Community/Teams

LIBE 477 “Future Vision Project” Part One: The Final Frontier

emadsen8 Comments
oFace Killah, CC BY 2.0

I can’t help but think of Star Trek whenever I look at the title for this assignment. Admittedly I think of Star Trek a lot in general, but “future vision”- that is the domain of Gene Roddenberry. He had a vision for the future that contrasted with the normally dark science fiction that centred on conflict and destruction. Roddenberry was optimistic and believed that humans had tremendous potential. I guess that kinda mirrors my educational view for the future. I’m optimistic about the futures of my students and believe they have tremendous potential.

It’s up to us to “make it so.” 😉

Originally I had a vision for this project:

the 21st Century Classroom as realized through teamwork, technology and totally awesome projects 

I even like the alliteration. But the thing is, as I sat drafting ideas, I realized it’s too big in scope for this project. I tend to be like that: ambitious with no consideration for my timeframe, busy life and overall mental well-being. This gets me in over my head sometimes. Often, actually. So for this project I am consciously pumping the brakes a little so that I can give myself a vision that I can actually complete on time while allowing myself the luxury of sleeping now and again.

All along my vision for this inquiry project has been to have it mirror the professional journey I’m on both for pragmatic reasons, as I strive to find my way in a new role, and for intellectual reasons, because I know that the program I’m working in is innovative and a promising path for education. Consequently, I want my project to marry my current teacher life with my student life. So I plan on taking my course learning and explaining it and amplifying it with examples from what’s going on in PLP classrooms in my school. 

Part of the pleasant part of this learning journey for me has been how my UBC requirements are lining up with the work being asked of me in the school. At this point, my grade 8 learners are sharpening their technology skills as a means of expressing their learning by not only blogging (like me!), but learning how to use different tools to create different kinds of texts, such as using Keynote on their iPads to generate videos.  The students in grades nine through 12 are making more sophisticated digital work by incorporating different apps, and ultimately using iMovie. I myself, as their teacher, need to get more comfortable with these tools, so I am going to push myself to create a movie for my final project and learning the tools that my students are learning. Even though deep down I just want to write a paper!!! So that’s the how, the format. Imma make a video. 🤮 Now for the what, the content: What will my technology video include?

I would like to include screenshots to show some of the digital tools in action, and explain how they amplify good pedagogy. 

Also, asking the students what they envision would be an effective classroom in the 21st-century is a good strategy. According to John Spencer, the understanding stage of a project involves “authentic research,” anything we do to learn. And one of the things that we advise students that they should do to learn is ask an expert. Who is a better expert at what makes a good classroom than the people who spend six hours a day in one? And, after all, that is our why. They are why we are designing better schools. So I would love to include their perspective on what classrooms should look like as well as perhaps snippets of their work that demonstrate what can be done if we design good tech-infused programs.  

If I’m feeling brave, lol I might even ask students to help me get comfortable with the tools. One of the key aspects of a good 21st-century classroom is the use of feedback for growth, something that our students do a lot of and are quite comfortable at. I think it would be valuable and important to model this with them by seeking their feedback on my work, especially considering that some of them have a lot more experience with these digital tools than I do. I think they might rather find it fun to give me feedback on my fledgling movie work! 🤪

Another key aspect of my inquiry this semester has been to explore the power of mentorship and team in education. So I would also like to include the perspectives of the members of my team in this project. I hope to be able to interview them and include clips of what they say. I think it would be valuable to model my learning on the value of bringing in various perspectives  to strengthen a program.

Potential outline for my movie:

  • The why: goals for the education system (“the educated citizen”) and skills in demand in the 21st century
  • What can be done with tech:
    • Creativity
    • Collaboration
    • Expanded learning options
    • Adaptive advantages/different ways of showing learning
    • Not just learning curriculum, but learning tech skills
    • Authentic: we learn and communicate online
    • Problem-solving
  • Concerns:
    • Helping kids with their executive function 
    • Inequity

This still seems like a LOT for a 3-5 minute video. So I will go into it with the understanding that I might have to narrow it even further. If that’s the case, I think my angle would be the role of technology in levelling the playing field for all kids. But we’ll see. Maybe I just won’t sleep! 

