Category Archives: learning

The value of professional registration and revalidation

Posted on by
Reply

In early June I completed my revalidation journal and sent it in along with my covering letter and a letter from my Head of School validating that what I had recorded was true and accurate. I must admit that when I first heard that LIANZA (Library and Information Association of New Zealand Aotearoa) were offering professional registration to school librarians through SLANZA (School Library Association of New Zealand Aotearoa) I really didn’t think it would be something I would need or want. When I was appointed to Istanbul International Community School and started the work permit process I realised the one thing that made me recognisable as a teacher AND a librarian to an outside agency (such as the Labour Department in another country) was my teacher registration and my librarian registration.

Visibility and credibility aside one of the challenges and rewards of registration is the revalidation process. Other professions, most notably the medical professions, already insist that their registered members work towards revalidation through continuing professional development. The UK implemented revalidation of registration for medical doctors in 2012, the main aim of which is to improve the quality of medical care and address concerns about the accountability of Doctors (Walshe et al., 2017). While it was quite stressful for many in the profession at first, most agree it has given doctors the opportunity to reflect on their professional progress  (“What Is the Impact,” 2014). The importance of professional development and currency in the medical profession is unquestionable, it has a huge impact on patient safety and well being.

So why would librarians need to consider their professional practice to the rigour of undergoing revalidation every three years? Librarians are involved in a sector that is undergoing rapid change. Libraries are no longer the sole repositories of information texts or providers of reading material. With the availability of information and entertainment online libraries have diversified and found ways to serve the community through advocacy for equality of access for all, provision of curation tools and spaces which bring people together. When I write libraries, of course, I mean librarians. School librarians have the added responsibility to provide information literacy and the development of reading skills. While the need for Doctors who are up to date on medical developments could be a case of life or death – the need for librarians to be updated professionally and developing their skills and knowledge along standards could be a matter of an ignorant or an educated public.

The LIANZA revalidation process has become an excellent way for me to continue to develop my understanding of the bodies of knowledge as an information professional and to consider whether I have balance in my professional practice – knowing, doing, sharing and leading.

 

References

Compton, S. (2017, February 24). Revalidation – why bother? [Blog post]. Retrieved from Talking Books website: https://slgtalkingbooks.com/2017/02/24/revalidation-why-bother/

The International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions. (2012, October 21). Making a difference. Retrieved May 26, 2018, from IFLA website: https://www.ifla.org/node/5752

Walshe, K., Boyd, A., Bryce, M., Luscombe, K., Tazzyman, A., Tredinnick-Rowe, J., & Archer, J. (2017). Implementing medical revalidation in the United Kingdom: Findings about organisational changes and impacts from a survey of Responsible Officers. Journal of the Royal Society of Medicine, 110(1), 23-30. https://doi.org/10.1177/0141076816683556

What is the impact of revalidation on clinicians? (2014, March 14). Retrieved May 24, 2018, from The King’s Fund website: https://www.kingsfund.org.uk/audio-video/what-impact-revalidation-clinicians

Broadening our horizons – the effects of attending a workshop at a conference

Posted on by
Reply
View of the Bosphorus from the CEESA 2016 conference venue. 
I am extremely fortunate to be a staff member at a school that values professional development in many forms. Our school encourages us to work in Professional Learning Communities (PLCs), to attend city wide Network meetings such as LTEN or the Istanbul Librarians’ Network, to go to IB trainings and attend conferences. 
While at the CEESA conference in March here in Istanbul I attended a workshop about Collaboration. Collaboration, Cooperation and Collegiality: Strategies for school leaders to ensure planning for learning leads to increased student growth and achievement by Michael Palmer I almost didn’t go – I am not a school administrator or leader. I am so glad that I did go. The workshop was described as an opportunity to explore the differences between collaboration, cooperation and collegiality and help participants develop an understanding of the ways in which their schools can increase collaborative capacity to support student learning. 
Actually what I learned was what can happen when someone attends a workshop at a conference. Michael Palmer had attended the last CEESA conference held in Istanbul – in 2008 I think it was. He gave a workshop on the PYP exhibition and only one person attended his session. This was mostly because the teachers at IICS were presenting about Exhibition at the same time and many people attended their workshop. Fortunately the workshop was run twice and Michael was able to attend the second run through himself. What he saw was a way to run the Exhibition and a way to plan Units of Inquiry in the PYP that really inspired him. He visited the school later that year and began to implement changes to the way Units were planned in his own school. Then he began to explore collaboration and ways to collaborate in a school setting – thus the new workshop and sharing his learning with us this year.
I have found that as I attend conference workshops I return to school willing to try out the ideas that were presented. We now have the Battle of the Books – after I attended a conference workshop about BOB at the ECIS librarians conference September 2014. Our school is working on developing a culture of independent reading using some of the ideas about reading journals shared at a CEESA conference workshop in Prague in 2013. Conference workshops can lead to marvellous actions within schools.
In a few weeks time our library team will be working with our guidance counsellor with all our classes over one week to try out some ideas presented at a workshop with the title Meeting the Social-Emotional Needs of Elementary School Students through Library and Counseling Collaboration by Rebecca Battistoni and Laura Giosh-Markov. This workshop was attended by two members of our library team and our Guidance Counsellor. While we won’t be launching into the year long collaboration that Rebecca and Laura had we will be giving their ideas of adding a social-emotional component to our library lessons for that week.

