GIFSL* 58: Enchantment and your school library

@brainpicker on Twitter, and the associated blog Brain Pickings, provide a constant supply of inspiration and ideas on a huge range of topics.  Not narrowcast "teacher librarian-focused stuff", but all sorts of things from left field and out there and what about?, and hey, here's something to think about.  I love foraging among the wider world to bring back good things to inform my teaching (eg. this blog! - see the intro reference to a flypaper mind).

Take this infographic from a recently published business book, Enchantment: the art of changing hearts, minds and actions, by Guy Kawasaki.  Not something I've tripped over in education circles, but a great lens to use in thinking about our business as teacher librarians, promoting our libraries and their services.

Read the whole blog entry on Brain Pickings here, including links to an enchantment aptitude test, an interview with the author, and more. 

As school library staffing is being challenged, our work as teacher librarians evaluated, the ill-informed happy to spout that 'it's all on the internet now' and so forth, this infographic is, to me, valuable professional reflection for considering what I do and why and how, and how I can do it better.

Cheers

Ruth

*GIFSL: good ideas for school libraries

Parent-Teacher Night: reflections, and 10 questions for your child's teacher

We've just had a parent-teacher night here.  I make a point of attending, as a member of the teaching staff.  I may not, in advance, have many (or any) appointments with parents - kids tend to make them with their class teachers.  But I'm not lonely.  A number of parents stop by to say hello - I was year adviser to one of their older children, or am mentor to one of their senior students now, so I hear how the older ones are going, talk about the ones still at school.  Some I'm able to help find other staff members (the kids may know what each of their teachers looks like, but parents need the name tags on the tables). 

And my colleagues see me there, part of the teaching staff, spending my afternoon and evening at school the same as they are.  Good library PR.  A couple of them refer parents to me, or include me in a discussion.  The principal knows I choose to attend; a couple of times he's brought parents to meet me who may have asked about or been appreciative of the library.  As I said, good library PR.  I also have home-made muffins and make a cuppa for the teachers in the faculty to which I belong - they're deep in interview after interview, and I can escape for a few minutes to make a cuppa and bring it to them at their desks.

I've had some teacher librarian colleagues rubbish the idea of attending parent-teacher night, for various reasons.  Me, I know it's my time, I know I probably don't HAVE to be there, but I choose to be there and am happy to demonstrate my professional commitment.  I've had a couple of colleagues ask, bewildered, why are you here?  But they know I am, and will be.  It's my choice, as a teacher.

Years ago I got one of the best bits of advice about parent-teacher night from an English teacher (who I now can recognise was one of my most important mentors in teaching): the parents want to hear something positive about their kids - whoever their kid may be.  It works for me.  It doesn't mean you can't get down to brass tacks when there are problems that need addressing, but it's a useful mindset for a productive, appreciated discussion.

Darcy Moore's excellent blog has a brilliant entry on ten questions he wishes parents would ask him:

How would your child’s teachers fare if asked these questions:


1. What is your educational philosophy?

2. How are you assisting our child to become a self-directed learner?

3. What professional reading are you undertaking at the moment?

4. What are you reading for fun?


5. How do you use technology as a tool to leverage learning in the classroom?

6. What online resources have you created for your class?

7. How do you assist students to learn about digital citizenship?

8. What professional networks and associations are you involved with regularly?


9. What observations can you offer about our child’s happiness at school?

10. What reflections can you make about our child’s growth as a learner and citizen this year?

Useful for one's own reflection/professional development.  Do read the full blog entry and comments (it's a blog worth following, as are his Tweets).
 
Cheers
 
Ruth

PLN: Building your personal learning network presentation

WeSSSTA has invited me to present at their annual inservice at Penrith in August.  I'll be doing a revised/tweaked/personalised version of my presentation about Personal Learning Networks.  Maybe I'll see some of your Social Science colleagues there? - tell them to say hello!  I've attended these over the past few years (at school I report to the SS head teacher, and attend SS faculty meetings), and it will be fun to present.  Good to revisit the presentation, which I put together for the staff here in term two, and see how I can improve/develop it, based on how it went and what I've learned in the intervening time.  Always room for improvement!

