3 steps before Google – research support

Posted on May 8, 2018 by abond

It is always helpful to have research supporting programmes – it gives credibility to the work we are doing. This year at school we have decided to give prominence to a little workshop I used to give to grades 5 – 7 only – it is called “3 steps before Google”. Now we give this workshop and have supporting slides and posters available to all Middle School teachers as well as upper primary.

One workshop I attended at IASL conference yesterday was “A Comparative Analysis of Information Seeking Behaviour of Canadian and International Secondary School Graduates Entering a University” by Jamshid Beheshti (Canada), Joan Barttlett (Canada), Anna Couch (Canada), Cynthia Kumah (Canada).

In this workshop, Jamshid presented the findings of research of information seeking behaviours of freshmen at McGill University. These students were asked to consider where they would access information from for academic research and how they would evaluate it for credibility.

The results showed that most students relied heavily on Google searches, even for Academic research. and only evaluated the top 5 results. Very few went to the library catalogue, used databases or other structured searches. Their top source of information was their friends.

The conclusion was that students need to be better prepared and must have instruction and practice at using databases and other reputable sources of information. 3 steps before Google seems like such an important part of our programme now.

IASL conference Istanbul – the value of a conference

Posted on May 7, 2018 by abond

Face-to-face conferences are my preferred way to grow professionally. This year so far I have been very fortunate that there have been two conferences in my home city. No airfares or hotel expenses has meant that these professional development opportunities are not very expensive at all.

In the days of virtual conferences, webinars and online professional learning networks I still find face-to-face conferences richer and deeper. I still participate in all of the technology professional development and completed my Master’s degree online. Yet there is something so much more satisfying about meeting people and having conversations in person. As Karen Munro explains even though much of her work is done remotely through technology when she does take time to meet people in person those days are, “..wonderfully productive in other ways—in building relationships, getting to know people, understanding complex issues,” (Antell, Strothmann, Munro, & McClure, 2014, pp. 38 – 39). Those in-depth discussions can occur because you can see and hear the person’s expression and emphasis. They are not hampered by poor Skype connection or ambiguity of an email message.

Another great reason to attend face-to-face conferences, workshops and meetings is that it is good for morale. Most Teacher Librarians work alone and even almost all work in a way that is mostly invisible to the rest of the school ( a sign that you are doing a great job but can lead to a lack of recognition and appreciation). Margaux DelGuidice in her article about avoiding school librarians burnout states that attending a professional development event means that you share ideas, hear other people’s stories and return to work with renewed enthusiasm (2011, p. 22). Those friendships forged at events can help when the going gets tough, provide colleagues who can be sounding boards for new ideas, and offer opportunities to give back to your professional community. “I’m not sure how, without face-to-face conferences, I would have found some of the formative librarian friendships and connections that have influenced and educated me, brought me new opportunities, buoyed my morale through rough patches, and broadened my perspectives,” (Antell, Strothmann, Munro, & McClure, 2014, pp. 38).

It is not enough just to chat over coffee and make new friends of course. The best strategy at conferences is to go with specific goals in mind. One way is to look at guidelines or evaluation models for your library or for yourself as Teacher Librarian. Judi Moreillon offers the American Association of School Librarians in Empowering Learners; Guidelines for School Library Programs (AASL 2009) as a useful tool. The description of the five roles to guide best practices for 21st-century school librarians: leader, instructional partner, information specialist, teacher, and program administrator can become a checklist for professional development (2012, p. 49). By asking what I am working well in and what areas do I need to strengthen then attending workshops in those areas you certainly will maximise the usefulness of the conference.

The best conferences provide strategies and ideas that you can take back to school. Throughout the years I have returned to my school with Battle of the Books – now an established part of our library programme, how to market the library including using a library logo, how to make the most of our library space and where our students can locate amazing resources about Istanbul (last conference I attended).

To attend the International Association of School Librarianship (IASL) conference for a whole week is a great privilege and responsibility. I am looking forward to what I will bring back to school from this conference – watch this space to find out.

References

Antell, K., Strothmann, M., Munro, K., & McClure, M. (2014). Is the face-to-face conference still essential? Reference & User Services Quarterl, 54(2), 37-40. Retrieved from EBSCO Professional Development Collections database. (Accession No. 100188430)

DelGuidice, M. (2011). Avoiding School Librarian burnout: simple steps to ensure your personal best. Library Media Connection, 29, 22-23. Retrieved from ERIC database. (Accession No. EJ914332)

Moreilln, J. (2012). Before you pack your bag: how to maximize your professional development opportunities at state-level conferences . Library Media Connection, 31(1), 48-50.

Cultural heritage online

Posted on April 1, 2018 by abond

So my final day with these fabulous librarians can be summarised as engaging with our cultural heritage.

All of the workshops today and the visit involved discussions about archives and how to preserve cultural heritage. Cultural heritage is both tangible ~ artworks, manuscripts, artefacts, clothing, machinery AND intangible ~ oral traditions, performing arts, rituals and craftsmanship. Why is this work so important? It has value for individuals and societies and it evolves through our engagement with it.