LIBE 477 Inquiry Project Blog Post #5– The Incredible Journey

emadsen4 Comments
Photo by Milad Fakurian on Unsplash

I’m a big proponent of reflection. As John Dewey famously said, “We do not learn from experience; we learn from reflecting on experience.” As a teacher, I have even found that I have gleaned more about a student’s learning from a reflection (when done right) than from the project itself. Because learning is a process not a product. So while this blog is great (ego much?), it’s what has gone on in my head that is truly the magic. And now I shall try to encapsulate it for you!

This process has actually been quite valuable for me and, interestingly enough, not necessarily why I would’ve predicted. I was a little bit hesitant when I heard we would be doing blogging for a section of the course because it does elevate the pressure because you know other people are going to be reading it. But my primary stressor was because I knew it would take me extra time because it was not just information and thinking: it was a skill. I had to learn how to do something on top of the normal research and writing skills that go along with the course. I know how to student. I did not know how to blog. I USED to blog, but it’s been about a decade so I had to re-learn. However, as luck would have it, it has turned out to be extraordinarily valuable, because I am now having to teach and do blogging with my grade eights. (Check out Kennedy’s page— with their permission, of course– to see some of the awesome things the students are doing after only two short months.) And next week they are going to be starting The Geek Out Blog Challenge, so if you look at my blog and you see a page at the top and wonder why it says “Geek Out,” it’s because I am creating a dummy page to work with along with them. So I am definitely further along, prepared to help coach students at blogging than I would have been a month ago!

One of the things that stands out to me the most, and that I kind of find surprising, is the influence of having other people in my small little learning group. I find that I really look forward to seeing what the comments are. This is an important reminder that sharing our thoughts and sharing our learning is valuable. And that everyone benefits from feedback!!! It is also nice to know that there is an audience for your work, and someone is actually reading it. This I connect to the program I’m currently working in because one of the important aspects of project based learning is to have an authentic audience for your students’ work so that they have a purpose for doing it that is beyond just the teacher reading it. This also elevates the work because other people are going to see it. I know I put more time into the assignments because of their public nature. Not only is it visible to our class, but I chose to use my employer sponsored blog, so it’s readily available to my colleagues (and students!). In reading my colleagues’ blogs, I also find it really interesting to see how many different perspectives there are on one prompt, and I think it enhances my learning because then I get to see not only the avenue I decided to go down in my research of my thinking, but I get to learn about the directions that other people discovered. (And I learned about Bored Teachers on Instagram.)

I think, rather than selecting one topic that resonated with me, I would focus on an observation that I made: the interconnectedness of it all. The independent journey that I’m on, for example, is influenced by the team that I am working with, and down the road, hopefully this learning, both through my UBC program, as well as my own development as a professional, will be a benefit in influencing others around me as I look to be a resource to them. I suppose, however, if I had to pick a topic, it would be the last one where I explored the issue of inequity within our province. I spent way more time on that assignment than any other, so that indicates my level of interest. Furthermore, it was a topic that was particularly close to me because of my professional experiences.

All students should be this lucky!

I also think it connects to that bigger picture of the types of schools we want to create both as teachers and teacher librarians for 21st-century learners, so I think that this topic was important for me in terms of going forward in this course, because as I look to my final project of my vision for the future, I know that my vision requires equity. All the great pedagogy and mentorship and collaboration among professionals in the world is not useful if the infrastructure isn’t in place.

