I've had another lapse in blogging, not that things have been particularly quiet - in particular I managed to mis-step on some stairs in the center of Beijing in early April, thereby managing to fracture both my posterior and anterior malleolus (i.e ankle) resulting in my first ever ambulance ride and some pretty nifty ankle … Continue reading May – Presentation & Panel Month
Our G6 Language & Literature classes have just started a unit on "Unlikely Heroes" and I must admit I've been having an amazing time finding some fantastic new biographies and memoirs to entice them into reading this genre and keeping an interest in the lives of people who may not always make the headlines, or … Continue reading Unlikely new nonfiction
I was prompted to think about this again with the publication of the White Ravens 2019 list at the Frankfurt Book Fair. The issue of increasing diversity in an international school setting is a complex one, and something I've written about at length in the past. There's the linguistic diversity bit - collections of books … Continue reading Enough windows – where are the mirrors?
One regularly hears phrases bandied around schools such as "Every teacher is a language teacher"; or "Every class should start with 10 minutes of reading" and you'd be hard pressed to find a teacher who doesn't agree in theory, that reading is a good thing. But then there is the "reality" of supposed too little … Continue reading Content plus
This week's blog post will be very brief as a function of my extreme exhaustion - just been up and down to Bangalore for the Neev Literature Festival 2019. Beijing-Bangalore is not a commute I'd recommend to anyone who prizes their sleep or sanity but WOW what an intense 2 days it was. The theme … Continue reading Why awards?
One of my most popular blog posts was "Advocacy is not enough we need power" and I still stand by that. Ironically enough in my new role I am teacher librarian slash Edtech integrator, and I like to joke with my colleagues who need anything from data to access to fixing an issue to equipment … Continue reading Does Activism require Power?
Every year around this time, some parent will ask the teacher or myself what their child should be reading. The "correct" response to this question is that we don't make reading lists of prescribed or recommended books but prefer students to come and have a chat to us about what they like reading, what hobbies … Continue reading Why lists and awards matter
I'm busy preparing for next week's library lessons. G5 has one of my favourite units in "How We Express Ourselves" People create messages to target specific audiences Ostensibly it's about advertising, as the lines of inquiry indicate, 1. Advertising techniques can be used to influence society (Perspective) 2. Critically evaluating messages presented in the media … Continue reading #NotOurDiversity
(Usual disclaimers - does not reflect the position at my current school but a comment on librarianship as a whole etc. etc.) I've been prompted to think about the library / librarian as part of an ecosystem (as opposed to the library ecosystem itself, * an important distinction) a lot recently as a result of … Continue reading Species at risk
The whole diversity thing bothers me. Has for some time. We seem to love the optics of diversity, but not so much the reality. And so we mete out our diversity in acceptable chunks at acceptable moments. And in doing so we can fool ourselves - most of the time. We also mete out our … Continue reading Meting out diversity
Informative Flights - Musings of a Teacher Librarian 