Words Issue 1: Autumn 2014 by NSW SLA

SLA NSW

Words. The Magazine of School Library Association of NSW

Number 1 Volume 1 Autumn 2014

Footy Hero writes Children’s Book

Phil Wait. From Ham Radio to MakerSpace

Monke

y’s Und ies in L ockhar

t Proudly printed in Australia

50 Years of SLANSW

Early Days Some recollections from the early days of ASLA (NSW)

n 14 August 1968, the then Federal Minister for Education and Science, The Honourable Mr Malcolm Fraser, announced that an initial grant of $27 million would be provided for secondary school libraries for the 1969 –71 period. Thus began a program of development of school libraries which attracted about $200 million of federal government funds and a similar amount of state government funds from 1969 to 1980. Funds for primary school library development began in 1974. In 1969, I was appointed to Queanbeyan High School as Teacher-Librarian, and my association with several professional groups began. ASLA (NSW), founded in 1964 as the School Library Association of New South Wales, was greatly involved in this federal government program. Committee meetings of the SLA of NSW were held at Federation House, then in Bathurst Street, and I recall meetings with John Hirst dealing with many aspects of this development – buildings, staff, resources, and support services. As editor of the national journal, School Libraries in Australia, I reviewed the progress of this development and in July, 1973 wrote “In each state the major difficulties to overcome are the lack of adequate and qualified school librarians with clerical and technical assistance, and lack of inservice training for all teachers in the use of library facilities and services.“ (1) I would attend the committee meetings by flying from Canberra airport after school, staying overnight with Mary Maltby, SCEGGS, and flying back to Canberra the next morning – the first regional rep? SLA of NSW responded to many of the reports generated by this development. There were the Fenwick Report, 1966 (2), the LAA Report, 1966 (3),

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the Trask Report, 1968 (4), the UNESCO Report, 1970 (5), the Commonwealth Secondary Schools Libraries Committee Report, 1971 (6), the Cohen Report, 1972 (7), and the Karmel Report, 1973 (8). SLA of NSW hosted several international visitors in its early years. Robert Case attended meetings in NSW and presented the keynote address at the ASLA III Conference in Brisbane in 1972. Mr Case was the director of the School Library Manpower Project of

Past Presidents photographed in the Library Christian Bros. School, Lewisham 1999.

Right to left: Roy Crotty 1999 – 2002 • Terry Bruce 1996 – 1997 • Jan Radford • John Lee (deceased) • June Wall first term 1989 • Peg Craddock 1986 – 1988 • Margaret Lawther 1984 – 1986

the American Library Association. Professor Phyliss Hochstettler for the University of Portland, Oregon, addressed SLA of NSW in 1972. James Maxwell, Director of Instructional Media, Fern Ridge School District, Oregon, was the overseas consultant at the ASLA IV Conference hosted by SLA of NSW in 1974.

Words. is the quarter yearly Magazine of School Library Association of NSW

ISSN 2203-160X

It was the Association’s journal, then the Teacher Librarian, that published articles of professional development, such as the effective library use by teachers. Scan, which began in 1982, was originally a bulletin reviewing educational resources and was produced by the School Library Services. In 1969, at a meeting in Canberra, SLA of NSW joined with the School Library Association in Canberra and District, now ASLA (ACT), and SLAV to form the Australian School Library Association which by March, 1975 had membership of each state and territory school library association.

President Michelle Jensen Vice President Anne Plowman Secretary Sunny South Treasurer Ailsa Holmes-Walker Past President Bill Sommerville Metropolitan Committe Members

Past Presidents since Roy: Victor Davidson 2003 – 2004 Jill Ball 2005 – 2006 Victor Davidson Acting part of 2006 June Wall 2007 – 2008 Roy Crotty 2008 – 2009 Ken Brock 2010 – 2011 Bill Sommerville 2012 – 2013 Above names and dates are taken from records and memory.

Crystal Choi Joanna Deegan Mary Nikolapoulos Regional Committee Member Ken Brock Blue Mountains Media Co-ordinator & Web Manager Debbie Hunter Editor

References School Libraries in Australia. Vol. 2 no 3, July 1973, p.2 Sara Fenwick, School and Children’s Libraries in Australia: a report to the Children’s Libraries Section of the Library Association of Australia Cheshire, 1966. Library Association of Australia. Standards and Objectives for School Libraries. Cheshire, 1966. Margaret Trask. School Libraries : a report to the nation. Cheshire, 1968. UNESCO. The Role of Libraries in Secondary Education. UNESCO seminar, AGPS, 1971. Commonwealth Secondary School Libraries Committee. Standards for Secondary School Libraries. AGPS, 1971. David Cohen. Primary School Libraries : a report to the nation. Australian Library Promotion Council, 1972. Schools Commission, Interim Committee. P.H. Karmel, chairman. Schools in Australia. AGPS, 1973

Paul Hunter This publication has been prepared for the members of the School Library Association of NSW (Inc). The opinions expressed herein are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the view of SLANSW (Inc.). While reasonable checks have been made to ensure the accuracy of statements and advice, no responsibility for any loss occasioned to any person acting on or refraining from action as a result of material in this publication is accepted by the authors or SLANSW (Inc.). Copyright of articles is held by SLANSW (Inc.) and by each author herein.

Bill Sommerville

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Debbie’s A Word from Pagethe President

Conferences, Makers, Jersey and Tim Tams

he School Library Associ ation of New South Wales is celebrating its 50th Anniversary in 2014. The celebration will begin with our Annual State Library Day, “Literacy through the Library” on 1 March. Look out for an article about the State Library Day on pages 20 and 21. I would like to welcome to the Management Committee, Crystal Choi who is filling a Metropolitan Vacancy. We look forward to working with Crystal and I am sure she will be contributing to future issues of Words. and sharing her interests and knowledge. In keeping with the heightened interest in connecting to the regional areas a bit more in 2014, I will be travelling to selected events being held around the state in the early part of the year, to meet the members in their own place. My first trip is to Canberra on 21 March, where I will be attending an event to coincide with a Syba Academy Workshop. After the Workshop I will be conducting an unconference, to discuss future directions for SLANSW in this region.

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I would like to thank the Syba Academy for their enthusiasm in supporting our organisation by allowing SLANSW to convene the meeting at the end of this valued workshop. If your are close by, why not drop in and share your suggestions? My next trip will be on 9 May, to the Newcastle area where SLANSW will attend the MANTLE conference. Again I will hold an unconfer ence following the conference, to discuss future directions and opportunities for SLANSW in this region. These will be exciting ventures, and true to the promise of the new committee last year to make a better connection to all members of the Association. And I thank the MANTLE group for allowing me to use their facili ties in this way. Over the past few weeks, I have been exploring ways to incorporate my love for technology into my library programs. A new school brings new chall enges, and I have already started to gather ideas to incorporate new programs into my library program, as I am sure you have also. Read on, and discover how to start on a MakerSpace journey in your library.

ould you like to receive a copy of the book Deadly D & Justice Jones – Making the Team and this signed super jersey for someone in your classes?

