From School Library Journal: USA research on the benefits of school libraries and trained staff.
Ammunition for more spending more money on our Libraries
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Category Archives: My Library
Reinventing the Library
I read this yesterday and found it interesting despite the clichés
Reinventing the Library – The Intelligencer 2016
This is not your parent’s school library. Students gather at tables or in padded booths to work on projects, watch newscasts on a wall-mounted TV, browse online resources on laptops or even work on a puzzle or print something on a 3D printer.
Gone are the racks and racks of books in neat orderly lines and ever-present librarians ready to shush any student who dares speak louder than a murmur. The commons is a constant buzz of activity and student conversation.
Libraries of the Future
The SMH published a fascinating article by Stephen Heppell who argues that “The traditional environments where teachers and students engage need to improve with move with the times.” Of course we have all seen highly imaginative futuristic articles prophesying about schools in the 21st century and even beyond – not all of which have been compelling – but Heppell’s article is well worth a read.
Just one comment. Not everything is new. For example, I taught in a primary school in the 1990’s in which the ‘open plan’ approach to cross-curricular collaboration and ‘delivery’ where the conceptual and physical ‘architecture’ within which the teaching and learning took place, was entirely consistent in both theory and practice with the following comment in Heppell’s article.
“Certainly, there are times when it remains appropriate, and often enjoyable, for a teacher to stand in front of the class and offer old-school instruction. But that can’t be the only tool in their kitbag and we can’t just design learning around those special all-together moments. We need to be able to see multiple teaching strategies in the same space. Students need the opportunity to work on their own, often at a computer with high-speed internet access; they need to be able to work together in groups of different sizes; and they need areas for quiet concentration. They need small group collaboration.”
And I am sure that such teaching and learning flexibility is well and truly alive in our schools in 2015!
Post thanks to Dr Paul Brock Director, Learning and Development Research, Office of the Secretary, Department of Education and Communities
Introverts in the Library
Today I watched an excellent TED talk on catering for introverted students in schools. I have often wondered how “open learning” and environments designed to suit this style of teaching and learning cater for these students. I’m sure most teachers do cater well for individual students in an open classroom but when you look at the environments that some schools are creating there are no nooks or individual pods for introverted students to recharge themselves. I think we cater well for introverted students here in our library as we have planned quiet spaces and individual learning spaces for our students as well as flexible spaces for collaborative teaching and learning.
Bored of Studies.
- Student Message Board
I found this great online community today called Bored of Studies where students can write about their school. I read both positive & negative feedback from students about the library so am hoping to use the feedback in a constructive way to improve the technology situation in the library. This will be one of my first goals in my new position at the College.
Check out your school at:
Hello world!
Welcome to my brand new blog at Edublogs.
I have recently started working in a Senior Library and am loving working with Year 11 and 12 students in Western Sydney.
For those of you who don’t know much about the Nirimba Campus follow this link to find out more about the partnership we have with TAFE and UWS.
http://www.nirimba.nsw.edu.au/
The staff are great and the library is well resourced. More soon.
Thanks again for visiting me at Edublogs!