Midterm Action

It feels hard at the moment to sit and write about what I have been up to, read or reflected on.

It is an interesting time for me as I work out of a temporary library office as the library itself undergoes some building works for the rest of the term.

But the show goes on. We may not be able to lend books, but we can extend the loans or encourage students to borrow eBooks.

We have been processing new books which will head straight to our new books shelves when we reopen.

Also, I thought I'd share an article from The Sunday Telegraph (p. 19, 14 August 2022) with Dr Helen Adam from Edith Cowan University mentioning that there is ""really strong evidence" that schools with well-resourced libraries and a qualified teacher librarian got better NAPLAN and other test results". This was in response to research by Consumer Data Company Fonto revealing that 68% of parents think that their children read at least as much if not more than when they were youngsters.

Source: Cogdon, K. 2022. "Lockdown silver lining: our kids are reading more than we did". The Sunday Telegraph: 19.

What wsa encouraging too was that in the past two years more than 30 million childrens books were being sold on an annual basis in Australia.

School Libraries and Pre-Service Teachers

I have done some reading on this topic lately and have been encouraged by some of the readings that I have read in recent times because it gives school libraries a great opportunity to begin engaging with our future teachers and help them appreciate and value the role that school libraries and teacher librarians have in supporting student learning. 

But the big challenge arises from the universities themselves as they coordinate the professional experience programs that education students undertake at either a undergraduate or postgraduate level. I reflect on my practicums and it was left to us, the pre-service teacher to engage with the library. We were not educated on their role nor the role or importance and staff that manage school libraries. 

Marlene Asselin, Associate Professor at the University of British Columbia has provided a number of papers on school libraries and their roles in supporting pre-service teachers but has also engaged in pre-service teacher programs through introducing inquiry-based intergrated unit planning and information literacy pedagogy. 

As part of their practicum they had to engage in collaborative experiences with teacher librarians including the planning of and delivery of lessons to develop information literacy skills. 

On the Advocacy Committee of the School Library Association of NSW (SLANSW), my fellow member Vicki Bennett and I have been collaborating with a lecturer at the University of Wollongong to provide presentations focusing on the role of the teacher librarian and their importance as educators. At the moment, Vicki has engaged in online presentations but is envisioned that it would be delivered face to face We also envision embedding a requirement for pre-service teachers at the University of Wollongong to engage with the library and even deliver one lesson in collaboration with the teacher librarian. 

After the holidays, I shall answer the question of what we can do right now to support our pre-service teachers.

 

Stop Reading the News by Rolf Dobelli

I confess to being a news nut. I recall watching the news each night as a six year old, even if I didn't completely understand what the content was about. It may have been years before I realised that I was actually a witness to history if I see or read an item years later. I enjoyed reading newspapers as a seven year old, even if it was just the weather page but just seeing pages loaded with lots of words and pictures. It made me feel grown up. 

Recently, I read Stop Reading the News by Rolf Dobelli and his main argument is that watching, reading, or listening to the news is harmful to a person and impacts our personal wellbeing. He goes as far as arguing that people are less likely to concentrate.

In addition, he argued that the content we view is pointless and that if its important, we will hear about it. The news is irrelevant.

He also suggested that in building our knowledge and understanding in the world, that we read on topics that interest us and read deeply into it. We should specialise our knowledge on a small range of fields.

I can see his point, particularly when it comes to reading deeply into a topic and as an educator, I need to encourage students to read widely and deeply on a topic.

But I have concerns about having to not watch, read or listen to the news, particularly in an educational context because watching the nightly news, reading a daily newspaper or reading a magazine helps us to make connections between the theory and application of knowledge. 

My best subject in the HSC in 2003 was Legal Studies. By watching the news and reading the newspaper each day, I was exposed to how the law was being applied. I kept folders of newspaper clippings from court cases or legislation being debated in our State and Federal Parliaments. I would be encouraging students in 2022 to do the same.

I think we as a species are wired to be curious about the world and its happenings but also to be able to share with others what is going on the world.

But if it was a takeaway note for me, maybe we need to slow our approach to how we view the news. For example, I should try and focus on longer articles instead of shorter articles. Fortuantely, I still subscribe to printed newspapers. The digital replica is the lazy way out unless on a ery crowded train. I notice in a printed sense, I abosrb the news more slowly but at the same time immerse myself with the content. 

