A Final Vision

During the course I got the chance to think over my goals as a Library Teacher. There were two major topics about the use of technology that made me think and rethink my current practices. 

I often find a conflict between the use of technology and the use of books. We have seen the tendency in the last decades that students spend an extensive amount of time on screens in their everyday lives, and honestly, I often hesitate to add to that in school. On the other hand,  the use of technology in our education system is inevitable, and not providing opportunities for the students would be depriving them from a modern, 21st century education. I am trying to find the right balance, which leads me to various combinations of tech and creative, hands-on activities.

The other theme is collaboration with teachers. Luckily, there is a healthy, thriving culture of collaboration at our school, supported by our administrators. What I have been experiencing is that teachers are very grateful to work with the teacher librarian, especially if the burden of learning new ways of technology is taken off their shoulders. They often feel overwhelmed and ill-prepared to use new apps and programs, but they are eager to learn is someone shows it to them.

My presentation shows the ways how I see myself functioning in our school community, also, the various ways how I am able to support teachers. It also contains some evidence of how technology is enhancing our students' learning opportunities.

Please, see my presentation at this link:

My Final Vision

Lack of Libraries - Missed Opportunities

My Connection to Thailand

I lived and worked as a teacher in Chiang Mai, Thailand between 2010-2013. My first school was a popular Thai-English bilingual school, with more than 2500 students. The school was famous for investing more into modern appearance and fancy reputation than real academics (which took me four months to slowly realize and eventually make the decision to leave).  The school was clearly following different priorities than my family. 

During my first week I found the library. I had two small children and I wanted to sign out picture books. (Good quality books were hard to come by in Thailand at that time. Even Amazon didn't deliver to Thailand.) The library's English section was brand new, colourful, with comfy seats, shiny shelves in the school colours and a plastic rainbow arching over the room. There were about one or two books on each shelf, nicely spread out. I've never seen an emptier library in my life. In the next couple of weeks I took home every single book, I read them to my kids, I read them to my class, I scanned them and turned them into slide shows. When I ran out of books, I quit my job.

In my second job (a Buddhist/environmentalist bilingual school, where I stayed for three years and spent probably the best time of my teaching career) I had the privilege to be part of the process of creating a new school from the very beginning. It was a fantastic, very rewarding experience. I got to order the books for the library with a colleague, by using a Bangkok-based agency that specialized on foreign books. I also spent some time explaining and modelling to the Thai school librarian how to run story time for preschoolers and primary aged kids, how to create visuals, how to prepare activities, because all he had been trained to do was administering library duties.

School Libraries in Thailand

When it comes to library and media skills, I was shocked to see the lack of consistency in the Thai education system. I had the chance to visit numerous schools, and it seemed that only the long-established, private, prestigious international schools had well-equipped libraries, modelled after the British barding schools. The small, state-run village schools had some musty, black-and-white books on shelves, only in Thai, if they had any at all. 

I found a study online that focuses on Thai school libraries. The author comes to the same conclusion: lack of resources and lack of standards in public schools: "Even though the Thai government has developed school library standards and supports many projects to help all schools establish effective libraries, most rural small public primary schools still struggle to improve their libraries enough to reach even the minimum criteria of the standards. Thai government and policy makers appear to overlook the special management, guidelines and standards challenges for libraries in rural small public primary schools. The lack of expenditure in Thailand on research and development of rural small public primary school libraries has led to a minimum of related primary data and studies, giving very little indication of ways to improve the quality of those libraries effectively." (Nilobon)

The writer also urges the implementation of information and communications technology. Data shows that in 2017 in rural Thailand there were still schools without electricity, running water and internet connection, and of course, libraries. (Nilobon, p.148)

“Libraries lack computers and internet connection to support students to be independent learners. Most libraries lack teacher-librarians because they were assigned to be responsible for mainly teaching students. Therefore, the libraries lack providing a variety of activities and services developing the reading habit and reading culture based on which is their job responsibility." (A Thai principal's opinion quoted in Nilobon.)

