LIBE 463 61A: Assignment #3 - Selection and Weeding Project and Report

Creative Commons licensed image courtesy of Theen Moy

My third assignment - the Selection and Weeding Project and Report - is linked below!

LIBE 463 61A: Assignment #2 - Collection Evaluation Report

Creative Commons licensed image courtesy of Matthew Wedeking

My second assignment, the collection evaluation report - is linked below!

LIBE 463 61A: Assignment #1 - Community Analysis and Report

Creative Commons licensed image courtesy of jessamyn west

My first assignment, the community analysis and report - is linked below!

LIBE 477B: Vision of the Future - Final Course Reflection

For my final project, I was inspired by the multimedia technology use by both our instructor as well as some of my classmates. Rather than do a video, I thought I would try my hand at producing a podcast instead. Podcasting is a very versatile medium, easily shared, and a bit of a challenge; that is, getting my point across with only sound! It has been really great to be able to try this out while tackling my topic, which is something partly made possible by the inquiry-based learning we engaged in as part of this course. It's also a great chance to share something - just like Will Richardson discusses in our course reading "Why School?" (2012). Creating content to share with the wider education community is something completely new for me, so consider this a first!

I had a lot of fun producing this podcast. I have done one or two on other topics years in the past, so it was quite interesting giving it another try. I personally listen to quite a few podcasts, one of my favourites being the "Stuff You Should Know Podcast", which served as part of my inspiration for this one.

My episode ended up being just under 15 minutes, which was longer than I was expecting, but rather short compared to contemporaries of the medium. I think podcasting lends itself well to educational topics and longer-form discussions because it's something you can listen to while doing something else, such as while commuting or while out for a walk. I intentionally wrote it as if it was the start of a bigger production, hence the "episode zero" title, and I may add on more episodes some time in the future. For now, though, it stands as a piece for teacher-librarians, teachers, and even students to enjoy.



Works Cited:

Richardson, W. (2012). Why School?: How Education Must Change When Learning and Information Are Everywhere. TED Conferences Publishing.

LIBE 477B: Vision of the Future - "Second Thought" Podcast

For my final "vision of the future" assignment, I decided I would try my hand at producing a short podcast to discuss my topic, Citation and plagiarism in K-12 classrooms. This leans a little more in the direction of "learning for the 21st century", although I also see many overlaps with teacher-librarianship - The TL is in the unique position to discuss information and digital literacy as part of their library program. I thought this would be a good format for sharing out to other educators, so if you have any take-aways from my little production, feel free to share it out!

I have split the podcast into four general sections:

• Why cite?
• Perspectives on Plagiarism
• What about Teachers?
• Teaching Tools

The goal with this artifact is to give other teachers an introductory look at approaching plagiarism in the classroom, and I encourage early engagement with the concept. We discuss how elementary school students should be able to have a good understanding of citing their work in some capacity that they can further refine at the Secondary level.

Here it is below:



Thank you for listening! I will include all the links and citations (including the fantastic intro/outro music by RoccoW) in the description below.



Links and Works Cited

My Haiku deck presentation (Scroll down for image citations)
https://haikudeck.com/p/ocxo1k8j8w

Music: "SuperBluesBros Banana Blitz" by RoccoW
From the Free Music Archive
CC BY NC

Mitchell, S. (2007). Penguins and Plagiarism: Stemming the Tide of Plagiarism in Elementary School. Library Media Connection, 25(7), 47.

Link: http://ezproxy.library.ubc.ca/login?url=http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=eric&AN=EJ762396&login.asp&site=ehost-live&scope=site

Richardson, W. (2012). Why School?: How Education Must Change When Learning and Information Are Everywhere. TED Conferences Publishing.