Cheers

Ruth

A vision of 21st century teachers

YouTube URL for this video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B4g5M06YyVw

One for staff meetings/professional development?

Found via Lowden Clear blog.

Cheers

Ruth

GIFSL* 51: take photos (with an added bonus: Skerricks: all singing, all dancing live version!)

(Actually, I lie.  No singing, no dancing.)  But it's lovely to have received some invitations to speak at teacher librarian meetings and conferences about re-imagining/enhancing/sprucing your school library.  So if you're going to the Sydney TL conference in Leichhardt in March, the Northern Sydney TL conference in Terrey Hills in March or MANTLE (website will show the 2010 program soon) in Newcastle in May, it will be lovely to meet you.

One of those looked like it might have to be done using the Connected Classrooms videoconferencing and Bridgit, so I would have been at my own school but beamed on a telly with my presentation on a whiteboard at the meeting venue.  Circumstances altered and I'll be able to attend in person, but I'm thinking I'd like to add being able to do that to my skillset.  Always good to learn something new!

I spoke at two conferences last year,  ASLA (NSW) and Western Sydney TL - they were fairly close together in time, so I didn't tweak my presentation enormously between the two (although I did tweak it - there's always something to make better/more effective). It was great to get the positive feedback and know my contribution had been useful.  This week, looking over the presentation (I don't have notes, the PowerPoint is my prompt as I find that more interesting, less 'rote' and besides, like lots of teachers, you switch me on, I talk... and I enjoy public speaking), I can see plenty of room for more tweaking/changing, even though it's only a few months down the track.  New things we've tried.  Improvements to the library.  More goodness to share!

I cannot encourage you enough to take photos of your library.  At least once a term, or more often if you change something (as we do with our foyer/entrance area).  Not only to record what you've done, but also to remind you of the evolution of your library, to see what's better than it was before.  I just wish I'd photographed my current school library when I walked into it first ten years ago, so I could have those photos to compare with how it looks now. 

One of the ways in which this blog has been really useful to me is the way in which providing illustrations for it has made me fish out my camera more often than I might otherwise have done, to catch 'before' shots as well as 'after'.  The camera's lens, and the reality of a photograph, can help see more clearly what one likes and what one would like to change/improve/develop. I've only got to look at the renovation of the library entrance (several entries from May 2009 on the blog illustrate this - use the archives over on the right) for just one example.

Other ways to use photographs (hurrah for the digital camera) include our framed row of student readers and (which used some of those photos again, as well as others taken at lunchtimes etc) our Christmas tree.

Cheers

Ruth


*GIFSL: good ideas for school libraries

Twilight: New Moon: posters (fan made) & musings on the teaching life

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There.  Won't your students love you for showing them this?  Libraries (and teacher librarians). Are.  Cool.

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Found it here and here.

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That sound you hear is the Twilightery hyperventilating.  And it's only May...

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Apparently these posters are fan made.  Here are a few more, from links found here.

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source

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Apart from anything else, my middle-aged mind boggles a tad at what 'fan-made' can mean with today's technology.  Maybe these are by adult Twilight fans, but maybe they're by high school age kids.  Nowadays, they could be.  Back when I was at high school, there was no way known we could have done anything of this kind.  No internet.  There was one computer at the school, I think; in a maths storeroom.  I gave up 'computer studies' in Year 11 because all it seemed to be about was binary code, and that palled very quickly for me.. The only source of current pictures to even attempt something like this would have been magazines.  I don't remember any colour photocopiers.  Lettering was something you did by hand, using the guidance of a lettering book or copying something you'd seen printed; or else using a sheet of rub-on transfers that you'd bought.  Photography involved film (and finishing the film), and developing, and enlargements weren't an especially cheap prospect.

