Sunday, November 25, 2018

Presenting….Coldstream Library Learning Commons!


Here is how the new and improved Coldstream Elementary Library Learning Commons webpage looks:


You will find my final vision product through the link, Mrs. Acob’s Website !!!!

      I loved doing my final vision project, as I am walking away with a useful, helpful, engaging, safe and curated space to house resources and links as a means of communication for my learning community!  I have wanted to do this for a few years and am so happy to have it started!  Initially I set out to create a link for teachers to learn about the technology available to them in our school.  I was looking for a one stop option to house this information for teachers.  My vision adapted to become a central and inviting library homepage that would be useful for my whole learning community.  I believe my site is a welcoming first impression to our school library and I hope my goal of it being easy to navigate has been attained.  I have information in place for students and teachers, but in the future I plan to have more for students, teachers and parents: perhaps study tips for students, e-books, a place for book reviews, internet safety for teachers and parents, more video tutorials on technology, and updated links.
      I feel things went well with this project, but with only 300 words to reflect here I cannot go into all the details of my MANY technology speed bumps I navigated through!  Safe to say I have stepped out of my comfort zone and spent way too many hours talking at my computer and asking it questions, like “why can’t I move this tab over????”.   I originally started with my given school website (Scholantis), but was too frustrated with its tricky-to-use interface.  It was way too technical for me and I felt confined to their style of webpage, as well. 
retrieved from: https://www.weebly.com/ca
I moved to Weebly, which allowed for different templates and it was much easier to make a simple website where I learned to embed videos, add links, and make new tabs.  It was a HUGE learning curve for me, but attainable with Weebly.  I can also share that I definitely took longer than Aaron with his one-go-at-it
retrieved from: https://screencast-o-matic.com/
screencast-o-matic videos.  However, it is a simple site to use and one I will be using again to add more videos to explain technology our school has to offer.  I know many of you are expert tweeters, but I was a virgin tweeter at the start of this course so was proud of myself that after some trial and error, I managed to add this to my home page.  It is going to be an excellent way to communicate with parents, share out ideas, display student work, and demonstrate the learning taking place in our space!
Screencast-o-matic on Microbits

      I use the word ‘final’ vision project loosely in this post, as I have more to add and this is in no way a finished project.  I know my site will need to change and adapt to meet the learning needs of my learning community as my community grows and changes.  A big focus  on my site is resources for our school wide inquiry for students and teachers.  I know this will be an area that will be added to and changed, as we journey on this inquiry path as a school. I will gladly take feedback from all of you to make my site better (please note…the sd22 digital resource link will NOT work for you, as you need to be on one of our school computers).   I will say I feel triumphant with my final artifact and know that with my new found knowledge, I can be sharing out the site to my colleagues and students!

References

- Coldstream Elementary School. (2018). Retrieved from http://www.sd22.bc.ca/school/coldstream/Programs/library/Pages/default.aspx
Heather, A. (2018). MRS. ACOB'S WEBSITE. Retrieved from https://coldstreamlibrary.weebly.com/
Screen Recorder & Video Editor | Screencast-O-Matic. (2018). Retrieved from https://screencast-o-matic.com/
Weebly is the easiest way to create a website, store or blog. (2018). Retrieved from https://www.weebly.com/ca

