In his Learning About Learning series, Stephen Heppel discusses how students learn better if they reflect on their learning and how they learn the whole time they are learning (developing their metacognition). Teachers learn how their students learn and how to teach better. Students need assignments that meet their needs as twenty-first century learners. For example, you could assign a child an essay and risk them cut and pasting or copying off the internet OR you could assign them the task of finding an essay on the internet and improving it or critiquing it.
I have done this many times, the former not the latter. I am guilty of giving my students assignments that do not reflect the digital culture they live in. Teachers I know, myself included, worry about plagarism because of all the easy and free access to information, and try to have all these checks and balances so kids don’t cheat. I need to shift the way I understand my digital native students and the way they learn.
I am currently an enrolling teacher on Vancouver’s affluent westside. I have applied and interviewed for a 0.78 libary/resource position at an inner city school where they have needle clean up before school and at recess. The job has some prep and some resource and very little collab time, so my goal is to educate and change this. I have debated this long and hard, and I could wait for a cushy job to come my way, or I could take this position (if offered, just waiting to hear) and try to positively change the TL and library role in this one school. Anyway.
Plan for next year as a TL in a new school:
meet with admin, discuss goals, get her on board
start connecting with colleagues who are interested in collaborating and build those relationships
build a good relationship (hopefully) with the tech teacher
develop presence around the school: attend/present at PAC meetings, assemblies, staff meetings
meet with individual staff and poll them on what the like, don’t like, want, etc. for the school library and the role of the librarian
advocate for better computers (they were rated the worst in Van elementary schools), smartboard
meet with parents (although parent involvement is low) and get their input
meet with students and ask them what they like, don’t like, want to change about the library
meet with admin and library committee, to begin looking at library policy based on information collected, work towards a collaborative policy over time (plan for pro d next year), try to do this using a wiki
build library website and blog
build wikis to use with classes I do prep with (so it won’t be just a book exchange), and build on units teachers are already doing
collaboratively plan a unit using a wiki, start with one group, teach small groups at a time since there are only 4 computers in the library
include the use of video and podcasts with students (media release forms)
present successful ways to collaborate with the TL at staff and PAC meetings, as a way to gain support and some more teacher converts
join TL groups for professional development, attend workshops, build connections and relationships in the greater TL community
help fellow teachers create their own blogs, wikis
Plan for next year as an enrolling teacher (current position grades 2/3):
continue to use class blog for information to students & parents
develop wiki with students, teach a few to be organizers (Lana’s idea), work with small groups at a time in collab with TL, focus on one unit such as Canada or Communities
teach them how to edit, post photos, create links, create and post video, etc.
present class work to parents, PAC, staff
offer to help other staff build their own blogs & wikis
continue to use and learn about web 2.0 tools as professional development as a digital refugee
Welcome to LIBE 477, my final course for the TL Diploma! I am more than a little excited, but loathe to give up my UPass. If it weren’t for worrying about grades and the cost of courses, I would just keep going. Anyway.
In the first two days, several things stood out for me. First, the digital native generation. This is interesting to me not just as a teacher, but as a parent also. My oldest is thirteen and we frequently have conversations, disagreements even, about the purchase, maintenance, and use of technology. She always wants the latest, greatest gadget that can do more, faster, and better.
Teacher Librarian 