Pat Parungao Graciously Accepts

Acceptance speech for 2010 CASL / Follett International Teacher-Librarian of the Year Award - June 4, 2010

Good afternoon Ladies and Gentlemen,

Thank you very much for the honour of this award. I am very thankful to those who were a part of the nomination and selection, and thankful to all the educators who influenced my path on the road to teacher-librarianship. Being selected for the 2010 CASL / Follett Award is an honour for my school district, province, and me. It is the greatest award I have received as a teacher-librarian. Thank you CASL and thank you Follett International for this recognition.

It is most unfortunate that as a young adult, I didn’t consider being a school librarian earlier. If I had, I could have enjoyed a few more years at the best job in the universe. In high school I was a member of the Future Teachers’ Club, and volunteered in classrooms, but volunteering in the school library didn’t enter my mind. I now encourage volunteerism in the library and appreciate the many volunteer students who benefit from receiving authentic work experience there.

I only have one memory of my childhood elementary school library and it is quite unremarkable. I can only guess that the visit was so that the school librarian, Mr. Downey, would take our class to give our classroom teacher a prep period. I don’t remember being taught anything there. Likewise I have very few memories of being in the high school library. I remember the school librarian, Mr. Rollins, explaining the Readers’ Guide to Periodical Literature to me. Not the class, just me. This was a time before cooperative program planning and teaching (CPPT).

The situation was not much different at university. Back then there were no classes collaboratively taught by librarians and faculty in the courses I took. Now, however, the situation is changing. At the University of British Columbia, professors work with the Education librarian to ensure that all elementary preservice teachers participate in collaborative program planning. The awardee for last year’s CASL / Follett Teacher-Librarian of the year, Michele Farquharson, was part of the planning team that organized this and she supports it to this day. Student teachers and volunteer teacher-librarians collaboratively plan to integrate information literacy skills into a unit of study, and the student teachers can use the unit during their practicum if suitable. Even if it is not suitable, at least they would have had an authentic experience of doing collaborative program planning with a teacher-librarian, and develop a comfort level and expectation that during their practicum and when they become teachers they would continue to do CPPT.

Last week the Vancouver Secondary Teacher-librarians met at Simon Fraser University (SFU) for an update session organized by our Teacher-Librarian Consultant, Moira Ekdahl. A librarian there encouraged us to bring our classes to SFU, not just for a visit, but for learning about doing writing assignments at the university level. She would give our high school students an orientation to university writing. I plan to bring her some students. This experience for the secondary students would be similar to the elementary students coming to the secondary library to work on part of a unit of study.

When I was a beginner teacher-librarian there was a lot of support for CPPT. My mentor, Liz Austrom, included me in teaching units in a variety of subject areas – some were grade-wide, for example: English 8 – library orientation; Art 8 – People Hunt; Social Studies 9 – an in-depth, six-period research project on the Industrial Revolution; Science 9 – writing abstracts for scientific articles – now I was the one teaching the Readers Guide to Periodical Literature – but to whole classes. Students were most enthusiastic to use the newest technology ... microfiche!

I have had the good fortune to be a teacher-librarian in elementary school libraries too. What fun it was to use C & C to bribe the primary teachers and M & M to bribe the intermediate teachers to meetings in the library. Food always works, right? Inside the invitations, I identified C & C as coffee and cookies and M & M as muffins and milkshakes. We developed wonderful stations assignments and research projects. A huge mural and a big book were the results of a unit on space with the two kindergarten classes; the caterpillar to butterfly unit with the grade 1 class concluded with great excitement by freeing the butterflies outside; Humour stations and Canadiana stations with the grade twos; First Nations stations and Literature Circles with the intermediate classes to name a few.

The link between school libraries and literacy is no secret to teacher-librarians. We might even consider ourselves the original literacy mentors. One literacy initiative in our school is Reading Pals. Two Skills teachers and I trained interested grade 11 or 12 students to co-read aloud with struggling grade 8 students during silent reading period. This is a win-win project for both the junior and senior students. The senior students are developing leadership skills and the reading assessments of the grade 8 students have increased incredibly.