Saturday, November 17, 2018

First Impression


      
retrieved from:
http://www.quotemaster.org/good+first+impression
      While working on my vision of the future this week, I found that my biggest audience focus is ending up being my students.  I originally had started with the idea of making videos of technology and makerspacers available in our library space for teachers on my staff.  I had to back up a bit and first create a library homepage that would house these videos.  I still plan to do this to include teachers in my targeted audience.  However, I had spent quite a bit of time exploring others library websites to determine what would and wouldn’t meet the needs of my learning community and have made my major focus to be my students and how best to meet their learning needs.  I want to create a safe, curated place for students to go to do research and be able to have all their reading needs met.  When I have all student comfortable using my site, they will be great leaders bringing teachers and parents to it!   With school wide inquiry being a focus for our school this year, I want students to have a place and space specific resource.  Students using this site will see how they have access to the library and resources 24/7 and that learning can be extended beyond the walls of the library.  I know I like a user friendly site, so I need to create the same for students so all ages can find what they need from a simple format. 
retrieved from:
 http://www.sd22.bc.ca/school/coldstream/
Pages/default.aspx
      My main target at this time in our 3 week time frame is my students, however, my library webpage will eventually target all in our learning community.  After investigating websites this past week, I spent some time looking at what makes a good website.  Thoughtco says it well as to the value of a good website: that first impression is an opportunity to highlight the school’s best qualities and to show how welcoming the school community is to all stakeholders – parents, educators, students, and community members.   Teachers are my second targeted audience members.  As time continues I will extend out to the parents in our learning community.  Teachers, like my students, will have 24/7 access to all resources in one place.  Parents can see the happenings at the school and have an insight as to how learning is for a 21st century learner. 
School Web Masters talks about a website as being one of the most effective tools a school has to improve communication, engage parents, market its strengths, and build a trusting reputation within its community.  SO many reasons to make a good first impression with a good library website!


References

Bennett, C. (2017). Importance of Keeping School Websites Updated. Retrieved from https://www.thoughtco.com/schools-website-first-impression-7655
What makes the best school websites?. (2018). Retrieved from https://www.schoolwebmasters.com/Blog_Articles?entityid=375456


Sunday, November 11, 2018

Future Vision – A Functional Library Homepage


      The weeks of exploration from this course that got my mind directed towards my “aha” future vision project was week 6 and on.  It began with me wanting to expand my own PLN, but a major focus for my vision project stems from week 7 as to how I will best support and be responsive to the personalized needs of the educators, staff, admin, parents, and other members of my educational community.  I am hoping to create a library learning commons homepage with links to resources, videos, and my own professional blog as a way to share out the technology and resources our school has available, taking into account the varied abilities and experience levels to accommodate all within my learning community.  My current homepage is a basic, standard school district one.

Coldstream Elementary School current library homepage
 I know that my long term vision is greater than what I will be able to accomplish in the next three weeks and it will be an ongoing project.  In order for my homepa
ge to be responsive to my learning community it will need to continuously evolve anyway.  It has been on my mind to do something with my library homepage and now this is my opportunity to get going on it and with a specific purpose and direction.  A few weeks ago my future vision project in my mind was to make videos of the various makerspacers (microbits, osmos, spheros, etc )
retrieved from:
  https://learn.sparkfun.com/tutorials/getting-started-with-the-microbit 
available in our school for my staff as the audience.
  I still want to do this, but that may be farther down the road.  First I have decided I need some other basics on my library webpage to service more than just staff.  From this course, I have certainly come to understand the value of sharing out my ideas and resources, as I ‘steal’ others’ ideas from pinterest to tweetsso I best share, too!  I know there will be value in my vision project in that all members of my school community will benefit from it eventually, including me.  I doubt my library webpage will help others country wide, but perhaps within our district it will spark feedback from my fellow TLs and help my page evolve and become even more useful.  Perhaps fellow TLs in our district will make their library webpages a useful resource to their learning community, as well.
      I know that my first step is to contact our district website person to allow me access to the site.  I need to find out what I can and cannot do according to our district guidelines.  I have started exploring other TL library webpages this week to get a better sense of what I want my actual final project to look like.  I did note that some TLs have almost nothing on their school library homepage, but a link that connects me to their well-designed blog or site.  I am assuming they don’t have the access to do so on the school homepage.  I will explore some more sites, but so far I have gained some insight about my format likes and dislikes.  I like the sites that are simple in layout. 
I did check out Aaron’s ParklandSecondary School site and love the simplicity of an image/title that leads to many resources on one topic.  I have liked tweets from Anna Crosland so searched to find her new school library site thinking it would be a good one to model mine after.  Her school, which is called Ecole Martha Currie, library website is a standard district one.   It gives a link to her edublog, which is personalized to better meet her learning community needs.  What I like about her site is the display of student work.  Kids and parents must love that and me, as a fellow TL, love to be able to steal cool ideas.  Anna, like Aaron, has clear titles linked to resources clearly laid out.  I also checked out a local TL who is always a step ahead of the rest of us here in Vernon with great programs in his library, Mark Bendall of Vernon Secondary School .  I liked his links for students like note taking and citations.  I think I’d like information like that on my site, as it’d be helpful for my students. A neat upcoming idea Bendall is working on is online book chats, which is an online space for students to recommend books or argue which book is better.  One idea I’d like to steal from Black MountainElementary learning commons webpage is how they created links to author webpages.  My students could be exploring the books, games, and blogs of their favourite authors. 
Stacey Manoin of Mar Jok Elementary has awesome clear tabs that pull down to a plethora of resources for students to parents, plus has highlights of upcoming author visits and virtual field trips.

