checked, only 13 had changed their initial passwords to library. Does this mean you chose another word, or you haven’t got to it yet, or you can’t figure it out?

Meeting for Secondary Department Heads (and generally the teacher-librarians who work in secondary libraries): reminder that this meeting is Monday at 4 pm at John Oliver. See you there!

WEBFEET: There remains very little time for you to review and decide about your library’s subscribing to Thomson Gale’s Webfeet. Would you please confirm or register your interest in this database with ME. We have until November 30. Thereafter when the free trial is over, the price is not negotiable.

Bulk Purchasing: I have asked David to "navigate" the World Book bulk purchases, World Book 2008 Encyclopedia (print version) and Natural Disasters.

From Knowledge Network comes word of November fall programming. See the new 'All TV and Online Programming' page for programs that support both learning and teaching. Check out the online program guide for the dates and times of your favourite Knowledge Network shows. See also Knowledge Tools for teaching resources written specifically for BC’s K-12 educators.

Upcoming workshop dates: For more information about Powerpoint, the Studio Technology Integration workshop series, EBSCO, Accounting and District Technology or Literacy Day workshops, go to "Announcements" on the tlspecial wiki. As of yesterday, there were 12 spaces left for Powerpoint next week ... and I don't recognize a lot of the names!

Check with TL at Simon Fraser Elementary for information about the performances of the School Peace Choir.

An Evening With Paul Yee, Nov. 29, Thursday, 7:30- 9:00PM. The Chinese Canadian Historical Society of B.C and St. John's College are pleased to sponsor a talk with Paul Yee, Governor General Award-winning author. Paul will talk about his most recent book, Shu-li and Tamara (Tradewind Books) and the process behind writing, editing and publishing his many books on the Chinese Canadian community. The program will be held at St. John's College, Fairmont Social Lounge, 2111 Lower Mall, UBC (across the street from the West Parkade).

The Simon Fraser series website captures The Vancouver Sun articles by Stephen Hume as well as other important features (maps, colour, etc).

The Vancouver Children's Art Gallery and Literacy Centre: This website is forwarded by Nancy Hundal. It will be will be the first gallery and learning centre in Canada devoted to the development and promotion of art and literacy.While its primary client group will be children and youth, the Centre will also serve a variety of adults, including parents, educators, adult learners. Programming will enhance all clients’ appreciation and skills relating to art and literacy. Directors include Superintendents Chris Kelly and Bruce Beairsto. The art and writing ideas are fantastic. You may want to share this with colleagues.

Author Nancy Hundal, one of "our own," has been writing and publishing while she shares her energies between her family and the school library at McKechnie. Nancy's website is has all the information you need, and you don't have to look far to find an author for a visit. Nancy's 10th book is due out in the Spring. Look for a flyer soon ... and share the information with your teachers too.

Made-in-Canada Children's Book Podcast: Just One More Book is a thrice-weekly podcast which promotes and celebrates literacy and great children's books. Each weekday morning, the creators take a few minutes for morning coffee to discuss one of their favourite children's books. Also featured are weekly interviews with authors, literacy related discussions or audio reviews submitted by listeners. They are building a lively, interactive community linking children's book authors, illustrators, readers (parents and children) and publishers. Episodes range in length from 5 to 25 minutes and can be played directly from the web page or downloaded to an ipod for listening on the go. They say, “This podcast is powered by passion. We have no advertisers or sponsors. Our goal is to link children with great books and help create happy memories for children and the adults that read to them…and to have fun!” www.JustOneMoreBook.com"A podcast about the children's books we love and why we love them -- recorded in our favourite coffee shop" www.SwimmingInLiterarySoup.com"Serving a love of reading and life -- through children's books."

ERAC APPLICATIONS FOR FAST FORWARD: If this is not the event for you or you are applying but would love to go with a teaching colleague, encourage your colleagues, the ones with keen interest in making sure we have lots of audio-visual materials to support their teaching, to apply.

If you don't subscribe to SFU's Linda Hof's Webbits, why not try it for a while. Great websites every time that I could always find someone who was thankful when I sent it ... and who then wanted to subscribe. It's very easy to un-subscribe too. Here's the info: Subscribe to Web-bits, a weekly digest of articles, information and web sites for your educational use. Send a message to: maillist@sfu.ca, then in the subject line put: subscribe web-bits

Media Awareness Network (MNet) has updated the B.C. curriculum outcome charts on its website to support the new B.C. Language Arts curriculum for Grades K-7. In addition, they have added curriculum charts to support the strengthened role media education plays in the new Social Studies K-12 curriculum. The charts link to free supporting classroom lessons and resources.

This link takes you to the overview page Media Education in British Columbia. You can also reach this page from MNet’s home page: simply scroll to the bottom and under Media Education in Canada, select British Columbia. On the right sidebar of the overview page you will see links to the Media Education Learning Outcome Curriculum Charts, listed by curriculum and grade level. Each chart provides links to free supporting lesson plans, teachable moments, educational games, teacher guides and more.

Medianet Workshop: Still have teachers who come looking for your help because they don't know how to order audio-visual materials from MLST (online – Medianet)? If you would like me to forward the "Medianet Workshop" file, email me. NOTE: It's a large file that takes a while to download but you could put it onto a staff-use computer and show your colleagues where to go to take the training module!

Thanks for feedback on the Multivendor Display. Keep it coming. Next week I will compile it and forward it to the organizer. I will also solicit his feedback on how successful the vendors found it to be. He has already booked the Firefighters’ Hall for the same days next year and I am not hearing anyone say we shouldn’t have it any more.