Starr, L. (2002). Put an End to Plagiarism in Your Classroom. Retrieved from https://www.educationworld.com/a_curr/curr390.shtml

Vicinus, Martha & Eisner, Caroline. Originality, Imitation, and Plagiarism: Teaching Writing in the Digital Age. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 2008. Project MUSE, p 195-207
Link: https://muse-jhu-edu.ezproxy.library.ubc.ca/chapter/145068

Zigunovas, P. (2017) Why do students plagiarize? A cultural perspective. Retrieved from https://elearnmagazine.com/why-do-students-plagiarize/

LIBE 477B: Developing World Libraries / Mobile devices

One of the takeaways from my exploration of mobile devices for education being implemented in economically developing nations is to not take the technology lightly. It seems there are careful ways to get technology into the hands of students in these nations without resorting to a universal approach. Keengwe notes that “technology tools and applications that are familiar in developed nations may pose unique challenges in developing countries, so ‘one size fits all’ or ‘one technology for all contexts’ does not practically work.” (2014). Keengwe also discusses the different context for these mobile technologies depending on where you look, with schools in Africa and schools in Finland showing very different contexts (2014).

Creative Commons licensed image courtesy of Justin Parmelee

I think much if this relates directly to potentially transforming the library. Depending on the school, I imagine a library may be limited, mixed-us, or potentially non-existent. Richardson’s suggestion to “rethink assessment” comes into play here once again: “Stop asking questions that can be answered by a Google search” (2014) - this is a sentiment that I believe may be amplified by a developing nation school receiving access to mobile technologies for the first time; their teachers will want to address this head on.

It also opens up a host of challenges that we increasingly face as Teacher-Librarians in the modern school system. Discussions surrounding digital literacy, information literacy, fair use, plagiarism, and internet safety are all suddenly on the table with new access to these technologies, perhaps even amplified by the unfamiliarity and novelty of the mobile technology.



Works Cited

Keengwe, J. (12/01/2014). Mobile learning and integration of mobile technologies in education Springer.

Richardson, W. (2012). Why School?: How Education Must Change When Learning and Information Are Everywhere. TED Conferences Publishing.

Parmelee, J. (Photographer). (2010). Glowing Keyboard [Digital Image]. Retrieved from https://flic.kr/p/7GucS3

LIBE 477B: Supporting Teachers’ ICT Curriculum and Pedagogy: On-going Professional Development

This question of professional development and library support is an ongoing conversation in Surrey school district. This year in particular, there has been a roll-out of several brand new ADST materials sent to all schools in the district, and in many cases it has fallen on the Teacher-Librarian to manage these resources.

There have been some initiatives to help teachers become more confident with these tools, including several opportunities for after school workshops and pro-D put on by our district helping teachers. Even beyond the scope of my own school, I have been active in contributing to these workshops as an “expert” (their words not mine!) to answer questions and demonstrate the tool.

Creative Commons licensed image courtesy of thepigs

I mentioned this in our weekly chats, but two of the big takeaways I have learned from working with these new materials from a pro-d perspective are:

• The students will help you discover how to use them! 
• Beyond the basics, students are almost always keen to jump in and start exploring right away, and they can help you figure out options or techniques that you didn’t even know existed. I know when using Bloxels for the first time, I was very open about not quite knowing how certain features worked at the time, and asked the students to let me know if they figured it out so we could share with the class.

• Exploratory time is massively helpful to my own pro-d with new technology tools.
• Taking the resource home or spending some time exploring and working with it is a very good way to become more familiar with how it works. Back to the same example of Bloxels, it is an intimidating app to start using, but spending the time “playing” in the app was a great way for me to become a lot more familiar with it and teach my colleagues how to use it.

Bloxels video tutorials
http://kids.bloxelsbuilder.com/all-tutorials

Sample lesson (Other lessons need an education account)
http://www.bloxelsbuilder.com/choose-your-own-adventure



Works Cited

thepigs (Photographer). (2012). analogue pixels [Digital Image]. Retrieved from https://flic.kr/p/q1zRnu

LIBE447B: Developing your own ICT Skills and Pedagogy

Ongoing Skills development and Pedagogy are important aspects of being an educator. There are many ways to do this, but one way that has been helping me this school year are various professional networks of other teachers.