In terms of development in my current practice, the part of my learning so far that resonates with me, and is steering my inquiry, is the realization of the strength of the team that I work with. I, despite having been a teacher for 24 years, feel like a beginner, because there is so much new to me in my current role. I have made progress in terms of learning how to use new digital tools, and in understanding and developing project based learning units. However, as I wrap up my first project of the year, I know I have a lot to learn. Fortunately, I have a lot of great people around me with experience. The best thing I can do is lean on those willing and able to help me! When I first started thinking about my inquiry project, I knew that I wanted it to mirror the experience I was having as a professional for obvious practical reasons. Acknowledging that I still have a lot to learn, I think this was a wise choice. I think, however, as the school semester has unfolded, my focus has narrowed. I am less interested in the tools and the pedagogy because those are, I think, less complex. I am more interested in the collaborative dynamic and the concept of mentorship. I also happen to believe that as a teacher librarian, that is one of your most important functions in a school. Therefore, I think it is the topic that I am most interested in exploring further.

 

 

Onward on the journey!

LIBE 477 Inquiry Project Blog Post #3— The Life of Bryan

emadsen3 Comments

 

 

Meet Bryan.

 

 

 

This is a photo of Bryan at the circulation desk in his North Vancouver high school library. If you know Bryan, you know this is obviously a staged picture. You see, he doesn’t spend very much time sitting behind a circulation desk because he has so much else to do!

Bryan is a very good teacher librarian. What is it that makes him so good at what he does?

I have a vivid picture in my head of my elementary-aged self hanging out in the library (I was a cool kid, obviously) and it was the home turf of a the quintessential 1970s librarian: bespectacled, of course, middle-aged mousy woman with a soft “ssshhh” voice. She was the gatekeeper of books. And I think that’s about it. Seven year old me thought she lived in the library with the books. It didn’t even dawn on me at the time that the woman might actually be a certified teacher. If you wanted a book, she could help you. Other than that, she made sure that the library was a silent hub of inactivity.

Unlike Bryan’s library, where there is so much going on! While it would be fascinating to get a student’s perspective on the library, I’m going to focus on the teacher perspective, something that is for a lot of people “behind the scenes,” so we can see what it is that the the modern TL really does (and should do).

So you’re a teacher. You know ICT is one of those buzzy educational phrases. You know you should be “doing inquiry.” You want to amp up your pedagogical prowess. Why is Bryan potentially so valuable to a hard-working, curious teacher like you?

I think the modern day teacher librarian basically has to do three things well:

  1. Be likeable and approachable
  2. Know their 💩
  3. Be helpful: show what they can offer (and advertise if they have to)

So let’s analyze our friend Bryan.

First of all, he is always good for a travel tip (from Portland, Oregon to Pyongyang, North Korea) or advice for a good place to eat anywhere. (Thank you, Bryan, for recommending Burgers in Paradise in Maui.) That information might not seem pertinent, but it actually is. You see, what Bryan understands is that in order for all his many skills to be put to good use in the school, he needs to first and foremost be approachable and likeable. After all, who wants to seek help from someone who’s grouchy, judgemental and unfriendly?! So it definitely helps that Bryan is funny, friendly and approachable. “Humour…serves to break the tension and provides momentary relief from the hard work” of being a teacher. And have food on hand. Teachers like treats: “Advertise food when you want teachers to join you…” because the offerings help “sustain a community of practice” (Kimmel, 2013) .

 

 

 

Collaboration time is better with ice cream sandwiches!

 

 

Next, now that people like their TL and are happy in his company, Bryan needs to give them a reason to want to spend time in his company. The key to being able to help other teachers develop their professional skill set is to first sharpen his own. As Dr. Kristen Mattson writes, it’s important to be “equipped” because the modern TL needs to;

  • curate content– both physical and digital
  • be the inquiry guru
  • coach people on information literacy– there’s a lot of unreliable garbage out there!
  • be the master of digital literacy and help people navigate both web searches and academic databases because “most of our information has moved into digital formats”
  • be an advocate for the ethical use of information– so darned easy to just copy and paste!