We should not fear if we miss the nightly news on television or not have enough time to read it the next day. 

ASLA Webinar - The 2022 CBCA Shortlist- and Beyond (1 June 2022)

I decided last night to attend another ASLA webinar and it was because I was guaranteed a good presentation if Paul McDonald was the presenter.

He own's The Children's Bookshop, a specialist bookseller catering to schools and school libraries in NSW. It originally began as a physical bookstore at Beecroft, trading between 1971 and 2019. McDonald had run the store for its final fifteen years.

I enjoyed listening to his insights into the Children's Book Council of Australia (CBCA) shortlists for 2022, predicting who is likely to win and their suitability for various audiences. 

As a bonus, we were also treated to some of the latest trends on Young Adult and Children's reads. He is always "on the ball" with the latest developments and he does it with alot of passion. It was surprising to hear that Historical Fiction is gaining some appeal. I guess people either want to explore a different world from that of 2022. As a history teacher, this is encouraging, because it allows the reader to learn about different historical periods through fiction texts.

Not surprised about Graphic Novels and Manga continuing to gain a broader appeal. I see it at school myself as fans of Graphic Novels crave the next set of books in the series in that they may be interested in.  

 

What is meant by Wide Reading?

"You need to broaden your wide reading."

Two months ago, a colleague at school made this remark to me. I was asked if I had read certain novels. I had not heard about many of them. However, some were classic novels that I may look at reading in the future and was "instructed" to re-read certain titles because of student interest or because of their place in the curriculum.

To me "wide reading" has been about spending a period of time e.g. thirty minutes or one hour reading, focusing on literature of interest but also challenging myself to read a variety of literature.

On a typical day, I will spend on average between one hour and one and a half hours a day reading books. I also read the newspaper for about an hour a day on top of my book reading. 

My reading preferences are geared towards non-fiction, since I enjoy reading about the world that we live in and boosting my general knowledge including:

• Geopolitics (It has helped me understand some of the challenges facing the world right now e.g. Ukraine and China)
• History
• Poiltics
• Economics
• Business
• Social Trends/Current Affairs
• Biographies 

When I choose to read fiction I prefer:

• Young Adult Literature (helps me with book recommendations)
• Storylines reflecting issues facing society (including diversity)
• Science Fiction 
• Historical Fiction
• "Political Fiction" - Storylines focusing on politics

At times I have challenged myself to read items that may come from other genres such as Fantasy or Classics to help me recommend suitable literature to read to my students.

I feel thats wide enough for my reading

But some definitions of  "wide reading" focus on reading a wide range of literature relating to a specific topic e.g. Australian History or genre and being able to understand and comprehend its content. Did my colleague see it this way? 

What does "wide reading" mean to you?

ASLA Webinar – Creating Internal Wide Reading Challenges

On Wednesday Night, I presented my first (solo) professional learning session for the Australian School Library Association (ASLA) as part of their monthly webinar series. I had set myself a challenge for 2022 which was to lead a professional development session through a non-school provider. It has been five years since I presented my first professional learning session, but it was at a school level. I knew who my audience was at the time and was not daunting. 

Late last year, I attended one of the ASLA webinars and a question was asked in the feedback form if attendees were interested in presenting monthly webinars. I expressed my interest and it went from there. I decided to focus on Creating Internal Wide Reading Challenges as I felt that I owed a debt to those who provided their ideas to help me organise the Cover 2 Cover wide reading challenge for Bethany College Hurstville in 2019. 

I believe that there were people out there who wanted to create one and why not lend them a hand and share my experience and give them ideas. Even in 2019, I remember one teacher librarian on the OZTL-NET Forum who was looking to do the same and for me to share their ideas with them. 

I felt it was a “dry topic” when it came to school libraries and wide reading, again raising opportunities to share. It also encouraged me that one of my fellow members of the Management Committee from the School Library Association of NSW was present along with others within my professional network, some of whom contacted me to ask about the webinar before the evening. 

As for the presentation itself, presenting it online was not scary at all even for a virtual audience. If it were face to face, I would have had a few nerves, but as I was able to organise the presentation and reinforce it with my experiences, it was straightforward. The feedback is positive so far from the attendees, but will need to post a little more in an upcoming post.

Representation Matters: Embracing Diversity and Inclusion - SLANSW Summit

The School Library Association of NSW (SLANSW) held the first of its biannual summits for 2022 which was provided online on Saturday.