Simply email me at michelle.jensen8@det.new.edu.au and be the first to email me the correct answer to the question “What is the dog’s name in the book?”. They will get the goods. Big thanks to Dave and Scott for the donation, and congratu lations to Tim Tam who turn 50 this year with us. No wonder we love Tim Tams so much at those afternoon meetings. Michelle Jensen

From the Digital Desk

New Projects, Developments, and the Best of MakerSpace

t the start of a new school year, we are thinking, planning and getting new displays going in our libraries. Perhaps your library or school is compromised with new building projects. Exciting ... but too early to write conclusively about our new projects; so our feature article is a ‘think tank’ edition of collected plans from three Teacher Librarians and their guests. Making sense of MakerSpaces in the library: Why? How? What for? How it could look for us? We have invited Cathie Howe to give an expert overlay from inside the Macquarie ICT Innovations Centre (MacICT), and Phil Wait, President of the WIA, and keen advocate for the MakerSpace movement for an ‘outside’ view. After attending recent SLANSW Maker workshops, and continuing our conversations, three Teacher Librarians share their thinking plans here for 2014. ifferent schools, different student groups and different ideas, with a school library in common. Watch their spaces as the year unfolds. Other articles in this edition encourage us to look at more start of the year planning.

Lyn Hay challenges our plans for professional learning opportunities in 2014. The new Syba Academy has designed personalised, relevant and challenging programs in line with current thinking on PD. We invited Carmen Eastman and Angus Cook from OCLC/ WorldShare to illustrate one way to streamline our library services. It suggests a plan for a future library where flipping the library to join our classroom colleagues becomes more possible, with new methods of arranging digital resources and enables an easier curation of our library resources. ow could a flipped library be different to a flipped classroom/blended learning environment? What’s missing? What’s needed? What advantages do we have? e welcome a fun author duo in Dave Hartley and Scott Prince as they launch the first in their new book series, “Deadly D and Justice Jones”, and there’s a competition offer to win a copy of the book and a signed jersey for your school. The Deputy Principal and the Footy player promoting reading for young readers.

But there is more! Introducing Lockhart Central School library as our regional featured school, following a visit to the school by the Media team. Big thanks to Ruth Ernest, Principal for allowing us to share your day. The events and reports from around the state and Sydney itself ... and a reflection from the past to remind us we are indeed 50 this year! Thank you for the offers to write for future editions of the magazine. We always welcome your ideas for articles, areas of interest, suggestions and good ideas! Deadline date for written submissions is Friday, 23 May. re you a Regional school with something to share with us? We would love to spend a day in your library! Please contact the Media Team here: info@slansw.asn.au Hope there’s something here to get your creative juices going for 2014. Happy reading! Debbie Hunter

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Debbie’s 21st Century Page Teachers and Tools

Meaningful Learning in a Digital Age

Cathie Howe is a Professional Learning & Leadership Advisor managing MacICT. She is the creative and strategic leader of a team that designs and develops professional learning workshops for teachers and students with a focus on innovative integration of existing and emerging technologies to enhance learning and teaching. During Cathie’s role as a teacher in both public and private schools, she has been an Assistant Principal for 12 years.

tudents around the globe are participating, playing and performing in online communities and digital environments. They are interacting meaningfully with digital tools, expanding their thinking, contributing to a collective intelligence and navigating across multiple media platforms (Jenkins 2006). As teachers, it is no longer enough for us just to cover the content students need to learn for today, we need to be teaching the skills they will need for the future. Therefore, learning needs to be meaningful. That is, it should be active, authentic, intentional, cooperative and constructive (Jonassen et al 2008). At the heart of this learning is ‘learning how to learn’ that is, how to become a proficient and independent lifelong learner. Research indicates students learn more deeply and perform better on complex tasks if they have the opportunity to engage in more ‘authentic’ learning solving real world problems (Barron & Darling-Hammond 2008).

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At Macquarie ICT Innovations Centre (MacICT), we purposely design workshops for K – 12 teachers and students based on inquiry learning. Far from being “unstructured”, effective implementation of inquiry learning provides proper scaffolding, assessment, and redirection as projects unfold. Participants may find themselves undertaking a range of activities from co-constructing knowledge in a cloud based document, creating digital elements for a range of purposes using different technologies, to designing and prototyping solutions to open ended engineering or design challenges. Some of the instructional approaches to inquiry learning that MacICT may use in their workshops are project based learning, problem based learning and learning by design. The current Maker Education movement is a wonderful example of learning that is meaningful. This provides an opportunity for students to engage in active learning involving technological skills that may incorporate computer science, engineering, electronics and robotics. As students learn how to invent, design and create new technologies as they take part in projects that require sustained engagement and collaboration, they will learn more deeply. In a MakerSpace, expertise is distributed and, on occasions, the lines between teachers and learners may become blurred. Cathie Howe MacICT is collaboration between the NSW Department of Education and Communities and Macquarie University. It provides a range of services to teachers and students across NSW involving 21st century learning that focusses on Curriculum, pedagogy and the innovative integration of technology into teaching and learning. Another major focus of MacICT is the research it conducts into realising the potential of existing and emerging ICT to transform teaching and learning. http://macict.edu.au/

Students Speak

n 25 and 26 November 2013, Dr Sukovic, Isabel Holborow and I went to the Creativity and Academic Excellence Conference at Knox Grammar School, the host school of the event. We listened to the first keynote speaker, Prof Yong Zhao who provided some of his views on the travelling of human society and education through time. Prof Zhao mentioned an interesting point about students finding jobs today; that in order to keep unemployment down and creativity up in our world we need to have job creators, not job finders. By the time we students graduate there will be many new jobs available that we can’t even imagine now. For our first lecture Bel and I chose a student workshop about the use of film in class. There we met Jack Applebee, a Knox student who ran us through his German class and the benefits of being presented with a project to create a German film. They ended up getting into the finals of a teen German film festival. Afterwards we had our own presentation to do. Armed with our poster, we participated in the lecture by our very own Dr Sukovic. She spoke about the use of serious play and how incorporating play into our work is very important for people to be productive. Isabel and I were given a task where we had to imagine a LINDA magazine that we were the editors of, similar to Wordly, our school literary magazine. We came up with an idea of a virtual editor cylinder, where we could move things on a screen with our hands. It’s a kinaesthetic approach to organising the magazine of our dreams. We called the cylinder LINDA (Learning Interactive Network Digitally Available). The talk ended with an unexpected amount of enthusiasm and we met a lot of interesting people after our presentation. That was definitely one of the highlights. After lunch we went to our final talk, which was about parabolas in science, maths and art.

The teacher holding the talk was Melissa Silk, who was very lovely and engaging. Participating students could turn their name into a parabola pattern. They could then use the template to create prints onto fabric and paper. In the afternoon Bel and I participated in a Q&A in front of the entire collective of people that came for the conference. It was about what creativity actually is. Besides us on the panel there was Prof Yong Zhao, a boy in year 8 at Knox and the principal of Knox Grammar. There were many good points made about how creativity is unlimited and can be utilised by everyone. It was another highlight as it was a completely new and exciting experience. The next day we listened to two other lectures by American keynote speakers, Alan November and Dr Lance Ford. They talked about making learning easier by incorporating computer technology into education. Alan November talked about websites like Club Academia where students create video lessons for other students. He also mentioned how creativity is linked to forming questions and by asking interesting questions you are, in fact, making yourself more creative. Dr Lance Ford extended this by including the use of video communication across the world to broaden education horizons. Afterwards we got involved in two more workshops. The first was an anime one where Kelly Chung talked about how you can incorporate anime into lessons and into HSC. Finally, Bel and I accidentally stumbled upon a strictly teacher workshop for English planning and though it was fun, we did feel like we were ruining some exclusive teacher code, with words like pedagogical and backwards design for lesson plans. It was a wonderful time with so much to learn and see including a virtual storybook app on the iPad which really needs to be seen to be believed. We had a lot of fun meeting incredible people and experiencing a snapshot of a teacher conference. Maisie Watkins (Y9) St. Vincent’s College, Potts Point

Isabel, Maisie, Mr Weeks, a student from Knox Grammar, Prof Zhao and Ms Yager

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From Ham Radio ...