A good TL knows the digital world; they stay “up to date with social media and technological trends” and model and encourage their use “where they are relevant to learning” (Herring, 2017). Your awesome TL maintains a quality library website- his “digital learning commons.” You can follow him on Twitter (@bryanhughes), Instagram (@bryanhughes) and Tik Tok (hint hint, Bryan). A good TL is always learning, playing with new things, attending conferences and workshops and keeping on top of what’s new and relevant.

That’s a lot. But if a TL’s teaching colleagues realize just how many skills they have and in how many ways they can help, then they have the potential for “rockstar collaborative relationships” (Mattson, 2017). We’ve already established that Bryan is the kind of person people want to be around. He knows his 💩.  So how do people discover how helpful he can really be?

He needs to drum up some business! 🥁

A good teacher librarian will seem to be everywhere (except at the circulation desk). They insert themselves into as many contexts in the school as possible. I used to be a little bit judgemental of TLs who left the library at lunch to eat with their colleagues in the staff room. I thought, shouldn’t they be in the library when there’s kids there who need them?! However, now what I see is that the teacher librarian needs to be “where the teachers are” and needs to be part of the conversation and needs to be listening to them and hearing them talk about their day so he knows what their needs are and he needs to be in the conversation so that they can see that he might be able to help them with what they’re doing and they can get a sense of everything he knows and…and…and.  “The teacher librarian does not make instructional partnerships by… waiting to be approached.” They need to “get out [of the library], make friends, and be willing to jump in when a need arises!” (Mattson, 2017).

A good TL is on a constant recon mission 🕵️‍♂️ to know the needs of the school and to find opportunities to engage in discussion to communicate their value. A good TL serves on as many committees as possible. A good TL attends as many department meetings as possible. A good TL invites themselves into any scenario where they might be useful. A colleague and I planned a “lunch and learn” last week so she could give me some help with a new tool. Bryan just showed up too– because he’d heard there was ICT learning going on. I was impressed that he had his ear to the ground and even knew we were meeting. And his presence enhanced the quality of the learning. (Though not the lunching. He didn’t bring food. Bad Bryan!)

 

 

Bryan leading the collaborative learning of the PLP team, demonstrating a new tool and driving the conversation on team teaching. A good TL knows who is doing good stuff and joins in to amplify the awesome!

 

The TL’s true secret weapon is TIME. Teachers never have enough of it. If a TL can add an extra set of hands to the work we do, they will be welcome in any scenario. If a TL is “willing and able to contribute,” (Mattson, 2017) who would turn that down?! “I don’t need any help. I can do everything awesomely all on my own!” said NO. TEACHER. EVER.

If you’re a TL (or a fledgling one like me), be Bryan. If you are a classroom teacher wanting to partner with an awesome TL, sorry, but he’s taken!

References:

Herring, J. (2017). The future role of the teacher librarian. http://www.scisdata.com. Retrieved October 23, 2022, from https://www.scisdata.com/connections/issue-100/the-future-role-of-the-teacher-librarian/

Kimmel, Sue C. “Pass the Chocolate: Planning with Teachers.” Knowledge Quest, vol. 42, no. 1, 2013, pp. 48–51., https://go.exlibris.link/Wn9kHJCs. Accessed 23 Oct. 2022.

Mattson, K. (2018, September 27). The librarian as an instructional partner. Medium. Retrieved October 23, 2022, from https://medium.com/inspired-ideas-prek-12/the-librarian-as-an-instructional-partner-38b2d374bbec

 

 

LIBE 477 Inquiry Blog Post #2: I get by with a little help from my friends

emadsen7 Comments

This is dedicated to the “Awesome Squad.” We worked together for 4 years in Grand Forks and did some great professional learning together! And we had a lot of fun.

Some days I swear I’d do this job for nothing. Reality, of course, is that not all days are brilliant. Some days are rough. Some days are exhausting. And some days are tear-filled, hair-pulling, sleep-deprived messes. So glad we’re not in it alone.

