We Need TLs More Than Ever! (FoR Festival and TDSB Observation Class)

 I am in my twenty-ninth year of teaching, twenty-eight of them involving library, and there are days where I worry that, when I retire, there won't be any more teacher-librarians in my school board. This concerns me because school library professionals are vital to a school's "biodiversity" and if TLs go on the "endangered species" list, there are many ramifications. There were two events this week that demonstrated the importance of maintaining school library staffing for the collective health of education.

2026 Forest of Reading Festival

Tuesday, May 12, 2026 was the Ontario Library Association Forest of Reading Festival for the Silver Birch aged crowd. I took a completely different approach with the way I ran the Forest of Reading in my school this year. I was not particularly pleased with the ratio of students joining vs qualifying to vote and I knew that buying more copies of the books was not the answer. (I tried that tactic and the numbers did not justify the increased spending.) Instead of allowing all interested students to participate, I only accepted a limited number of students, first come, first serve, using a Google Form. Although I was not happy that I had fewer students involved, my percentages improved dramatically. 93% of my Silver Birch Express participants were able to vote; 38% of my Silver Birch Fiction participants were able to vote and 44% of my Yellow Cedar participants were able to vote. This was also the first year that I was the only teacher reading the books and chatting with the students. The other teachers just had too much on their plates this year. I took 23 students with me to Harbourfront this year. My school board no longer officially endorses or sanctions the Forest of Reading program in the way it used to do before. We are permitted to be involved, but more of the administrative tasks are now the responsibility of the educators running it at the school level - and that means that teacher-librarians are behind the success of the Forest of Reading in their buildings. 

My students and I have different priorities when it comes to the Forest of Reading Festival. For them, the most important things are a) hanging out with their friends, b) collecting the swag, like free books, and c) buying treats such as Starbucks. For me, I value a) hanging out with my teacher-librarian friends, b) collecting photos for the yearbook, and c) seeing my students meet the authors. (I should have remembered to put on a bit of makeup before the day started, considering how many selfies I tend to take on Festival day!)

With my retired friend Sue; she looks great!

With author Lorna Schultz Nicholson

Lining up for free stuff

With pals Ruth and Wendy at the "Dear School Library" tent

Me and fellow TL Kim Davidson

Smiling with Terraview-Willowfield staff supervisors

Just some of the nominated authors!

Everywhere I looked at the Forest of Reading Festival, I saw school library workers behind the smiles. This isn't possible without people in school libraries.

TDSB SLLC Observation Classroom

The following day, on Wednesday, May 13, I hosted seven educators who came to visit my school. I used to know it by the old title, a "Demonstration Classroom". This was an opportunity to see collaboration between a teacher-librarian and a classroom teacher. It went very well. I worked with Sheri Hajiani and her Grade 1 class. When I first asked Sheri about co-teaching, she mentioned that she wanted to do something related to coding, because that wasn't necessarily an area of expertise for her. We chose to use the Ozobots for programming. I mentioned this in an earlier blog post. Sheri was incredible to work with. She differentiated the planned tasks based on the results we had seen from the students from the prior weeks. She supplied the template for collecting assessment data. She also created a display within the library to demonstrate the growth the students had shown from the beginning of our unit together up until now. We also did a good job of sharing the tasks and workload during the lesson the other teachers watched. It was a pleasure to co-teach with her.

 The visiting teachers also got to see a STEM lesson linked to EQAO prep. The Grade 2-3 students in Mrs. Commisso's class did a stellar job of using the Plickers for the first time and exploring the coding centers set up on the tables. I wasn't sure how'd they do on the loose parts representation of coding concepts, but they surprised me.

We even had an impromptu demonstration of the Chomp Saw, since some of the Grade 3-4s came to borrow it to work on their math-art-spring concert projects - creating conical villager hats to wear for their play next week.