This year, I have been a part of the Surrey Schools mentorship program for both new and new-to-role teachers in the librarian cohort. This is a slightly different mentoring style that involves 2-3 mentors and several mentees, rather than one-on-one. This relationship has been very helpful in my first year as a teacher librarian, both for lesson and layout ideas as well as having a support network to bounce ideas off of and see what others are doing. If you are part of Surrey School District, I highly recommend the program.To find out more, please check the link below.

https://mentor36.com/

I am also part of a large email thread of all the teacher librarians in the district, which functions like a message board. Everyone has an account on the basis of needing it for work, which is both good and bad; it risks cluttering email inboxes and messages getting skipped. I am wondering if a different medium might be more efficient for the same functionality, but for what it is I think it works well for asking a question or starting a short discussion. As a new TL, this has been great for a quick question or resource share.

Creative Commons licensed image courtesy of jon satrom

One challenge area for me is becoming more active on broader professional networks such as twitter, if nothing else but to follow and contribute. I see the value in these networks but I sometimes find it difficult to properly engage and feel like I am contributing.

Another area I hope to improve upon is sharing and putting my work out there in a general sense. As Richardson notes in Why School?, “We can raise the teaching profession by sharing what works, taking the best of what we do and hanging it on the virtual wall” (2012). It’s so great to see lessons and other materials shared by other teachers, so it only makes sense to do the same.

Earlier this year, I shared a full lesson centered around the book Faraway Fox by Jolene Thompson that incorporates core competencies and a STEM activity. We put it up on the book of the year website (see last post), although when those areas update for next year it will likely change. Here it is again if you are looking for a lesson to try:

Works Cited

Richardson, W. (2012). Why School?: How Education Must Change When Learning and Information Are Everywhere. TED Conferences Publishing.

Satrom, J. (Photographer). (2011). Reconnecting... [Digital Image]. Retrieved from https://flic.kr/p/aWNi6e

LIBE 447B: Fostering Reading Cultures in Schools

There are a number of initiatives that we have been doing in our library learning commons, some being carried over from the previous school year before I arrived in this position. In this post I will share a few of them along with potential changes we could make here and there.

We have an “EZ reading” category present in the library, and I have had some reluctance about continuing with that system. I find that it could be potentially embarrassing for students reading at a slightly lower level if they find themselves needing to go to the “EZ” section to find a book. I also do not want students to feel “restricted” to just this section. The issue I have been facing with this is the labeling - all books in the section are tagged with the EZ classification sticker along the spine, and making broad changes is not an easy task.

I am very supportive of free book choice in the library. I will often let students take books that are at their interest, but potentially above their reading level. Instead of not allowing students to take the book, I will often recommend a second book to go along with the first.

I think this ties in to the much broader discussion of book leveling. This is a huge topic, but one of the potential downsides is having students feel restricted. In the article “Leveled Text: The Good News and the Bad News”, Brabham notes “some teachers described school or classroom collections of books sorted by reading levels that confine students to browsing and reading in a color-coded or level-designated range" and "such practices deny students the opportunity to develop strategies and motivation to locate and immerse themselves in appealing literature" (2002). In this case, it is not a leveled system in the traditional sense (just an EZ section), but it does offer some of the same drawbacks. I was considering a possible reclassification of this section in the future, but for now it remains as it is.

State Library in Stuttgart, Germany. From Stadtbibliothek, Stuttgart, by J. Urdaneta, 2014, https://flic.kr/p/j4xLvx Copyright 2014 by J. Urdaneta.

In another example of fostering a reading culture, our school participated in the “book of the year” vote for our district this school year. Several books are chosen as nominees by a committee, and students get a chance to vote for their favourite book in the month of May. I think this has been a great way to encourage a reading culture centered around these particular books, and gives students common ground to share and discuss their favourites. New to this year was the narrative nonfiction vote, which incorporated nonfiction titles into the mix. I have the links to the info pages for each vote below (the grade 4-7 fiction page has already been updated to next year, but you can find that below as well. Overall, I think this has been a very successful program, and I hope to continue with it in the future.

