Random reflections based on a poem part 1

A path forks into two paths in a forest with a tree in centre frame.
Carsten Tolkmit from Kiel, Germany, CC BY-SA 2.0 , via Wikimedia Commons

I ran across a poem on my Facebook feed this past week which inspired me to write a reflective blog post on reading in your head vs reading aloud. But now that I have run it down to cite it, it has inspired a whole other reflective tangent. So bear with me as I attempt not to choose only one path in the woods but walk down both in a mega-ramble (apologies to Robert Frost).

Screenshot of a Facebook post on a popular site for Australian primary and secondary English teachers. It is a shared post of a picture of the page of a book with a poem titled Magic about reading dramatically to yourself. The original poster attributes the poem to Shel Silverstein.
Screenshot from Facebook of poem.

This is the post that I saw, I have not captured the name of the person who reposted this to the Facebook group On Butterfly Wings, English and More. My first thought upon reading the poem was, “What a fantastic poem to go with this year’s CBCA Book Week theme, ‘Reading is Magic’.” My second thought was to try reading the poem in my head silently, but dramatically, as per the poem’s instructions.

This exercise led to my first road of reflection. I am a VERY good dramatic reader, one of my favourite parts of being a TL was reading aloud to the students and I had staff members tell me fairly regularly that they loved to happen upon me reading out loud to the students because it was a fantastic experience. However, I actually couldn’t ‘hear’ the poem in my head in the same manner that I would hear it if I read it out loud. I lost the drama, even if I could somewhat approximate the instructions. This made me think of all the focus on visualisation in reading comprehension circles and the issue that this can cause for people with aphantasia (the inability to see images in their mind). Clearly I have some degree of a similar inability to hear things dramatically in my mind.

That made me reflect on why it is so important to have opportunity to hear dramatic reading aloud even beyond early childhood education. There is a perception that once you can read competently, you can “do the voices” in your own head and “watch a movie in your own head”… but that is not always the case. Having a text performed orally (read aloud) or performed dramatically (with some level of props, acting, etc.) is a vital way to bring texts to life and inspire a love for them – even in those whose mental visual and mental aural landscapes are less developed.

My reflection so far has a “what” – thinking about reading silently vs reading aloud and a “so what” – a point for the importance of reading aloud, but no “now what”(University of Hull, n.d.). I think as a “now what” I am contemplating whether there is an avenue of research or inquiry open to me to investigate potential benefits of reading aloud past early childhood education and advocating for reading aloud to remain a key focus of the role of teacher librarians.

This is getting a bit long, so I think I will save my second road of reflection for a part 2 blog post. This time on another key role of the teacher librarian – working on information/media literacy and academic integrity – specifically, citing sources and combatting misinformation and misattribution.

Share in the comments your experiences with reading aloud, listening to texts read aloud and reading silently in your own head. See you in part 2!

References

Burnham, Bo. (April, 2016) Magic. Hello Poetry. https://hellopoetry.com/poem/1624900/magic/

University of Hull. (n.d.). Reflective writing: Rolfe. https://libguides.hull.ac.uk/reflectivewriting/rolfe

Some initial musings on GenAI and the teacher librarian

An AI generated image of an open book in a magic hat with magic sparkles, images and text erupting from them with the text "GenAI" in a bold bright colour in the centre of the eruption.
An image representing school libraries engaging with GenAI created via a GenAI prompt in Canva.

It seems that everywhere I look these days there is something new popping up about generative artificial intelligence (GenAI). Just yesterday I came across the Australian Library and Information Association (ALIA)’s submission to the Select Committee on Adopting Artificial Intelligence (AI), whose three recommendations to the committee focused on:

  • developing and rolling out training for library staff to support communities in AI literacy,
  • funding for ALIA to partner with researchers to “update and expand evidence-based media literacy programs” and roll them out to Australian public libraries, and
  • government consulting with First Nations people and organisations to understand their concerns and implement culturally sensitive actions in adopting generative AI (ALIA, 2024).

