Sonya's Teaching Blog

Reading in the sunshine is the best! Image from Reading is Fundamental ( www.rif.org ) It is well understood in our society that reading is an important skill to develop. Not only do we use it for entertainment or important documents, but it is an important part of our education system. In fact, reading for fun can improve a student's educational performance . So how can we encourage students to read more? I am a firm believer in modeling the behavior we want to see. In my life, I have heard many people declare that their love of reading began with a read-aloud in school. For older students, we can model just by reading in front of them. Working as a teacher on call, I have exposure to methods used in several schools. At one high school, there is a daily 20 minute period of silent reading every day observed by the entire school. During that time, I would also pull out a book to read, showing that it is a fun activity that will stay with you. It is also important to meet s...

As many of us look through our resource collections in our school libraries, we have realized that they are far from meeting the minimum standards for school library collections as recommended in Achieving Information Literacy (Asselin et al., 2006). While this is certainly in part due to low budgets and unrealistically high standards, the recent increase in emphasis on electronic resources has spread what meager budgets are available to school libraries even thinner. With all the shiny, new electronic resources available, physical resources have often become neglected and outdated. A set of Children's Encyclopedia Britannica published in the 1970s. Image copyright questionsforus.com New digital resources are coming out every day, and there's no denying that digital resources have certain advantages over physical resources: many are kept up to date as new information becomes available; they can be used by several people at once; in some cases, digital resources inclu...

While researching the role that learning commons play in digital literacy, I decided to break the topic into several sub-topics. Those were as follows: What is digital literacy and why is it important? How can we teach digital literacy and what role can libraries and/or learning commons play in digital literacy education? What standards are in place for digital literacy education and how are we assessing students’ abilities compared with those standards? Of the three sub-topics, the most discussed appears to be the need for digital literacy and, to a lesser degree, it’s definition. There is no universal definition of digital literacy, but there seems to be a consensus that it involves two larger concepts, plus other peripheral skills. The main concepts are 1) how to use digital technology to find and use information and 2) how to use digital technology to create and share information (Heitin, 2016; ISTE, 2016; Media Smarts, n.d.). However, there seems to be a wide range ...

After some consideration, I realized that my previous research interest broke down into a few sub-categories. The first is on how technology is being integrated into libraries. The second is the definition of digital literacy. The third is on what are standards for digital literacy and how do we make sure students are reaching these standards. The following are just a few of the numerous sources discovered while researching these three areas. 1. Smith System (2019). Learning Commons: How Technology is Changing 21st Century Library Design.  Retrieved from  https://smithsystem.com/smithfiles/2016/01/06/learning-commons-how-technology-is-changing-21st-century-library-design/ Technology is already being incorporated into libraries and education to varying degrees. This article article discusses libraries are becoming learning commons and are incorporating more technology,  using a specific example of updating a library built in the 50’s. 2. Media Smarts (n.d.). Dig...

Since my own high school graduation almost 20 years ago, I have very little experience in modern elementary and high-school libraries, but what I have experienced has shown me just how much has changed in that time. Technology has taken a huge role in education and libraries are definitely reflecting that, with 3-D printers, video and sound editing setups, coding events, and programmable playful objects like Spheros and Ozobots. And that’s just what I have seen. I want to know what other roles technology might be playing in modern libraries. What skills do I need as a future librarian? What are the best ways to guide students through this world of technology, especially knowing that many of them may have more exposure to technology than I currently do? What are the best ways to learn alongside the students? What digital competencies are the most important for us to pass on to our students? How do we decide what makes something “important”? And how do we most effectively pass those ...