The role of libraries

Acting as local/regional memory hub
Making resources available through digitisation
Making resources visible
Long-term presentation

The challenges include financial and economic and changes in technology.

So the main actions from today are to let people know about the availability of these online collections.

The Koç University Suna Kıraç Library digital collection this includes photography, theses, dissertations, soundscape, maps and plans.
The architecture and design archives of SALT research

We learned about the way some people are exploring how to help visualise big data. Two leaders in this field are Aaron Koblin who is part of the Data Arts team at Google and Mitchell Whitelaw who is involved in visualising the cultural heritage collections in Australia. Mitchell Whitelaw’s TED talk begins by exploring how limiting the search box is when trying to find information on websites.

Our visit was to the Ottoman Archive in the Sadabad neighborhood of Kağıthane municipality. The following information comes from the official page of the Turkish Cultural Foundation. “…the archives were called “Hazine-i Evrak” which literally translates as Treasury of Records. The archives are estimated to hold more than 150 million documents. Only about a quarter of them are yet classified and computerized. The Ottoman archives are open to all researchers of the world although there are practical difficulties in gaining access due to the sheer volume of material and their age going back many hundreds of years. Today it is estimated that about 32 million records are accessible to all researchers, 20 million of which are in registration books and 12 million as separate items.”

We were given a tour of the public museum and then taken to see the private archive storage area which is so large they need bicycles and golf carts to move the documents around. We also visited the document restoration and digitisation area. I am not sure that our students would gain a lot from a visit to the archive other than to discover some of the deep historical significance. They certainly would need someone who can translate from Turkish to English.

International Library Staff Week at Koç University

Posted on March 29, 2018 by abond

Day 1 could carry the title – connecting with library users.

Each presentation was about how to communicate with our students about our services, the collections, what is available to them and to help them succeed in their studies.

Ideas included: surveys, videos. instagram, slogans, posters, leaflets and campaigns to actual games so many great ideas were shared. In each session, I wrote a simple action step for our IICS library to try to implement.

So things I would like to try with our school

Ask if we can include 5 questions in our annual survey of students, staff and parents about the library. Then track over the next five years the results matched against any actions we take in the information obtained.
Invite new staff to have coffee with me in the first week of their orientation – then chat about how we can assist them
Use Instagram and leaflets as well as posters to encourage students to contribute to the atmosphere of study and reading in the library
Create an orientation game for secondary and primary, with prizes, to show the space, the collection and the tools. Trial it with new staff or whole staff. Have this run in the first month of school.
Experiment with nearpod and actionbound to communicate and present during workshops. Include a Kahoot in each workshop for the fun element and to check understanding.

Our visit was to the Sadberk Hanım Museum which specialised in ceramics and fabrics. I could see it would be a great venue to take art and design classes.

Working together for excellence

Posted on March 29, 2018 by abond

Day 2 of the conference and the overall theme today could be how intentional collaboration leads to excellence for all involved.

We had a tour of the Anamed Library and then heard about BiblioPera. this is a cooperation between 12 specialist libraries in the Beyoğlu area. The collections cover different aspects of research into Turkish history and culture, art, photography and music. They are multilingual as the partner libraries include the German Archaeological Institute, Netherlands Institute in Turkey, Swedish Research Institute, American Research Institute to name a few. The great news is that BiblioPera brings all these libraries together and allows their collections to be searched from one portal.

In the afternoon we heard about some magnificent works of collaboration to bring Excellence in customer services in Sussex, the creation of a MOOC so students can develop information literacy skills in Hong Kong and encouraging the growth of the wine industry in British Columbia, Canada using the specialised skills of a University department and library.

Actions for us to bring to our library

Let secondary school departments know about BiblioPera and add a link to this on our homepage
Develop an excellence approach to our services using the 5 themes of

Customer insight
Culture of organisation
Information and access
Delivery
Timelines and quality of services. and create a way to collect evidence and evaluation our performance.

Encourage our students to participate in the MOOC Info Lit for U
Find out more about designed engagement and how we can raise the profile of library services in our school.
Create a policy and procedure for digitisation of our resources, including naming conventions

We visited Pera Museum in the afternoon. There was an exhibition on measurement which could be of interest to our mathematics and science departments.

Teacher orientation – what do they need to know about their library?

Posted on August 7, 2017 by abond

It is that time again – new staff orientation for the week before whole staff orientation. I have led new staff library orientation for a few years now and I, the teacher librarian leading the orientation, am often left wondering what was that all about? Not good I will admit.

What do new teachers need to know about their new library?

In 2008, Allison Emery while studying at University of Northern Iowa wrote her paper on School library orientation: Introducing teachers to the roles and services of teacher librarians. Not only did she research with new staff as to what they needed to know and then how they used the library she created a video to use for future library orientations. Her paper has some really useful questionnaires and appendices and I highly recommend you read it before starting on your next library orientation for new staff.

My key take aways from her research –

ask the teachers what their understanding of a school library is before you begin the orientation.
ask them if their perceptions have changed afterwards.
follow up the orientation by observing teacher behaviour using the library.

