We Just Clicked

Have you ever met someone and it felt like you've known each other for ages, as kindred spirits?

I was corresponding pretty frequently last week with two of my favourite people, Melanie Mulcaster @the_mulc and Jennifer Brown @JennMacBrown, about some big projects and ideas when this realization hit me like a ton of bricks - I've only known them this calendar year (2016). In fact, I've only met Melanie face to face twice - at Treasure Mountain Canada and at Maker Ed Toronto. I've only met Jennifer once in person, at that same Maker Ed Toronto event in July.

Despite this brief period of time together, I have to admire and thank Melanie and Jennifer for pushing my thinking, supporting my experiments, and providing feedback in thoughtful, caring, engaged ways.

You can tell by my Twitter feed how important these two have become. This is a copy-and-paste of my notifications.

1. Jennifer Brown ‏@JennMacBrown  Oct 14

   After a day in bed with a wicked flu what could be better than an impromptu #TLchat with @the_mulc & @MzMollyTL ? A @BlueJays win maybe?

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2. Jennifer Brown ‏@JennMacBrown  Oct 14

   @MzMollyTL @the_mulc Not sure - wondered too - perhaps the Google tech held some teachers back from promoting it - learning curve maybe?

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3. Jennifer Brown ‏@JennMacBrown  Oct 14

   @MzMollyTL @the_mulc I also laugh at myself say "we are doing..." - should say we are trying for the first time! LOL

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4. Oct 14

   Jennifer Brown liked some Tweets you were mentioned in

   Oct 14: 

   @MzMollyTL @JennMacBrown our approach as well, am also collaborating w Ts in their classes
5. Jennifer Brown ‏@JennMacBrown  Oct 14

   @MzMollyTL @the_mulc I don't have any scheduled book exchange so it offers me more flexibility with small group & whole class visits

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6. Melanie Mulcaster ‏@the_mulc  Oct 14

   @MzMollyTL @JennMacBrown our approach as well, am also collaborating w Ts in their classes

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7. Oct 14

   Melanie Mulcaster liked your Tweets

   Oct 14: 

   .@JennMacBrown @the_mulc Great idea! My Jr Div kids have lobbied 4 & got MakerSpace time during Lib periods after book exchange if time

1. Jennifer Brown ‏@JennMacBrown  Oct 14

   @the_mulc @MzMollyTL we are doing the intro workshops during instructional day then "open" maker times after school

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2. Jennifer Brown ‏@JennMacBrown  Oct 14

   @the_mulc @MzMollyTL I had grades 1,4,5,7,8 sign up. So 3 sessions grade 4 with another teacher, grade 1 on their own, grade 5,7,8 together

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3. Melanie Mulcaster ‏@the_mulc  Oct 14

   @MzMollyTL @JennMacBrown same most #maker activities will be grade 4 and up

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4. Jennifer Brown ‏@JennMacBrown  Oct 14

   @MzMollyTL @the_mulc I am very new to being a Google believer but wow - I am totally hooked now! Still lots to learn!

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5. Oct 14

   Melanie Mulcaster liked some Tweets you were mentioned in

   Oct 14: 

   @the_mulc @MzMollyTL to not tu lol
6. Jennifer Brown ‏@JennMacBrown  Oct 14

   @the_mulc @MzMollyTL to not tu lol

   0 replies0 retweets1 like

    

    

    
7. Jennifer Brown ‏@JennMacBrown  Oct 14

   @the_mulc @MzMollyTL I sent the link to staff & they facilitated it. I want to get tu the point I just send it the kids' Google accounts.

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8. Melanie Mulcaster ‏@the_mulc  Oct 14Oakville, Ontario

   @JennMacBrown @MzMollyTL How did you do the Google forms? Kids did it in class? or when they came to the LLC?

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9. Oct 14

   Melanie Mulcaster liked a Tweet you were mentioned in

   Oct 14: 

   @the_mulc @MzMollyTL I used google forms for sign up & the google spreadsheet tool has saved my brain tonight for the scheduling!

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10. Jennifer Brown ‏@JennMacBrown  Oct 14

    @the_mulc @MzMollyTL I used google forms for sign up & the google spreadsheet tool has saved my brain tonight for the scheduling!

    0 replies0 retweets1 like

     

     

     
11. Jennifer Brown ‏@JennMacBrown  Oct 14

    @the_mulc @MzMollyTL I don't know what I would do without you 2 when I need advice about all of this!!!!

