BOSTES Accreditation - Some reflections

A big step for me professionally has taken place in the past few weeks in relation to seeking accreditation in NSW as a teacher at Proficient Level. I have submitted my samples to my current school for the writing up of the accreditation report.

It has been a year since I looked at my progress and since then, really was in a sense just about ready to present that evidence to a school, and just noting that I had found. I think that time last year came to be really handy because it has made everything much easier. I was able to approach my school, show the samples (and that they had signed off) and it was fixed.

I was able to provide some additional samples of evidence in recent months and also have my practice observed by an experienced teacher.

Hopefully the next entry on this topic will be about gaining the proficient level and giving credit to those involved in my journey there. So far a big thankyou to each and everyone of them.

Some Teacher Librarians may be finding it daunting to collect evidence, but really it is easy to collect. If you teach a lesson (especially primary school), keep a lesson plan, keep copies of sheets or handouts, newsletter articles (communication with the school community), professional learning diaries or samples of student work. Even minutes of a meeting you might have with your library team, faculty or colleague will count. Ideas are endless.

What about classroom management or student discipline? Create a discipline policy that you apply for the library that you work in. Casual or temp? Make a generic one and mention that it is adapted to all schools that you work at. Your teacher observation will also be handy here too like it has been done with me.

Make sure that you look at the standards and make sure that the samples will allow you to meet them all.

A big tip from me is to annotate your samples which you can do with Adobe Acrobat where you can show where the standards have been met and will guide your mentor or TAA in finalising your report.

With your annotations with your samples, go to some detail because it will make a difference as well. It will help you too in determining whether or not you have met the standards.

If you are stuck on doing it from a Teacher Librarians perspective, feel free to get in touch with me or  speak to your TAA.

Dads and reading

Here is a recent article from The Daily Telegraph, where they explored the importance of fathers in reading to their children because it encourages more abstract thinking.

http://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/news/nsw/why-reading-a-book-with-dad-is-more-important/story-fni0cx12-1227544210970?sv=c8dc7500c1dc4c401c3b8dd4b6bf8d4a

It made even think too about my work in girls schools to date as a Teacher Librarian and undertaking wide reading sessions. It made me think of the higher order questioning that I did with them. I remember one instance asking students about why the covers of a Harry Potter book had been presented in a particular way and why the covers were designed that way. It got them thinking, even if they weren't too short.

For us men, it even encourages us to work in girls only schools, as the girls do also appreciate a male perspective on reading and literature.

Stocktaking Time (ii)

OK, a week has passed since I looked at stocktaking and have attended the webinar by Softlink. It was a good afternoon to be briefed on the stocktaking processes associated with OLIVER.

I think that there is really little to fear, even for those in DET schools who are moving over from OASIS to OLIVER. The big advantage that OLIVER has over OASIS is the interface and that you can see 20 results on a page as opposed to one so it can actually help you sort out items that are missing or poorly catalogued.

A bit like cooking, there is preparation for a stocktake which must not be overlooked like undertaking a simple housekeeping procedure to ensure that everything in the collection is on the system and to help identify items that are catalogued incorrectly.

And I liked how you can scan in barcodes once you have imported them to account for unscanned yet available items!!!

Don't ever fear closing a library just to do a stocktake, like they used to!!!

Stocktaking Time

For school libraries, its almost (or perhaps already) that time of year again - stocktaking time.

I am going through the process of stocktaking for the first time and I've been quite amazed at the simplicity of the process. I thought doing something like was daunting with alot of steps involved. This was the case until I was delegated with a good challenge - create a set of procedures based on the system used by the school and how to do with the diverse collections available.

It might appear to be a little time consuming at times because of the checks that have to be made with error reports and the like, but at the end of the day, we as librarians have to account for every single item that forms the collections within the library.

A big plus, is that it gives one the chance to correct the errors that may have arisen in cataloguing an item/s. We are human at the end of the day.

I am aware school libraries where collections have been in a state of disrepair. This blog is not about naming them and shaming them at all. In fact stocktakes have not been done or if done not properly. It raises issues in terms of managing the broader library. The consequences can be massive with items simply "disappearing" (or missing in more technical sense) when they are on the shelves. I have discovered that for myself with one school.