Although not everyone makes the link between school libraries and literacy, former Vancouver Police Chief Jamie Graham, a supporter of school libraries, told a large audience about the correlation between lower literacy levels and higher juvenile delinquency rates. He recognized and encouraged us to continue our work in supporting literacy.

Now our school libraries are going digital. As a result there are new challenges, for example, how do we ensure that students are using information ethically in an increasingly easy world of “cut and paste”? I was thrilled last week to be asked for the first time to collaborate with the web design teacher. He wondered about attribution for sources his students used when designing websites. As a result, he, the students and I are learning about the Creative Commons. This is collaborative inquiry and it is authentic learning of digital skills.

These are some examples of CPPT that I have been fortunate to be a part of. Occasionally people ask me how to do CPPT. Sometimes, like the web design teacher, teachers approach me for help. Sometimes like the Reading Pals program, I do outreach to hook the teachers in. Hard as I try, and for various reasons, not all teachers in the school collaborate with me. I appreciated what Dr. Ross said yesterday at the Treasure Mountain research retreat – that we have to build the library programs with like-minded people – and not to water the rocks. The new word is that we will be building Learning Commons with like-minded people.

Originally I planned this speech around three advocacy points that not all potential library supporters understand: that school libraries are teaching libraries, where teaching occurs; that there is a strong link between school libraries and literacy, and that the library is the most democratic part of the school. Every student has access to the library, when it is open and when there are teacher-librarians providing instructional, physical and intellectual access to support student inquiry.

I encourage each of you to begin and/or continue being active in your advocacy. Work with your parents, union, public librarians, university librarians, talk to your trustees, elected officials and community members – anyone. Develop and support your “Friends of the School Library” or “Coalition for School Libraries” advocacy groups - you never know who will be the one to make a difference. Find the evidence of the benefit of school library programs and give it to them. Ask them to use this to speak out on how each child deserves to benefit from a school library program.

I am always proud to tell the student teachers and others that being the teacher-librarian is the best job in the school. Not too long ago I heard a colleague say that it is the best job in the universe. I can’t disagree with that!

Thank you.

(Pat Parungao, Teacher-Librarian, Vancouver Board of Education)

NOTE: Pat was also, formerly, Vancouver's TL Consultant

Patti Goes to Edmonton: Another Vancouver Star!

Let's recognize our TL/Star of the Year in Canada:

Pat Parungao is the CASL recipient of the 2010 Follett Internation Teacher-librarian of the Year Award, presented this weekend in Edmonton at the Canadian Library Association (CLA) conference.


Pat catches up on a little light reading before our day at the U of A. She is digging deeply into Treasure Mountain Canada: Leading Journeys, compiled by Carol Koechlin. My paper included herein was delivered at the "summit" called TMCanada. The paper outlines the development of The BCTLA Points of Inquiry project, developed jointly with the VSB with the support of the Vancouver School District Teacher-librarian 2009 Inquiry initiative.

Here, Pat claims a rightful place at the very front of the class. This is Dr Ross Todd working with Carol Koechlin (right) and Liz Kerr (of the CLA, behind).


On Friday, Patti claimed her place amongst the most honoured of Canada's TLs as the CASL-Follett Award winner for 2010. Speech was fantastic and more than fairly represented why, after several decades of contributions to the field in an outstanding leadership role, she is OUR STAR.

We are very proud of you, Pat Parungao.

PSSSSTTTT:

While I have you, and if you haven't already done so, read Jamie McKenzie's FNO March 2010 article on Why We Still Need Libraries and Librarians.

Way Too Busy Writing a Newsletter to be Blogging!

AHA! Ever wondered what an AHA! looks like, and how it can be tied to sustainability?

Just in case you have been lingering in anticipation of the weekly blog announcement, I have jumped in quickly to say, There is much to tell ... but I am working on the TL Special News/letter (Vol 2:2) that I had meant to have out in May. I don't want to miss on putting out two issues a year as I think it's a good way to "push out" and share The Word.

The Celebration of Inquiry was fantastic. The TL Products were/are amazing. New working relationships and connections and respect, utterly priceless.