While public libraries are similar to school libraries, they are not the same. So how should we, as teacher librarians, respond to genAI? Building on the ALIA recommendations I’d suggest they be modified for teacher librarians (TLs) as follows:

  • develop and implement training for teacher librarians to support their communities (students and staff especially) in AI literacy
  • partner in research projects to update and expand evidence-based media literacy and AI literacy programs for use in school libraries and classrooms
  • help teacher librarians shine a spotlight on ethical concerns through incorporating genAI specific ethical considerations into media-literacy and information-literacy programming in the Library – including presenting the concerns of First Nations people and other historically marginalised groups following ongoing consultation with these groups

In light of these recommendations, here are some things I have noticed regarding these points and some thoughts on next actions to take.

I have seen a lot of buzz regarding GenAI and media literacy in recent professional conferences and learning events, which is making a start on the first recommendation Hopefully this will continue and will spill over into TLs feeling competent and empowered to support their communities, and to share how this is working. I hope to aid this effort by helping to share relevant information with communities of practice through blogging, social media interaction, contributing to the literature and participating in and presenting at conferences to help build capacity in TLs.

I have definitely seen research popping up about GenAI and libraries and education, but I am not certain if it is aimed at the second point – updating, expanding and/or creating evidence-based media literacy and AI literacy programs to use in schools. This could be a good thing to look into with a bit of a literature dive or perhaps getting into an evidence-collection and/or program developing project. This may be an area to partner with a TL in creating and gathering evidence on updated programs that include genAI literacy.

The TL team at CSU has recently published an article looking at the teacher librarian’s role in navigating genAI. Their work focuses on various ethical concerns and provides some suggestions for ways that TLs can incorporate various genAI tools into the ethical consideration streams of information literacy programs (Oddone, Garrison, &Gagen-Spriggs, 2024). Assisting TLs to integrate these suggestions into their programming would be a great next step.

Since every time I turn around there are more things to read about Generative AI and the response of various sectors to its presence, I am sure that it will find its way onto my blog page again soon. Perhaps you could drop me a comment about your thoughts regarding GenAI in your context – or let me know if you’d like to explore partnering on a project incorporating GenAI into your teaching program in a school library.

 

References

Australian Library and Information Association (ALIA). (2024). Submission to the select committee on adopting artificial intelligence (AI). https://read.alia.org.au/alia-select-committee-submission-adopting-artificial-intelligence

Oddone,K., Garrison, K., & Gagen -Spriggs, K. (2024). Navigating generative AI: the teacher librarian’s role in cultivating ethical and critical practices. Journal of the Australian Library and Information Association, 73(1), 3-26. https://doi.org/10.1080/24750158.2023.22890930.1080/24750158.2023.2289093 

Thoughts on Lit Up! Stories Behind the Stories at SLNSW

Making Magic with Fairy LightsSource: https://www.pickpik.com/magic-fairy-lights-time-decoration-lights-bokeh-81752

Transition is not the best vantage point from which to view a conference. On 3 May, I had three more days of being a teacher librarian and 24 days left before becoming a university lecturer in teacher librarianship. Therefore, while I did enjoy many of the presentations, I don’t feel I got as much out of the conference as I would usually do when participating as someone fully invested in a current position.

That said, I did find it very powerful to hear some of the stories behind the stories presented by the authors, illustrators and curators in the sessions. From the keynote sessions to the workshops to the tours, every session had something to offer. It was an enlightening day.

My overall takeaway was to renew my passion for the power of story. Stories shape our lives and journeys and give us inspiration to innovate, change, explore and recreate ourselves and our knowledge. I was especially inspired by Bruce Whatley’s journey as an illustrator and artist – his passion for experimentation and for finding different ways of working to accommodate not just the stories he wanted to tell, but also his changing physical capabilities – gave me courage about plunging into my own new career adventure. It is something that I think would be valuable to share with students, as well, to let them know that they do not need to be feel pigeonholed by either their failures or their successes. Just because they have done something well doesn’t mean they are stuck doing that for the rest of their school journey… or even their lives. We can light up our paths with experimentation and reinvention.

Onward I go – continuing to write my story with a new chapter at Charles Sturt University.

I’m ba-ack!

Well! That was a longish hiatus. To be honest, I had left this blog for so long that I forgot where to find it.

 

via GIPHY

After several unfruitful attempts (that uncovered my old crafting blog and a WordPress site that I opened but never actually developed), I finally hit on searching my emails for the term blog and that eventually led me back here!

