Month: April 2015

ALIA Schools National Online Forum

Leave a comment

Yesterday was the first day of the ALIA Schools National Online Forum – School Library Resource Centre guidelines – an 8 day exploration of this document which was jointly produced by ALIA Schools and the Victorian Catholic Teacher Librarians (VCTL).

Stephens Library view over tuckshop

View from teaching area out over the steps to the roof of the tuckshop

I had seen the announcement of this online forum over the weekend, and had the blog bookmarked ready to start, when on Monday afternoon it was announced that a long-awaited and much-needed extension to our Junior School would begin in September this year, including the extension of my Library by several metres and a tuckshop roof!

I began working here in April 2008, and it quickly became apparent to me that the combination of layout, fixed cabinetry, immobile shelving, and insufficient space was limiting students’, teachers’ and classes’ use of theLibrary. By swapping the location of fiction and non-fiction collections I was able to improve some aspects, but limitations of space and built-in bookshelves could not be changed.

Now with an extension to the Library happening, I have a very clear timeframe for looking at all the aspects of the Library, from physical space to books on shelves to virtual collection to types of services offered to ways we communicate with and engage with the school community.

Today’s questions were:

  • Why should schools take the time to complete this document?
  • Could this document be useful in conducting a review of your library?

My answers were:

A1) I think that school libraries should be continually reflecting on their services in order to know which direction to take – keep going straight ahead or make a turn in a different direction? This document is a useful tool to guide that reflective process as it has already laid out a logical structure and itemised things to consider during the review.
I also think that the specifically Library-designed questions are more helpful than using a more general tool such as a SWOT analysis.

A2) This kind of review document is definitely going to be helpful in conducting a review of my Library! I think that this online forum, combined with the immediate plans to refurbish our junior/middle school library, are a match made in heaven – now I don’t have to wonder where to start, I’ll just grab a section and get going.

So, taking the plunge – I would like to use the SLRC guidelines for self-reflection and evaluation over the course of the next 3 terms to form the basis of a report on the state of my Library and future plans.

 

Improving the way we praise

Leave a comment

“Sweet words are like honey, a little may refresh, but too much gluts the stomach.” Anne Bradstreet

I stumbled across this article about giving the kind of praise that promotes healthy self-esteem rather than narcissistic views of self and abilities. That click led to some other articles on the same topic, looking at Praise vs Feedback, Praise for Girls, and another referencing the excellent Verizon video showing how conservative views of what girls should and shouldn’t do can deter them from tackling things like science and engineering.

I work in a boys’ school, so in my professional life the girl-focussed articles are less directly relevant, but the core message is still important: we must take care to show children with our words and actions that we value their efforts.

Things I am taking from this reading on a dreary Friday afternoon:

  • from the work of Carol Dweck: praise the process eg “I can see that you have worked really hard to write this story/ improve your piano playing/ latest achievement of any kind”
  • give the child your time and undivided attention: it proves that you value their actions (this is pretty hard in a class of 25 students when at least 5 of them are asking for help at any given moment)
  • superficiality and throw-away comments do more harm than good

More than anything else this feels like something that has to be an attitudinal shift for teachers (and parents), because it requires real effort to slow down and focus on one thing long enough to find that meaningful connection. In some areas that comes more easily than others – in conversations with my students about books they have enjoyed, it is easy to relax into a discussion about likes and interests, not least because that is likely to be a one-on-one or small group discussion. Finding times within a frantically busy lesson to pause beside someone and let them know that you saw their thinking and correction of their own spelling mistakes (for instance) is a lot harder.

And this weekend I will be listening to the way I talk to my daughters and son, looking for ways to give them the kind of feedback that shows I value them as young people who are growing into confident, capable individuals whom I will support in whatever direction they choose to travel.

‘Twas the night before Term 2, and all through my brain…

Leave a comment
http://pixabay.com/en/neon-glow-glowing-light-design-660989/

beautiful chaos via Pixabay CC0

I’m juggling the chaos, I hope not in vain:

Coming back into the fold

Leave a comment

I wanted some ideas this week about effective, valuable ways to use ipads in K-2 classes, because I am part of the team working on how we will be making good use of these devices when they arrive in classes later this year. For me it always boils down to the practicalities of how something will work in the classroom – I read a lot of philosophical and erudite discussion of enhancing pedagogy and moving through the stages of the SAMR model of technology adoption and integration etc, etc, etc, but when it comes down to helping teachers on the ground, I want to hear what is working for other people in similar situations.

Enter the PLN. I hopped on Twitter on Tuesday night (I am only a sporadic, purpose-driven user) and put the question out there, pinged a few people with direct tweets, and then spent the next little while marvelling at the wonderful suggestions I received.



Since then I’ve added 3 more apps, 2 more people, 2 more blogs, and several articles – oh and a very kind email list of schools to check out!

This is proving to me yet again that social media can connect us to people with the knowledge we need, if you build those networks purposefully. I found that my Twitter network grows most rapidly, and more richly, when I actively seek out people who tweet insights during conference streams. I want to connect with people who have lively, curious minds, who seek out new ideas and information and are so thrilled with what they find that they just want to share their excitement! I want to read about brave new projects, and about what goes wrong, and how they tried to fix it. Fortunately for me, I have just enough people in my PLN now that I can ask a few questions and get some helpful answers back in a reasonable timeframe, and with far less effort than trawling through endless search results in the-major-search-engine-of-your-choice. I guess it comes back to that sense of knowledge being curated information; a search engine can return data, but for a query about how to use ipads effectively in an early childhood setting, the personal responses from experienced educators are exponentially more valuable.

And speaking of gems found in the Twitter feed, just this evening I followed a tweet from @SJBetteridge to discover (on Free Tech 4 Teachers, a fabulous blog!) this lovely little homage to Libraries and Librarians in the Internet Age, by Common Craft:

 

And to get back to the point about PLNs and Twitter being awesome, this week a retweeted link led me to a post on Langwitches by Silvia Rosenthal Tolisano about Unpacking a Twitter Conference Feed – this is amazingly helpful for anyone who is new to the whole thing!