Don’t be bored, make something

Phil Wait established the VitalCall Medical Alarm business until its sale in 1999. He currently owns a medical alarm manufacturing business FirstCall Medical Alarms. Phil is President of The Wireless Institute of Australia and Chair of the Personal Emergency Response Services Association (PERSA), and advocates for Australia’s 16,000 Radio Amateurs. Despite his early aversion to sport, Phil has competed in many races on his yacht “Flying Turtle”.

rowing up in suburban Sydney in the 1950s and 60s with an engineering father, and a deep dislike for any type of organised sport, it wasn’t long before I turned my attention to pulling apart just about anything I could find. The local council tip was always fertile ground for old radios, and only an hour scooter ride away. Progressing through the normal interests for kids of the day; various volatile chemicals and explosives (legally obtainable by youngsters at that time), I then started to build things. Fairly simple stuff at first, like a remote microphone to secretly listen into my parent’s conversations, and then to more complex contraptions like radio transmitters built from junk parts. Tracking my signals on the AM broadcast band around the neighbourhood was always fascinating, but it’s probably just as well for my parents that I never thought of connecting the secret microphone and the transmitter together.

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Amateur radio was the natural place for kids like us, and the school I attended in the city had already established a radio club, (part of what was then called the Youth Radio Scheme, and organised by a notable radio amateur, Rex Black), with a dedicated area partitioned off in one of the science labs. That little area became fertile ground for a free-wheeling and unregulated bunch of experimenters, more of a social club for tech-heads to bounce ideas around. Just around the corner from the school was Oxford Street, Sydney, now known for its cosmopolitan life style and rainbow culture, but in those days Oxford Street was the poor end of town and Army Disposal central, with three or four Disposal Stores selling surplus ww2 radio and radar equipment. Some mates and I found ourselves working on Saturday mornings in the Waltham Trading army surplus store, and being paid, not in cash, but in whatever we could carry. The local bus drivers grew quite used to having a row of seats taken up with large dusty boxes with a dazzling array of dials and knobs, but they were used to strange things on busses then. In those days school kids took their .303 Army Cadet rifles home from school ready to go on cadet camps, but we needed to show that the bolt was safely secreted in our school bag and not in the rifle.

... to MakerSpace

Obtaining an amateur radio licence required a considerable amount of study, (it’s much simpler now), and it took a careful eye on proceedings during HSC economics to ensure I wasn’t sprung studying the wrong text, but such a small detail of a federal licence, with a $5,000 fine for not having one, didn’t stop us building bigger and better radio transmitters from whatever parts we could scrounge. It sounds a long way removed from our regulated life now, but mine was a common story of the time: people with an interest in electronics often became radio amateurs, and amateurradio had a strong national organisation which supported experimentation and home construction. Many of those geek kids would later have life-long careers in electronics and communications, as I have done. In fact, scratch the surface of any electronics or communications organisation and you are sure to find a good number of people who started out in amateur radio, but in about the early 1980s everything

like the Raspberry Pi and Beaglebone, low-cost robotics components and 3-D printers, there is a new generation of experimenters and home-constructors emerging. Loosely called the “Makers”, these people would have entered amateur radio in days past, and some still do in order to communicate over long ranges with the contraptions they build, but now they have vastly expanded range of options and technologies to choose from. Today’s “Makers” might be geeks now but, just like the radio amateurs before them, they will be the ones that build our technology based industries of the future. The United States Obama administration recognises this, and recently hosted a White House Science Fair, where according to a White House press release, “a young boy named Joey wowed the President by using homemade cannon to send a marshmallow flying across the State Dining Room. Joey then handed the President a business card reading, ‘Don’t be bored, make something’”. The saying became a rallying cry for the President’s efforts to grow a generation of students who are “makers of things, not just consumers of things.” The first-ever White House Maker Fair will be hosted later this year in order to help more students and entrepreneurs get involved in making things. It would be good to see the same strong lead taken in Australia.

Gavin Hart on the Ham Radio in the late 1960s ...

seemed to change. With the introduction of personal computers, technically inclined kids became much more likely to spend their spare time on keyboards rather than actually building anything. Our schools became bound-up in process and rigid curriculums, and life became full. There was simply no time and no venue for geeks to just hang out together – and now we wonder why we have a critical shortage of engineers and technicians. Just recently, in a kind of “back-to-the-future” way, and spurned by a new wave of low-cost computers, ... leading to today’s MakerSpacers

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Three Teacher Librarians

“W

e need to stop thinking of the library as a place to ‘get stuff’ – and start thinking of it as a place to ‘make stuff’.” (Valenza, 2013) I am relatively new to the MakerSpace movement. After attending a few sessions of hands on activity with a Raspberry Pi, and reading from the experts about Maker Space concepts: Sylvia Martinez and Joyce Valenza to name a few, I now follow the blogs of my colleagues who are also making sense of how to fit this movement into a library environment. It is starting to make sense. I have a plan, at least, for 2014. 1. Find out what’s already available to students in your school. Target the ‘gap’ to create a MakerSpace opportunity in your library. I find the new curriculum has placed challenges in all subject departments to find enough time to offer extended ‘sand pit play’ for students. At my school, we currently offer a sophisticated range of clubs ... before and after school, and during lunchtimes.