Inquiry Wiki -- Check out what we've done so far for yourself -- the page links are in the sidebar:

• Cheriee's film (Video Project)
  
• my suggested revision for The Research Quest model, called The Cycle of Inquiry and based on the work of NYC's Library Services Director Barbara Stripling (see Inquiry page)
  
• Michele's "tech integration with teaching and learning" and graphic novels materials (Miltiliteracies)
  
• sample wiki links (Technology Integration)
  
• our Readings (Inquiry)
  
• still to come: the new Mentoring Pilot Model and more.

We are taking Cheriee's film to Trustees on Wednesday evening as our annual report on the status of school libraries in relation to Haycock's strategic directions, set in 2001, and still so important to the crafting of the Vancouver Vision for School Library Programs. What I particularly like about the film is that I have Executive Director status!

So, Teacher Inquiry is about deep engagement and professional growth. Once I had created the new model, I was in the "excited space" which comes with the AHA! experiences of learning. This was late in the process as I seemed to find my place initially as a kind of facilitator to the project, an enabler and technical/clerical assistant more than a participant. But my "AHA!" meant that, once Leann and I had finished the display board on Wednesday, I could set everything else aside to do the one thing I have been meaning to do all year. I was sure it would be quick and easy -- take the photos used on the display board, dump them electronically into Animoto, choose some music, and then see if I could "mount" this as my first-ever youtube production.

I spent the better part of the afternoon of Inquiry Celebration day making a 30-second Animoto video out of photographs and posting it on youtube. I probably misjudged this process a little as I was quite late for the set-up in the room across the hall from my cubby. Anyway, by 3:30, it was posted to the wiki and I was frantically working with Wendy, Linda, Annabelle, Katharine, Gwen, Patti, Cheriee, and Michele (Jo-Anne couldn't make it) to put on the show. Whoo-hoo! Cheriee says that 1 minute of film footage takes 4 hours of editting; my first 30-second youtube took nearly 3 hours but I know the next one will be done in less than half an hour.

As there is a very good chance you may not find my little Inquiry accomplishment, although it is on the wiki, you can simply Go here -- and don't blink or you'll miss it! Next will be a feature- length Animoto video version celebrating more aspects of school libraries because it is such a cool way to capture celebrations. I will have to pay for more than 30 seconds of Animoto but it's not expensive at $3.

Keen for more Pro D? Have I got Pro D deals for you!

• FREE: Follow a discussion Envisioning School Libraries moderated online by Dr Ross Todd and Lyn Hay that explores the future of school libraries, the school library of the future, and getting there, by supporting continuous improvement and capacity building in school libraries. June 1-26, so it's already under way. Here's the pre-reading, "School libraries building capacity for student learning in 21C." Let's check that one out as Todd's work is truly visionary ... he's the one BCTLA VP Karen Lindsay raved about in her CLA Conference blog (see my last week's posting for this link). I saw him in Berkeley last summer and loved him too, and he'll be giving a day-long workshop with Carol Kuhlthau in Padua this summer so I get to see him again!
  
• FREE to the FIRST FIVE e-MAILERS, and $20 thereafter: Let's go as a Workgroup to "hear" Pat P from Gladstone, working collaboratively with Nancy (but not recording partner Joe) and Janet, social studies teachers extraordinaires, doing the Cedar Cottage Walking Tour, in the second of the Henri/Lee YSL Information Literacy and Web 2.0 international online conferences. Mr BigSix is the BIGGEST NAME on the list of presenters who will be keeping company with our little Pat. Several other Canadian presenters are on the list.
  
  The price is right for me to pay YSL for 5 TLs as a workgroup; if you are too late, it's pretty cheap Pro D to come for $20 if you don't make the first cut of 5 here. I think I should probably have the registrations in by Wednesday of this week. And your attending is about supporting one of our own. Way to go, Pat. It's a fantastic model of collaboration, The Cedar Cottage Walking Tour. And what a template for working with subject teachers, including Technology Guy and the whole socials department, with Special Collections at the VPL, and with the Ministry around notions of Neighbourhoods of Learning, Student Inquiry and locally developed curriculum, as well as the press for Digitization of our local history and geography. You are quite a team, Gladstonians! But then that's not news to me.