The principals named the low budget as the most important contributing factor to the current situation. Obviously, the list of priorities should always start with running water and electricity; libraries and technology will come second. Nevertheless, they voice their discontent that the government's solution to the problem regarding these badly equipped, isolated small schools is to close them down and send students to larger schools, far away from their parents.

Technology as an Opportunity

In the 21st century wifi and internet could bring isolated communities close together and help them connect. As we saw it during the pandemic, there are endless opportunities to bring together children, teachers and parents through technology, to inspire and motivate them to acquire new ways of learning. Connecting these schools to the world wide web should be the way of keeping these small schools alive, giving the students the possibility of growing up and learning near their parents, and having the same (or at least similar) opportunities as the children who grow up in affluent families in larger cities and have the privilege to attend private schools. 

The School in the Cloud - Virtual Learning as an Opportunity 

https://www.dw.com/en/the-school-in-the-cloud-virtual-learning-as-an-opportunity/av-60147753

If anyone is worried about how these rural children from mostly underprivileged families will learn how to use technology, I would like to bring a very interesting experiment to their attention. A Delhi professor Sugata Mitra placed computers in freely accessible places in slums and rural villages, where children hardly had received any formal education and previously acquired no English skills. The children learned complex computer skills and taught each other as well - within months, days or even hours! Mitra's experiment suggests that children around the world, regardless their language and education level can learn complex skills independently when provided with access to technology.

Resources:

School libraries and their roles in rural Thailand: Perceptions of public primary school principals. Wimolsittichai, Nilobon (2017) PhD thesis, Queensland University of Technology. https://eprints.qut.edu.au/116146/1/Nilobon%20Wimolsittichai%20Thesis.pdf

Using Computers to teach children with no teachers. Fildes, Jonathan. (2010) BBC News 

https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-10663353

The Hole in the Wall Project and the Power of Self-Organized Learning. Sugata Mitra. (2012)

https://www.edutopia.org/blog/self-organized-learning-sugata-mitra

English Books for Thai School – Can You Help?  Minnov8 Blog by Steve Borsch (2011) https://minnov8.com/2011/09/19/english-books-for-thai-school-can-you-help/

I am a Teacher Librarian - What's Your Superpower?

"The teachers teach - the students learn." "The students' job is to listen." "The teacher will tell the students what to learn and how to learn." When and where I grew up, this was the only acceptable perspective of our school system. Luckily, nowadays we have a different perspective.

https://www.gradelink.com/blog/4-old-school-teaching-practices-to-retire/

We are all learners, teachers and students alike. In the learning process, the SLLC has a crucial role: it nurtures imagination, discovery and creativity. "Throughout all activities in the Learning Commons, both students and teachers strive to improve. Metacognition of content understood as well as skills and processes gained helps to build learning to learn skills and attitudes and responsibilities.The rich variety of resources and technologies as well as flexible physical and virtual spaces in the Learning Commons enhances differentiated instructional opportunities in the information to knowledge creation process." (Together for Learning)

In our school we have 190 students in 10 divisions, 14 teachers and 19 additional staff members (educational assistants, administrators, and other support staff). How can we make sure that they are all receiving a somewhat 'personalized' support at the School Library Learning Commons? How can we accommodate all our adult learners' professional needs?

photo from flickr

It's not just teachers who seek advice from the Teacher Librarian. We often give book recommendations to parents, just recently our custodian needed advice on how to log into the library computer, and our breakfast club organizer needed a picture book for her dance class that she is teaching.

I created a plan for the next year in order to provide better support and service.

September-October: We are just transitioning to a new library software. I will provide training sessions for the ENTIRE school community to learn how to use the new system, how to look up, reserve and renew materials. I am planning to set up a self-check out station for adults.

At the beginning of the school year I connect with every classroom teacher to do some planning together: I receive their year plans where I look for curricular areas for collaboration, technology enhancement and hands-on learning opportunities. My general goal is to complete at least two major tech-projects with each class per year (movie making, animation, Makey Makey, digital books or posters, interactive presentations, etc.) and one hands on project (sewing, clay, paper art, drama, various ways of storytelling, dioramas, etc.) Some of our projects are the combination of more than one or two of these options.