Like in any aspect of life, a strong support system is essential. You need people who understand your challenges. You need people who celebrate your successes (and who listen when things go south). You need people to laugh with. You need people to vent with. You need people to walk you around the block at lunch when the stress demons are plaguing you. You just need people. So glad we’re not in it alone.

I’ve been a teacher for 24 years, and somehow this job never gets easier. The needs of the kids are still complex. The scope of the challenge is still enormous. And the weight of the importance is still crushing. So glad we’re not in it alone.

But aside from the emotional support, your squad also helps you grow professionally. They give you feedback to improve. They inspire you with their own work. They explore new ideas and approaches with you. They sit and talk teaching and talk learning and talk assessing and talk reading and talk writing and talk counselling and talk coaching… and talk every “ing” you’re responsible for in this profession. They make you better. SO GLAD WE’RE NOT IN IT ALONE!!!

Sometimes the tendency with stuff that challenges us and stuff that isn’t going well is to keep it private. It’s hard to admit it’s hard. Having a squad that you trust and that you know values you, allows you to share. And that is clearly important in terms of moving forward. How do you work out that stuff that isn’t going well if you are insular? That stuff needs to air out. So glad we’re not in it alone.

Collectively we know more and can accomplish more than we can individually. And if we fulfill our potential, then our students are more likely to fulfill their potential. Characteristics of community– trust, shared values, acceptance, communication, commitment, reciprocity, accountability, equity, openness, cohesion, respect, participation—are precisely what drive learning in a classroom. And they’re precisely what drive learning among professionals. So glad we’re not in it alone.

 I am actually quite proud of how I have managed my own personal growth and development as a teacher. In fact, my decision to enrol in this diploma program was spurred on by my principal telling me that I already engaged in the kind of learning that exists in graduate programs, so I might as well be getting paid for it! Obviously I agreed. 💰

What he meant was I read things. I ask questions. I talk teaching. I go to every workshop offered. I join committees. I self-assess and look for resources or advice to help me with what I want to improve. I think my own personality helps. I am a perfectionist; the one thing I value above all else is competence. Seriously. The biggest compliment you could pay me is to tell me that I’m competent. Not nice, not generous, not pretty, not kind. Competent. Consequently, I have always been driven to seek out learning opportunities and networks throughout my career. I also find that I am drawn in this way to like-minded teachers, other people who also wanna learn stuff. When you find your squad, you will find that the conversations just naturally happen, whether at lunch or after school or somewhere else if you are friends outside of school. And these casual conversations can be some of the best professional exploration you do. Furthermore, chances are pretty good that they do all the things you do, like follow great people on Twitter, seek out good articles and quality blogs, and look for pro d opportunities, and then they will share those ideas with you.

My professional squad-ships led me to the opportunity to travel for what were two of the greatest professional learning experiences of my career. First of all I was blessed to do a three day residency at High Tech High in San Diego. Secondly, I was invited to go to the ISTE Conference in the summer of 2015. The best thing about the ISTE experience (and CUEBC locally) was that I learned about some great tools that I could put in my back pedagogical pocket. Later, when I had an idea for something I wanted to do, and was asking myself, “How do I make this happen?” I had these tools and strategies to draw on.  So cast a wider net, if you can. 

In the near future, I think the greatest opportunity I have two develop and explore exist right within my own current role. As the newest member of an Apple Distinguished School project-based learning program, I have a LOT to learn. 😂 But the best part is, I have the right people beside me. A new squad. This is a tremendous group who really strive to develop the best program we can for our learners. We meet together every Wednesday after school, we are constantly talking during the school day, particularly in the 45 minute tutorial block where we all work in the same room, we have a group chat on iMessage, we collaborate and build our curriculum on a shared platform (Craft), and when one of us has questions or wants to explore something new, the others are more than willing to get together at lunch and co-learn and co-explore.