Back to the newsletter. Wrestling mkemp down to get the facts, just the facts, for the last column. Jockeying calls from Mary on stats, more stats ... sent her off to watch a video clip while I tackle the stats. Haven't put in any news gleaned or photos cadged of Montreal and THE AWARDS since Michele's return, but they did get into the newsletter. Well, okay, here's one photo (posted with a prayer that Karen and Michele won't accuse me of the unethical use of an image ... email requesting permission is on the way, I swear!)

Stay tuned ... Hope you have had a good weekend.

Congratulations are in order!

The TL Scene / Seen:

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

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

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

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

Amazing morning! See you Tuesday for Tea ...

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

The Final Chapter / May Year-end Update Sessions

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

Very Last Minute Notices

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

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


Web 2.0, Part 2: Online Conference June/July

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


Educators to Watch

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

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

Budget Presentations

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


IASL Conference 2009

Planning-for-Padua Update

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

New Issue of Teacher-Librarian, April 2009

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

Inquiry

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

Happy Rabbie Burns Day!

Lib/bloggin’ away …

Although I can’t imagine why, the title of this week’s blog is sung to the tune of Simon and Garfunkel’s song, the refrain for which is:

Slip sliding away, slip sliding away
You know the nearer your destination,
the more you slip sliding away …

This week's blog is a late Friday posting … lots of meetings this week as well as planning for meetings, scheduling and preparing for Pro D, and getting out to schools. Wednesday evening I attended Marlene Asselin and Keith McPherson’s Literacy for Today’s Youth session at the Burnaby Public Library, a Family Literacy event sponsored by the BC Coalition for School Libraries. This afternoon I was off to Maple Grove and Linda’s bright, inviting, and organized collection was a joy to behold. I checked up on Joanne there as well … she’s just fine, but who would doubt that!

If you haven’t seen the National School Library Day youtube clip in which Dave Cubberly speaks in the Legislature about his meeting with TL Aaron Mueller at Killarney, you can click onto it on the lefthand sidebar of this page. It brings tears to your eyes.

With feedback from Aaron, as well, I thought I had figured out how to implant comment options within a weekly entry so you don't have to scroll down to the very bottom but I didn't. I guess I need a one-on-one lesson, Aaron! Soon you will be able to comment on information within the sections. That is, it is my hope that you will soon be able to use the interactive feature of this social networking (Web 2.0) tool.

I have been checking out some really cool ways that blogs are used for teaching and will soon have some local blogs for you to use. Lana at Byng suggests that webpages have been replaced by blogs and wikis -- food for thought, my friends.

The biggest joy this week has been having a parent thank me for access to the free newspaper subscription ... her TL had sent the information home to parents in a newsletter about this resource and so she was now reading the news online. I told her to look at the other resources on the Databases page of Webcat but she knew this too. Way to go, Chris!

RESOURCES

From this week’s Webbits by Linda Hof from SFU: Google for Educators – The Best Features for Busy Teachers is an article by Sara King from Edutopia that identifies “user-friendly tools to you’re your [classes] inspired, inventive, and organized.”

Karen Lindsay, BCTLA VP, Advocacy, posts regularly and frequently to the BCTLA Forum. This week she draws out attention to these great resources:

• Docfish/Pageflakes: Karen writes, "Please share this page with your science teachers. I don't think I've ever seen anything so rich. It has also blown the doors off what I think a web page is. Enjoy. (Warning, the page loads slowly, even with cable, but it's worth the wait.)"
  
• “The IFLA/UNESCO Information Literacy Resources Directory has been redesigned and includes the just-published latest version of the State-of-the-Art report on Information Literacy in different countries.”
  
• Joe Landsberger’s Study Guides and Strategies in multiple languages.

HOT NEWS! FOR FRENCH IMMERSION SCHOOL LIBRARIES! World Book Kids (French) is due in mid-March: This news item comes from David this afternoon.

Email from Maryann Kempthorne: “I noticed this course …” and, well, she thought of you! (She hopes you are all well.) Please check out the schedule for web conferences and workshops offered by the “ei” (education institute) of The Partnership (Provincial and Territorial Library Associations of Canada). Let me know if I should be looking into scheduling us into any of these in the upcoming months.