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And yet, here's part of the challenge: now, we as teachers, who maybe are old enough to remember those days in the seventies, have the challenge and responsibility of teaching kids using technology they've been familiar with 'as long as they remember' and which we come to differently.  It's part the way our role is changing - if my teachers at school were experts, we now cannot in the same way be experts, for so many reasons.  Not in the same way, but that doesn't mean we aren't necessary, or important, or that we teachers don't still bring to the classroom things which our students do or cannot know. 

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All of us in the classroom today, have much to learn.  We are all learners, lifelong learners.  When I was at teachers' college (some young teacher colleagues spontaneously grinned the other day when I instantly dated myself by referring to 'teachers' college') Education Technology for my GradDipEd meant slide projectors, film projectors, film cameras, fordigraphs. (I think those colleagues may have been in their infancy when I was mastering Education Technology at teachers' college...).  And now I blog, and you read, and the world changes, all the time.

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And those posters will still make the Twilightery swoon, just as their equivalent did back then.  The more things change - the more some things stay the same!

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Cheers, Ruth.

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PS.  Another bonbon: here's a recent interview with Robert Pattinson from The Guardian.

A Librarian's 2.0 Manifesto

Learned about this through oztl.

If the above video doesn't play, here's the page's URL:

http://www.teachertube.com/view_video.php?viewkey=5ff637e7984152a3531d

And the date on Laura Cohen's manifesto?  2006.  It's a journey...

If you'd like the words alone, here's her original blog post.

And for an analysis/critical perspective on this, see what Annoyed Librarian had to say in response.   And the comments left about this blog post.

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I Love My Librarian 2008

Well, I could if I was in the US.  ilovelibraries.org has annual awards for public, tertiary and school librarians. 

To quote from the site:

Librarians in our nation’s 123,000 libraries make a difference in the lives of millions of Americans every day. Now is your chance to tell us why we should shine the spotlight on a librarian at your public, school, college, community college or university library. Nominate your librarian for the Carnegie Corporation of New York/New York Times I Love My Librarian Award!

Up to ten librarians will be honored. Each will receive $5,000 and be recognized at an awards ceremony hosted by The New York Times at TheTimesCenter in December 2008.

Just out of interest, these are the questions asked of those nominating a school library media specialist aka teacher librarian:

Reasons for Nominating this Librarian

• How did you come to know the nominee and how long have you known him or her?
• How has the nominee helped you and/or students at school? For example, did the nominee help you with a project, recommend resources or collaborate with you to enhance student learning?
• How has the library, and the nominee in particular, had an impact on students and the learning process?
• How does the nominee make the school a better place? Please be specific.
• How has the individual demonstrated leadership in the school community or the profession?

It's a useful exercise to self-evaluate on these criteria.  What answers can one give about oneself?

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Accreditation: Accomplishment/Leadership (NSW Institute of Teachers)

From the NSW Institute of Teachers:

Accreditation processes at the higher levels of Professional Accomplishment and Professional Leadership are now available. Accreditation at these levels is voluntary and will recognise the talents and expertise of outstanding teachers in all NSW schools.

A quote from the Evidence Guide for Professional Accomplishment:

Teachers working at Professional Accomplishment are:

• recognised by their peers and colleagues as outstanding practitioners across all aspects of classroom practice and associated professional activities
• able to maximise the learning of their students, and assist peers and colleagues to do likewise, using their outstanding depth of knowledge and highly effective teaching skills as described in the Standards
• able to use, and support peers and colleagues to use, consistently effective and varied teaching activities to elicit high levels of student engagement
• able to provide support and advice for colleagues as a result of the oustanding quality of their teaching practice and through their contribution to the school and educational community
• active in helping to establish the porfessional environment which maximises the professional practice opportunities of colleagues and learning of students

Read a Canberra Times article about this here.

Read more at the NSW Institute of Teachers site here.