The focus was on embracing diversity and inclusion and attending on Saturday was a must given that in a secondary setting, students are indicating a preference for literature that reflects the world around them.

Two items stood out on Saturday

Firstly, I enjoyed listing to keynote speaker - Will Kostakis (Author), who provided a wonderful overview of his writing career, and the challenges that he has faced in writing literature as his novels such as The First Third and Sidekicks have been inspired by his experience growing up as gay. He had been told that he had to "de gay" the storyline for The First Third. I have read both of those titles and are very well written.

Secondly, Pooja Mathur (Teacher Librarian, The Kings School & ) presented a workshop that helped us to identify suitable literature that can be representative of all students within your school including authors. In our resource acquistion, we had to consider the impact the story may have on the reader and if it improves our understanding of an issue. Also how can we classify it. "Relationships" was recommended. Promotion of literature that is from the "Relationships" genre is straightforward and can be easily applied in my practice.

One matter raised during the day was the amount of censorship or concerns that have been raised about books and how they may "misrepresent" certain groups or issues in society.  Even great and bestseller books have been listed as doing so, even though the intention is to provide an insight into their world but also help society understand their needs and issues in a positive way. I would not be surprised if these concerns are being raised more by the "politically correct" or "woke" groups in our society in terms of outing the faults in books, and not realising the debate and discussion and positive change that has stemmed from the publication of the book.

I am currently a Metropolitan Representative on the School Library Association of NSW Management Committee.

A real sign of normality

On Monday, public health orders meant that cohorting groups by grade ended in New South Wales schools. For school libraries, it has meant the end of restricting access to students e.g. One year group utilses the library at lunch time on one day and another year group the following day.

I felt good that anyone who wishes to use the library, especially during break times can do so again. It has been challenging having to turn students away simply because they were not in that grade. Some students have not enjoyed this, because they love the library as a space to undertake private study or simply to escape the activity that occurs on the playground. 

The bigger challenge will be if the hordes return, which is common in many schools. Will students feel comfortable to visit the library when there are alot of their peers around?

Being in a secondary setting, I believe it is important to establish a rapport with the incoming Year 7 cohorts. We lost four weeks and it was their first four weeks of high school. This did not happen at this time last year. They are keen to make use of what the school has to offer, including their library. They are curious as well. They want to see what they can borrow and read. I will need to identify ways to bring them in, but I was encouraged by their turnout during their designated times in cohorting. 

Recommending Books to Students

Last Tuesday, I attended a webinar faciliated by SLANSW focusing on recommending books to students and it was encouraging to listen to see how other teacher-librarians support students in recommending books.

One teacher librarian who works in a secondary Catholic College near Newcastle shared how she is using reading ambassadors to encourage students to read. She has asked 10 students who are passionate readers to be part of her initative. The students have an opportunity to read new books before they are available for students to borrow along with them being allocated to a specific Year 7 English class. 

They also share with other students their favourite books, genres and what they currently read along with their personal recommendations.

I thought the approach was excellent because I have believed strongly that students are more effective at recommending books to their peers than teachers. While as teachers, we may know our students well and their preferences, students like to do other students do. With reading, students are more likely to read if other students read.

It could be something that I would like to do down the track with a group of students because I think it could yield rewards long term.

I was also introduced to the 'book bots' which have been introduced in a number of primary schools. I am hoping they will become available in secondary schools because I think it will simplify the process of choosing a book from the library collection and has proven to engage even the most reluctant readers in reading. I do have a link which explains how a 'book bot' works.

A new school....

This year, I begin a permanent full-time role as a Teacher Librarian and 2022 is the start of the next stage in my professional journey. I am based at a secondary girls' school on Sydney's Upper North Shore.

It is a thrill to be in this role and should be very rewarding in the years to come.

School has only been open a week and I am in the "swing of things" and adjusting to the routine that comes with this role.

I will continue to share and reflect on some of the initatives that I undertake and reflect on any professional learning that I engage in.

COVID-19 has sapped alot out of us but I did make good use of this time to brush up not just on school libraries, but also my broader role as an educator.

It is great that schools are open as normal even as we in Sydney experience our third and worst wave of the pandemic but also the fact that infection rates have dropped in time for the school year. Yes, there will be a rise a cases, but we will be on top of it.

It's great too to be working within the library space itself. Working from home can have its limitations for people like us.