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

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

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.

Book Whispering

     I have made changes to my school library and my own practice over the past 4 years of being a TL at Coldstream Elementary and hope the changes are both meeting the needs of our school community and fostering a reading culture.  Exciting times this week, as my work order for a little redesign of my library space finally went through and our physical space is getting an uplift!  This is one step closer for our space to become a library learning commons, but I hope it is a step in the right direction to making our space more welcoming and hopefully will foster a comfortable reading space. I feel good about the state of my collection and believe it is fostering a reading culture, from the weeding of my library to the newer resources I have selected.  I make the most of my 20 minute book exchanges.  I like to throw a story in there, but also hopefully pique the interest of a student or two with a book talk.  Last year I introduced books by author, but this year I am “selling” books by genre following the strategies in the book the Book Whisperer: Awakening the Inner Reader in Every Child by Donalyn Miller. 

retrieved from:
https://www.amazon.ca/Book-Whisperer-Awakening-Inner-Reader/dp/0470372273

Check out Miller’s facebook!    So far more books are going out when introduced by genre than last year’s by author.  As I introduce books in a given genre I have created simple visual lists (book cover picture, call number) so students coming in are able to find similar books to one they liked on their own.  Something new I am trying this year is Red Cedar Book Awards to inspire reading. 

retrieved from:
https://www.redcedaraward.ca/

My generous PAC is on board and has given money to buy these books.  I am super thankful of my PAC and appreciate their support of the library and also like that it is my way of me sharing with the parent community what is new and happening in our library.  Every year we do our own version of a battle of the books, called Gypsy Breath and Longstockings.  Battle of the Books is great for those few gung ho readers who are capable of reading 10 books, but Gypsy Breath involves lots of readers of different abilities plus staff and parents.  Teams are created of grades 3-7, at least one book is to be read, and it concludes with a trivia evening event with 100 readers and their families dressed in costume with food galore and book prizes.  This gets lots of kids involved reading, but also involves their families.  New this year for Gypsy Breath we are making one book per grade be online.  We are bringing in our public librarian prior to our book title release and inviting students to get and use a library card.  They can access this one title by using Libby available through our public library. 

     One thing I am struggling with is not being able to have open hours during the day to create a welcoming, open door atmosphere.  We have teachers on staff that do not want students in before the day begins and certainly not at lunch when they ‘need’ fresh air.  I have been working at ways to be considerate of the teachers’ needs, but inclusive of students and try for open hours.  I would love to have library leaders in at lunch and mornings to help fellow students find books, but again I have hit a roadblock.  I snuck in a few virtual field trips at lunch hours, like talking with an author, so that was a start last year at getting some events into our space and a way to inspire students to read.   I went google searching for ways to involve students as leaders in libraries and I came across a New Zealand library website with tidbits of ideas on how peers can be influential with reading.  Another little challenge I have is different from class to class.  Some teachers religiously bring their class to the library, allow me time with them to talk books, and their classes take out a variety of books with the teacher insisting they all have books out.  Then some teachers only send a few kids if they ‘need’ a book, but then I miss my change to encourage the reluctant ones to get a book.  Some teachers let students pick anything and out walks a student with the same 3 graphic novels week after week.  Right?  Or wrong?  I am not sure.  I found this One Education read that presents ideas such teachers needed to show children how to pick books. One wee goal I have wanted to try is to have a human library (every person has a story to tell), but I have not pushed past the roadblocks in the form of colleagues, time, money. 

retrieved from:
 http://www.accessola.org/web/OLA/Membership/Human_Library_Toolkit.aspx

This is on my to do list and one thing I hope to have work out this year.  Trying to get EVERY teacher to collaborate with me is an ongoing battle, but one where I think students would see the value we all place on learning, working together, and thus a positive school culture overall.  One last item I am investigating and merely at the contemplating stage is whether or not to set up my library like a book store model or not.  I am dabbling a bit with it this year by presenting books in genres.  I just feel like students come in and ask for fantasy books or mystery ones, and not as much by author.  Certainly my primaries ask for princess stories or puppy stories.  So perhaps the book store model would be more user friendly with the browse around effect?  Fialkoff (2009), Fister (2009), and BISAC (Book Industry Standards  and Communications) give some perspective on the Dewey or don't we" debate.  Lots out there about the dropping of Dewey!

References

A school-wide reading culture. (2018). Retrieved from https://natlib.govt.nz/schools/reading-engagement/understanding-reading-engagement/a-school-wide-reading-culture

BISAC Subject Codes - Book Industry Study Group. (2018). Retrieved from https://bisg.org/page/BISACSubjectCodes

Dewey vs Bookstore Model in the School Library. (2018). Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L4pHfAAm0F4

Education, O. (2018). How to create the perfect reading environment in school. Retrieved from https://www.oneeducation.co.uk/one-editorial/literacy/the-reading-environment/

Fialkoff, F. (2009). It’s Not About Dewey. Library Journal, 134(18), 8. Retrieved from http://ezproxy.library.ubc.ca/login?url=http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=eue&AN=502989667&site=ehost-live&scope=site

Fister, B. (2009). The Dewey Dilemma. Library Journal, 134(16), 22–25. Retrieved from http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=tfh&AN=44468055&site=ehost-live

Miller, D. (2014). Book Whisperer, The. Chichester: John Wiley and Sons Ltd.

Miller, D. (2018). The Book Whisperer. Retrieved from https://www.facebook.com/donalynbooks

Red Cedar Book Awards | B.C.'s Young Readers' Choice Awards 2017/2018. (2018). Retrieved from https://www.redcedaraward.ca