Links:
Surrey Schools’ Picture Book of the Year Website:
https://sites.google.com/view/surreyreads

Surrey Schools’ Narrative Nonfiction Book of the Year Website:
https://sites.google.com/view/surreyreadsnonfiction

Surrey Schools’ Book of the Year Website:
https://thessboy.weebly.com/


Works Cited

Brabham, E. G., & Villaume, S. K. (2002). Leveled Text: The Good News and the Bad News. Reading Teacher, 55(5), 438-41.

Urdaneta, J. (Photographer). (2014). Stadtbibliothek, Stuttgart. [Digital Image]. Retrieved from https://flic.kr/p/j4xLvx

LIBE 477B: Broadening Horizons Part B

Here are some useful resources I used to better understand my topic of copyright, understanding plagiarism, and citation techniques:

1. Why do foreign students plagiarize? A cultural perspective. (2018, February 05). Retrieved from https://elearnmagazine.com/why-do-students-plagiarize/

This article by Priscila Zigunovas on e-learn magazine is a summary breakdown of possible reasons for why international students may consider plagiarizing their work, either accidentally or on purpose.

To be quite frank, I think a lot of the reasons listed here appear to me like something of a poor excuse, whether it's observed behaviour or statements offered up by those who have plagiarized. Take these for example: the focus on collaboration, seeing it as a form of flattery, respect for authority, etc. - all of these things are preserved in a citation, you are only making sure to note where the information is coming from. Also, depending on the extent of the plagiarism, some of the reasons listed here come off as rather hollow (facetiously; "I copied this other work in it's entirety because I respect the author too much to properly criticize and convey my own opinion.") I am hopeful that students plagiarizing for these reasons could be easily convinced to just add a citation to the end to avoid (potentially unintentional) academic dishonesty.

The more sinister side of it - such as being focused on the exams and not seeing homework as important, or straight up intentionally plagiarizing because the consequences are lenient - these are the tough ones because these students basically know they are doing something they shouldn't. I like to think that much of the plagiarism that I'd be discussing with my students errs on the unintentional side because they haven't really been exposed to this kind of thinking just yet (Elementary/Intermediate level). When you're knowingly engaging in this behaviour, that's a whole other conversation (still an important one though!).

2. Vicinus, Martha & Eisner, Caroline. Originality, Imitation, and Plagiarism: Teaching Writing in the Digital Age. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 2008. Project MUSE, p 195-207

Academic Plagiarism and the Limits of Theft

https://muse-jhu-edu.ezproxy.library.ubc.ca/chapter/145068 (requires a UBC CWL)

This essay was a discussion about what exactly plagiarism means to all parties involved in an academic institution. "Was plagiarism to be viewed primarily as a theft, as a breach of community norms, as a betrayal of the ethical foundation of the teacher-student relationship, or perhaps as a disciplinary misunderstanding?" (2008)

This may be a little above the heads of a grade 7 student, but the contrast of the viewed "seriousness" of the offense versus the amount of work saved (or reward weighed against risk) is something that I could see easily tempting a younger student, despite not knowing exactly what kind of behaviour they might be engaging in.

3. Zhang, Y. (2016). Against plagiarism a guide for editors and authors. Cham: Springer. p 3-10

Chapter 1 What Is Plagiarism?

https://link-springer-com.ezproxy.library.ubc.ca/content/pdf/10.1007%2F978-3-319-24160-9.pdf

While I did not get a chance to read through the entire work, Zhang has a good breakdown of specific types of plagiarisms such as cut and paste and paraphrasing (the "put in your own words" truism which sometimes seems to persist in the minds of students without the accompanying "and cite your source") as well as some other useful defintions. 