ment of literacies should be a priority. Plastic boxes, with enough for 4 at a In curriculum, students are better time on a range of projects. able to evaluate professional works if I have planned to introduce a series they have an understanding of the proof short projects that will use the stucesses required to create them. This dent laptop, iPads. Cloud technologies applies also to digital and other literacy. They will be selected s ’ better able to develop mobile t Wha nchbox an eye for bias, persuadevices u ur L sion and relevance if to explore in yo to day? they know about what’s some eveStarting Term 1 involved in the process. ryday uses Student media of technolDo it! creation needs to be ogy for the Build it! Create it! a routine, integrated real world Explore it! Design it! part of the curriculum. will also be Learn about it! Find it! Students must be considered Photograph it! taught not only to read ... until the Film it! electronic media, but boys begin to create it. Respectto think of fully and ethically. their own In the school maker projects space environment, the to explore. community needs to be Three a coming together of activities Where? The Lunchbox Club Room academic standards, per term are in the Library interests and sharing planned, culture. to allow for 3. Widen your conversation beyond some immersion and positive collabothe classroom and teachers you know. ration, and additional ongoing activities Learn what questions you need to ask. from time to time with global projects Join a Hacker group! Share what you such as Flat Classroom, iEARN, learn with maintaining our Geocache and later, others. student generated projects. I have Students will learn to work with each attended other, recognising and respecting the Maker strengths of others’ skills as they Space share information and ideas. They will Categories: events, develop critical thinking and problem Hacker solving skills. • • • events, Check here for a list of the activities and am I have planned to offer to the students Enter your best photo in each category now keepfor their consideration. Closing date 14 March 2014 ing an eye Debbie Hunter Ask at the Lilley or Centenary Library out for opw for more information portunities on MeetUp They are largely subject based: for new projects, new experts to meet. Robotics, Computer (programming) Free Webinars are easy to access via club, and The Shed for younger boys Brain Pop, Atomic Learning, ASLA.. Here are my sugto name a few. How can the library get we all have our favourites. Focus on gested activities for involved? Find your niche. people, collaboration and variety of our Lunchbox Club Libraries are cross curricular places. interests. We collaborate, talk to many teach4. Roll up your sleeves and prepare ers and students about learning and to get hands dirty! Introducing The literacy - and that includes digital and Lunchbox Club. visual literacy. Perfect for a Maker ... a lunchtime weekly club to explore Find articles about Space experience. a variety of digital media projects in a MakerSpaces in 2. Base decisions about the projects safe and supervised environment. Libraries here on what you already know about good Without a specific space for the club library practice. A focus on developroom, we will create ‘kits’ of activities.

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Three innovative Projects

or me this is just adding a new label to different events I had already been hosting as a part of my library program. I am uniquely positioned to organise a MakerSpace in my library as I have a passion for technology and a love of creating. I started my campaign for a Maker Space in the first week of this term. I created an interactive display. Students and teachers over the past four weeks have been learning how to

programming with the Raspberry Pi and lego Robots. The Term 3 project again builds on an existing program that is aimed at building relations with the local primary schools but they are building Cubby Houses we are going to extend this project to using the Raspberry Pi to turn on lights in the Cubby House. By Term 4 the students in the club will be confident to plan their own projects and have the confidence to share the skills they have learned with other

turn on a little light using a Raspberry Pi. This activity is a crowd pleaser and sparks interest in how the Raspberry Pi works. Two teachers have committed to helping me with a Maker Club and 20 students have put their names on a list the students are in year 10-12. Once these students have the skills needed to run the club on their own I see my role to change to facilitator and we will advertise for more students. The club will start in Week 6 as I need to purchase Raspberry Pis. The rest of this term I will spend teaching the student basic programming concepts. Term 2 we are going to incorporate an existing project into the Maker Space Club. This program is focused on building relations with the local primary schools. The students use lego robotics. We will develop this program to have a second stage of

student in the school. We will advertise for more students as our Year 12s will be on HSC exams. During this term I will be a facilitator and hope to bring in experts to teach the student skills that myself and the other tow teacher don’t have. Michelle Jensen

akerSpaces has been an ongoing theme in my professional development in the last year. The first taster was at the IASL Conference in Bali where I was introduced to the idea of Makerspaces in libraries. I knew about the Makerspace movement but hadn’t really thought about it in the school library context. If you want to know more about the movement there is a general introduction at http://makerspace.com/. The idea is to allow opportunities for students to “create” outside the bounds of the regular classroom pressures to deliver. In some ways it harks back to the notion of apprenticeship and experts teaching the inexpert. For me it is an opportunity for our students to relax and create in their lunchtime. The other workshop that I attended was about MakerSpaces but also about coding and using the MakerSpaces idea to develop coding skills using tools like Raspberry Pis. What I gained from this and the project that I hope to carry out can be found on my blog at http://librariansarego.blogspot.com.au/2013/12/ makerspaces-coding-raspberry-pi-and. html It was clear that the conductors of this hands-on workshop believed, as others do, that students having no concept of coding, and the behind the scenes workings of technology, will not be able to fully participate in future societies. Already IT companies find it difficult to source staff with the right background and dispositions. So to this end, here at Kambala we will be having MakerSpaces at lunchtime. Since we don’t have a space that we can dedicate to MakerSpace we will be having a “MakerSpace on wheels”. Trolley laden with craft bits and bobs, Raspberry Pis and other tech bits to cobble together. We will also have a staff member that is Raspberry Pi proficient on hand to help with questions and to run mini masterclasses. Stacey Taylor

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Creating the Future

Supporting the Flipped Classroom Concept Carmen Eastman

s the internet and e-resources become more entrenched in academic life, and school libraries come under ever increasing pressure to deliver more services with fewer financial and staffing resources, traditional library management systems struggle to meet the needs of school libraries. OCLC WorldShare Management Services (WMS) gives schools an opportunity to thrive in the modern information environment. Andrew Pace, OCLC Executive Director of Networked Library Services, who has led the development of WMS at OCLC, experienced a light-bulb moment when he realised that the future of library technology lay with cooperation in the cloud. “I could see that it was all about community,” he says. “We had a unique technological opportunity in that we could leverage our existing expertise in building WorldCat, the aggregation of bibliographic data supported by OCLC, the world’s largest library cooperative, and the member libraries who knew that a new direction was needed”. OCLC member libraries set great store by collaboration and for very good reason – around the world they are attempting to meet users’ growing expectations of their services, while working with ever diminishing resources. The goals of library collaboration and those of WMS are the same – to save time and money by simplifying back-office workflows. Andrew points to the OCLC WorldShare Platform, on which WMS applications run, as part of a game-changing technology trend in libraries. Library technology thought leader Marshall Breeding defines these plat-

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forms in terms of their ability to manage all formats of library materials and “their services-oriented architecture with web-based interfaces” which he believes will reshape the industry over the next decade. Breeding reported that OCLC WorldShare Management Services was the first to emerge in the marketplace, having entered general release in 2011. In Australia, seventeen libraries are now live on WMS. These libraries join more than 200 libraries worldwide using OCLC’s cloud-based library management services. “Coming onboard with WorldShare and being part of the WorldCat community has been very exciting,” said Karin Gilbert, Head of the Learning Resource Centre, Lowther Hall. “The product development is excellent, updates are regular and reflect the input we give, and we feel excited to be part of this innovative product and community.” As the world’s largest library database, WorldCat holds metadata for every conceivable physical and electronic format, as well as providing access to more than 2 billion items held by participating libraries. “WorldCat is the central core database of WMS,” says Andrew “and that changes the nature of acquisition and discovery.” With library staff having to juggle teaching and library duties it is hard to keep up with other library tasks. It’s not always feasible to make resources available as quickly as possible, while waiting for cataloguing records to be sourced from third party suppliers or publishers. Read more about flipping the library here

in Library Services

ibrarians using WMS don’t need to source records and manipulate them into a catalogue; they simply n need to match items to WorldCat. Not only does this new way of working make items available for circulation faster, the whole process is incredibly efficient, meaning library staff can focus on providing more services to students. Single-search access to items from your library and the world’s library collections WMS includes WorldCat Discovery, a fully featured discovery layer that helps students discover a broader range of resources, such as print material, eBooks, and online databases from a single search. WorldCat Discovery is user friendly for students with little information literacy, yet sophisticated enough for senior students with more demanding information needs. The web interface will feel familiar to students, improve search results, and enhance overall student satisfaction with the library. OCLC understands school requirements when it comes to library management systems. In recent years, OCLC acquired Amlib, a library management system popular with both public and school libraries. As well as acquiring the software, OCLC acquired staff with many years’ experience working with library data from schools, and an understanding of the specific needs of school libraries. Implementation staff have had a wide exposure to migrating data from a variety of systems used by schools, as well as working with other school specific information such as SCIS data and records related to audio-visual material. Flipped classroom techniques have gained much attention in recent months. In her article ‘The flipped classroom’, Arnold-Garza (2014) describes the process as: “The flipped classroom is a teaching model that inverts the traditional lecture-plus homework formula. By moving the delivery of foundational principles to digital media, such as video lectures or tutorials, class time is freed up for engaging activities that allow students to apply these basics to practical scenarios in the presence of their instructor.” School librarians have taken the flipped classroom concept and applied it to the library. OCLC WorldShare Management Services can contribute to the flipped library, by providing the practical tools that librarians and students can use for engaging activities in a library setting, and streamlining traditional library workflows. This allows librarians to spend more time developing new and dynamic information literacy activities and less time on redundant practices

