Reading Review Blog Post #3

Learning Commons exploration

One of the places I looked at for information on Learning Commons was T.E. Scott's webpage. http://tescott.org/category/t-e-scott-learns/ I found this website relevant to my topic as it is an example of a learning commons from a school in the district in which I work. There wasn't a lot of information detailing the before and after transformation, but I liked the collection of images from the finished learning commons, the humorous video of teachers taking on new technology and get rid of the old, and the fact that it is a local example for me.

Learning Commons at T.E. Scott Elementary. Image courtesy of T.E. Scott Elementary.

The other two sources of information for learning commons I found were from http://www.coyotecreeklibrary.blogspot.ca and 
http://commonsconnections.edublogs.org. I found coyotecreek blogspot helpful in that the presentation of the blog was interactive and interesting and provided good ideas for making a library blog.

Image courtesy of Coyote Creek Library

The common connections blog is another local example with great ideas including grade 2's tweeting about their learning on the iPads.

Image Courtesy of Commons Connections

Most of the information I collected about Learning Commons was from School Blogs and websites. To continue my exploration of this topic, I will need to find other sources of information about learning commons besides school blogs for variety. 

Why empowering public libraries with technology is so important

Library Projects in Developing Nations with Mobile Devices

Rural Kenya. Image Courtesy of Bill and Melinda Gates foundation- Global Libraries

According to Rebecca McDonald, who is CEO of Library for All: A digital library for the developing world, https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1692978335/library-for-all-a-digital-library-for-the-developi in developing countries such as Haiti, a school of several hundred students may only have about 30 library books. These books are so precious that they are often locked up and unavailable for students to take home. Rebecca has started the organization Library for All to help those living in poverty to have access to ebooks and other digital devices. She and her husband moved to Haiti after the the earthquake to help rebuild and realized that providing paper copy books was unsustainable and the information may be out of date. By providing the schools in Haiti with ebooks, laptops and digital resources needed to connect online, students are given access to thousands of books and learning opportunities, which they previously hadn't had. Also in the past, the books received in developing countries for libraries may have been books weeded out in developed countries because of their out of date information etc. By having access to ebooks the children have equal access to current books and current information as children in developed countries. The organization relies on support from individuals and companies to fund the project. The pilot school for the project is in Respire Haiti. One of the types of technology that they are using there is a lowcost tablet that retails at $40 called a Aakash tablet.

A grade 4 student in pilot school  in Respire, Haiti using a low-cost Aakash tablet.
Image courtesy of Rebecca McDonald, Library for all

Mobile devices in developing countries such as Haiti, provide more democratic access to information as for the first time, it provides people in poverty with equal access to information as people in developed countries have which will enable them to learn new skills and have more control over their future.

Another organization that is really helping to enable developing countries to have access to digital books and digital resources in The Bill and Melinda Gates foundation-Global Libraries.http://www.gatesfoundation.org/What-We-Do/Global-Development/Global-Libraries The philosophy behind this organization is based on the premise that by providing people in poverty access to information and knowledge it provides a more sense of equality worldwide in opportunity. Farmers can access information on crops and learn ways to produce bigger crop yields. This bee farmer in the video clip substantially increased his honey production after learning about new varieties of bees in farming on the internet.

                    

Mothers can access health information in public libraries like this women in northern Ghana. She received a weekly text message providing her with information on prenatal development.

Public Library in Northern Ghana. Image Courtesy of  Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.

According to the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, there are approximately 230,000 public libraries in developing countries. Public Libraries are becoming information centres in rural developing countries. A program called EIFL-PLIP which stands for Electronic Information for Libraries and the Public Library Innovative Programme is providing services such as prenatal information to this women in Ghana http://www.eifl.net/plip
This program focuses on connecting communities to vital information which improves their lives. This year to date the program has grown to a total of 39 services in 23 countries. The program helps provide information on agriculture, employment, health issues, helps youth. Some of the ways this organization has helped connect people to information through technology in libraries is:

• in Uganda using smart phones to combat plant pests & disease
• in Kenya using smart phones to connect farmers to markets
• in Tanzanian ICT has improved poultry farming & increased farmers income
• in Nepal traditional arts & craft workers learn new digital design skills
• in rural Mongolia blind people are able to listen to digital books that talk
• in Armenia, e-health services connects people to doctors
• in Kyrgyzstan -"No to TB" corners have been set up in 190 public libraries 

A community information center in rural Kenya. Image courtesy of Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.

