My Blog

March 13, 2014

Teachers are getting ready for the Surrey Teachers' Association Convention Day.  There is a call for teachers to present their ideas.  I wasn't going to present this year as I have presented the last two and I thought I would like to go to the convention just as an audience person--not worrying about how my presentation was going to go.  I looked at the workshops.  Some of them I have attended before and others looked interesting but nothing really jumped out at me.  My friend Jody and I were talking about going to a session on learning commons and talking to other teacher librarians.  We've exchanged a few ideas about our own learning commons plans and we were wondering what other teacher librarians are thinking and doing.  We couldn't see anything like that offered so we decided we would volunteer to organize an edcamp.  I have to laugh at myself because my original plan has changed.  Oh well, I have a partner to work with and we have a plan.  I hope the organizers of the convention accept our idea. 



February 19, 2014

Hmmm....I would like to add posts to this page but it doesn't seem possible....more thinking and learning needed.

I am also thinking and learning about Minecraft.  I have read several blogs and wikis about how  teachers are using it for projects.  I've talked to some boys about starting a club, then the technical aspects seemed overwhelming and I told them the club would be put on hold.  Then, after researching some more I thought I could handle the computer parts to have more than one person on the site.....now I'm swamped with computer language I don't understand and warnings about wrecking servers that scare me.   I might have to call someone in the IT department next.  I guess knowing I'm in over my head is a good thing.  I know that I don't know enough about this Minecraft project to feel comfortable about it.

Is this how students feel when they start a big project?  At the last dinner series for teachers,  the guest speaker was asking the adults in the room to think of themselves as learners....today I feel like a swamped learner and I don't like this feeling much!  I like knowing how much and what I have to do.

At our school, we have lots of activities for athletes and music at lunch for singers and musicians but do we have enough opportunities for "geeky" kids?  We have the chess players and knitters coming to the learning commons on Wednesdays and today the Rainbow Loom weavers came it and had a good time.....now how to get the Minecrafters in? Miners?  What do people who do Minecraft call themselves?



February 10, 2014

The Erma Stephenson School library has been changing slowly ever since I arrived in September 2009 but now it's more than traffic flow and making it less institutional looking and more child friendly.

The learning commons movement has been thinking about how people think of the library and what goes on inside. It's not "find a book quietly, read and check it out" process like some adults remember from days gone by.  I want it to feel more like a "classroom for everyone" so I am trying to have activities where children can learn together and have chances to show what they learn.  Everyone can be a learner....everyone can be a teacher.

I am looking forward to learning about silkworms from a grade one student who grew them with her grandfather in Korea.  It's an interesting connection for me because my mother had some silkworms as a way to make extra money for the family when she was a child in Hungary in the 1940's after the war.