I am about to have a major change come up in my career path and it made me think that it might be time to dust off the keyboard and try blogging again. We’ll see if I can keep track of where I’ve put my thoughts a little better this time around! Hopefully I can be more consistent and frequent as well.

Picture of author.
Hello again!

 

Plans for Dr Seuss Day/Week

Hi all!


Birthday Cake by Will Clayton is licensed under CC BY 2.0

Dr Seuss’ birthday is coming up on 2 March and I have Dr Seuss-based lessons planned for Library throughout the week. This will also be my first week with the students this year (hopefully) as I injured my foot a couple of weeks ago and am hoping for the go-ahead from my physio to go back to work in March!

EDITED 23/02/2021 TO ADD: Mary Verdun, a member of a Facebook Group where I posted the Stage 3 slideshow posted a link to the following paper which looks at racism, anti-semitism and orientalism in the work of Dr Seuss/Theodore Giesel. It is an interesting read and raises questions that I am thinking through and which may change my decision on whether to use these plans next week. The paper’s citation is:  Ishizuka, Katie and Stephens*, Ramón (2019) “The Cat is Out of the Bag: Orientalism, Anti-Blackness, and White Supremacy in Dr. Seuss’s Children’s Books,” Research on Diversity in Youth Literature: Vol. 1 : Iss. 2 , Article 4.
Available at: https://sophia.stkate.edu/rdyl/vol1/iss2/4.

For Kindergarten, I will be focusing on rhyme and onomatopoeia with the entertaining Mr Brown Can Moo, Can You? Last year’s group seemed to enjoy this book and it is good to dramatise and use with a bit of call-and-response, which suits the younger As a reading response, I will be having them assemble and colour some flipbooks I found here: https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Flip-Book-for-Mr-Brown-can-Moo-Can-you-by-Seuss-Sight-Words-Vocab-FUN-2423162 . I think I will only choose 4 – 6 of the possible phrases because we don’t have a long time once we’ve read the story and students borrow. This will be my first meeting with this cohort of Kindergartners… I hope they like it!

Stage 1 will be listening to the madcap Ten Apples Up on Top and making a connection between the text and themselves. I was inspired by a worksheet I saw on Twinkl to create my own, simpler version (to suit my cohort and time availability) that can be used for various books.

photo of worksheet
Screenshot of worksheet for Stage 1

S1 Text to Self Connection.

Time willing, we will read The 500 Hats of Bartholomew Cubbins with Stage 2. I read this to Stage 2 two years ago and they seemed to engage with it, so I am hoping it will tickle the fancy of this year’s cohort as well. I was struck at the time with the juxtaposition of some beautiful descriptive passages with black and white illustrations (highlighted with touches of red). Therefore my focus tasks this year will be on visualisation and description – with a choice between drawing a hat and describing it OR reading a descriptive passage from the text, drawing a picture to match it, then highlighting the words and phrases from the passage that are evident in the picture.

photo of draw anbd describe worksheet
photo of S2 draw and describe worksheet

S2 500 Hats Draw and Describe

Finally, I decided to go a bit more mature for Stage 3. We will be looking at a biography of Dr Seuss from the Seussville website and then at some of the politicsl cartoons that he created in the World War II era. You can find a good collection of these at the University of California San Diego Library Digital Collections site. I have created a slide presentation that can be accessed below. Hopefully this will not be too mature for the students and they will find it engaging to see a different side of a familiar author.

What this country needs is a good mental insecticide, June 11, 1942, Dr. Seuss Political Cartoons. Special Collection & Archives, UC San Diego Library

Dr Seuss Political Cartoons (PowerPoint presentation)

Well, that is all from me, folks! I’d love to hear if you have any plans for celebrating Dr Seuss in your libraries.

Using data and comparing yourself to yourself

My school is working through the professional learning modules prepared by the NSW Department of Education to accompany the What works best: 2020 update published this year by the Centre for Eduaction Statistics and Evaluation (CESE)(2020). I found my reflections on certain areas – especially assessment and effective feedback to be tricky to complete because my library lessons are release from face-to-face teaching (RFF) and cover transitions to and from classes, borrowing/returning of library books and whatever lesson and learning activity I offer all within an hour. In my current model, the response activity to the lesson is not always done by all students (and certainly very rarely completed by all students) because browsing the shelves and borrowing is done at the same time as the response activity (to control traffic in our current small space).

