I had lunch with an old friend of mine yesterday. We've kept in touch over the last 20+ years when we did an MBA together. She's had a successful career in finance while I've had a liquorice all-sorts type of constantly changing occupational therapy for a mind that can't stay at rest too long. Anyway, … Continue reading Dyslexia – don’t make it about you
I am convinced that there are generations of parents (and librarians) who think the main purpose of a librarian is to create age/grade related lists of books for students to read. When parent-teacher conference time comes around, if parents venture into the library and engage - as opposed to using us as a baby-sitting booth … Continue reading Resist the list
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
First a shout-out - if you're an international librarian and reading this - please join the International Librarians Lead (inTLlead) moodle - it aims to bring together a repository of resources, ideas and discussions on everything to do with being a 21C librarian in a global setting. We have 195 members and growing. Further to … Continue reading When to read what how
I was showing a fellow librarian around "my" new library today and we were chatting and discussing various aspects of middle school librarianship. We got to the nonfiction section and both sighed. I started that mine probably needed some significant weeding and that I'd made a start. I pointed out a few particularly nice books … Continue reading Are nonfiction books still relevant?
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
This phrase is attributed to Peter Drucker and made famous by Mark Fields (although can't easily be authenticated). I firmly believe it to be a reality both in business and education, and many a manager has been burnt by this. I'm currently in Bangalore, having spent the last three days at the Neev Literature Festival where … Continue reading Culture eats strategy for breakfast
Classroom libraries vs. school libraries, teacher superstars marginalising teacher librarians - or is it our fault?
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
My online library network is getting excited about a couple of articles that are challenging beliefs. There's danah boyds' You Think You Want Media Literacy… Do You? it is an incredibly powerful article that needs to be printed out and highlighted and read very slowly. A couple of times. One passage that struck me epitomised the near … Continue reading Ask the inhabitants
Informative Flights - Musings of a Teacher Librarian 