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12. Oct 14

    Jennifer Brown liked some Tweets you were mentioned in

    Oct 14: 

    @JennMacBrown @MzMollyTL I plan on doing the Safety Skeletons first as per my last tweet. We can compare successes/next steps :)
13. Melanie Mulcaster ‏@the_mulc  Oct 14

    @JennMacBrown @MzMollyTL Have I told you that I love that you're my #twitterfeedback friends? <3

    0 replies0 retweets1 like

     

     

     
14. Melanie Mulcaster ‏@the_mulc  Oct 14

    @JennMacBrown @MzMollyTL I plan on doing the Safety Skeletons first as per my last tweet. We can compare successes/next steps :)

1. Melanie Mulcaster ‏@the_mulc  Oct 14

   @JennMacBrown @MzMollyTL Organize into groups prim/ jnr/int/. Int 1st - use as mentors and instructors 4 prim/jnr. Do over several days

   0 replies0 retweets1 like

    

    

    
2. Jennifer Brown ‏@JennMacBrown  Oct 14

   Jennifer Brown Retweeted CastleOaks Library

   @the_mulc @MzMollyTL thoughts about the ideal way to schedule everyone? #soexciting #makerspace

   Jennifer Brown added,

   CastleOaks Library @CastleOaksLLCs

   Wow! Over 100 students from grade 1 up to 8 have signed up for #MakerMonday finger knitting! Mrs. Brown is working on a schedule! #StayTuned

   0 rep0 Aretweets1 like

And all of this transpired over the course of just a single day!

Jennifer has saved my bacon more than she's realized. I am the school library editorial board representative on Open Shelf, the official online publication of the Ontario Library Association. I've had trouble trying to solicit articles from school library professionals because these are typically very busy people with not a lot of time to spare to write, and we have another publication (The Teaching Librarian, OSLA's magazine) to fill with content as well. Not only has Jennifer written an article for Open Shelf, she's agreed to be a regular columnist! Look for her "It's Elementary: Adventures in School Libraries" articles to appear in late 2016. (I should also mention that her writing is impressive - it's the right mix of emotion and information, personal and professional. Open Shelf's readers are going to love it.)

Melanie is an inspiration. She created and ran a course on the TVO site Teach Ontario called "MakerSpaces on the Spot and on a Dime". I've been asked to do something similar about graphic novels. I didn't think I could do it. Melanie set the bar too high! Melanie's course is absolutely incredible, a pedagogical gold mine. She (and the fabulous Alanna King, who runs the very-popular book clubs on Teach Ontario) answered my numerous email questions patiently and reassuringly.

Both these teacher-librarians have also been incredibly helpful and supportive with my finger knitting endeavours. Melanie told me about a fabulous place to buy yarn inexpensively. Jennifer has offered to host finger knitting socials at her house. When I post photos of my work in progress, they often like, retweet or reply to them.

I feel blessed and fortunate to have met this pair of human dynamos. I'm sad that, since we are in different school boards (Peel vs Toronto), we don't have the opportunity to meet as often as I'd like. However, thanks to social media and the immediacy of texts and emails, their advice and words of encouragement are close by. I can hardly wait until the OLA Superconference when we'll be there simultaneously (with thousands of other library folks, but we'll find each other among the crowds).

1. 
   
2. lies

Why does equity progress seem so far away?

This past weekend, the news has been dominated by the #TrumpTapes scandal - Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump's conversation in 2005 with TV personality Billy Bush that objectified women and normalized sexual assault. I had to stop reading the subsequent #notokay Twitter thread (started by @kellyoxford) because it was just so depressing to hear all of the stories of women being raped, groped, grabbed, and molested.

I thought we had made progress. I thought we were making progress. After all, my school board's revamped vision statement has equity as one of the three focus areas (in addition to achievement and well-being) ... and yet ...

I was around two separate conversations last week, one at school and one elsewhere, where the views expressed didn't sit well with my own interpretations of equity. The first was around Black Lives Matter. One of the speakers expressed disgust for the movement and tag line. The person also made reference to NFL player Colin Kaepernick's decision to kneel during the American national anthem and suggested that he should be fired. The second was a complaint about the racially diverse casting in the upcoming Spiderman movie. I heard someone say (and I'm paraphrasing here) that it looks like Peter Parker is the only white guy at his school.