Why empowering public libraries with technology is so important

Ways for a teacher-librarian to support professional development of school community

The TL Virtual Cafe Wikispaces. Image Courtesy of Jennifer Lagarde & Jennifer Northrup

Supporting Teachers' ICT Curriculum and Pedagogy: On-going Professional Development

One way teacher-librarians can have a positive effect on the school learning culture is by facilitating a series of professional development workshops on ICT Curriculum. There is a excellent website called “Literacy with ICT/ A Model for 21^st Century Learning”. 

Literacy with ICT llicenced image courtesy of Manitoba.ca education and advanced learning K-12

This website was created mainly for Manitoba teachers to blog, tweet, and share technological resources but it has some excellent professional development workshop ideas to refer to. To name a few; topics like Inquiry Learning, Digital Citizenship, Bogus Websites, Collaboration, e-Portfolios, and Evaluating Websites are some of the Mini workshop topics. To get to this site you go to http://www.edu.gov.mb.ca Once in the website you type in Literacy with ICT/ A Model for the 21st Century Learning. into the Search bar. Then go to; For Teachers, then to Professional Learning, and then click on PLE (Professional Learning Experiences). If you decided you wanted to facilitate a workshop on “Teaching students how to Evaluate Websites” the PLE for this topic provides links to acquiring information on this topic, How to apply in the classroom, and suggestions for assessment.

The Teacher Librarian licenced image courtesy of Tim Gauntley

The book that was voted “Best professional book of the year” by the Journal for School Library professionals is Growing Schools-Librarians as Professional Developers by Debbie Abilock.

Growing Schools- licenced image courtesy of Debbie Abilock

 This book provides suggestions and incite on ways a teacher-librarian can provide school leadership in technology and professional development.

http://www.teacherlibrarian.com/2013/04/17/best-professional-books-of-the -year/book/

Another way to meet the professional development needs of the teachers within the school might be to offer a monthly Breakfast BookClub meeting to talk and discuss latest articles in professional journals relating to hot issues (similar to a book club). The teacher-librarian could post the articles and links to the teacher professional magazines or articles on a blog so that teachers could read the articles online prior to the monthly breakfast book club meeting. This would be a way for teachers and the teacher librarian to learn new things and discuss current topics in the headlines. The teacher-librarian could provide muffins and coffee and it would be a way to bring teachers into the library to collaborate and discuss teaching ideas with technology.

 A helpful site to refer to for monthly updates on teaching with technology and teaching strategies is to go to The Teacher-Librarian  VirtualCafe.http://tlvirtualcafe.wikispaces.com 

Licenced image courtesy of the TL Virtual Cafe

This website is a great resource for teacher-librarians to become leaders in their school communities. One of the options that is available in this wikispace is a TL chat Live every 2^nd Monday of the month.

Here is a video explaining how to become a part of this live TL chat.

If the teacher-librarian had his/her own school library blog, this may also be a place to discuss and comment on current professional issues and pedagogy.

The teacher-librarian may also have a section in the School library website for staff resources, where the teacher-librarian may provide links to resources on a multitude of topics related to teacher professional development. It is also important to regularly talk to the teachers in the school to find out what they would like to learn more about or have more resources to. Communication is the first step in being a successful leader in providing useful professional resources in the school.

Inquiry Blog Post #2

Ways for teacher-librarians to connect and share learning

Being a teacher-librarian in this day and age is an exciting time. Gone are the days where the teacher-librarian is isolated from other teacher-librarians. There are so many online networking opportunities to share and learn from one another so that the modern teacher-librarian has a myriad of innovational teaching ideas at his/her fingertips.

I think one of the best places to connect and share with other teacher-librarians is at http://www.teacherlibrarian.ning.com .This website has over 7400 global members. There are twitter feeds, blogs, videos, and discussions. It provides a real sense of a learning “communing".

