On the road to learning

Vision of the Future: Who am I Making This For? Since my last post, my feelings about the project haven’t changed, but some details have been ironed out and refined. I would still like to focus my project on teaching about the power of reading and how literacy development will lead a student living in the 21 st -century to success. One of the most reflective pieces that I wrote this term for LIBE477 was about fostering a reading culture in schools, and this is honestly the topic that I am the most passionate about. After some more thought and consideration about this project, I have decided to focus my audience down to students – specifically, students wishing to pursue an education in Canada but come from a different cultural context than us. Dennis' Photography ( Flickr ) Like I have explained briefly in past blog posts, my ELL teaching background in China gave me a lot of insight into the cultural learning difference that Chinese students have compared to a Canadi...

Vision of the Future: Where to Start? As I approach this project, my first thought is that whatever comes out at the end of this, I would like it to be useful to the broader education community. This is not me having very lofty goals (although it might be), but it’s just a part of my personality – I like creating things for the purpose of a wide audience to consume and use. I have dabbled in lots of digital-based creations over the years, including making websites, blogs and videos. This course has challenged me to broaden my digital skill set, so I really want to take up the ante and try something I had never done before. Now, the main problem is, what will I focus my project on? Currently, I am only working a temporary position and will be back to TOC-ing quite soon. The two months that I have been back teaching in Canada, while being a good experience with delving into this program and speaking with like-minded colleagues, hasn’t yet been long enough time for me to switch ...

Module 7: Teacher Librarian as Educational Leader - Supporting Networks and Partnerships in the Library What is important to sustaining collaboration and networking in the library? 1. Be Positive, Open, and Inviting  - The vignette in "School Librarians: The Forgotten Partners" clearly demonstrates how important it is for teacher librarians to put themselves out there and invite teachers to collaborate (Canter et al., 2011). In every school, there will be teachers who are eager to collaborate with the TL, and there will be just as many teachers who are uncomfortable with collaboration. It is the TL's responsibility to approach and give all teachers equal opportunity for collaboration that will best fit the learning needs of their students. We need to be the ones to communicate to the classroom teacher that "we love collaboration" (Dambruoso, 2014). Diggs reminds TLs to think of the library as a shared space, and never as being "their" library (Digg...

Module 9: Summarizing and Discussing Phase 2 Topics and Interests The topics that we explored in Phase 2 were plentiful and really impressed upon me one important realization: collaboration and building professional learning networks to further my own professional development is the key to a successful SLLC program. 21st-century learning is focused very heavily upon inquiry - it only makes sense that a teacher's professional journey reflects this type of learning as well. Further engagement in professional development is something that I will continue to work on, from active Twitter usage to connecting on a more local level with PLN's. As I will be returning to a TTOC position after my temporary contract, it would be to my benefit to connect with other teacher librarians within my district to help myself grow as a professional. Like I've mentioned in previous posts, having lived in China the past three years has made me feel very disconnected from the larger global com...

Developing World Libraries/Mobile Devices It wasn't until I started teaching in China three years ago that I realized what a huge impact mobile devices were having in the classroom - pretty much every single student in our 600-student school had their own mobile phone (some had even more than one for various purposes), and everyone was issued a school laptop as part of their tuition fees. Phones, however, were a huge distraction in class. The administration eventually set up a rule where all cell phones had to be placed in a wall-mounted pocket holder during class time, unless usage was explicitly given by the classroom teacher. Because the students also had laptops, phones were not as essential to their access of learning. With the censorship that happens in China however, I definitely realized the importance of free access to information. As I explored the topic of developing world libraries this week, I came across several initiatives that are looking to bring Internet access...