My new squad

I know there is also a lot of great stuff going on in cyberspace. For example, last year I was invited to attend a Saturday virtual unconference with a grassroots group exploring assessment. (As usual, someone in my squad told me about it.) In my own school district, I joined the mentorship team and worked virtually with other mentors exploring strategies for how we could help newer teachers. I joined a virtual book club exploring the impact of trauma through The Boy Who Was Raised As a Dog. And, of course, our schools brought us virtual pro D events. My favourite was Katie White. I learned a lot in these experiences, and I am grateful for them. But it just wasn’t the same as a real conference. After two years of the Covid Zoom universe, I am really excited to be back and doing my professional learning in person with real people.

Tweeted by @NVSD44

So glad we’re not in it alone.

Find your squad!

 

 

 

LIBE 477 Inquiry Project Part One: If you build it…

emadsen2 Comments

Baseball and books are two of my favourite things, so I am STOKED at the opportunity to bring them together in this post.

One of the fundamental questions for the Teacher Librarian (TL) and the English teacher is “How do you foster a reading culture?”

I am  a “start with why” thinker. It seems obvious, but it’s worth stating that we want kids to read because literacy is the gateway to all learning. If we foster reading, we increase academic success.

So now we know our mission 🚀; how do we get there?

I am going to tell you about one of the greatest resource videos I ever came across: The Power of Reading, a lecture by Stephen Krashen, Professor Emeritus at USC. You know how you feel when you find something that you really love, and you feel like you have discovered some amazing, world-changing secret, and you just have to tell everyone? And then you find out everyone already knows about it? Such was my Stephen Krashen experience. Turns out I had “discovered” someone everyone else already knew about; the man is an oft-quoted expert and educational and linguistic legend. Yet he had somehow escaped my detection until a few years ago. If you are in the same boat, you’re welcome! If you are shaking your head in horror (How can you be an English teacher and not know who Stephen Krashen is?!)…

For the purpose of this post, I want to focus on one aspect of the Krashen video. It is simple, but it is brilliant: “When you give kids interesting things to read, they will read them” (UGACOE 2012). Quite simply, reading for pleasure improves reading.

Now for the baseball part! 🤗🤗🤗 Krashen talks about the concept of “the home run book.” Like a person learning to play baseball who falls in love with the game after experiencing the rush of their first home run, Krashen says one strong, positive reading experience can turn you into a reader. This rings true for me; I remember a student years ago who struggled to read. I gave him a high interest book called Suspicion Island. He loved it and came back asking for “more books like that one.” The next day I saw him in the library. He’d found his “homerun book” and he now knew he could read for pleasure.

So if reading leads to reading, how do we increase reading? Some ideas that I (or people smarter than I) have tried:

  • As a TL, establish a collection that is diverse in every way—subject matter, ability level, fiction versus non-fiction, representation, genres, and text only versus text with visuals—so there are truly options for every student. As an English teacher, I suffered from the “this is what students should be reading” mindset. I now get that we need to focus instead on “this is what students want to be reading.”  Field of Dreams famously taught us, ” If you build it they will come.” If you build a collection, they will read. (Baseball analogy #2, for those keeping score. Is that #3?)
  • If you have a great collection with something for everyone, you need to get that message out. In my previous school, I was gifted prime bulletin board territory across from the office. I used it to make colourful displays to catch people’s eyes and let them know what they could find in the library. Sometimes I had a theme (scary books for October), or sometimes I simply built a display of new titles. Other times my bulletin board had a message so students knew they could find voices that spoke to them (or for them!), like the time I made a display of LGBTQ titles. It’s important, if your collection represents and includes all students, to tell them that. Of course some schools are blessed with display cases at their library. Use those too! And change them regularly so all kids can see the diversity in your library. And this is so important: include those high interest books and graphic novels so kids feel that they are valued and not just the lesser cousins of “the real books.” Krashen gives the example of Bishop Desmond Tutu who professed that his love of reading came from comic books. He also recommends Captain Underpants and Garfield to encourage reading. Personally, I have found that the most popular books in the library are the yearly Guinness Book of World Records, which feature spectacular visuals along with printed text. Bottom line: all books are cool! 😎
  • A library should, of course, have a good digital presence. Not only is it a source of useful tools (databases, citation help), but it’s a great way to advertise the books. And Tweet. And post on the school website and Facebook page. Meet kids where they are.
  • Now that you have your awesome inclusive collection and you’ve told people about it, you want to help them get their hands on the books they’re going to love reading. The best thing I’ve seen is genre-based filing. Books are sorted according to categories (and then filed alphabetically by author within that section) and colour-coded. If a kid knows they want to read about history, they know where to find books about history. If a kid wants to read comics or graphic novels, they know where to find comics and graphic novels. If a kid knows they like science fiction, but the science fiction is lost in a larger sea of fiction, it’s harder for that kid to connect with their “home run books.” The easier it is to find something they want to read, the more likely they are to read.