Angus Cook

such as managing IT infrastructure or creating catalogue records for metadata that is already freely available from OCLC. The practical tools included in WMS that students, teachers and library staff can use are provided in WorldCat Discovery, the discovery layer and OPAC supplied with OCLC WorldShare Management Services. This highly functional interface is rich in Web 2.0 and social networking features. For instance, users can curate their own reading lists which can be shared in social networking services such as Pinterest or Facebook. Using WorldCat Discovery relieves the pressure on libraries to keep up to date with new and emerging technologies, allowing librarians to spend their time creatively engaging with students. Students and staff can also create reviews, tag items, and could even use html widgets to put bibliographic information in blogs, websites and intranets. Because WorldCat Discovery can be accessed freely across the internet, students are able to engage in these activities outside of the classroom. Library staff can further flip the library by running their entire library management system from anywhere they have an internet connection such as ‘pop-up’ libraries at school events or even school camps. Carmen Eastman and Angus Cook References: ARNOLD-GARZA S. (2014). The flipped classroom : Assessing an innovative teaching model for effective and engaging library instruction. College and Research Libraries News. 75, 10-13.

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Professional Learning

Your professional learning journey:

Lyn Hay Head of Professional Learning Syba Academy

Have you developed your professional learning plan for 2014 yet? With the introduction of the Australian Professional Standards for Teachers (AITSL, 2013), teachers and teacher librarians are now responsible for charting a course to meet their own professional learning goals. These standards provide you with a point of departure for reflecting on what you achieved in the past year, then identifying those areas you wish to develop further. The expectation is that professional learning is now a far more individualised and formalized pursuit as teachers identify, engage and document what they have learned against the standards. Education systems, professional associations and professional learning providers are now faced with the challenge of providing teachers and teacher librarians with more personalised and customised offerings to assist them in meeting their own professional learning goals for the year. This is no mean feat, given the specific and diverse needs of tens of thousands of teachers in Australia!

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A new year, new challenges and a new Academy Introducing the Syba Academy In response to this challenge, the team at Syba decided to extend its Seminars Program to develop a suite of new professional learning programs across a wider range of formats for 2014 educators in Australian schools. A new division of Syba has been established to develop and manage these programs, and it has been branded Syba Academy, to better reflect the quality and diversity of our educational services. Figure 1 presents a screenshot of the Academyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s new website.

Figure 1: Syba Academy homepage http://www.sybaacademy.com.au/

In 2013, the Academy gained NSWIT/AITSL endorsement as a provider of professional development. A complete list of our course offerings to date can be found at http://www.sybaacademy.com.au/learning/courses. All of our 2014 seminars, workshops and courses are accredited to ensure participants receive endorsed credit for relevant professional learning hours, complete with a Syba Academy certificate of completion, and access to a digital badging facility for those who wish to record the progress of their professional learning journey on an e-portfolio, professional website, personal blog, or social network sites such as Google+ or LinkedIn.

Aligning effective professional learning principles with course design Based on the work by Desimones (2011) and the Victorian Office of School Education (2005), the Syba Academy has devised a set of seven principles to inform their design of effective professional learning programs. These are listed below, along with an overview of how our courses have been informed by these principles. This also gives the reader an idea of the range of formats on offer and professional learning needs being addressed to date.

Content & student focused Our challenge: Providing effective professional learning for schools Designing effective professional learning experiences for individual teachers, individual schools, regional teacher and TL networks, and school districts is our core business. We are also partnering with state associations, education systems and educational agencies to host co-sponsored events. The focus of our program is to provide customised learning experiences based on the specific needs of those individuals, groups or organisations we work with. In other words, personalisation and customisation are our key drivers in the provision of professional learning. That is our challenge. Our design of professional learning (PL) programs has been informed by the research literature, the pool of evaluation data from past Syba PL seminars and events, and the results of Syba’s 2013 professional learning survey. In particular, findings from Desimone’s (2011) analysis of the empirical research on characteristics of teacher professional development associated with changes in teacher knowledge and practice, and student achievement has informed our thinking. Desimone identified five core features of effective professional development: content focus, active learning, coherence, duration, and collective participation (p. 69). Additional elements identified in the Victorian Office of School Education’s Professional learning in effective schools (2005) blueprint, has also informed our approach to designing PL for schools, as presented in Figure 2.

Professional learning activities are focused on subject matter content and how students learn that content Our Australian Curriculum (AC) series of seminars and workshops provide teachers and teacher librarians with instruction on how to develop units of work that integrate inquiry learning principles and digital tools across key learning areas of the AC, and how to design ebook and curation programs and services to effectively resource AC units. Our Digital Citizenship online extension course (OEC) explores the design of interdisciplinary policies and programs to support students’ development of digital citizenship knowledge, skills and dispositions across the curriculum and across grade levels.

Research and evidence-based Professional learning is informed by the best available research on effective learning and teaching. Evidence needs to be collected regularly at the student, teacher and school level to help focus teacher learning. All of our seminars, workshops, OECs, and masterclasses are informed by research evidence. Presenters and facilitators draw upon their own evidence as well as that of others to provide a strong empirical foundation to the professional learning experience of participants. Our Evidence-Based Practice series provides participants with EBP models, methods and strategies

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for gathering, analysing and reporting on schoolgenerated data. We also encourage participants to compare their own evidence with other research literature and findings from the professional practice of others. Designing for evidence is central to our masterclass series.

Active learning Teachers have opportunities during professional learning activities to actively engage with new concepts, models, principles and strategies, and receive feedback. Our seminar and workshop programs include individual and group-based learning tasks. For example, our Evidence-Based Practice (EBP) seminar series requires individuals to undertake the completion of an EBP planning template throughout the day to ensure all participants leave with an action plan for EBP in their school. While two thirds of the program for our curation workshops involves individual hands-on activities to design, create and populate topic-based curation sites. Our Masterclass programs follow a similar format, with our workshops and masterclasses being capped at 30 participants to support more individualised instruction.