I also was reading a post this week on the NSWTL message board (Available to those with NSW DET email accounts) and one question came forward. For those outside of NSW, OLIVER is being introduced to all NSW Public Schools as the main circulation system for school libraries. The Teacher Librarian had asked whether or not a stocktake should be done following the transfer of data from OASIS.

It comes down to when the last stocktake was done. If it was done right before the transfer, I would say "No". If the Stocktake is yet to be done for this year and would normally proceed this term, I would suggest "yes", provided you have the Softlink Manual. It is not really that complex after all from what I found and applying it to the school library. I'll admit I've made a few small modifications to my procedures as I have gone along, which has been good for eyeing out any problems.

For those out there especially in the NSW DET Schools who are struggling, please feel free to get in touch with me.

Noise @ Kogarah Library

There has been a big debate over the purpose of libraries which has stemmed from complaints by patrons of Kogarah Library over noise. Click here to read the article.

Last month a lady made complaints about what libraries should be for, and it led to me writing a letter to The St George and Sutherland Shire Leader. The letter was published in the St George edition on September 1.

Web Referencing Sites: Are they really that effective?

Last week, I decided to check some web referencing sites that the school diary at my current school currently lists. Apart from one link being dead, the other did not impress me. Even playing around with a few other sites, not impressed either.

What has disappointed me at this stage, but also Microsoft Word is their inability to automatically create proper bibliographical listings for an item or a proper in text citation. They claim to know the rules of each referencing system yet they just get it wrong.

At the end of the day its going to create confusion for students as they are taught to properly list items in a bibliography or provide an in text citation.

What does that mean for me? I still feel that you will have to teach them how to do it manually i.e. teach the conventions associated with creating a bibliography under the Harvard Citation system. At the moment that is what I have been doing with a group of Year 7 Religion classes - showing them what a bibliography is, why they are created, structures and conventions and doing some exercises.

I did a similar approach when at Hurstville Boys' High School with Year's 7 and 8, guiding them manually through the process, though they were being taught the APA system.

I intend to comment and reflect further in the not too distant future.

Engaging reluctant readers

The Centre for Professional Learning (NSW Teachers Federation) has published a short feature with ideas on how to engage reluctant readers in the classroom. This is handy for upper primary and junior secondary years.

In one sentence, it encourages teachers to let students take ownership of reading and writing.

Library Warriors@Evans High

I was reading the Winter 2015 edition of Learning Hub (SLANSW) when I came across an article by the Vice-President of the School Library Association of NSW - Tamara Rodgers.

It interested me how Tamara's experiences have tied in with some of my recent experiences this year. While I have finished the block at Georges River College - Hurstville Boys' Campus (back at Waverley College as an acting Teacher Librarian this term), I will admit that the article should have come out earlier because it could have guided me through that time and perhaps shaped some ideas in making a positive learning culture within the library.

I remember speaking with my library assistant about how to label the library monitors. She proposed "library boys" as it was a less formal tag and would make the work look "cool". I think "Warriors" sounds just as great because it can install a sense of responsibility yet make the work looking appealing.

Both of us had also raised the role as part of a school service program with the Head Teacher - Welfare at the school to try and get the kids to pursue activities in which they can contribute to the school community and building up a structured scheme for the "library boys". Even encouraging activities like a chess club were floated around to encourage the boys to pursue their interests but also provide them with a safe place to do it.

There was a group of Year 9 boys that I recall that were loitering and behaving inappropriately in the library at times, yet if you gave them something to do you'd find that they would get a sense of ownership and pride. I got to see them in another light, and in a positive way. This was needed when books to be weeded had to be relocated and organised in a sorting area. I could actually give praise to these kids, instead of referring them onto Head Teachers or the Deputy.

I think I may have a good model in terms of managing a library monitor system at whatever school I may be at, now or in the future.

With establishing a learning culture, the boys were never provided with a proper self-service printing system which other schools had. I was able to lobby for a printing system to be established and will be installed soon. Being boys, they love to leave things to the last minute and when they need to print, the library is often the only place to do it. They would have to approach my library assistant and pay 20 cents per page for printing from a printer within our staffroom. This took time away from her ability to work productively. I have planted one of the first seeds in making it a learning centre because boys will start to use it for learning, even if it is for printing.