LIBE 477B: Broadening Horizons.

picture by gob-scure: https://flic.kr/p/ZJHHyU

Here is a list of topics I am considering for broadening my understanding in these areas. Any feedback is greatly appreciated!

Information Literacy:

This is one topic that has come up in a few other classes as well, the idea of cultivating skills to navigate and effectively use the massive amount of information that is at our fingertips (both for ourselves and especially for students). There is always the temptation to grab the easiest and quickest search result to support our arguments or positions, but is this the best option? Many school districts have access to catalogues and web magazines from vetted sources, but having the perseverance to properly sift through, sort, and curate a citation list is often not an immediately obvious skillset. Some questions: How “deep” should information literacy skills go, and how early in on in a student’s learning journey should it occur? 

Citing; Crediting:

This is another topic that often goes unnoticed by younger students, even before they are expected to write longer form essays or have an acceptable level of research to back up their assignments. I think proper citation attitudes and skills are an important competency to start considering even in elementary school. Even an idea as simple as “Hey, I grabbed this picture from the internet for my writing assignment, I through the author’s credit below it” would go a long way; and for older students, knowing about creative commons licenses, knowing what they mean and how to search through them. In our internet age for nearly infinite sharing, remembering to give credit where it is due allows proper recognition (for the original creator) and accountability (for the student synthesizing their content) to remain intact. Some questions: What level of accreditation is acceptable for students just starting out (eg. A grade 3 students learning how to capture an image online for a polar bear webquest)?

Reference Materials - Discussing Wikipedia

While filling in the gaps and learning about different reference materials, I was reminded of an anecdote that happened fairly recently in my school library. Students were working on a short activity involving Morse code. They were practicing writing their name in written “dot” and “dash” format, followed by a secret message they could write for a friend if they had extra time.

At one point during their work a small group of students asked for another copy of the “code sheet”, which indicated what each letter and number was coded as in Morse code (eg. the letter E = one dot). As I went back to my document to print off a few more copies, a few of the grade 4 students noticed my “from Wikipedia” citation at the bottom of the page. They asked, incredulously, “This came from Wikipedia? They could be lying on there you know!”. Clearly they had been given the “Wikipedia” talk before!

James Kanjo at the English language Wikipedia [GFDL (http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/fdl.html) or CC-BY-SA-3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/)], from Wikimedia Commons

What followed was a short class discussion about the use of Wikipedia, which I indicated that it’s a good starting place for researching a topic. What was interesting to me is that this student’s reaction to my use of Wikipedia lines up with co-founder’s Larry Sangers comments in Berinstein’s articles: that Wikipedia suffers from not merely a lack a credibility (which it arguably does), but more specifically a “lack of public perception of credibility” (2006). Is this unwarranted? Maybe, maybe not - I think taking a critical view of Wikipedia is important, but that doesn’t mean we need to avoid it at all costs.

Despite being a nearly 10 year old article, I do still like Harris’s Rules of Wikipedia:

“1) At least three sources are required to verify research.
2) General encyclopedias like Wikipedia are a great place to get started, however …
3) Serious research projects cannot cite general knowledge encyclopedias.” (2007)

These rules strongly convey the need for a critical eye when viewing information on Wikipedia, but don’t outright prevent it’s usage, which I believe is a great use for this resource.



Works Cited

Berinstein, P. (2006). Wikipedia and Britannica: The Kid's All Right (And So's the Old Man) (Links to an external site.)Links to an external site.. Searcher 14(3), 16-26.

Harris, C. (2007). Can we make peace with Wikipedia? (Links to an external site.)Links to an external site. School Library Journal, 53(6), 26.