Embedded in practice Professional learning should be built into the day-today work of teaching, where new learning is trialled and reflected upon as part of a teachersâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; daily practice. Our Digital Citizenship online extension course runs over a six week period where participants are required to plan, implement and evaluate digital citizenship policies, programs and initiatives within their school, and they receive formative feedback from the facilitator throughout the course. Our Consolidating Learning in Practice (CLiP.) program was designed specifically with this principle in mind! CLiP provides participants with the opportunity to extend the professional learning they gain from attending a Syba Academy seminar, workshop or masterclass. CLiP.it involves applying oneâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s new learning in their school and documenting this within

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one month of attending the seminar, workshop or masterclass. This documentation is then submitted for assessment to receive endorsed credit for those professional learning hours completed.

Coherence

What teachers learn in any professional development activity should be consistent with other professional development, with their knowledge and beliefs, and with school, district, and state reforms and policies. Our Australian Curriculum series of seminars and workshops are specifically designed to help schools design and resource curriculum units that meet learning area content descriptors and skills, the general capabilities and crosscurriculum priorities as articulated by the Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Figur Authority (ACARA). Principles of Highly Effective Profess We also offer customised in-school inservicing programs for individual schools drawing upon the expertise of our Academy speakers to meet the specific PL needs of a school community.

Collaborative participation and collective responsibility Groups of teachers from the same grade, subject, or school should participate in professional development activities together to build an interactive learning community. By working in teams, teachers take collective responsibility for solving the complex

problems of teaching and learning and improving student outcomes. Our guided inquiry, and inquiry learning and Web 2.0 technologies seminars have been designed for schoolbased teams of teachers, teacher librarians, and learning area and/or e-learning coordinators to help build a school’s capacity in designing inquiry learning units that address Australian Curriculum outcomes. Our curation workshops and use of the hashtag #sybacuration are designed to encourage collective participation in curating for the Australian Curriculum across the teacher librarianship profession (Hay, 2014). Our customised inschool inservicing program for individual schools is also designed to address this principle.

re 2: sional Learning (Vic OSE, 2005, p. 18)

Ongoing, long term and sustained Professional learning is ongoing, long term and fully integrated into the culture and operations of a team, school or system. Professional development activities should be spread over 6 months and should include 20 hours or more of contact time. Our range of seminars, workshops, online courses, masterclasses and in-school inservicing program provide individuals, groups, schools, education systems and professional associations with the opportunity to build their own professional

learning program for 6 months or a year by enrolling in a selection of offerings. By taking the CLiP.it option for a minimum of two of our offerings, an individual teacher can easily gain more than 20 hours of endorsed professional learning credit within a 6 month period. The Syba Academy team are available to consult with individuals, teams, network groups, schools, systems and associations to develop a long term, sustained program to meet your professional learning needs.

Follow us and keep us informed of your needs The Syba Professional Learning Survey is still open, so please complete this survey to help us further develop the Syba Academy’s program for 20142015. Simply go to https://www.surveymonkey. com/s/RSX6B2J. For some free professional reading, visithttp:// www.sybaacademy.com.au/learning/news. A new article is posted each fortnight for educators. To keep up-to-date on what’s happening at the Syba Academy and receive recommendations for free resources and websites, simply Like us on Facebook https://www.facebook.com/sybasigns and follow us on Twitter @SybaSigns. All the best with charting your professional learning journey for 2014. References Australian Institute for Teaching and School Leadership (AITSL). (2013). Australian professional standards for teachers. Retrieved http://www.teacherstandards.aitsl.edu.au/ Desimone, L.M. (2011). A primer on effective professional development. Phi Delta Kappan, 92(6), 68-71. Hay, L. (2014). Digital curation: An essential skill for teacher librarians in 2014. Syba Academy News. Retrieved http://www.sybaacademy.com.au/announcements/digitalcuration-an-essential-skill-for-teacher-librarians-in-2014 Leadership and Teacher Development Branch, Office of School Education. (2005). Professional learning in effective schools: The seven principles of highly effective professional learning. East Melbourne, VIC: Department of Education & Training, State of Victoria. Retrieved https://www. eduweb.vic.gov.au/edulibrary/public/teachlearn/teacher/ ProfLearningInEffectiveSchools.pdf

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Footy Hero ...

Prince and the Principal kick Goals for Young Readers

The Book

The Authors Scott Prince (right) The former rugby league international has represented state and country and won an NRL premiership. Hailing from the mining town of Mount Isa, Scott is a descendant of the Kalkadoon people. Scott is a commentator for Fox Sports and ambassador for the NRL and FOGS (Former Origin Greats). Married with two young daughters, Scott resides on the Gold Coast and is continuing his writing.

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Dave Hartley (left) Dave has worked in education for over thirteen years and is currently a deputy principal in Logan, Queensland. Dave is a descendant of the Barunggam people, the traditional people of the Chinchilla and Darling Downs region. Scott and Dave are continuing writing on the best selling rugby league series Deadly D and Justice Jones. Dave lives on the Gold Coast with his wife and two daughters.

Eleven-year-old Dylan has to move from Mt Isa to Brisbane and he’s not happy. But as soon as he gets to Flatwater State School he finds a former Mount Isa Miner’s footy supporter in his principal and a ‘Broncos tragic’ as a teacher. He also makes a friend in Justice Jones and an enemy in Jared Knutz. Dylan is cursed with an abnormality transforming him into a fully-grown man whenever he gets angry. Always a worry, the ‘curse’ proves to be a blessing in the city when his alter ego attracts the interest of the Broncos during a class excursion to watch the team train. Dylan becomes ‘Deadly D’ – a star player with the fire to rival even the great Prince! But how will he continue to keep the ‘curse’ a secret?

... and Teacher ...

Dave Hartley: Our Deadly Story

etting published and sharing our story was always the dream. We knew we had a story that would connect with

young readers but both Scott and I became increasingly disheartened that our manuscript may never be published. Fortunately, it is not within our nature to give up without a fight

and we forged ahead on the task to find the right publisher. Fast forward four years since the first chapter was dreamt and written, Deadly D and Justice Jones – Making the Team is engaging reluctant and not-so-reluctant readers in homes and schools everywhere. When we received the call to attend a meeting with the organisers of The State Library of Queensland’s Black and Write competition, the excitement started to build. Our manuscript submission that was sent in three months earlier looked as though it was about to come to life. Part of the prize was having the story published by Magabala Books. Were we finally about to become published authors? A rugby league star and a deputy principal certainly made an odd couple for a writing team, but the chemistry was a winner. Scott and I were awarded the first ever Kuril Dhagun award and we suddenly had our first writing deadline! The pressure was on to have the manuscript to a publishable standard, but the thrill of finally ‘making it’ was exhilarating.

