The Learning Commons at Sa-Hali Secondary
Flickr CC- Johnston Heights L.C.
New projects
As my time in the MET program draws to an end, the fruit of my labours are that my work at Sa-Hali Secondary continues apace. As part of a team of teacher librarian leaders, I had the opportunity to attend the opportunity to attend the Google Apps For Education Summit in Edmonton at the end of February 2013. Working with my colleagues, we have begun planning the roll out of Google Apps in our school district and purchasing class sets of Chromebooks to allow students and teachers the opportunity to work wirelessly in their own classrooms, rather than in computer labs. I hope to introduce Jeff Utecht's Google Ninja program to our grade eight students to give them the skills in working with core Google applications.
I also had the opportunity to co-write an application for a district creativity grant. My colleague, Mike Koppes, and I hoped to receive funds to purchase 15 iPad mini's to enable Social Justice 12 and Web 2.0 and Collaborative Research 12 students to work on collaborative projects. Unfortunately, our application was completing against close to 30 other applications and did not receive consideration, due to the limited size of the group who would have worked with the iPad minis.
Since the beginning of my time at Sa-Hali, I have been an active proponent of collaboration and Learning Commons. I began planting seeds in the minds of my colleagues as I changed the physical space in my library and weeded my non-fiction collection, only to increase the wide variety of materials in my Virtual Commons. Today, in the Kamloops Thompson School District, all of the secondary schools are now moving towards a Learning Commons model. Teacher Librarians as a group attended a two day summer institute on Learning Commons hosted by the B.C. Teacher Librarians' Association and our professional book club this year has focused on Loertscher's The learning commons: Where all learners win! I would like to think I may have had some small influence in the direction our district has begun to take to improve our service to learners, teachers and our community.
One of my ongoing goals is to continue action research projects, particularly around e-books, new technologies and collaboration with classroom teachers. These key ideas are the heart of a successful Learning Commons. Data is needed to better improve these services and ensure that administrators and staff see the benefit of a well-staffed, well-resourced library space. There may yet be some pruning, but I will hope that the growth I have seen in the last three years will continue at a steady rate for years to come.
As my time in the MET program draws to an end, the fruit of my labours are that my work at Sa-Hali Secondary continues apace. As part of a team of teacher librarian leaders, I had the opportunity to attend the opportunity to attend the Google Apps For Education Summit in Edmonton at the end of February 2013. Working with my colleagues, we have begun planning the roll out of Google Apps in our school district and purchasing class sets of Chromebooks to allow students and teachers the opportunity to work wirelessly in their own classrooms, rather than in computer labs. I hope to introduce Jeff Utecht's Google Ninja program to our grade eight students to give them the skills in working with core Google applications.
I also had the opportunity to co-write an application for a district creativity grant. My colleague, Mike Koppes, and I hoped to receive funds to purchase 15 iPad mini's to enable Social Justice 12 and Web 2.0 and Collaborative Research 12 students to work on collaborative projects. Unfortunately, our application was completing against close to 30 other applications and did not receive consideration, due to the limited size of the group who would have worked with the iPad minis.
Since the beginning of my time at Sa-Hali, I have been an active proponent of collaboration and Learning Commons. I began planting seeds in the minds of my colleagues as I changed the physical space in my library and weeded my non-fiction collection, only to increase the wide variety of materials in my Virtual Commons. Today, in the Kamloops Thompson School District, all of the secondary schools are now moving towards a Learning Commons model. Teacher Librarians as a group attended a two day summer institute on Learning Commons hosted by the B.C. Teacher Librarians' Association and our professional book club this year has focused on Loertscher's The learning commons: Where all learners win! I would like to think I may have had some small influence in the direction our district has begun to take to improve our service to learners, teachers and our community.
One of my ongoing goals is to continue action research projects, particularly around e-books, new technologies and collaboration with classroom teachers. These key ideas are the heart of a successful Learning Commons. Data is needed to better improve these services and ensure that administrators and staff see the benefit of a well-staffed, well-resourced library space. There may yet be some pruning, but I will hope that the growth I have seen in the last three years will continue at a steady rate for years to come.