      I have lots of ideas, but where to start!  I know I want clear labels with an easy to navigate site.  I want to target my whole learning community to have everyone coming to the library homepage.  I hope to include the learning happenings through pictures or videos, have digital resources for staff, parents and students.  A little more planning and sometime investigating web design are my next steps….for now!

References
Bendall, M. (2018). VSS Library - Vernon Secondary School. Retrieved from http://www.sd22.bc.ca/school/vss/Programs/library/Pages/default.aspx
Crosland, A. (2018). Anna Crosland TL | Anna Crosland TL. Retrieved from http://annacrosland.edublogs.org/
Learning Commons - Black Mountain Elementary. (2018). Retrieved from http://www.bme.sd23.bc.ca/Programs/lc/Pages/default.aspx
Library - Ecole Martha Currie Elementary. (2018). Retrieved from https://www.surreyschools.ca/schools/marthacurrie/Library/Pages/default.aspx
Manoin, S. (2018). Stacey Manoin. Retrieved from https://staceymanoin.weebly.com/
Mueller, A. (2018). Course: Learning Commons. Retrieved from https://parkland.sd63.bc.ca/course/view.php?id=274

Sunday, November 4, 2018

Looking Back and Looking Forward


      I am excited with the many, many ideas and blogs, posts and research we have piled through this month.  The best part of it all for me is that it is applicable to the work I am doing!  It made this course not feel like a hoop to jump through, but one where I have tonnes of takeaways, lots to be interested in, and lots I have already incorporated into my work.
      One new avenue for development for me personally is that just this week I received another inquiry grant from my school district.  The grant is for my little TL group in which we began as an inquiry group working to transition our libraries to a learning commons.  This year we are collecting resources and sharing with each other our learning.  This is a huge help to me professionally as I am given time to talk, share, discuss, and learn with fellow TLs.  I feel I learn LOTS from simple conversations.  
      We will continue our march on towards becoming a full library learning commons and are almost there.  There are so many ideas I gathered from this last month, such as Book Clubs or Book of the Month to continue the development of the reading culture in our school community. 
retrieved from:
https://fernie.bc.libraries.coop/adult-book-club-books/
Our group also hopes to bring in a neighbouring district guru, Amber Hartwell, to help inspire other teachers in our district to transition their libraries and give us guidance, as well.  I like the idea of having my own personal inquiry in that I am modelling the process for colleagues in our school, just as we embark on a school wide inquiry process.  Another area for me to development in my own practice is staying on top of an efficient and practical way to curate resources.  I think heading forward I hope that my library webpage will hopefully house resources through links, my blog, and twitter.
      Moving forward from what I learned this month is I will be sharing out!  I had thought about it briefly before, but my biggest takeaway is definitely the importance of sharing out and how not just others benefit from it, but me too! 
retrieved from:
https://www.amazon.ca/dp/B00998J5YQ
Richardson (2012, p.387) named reasons that teachers don’t share out, from fear to a culture of competition in schools, but I feel the biggest factor for me is time.  Really the lack of time is my issue.  However, sharing out with fellow local librarians, colleagues, and other TLs is an area needing growth for me, one that I can attain, and one that will help me professionally, as well.  A quote from Paige Bredenkamp found in fellow wolf Karla Germaine’s blog has stuck with me since I read it: “Knowledge is the result of interactions and experiences through connected networks in a community”.