James Kanjo at the English language Wikipedia [GFDL (http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/fdl.html) or CC-BY-SA-3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/)], from Wikimedia Commons

Moving Forward: An evaluation plan to improve reference services

Please find my assignment #3 below (either link)!

https://docs.google.com/document/d/e/2PACX-1vRc3EtxYuXuJCuP-jHtCkRC-Twm3lSB40cOdIFsixnRUuP2ut6NzuAVWD0vrQKCXvB35yOX6ahNGYEl/pub

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1sWazs5ufcJROQTZ6sz99QkwHLhTfCj5CCScxIZFsuhw/edit?usp=sharing

Working Together: Collaborating with a teacher and evolving their practice

Please find my assignment #2 below (either link)!

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1oHEnugTxfFnJFYjB761ensE0yHqmvFgb_wrye99FIUM/edit?usp=sharing

https://docs.google.com/document/d/e/2PACX-1vTfoFatBTffWI9iVYNZq8H8hzmWLQ5wFeVekNJwqkB7AxhAjMO60x58P4ZKPBNFQ9qIFoiJJb6gWwXy/pub

Discussing Collaboration - What should it look like?

Photo by UNDP photo stream. Retrieved from https://flic.kr/p/8z1MfS

I’d like to start today’s post with a short clip:

“The New York Public Library Has a Human Google”




In summary, It’s a video talking about a team of librarians at NYPL that will help users answer any researchable question they might have. They even discuss some of the more outlandish requests they have gotten and kept a record of them.

While it’s a meant to be a fun video, I think this is sometimes of the Teacher-librarian can be viewed by both staff and students - ask a question, get an answer - but there is definitely a lot more to the role. For students, building capacity and the knowledge of how to find an answer is equally, if not more important than assisting with an answer directly! For teachers, this could mean more in-depth collaboration discussions and longer “working relationships” in regards to a co-planned unit or assignment.

Collaboration has been an ongoing exploration for me in my library. While I have been doing some work in exploring our digital reference resources (as discussed in the Theme One post), currently, there are lots of requests for collaboration using some of the new technology we received as part of a district initiative (including robotics and other ADST materials).

These have been run multitude of different ways, but Callison’s definition of collaboration from Shayne Russell’s ERIC digest article has me rethinking how some of these learning opportunities should perhaps be formatted: collaboration is defined as “Each partner fulfills a carefully defined role; comprehensive planning is required; leadership, resources, risk, and control are shared; and the working relationship extends over a relatively long period of time” (Callison, 1999). I think perhaps because I am often the one initiating the collaboration, often it has fallen to me to construct what the core of the lesson looks like. While there are teacher to teacher discussions, it is often a short meeting; as discussed in the article - TLs with less overall flexible schedules tend to plan collaboratively for less time (Callison, 1999) - which I have been seeing in my own practice for better or for worse. However, I believe many teachers would absolutely be interested in going even further in-depth into a project or unit in the future. This is definitely something to think about! A carefully, collaboratively planned longer-term unit is perhaps a future goal for my library program.

Works Cited

Callison, D. (1999, January). Keywords in instruction: Collaboration. "School Library Media Activities Monthly," 15(5), 38-40. 

Great Big Story (2016, October 17). The New York Public Library Has a Human Google. Retrieved February 19, 2018, from https://youtu.be/PfqgDG1qrKg

Russell, S. (n.d.). Teachers and Librarians: Collaborative Relationships. ERIC Digest. Retrieved February 19, 2018, from https://www.ericdigests.org/2001-2/librarians.html

Does it make the cut? Evaluation of a Reference Work

Photo by Jason. Retrieved from https://flic.kr/p/4Zoxzx

Please find my latest Assignment below!

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1ZI-sO6AMrHJeVgMDinAv6ZLAIXkMce7ZTkxutzxFPnc/edit?usp=sharing

To Dream the Impossible Dream

Photo by az. Retrieved from https://flic.kr/p/8KCCKW

We all want to do the best job that we can, especially when tackling a new challenge in our careers or personal lives. Going through the Theme One readings for LIBE 467 has reminded me that the position of the Teacher-Librarian is truly complex and multifaceted. I am currently six months into my position as a new TL, and there is lots to do. At the risk of feeling overwhelmed, I think it is beneficial to take a long range view and consider the implications of a five year plan; what will my library look like in the future?