November-December: By the end of the first reporting period teachers will need to learn how to use MyEd BC for their progress profiles, since our whole district is transitioning to online report cards. I am sure teachers will be needing lots of tech support and scaffolding.

January-February: I will provide some refreshing courses to our teaching/supporting staff about how to use and navigate ShareEd, FocusEd and other websites, softwares and apps that the district provides for us. (I usually show these to them at the beginning of the school year, but by winter the forgot about these resources and they are grateful to be reminded again.)

March-April: All staff members will be able to request materials that we'll subsequently order and add to our collection. Around this time of the year (since by then we have a clear picture of our budget, which contains district funds, income from fundraisers and PAC support) we usually complete a large order, focusing on requests,  

May-June: We usually do our major weeding at the end of the spring (although weeding should be an ongoing process throughout the year). The books that we select to be taken out from the collection are offered to the school community: teachers can keep them for their classroom libraries; students, parents or staff members can take them home.

We'll make sure that our SLLC will be supporting everyone in our school community throughout the seasons, so it becomes a "hub", a sustainable investment in learning for the future.

Royalty-free Vector illustration 

Resources:

Together for Learning. School Libraries and the Emergence of Learning Commons. 2010. Ontario School Library Association. p.15.

Weeding the School Library - School Libraries. California Department of Education

Leading Learning. Standards of Practice for School Library Learning Commons in Canada. 2014. Canadian Library Association

7 Ways to Keep Up

During the school year we often get buried under everyday tasks, school duties, tight schedules. Here are 7 ways how a Teacher-Librarian can find inspiration, new knowledge and ideas throughout the school year. 

https://www.publicdomainpictures.net/en/view-image.php?image=153204&picture=rainbow

1. Participate in BCTL workshops and events

The BC Teacher-Librarians Association has already announced its first post-pandemic in-person conference. The BCTL workshops are not just providing excellent ideas, resources and materials for further development, but help librarians build connections and networks with other like-minded BC-based colleagues.

Future Ready Librarians is also a useful resource: this Washington, DC-based organization advocates for equal access of learning for students of all age, colour or socioeconomic status. Their website contains their framework, events, podcasts and webinars. 

source: BCTL A website                                                : FRL website

2. Follow and read librarians' blogs, websites and tweets

There are hundreds of blogs on the Internet and lots of those are worth following. I regularly got ideas for organization, decoration, activity planning and new titles to purchase. 

3. Sign up for newsletters and email lists

I receive several newsletters each week from various publishing companies, newspapers and organizations. Sometimes I don't  read them in detail, but most of the time I find valuable ideas for collection development. Two of these that I regularly check out: Saunders and Strong Nations.

4. Read Book Reviews

I read a lot of books... and a lot ABOUT books. I am an avid CBC listener and really enjoy  The Next Chapter, Writers and Company, Canada Reads. I regularly check out their seasonal recommendations and listen to the programs dedicated specifically to Canadian children's literature. Another great source of reviews on popular children's books is Biblionasium. Besides reviews and recommendations they often run contests for students.

5. Become a ShareEd BC contributor/evaluator

ShareEd BC is an online platform with a large collection of digital resources, and a place for BC and Yukon teachers to connect with each other, provide and receive support. Writing a unit for the platform or evaluating resources gives opportunities to become more familiar with the BC Curriculum and to provide useful help to our colleagues remotely throughout western Canada. 

6. Keep it local

The easiest way to network and exchange ideas is to connect with the other TL's in the district and the local public librarians. Invite each other to check out how the library is run, organize regular meetings, promote each others' programs. We often have workshops and trainings together, or borrow resources from each other. Right now it's time for telling our students about the Okanagan Regional Library's Summer Reading Club. We hope lots of kids will participate!

7. Share your knowledge

Make sure you regularly collaborate with your colleagues. Ask them how you can help. My experience is that they are extremely grateful for ideas to enhance their curricular content with technology and hands-on learning. Try to give regular updates to the whole staff at staff meetings: introduce new resources, apps, purchases and give a short summary of the ways they can be use. Your colleagues will appreciate it, and they will ask you for more!