So thank you to all my wonderful colleagues who present workshops and conferences. In doing so you lift our gaze to new horizons and enrich the teaching and learning in so many schools.


Another view of the Bosphorus. 

Destiny at IICS – my first ever i-movie

Posted on by
Reply
Our New Literacies Team (IICS speak for the ITC integration team) was issued a challenge last November – make a movie to show the new literacies in action in our school. I wanted to show how we use the library management system from Follett – Destiny. From grade 2 our students are given logins to this system so they can use many of its features which empower their learning and literacy development. I think Destiny is an amazing learning platform and we are encouraging our students and staff to use it to the full.

Here is the movie – I hope it gets my message across.

The value of Association

Posted on by
Reply
http://www.slanza.org.nz/  It is great to be a member of this Association.

In July, while on “Summer Vacation” in the winter of New Zealand I attended the SLANZA conference in Wellington. It was inspirational and will be the subject of many subsequent posts. For this post I want to focus on SLANZA itself. I have been a member of SLANZA since its beginning, before I had any library qualifications or responsibilities. I remain a member even though I am many miles from New Zealand.

What is it about this association that I value so highly? My colleagues. There is a Maori proverb that goes ..
He aha te mea nui te ao?
He tangata! He tangata! He tangata!
What is the most important thing in the world?
It is people! It is people! It is people!

It is in a librarian’s nature to share. We are a professional that values access to resources, information and knowledge. I guess that makes us predisposed to sharing ideas, strategies and resources. It makes us stronger as a professional and as people.
It is through this Association that I have received meaningful professional development. My librarian colleagues meet once a term and each meeting has a professional development focus. I have participated in meetings with publishers and booksellers, educational researchers, professors and professionals. The topics ranged from why we should be buying and promoting graphic novels to how to encourage reluctant readers. 
It is through SLANZA that I have received valuable one to one professional mentoring and have been able to encourage others to enter into mentoring relationships. 
Now I am on the other side of the planet why do I consider this Association so valuable? The electronic Journal “Collected” is produced 3 – 4 times a year. My colleagues contribute articles and ideas – sharing their expertise and inspiring me in my work. SLANZA is on Facebook, Twitter and Goodreads, I am connected in with my colleagues through social networking as well as professional networking. 
I will continue to be a member of SLANZA throughout my professional lifetime. It seems crazy to me to try work alone. Crazy and lonely. I truly value the work of the people involved in this Association and I thank them for contributing so generously to my life as a librarian.

Delightful Duets – my focus for 2013 – 14

Posted on by
Reply
I saw this TED talk at the end of the academic year – Lisa Bu gives an amazing account of the impact of reading on her life, thoughts and character. Books changed her shattered dream into a different dream. The way she read books lifted her understanding of many cultures and gave her great joy, as you can see on her face. She ends her talk with the wish “May books be always with you”.

           

I decided that my reading goal for 2013-14 academic year would be to do as she suggests read books in pairs, comparative reading for life. Where do I start? She seemed to make quite deliberate choices in her paired reads. 
My first pair of books were complimentary. I real Carol Dweck‘s book Mindset: The new psychology of success. Dweck’s work has been the topic of many conversations amongst my colleagues at work last year. She writes about fixed and growth mindsets. People with growth mindsets are more resislient, often much more success than others. They see that their own efforts can make a difference to their learning and success. I found the many anecdotes she gave very interesting and made her research and findings very accessible. Already the leaders of our school are initiating further discussions about growth mindsets. This is an exciting prospect for our students.
The very next book I read was Gifted Hands Ben Carson’s autobiography. This is a great story of a man who went from being a student who was always bottom of the class to being the one who was incredibly successful. Ben Carson is a leading neurological surgeon and has had many successes pioneering life saving surgery. What helped this boy change from being a challenged learner to a successful one? His mother always emphasized that his effort would bring rewards. She challenged him to read and as he did he found he remembered more, his reading ability improved and with it his ability to complete math problems, engage with science and finally discover his passion for the brain.

Both books with the brain as a focus. Both books showing how a growth mindset can help some one develop and fulfill their potential. A delightful duet to begin my reading challenge this year.