I wasn't involved directly in either of these talks but during the first one, I intervened. I mentioned in what I hope was a positive tone that I had seen a useful comic online that explained the rationale behind Black Lives Matter vs. All Lives Matter. (The comic is below - thanks to www.chainsawsuit.com and @krisstraub)

As for the second conversation, I didn't even bother to put my $0.02 cents in, although I should have spoken up and this graph would have be useful to explain why it's not such a terrible idea to have more representation in film. More such infographics can be found at http://goodinaroom.com/blog/hollywood-diversity/ 

I'm wondering if I should have said more, or if this was simply a point of view and I was too quick to judge. Were the statements I heard offensive, ignorant, or just opinions? Can you be critical of an event like the summer's Black Lives Matter sit-in at the Toronto Pride parade without being racist or sexist or homophobic? Sometimes I even wonder whether speaking up actually makes a difference - does it change people's minds or hearts? Famous people and regular citizens have decried Trump's offensive words but it doesn't seem to impact the man or his devout followers. I didn't think the Trump scandal could be possibly be excused, yet I saw a Twitter post that compared Trump to a Biblical hero, "flawed but redeemed". Pardon me?

Where does this place educators when we could (or in my opinion, should) be referencing these sort of current events in our classrooms? For instance, I really like this explanation of the kneeling phenomenon - does mentioning it open up a can of worms or possibilities? I liked this tweet as a reminder to myself:

A8 Use YOUR voice to speak up...get in there with them to provide guidance and a safe space for them. #SoJustEdu https://t.co/9NJWBCmFYb

— Knikole Taylor (@knikole) September 23, 2016

I follow @EduColorMVMT and I'm influenced by folks like Rusul AlRubail in Toronto and Karen Murray in the TDSB. My junior division library inquiry theme focuses on privilege. I want to be an ally, as described in this article by Priyanka Jhalani, but I fret that what I'm doing or saying doesn't make enough of a difference, or that I'm even interpreting things incorrectly. (This comic is credited as coming from http://www.draw-the-line.ca/index.html but I initially found it at https://brettfish.wordpress.com/2015/09/18/how-to-be-an-ally-intro/)

What kind of an ally is unsure if something said is "wrong"? Why did I speak up at the first example but not the second? I debated about getting someone like Rusul to pre-read my post, but then I remembered that it is not up to people of color, or sexual minorities, or those in an oppressed group to do the teaching for the privileged. Maybe the reason why equity progress seems so far away is because I am not speaking up enough, or loudly enough, or often enough,

Nail Interest

I love my quirky, inquisitive students! Sometimes they surprise me with the things that fascinate them. My junior division students have been enjoying the revamped Library Makerspace immensely.

 

 

For my younger students, they are obsessed with ... my fingernails.

My friend Kathy Kawasaki was working on a presentation about inquiry based learning she'll be giving October 15, 2016 and we exchanged a few emails back and forth. In one of them, I shared just a few questions that have been fired my way about my manicure:

Today the authentic inquiry was all about my fingernails. Some of their questions (and my follow up questions) were:

S - Did you paint your nails?

S - Are those real?

S - Why are your nails so long?

T - My nails were this same length last week. I wonder why there are so many questions this week about them? I wonder if the colour has anything to do with it?

I'll bet my last dollar that the colour had a LOT to do with it. At the beginning of the school year, my "claws" were painted a demure grey. I thought I broke one and went to get them trimmed down - turns out my shellac polish is pretty sturdy and my actual nail wasn't broken after all. Instead, I had a fresh new manicure with a new coat of paint.

 

Bright pink and shiny does attract a lot more attention!

I'm also fascinated by how my nails have the ability to either focus or distract students. Wiggling my fingertips helped a student come with me in line down the hall when he was inclined to do otherwise. A restless student at an assembly sat still when they could investigate my fingertips. Yet, while demonstrating our "What is media?" actions, some students couldn't help but grab my hands and feel the ends of my fingers, to the detriment of their own actions they were supposed to perform.

Believe it or not, this fingernail focus fits right in with my long-range plans. I'm returning to selecting an inquiry question as the basis for my long range plans for the term - last year, I tried to work with the class inquiries, but that turned out to be too complicated and cumbersome. The kindergarten division question was based on an observation they had of a tree leaking sap and so our "theme" is Inside and Outside. The primary division question stemmed from their interest in new students to the school so we will look at Identity. Hopefully I can channel this interest into other areas and make it less about me and my body parts!