Librarians are big on advocacy. Big on helping their peers when they’re not being heard in their communities or schools to build their “advocacy toolkit”. Most librarian courses include at least one module in one course on advocacy. Some academic librarians have built their careers on advocacy. But I’d like to cry foul. This has been going on for long enough. Looking at advocacy it … Continue reading Advocacy is not enough we need power
It must be an age thing – but as I’m getting further into my 50’s I’m becoming less tolerant of fancy sounding reasons and explanations that are actually just excuses for staving off change. This is the first of a series of posts on things that really annoy me as an international librarian, with a smattering of understanding of technology and a desire to serve … Continue reading No excuses: Syndetics
I’ve been asked to be on a panel at the AFCC to chat about “Books Teachers Wish Authors Would Write” from a teacher / librarian perspective. So I put the question out on one of my teacher-librarian networks (an international one) and these were the responses I received: World war 2 in Asia- novel for 8-10 year olds (NF / NNF) big shortage of narrative … Continue reading Books I wish would be published
One of my favourite UOI (Units of inquiry) has started for my G3 students – in our library lesson last week I introduced the theme through reference to (a somewhat dated, but still very clear) video Now one thing you can be certain about with students is that their responses will not be predictable. So too this time – what happened? They were cheering every-time … Continue reading But I was born here!
In my past “homeless” week I’ve had opportunity to offer PD to my fellow librarians & library staff and to some teachers, and also to go into classrooms for a longer period of time and help with research, and I’ve had time to find, curate and put resources onto our libguides, and I’m hot-desking in the coordinator’s office. Its’ been a very informative time. What … Continue reading If we build it will they come?
When I tell people we’re getting to renovate and extend our library their first reaction is “wow, that’s amazing, you’re so lucky!”. And yes, prima facie it is so. But right now it’s feeling rather overwhelming. And ironically most of that is not so much to do with the change as the amount of preparation that needs to be done. Speaking of change – you … Continue reading Make-over update
Since this is my M. Ed capstone course of course the bar has been set high for our final project – a case study. I’ve spent the week being intimidated – firstly reading the case-study research of other people, and then the Colloquium with Pip Cleaves – where my brain and my writing hand lost sync with each other as I was in awe with what … Continue reading Ever so slightly (very) intimidated
In this week’s module we were posed the following questions: How would curriculum change if our priority approach was on critical, creative, and collaborative thinking? What does the reality of the modern age of information– this age of Google –suggest that we “teach”? Can we simply “update” things as we go, or is it time for rethinking of our collective practice? I was forwarded this … Continue reading Open, social and Participatory Media in Education