EdPod on ABC radio/podcast

If you're after a regular 25 min podcast focusing on educational matters, EdPod may be just what you want.

To quote from the ABC website:

EdPod presents a mix of education stories from early childhood to the end of secondary school.It's a jargon-free look at the experience of educators, researchers, parents and students. EdPod examines new education ideas, and asks whether things could or should be done differently.From the classroom to the staff room and on to the home, EdPod brings you the latest ideas about learning.

POD: http://abc.net.au/rn/podcast/feeds/edp.xml

TED Tuesday: Redefining the dictionary.

From the TED resource of online talks, Erin McKean talks about the paper dictionary in the internet age.



To quote from the TED website:

Is the beloved paper dictionary doomed to extinction? When does a made-up word become real? And could you use "synecdochical" in a sentence, please? In this infectiously exuberant talk, leading lexicographer Erin McKean looks at the many ways in which today's print dictionary is poised for transformation in this internet era.

Pay Attention

I'm doing some presentations at staff meetings this term, about technology and internet resources, and came across this. And said to myself, why are you spending hours putting together presentations, when someone's already done one like this? I'll still do some myself, but it was an object lesson to remember to use available resources too, not try to reinvent the wheel. Oddly enough, sorta kinda one of the points I want to make to my colleagues. Ahem.

This is a great piece from TeacherTube.



The website it sends you to at the end includes some very useful links pages to things like technology integration and online teacher tools. The site is from the Jordan School District in the US.

url for video above, if it doesn't show up for you:
http://www.teachertube.com/view_video.php?viewkey=40c570a322f1b0b65909&page=1&viewtype=&category=

TED Tuesday: From 1984, four predictions about the future

From the TED resource of online talks, one from 1984, in which Nicholas Negroponte discusses convergence in technology.



To quote from the TED website:

Speaking at the first TED Conference in 1984, Nicholas Negroponte waxes prophetic on the converging fields of technology, entertainment and design. Years before anyone was using the word "convergence," Negroponte was thinking about TV screens as the "electronic books of the future" and computers as the future of education. In excerpts from his 2-hour talk (this was before TED's 18-minute time limit), he foreshadowed CD-ROMs, web interfaces, service kiosks, the touchscreen interface of the iPhone, and his own One Laptop per Child project. Oh, and there's also a fascinating project called Lip Service, which, well, let's just say it's still ahead of us ...

TED Tuesday: 18 minutes with an agile mind

From the TED resource of online talks: Clifford Stoll, 18 minutes with an agile mind.




To quote from the TED description:

Clifford Stoll could talk about the atmosphere of Jupiter. Or hunting KGB hackers. Or Klein bottles, computers in classrooms, the future. But he's not going to. Which is fine, because it would be criminal to confine a man with interests as multifarious as Stoll's to give a talk on any one topic. Instead, he simply captivates his audience with a wildly energetic sprinkling of anecdotes, observations, asides -- and even a science experiment. After all, by his own definition, he's a scientist: "Once I do something, I want to do something else."

Technology, Entertainment, Design: resource of online talks

Sourced from Ali Edwards' blog (her entry is here), I found Technology, Entertainment, Design.
To quote from the TED site:

TED stands for Technology, Entertainment, Design.

It started out (in 1984) as a conference bringing together people from those three worlds. Since then its scope has become ever broader.

The annual conference now brings together the world's most fascinating thinkers and doers, who are challenged to give the talk of their lives (in 18 minutes).

This site makes the best talks and performances from TED available to the public, for free.

Click here to go to the TED site and explore an extraordinary range of talks to see and hear, online. For example: Sir Ken Robinson on "Do schools kill creativity?"



which is part of the theme How We Learn.

It's the kind of place where individual teachers should explore to see what they can find for their subject areas and interests. The A-Z list of themes (each theme has a number of talks) is a good place to start.

Each Tuesday on this blog, I'll highlight a different talk from this amazingly rich resource. They'll all be labelled with the tag TED, so you can look at them at a group if you wish.