I was especially thrown when asked what evidence I have for my impact on student learning outcomes. My initial answer was that I don’t really have any, but today I was thinking that I may have some data to show after all (offering somewhat indirect evidence).

This reminded me of my post from a similar time last year when I finally got the courage to check on comparative borrowing statistics between the year prior to my hiring and my first year on the job. My thoughts on evidence this year came from finding the courage to look at the records for previous years’ Premier’s Reading Challenge (PRC) completion to assess whether my efforts, which I deemed underwhelming, had made any difference to participation in Years 3 – 6. To my utter shock and surprise, I found that more Year 3-6 students had completed the challenge this year, compared to last year. Also, in both of my years of overseeing the challenge there were more Year 3-6 completers than in the three years prior to my arrival. I was feeling like a failure because I was comparing my efforts to promote the PRC with that of other teacher librarians at other schools on social media – when I compared myself with my own school context, however, I could see evidence of growth.

When I saw that data, I realised that data regarding borrowing patterns and participation in PRC and other literacy-based activities could be used as evidence of my impact on student outcomes. While not as direct as reading or writing test scores, data regarding students accessing and reading a variety of quality texts shows evidence of my impact on their literacy outcomes, especially if taken in combination with improvements in test scores.

So my main takeaways from this experience:

  1. Don’t sell myself short – think creatively about how what I do contributes to learning outcomes.
  2. Realise that the data and evidence I can show will be different to that of a classroom teacher – and that is okay.
  3. Don’t compare myself and my school context to other school contexts, and don’t let myself feel like a failure by comparing my efforts to the successes of others.

References

Centre for Education Statistics and Evaluation. (2020). What works best: 2020 update. NSW Department of Education: cese.nsw.gov.au

Simon, M. (2019, November 24). Confidence and bravery [Blog post]. Mrs Simon says. Retrieved 10 September, 2020 from https://marikasimon.edublogs.org/2019/11/24/confidence-and-bravery/

Drawing as a narrative tool

person drawing angel, kids, child, children, elementary, little kidsHD wallpaper: person drawing angel, kids, child, children, elementary, little kids 360x640px (480P) free download from wallpaperflare.com_wallpaper(2)

I came across an interview with Mo Willems thanks to a post on the Facebook Group “On Butterfly Wings – English and More”. It provided food for thought across a variety of topics, but something that particularly struck me was Willem’s comments on drawing as a form of writing and as a narrative process (especially for children).In paragraphs 29 and 30, he states:

I think it’s a mistake to assume that drawing or doodling isn’t a form of writing—I think drawing is a very accessible form of writing. Many writers use storyboards or make maps or sketches, even if they’re only writing prose. There’s an inherent value in drawing that’s really powerful.

Children tend to draw chronologically, which is to say narratively. They’ll start with, “Oh, I’m going to draw a character. Now, is it a hero or a villain? It’s a villain. Well, if it’s a villain, it has a cape. And if it has a cape, it can fly. Let me draw the sky.” And all of that story comes out of having a drawing utensil in your hand. It’s magic.

While I should and would like to do some more research on that, it has inspired me to use drawing as narrative more throughout my K-6 library lessons. I think it is tempting for me to want more text-based responses from students as they get older. However, with a substantial EAL/D and LBOTE population in my school, I think that incorporating more graphic responses would be beneficial as well.

Hopefully this musing is not too light on… I am trying to get back into a blogging mindset after the topsy-turviness of the COVID-19 shakeup of the schools.

For my theoretical audience, LOL, a few questions to comment upon:

  • How do you use drawing in library or writing lessons?
  • Do you have any other readings or thoughts on this topic?
  • Are you willing to demonstrate your creativity through having a go at drawing (and accepting what you have drawn without negative comment) in front of a class?