Resources:

BC Teacher-Librarians Association  https://bctla.ourconference.ca/index.php

Future Ready Librarians  https://all4ed.org/

90 Best Library and Librarian Blogs  https://blog.feedspot.com/library_blogs/

Saunders Book Company  https://www.saundersbook.ca/

Strong Nations Publishing Inc. https://www.strongnations.com/

CBC Books.https://www.cbc.ca/books

Biblionasium Social Reading Community  https://www.biblionasium.com

ShareEd BC  https://www.shareedbc.ca/

Okanagan Regional Library.https://www.orl.bc.ca/

BOB The (reading community) Builder

Starts at the end of November, finishes at Spring Break, almost the whole school participates in it and we can't wait till it starts again. What is it? Most of the kids in Revelstoke would immediately answer: "THE SKI SEASON!" but the students at Arrow Heights Elementary have an extra answer: 

BATTLE OF THE BOOKS!!!

 

Here is BOB in a nutshell: there are three lists of ten books for three different age groups. Volunteer teachers write questions for each book, on different difficulty levels. Students read the books during the winter months and one spring day the schools compete against each other, by answering 20 questions that start with "In what book...?"

AHE Twitter: https://twitter.com/ahcares/status/1513912628086996994/photo/1

When I arrived at AHE six years ago the Battle was nothing else but an annual competition among the three elementary schools in town, where usually a small number of advanced readers competed against each other. Grade 3-7 students had to read a minimum number of books to be able to participate. Only the district winners received medals. Two-three classes from each school watched the competition, which - honestly - did not interest the students much, without knowing what the books were about...

I felt I could use the Battle to foster a strong reading culture, but I wanted to do it differently. My goals were:

• to read every single book every year, so I can promote them
• to reach and involve as many students as I can, even the weak readers
• to make the event fun for the non-readers
• to celebrate the books, not the winners

overall: to make Battle of the Books 

https://media.giphy.com/media/69FqxKYGuzAyxyGDAU/giphy.gif

And this is what I did in the last five years:

• read every single book and passionately, creatively and shamelessly promoted them night and day, to students, teachers, and parents,
• engaged the students in conversations about the books, no matter why they came into the library... and they usually left with Battle-books,
• ordered and offered the books to homeroom teachers for read-alouds, for lit-circles, and read them in reading remedial groups to weak readers,
• wrote 1000-1500 questions every year for practice,
• invited students at recess and lunchtime for practice and taught them how to do it independently, without an adult,
• encouraged the students to create their own questions and challenge each other,
• organized a school BOBFEST, an entertaining, crazy, interactive festival, where everyone can join a team, even if they only read one book...or in some cases, none,
• created activities for BOBFEST where it's not important if you read the book or not (after all, anyone can jump down from the top of the monkey bars and land on a gym mat while wearing a pair of silver underwear made by the team, yelling "OUTSTANDING!" like Hilo did...and it certainly piques the interest of the audience members enough that the next day we have a waitlist for Hilo),
• organized audience participation activities (one turned into a full-on riot)!
• dressed up my colleagues and brazenly forced them to perform a fashion show in book character costumes like a monster, Everest climber, a butler, a posh brat, Gangsta Granny and a troll.... including our principal,
• provided daily updates on Battle-news at morning announcements,
• gave a "real gold AHE bookmark/badge" to every participant (OK, not 100 % pure gold...)
• organized an ice-cream party for every participant,
• made the Announcement of the Teams an exciting day, with team-colours and names chosen.

And these are all happening BEFORE the District Battle, which used to be the only event by itself.

This year we had 54 students on teams (more than 25% of our school population), including 12 grade 2's. 

We had students in tears fighting for books at the library, families changing holiday plans so their kids can be here for the Battle, and participants jumping up 9 points on PM Benchmarks in two months.

Unfortunately I have no pictures to show of BOBFEST, because when you are having too much fun (and a riot!) you kind of forget about the camera.

Now I just have to tell you who won the Battle.

Photo by G.D.

But does it matter?