One of our collections (Graphic Novels) had been previously stored in the staff room. Boys love their graphic novels. I managed to find some spare shelves and put them there. The loan rate for Graphic Novels has soared, though I hope to see that collection grow in the years ahead.

There are probably other comments to be made. One I won't comment though is the behaviour referrals. They were quite high and this not the place to bring it up.

Revisting Weeding in 2015 (II)

It has been a few weeks since I last reflected on my work to do with weeding the collection.

Things have slowed down a bit there, but have been encouraged by what I have managed to do. Time for me has been difficult as I contend with the other challenges of weeding the collection.

I have been impressed generally by the response of colleagues as they select books to be retained or to be disposed of. I have felt quite confident as I communicate about progress. Even as books have been moved into sorting areas before discarding them on OASIS, I have been flexible in letting teachers come to pick what they want. A few books have found their way back onto the shelves which is fine.

The weeding itself is going to take much longer than what I hope for, but I have found some side projects as well that I feel are linked back to this - like following up on overdue books, removing duplicate borrowers and accounting for other unreturned items.

Revisting Weeding in 2015

Back in 2011 as part of my studies, I explored the issue of weeding on it.

Where I am at the moment, one of my short term challenges is to remove items from a collection that has aged significantly, especially the non fiction collection where there appear to be few (if any) contemporary resources available. The shelves are overcrowded and in fact can barely accomodate much more.

I've actually had to create my own weeding policy simply because the library does not have a collection development policy.

What I have done so far, is that I'm focusing on what I want to keep as opposed to what I want to dispose. I have my criteria set up for weeding e.g. poor physical condition and outdated information. I have been placing stickers on shelves as I check items, while placing stickers on the items that are to stay in the collection.

I also have consulted teachers and invited them to inspect the collections to see what they want to keep while explaining to them as to why we "weed" the collection e.g. helping us to decide which resources need to be purchased so that students can have easy access to resources that are contemporary and relevant to learning. I emphaised the positives of doing so because weeding can seen on the surface as "negative". They have been keen so far in their input. There are items no longer relevant to the kids but they are still relevant to teachers.

I even will need to document areas that really need updating, like books on computers and sport.

Louise Limberg - UTS Connected Intelligence Centre Presentation - April 1 2015

On April 1, I attended a presentation by Louise Limberg at the University of Technology, Sydney. She spoke about meaningful learning through information literacy.

As a Teacher Librarian, I need to foster a culture of meaningful learning within my school but ensure that students have the information  literacy skills needed for effective engagement.

One key finding of interest to me was that those who analyse and scrutinise information. Learning outcomes were likely to be more sophisticated with well grounded and independent conclusions of a research topic. If we focus on fact finding, learning outcomes are less likely to be met. Knowledge is fragmented.

I think my qualifications as a history teacher helps me because we need to scrutinise and analyse sources in order to draw a finding or conclusion. I'm currently on a Ten Week block at the Hurstville Boys' High Campus of the Georges River College in Sydney and already I'm telling my students to look at the sources that they use when undertaking research. Even though at the moment its a bibliography, we need to draw some conclusions about sources, particularly if the source is missing information e.g. author. Does it make the source credible or not? Does the information appear accurate compared to other resources.

Another element I need to consider is ensuring the research questions are researchable. Instead of picking topics for research, we as educators need to set research questions that will foster inquiry.

We have also been reminded to provide feedback on student learning and progress in the research process. This can be overlooked when marking an assessment. I feel we need to foster the process of inquiry questions with our students in order to form knowledge and provide the conclusions that we seek from learning.

There are challenges that lie ahead which were identified by Limberg. Technology is ever changing. Obviously we must adapt to those changes especially the easy access to the ever burgeoning amounts of information in a digital world. Information is presented in a wide variety of formats. We need to ensure that students can draw on that variety (not a few) to add their reading, interpretation, assessment and construction of meaning. There is also the challenge associated with politics and society e.g. free access to education or the content to be included in new national curriculum.

