Here is my acronymical representation of some of the offerings at our library.
In revising this piece, I went back to my professional manifesto from the beginning of this course and made some tweaks to align this document with my professional goals. In creating this document, I followed Stephan's advice in crafting an acronym, or initialism that would be memorable and catchy. I used the plaid background, but followed our professor's advice and toned down the colours to make the text more legible.
Reference: Loertscher, David V., et al. "Makerspaces in the school library learning commons and the uTEC maker model." Teacher Librarian, vol. 41, no. 2, Dec. 2013
As I outlined in my module 5 task, I think that our elementary school library does not need a fancy and unique name, because elementary students are excited by the library already and I am building their impressions of a library with their most visited, and perhaps only library space. This has painted me into a bit of a corner in terms of designing a logo, but here are three that reflect the nature of our library.
The first combines traditional books with a typography meant to evoke a printed circuit board. This captures both the traditional and tech nature of the library.
The second shows the distinctive west view of the school rising from a stylized book. It is meant to evoke the image of the library as the foundation and heart of the school. The windows to the right are the library windows.
The third represents a book morphing into an arrow. It is meant to convey the progressive nature of the library and direct the viewer to the exciting things going on in the library.
Which do you like? Do you think I need a catchier name than The Library?
With field trips on hold due to Covid, virtual experiences can fill in the gap. Here are three virtual experiences that your class can enjoy. They all connect to the Science curriculum and Life Sciences:
This educational series brings the experts into the classroom. 8 times yearly, they present an interactive program, followed by a chance to questions experts. I have joined in with scientists in Sooke River as the salmon spawned. The students loved when we tweeted to the scientists and they answered our questions online. We also saw emergency responders talk about how they prepare for wildfire season. This program connects to themes in Social Studies, as well as Science.
This organization brings the ocean into classrooms and classrooms to the ocean. Programs are on a variety of topics, fitting into the Life Sciences curriculum in many grades. I discovered this program through the Stream to Sea program and their newsletter Water Ship News. Through this program, we hatch salmon from eggs and raise them to fry, finally releasing them into our local watershed. The programs of Seaquaria compliment this initiative. The newsletter also links to virtual resources from the CRD, The Pacific Salmon Foundation and may others.
Though the Sierra Club is generally focused on place based education, they have some virtual offerings too. They periodically will do drawing webinars that you can also access after the event. Their livestream on how to draw a bat was popular with my grade 5 class. I also find their EcoMap a great resource and jumping off point for talking about BC ecosystems, animals, and indigenous uses of the land,
Our district uses Google as it's main ecosystem, so I tend to use Google apps where possible, and those compatible with Google, or that you can sign into with a student Google account in order for the families to have ease of use.
Please enjoy this video communicating some of the ideas for a redesigned library. These ideas are informed by the work I have done in my Teacher Librarian as Tech Leader course, by a questionnaire of my colleagues and through discussions with my peers.
The assignment asks us to imagine a new name for the space. This reminded me of the L!brary Initiative Project in New York, and the TED talkby Michael Bierut. In the talk, he speaks of rebranding the library space. He was looking for a new name, and in the end, the group decided on The L!brary. In an elementary school, the term library is not an old worn out term, but an exciting place. I will continue to call it The Library, but work towards creating a culture that values the library as a place of creating and learning and doing.
Questions to ponder:
How does the layout of a library drive the culture in your school?
How does your library deal with storage of teacher materials like novel studies and leveled reading?
Additional References:
Kafai, Y. B. (2016). From Computational Thinking to Computational Participation in K-12 Education. Communications of the ACM, 59(8), 26–27. https://doi-org.proxy.queensu.ca/10.1145/2955114
New Media Corsortium., & Consortium for School Networking. (2010). Horizon report. Austin, TX: The New Media Corsortium
Burns, M. (2018). Tasks before apps: Designing rigorous learning in a tech-rich classroom.
Innovative learning Center. Taking Making Taking making into the Classroom. 2021 https://mytrainingbc.ca/maker/en/toolkit/Taking_Making_into_Classrooms.pdf
Koehler, M. J., & Mishra, P. (2009). What is technological pedagogical content knowledge? Contemporary Issues in Technology and Teacher Education, 9(1). https://citejournal.org/volume-9/issue-1-09/general/what-is-technological-pedagogicalcontent-knowledge
Pierce, D., (2015). Three Ways Mobile Technology is Transforming Learning Spaces, The Journal. Retrieved from: https://thejournal.com/articles/2015/08/25/3-ways-mobile-technology-is-transforming-learning-spaces.aspx