Wondering at work – mystery

Posted on by
Reply
When creating a book display showing “Mystery” books we created a tagxedo word cloud using synonyms for mystery. I like how so many of the words also apply to wondering. 
This week I was paid a huge compliment by a colleague when he was discussing some course readings on a forum. The reading was an article by Barbara Fister entitled “Playing for Keeps: Rethinking How Research Is Taught to Today’s College Students” My colleague shared about how we use the Wonder of the Week and invite our school community to answer the question we post on the library door. This week’s question “How do hibernating animals know when to wake up?” 

Anyway here are some responses to my colleague’s post:   The example of the post it note allowed students to engage without the pressures of the right answer or proper procedure which brings learning back to one of its essential properties, inquisitiveness. Setting a challenge but not prescribing the path to success enables students to find their own way, in their own time, allowing for ownership of the process.”

“I also really appreciate the examples you gave of incorporating play into the library. The post-it example facilitates intrinsic motivation by piquing students’ curiosity through an interesting question. It also creates a version of the collaborative research environment Kuhlthau describes by allowing students to see other approaches and responses to the question.”

Simmons, Michelle. “LIBR:287: Information Literacy.” Lesson #5 Discussion. San Jose State University, 2013. Web. 3 March 2013.


I was so delighted by these responses. I had never thought of the wonder door as achieving these things but it really does. Inquiry at play. My kind of inquiry learning. Barbara’s article is worth the read as well.

So we continue to encourage wondering, mystery and play in our library. It is a learning process for us and the students at the same time.

Lose a weekend, gain renewed passion

Posted on by
Reply
I just spent my whole weekend at a workshop. Friday night arrived and I was tired. Construction work in Taksim had added a few hours to my usual long hours of weekly commutes. I was holding off a cold. I had a week of extra school meetings. The days are getting shorter and…. well I think you get the picture. So the prospect of spending my whole weekend in a seminar room in a hotel was not very appealing. Then Saturday morning I was challenged to rethink my entire professional practice.
Kath Murdoch is a leading light in the area of learning by inquiry. Right from the start she invited us to think of ourselves as inquirers. I started to wonder how to be an inquiry teacher and then more than that how can I be an inquiry librarian? I would love to have inquiry at the heart of everything I do. How can I invite more student voice? How can I change what I do in the library to invite more student discovery? What thinking routines should I include to enable my students to grow as thinkers and inquirers? 
Slide showing some great questions
Two kiwi librarians learning together

 I have had the rare opportunity to think carefully about my professional practice and the invitation to redesign it, refresh it, renew it to be more inquiry focussed. Not only that I was able to do this with a fellow librarian and Kiwi – Kelly Blackwell, who works in Sofia, Bulgaria. 

I am not tired any more. I am excited to try as many strategies and ideas as I can. I have challenged myself to try out one new idea a week. Take one step no matter how small towards being an inquiry librarian. Get ready to share this journey, the successes and the mistakes that will lead to more learning. I can’t wait to get started. I can’t wait to chat with my colleagues who will be at a one day workshop Kath is running at our school tomorrow. I am curious to see how I can change, learn and grow. 
Thanks so much to Kath and Kelly  for helping me get started on this learning journey. 

80 books read in Around the world in 80 books

Posted on by
Reply
So I have finished my challenge – 80 Young Adult books read in just over one year.Apart from the magic number 80 what has been achieved? 
I know more YA books in our collection. On Friday I spent 15 minutes with some grade 6 girls browsing the shelves and chatting about what we had read. It started with one girl asking me for a recommendation and as we browsed and chatted the crowd grew. I hadn’t read all the books we found but the ones I had read I was able to speak about from the heart. This is such a powerful way to help students develop a love of reading for themselves. It is mentioned in The Book Whisperer as a powerful way to help students access the riches of the library. And it is fun….
I have developed a reading habit. I love to read but I now have a commitment to read the books in our collection to pass them on to others. We are a k – 12 school and our library caters for 3 year olds through to  adults. I have a huge variety of ages, cultures and languages to cater for. I want to connect people with books, good books and to do so I need to read them. So I will continue with this reading habit and start a new challenge.

I realise much of our collection has roots in the USA. Just look at the Google Map I kept as I read. I must ensure that our collection is truly international. That is quite a challenge when the school’s preference is to source all materials, including books, from the USA. We are about to enter a new budget and ordering round for next year. I intend to try to ensure the materials I purchase are international in nature and content. 
Next Thursday we begin our Professional Learning Group again for the new academic year. The first meeting will be new books in our library that support professional growth. These will not just be about how to teach but also books that encourage thought and curiosity on our teaching subjects. I will challenging myself and my colleagues to read more in order to bring depth and breadth to our content knowledge. I would love to see a culture of reading throughout the school. Let’s see what happens next….