  • I take a similar approach as an English teacher, such as with a recent challenging Literary Studies 11 class. Because I had control of the library budget, I had the luxury of ordering books that would eventually go to the library but could start in my classroom. I purchased $1000 worth of a wide assortment of graphic novels, covering hopefully every interest (superheroes, LGBTQ, history, technology, sports, family drama, high level literary fiction– don’t forget about the kids who already love to read!) and let my students select what they would read, without judgment. The kids who struggled with reading loved that there were high interest, accessible options. I remember one boy in particular who enthusiastically approached the selection of graphic novels and couldn’t help but say, “Cool!” when he saw Batman Returns was an option in English class. I didn’t need to prod, bribe, or threaten them to read, and to a kid, they all expressed how much they liked their books. I even had kids ask for another book! Grand slam! 
  • Of course building the collection isn’t the only infrastructure you need to create. You need to think about the space too. You want it to be inviting. You want it to be comfortable. You want people to want to come there. And like your collection, you want it to meet diverse needs. Some people want to curl up in a beanbag chair in the corner. Some want to chill on a couch. Some want to sit with their friends at a table. I love my current school library for this reason, and it is very much the heart of the school precisely because it offers something for everyone. Take a tour:

https://animoto.com/play/BLDc1aXxK6ptiCsvtOK12Q

  • The most effective English teachers and TLs embrace technology as a partner in literacy. Last year in my classroom, my pedagogical focus was on UDL. If I want all students to succeed, I need to build my practice in a way that allows them to succeed. For literacy, this included embracing technology. Again, the traditional English teacher voice in my head was shouting at me about what reading looked like (a kid with a book in their hand). But all that mindset does is throw up a barrier for so many kids. Remember that kid whose face lit up when he saw Batman Returns? I’d seen that face before: for the first assigned reading in the course, I told them I had shared a YouTube link with them of an audio version of the story we were reading. Relief and joy. He put on his headphones and  listened as he followed along with his book. At the end of the course, he thank me for “always letting him use the computer.” (Later I fumed that this was even worth mentioning for him; who wasn’t letting him use his computer?!) This kid was successful in my Literary Studies 11 class when he very well might not have been elsewhere. Likewise, I am now teaching with 1-to-1 iPad use, and kids are given access to eBooks, allowing use of a suite of handy tools: kids are encouraged to interact with the texts by highlighting key passages and making notes, they can instantly look up words they don’t understand, and they offer the read aloud feature. Interestingly enough, the 1-to-1 environment has meant that my UDL self was offering traditional paper books to the kids that wanted them. 🤪 The iPad tools may allow them to do more, but the most important thing for me is for them to be comfortable reading. And if they’re more comfortable with a “dead tree” (as my TL calls them), then give them a “dead tree.”
  • Finally, when talking about “a culture of reading,” don’t forget about the culture part, the customs and habits of a group of people. You want reading to be a shared custom or habit. One great way is to leverage the technology. I have a colleague who gave me the great suggestion of using the app Goodreads with my students. This puts them right into a community of readers and allows them to interact with people who share their tastes and interests as well as to get recommendations for other “home run books.” There is also a book club in my school. They have a presence in the school via posters, school announcements, a table at “club day, and meetings with food (peanuts and cracker jacks?) to attract new members.  Their interests are just as valued as athletics and the green club.