My goal this year is to ensure the teachers leave the orientation with the understanding that this is their library and that as the Teacher Librarian my role is to work with them and their students in any way that assists them. Whether they know all our databases or where the nonfiction DVDs are is a smaller issue. I think I will follow Allison’s lead by following up the orientation with informal meetings and discussions. The only way to build a collaborative relationship is to actually form a relationship in the first place.

Emery, Allison, “School library orientation: Introducing teachers to the roles and services of teacher librarians” (2008). Graduate Research Papers. 25. http://scholarworks.uni.edu/grp/25

Personalised learning through the school library

Posted on May 31, 2017 by abond

This week an article appeared on BBC News about the Education System in Finland. It outlines the move towards more personalized learning in this already successful education system and explores the desire of some teachers to do away with separate subjects altogether. I was curious about whether this leader in education had school libraries mandated for all schools. The answer is no BUT there is a high regard in Finnish society for public libraries and a growing demand for the establishment of school libraries, (Applegate, 2011 & Sinko, 2013).

I have just had two months away from school to recover from hip surgery. It was a complex surgery and was a challenging recovery – I am still walking with a walking stick. While I was absent from the day to day demands of school life I decided to bring this blog back to life and to use it to explore how I can support and develop personalized learning through our school library.

I firmly believe that libraries have ALWAYS supported personalized learning. That brilliant freedom to choose whatever you want to read, to explore whatever you want to explore beyond the confines of the classroom has always been available in libraries. Some of the questions I want to explore are

How can I encourage and celebrate that freedom of exploration and development?
How can I show that to students and colleagues and parents?
How can I develop a collection which is responsive to the needs and interests of our students?

These are just a start.

So watch this space and join me on this exploration next year….

References

Applegate, S. (2011). School libraries, student research skills, student success: Observations from Finland. Retrieved from http://photos.state.gov/libraries/finland/788/pdfs/PDF_final.pdf

BBC News. (2011, May 29). Why Finland is changing its top ranking education system. Podcast retrieved from http://www.bbc.com/news/av/education-40043254/why-finland-is-changing-its-top-ranking-education-system

Sinko, P. (2013). School libraries in Finland. Scandinavian Library Quarterly, 46(1). Retrieved from http://slq.nu/?article=volume-46-no-1-2013-10

Backing up and moving

Posted on June 22, 2016 by abond

With rumours continuing about Google shutting down Blogger I have imported my Blogger Blog into my Edublogs hosted blog.

What are the rumours? Well they have been around since 2011 which, since Blogger is still around, might show that there is no truth to them. In the article Is There Any Chance That Google Will Shut Down Blogger(Blogspot) One Day Soon? Technogeek, Satyendra Maurya suggests that there are signs that Google may shut Blogger down. This article presents reasons to go to another platform as well as benefits from staying with Blogger.

Whatever happens in the future it is clear that purchasing important aspects of your online life may be the way to go. I have a purchased subscription to Librarything as well as using the free version of Good Reads. I purchased the edublogs subscription as part of completing my Masters programme and feel it is good value. Backing up the platforms you use makes sense and enables you to see which you prefer.

Purchasing online subscriptions not only assists me with continuity and use of a better product it supports the developers behind the software. This may be the way of the future for us all.

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

Posted on May 1, 2016 by abond

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.

Professional development through Teacher Inquiry

Posted on April 20, 2016 by abond

Looking forward to learning from @alohalavina #ceesa2016 pic.twitter.com/OnmLJfpzc0

— Deb ReymundoAtchison (@DebAtchison) March 18, 2016

The first workshop I attended at CEESA 2016 was run by Aloha Lavina. What attracted me to this workshop was the idea of teachers engaged in inquiry learning. Aloha is the Upper School Principal at American International School of Zagreb. Her school had been using the tools from the Adaptive Schools workshop that she and others had attended.

The teachers at AISZ identified areas that they wanted to investigate within their school roles or areas of responsibility. Then they formed groups to meet regularly to investigate their self selected topic. While they were working on their inquiry the teachers kept professional portfolios. These were hard copy binders which had specific areas for the teachers to maintain. Throughout the inquiry the teachers investigated, designed specific interventions, observed outcomes, gave each other feedback and reflected on their learning.

One aspect I was intrigued by was the professional portfolio. I have been exploring the possible options for electronic portfolios since this session. There are a number of e-portfolio options available such as portfoliogen, pathbrite and exibi. As someone who has to maintain a professional portfolio for my LIANZA registration which is due every three years I would like to choose one of these options and try it out. At the moment I use Evernote as a way to keep track of the many aspects of the LIANZA registration process. While I know I can share these notes I can see that a portfolio may be a better way to go about reflecting on my learning. I can see the value of keeping records of my professional inquiries with my colleagues. Our school uses Professional Learning Communities to try to achieve something similar. I think the AISZ model that Aloha shared with us has this dimension of keeping a record of progress, questions, reflections which adds value to the teacher and to the school community that she works in.

I also decided to follow up on Adaptive Schools and find out more about it. Thanks so much to Aloha for an interactive and thought provoking workshop. I will be taking action – watch for future blog posts.