Sonya's Teaching Blog

Collaboration is a common theme in school these days. Connections between subjects allow students to form deeper understanding of the content and ultimately retain more of what they learn (Katz, 2012). However, as many teachers these days are already stretched for time, finding room in our schedules to plan collaborative projects with colleagues can feel like a big ask. High schools are particularly guilty in this area as subjects are often literally separated by room, materials, time, and teachers. One thing we can do is incorporate ADST (Applied Design, Skills and Technologies) into projects and lessons in other subjects, and your friendly local teacher-librarian can help with that. Collaboration can lead to some incredible lessons. Image care of WeAreTeachers . Your teacher-librarian can introduce you and your students to digital tools that can broaden the possibilities for teaching and engage students in a wide variety of ways. As Frank Serafini (2012) points out, "pri...

I have always loved to read a wide variety of books. I equally enjoyed the YA fiction pulled out of the library, the "intellectual" books given out as required reading, and the random novels in my mother's bookshelf. However, I am well aware that not all young people share this interest. Those of us who have worked in a Secondary School Environment can imagine the following scenario all too well: A grade 10 student comes into the library weary because he has to submit an intended reading list and goals for the year. The teacher is excited about his/her new syllabus and is making attempts to slowly integrate more choice in reading in combination with the required novels assigned.  The only novels he has ever finished, reluctantly, have been the ones that were required reading in class. He dislikes reading and the idea of finishing one novel let alone a pre-determined list for the year is overwhelming. He is thinking of dropping the class. How do we take this situation...

In spite of having surgery today, I am going to get out an IMWAYR post this week because I have just read so much amazing stuff!  Speak  by Laurie Halse Anderson is an incredible book that I first need to mention comes with content warnings for sexual assault, self harm. These are difficult and yet necessary topics to discuss with young adults - they are sadly a reality for many youth these days and need to be discussed in classroom in supportive ways. Anderson, Laurie Halse (1999). Speak . New York: Farrar Straus Giroux. The book itself includes resources for youth needing support related to sexual assault, though they are USA centered. The first thing I recommend if you are going to discuss this book in a classroom setting is gathering resources that are local and useful to students in your class. Chances sadly pretty high that someone in that class will need these resources. Laurie Halse Anderson's Speak . Book cover care of goodreads.com Laurie Halse Anderson t...

The last bit of my life has been spent creating a website designed for the absolute beginner to learn how to use a 3D printer for education. This project really challenged my skill set, but I am so glad I did it. Introducing: DIMENSIONS: Beginner's 3D Printing for Education This TED talk by Stephen Elford might help spark your interest in 3D printing in education. Creating this project really combined and built on many skills I have learned during the LIBE 477 course. I decided that the best way to make a tutorial on how to 3D print for teaching would be to actually go through the steps of trying to do it myself. One of the most important skills I built up during this course was how to develop, maintain and take advantage of my own personal learning network. It's incredible the help people are willing to offer if you just ask. A good friend has a 3D printer, so I enlisted his help to try setting up a print myself. He recommended software and helped me when I got stu...

Digital Resources: Evaluation and Improvement Plan Resource: ERAC BC Digital Classroom , grades 9-12. Includes WorldBook Online Reference Centre, KnowBC, EBSCO Secondary Mini-suite, Gale in Context Series, and myBlueprint. Analysis: Riedling (2013) recommends analyzing indexes and databases for Accuracy, Authority, Format, and Scope (pp 90-91). Accuracy and Authority : The ERAC BC Digital Classroom is a trusted resource and the available databases are from trusted authorities and are considered to be highly accurate. Format (including accessibility) : Most of these resources are easily searchable, but require some added training to perform more complicated search functions. Some of these resources can be used in accessible ways. For example, EBSCO products support text-to-speech technology, provide transcripts for videos, and a few other tools to improve accessibility. The Gale In Context Series also offers text-to-speech and translation into over 20 common languages (...

One of the great struggles in maintaining a reference collection is the struggle to keep reference materials current. Riedling (2013) recommends that many reference materials be replaced after only 5 years. As the type of person who never likes to throw things out, I struggled with this idea. But it boils down to a quote from Riedling on page 21: "A good reference source is one that serves to answer questions, and a bad reference source is one that fails to answer questions." If a source is out of date, it likely won't answer all questions or, even worse, may answer them incorrectly. Reference librarians connect people with questions to sources with answers. Image care of Careers 360 . The quote by Riedling above gets to the heart of the role of the reference librarian. Be it maintaining collections, educating students, or performing reference interviews with students, we need to do our best to make sure questions are answered. But how do we do this in the age of ...

Last week, when musing on my Final Vision project , I was looking into creating a website to help teachers and librarians with access to 3D printers, but no idea how to use them. But why use 3D printers in schools at all? What use are they to teachers, librarians and students? Kids' drawings turned into 3D printed objects. Image from The Guardian . With school budgets getting cut all the time ( with numerous consequences ), and models for classrooms can get expensive. If you have access to a 3D printer, you can bypass the cost of many classroom tools and just make your own. Want a human skull? Make one ! Need a 3D model of your province? Totally doable ! You can even use a 3D printer to build replacement parts on broken tools or models you already have, getting more life out of them. Just this one tool can be used for all kinds of classroom objects, like making rewards for students - they can even choose their own! A 3D printed model of the anatomy of a human heart. Th...

The following are two fictional examples of teachers in need of support to improve the implementation of reference resources in their classroom practices. Looking at each case carefully and using the Concerns-Based Adoption Model, or CBAM (from Loucks-Hoursley, 1996 ), I have outlined specific steps that can be taken to encourage these teachers to use the resources available more effectively. Typical expressions of concerns about innovations. From Taking Charge of Change  by S.M. Hord, W.L. Rutherford, L. Huling-Austin, and G.E. Hall, 1987. Typical behaviors at levels of use of innovation. From  Taking Charge of Change  by S.M. Hord, W.L. Rutherford, L. Huling-Austin, and G.E. Hall, 1987. Case Study #1: “Pat” Pat has been teaching Social Studies at the same high school for several years. Classes have an established routine of teacher-centered learning where the students fill in notes from PowerPoint presentations. Pat has decided to branch ...

What on Earth have I been learning? Image care of Britannica Digital Learning . Over the past few weeks, I have been delving into the depths of the internet to research topics that are important to those in the education field, particularly to teacher-librarians. School libraries these days are so much more than just a place from which to borrow books - more and more they are becoming a hub of activity in schools. They are places to learn and use technology, places to meet up and collaborate on projects, places to ask questions and to get unexpected answers. That isn't just the case for the students - it's a place for teachers and librarians to ask questions and to learn and grow as well. I certainly have learned and grown during my explorations. Studying ways to foster reading culture in schools and global access too books, I have notices some similarities. Everyone needs to have access to books that are culturally relevant and language appropriate. In a multicultura...