Library Land

I love reading and am always surprised to meet child or adult who doesn't. This is my second year at my current school and there is a ways to go in cultivating a reading culture. Students read, but not all are given daily time, nor is there a school-wide initiative. I have thought about boosting circulation and passion for reading since I began in the library. Last year I created a wall in the Learning Commons of all the staff with pictures of their favourite books, to illustrate and remind everyone that reading is for everybody! I am continuing with this tradition, changing it up as staff and year shift. Along with this staff initiative, I created and handed out the "Yostie Award" to my staff member, Mrs. Yost, who had the highest circulation number for the year. I continue to encourage others to usurp her numbers, but she is in the lead again this year. (Trying to stir up a little healthy competition).   In my private life, I belong to a once-monthly book clu...

I am excited to take my Teacher-Librarianship further down the path of Media Specialist. Next year at my school, I will have increased time with classes to pursue technology in bigger projects and concepts. I want to spur their interests and passions, focusing on inquiry and research. I am in the beginning stages of exploring  Genius Hour . A colleague has taken her class through the first stages of Genius Hour and the results are amazing. The students are so pumped to do research, build their project and share it with others. I am hoping I can implement some of this theory with my classes in the upcoming year. I hope these projects can create lasting knowledge and excitement about learning. One of my favourite online sources for media advice, scrutiny and information is Common Sense Media.  https://www.commonsense.org/education/digital-citizenship   There is so much to explore! They host a plethora of resources, reviews and lesson plans for teachers, parents ...

As a new teacher-librarian there are so many topics and opportunities I can pursue in the near future. B.C.'s new curriculum, which focuses on indigenous learning models and content is one of those exciting topics. For my small elementary school, I feel like we have a solid beginning of indigenous books and materials. Part of my job this year has been to organize the collection to become more easily accessible for teachers to utilize in their classrooms. I strive to display and emphasize our healthy and varied collection. The topic gaps that I see in my indigenous library collection are the lack of local information and resources. We could use more books about local landforms, plants, animals and traditional peoples. I have far more books about the Inuit people than I do about the Coast Salish. Thankfully, I  am fortunate enough to live in a community with a indigenous publishing house and retail store that includes some of the finest resources in Canada. The publisher, Stro...

Finishing up with another course, learning the ins and outs of Librarianship, absorbing the vast charts, graphs and lists that itemize my responsibilities and duties as a teacher-librarian, I find myself overwhelmed, and inspired! I know that I will continue learning for the duration of my career. The possibilities of improving the Learning Commons from its current state and possibly elevating it, not only to acceptable standards according to the AIL, but perhaps even meeting some exceptional standards is something to be excited and optimistic about. My biggest hurdle is to figure out a way to become more motivated, and less despondent about the current state of my Learning Commons funding. It seems that this will be an eternal struggle, books and literacy always seem to take a back seat to the current educational trend of the day. I'm going to have to learn how to be creative, tap resources, and educate and engage my school  community to care as much as I do. As I'm only i...

I am going to focus on the print materials of my Reference Section.The present condition of my traditional reference section is a total of thirty-five books. Our collection includes six dictionaries, a thesaurus, three atlases and the remaining books are special topic encyclopedia books. My collection reveals, that according to Reidling's General Guidelines for replacing reference materials (p.24), my entire collection is out of date. Unfortunately, my library budget for this school year is zero dollars from the school. This constraint makes it exceptionally hard for me to tackle the issue of replacing materials. According to my school district's Teacher Librarian Job Description and Responsibilities , #4 states, "Ensure that the school library collections are organized, maintained, and made available to staff and students, with the assistance of the library Clerks, according to acceptable standards." The acceptable standards according to AIL standards for ...

SOMETIMES IT TAKES A GOOD FAIL TO KNOW WHERE YOU STAND I was very excited about this opportunity because I had the chance to work with a colleague that I had not taught or collaborated with yet. He is known as an old-school teacher who is slowly, but surely, coming around to digital technology. Most of his lessons make use of the whiteboard, worksheets, textbooks and overhead projector. I admire his ethics, demeanor and presence in the classroom. I have much to learn from him and was excited to potentially teach him something new. I was nervous to approach and suggest this collaboration, as I was worried I might be turned down. I was fortunate that he was gracious and willing to work with me for this assignment. I wanted to ensure that I was not creating more work for him, but helping to facilitate a new approach. During our first collaborative meeting we agreed to a three week plan, with three, one hour lessons. The subject matter was something I wanted him to choose, a...

The one thing guaranteed to all of us is change. Our world is constantly in flux, shifting and moving. Nowhere is this more apparent than in our language where words morph their meaning and sprout like new buds. We see it in our borders and boundaries and our physical world as rivers rise and glaciers recede. As Teacher-Librarians we are the guides through an ongoing change in information and must do our best to keep our collections current and relevant. What strikes me as interesting is the formal and informal growth of language. Even dictionaries vary in their viewpoint. "Most of the Merriam-Webster dictionaries take the stance that 'almost anything goes' as long as it is popular." (p.62, Reidling) According to merriam-webster.com, the 2017 dictionary added over 1,000 new words, including fast fashion and woo woo... Definition of fast fashion : an approach to the design, creation, and marketing of clothing fashions that emphasizes making fashion tr...