      I have some highlights of learning I have gained from others over this past month and one is that it is time, past time, to have a blog and active twitter account for my school.  Although twitter has not been my favourite social media form (I don’t feel I have time to sort through what people had for breakfast to find things of interest to me), I do like being able to get snapshot ideas.  It is growing on me now that I found some that are specific to teaching and like the quick snippet idea.  Two new accounts I am now following are from Hannah's blog : https://twitter.com/bctla  and Darryl Beck's blogGeorge Couroswhich both provide professional and thought provoking ideas.  I still feel blogs are more valuable overall to me and I have appreciated blogging with my fellow wolves.  For me it is the discussion feel, like a conversation, that I am drawn towards.   I also like the building on the plentiful array of ideas.  I give an idea, but others tag in and say…”I also tried this”, which is a little new tweak to something I had just done.  It adds a fresh zing to add onto an idea.  Every single blog post from my colleagues has had a little idea or two I have either incorporated already or hope to do.  For example, as TLs we are always looking for a perfect book for someone and ask questions of them, “what did you last read?  What is your favourite book?” etc., but I have tried Hannah’s reader personality test and students had fun with that.  They were shocked to see that some of the books recommended to them from the test they had already read so the simple quiz seemed to work for many.  Thanks to Alison's blog for 2 peas and a dog blog, which I now like to peruse.  Another tidbit idea from Karla’s blog, which is still rumbling around in my head, is about helping students and colleagues with their PLNs.  I have been focused on me, but Karla shared the ideas of Irene Hanreates and her ideas which has me thinking of how important sharing out is, the need to model it, to work on my own PLN, but to help others gain the benefits of this, too. 
retrieved from: https://teacherchallenge.edublogs.org/pln-define/
      The one topic that resonated with me most this past month is in regards to how I will continue my own professional development.  This is my last library course and it scares me a bit to become stagnant.  So often you see a teacher teaching the same grade and same material year after year.  They are doing what they know well, but not updating or challenging themselves with something new.  It isn’t enough to go to a pro-d day, but in a role as TL I can do so much more to be inspired and to inspire.

References

12 Ways a School Librarian Can Help Teachers - 2 Peas and a Dog. (2018). Retrieved from https://2peasandadog.com/2018/07/12-ways-a-school-librarian-can-help-teachers.html
BCTLA (@bctla) on Twitter. (2018). Retrieved from https://twitter.com/bctla
Beck, D. (2018). Mr. B's Blog. Retrieved from http://kidstonkokanee.blogspot.com/
Couros, G. (2018). George Couros (@gcouros) on Twitter. Retrieved from https://twitter.com/gcouros?ref_src=twsrc%5Egoogle%7Ctwcamp%5Eserp%7Ctwgr%5Eauthor
Cuthill, A. (2018). LIBE 477: Special Topics in Teacher Librarianship - New Media and Technology in the School Library. Retrieved from https://critiquelecture.wordpress.com/
Germaine, K. (2018). Reflections of a New Teacher Librarian. Retrieved from http://kargermaine.blogspot.com/
Reader Personality Types - A Book And A Hug. (2018). Retrieved from https://abookandahug.com/reader-types/
Richardson, W. (2012). Why school. New York, NY: TED Conferences.
Wilson, H. (2018). Hannah's Learning Library. Retrieved from http://hannahslearninglibrary.blogspot.com/