When we had our debrief after the lessons, they noted how few periods I had available for collaborative teaching. I mentioned that I was grateful for whatever partnering periods I can carve out of my schedule, considering that I also have ESL and Guidance (as well as some Social Studies and STEM classes to provide). In turn, I was astounded by the teacher-librarians that were in attendance, and how they were able to arrange co-teaching in their buildings. Some are responsible for home room classes for half the day. Others have FSL in addition to prep coverage assignments in addition to library. We discussed how we are able to co-plan these collaborative units. I showed them the brief notes in my collaborative planner template (that I borrowed from a TL Part 2 AQ candidate who designed a fabulous one as part of the course work). We commiserated on how challenging it can be to plan these dynamics lessons using our own time at lunch, after school, in the hall or over text messages. Yet, these are still worthwhile endeavors that the students get so much out of in the end.

This is why it perplexes me that school boards consider it a great "savings" to cut school library programming, staffing, and supports. This past week, it was announced that there would be significant cuts in our school board. We were reassured that these were central cuts and it would not impact the classroom. This appears to be incorrect. It seems as if some of the cuts involve reducing the library technicians we have at Tippett. This was part of the message sent to employees on Monday.

After years of declining enrolment, the TDSB is taking steps to modernize and right-size our central administration and focus resources where they matter most - in schools and classrooms. As part of this process, the board has made the difficult decision to reduce 218 central staff positions and eliminate an additional 91 vacant positions. Notifications to impacted staff have been sent and we are supporting them through the transition process. 

 If we do not have catalogers, then who will process the books we have in school libraries? That duty will fall to the teacher-librarians who have been trained on how to do it (and let me make it clear, we have training but we are not cataloging experts, and we don't have the time). In the board, our inter-office mail services are much slower than in the past, because of the staff reductions there. My friend Peter Skillen points out another disadvantage to the cuts - the loss of the Science Kits loans, run through the Library and Learning Resources Department of the board. (This is a visual from Peter's Facebook page.)

So, this week was filled with a lot of joy, but laced with the joy was a thread of worry. Keep school libraries alive!

Heritage Fair Hosted in Scarborough!

The last time our school participated in Heritage Fair was in 2024. It's a busy time of year but I insisted that we register this year because the regional fair was held in Scarborough, at Centennial College's Progress Campus. Even though it took a lot of effort to prepare for the event, I am so glad that we went. It was spectacularly organized on every level. (Big thanks to my daughter for helping me supervise the group I brought.)

Parking and navigating to the event space were easy. There was plenty of space and enough tables for the projects. The students were grouped into four animal sections and the animal sections dictated when they attended their workshops and had their judging times. The students had cards with their schedules and spots where they could track how many times they were evaluated. This guaranteed that every project was observed three times. In between the judging times, students also made time to eat their lunch and visit "Community Street", a row of tables that students could visit for information on different topics. 

The young people really enjoyed the workshops they attended. One was by Archives Ontario and the fabulous Hafiz Printer, and the other session was by TDSB Eco-Schools. It was nice to participate in interactive, collaborative activities.

May is hectic and getting the project "fair ready" was a bit more extensive than I expected.

Our students are so accustomed to designing digital projects that it is quite a shift for them to create physical display boards. It took them a long time to plan, cut, layout and stick on the text and images. We only entered four projects with six participants and I'm glad there weren't more that needed my attention. Their projects had been completed since first term, but for some of our teams, they put the finishing touches on their boards the actual morning of the fair! (This stressed me out a bit, I won't lie.)

We also took an unconventional approach to determining our entries for the regional fair. After we had our class project presentations, we actually asked students to self-nominate. That way, we knew that the participants were truly interested in participating. 

It will be a few weeks before we hear the results of the judges' decisions and whether or not any of the Agnes Macphail P.S. students will be selected to move on to the provincial fair and celebration. I know that the organizers downplay the competitive aspect, but it is a big attraction for my students. Big thanks to Melissa Moorehouse, the coordinator of the event, for making all the arrangements. I told her that I'd praise the way this event was run to any and everyone who'd listen, so this is my attempt to share the good news. 

STEM Class Choices: Build or Code?