For Secondary School Libraries, News about Freedom to Read Week: Click here for information about Freedom to Read Week Feb 24 to March 1. Thanks, Anne S., for bringing this to my attention. Kits have been ordered for the secondary schools.

Reminder -- I need DRAGON BOOKS for upcoming VSB Display (Note: opportunity here for student field trips).

EVENTS

Technology Day at Magee has big-name keynote speaker Alan November. Check out his weblog and website. There are 21 different workshops to delight both TLs and their colleagues. There are 7 TLs from Vancouver giving workshops and 2 from North Vancouver as well. These sessions are for teachers as well as TLs so encourage your colleagues to attend. Register online (see "Information Technology.") Although there are lots more to choose from, here are brief summaries of workshops provided by TLs:

Mary Locke and Gwen Ingham will work with Susan Atkey from the UBC Libraries to present a session about "the new learners," including teachers (and TLs) as
newcomers to learning about and within the more highly technical learning
environment.

Katharine Shipley and Frances Renzullo-Cuzzetto are presenting a session on electronic resources that are successful with French Immersion teaching. Look for information about a blog that is under development with electronic resources for using in French Immersion classrooms.

David Brear from Coquitlam -- yes, he's related to one of ours so he counts! -- will bring everyone up to date on the Web 2.0 phenomenon.

Virginia Lam and Ciara Kelly are doing an introduction to using electronic databases with both elementary and secondary students. These two TLs are the BIG users of the databases as resources to support inquiry so they will have lots to share about what works.

Sylvia Zubke is presenting with teacher Heidi Cyr on using Smartboards in classrooms and school libraries and again later you can see Sylvia with student William on social networking software.

Pat Parungao and I are doing our session on plagiarism – "Just Copy, Cut, and Paste: Phooey on Academic Integrity" - strategies for teachers and TLs on making it hard to do, not on how to do it!

North Vancouver TLs Lesley Edwards and Hazel Clark will show yograydonu how to enhance research through the use of MS Word, including new note-taking techniques such as highlighting, commenting, and creating tailormade graphic organizers. You may also want to check out how Lesley is using blogs as a means to build online assignments with appropriate resources. The example: Canadian poets.

Other sessions of interest: Raza Mirani from Gladstone on videostreaming; Diane Potts from UBC on the Multiliteracies; Drs. Wanda Cassidy and Margaret Jackson from SFU on the Cyberbullying research in Vancouver schools; Alan Zisman on using technology to create School Newspapers; Gerry Kent on Classroom Discussion using
technology; Alan November has a workshop for teachers and there are lots more
… see online registration for more information.

Register NOW for Literacy Day (see last week’s blog for more information) or go online to view Current Professional Development Opportunities. You can’t register online but you can go online to print out the form, than attach your cheque, and blue-bag it in to Pat Dymond ASAP.

Shari Graydon – she’s here to speak to Vancouver educators about on Feb 6, Room 400, VSB 4 pm to 5:30 pm. I sent out the electronic flyer this week. Please post/copy the flyer liberally, and promote/attend this event. Register online. [NOTE: Please encourage your colleagues, including counsellors, Home Ec and Planning 10 teachers, teachers involved with school-based social responsibility initiatives, Language Arts/English teachers, and others.] Or see Shari later the same evening at 7 pm at the Metrotown Burnaby Public Library, a free event sponsored by the BC Coalition for School Libraries.

ANNOUNCEMENTS

Excerpted from Val H's Vancouver Retired Teachers' Association blog, sad news:

Karen Bailey (1942 - 2008) passed away peacefully on January 5 at VGH after a long and courageous battle with breast cancer. Born in Vancouver, Karen completed high school in Vancouver, graduated from Simon Fraser University, and later completed her library science training at UBC. Karen was an active member of VESTA who will be remembered as an amazing classroom teacher and teacher-librarian at several East Side Vancouver schools. After her retirement in 1999, Karen continued to be involved with children with special needs. No service will be held at her request, but donations may be made in Karen's memory to the BC Cancer
Agency or to the SPCA.