Another helpful place to stay in touch with digital literacy lessons and strategies is www.commonsensemedia.org/educators/curriculum .What I like about this website are the examples and videos pertaining to digital literacy. Information on everything from cyberbullying, to digital citizenship, digital media & school, internet safety & privacy and learning with technology is available under the Educators section. This is a good reference to go to when teaching students about digital literacy issues

eg. digital citizenship licenced image courtesy of Common Sense Media.

I also found this site to be very useful: www.onlinecollege.org/2012/07/10/100-best-blogs-school-librarians/ This site is appropriately named 99 Best Blogs for School-Librarians. I particularly liked #26 The Busy Librarian www.busylibrarian.com This teacher-librarian has an active blog, and seems to blog every day. The blog has pinterest, podcast, and book club information on it. It is an interesting blog and as a future teacher-librarian, following another teacher-librarians blog, such as this one, connects me with a wealth of knowledge and ideas as well as an opportunity and forum for me to share my ideas.

Image courtesy of The Busy Librarian

                                                       

Having my own blog, is an excellent way for me to interact with the global teacher-librarian community and is by far the best tool that is currently available to stay connected digitally.

Strategies, tools, resources and networks to implement and maintain my exploration and development

I think it's important as a teacher-librarian to not only connect with other teacher-librarians online but also in person as well. To do this I would be an active member of the BCTLA , www.bctf.ca/BCTLA and attend the annual general meeting and other scheduled meetings so that I could have a local human network of expertise to share with and learn from. Although online networks are great to share resources and learn from, there is nothing like the real human network of interacting and connecting with people in person.

Nationwide, the CLA, Canadian Library Association, offers more networking opportunities through an online system called Listserv,where members can share information and ideas. The CLA also provides a online magazine called Feliciter, 6 times annually. This magazine is the fist choice of library & information specialists and offers another way to stay up to date with current issues.

I would attend library conferences and workshops to further my learning. I may choose online workshops and seminars through video conferencing capabilities.

Twitter is another essential tool to use to stay connected with other teacher-librarians globally and what may be on their minds.

Pinterest is a great resource that has grown in popularity in the last year because of its ability to share visual images & ideas on what other teacher-librarians are doing. There is no need to reinvent the wheel in this day and age, so the more resources and ideas we can share digitally, the more time we have to collaborate with teachers and focus on other things.

Finally another resource that I would use to continue learning about and using technology in my teaching is www.freetech4teachers.com This site is titled Free Technology for Teachers by Richard Byrne. Richard seems to blog almost daily about videos, and topics relating to teaching with technology. This blog provides teachers with free websites and resources to use in their teaching.

Image courtesy of Free Technology for Teachers

Fostering Reading Cultures in School

How do we already foster a reading culture in schools?

D.E.A.R. (Drop Everything and Read) or USSR (Uninterrupted Super Silent Reading) is one way we've encouraged and tried to foster a love of reading in schools. Literacy centres in primary classrooms and buddy reading have also served this purpose. Home reading programs in primary classrooms where students get rewarded for reading so many books have tried to encourage reading as well as province wide events such as “Drop Everything and Reading” for 20 minutes and community programs such as “Raise a Reader” that schools have supported.

Moving forward, one tool that can be implemented in schools to help foster a reading culture is for the school to subscribe to www.razkids.com , where students have access to hundreds of ebooks online. Children can record themselves reading and take a reading comprehension quiz after if they like. There is a parents link also so parents can view which books their child has been reading and send them personal messages. My daughter loves reading books on this site which is linked to her classroom teacher.

When ever we give a child choice over their reading selection they often are more enthusiastic about what they are reading. One way to nurture and allow for a student to pursue the authors and book genres that they are interested in is to provide a school library blog with links to favourite authors websites as well as a school you tube channel with authors book trailers, and readings or performances of the books. One school that has done this well is coyotecreeklibrary.blogspot.ca This school blog has an excellent alphabetical list of authors that students can click on to get to the authors website for more information. I think providing these kinds of digital resources give students the opportunity to learn more about the books they enjoy reading and what new books may be coming out, which fosters a love of reading.