Sunday, October 28, 2018

Changing Lives Through Education


     The topic of libraries around the world is a new area of exploration for me!  I found it to be quite insightful and super interesting.    When I first read this new topic, I immediately thought of two school trips that my husband, Cliff, was a chaperone for.  As a highschool teacher he has helped make Me to We  trips possible for his school to China and Ghana. 
retrieved by:
 https://www.metowe.com/
Two of the five main themes of Me to We is to help create and ensure a sustainable future for rural children by providing access to and removing obstacles to a quality education and another is to create nutrition programs at schools. 
     Cliff traveled to Asemkow, Ghana with 15 students to help build an additional room to the community school.  Asemkow had one school in the village for about 100 children from the surrounding area.  The school went up to grade 8 and was of no cost to students.  Only those that could afford highschool continued on past grade 8, which this village sent about 5-6 children per year.  The highschool was about an hour walk away. 
Those that did not go to highschool became street vendors, fisherman (boys) and helped to cook/house chores (women).  This school had three teachers that commuted daily to the village.  The school had tablets…..CHALK tablets.  There were no books or technology, just a blackboard…in fact there was no electricity in the village save one light post.  What my husband couldn’t figure out is that the highschool kids all had cellphones, but where did they charge them without power? (He assumed at the highschool, but never saw it).  It was only an hour’s drive (no cars in the village however) to a bigger city with a westernized university, but there was such a difference from grade school to highschool and university.  Moving forward to best meet the needs of Asemkow, Me to We is helping to train the teachers in the school plus build rooms and teacher accommodations complete with furnishings and toilets.  There is no one working at expanding access to the internet at this point in Asemkow, but this is an area deserving some thought. 

     Cliff’s trip to China involved building a school garden and chicken farm in Gufubao (2 hour drive Northwest of Beijing).  The idea was to help this smaller village become sustainable with better nutrition.  There was such a stark difference between the bustling city of Beijing and a poverty stricken Gufubao.  This school had more than that of Asemkow.  Gufubao has 12 classrooms up to grade 5, electricity, and books in each classroom.  There was no library and the classrooms had no internet access.  The teacher rooms, however, did have access 
to the internet.  Teachers taught students from a learning package provided to them by the government.  Cliff’s trip was in 2016, so maybe in the past three years students in Gufubao now are connected to the internet?  It seems if the teacher accommodations had internet that it is plausible to have the internet in the hands of students, as well.  Only teachers had cellphones.
     My exploration this week followed my earlier thinking about Asemkow with no electricity and that of Gufubao being so close to being connected to the world and how can they best move forward.  There is so much out there!  I came across an article, Availability and Use of Digital Technologies in P-12Classrooms of Selected Countries  that discussed the enormous difference of access to technology between developing countries and developed countries.  Developed countries had similar technology available, but developing countries had a huge range of different digital technologies available.  An interesting takeaway for me was that funds were found to have digital technology in schools in both developed and developing countries, but there was not money to have proper training on the use of the technology.  This study by Khan, Hasan, and Clement (2012) focused on Bangladesh, but outlined barriers for developing countries acquiring ICT: lack of equipment, lack of technical support, lack of funds, political views of the country, social and cultural factors, teacher shortage, lack of skill.  That is a lot of barriers to overcome with Asemkow not even having electricity!  I focused my search on how to overcome these barriers in developing nations and found this article by Steven Livingston, Classroom Technologies Narrow Education Gap in Developing Countries.  The discussion debates the idea of putting funds towards laptops and not adequately training teachers and employing enough teachers. 
retrieved from: https://www.varkeyfoundation.org/
However, I was excited to find a link to the Varkey Foundation on how help is being given to Ghana!  The belief of this organization is that every child deserves a good teacher and access to a good education.  They are not necessarily at the point of putting a laptop in the hands of every student, but instead investing in training teachers for remote areas.  Dubai Cares  is also training teachers for tomorrow and working on helping with nutrition in Ghana. 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4DqGjsMAGbk