As baseball legend Willie Stargell once said, “When you start the game, they don’t say ‘Work ball!’ They say, ‘Play ball!’” (Bailey, 2022). If we want kids to read, there needs to be joy in it. Even I (with a degree in literature) feel like it’s work when I have to read something I don’t want to. But let me pick my book and I’ll get lost in it.

References

 

LIBE 477 Reading Review, Part A: Whatcha gonna do?!

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I am really fortunate in that I do not need to anticipate a new opportunity arising in my teaching in the near future because I am living that new opportunity.  After a number of years feeling like I was very much trying to push my practice on my own, I have been welcomed onto a team that is doing wonderful things pedagogically and I am so excited to be exploring new technology-rich frontiers with like-minded educators.

When people look at our program probably the first thing that they see that sets it apart is the fact that each student uses an iPad. However, the innovation of this program goes far beyond the obvious. But the one on one use of a device is an enticing prospect for me. As somebody who has worked as a teacher librarian and humanities teacher, I am excited by the expanded opportunities afforded my students by the use of the iPad: It is versatile and allows for tremendous creativity. While it is capable of traditional tools like word processing and Internet searches, there is so much more possibility, including communication beyond the walls of the school, creative work such as movies, animation, podcasts, and blogs, as well as adaptive options such as voice to text and text reader, promoting more opportunity for success among more students. Furthermore, becoming comfortable using the iPad helps develop problem-solving skills in students as well as encouraging collaboration as they both help each other and work together on their projects. And the iPad is gloriously portable, meaning learning can occur anywhere– as it so often does in real life.

Beyond just the use of technology, the program is also project-based learning which is new to me and very exciting. While I am feeling a definite learning curve in my planning process, I realize the opportunity for more real world, meaningful work by my students. I am also encouraged by my teammates to include real, authentic resources in the planning. So we will not just be learning within the walls of our school but are encouraged to move beyond and seek opportunity and expertise elsewhere. Hopefully this real-world exposure brings authenticity their work that in turn increases engagement in the learning.

Finally the third aspect of my new role that excites me the most is the fact that I am working as part of a team. In my experience as a teacher, the most powerful things I have done have come out of collaborative experiences. By its very nature, our program is designed for us to function as a team. For example, students don’t have one teacher for humanities for a year or even for a semester, but will have several teachers working with them throughout the year. This shifting not only exposes students to more educators and teaching styles, but allows us to work together as we get to know all of our learners and discus ways to support them as a team. Furthermore, as teachers we know the value of good feedback to our students, and so we follow this mindset ourselves, and work at developing projects, openly seeking feedback from the team as we go. This helps make us all better as well as exposes us to what the other team members are doing and allows us to build off of this to benefit of our students. And this is invaluable to me as the noob on the team!

As we strive to educate independent learners, one of the things that I am most focussed on is helping my students be smart and curious seekers of information. Information is ubiquitous nowadays; however, what our students need from us is the capacity to determine how to find information that is relevant, reliable, and useful. I also hope to build students’ capacities to synthesize information from different sources and increase their ability to connect things and ultimately engage in “big picture” thinking. In helping students become more discerning consumers of media, it is exciting to know that I am working in an environment that encourages engagement with these media and that allows students the opportunity to do so on a regular basis and not just intermittently as is so often the case in schools. A text book does not represent an authentic flow of information. Information comes from websites, blogs, social media, films, TV shows and conversations with other human beings. If that’s how people really learn, that’s how students ought to learn. The more we give students opportunities for learning that mirrors how people function outside the school, the better positioned they are for taking on challenges after graduation.

Areas of interest:

  • Digital workflow
  • Information literacy: database searches, media literacy
  • Collaborative teaching
  • Curation of information
  • Real-world learning
  • Technology in PBL

Click here to read about my awesome program!