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. 

Destiny at IICS - my first ever i-movie

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

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.

Wondering at work - mystery

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

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

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....