     I also came across an Edu Tech, A World Bank Blog on ICT Use inEducation and found it to be an interesting read talking about the electricity divide, not the digital divide!  Also the ‘second digital divide’ is discussed in regards to skills and abilities of people benefiting from technology.  There were interesting concepts that make financial sense helping communities with little funds, such as a school having only one computer but 50 students benefiting from its use, each with their own mouse.  Another idea is the use of a mobile phone connecting a teacher in a remote area to education content.
     It seems that some organizations want to train teachers in developing countries and other organizations want to put a computer in the hands of every child, such as One Laptop Per Child .  
retrieved from: http://one.laptop.org/
One Laptop Per Child's aim is to have every child have " a rugged, low-cost, low-power, connected laptop" called the XO Laptop 4.0 pictured here on the left, which  students can take home even without electricity in their home.  Which is the best way to provide greater access to information that best meets the needs of a particular community?  Training teachers, XO, or perhaps it is the simple mobile phone that is the best option for these remote villages?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c-M77C2ejTw


     Just quickly, as I have gone on too long about the vast amount of information out there about technology in all nations, I wanted to share my thoughts about developing nations relying on donations and weeded books from developed nations.  I am okay with quality books being donated, however serious thought needs to be taken to ensure the books are appropriate both in regards to language and culture of the country.  Plus, books must be in good condition and newer. I do not feel weeded books from my library should go there.  If they are garbage to me, why give outdated or poor fitted books for others to deal with.  Giving an outdated atlas with countries that no longer exist, border changes, or without a new territory in it means the teachers and students need to figure out which part of the book is up to date and which is not.  They deserve better.

References

Cares, D. (2018). Dubai Cares. Retrieved from http://www.dubaicares.ae/en
Ghana Starts Africa's First High-tech Interactive Distance Learning. (2018). Retrieved from https://www.voanews.com/a/ghana-africa-first-high-tech-interactive-distance-learning/3179512.html
Khan, S., hasan, m., & clement, c. (2012). Barriers to the Introduction of ICT into Education in Developing Countries: The Example of Bangladesh. Retrieved from https://eric.ed.gov/?id=ED533790
Livingston, S. (2016). Classroom technologies narrow education gap in developing countries. Retrieved from https://www.brookings.edu/blog/techtank/2016/08/23/classroom-technologies-narrow-education-gap-in-developing-countries/
ME to WE | Products & Experiences that Make an Impact. (2018). Retrieved from https://www.metowe.com/
One Laptop per Child. (2018). Retrieved from http://one.laptop.org/
The Varkey Foundation. (2018). Retrieved from https://www.varkeyfoundation.org/
Trucano, m. (2014). Promising uses of technology in education in poor, rural and isolated communities around the world. Retrieved from https://blogs.worldbank.org/edutech/education-technology-poor-rural
Vu, P. (2014). Availability and Use of Digital Technologies in P-12 Classrooms of Selected Countries. Retrieved from https://journals.uair.arizona.edu/index.php/itet/article/view/17933/17904