Even now, being labelled as an author is something we both scratch our heads about. Both Scott and I are proud of our indigenous heritage. Scott, a Kalkadoon man and my people being Barunggam, we felt it important to have a young Aboriginal boy feature as the main role in our story. As rugby league plays such an important part of the book, it made sense to have Dylan, the lead character, to mirror some of Scott’s experiences growing up in Mount Isa and moving to the city to play football. Equally important for our readership was to include Justice Jones, a young Maori boy to play the role of Dylan’s best friend. Being a deputy principal in Logan, Queensland, I recognised the opportunity to include both sets of cultural groups into the story. Both groups are innately blessed with the skills and ability to play the world’s greatest game, so engaging children through rugby league made total sense. Magabala Books and The State Library of Queensland got it. They understood what Scott and I were trying to do. The highlight of our writing journey without doubt has been seeing young readers pick up our book and enjoying the story. The feedback has been very positive and it is important for Scott and I to hear which parts the readers like best. “I like it when Dylan turns into Deadly D under the jetty,” one kid

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... write Children’s Book

h e launc oks at th o b g in Sign

told us the other day. His mate standing next to him disagreed. “Nah, I like it when the dog farts under the dinner table,” he said. Fortunately for us, we have two daughters each that we road test the story with. They’re very honest and they will tell us which parts don’t make sense. Hearing them laugh or asking us to read more is a very good sign. Scott’s recent retirement from the NRL as a grand final winner and a respected champion of the game has been integral for the success of the book. The first question that I get asked about our partnership is how Scott and I started writing together. Over four years ago, I worked at a school where Scott’s eldest daughter, Taliah attended at the time. I had already written the first two chapters of Deadly D and I was excited about the direction of the story. It had the ability to not only entertain, but also include some important life messages as well. It was clear to me that including someone who had played football

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at the highest level and was a positive role model for children would be important for the success of the book. I gave the first two printed chapters to Taliah and asked her to give them to her dad when she came home. It was a cheeky move on my behalf, but within two days Scott had called me and the writing process started the week after.

Writing sessions became something we both really looked forward to. Not only because we transformed into two little boys laughing at our own jokes to include in the story, but also because there was food involved. There were a few restaurants and cafés on the Gold Coast that profitted well from our writing sessions and the running joke is that we need to sell a heap of books to

pay off our accounts before they set their heavies on to us. From the writing sessions, Scott and I developed a friendship that has extended to weekly fitness sessions and him pushing me to finish the fifth hill sprint up one of the steepest streets in Currumbin. Scott only commented the other day about how good it was being able to write together, but also ‘killing the fitness together’. I’m not sure how much I’m contributing to ‘killing it’, but I am confident I have worked off some of the numerous sticky date puddings consumed during our night time writing sessions. Writing has recently commenced again and we have started on book two in the series, where Dylan will face his toughest challenge yet. It’s fair to say that we are both confident in being a little more risk taking with this story and there will be some interesting characters included and some very exciting events take place. It’s important that this story includes the same humour and fun of the first book, but we are really setting the scene and adding some important complications for Dylan and Justice that will also lead into subsequent storylines. The journey has been fun so far, but we have such a long way to go. We hope you come on the journey with us, and enjoy reading the books as much as we do writing them.

TeachMeet @ Edutech Brisbane Convention Centre 3 & 4 June, 2014 A series of teachmeets run by and for teachers, in the lounge area of EduTech. There will be four teachmeets held over two days, hosted by teachers from all over Australia! Any teacher can register to present! Each teachmeet will only go for about 45 mins, so join in the fun and get to the next session!

http://bit.ly/TMEduTech

www.teachmeet.net

#tmEduTech

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State Library Day

22 Words. Words.

Happy Birthday SLANSW

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Editor’s Note

Monkey’s Undies!

had thought about it long before being appointed Editor of this Magazine. Pondering how wonderful it would be to take my Postie Bike around NSW, visit rural schools and their libraries – or the lack of it. Pitch my tent the night before the meeting with teachers, librarians, students and perhaps some parents. Have breakfast in a location I had never been before, go for information, interviews, talks and take photos. Any excuse for a decent ride out will do. And a good story will come home with me necessarily. Right. It came close to what I had imagined. My Postie Bike was replaced by my Whipper Snipper on two Wheels – a Vespa PX150 – due to profound nostalgic pressure. The school chosen was the Central State School in Lockhart, a town of 830 inhabitants, 60 km southwest of Wagga Wagga, because that is where I have my Head Quarters. We received permission to visit the grounds of Lockhart Central School by the Principal Ms Ruth Ernest and we wish to thank her for the opportunity. I had time to talk to the students and staff in the Library and the Mobile Library, finding myself flat on the floor, taking photos. When I said to the kids: “and now raise your hands and all smile” they went Monkey’s Undies! Beat me. Great photo. We had a wonderful time until I climbed up on a table in the Library to shoot that one in a million photo. That’s when I saw the glance of Ms Madden, the Teacher Librarian, upon me, as only a teacher can look. After so many years out of school I had done something wrong. Again. Paul Hunter

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Lockhart Central School Library

A brief History

hen I started at Lockhart Central School in 1992 the Library was located in what is now the Computer Room. Shortly after, the Library was relocated to a transportable building established near the back oval where the Gym is now located. A new complex of primary classrooms and Library & Tiered Learning Area was constructed and opened

TL Barbara Madden and her Creative Research and Writing class

in 1997 by the Minister for Education. This also coincided with the school’s centenary celebrations and included a very well attended school reunion and centenary ball. The Teacher Librarian at the time was Mrs Di Klimpsch. The main school buildings accommodating the Administration, Staff Room, Kitchen and class rooms were built in 1963. When the shift was taking place to the new Library complex, the first book donated by the P & C Association in 1970 and with the Number 1 in the accession register was presented. This book cover is now framed and hangs on the wall in the Library. The title of the book is The Twelve Dancing Princesses at the cost of $2.15. Over my time at LCS we have had eleven librarian teachers either full-time or part-time. At times we have not had a teacher in the Library at all. I have been the Library Assistant all that time. This year we are again without a librarian. The Library borrowing system of the old manual way with borrow cards and cards written out for

the index files has now been replaced with a more modern approach. Now the stocktaking, borrowing and accessioning is done by computer. Books are downloaded from SCIS and entered onto the computer. Ordering can also be done online. We also source our books from Australian Standing Orders and have done so since I have been at the school. The Library is now wired for the internet and is wireless. The Library has slowly grown in size over the years with its resources and modern technology available to students including a smart board. There is a separate Tiered Learning Area attached to the Library where previously videos and broadcasted programs were viewed. School numbers have slowly begun to decline over the last few years. The number in 1992 was around 204 students. The present day numbers are 100 students. Smaller feeder schools have been closing and with families moving away for their schooling, the population has been declining and the community which is mainly agriculture has decreased with age and the farms have become larger. For about two years we opened the Library after school hours on a volunteer basis with Library Staff to allow the community to borrow from the Library and to learn to use the computers in the Library. Computer classes have also been held over the years as a subject at this school for mature students. Books for this range of age and interest were donated by the community. The town is now serviced by a Mobile Library Service from Wagga Wagga on a weekly basis. In October 2010 and March 2012 the township of Lockhart was inundated with extreme floods never before seen in the area. The school as a whole is located well away from the local creek Inside the Mobile Library area and the 2012 flood turned out to be even worse than the 2010 flood. The Library suffered severe damage with the loss of several thousand items of books, kits, Teacher resources and furniture. For approximately 6 months we were without a Library on both occasions. Coral Jones

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Story Debbieâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Time Page

The Bear Hunt

The second half of the session consisted of reading and acting out a story followed by songs, rhymes or circle time activities reinforcing the theme of the story. The children could then choose to participate in a more structured art/craft activity that they could take home with them. The stories varied through all the genres and at times were shown on the IWB. We also participated in the National simultaneous story time one year, reading Feathers for Phoebe. The Story Time children were also invited to participate in our schools book week parade and activities which were run each year in August. The local Play Group and Day Care Centre children were regular visitors and provided us with positive feedback and it was a great opportunity for those children attending the school in the future to build familiarity and a positive relationship with staff and fellow Letter to the parents students.

tory Time began at LCS as a community program aimed at giving parents and caregivers the opportunity to enrich their childrenâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s early literacy development and provide similar experiences to those in larger regional areas. The Riverina Regional Library came on board providing us with valuable resources, assistance and encouragement. Parents and caregivers within the community with children aged between 0-5 were invited via phone calls and flyers. Students from kinder were also invited along with some very enthusiastic year 6 students who eagerly turned up each session to assist by acting, playing with and reading to the younger children. For each session the library was transformed into a mini preschool style area where the children could do art and craft activities or play with the toys. The sessions lasted approxiÂ mately 2 hours.