As a teacher librarian, I must keep alert to the new and emerging formats and encourage students to utilise it, but at the same time also draw on traditional resources. If a student can draw on a variety of resources, it will become easier to construct meaning. I have found that any student that uses a variety of resources is bound to achieve better results in learning tasks, than one who may for instance rely on two or three websites.

Dymocks Top 101 list for 2015

Dymocks have now released their top 101 list for 2015. For the full list click here.

The Book Thief by Markus Zusak has topped the list again after 15 000 votes were cast by Dymocks readers to determine the best 101 books of all time.

The top ten has been dominated by books that have been adapted to films. Only one book in that top ten is yet to be a film.

Also I have a link to a report by The Sydney Morning Herald today relating to the list.

Are Teacher Librarians on Borrowed Time?

An article was published in The Age Newspaper in Melbourne last year that questions the relevance of the Teacher Librarian to the learning process.

But at the same time it looks at the threat that the profession is facing as some schools opt for specialist teachers in other subject areas instead or in some instances closing libraries and replacing them with IT Centres.

I have to say "well done" to the paper for highlighting the challenges that the profession is facing.

But there was one thing that I felt that was missing from the comments provided by Dianne Ruffles (Teacher Librarian - Melbourne Grammar) and Alison Lester (Author); the importance of communicating information.

As a Teacher Librarian, I believe that providing students with skills in the effective communication of information is important to the learning process. It is one of the most important life skills that one can possess as it allows us to share and transfer information from person to person, whether it may be in a written form, visually or verbally.  Through that new knowledge can be created.

But are we on borrowed time? I'd say no. Jobs are under threat from budgetary but as the research indicates, Teacher Librarians are gaining an ever more important role in the learning process. For me, just continue to advocate the role and show to everyone how wonderful Teacher Librarians are.

AIS TL Network Meeting - February 26

Just under a fortnight ago, I was able to attend my first Association of Independent Schools network meeting which was held at Our Lady of Mercy College, Parramatta.

Even though I'm only casual in a teaching sense, it does give me a very good opportunity not just to meet those within the profession but also be informed on what schools are doing and what we can do.

Being new, I had to introduce myself to the group and provide a few lines on my teaching background.

Paul Macdonald of The Children's Bookshop at Beecroft provided us with an overview of the books that teens should read in 2015. Already I'll admit I have  recommended some of those titles to one school where I was doing relief work last week (St Pauls Catholic College, Greystanes).

The Library team at Our Lady of Mercy College at Parramatta provided us with an overview of their wide reading program and I was quite impressed with some of the activities that they do during their wide reading sessions which I would not have thought of in the first place including speed book dating (examining covers, blurbs etc), and using QR codes to access author websites. The readers group is a good strategy as well as it allows students to discuss books in a more relaxing manner. There was also an overview of how library services are promoted including orientation for year 7 students, staff morning teas and a book trivia contest.

Thanks to Our Lady of Mercy College for making me welcome and for their presentation along with Ruqqiya Dean (Pymble Ladies College) for organising the meeting.

Also some photos I took on my Ipad of the school library. Some had proper cameras with them which was a nice idea and hopefully I can do it next time.

Academic Skills Tutoring Service

For the first time in 2015, I will be providing my services as an Academic Skills tutor to secondary school and undergraduate university students. More information can be found by clicking here.

E-Books & E-Readers out of vogue?

For those like me who love their books in print will be pleased with this article in today's edition of The Sydney Morning Herald  (Jan 19 2015).

Sales of print books in 2014 were up in the lead-up to Christmas while E-Readers struggle to sell. Not to mention, E-Readers have their own threats to competition like Tablets and smartphones. Also they are quite durable tools with long battery life. Why replace something thats not broken?

It feels like as well E-Readers don't get as much attention in ads and catalogues like they did even a year ago.

Meanwhile, The Washington Post, published an article about the case against E-Readers. If there is one thing that I agree with in terms of print over electronic text, is the interaction with the text. One can absorb information more easily.

Christian News magazine The Philadelphia Trumpet featured an article in its January edition also presenting the case for print over electronic text, but with a Christian perspective. One point of interest is being able to highlight and annotate text to help you understand what is being written.

As I have pointed out in the past, there is room for E-Books and Printed Books.