Saturday, October 20, 2018

500 Hats

retrieved from: http://500hats.edublogs.org/

      I cannot agree more that teacher librarians are looked to for everything from evaluating and acquiring new resources to developing new skills.  I like Barbara Braxton’s blog on the 500 Hats of a TL, as our role is certainly becoming quite varied!   My favourite way to share what I learn with colleagues is through collaboration with them IN their classroom.  I get to connect and learn with students.  It also allows me to share the new technology or learning strategy with a teacher as they learn to use it, which I hope gives them the confidence to be able to try it on their own the next time.  If lucky they may even collaborate with another teacher and the ripple effect will take over!  We have a technology crew (District Technology Innovation Coordinators) in our district with each having a family of schools that they connect with, introduce new technology to, and help with guidance and expertise.  They, thankfully, see the value in a TL position and like to train us with new technology with hopes we can go back and share with everyone. 
retrieved from:
https://learn.sparkfun.com/tutorials/getting-started-with-the-microbit
Last year they gave every TL a set of microbits for their school, if we attended the workshop on how to use them!  I have placed an emphasis on building teacher relationships the past 4 years plus getting to know the needs of my learning community and I hope this helps me be able to share out these kind of new ideas.
      As far as my admin goes, mine is energetic, supportive, and forward thinking.  We ran into each other at our last pro-d day where we were at an innovative education conference.  We spent our whole lunch hour bubbling with excitement about plans for the school with our newly acquired ideas.  I am not sure I will be able to keep up with her, but together we share, plan, and support new ideas and our visions for the school.
      To be honest, I think I have more I need to be doing than I am actually doing to be more responsive to the needs of my fellow educators, staff, and parents.  I do think a library website with lists of tools and links to resources and teaching ideas would help meet professional development of staff.  Having it all organized in one easy to find place would at least give staff an idea of what is out there!  Videos on how to incorporate technology into their class would give them inspiration I hope.  I like this quote from 7 Reasons Why Digital Literacy is Important for Teachers: Digital literacy doesn’t require that teachers become experts, but it does require that they understand the digital tools that can unlock their deeper teaching potential.   Although I have emphasized mutual respect and trust with colleagues in the past, this year I can spend more time helping teachers on HOW to use resources with the redesigned curriculum and help teachers’ exploration of curriculum topics and competencies.  I think it is important to gain input from staff in regards to areas we need to explore further.  I have always wanted to get a library committee together that would include staff, parents, and students to create a solid vision for our space and to discuss areas requiring improvement or change.
      I have done well at weeding the student library collection but not the teacher resources.  This week’s assignment has me thinking about how I could handle this.  I am thinking I will put on display teacher resources at a staff meeting.  When it is my turn to share I can remind teacher to browse the resources and ask them which they use and then discard those that no one is using.  Once that is weeded we can then look to see what areas we would like to see broadened.   I came across Anna Crosland’s great idea to get books circulating.  I could do this with teacher resources and our regular collection:
 
Retrieved from: https://twitter.com/crosland_a
      To continue to be responsive to the needs of my educational community, I plan to carry on being receptive and available to teachers’ needs, continue to model my own personal inquiry and improve and share my own teaching skills.  I will continue to bring in experts or skype with them where my expertise cease.  I’d like to follow the Working with Colleagues, A Guide for ICT Mentors as it states that a TL is to provide colleagues with training, support, and advice, and collaborate with them as they move towards more effectively integrating ICT into their teaching and learning (2002, P.14).  Okay, so this article dates itself with the older model computers on the front cover, but some great nuggets of advice in the write up like how to assess the needs and interest of teachers and setting personal action plans.  One other piece of advice I took from it was to start small and build on success (2002, p.23), as you can start to feel overwhelmed with so much one is trying to do! 
      In addition to starting small, I think it is important to work at the comfort level of each colleague.  Edutopia has some good ideas on how I can work with teachers with the tools they have or are willing to use.  For example if you only have one computer in a room, I can offer a bite size option such as: starting a collaborative blog, curate resources, build a google site to house class content, or record screencasts for providing onscreen instruction.  
retrieved from:
http://500hats.edublogs.org/
Finally, we have revived our TL LSA and this means we have the opportunity to share with each other, but also a chance to start a TL mentor ship program to work together with newer TLs.

