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

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. 

Consultation - Collaboration HELP is what matters

Dictionary.com defines Consultation as a meeting for deliberation, discussion or decision and Collaboration as the act of working with another or others on a joint project.

When discussing collaboration with fellow Teacher Librarians I have heard that the aim is to make sure the Teacher Librarian is as involved with the student learning as much as possible. The ideal would be to plan with the teacher, deliver the content/skills to the student together with the teacher and then to evaluate the learning with the students and teachers together. Being involved with the whole process is collaboration nirvana. I wonder if this goal is totally unrealistic and unsustainable in the school environment? 

Often consultation is seen as the poor alternative to collaboration. I think the measure of this should be the person who is seeking your assistance.

Last week I had many experiences working with colleagues and students that would be described as consultation rather than collaboration. My input to their project came at their request and was only a small part in helping them achieve success in their goal. We looked at how to create resource lists in Destiny,  how to find books on Destiny and on the library shelves, how to access online databases and how to make notes using Google Docs. All important skills and all essential for the person's success.

I hope to develop better skills at both consultations and collaboration. 

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Distance no probelm

Today while in my library at school I was able to meet with a writer who was in Valencia, Spain and visit a school in Sofia, Bulgaria. Both experiences were made possible by Skype and supplemented through Twitter

Our school is going to hosting a new writer - Ree Gillett - in February for our Love Reading Week. We were chatting about the things she needed me to set up and I was showing her our library and the space she would be working in. It was great to 'meet' Ree after a few weeks of emails trying to make her visit to Istanbul work. She will be bringing her book, Freddy Frog and the lost kite her puppets, some creative thinking strategies to share with our students and teachers and her singing voice. We are so looking forward to her visit. 

Today the third meeting of  LTEN took place at the Anglo-American School of Sofia. LTEN was created by one of my colleagues, Tom Johnson and it stands for  Learning and Technology Exchange Network. This Network is for teachers in schools in and near Istanbul, Turkey. We organise the agenda of the meeting through the wikispace. We try and meet three times a year for a whole day and share ideas, tools and learning strategies. Although I could not be at the meeting in Sofia I did attend for 40 minutes through Skype. A teacher in Sofia hosted me via Skype and an ipad as they were having speedgeek sessions run by the students in the school. I was able to see grade 2 students present about voicethread and grade 5 students about using Google apps in their classroom. Wonderful. When I wasn't able to be on Skype I stayed in touch through the twitter hash tag #LTEN. 

Two different meetings , two different parts of the world and all through Skype. Recently a principal I was speaking to commented that Skype was probably the most under utilised tool in schools today. I agree. Think of who our students could connect to using this free technology. Sometimes it is simply not knowing who to connect with that prevents this technology being utilised effectively. Perhaps we librarians can start to create a wiki or database with possible Skype contacts for student and teachers. Something to ponder....

The Book Whisperer - ideas into action

I have talked to so many people about this book - as I was starting to read it, while I was reading it and after I finished reading it. Do not be surprised if you see more blog posts about it and the ideas Donalyn Miller shares.

Donalyn Miller is a teacher in Texas. She teaches language arts to grade 6. At the start of every school year she challenges the students to read 40 books that year. That is their goal. They can choose the books themselves. They do not have to write endless book reports or complete worksheets about the books. All they are asked to do is to read and keep a journal reflecting on their reading. In this journal they keep notes about books they would like to read in the future. Books other students tell them about. Donalyn sets herself a goal as well. Her goal is that by the end of the year every student in her class will have a love of reading.

Sounds like an impossible dream? I can imagine some of the students in her class being absolutely shocked at the thought of reading 40 books. Yet every year they all reach the goal. Many read more than 40 books. Her students score above the state standard levels in the standards tests every year. Donalyn teaches reading skills, comprehensions skills, all the necessary content for the language arts programme through the books her students choose for themselves. 

This is a librarian's dream. I was waiting expectantly for the pages Donalyn would devote to her class trips to the library. I was keen to read all the tips and anecdotes about how they modelled and taught book selection, book sharing, reading widely. There are two pages where Donalyn mentions her weekly or fortnightly visit to the library and that is it. No mention of partnership, collaboration. It is a positive experience admittedly but it is only a two page mention. Instead Donalyn exhorts teachers to develop their own class libraries, she has hundreds of books in her own library. 

Don't misunderstand me - I am not disappointed in this book. I am inspired by it. I love that Donalyn herself is an avid reader, that she enthuses so many students about reading. I am disappointed about the silence in the book about what an awesome resource the school library can be for such a programme. I crave to read about the partnership the school librarian can have with such a teacher. 

What can I implement in our library from this book? I am going to put this book in as many teachers' hands as possible. I am going to model how to choose books. I am going to encourage student voices to talk about their reading, their enjoyment and their selections. Already we have had wonderful times with grade 7, grade 3 on the rights of the reader and grade 4 are due in on Monday. All at the invitation of their teachers. I would love our school to become a book whispering school.

For more about Donalyn - she has this website - The Book Whisperer Please read her book, be inspired and then talk to me about how librarians can encourage teachers who want to be book whisperers in their own classrooms.