AISTL Professional Development Day - The Liminal Library - March 23 2018

I had the opportunity to attend a Professional Development Day organised by the Association of Independent Schools at The Kings School at North Parramatta.

My motivation to attend was because my current school is intending to undertake a renovation of the library. I wanted to obtain an insight into the process that is involved in redesigning library spaces and also examine some case studies.

The keynote speaker was Anne Whisken who is the Head of Resource Centre at the Carey Baptist Grammar School in Kew, Victoria.

After her presentation, I felt that I will need to consider the following in any school library renovation:

• Providing a library space that is unstructured and trans formative.
• Use research to inform your decision making.
• Be flexible.
• Include stakeholders in the process.
• Consider future proofing the library and allow for adaptation.
• Library spaces should allow for creative spaces.
• Blending traditional services with new expectations.
• What learning experiences do I want to see occur in the spaces?

St Andrews Cathedral College undertook a change recently to its provision of library services to provide a branch for the junior school, middle school and senior school. More ideas that I may wish to consider include:

• How to provide a taster of what is to come e.g. introduce new furniture before major renovation works or purchase a small set of furniture that can be expanded on.
• Make decisions quickly.
• Furniture may to be custom made.
• Consider the needs of the school.
• Considering what I see as a dream library.

It has left me with food for thought but also I am looking at doing a follow up visit to St Andrews Cathedral School to see the branches for myself. 

AIS TL Network Meeting - March 3 2017

For the first time since 2015, I was able to attend a meeting of Teacher Librarians from the Association of Independent Schools.

The hosts were The Kings School at North Parramatta. The library team including Di Laycock, Tim Ross (university friend) and Mark Kelly presented two items.

Firstly they shared with the group an ICT program (Operation TechSync) that has been introduced for Year 7 students that introduces them to the school's ICT network including their laptop and essential applications. Digital safety skills are also developed so the students can use technology in a safe and professional manner.

What fascinated me most was how the program is delivered. Using a mixture of real (and virtual) characters, they used software including Camtasia (video editor) and Crazy Talk (avatar creating software) to bring it together.

Mark Kelly spoke about assessment and how teachers were able to monitor progress online.

Then the team spoke about the Makerspace which is a key part of their library and how it relates to learning. I was encouraged by the need for students to be curious, and to explore what is around them (reflects my philosophy as a teacher) but be able to think outside the square. I liked the approach to creation e.g. build a robot as part of the space because one can take real ownership of their learning and can express themselves in a way that reflects them. Some students need to present information through acting; others by building objects.

But what could I do in my practice?

• Provide spaces within the library that allow people to be creative e.g. seminar rooms. Don't let them merely be places for collaborative or quiet study. The rooms are better having some sort of activity rather than nothing. 
• Encourage artistic works. I remember at Marsden High even offering pencils and adult colouring in sheets to bring out people's artistic side yet allow passive recreation.
• Building activities - Lego, robots. Maybe even have a contest to see who can make the most creative robots or lego works.
• Operation TechCode can be integrated into a broader high school library program. Many schools I have worked at sadly don't provide the technology that many AIS schools do, so I may have to improvise and keep it simple with the technology that is available within the school. The booklet though is fantastic and that can be easily done. Bigger challenge is with BYOD schools. How do I keep a program that can be adapted to any device.

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.

History Programming and Planning for Year's 8 and 10 - AIS (NSW) - September 12

On Friday, I attended another professional development course led by Carlo Tuttocoure of the AIS (NSW).

It was another enjoyable and enriching day. This time the focus was on programming for Year's 8 and 10. I thought the most interesting aspect of the day was the presentation by Roselyn Thomas  on incorporating Indigenous elements into our history teaching but even strategies in applying it across the broader curriculum e.g. Welcome to Country ceremonies at school assemblies.

I liked the idea of the visual note taking being mentioned to the group. Virtually none of the other people there were there the previous month (bar one person), and they got a chance to apply it. I will post the video because it might interest those who didn't attend.

Watching the video at both presentations made me think of a teacher from my days at Marist College Kogarah as a student. His name was Mr Jordan, a visual arts teacher and pastoral coordinator to the Year 11 and 12's. I remember he spoke about why he never reprimanded boys who doodled in their dairies. He felt it encouraged people to be creative. Visual note taking allows people to be creative but also supports visual learners who may benefit from expressing their information in a format other than a linguistic form.

Also we were reminded to focus on planning units of work that reflect the interests of the students but also cultural backgrounds, especially the elective units.

The day also helped me build on my understanding of what I learn't a month earlier on Inquiry learning, particularly development of historical inquiry skills, historical literacy skills and providing authentic assessment in history.

I think after attending the two days, I'd apply the following in my teaching practice, whether as a T/L or in the classroom:

• Recommend units of work around student interest and needs in history. 
• Apply the Understanding by Design model to units of work and assessment tasks to ensure that the learning experience is enriching and relevant. 
• Encourage development of historical inquiry skills and historical literacy skills across other key learning areas. I believe it can be done e.g. analyzing a photo in geography to identify purpose and usefulness. 
• Offer professional development opportunities for colleagues e.g. programming, assessment task creation or resourcing.

History Inquiry Learning Day - August 15

The Association of Independent Schools run free workshops and professional development days for teachers.

On Friday, I had the chance to attend a one day workshop focusing on incorporating Inquiry Learning as part of the national syllabus hosted by Carlo Tuttocoure.

I thought the day was very interesting given the importance of Inquiry learning as part of the learning process, particularly how it can foster development of critical thinking and information literacy skills, skills I believe that can be applied across the curriculum.

Some points of interest include:

Visual note taking - To me it was like mind mapping except I created visual images, varied fonts etc to help explain points or arguments. For me it would be applicable for those who love to draw.

Project based learning - With 85 % of the population believed to be extroverted, its a learning approach that can work because it requires students to plan, research and communicate their learning within a collaborative setting. I do have concerns for the 15% that are regarded as introverted as they may find working within a group setting daunting but if done right, quiet natured people can be just as effective.

Structuring assessment - Making sure that as a teacher, I identify what students need to know, developing historical skills and embracing the shared understanding/s that I may have with my colleagues.

Development of historical skills -  teaching students how to analyse a source etc using the Harvard model.

Understanding by design - provided me with a useful model to organised the importance of knowledge and skills e.g. knowledge worth being familiar with, knowledge that is important to know and enduring understandings.

I was lucky to be in a group with three other teachers and as a teacher librarian encouraged them to not be afraid to consult their TL at their school after they identified some problems and challenges in delivery of the national syllabus, particularly with assessment and resourcing. Classroom teachers get bogged down sometimes with the demands of their role, they forget a TL can take some of the stress off them and we are always there to help them.