References
7 Reasons Why Digital Literacy is Important for Teachers. (2018). Retrieved from https://rossieronline.usc.edu/blog/teacher-digital-literacy/
(2002). Retrieved from https://www2.gov.bc.ca/assets/gov/education/kindergarten-to-grade-12/teach/pdfs/curriculum/appliedskills/mentors.pdf
Braxton, B. (2018). 500 Hats | 500 Hats. Retrieved from http://500hats.edublogs.org/500-hats/
Crosland, A. (2018). Anna Crosland (@crosland_a) on Twitter. Retrieved from https://twitter.com/crosland_a
How to Integrate Technology | Edutopia. (2018). Retrieved from https://www.edutopia.org/technology-integration-guide-implementation

Saturday, October 13, 2018

Here's My Scoop


       I have been taking library courses at UBC one at a time over the past 4 years; all the while I have been in the same school library.  This has worked out well for my own personal learning, as inspiring ideas and changes get implemented as I learn about them.  It isn’t just the actual learning in the courses, but some ideas presented in them that have become part of my practice and some ideas have become springboards for the exploration of new learning. It helps being new as a TL, as the learning curve is steep and quick and you can’t help but start to network and learn!  Also, it helps that the TL position itself is changing from that old school “shushing” librarian.

Retrieved from:
https://www.pinterest.ca/suziholler/shhh/?lp=true

One way I started supporting my own learning since becoming a TL is through collaboration with colleagues.  Every different teacher I work with results in a change in my personal learning.  I am slowly gaining the collaboration confidence of more and more teachers on my staff as time goes by and plan to have this continue for myself, fellow staff, and our learning community.  I may have mentioned previously that I am part of a TL inquiry group that began when we were all taking courses to become librarians.  We naturally were drawn together because of our coursework, but were able to make library plans and make change through the acquisition of an inquiry grant through our school district.  We started on a journey to change our libraries to library learning commons.  This small group of four (Others are joining us this year.  We are year 3 – yippee!) have all made great progress in our own libraries, with ourselves, have started a TL LSA, and advocated at the board level for TLs.  Our vision evolves as we implement changes.  We have new goals for this year plus long term visions and are happy to be making connections with neighbouring districts and with fellow TLs (our LSA coming alive has helped with this) within our district, which has proven to be great networking.
      There are a couple of areas I hope to improve on which will help my personal learning.  First, I have started working at ways to efficiently curate resources both for my use, fellow colleague use, and student use.  It gets overwhelming with the plethora of ideas and resources out there and to keep on top of it all in an organized way will help me use them more and be able to share them out.  I started using Scoop.it! ,
Retrieved from:https://www.scoop.it/media-kit
but I admit I have neglected it.  With my goal of having my whole school doing an inquiry project on one topic, I hope to get my Scoop.it active again.  Another area deserving some attention for me is my school library website.  I want it to be a way to share out student learning.  I think it will help connect me to my learning community, from parents to students. 
Although the sharing of successful teaching experiences does not automatically guarantee effective learning and teaching, it helps to develop a knowledge base for teaching that is more applicable to real educational settings (So, Pow, and Hung, 2009, p. 775).  Ideally in my perfect world with spare time my teaching blog could be linked from the library page and yes…gasp…maybe even an active twitter account!  Yang (p.11, 2009) speaks of how blogs allow people to exchange information without space and time constraints, to broaden their knowledge, and to meet personal needs and interests at the same time.  A more interactive website is a win-win for everyone.  One day my curated resources will be linked to the page, in addition other social network options would be good links to add.  I have a couple of people in the district which would be good support for web design and the site has potential to keep me growing in my own learning and definitely is a way to share out! 





References
Scoop.it - Content Curation Tool | Scoop.it. (2018). Retrieved from https://www.scoop.it/
So, W.W.m., Pow, J.W.c. & Hung, V.H.k. (2009). The Interactive Use of a Video Database in Teacher Education: Creating a Knowledge Base for Teaching through a Learning Community. Computers & Education, 53(3), 775-786.

Yang, S.-H. (2009). Using blogs to enhance critical reflection and community of practice. Educational Technology & Society, 12(2), 11-21.