I had a completely different blog post in draft but when I looked through my photos from the past two weeks, the dominant subject was from my recent STEM lessons. The other post can wait.

STEM Class can be wonderfully open-ended. There are STEM expectations in the curriculum, under the subject of Science, but they are not as narrow as the other Science strands. You aren't required to make, build, or code specific things. This is what the Ontario Ministry of Education has to say about STEM on its website:

K–12 STEM education is the study of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics, including cross-curricular and/or integrative study, and the application of those subjects in real-world contexts. As students engage in STEM education, they develop transferable skills that they need to meet the demands of today’s global economy and society.

STEM education helps students develop an understanding and appreciation of each of the core subjects of mathematics, science, and technological education. At the same time, it supports a more holistic understanding and application of skills and knowledge related to engineering design and innovation. STEM learning integrates and applies concepts, processes, and ways of thinking associated with these subjects to design solutions to real-world problems.

Engineering design and innovation engages students in applying the principles of science, technology, and mathematics to develop economical and sustainable solutions to technical and complex societal problems to meet human needs.

Among the transferable skills developed through STEM education are computational thinking, coding, design thinking, innovating, use of the scientific method, scientific inquiry skills, and engineering design skills. These skills are in high demand in today’s globally connected world, with its unprecedented advancements in technology.

Approaches to STEM education may vary across Ontario schools. STEM subjects may be taught separately, but with an effort to make cross-curricular connections a part of student learning. Problem-solving application projects may be designed to combine two or more STEM subjects. Alternatively, content from all four STEM subjects might be fully integrated to reinforce students' understanding of each subject, by enhancing their understanding of the interrelationships among them, and by providing the opportunity to apply a spectrum of knowledge and skills in novel ways in real-world contexts. As STEM education is implemented, it is important to engage diverse perspectives and ways of thinking. including those inherent in the arts and humanities. Diverse perspectives engage students in a  variety of creative and critical thinking processes that are essential for developing innovative and effective solutions that impact communities or ecosystems.

A robust K–12 STEM education enables Ontario educators and students to become innovators and leaders of change in society and the workforce, and creates opportunities in our diverse communities to foster integrative thinking and problem solving.

So, how does an educator prioritize a particular approach? For Term 2, the Grade 3 team in particular requested that I focus on coding. The reason was that there are coding-related questions in EQAO that the students sometimes stumble on, and the teachers really wanted to address that need early with targeted lessons on coding concepts.

Coding

When I last mentioned my coding lessons, my students were struggling a bit with describing and recording their coding for their robot coding mice. They like using the technology, but they tend to rush through their thinking without remembering or properly documenting the process. I've bought some more Botleys and Coding Mice so that we can have smaller groups to practice.

I'm also partnering with the Grade 1 class for an integrated coding and social studies unit involving Ozobots. In two weeks, this partnering unit will be part of the Demonstration / Observation class I'm hosting for other teacher-librarians in my school board. Thankfully, we have enough Ozobots that every student has their own (thank you Macklin P.S. for the loan!) and the immediate feedback based on the actions the robots take based on the code helps us shape subsequent lessons. For instance, we realized the students needed more practice with their line drawing before we got into the color coding sequences.

Photos from 1st Week Together

Photos from 2nd Week Together

Building

We recently installed storage shelving in the STEM lab for projects, and the students missed using the Chomp Saws. What I thought would be a single-class challenge turned into a month-long investigation. Inspired by the book stand one of the teachers made at my cardboard session at the TDSB Eureka conference, I asked my students to build a book stand using only cardboard. I had to finally tell the students that they were no longer allowed to modify their designs, even if it wasn't yet working. 

Here are some of the designs that worked.

I need to return to my coding lessons as EQAO nears, especially to review the idea of repeating loops and different coding directions. It's tricky to find the right balance between the math-heavy coding and the engineer-influenced building, since it takes a long time to do either. Ideally, I'd design a challenge that includes both coding and building simultaneously, so it isn't an either-or dilemma.