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Loyalty, FromCourage, the Digital Service Desk

The year 6 students thrived in their mentoring role and it was often a fight to see who was allowed to be the helpers for the week. One of the most memorable sessions was We’re Going on a Bear Hunt. The stage was set with swishy swashy grass ... splash splosh water ... squelch squerch mud ... stumble trip forests and

scared rs are not Bear Hunte

even a snowstorm (lots of packing foam) ... covered tables were the cave and inside the cave was a bear (a lovely year six student dressed in a fur coat and bear mask) ready to growl at the “not scared” children.

The children had made flashlights and binoculars in our craft session so we packed our imaginary backpacks, pulled on our imaginary boots and headed on our adventure to meet up with ... one shiny wet nose, two big furry ears and two big goggly eyes ... we weren’t scared! I have lost count of the number of stories (over 60) that I read and compiled story kits for, which does not include the packs provided by the Riverina Regional Library. Providing a story and relevant themed activity for such a varied age group was both challenging and rewarding and one I thoroughly enjoyed. I loved seeing the delight on the children’s faces and the interaction with the story as it was read and unfolded. I enjoyed providing craft and art activities that reinforced the theme of the story and watching the development of the children’s many skills. Barbara Madden

The School Flag

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The End Paper

Southern Tablelands Educational Libraries Assoc (STELA) Exciting things have been happening here in Southern NSW! An enthusiastic group of TLs met in Queanbeyan in December to discuss ways in which we could promote networking, collaboration and collegiality amongst TLs in this region. Given that many of us are situated quite some distance from the professional development and support opportunities that are more accessible to our city colleagues, this is important. We also wanted to network and share with our ACT colleagues ‘across the border’, and in fact anyone else who would like to be involved! We have therefore launched the Three-R’s (Rural, Regional and Remote) TL group, which is open to any TL or Library professional who would like to join. We welcome participation, discussion, collaboration and support from members near and far! Much of our conversation will probably happen online, but

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we are hoping to also organise at least two Professional Learning Days per year as an opportunity to participate in formal professional dialogue and share pedagogical approaches, as well as have some informal chat and simply enjoy some time with our TL colleagues. Our first PL Day is now open for registration. It will be held at Queanbeyan High School on Friday 30 May 2014. The cost is $25 per partici pant. Flyers and registration forms can be obtained from cheryl.thomson3@det.nsw.edu.au The course is open for registration on MyPL (Course No: NR05828, Event ID: 75317). If you are unable to access MyPL, please email me at above address and we can enrol you manually. Payment can be made by cheque, credit card or cash on the day. We hope to see many familiar and new faces on the day. Cheryl Thomson

MANTLE Conference The MANTLE Conference is the annual professional conference of all teacher librarians in the Newcastle, Maitland, Taree, Lake Macquarie and Central Coast districts. The conference is organised by a volunteer committee of local Teacher Librarians from DEC, Catholic and Independent schools. The committee changes annually with half the committee being replaced by other local TLs. It is a truly collegial organisation. The theme for this year’s conference is ‘School Libraries: Engaging The Nation’ and will take place on Friday 9 May at the Newcastle City Town Hall. Contact: Kerry Gittins 02 4974 2996 kerry.gittins@mn.catholic.edu.au MANTLE is an endorsed provider of NSW Institute of Teachers professional development.

Snooping Around the State

Resourcing for the Australian Curriculum A one day seminar with Lyn Hay and Pru Mitchell brought to you by Syba Academy in partnership with Schools Catalogue and Information Service (SCIS). Friday 21 March, 9:30 am – 4:30 pm, at The National Library, Parkes Place, Canberra Cost: $299 Fully accredited course This seminar is designed to provide school communities with the capacity to develop and manage a customised, quality, multi-format collection of resources to support the breadth of content of English, Mathematics, Science and History across year levels, as well as support the teaching of the seven General Capabilities and the integration of three Cross-curriculum priorities.

Following this workshop, there will be an unconference event convened by the president of SLANSW at the venue. Why not stay after this day and join Michelle Jensen in a conversation about how the Association can assist your professional goals and future training. Contact: Phyl Williamson (02) 9808 3377 information@sybasigns.com.au http://www.sybaacademy.com.au/ Download Resourcing for the Australian Curriculum

The Children’s Book Council of Australia The 11th National Conference will be held in Canberra between 16 May and 18 May following the theme of Discovering National Treasures at the Rex Hotel Contact cbca2014@con-sol.com

LARK Meeting The next meeting of the ALIA LARK group for 2014 will be on 1 May from 6 pm to 8 pm, at St Vincent’s College, Potts Point. Get your tickets via Eventbrite link or contact Suzana Sukovic (02) 9368 1611 sukovics@stvincents.nsw.edu.au

Sutherland Shire Teacher Librarian Network The Sutherland Shire Teacher Librarian Network is excited to announce that Lyn Hay will be the guest presenter at their Term 1 Professional Learning Day School Libraries: Heart of the Australian Curriculum on Monday, 31 March 2014 at Gymea Trade Union Club. A trade fair will also be a part of the day with suppliers show casing their library resources and products. The day will focus on new challenges for TLs in terms of their role in resourcing the new curriculum. It will also highlight a number of ways that TLs can strengthen their

teaching role by supporting the consolidation of student inquiry across the curriculum. Lyn will present the Guided Inquiry Design framework as a powerful approach to designing inquiry units and providing students with instructional intervention throughout an inquiry experience, and provide participants with a range of digital tools they can use with teachers and students to support guided inquiry. The cost is $60pp which includes morning tea and lunch. For agenda, enrolment and payment details please go to https://www.smore.com/25ss This event is open to all and we look forward to you joining us. Cathy Edwards

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- WHEN YOU USE THE CODE SLANSW10

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K-12 Library Managers Congress CONGRESSES & EXPO 3rd & 4th June 2014 Brisbane Convention & Exhibition Centre

|MASTERCLASSES 5th June 2014

Exploring how student libraries need to evolve to support the paradigm shifts happening in schools. Discover the key themes behind this congress by visiting the EduTECH website today!

Featuring World Class Speakers:

Joyce Valenza Teacher Librarian Springfield Township High School (USA)

Professor Sugata Mitra Professor of Educational Technology Newcastle University (UK)

Ian Jukes Co-Developer 21st Century Fluency Project

....And practical case studies from Australia’s most innovative school librarians!

Over 100 library & info managers have already registered for this new & popular congress! Supported by

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