 

References

Kaplan, E. (2020, February 21). Mo Willems and the lost art of being silly. In Edutopia. Retrieved from https://www.edutopia.org/article/mo-willems-lost-art-being-silly?fbclid=IwAR0kVyO1IarXpHGHY6c7xffKAlZkBGZB4i1pDzD67tAanzibbNcfi0Rb6-g

Book recommendations for Kindy

I was looking for a low-key way to get my Stage 3 students active in the first library lesson of the year. I decided to ask them each to pick a book that they would recommend for a Kindergarten student and fill out a slip with a few simple reasons for their choice, for instance the book is:

  • funny
  • sad
  • colourful

This also gave me a selection of books to suggest to Kindergarten on their first couple of library visits, and tied it to students who they had been spending time with in buddy activities rather than just from me, who they had only recently met.

I think the idea worked fairly well. Most of the recommended books have been borrowed either by Kindergarten in their first two library sessions, or by Stage One students in their second library visit.

I also took advantage of the concept of Library Lovers’ Day to create a “Books we love” display on the back wall. Students in stages One to Three were asked to write a book or series that they love (and a reason for the older students). Each stage used a different colour post-it and I arranged them in different shapes on the bulletin board. I am thinking of adding some pictures of covers of books we hold in the library that are mentioned on the post-its to complete the display. Here is a picture of what we have so far:

Bulletin board display
FSPS Books we love display. Photo by Marika Simon 2020.

Thoughts on a new year

 

2020 Year of the Rat Banner
Free picture from https://torange.biz/fx/year-overlay-banner-new-2020-background-213832. CC BY 4.0 

I came into the new school year with some trepidation. In the last week or two of the school holidays, as I was just starting to relax after finishing the coursework for my Master’s degree (YAY!), my social media feed seemed bombarded with images and posts of other teacher librarians getting ready for the year. From the creative soul weaving a whale to hang on display in her library to the different variations on library advocacy welcome back packs for staff, and the pictures of beautiful library display areas I was a bit dizzy with the array of quality preparations that were underway across the land. And I was left feeling incompetent and unprepared. Continue reading “Thoughts on a new year”

Stress – seeking balance

This week I submitted (and received back) my final assignment in my final subject for my Master’s in Teacher Librarianship. YAY!! It did, however get me thinking about balancing stress.

Throughout my Master’s journey, I have received distinctions or high distinctions on every assignment. Yet, with every submission I worried that I would fall below the standards I was aiming for. On the one hand, stress about my assignments was beneficial: stress about meeting deadlines meant that I got them in on time, and stress surrounding fitting all the requirements from the rubric into the word count led to fairly tight, high quality writing. On the other hand, stress led to snapping at my family, losing sleep and making poor exercise and eating choices. There is definitely a balance between the beneficial and detrimental aspects of stress, and I often found myself on the wrong side of that balance.

As the school holidays draw to a close and I start feeling stirrings of stress about the coming school year and the tasks I want to accomplish, I find myself hoping that I can find a better balance. I hope for the control to allow enough stress to spur me on to accomplish things and meet deadlines without falling prey to its detrimental aspects.

Some tips that I have come across (The Leaders Institute, 2002 – 2019; WebMD, 2005-2020) that I will try to implement:

  • Eat a balanced diet – this is something I try to do, but I have started tracking my eating to keep myself accountable to healthier food choices;
  • Exercise – I have signed up for a fitness passport membership to encourage me to do some intentional exercise weekly;
  • Analyse and schedule tasks – I am looking into better ways to manage my task lists and schedule my time so that no facet of my job or life responsibilities gets overlooked;
  • Take breaks – make sure that I take at least one break period in every work day… some time when I am not trying to get jobs done, plus make sure I take at least one day of my non-work days where I do not do ANY school-related work;
  • Relax, stretch, be mindful – when stress rises in ways that start inhibiting performance, I will stop and take time to consciously relax (breathing, stretching or some other mindful stress-managing and releasing activity).

How do you manage and balance stress?

References

The Leaders Institute. (2002-2019). The key to balancing stress in the workplace. In The Leaders Institute. Retrieved from https://www.leadersinstitute.com/the-key-to-balancing-stress-in-the-workplace-work-smart-live-smart/

WebMD. (2005-2020). Ten tips to manage stress. In WebMD. Retrieved from https://www.webmd.com/balance/guide/tips-to-control-stress#3

 

 

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