Grade 7s

 I graduated teacher's college in 1996 with credentials for teaching primary and junior division students. I became qualified to teach in the intermediate division in 2008, with my "teachable" (the subject area specialty that intermediate teachers are required to have) in Dramatic Arts. 

It isn't often that I get to teach the Grade 7s or 8s on my own. My Guidance periods this year are with the homeroom teacher present. It is true that when I first came to my current school, part of my assignment was teaching Grade 7 math, but that was an anomaly. During the COVID pandemic, I started out with a Grade 6-7 teaching assignment, until reorganization removed the Grade 7s from my class. I see the intermediate students when their teachers and I collaborate on a unit together. However, we've made arrangements this term, related to the requirements that the Human Sexuality unit be conducted in a single-grade setting, so that I get to teach the Grade 7s both for Health and History. 

The Grade 7 cohort this year at my school is a wonderful group. They tend to be on the quiet side and we have some quirky characters in the mix, but it really is a pleasant experience to teach them. I'm working hard to ensure that the teaching strategies I employ suit pre-teens, with their personalities, priorities, and preferences.

Grade 7 Health

I am beyond overjoyed that I was able to locate - thanks to Lisa Daley and the help of the patron saint of lost things, Saint Anthony - my Plicker cards. Tangential story here: there are a lot of superstitions related to the powers of Saint Anthony. My sister and I visited his museum when we were in Portugal, and my mother instilled in us a great fondness for this particular saint. I will say this: whenever I say a prayer to Saint Anthony to help me find something I've lost, somehow it works out! I didn't want to bother Saint Anthony for help finding something as insignificant as these cards, but they had been lost for five years and I really wanted to use them for the Grade 7 Health lesson. I prayed, made some inquiries, and Lisa found my Plicker cards in her classroom.

The reason why I was so gung-ho about using these Plicker cards is because it's a way for students to provide answers in a way that respects their privacy. The student rotates their individualized QR code to indicate their answer, and no one can tell the difference except for the teacher collecting the data. I am using the OPHEA lessons, one of the few times where I follow someone else's plans, and some of the discussion topics can be awkward for students. Here's a sample of our survey questions, with the results. (For health, I taught the 7s from the 7-8 class separately from the 7s from the 6-7 class, because of how the timetable works.)

Another point of pride is that I was able to set up all the resources beforehand, such as Padlet to prioritize our class norms, handouts with definitions, and chart papers and sorting sentences so no one had to worry about writing. I also used the translation app on my phone to explain certain terms. Our first lesson went off without a hitch. I will review the diagnostic assessment results from Plickers to see if there's more need to simplify or explain things. The OPHEA documents presume a lot of prior knowledge from the students that might not be there.

Grade 7 History

Lisa Daley and I co-planned and co-taught this Grade 7 History unit together and the goal was to make history accessible and interesting. It's a shame that the Grade 7s are working on their inquiry projects at this time of the year, because they won't be able to participate in the upcoming Heritage Fair. I took students in 2023 and other educators took students in 2024 because the GTA Resource Fair was on the same day. Even though the inquiry questions may seem frivolous or unusual, we deliberately designed the question generating process to be more guided and centered on student interests and expertise. It's nice to see their passions and hobbies reflected in their questions. 

My time with the Grade 7s will be interrupted a bit this week, between Track and Field and a field trip and other classes taking priority. I hope they are enjoying their time with me as much as I am enjoying my time with them.

Poutine!

 I wrote a similar title for a similar blog in January, discussing our experience cooking bannock. In March, we ate real and made pretend patties. In April, we read the Blue Spruce nominated book, The Girl Who Loved Poutine and, naturally, the students wanted to cook poutine. 

I took my own advice from my bannock experience and it paid off! I asked one of my adult volunteers, "Miss Christine", to help out and she came for two afternoons to assist all five primary division classes. I bought extra fries, used frozen french fries to save time, and cooked them in a deep-fryer while the students prepared the gravy and cheese. I couldn't make it as authentic as it should be, because cheese curds are expensive. We used white cheese and the students cut them into cubes. Here are some photos (without faces) of the experience.