First, view through the lens and applying the context of Assignment 1, my non-fiction and reference section need a careful look. As I mentioned in some of the discussions, I have done some essential weeding of more aged material that has outlived its usefulness, such as a small collection of older print encyclopedias, but there is still much more to evaluate. And even then, does that resource require a replacement despite the availability of digital encyclopedic resources? This is a process that will take time to properly assess and execute on.

Second, there is the discussion surrounding the web and online reference materials, as outlined in Chapter 10 of Reference Skills for the School Librarian: Tools and Tips (Riedling, 2013). Does every teacher and student at my school know what is available to them in terms of digital resources, both through their school library as well as across the board as a school district? Simply knowing what is out there can be a solid step in the direction of making the library a more valuable resource.

As a few examples:

• There is Webpath Express, a curated collection of web links that support curriculum and can provide a solid foundation for student research. (Note: to access, find “Newton Elementary” → Catalogue → Webpath express in the sidebar)
• Other curated resource lists outside the district, such as infotopia.info and other associated Student-friendly custom searches. These can drastically cut down on the information overload from a internet-wide google search as well as give students a leg up in evaluation because of the list curation.
• A new resource in our district for this year is the Discovery Education Science Techbook, a fantastic science “online textbook” integrated with ample multimedia resources and student activities. Here is one that doubles as a very solid teacher resource as well as another potential avenue for student research.

This is a short list of what is available to our teachers and students, and part of the role includes building capacity and making use of the resources we have available to us.

Thirds, also outlined by Riedling throughout Chapter 10, there is the topic of web source evaluation. While the curated lists shown above can help in this regard, it is still invaluable for students to obtain the information literacy skills needed to properly evaluate a resource. I think lessons from education resources such as Common Sense Media can assist me in this area and help students brush up on (or perhaps newly acquire) their research skills.

Retrieved from http://bctf.ca/bctla/pub/

Lastly, I think the BCTLA's information literacy model the “Points of Inquiry” bears mentioning. This is a hugely important model for tackling concepts of inquiry and research, and one of my goals is to introduce this to teachers and students as part of our collaboration. Given that much of the redesigned curriculum is focused on essential questions, and promotes the inquiry learning model itself, exploring info lit models such as this one with other teachers could do a lot to move us forward.

It seems like a lot to handle all at once. However, Reidling has a great quote from William A. Katz that really resonated with me in Chapter 1 (2016) “In time the beginner becomes a veteran. And veteran [school librarians] never quit; or are fired, or die, They simply gain fame as being among the wisest people in the world. One could do worse”. As I gain experience, I strive to be able to make my way towards the path of a veteran teacher librarian.

Works Cited

BCTLA Resources. (n.d.). Retrieved January 28, 2018, from http://bctf.ca/bctla/pub/

D-221 books. (2018, January 28). Retrieved January 28, 2018, from https://flic.kr/p/8KCCKW

Dr. Michael Bell and Carole Bell. (n.d.). Infotopia--A Google Alternative Safe Search Engine for Students. Retrieved January 28, 2018, from http://www.infotopia.info/

Website Evaluation. (2016, August 05). Retrieved January 28, 2018, from https://www.commonsense.org/education/lesson-plans/website-evaluation

Welcome to SD No. 36 (Surrey) Catalogue. (n.d.). Retrieved January 28, 2018, from https://library.sd36.bc.ca/district/servlet/presentlistsitesform.do;jsessionid=3F9364BE22C2C0B8573C3372B646A6C0?districtMode=true

Riedling, A. M., Shake, L., & Houston, C. (2013). Reference skills for the school librarian: tools and tips. Santa Barbara: California.

Techbook™ Digital Textbooks. (n.d.). Retrieved January 28, 2018, from http://www.discoveryeducation.ca/what-we-offer/techbook-digital-textbooks/index.cfm