Library as Party Venue, Library as STEM Task Focus

The school library is a hub of activity. Just this past week, it served two distinct functions that I wanted to elaborate on a bit more in depth.

Library As Party Venue - Volunteer Appreciation Event

On Thursday, June 11, 2026, we hosted our annual celebration to honour our parent and community volunteers. To continue the tradition, we hold the event in the library. There are several reasons why this location makes sense.

1) Our library would be a disaster without our volunteers. Mei and Christine tidy and shelve books faster than our student library helpers can (with their brief 10 minute shifts at recess).

2) The library is bigger than a classroom, but more welcoming an atmosphere than the gym. 

3) One of the main draws of our volunteer event is for people to find their names in the new books dedicated to their efforts that belong to the library.

I really should do new book displays like this more often. People flock to the new titles and I often see students hunkered down, thoroughly engrossed in reading the books. They take special pride in locating books with their names and the names of their loved ones inside. (The picture below is of my daughter, who helped me supervise during the TDSB Heritage Fair.)

I have to make a very special shout-out to our office administrator, Deliah Williams. I was frustrated and exhausted by my attempts to design and complete our 2026 volunteer bookplates. I couldn't find a proper template. I couldn't get the labels to line up correctly. Everything was going wrong. Deliah spent a huge chunk of a morning trouble-shooting and she created a gorgeous book plate. Plus, she entered in all the names of the recipients. Deliah, you are a TREASURE and a LIFESAVER! (I promise we will migrate to a spreadsheet next year to make life easier!)

Library as STEM Task Focus - Coding Robots on Library Maps

This has been a terrific STEM activity that has kept my primary division STEM students engaged and occupied throughout June. It was a lot of work to set up, but it's been worth it.

To wrap up our coding unit, I constructed ten very large maps of the school library. I worked on this just before Kindergarten Orientation and standardized my shapes and distances. The maps aren't to scale, but at least they are consistent with each other. If you recall from a blog post I made in May, the students have trouble documenting their code. I provided some sentence starters and large blank paper for them to record the goal for their Botley or coding mouse, and ample space for them to write it down.

The students have really embraced this task. I love watching them plan with their partners, use the path blocks that came with the coding mice to estimate distances, and revise their work without prompting. 

My only regret is that their work with this specific task won't be reflected on their report cards, but learning is learning, even when it isn't formalized in an official document. The students know the library and became even more adept at connecting the abstract map symbols with the real-life counterparts. 

There's still plenty of things to see, plan, and do before school ends. Stay tune for more reports!

The Evolution of My AI Thoughts

 When this blog goes live on Monday, June 8, it will be the date of the 2026 OLA Digital Odyssey conference. The theme of this year's conference is "Human in the System: Libraries Navigating AI Together". 

When I was preparing a couple of talks related to AI for OLA's Digital Odyssey conference and as a guest speaker for AML's Media AQ, I started to wonder how many of these workshops or presentations I've done on Generative AI. I looked at my professional wiki where I record this kind of information, and I made a list. This is current as of June 8, 2026 and just focuses on AI talks.

• 2023 - Fostering Primary Division Students Critical Exploration of Algorithms (Global Media Education Summit)
• 2023 - Exploring Algorithms with Primary Students: Magic, Mystery and More! (TDSB Unleashing Learning)
• 2024 - AI's Not a Bad Guy: Understanding Algorithms (OLA Super Conference)
• 2024 - Teaching Teachers and Tots the Ins and Outs of Algorithms and AI (IMLRS)
• 2025 - The Role of AI in Student Research (OLA Super Conference)
• 2025 - Look Before You Leap: Testing the GenAI Waters in Elementary Schools (OTF Curriculum Forum) (RFTLOI)
• 2025 - Support Without Substitution: How AI Tools Might Help K-8 Teacher Teaching Teaching Effectively and Ethically (OTF Curriculum Forum) (ECOO ExplorAItion)
• 2025 - Unpacking Machine Learning (AML)
• 2025 - Cultivating Critical Minds in a World Influenced by AI (UNESCO)
• 2025 - Questioning AI: Building Media Literacy and Critical Thinking Skills (ETFO ICT Conference for Women) (ECOO Dream Forward STEAM Ahead)
• 2026 - CSL Digital Media Toolkit: Smarter Together in the Age of AI
• 2026 - Developing AI Guides for a School Board and a Country (IMLRS)

I thought it might be interesting to see which presentations became dated quickly, or if there were any ideas I shared back then that have changed or altered. In the end, I decided to make a "listicle".

My Top 3 Favourite AI Talks

#3 = Teaching Teachers and Tots the Ins and Outs of Algorithms and AI

I thought this talk, even though it was shared several years ago, still has relevance. It focused on some of my earliest action research on teaching through and about AI with primary division students. It has a great collection of student quotes and visuals produced by student hands as well as AI. The GenAI image generation tools have improved since 2024. One of the loveliest compliments I've received came after this talk, when someone said "I wish I could be a student in your class". 

#2 = The Role of AI in Student Research

This was a presentation that took a lot of time to prepare but was a lot of fun to deliver. Part of the joy came from presenting with my friend, Kim Davidson, at OLA Super Conference. The audience was filled with friends. I really like how Kim and I looked at GenAI at every stage of the research process and had practical tasks and questions connected to many aspects of inquiry. It's much more clear now what our school board's "supported" AI tools are and which ones to use than when we first developed this talk, so if we ever shared it again, we'd have to update that information, but it was a good one that I will sometimes refer back to myself when planning.

#1 = Questioning AI: Building Media Literacy and Critical Thinking Skills

There are several reasons why I consider this to be one of the best presentations I've given to date on AI. First of all, I had a nice long time to present, so I was able to incorporate activities for the participants to undertake (and I differentiated, so that people didn't feel like they were being forced to use AI against their will). I like how media literacy concepts are fleshed out, equity issues are brought to the forefront instead of being asides, and it ends with practical strategies for critical thinking that can be applied not just to Generative AI but to all media texts. I'm glad that I was able to really hone in on the ETFO AI guideline papers; if educators are going to use AI, they need to do it thoughtfully, with purpose, and in a way that does not demean the profession. In this talk, I had the opportunity to delve into some of my favourite AI subtopics, such as the problematic personification of AI and the distinction between "through" and "about". I was terrified when I gave this talk at the ECOO conference, because some "heavy hitters" that I really respect were in the room - Tim King and Heidi Siwak. I wondered what on earth my workshop could offer them when they are such experts in the field. They seemed to be satisfied, so I consider that a win.

I called this blog "The Evolution of my AI Thoughts". How would I say that my thoughts on AI have changed? I find it ironic that I am sought after by media outlets to provide commentary and lessons on AI, when I think I actually don't use AI that much. I've started to use it more than in the past, but I'm big on citing my use. I'm going to look at my use of Google Gemini at the end of the school year, and try to "make amends to the earth" for the amount of energy and water my AI prompts and queries have done. (This action is inspired by Mariana Spena from DDSB, whom I heard speak at the ECOO conference. Maybe my future post will need to be a list of my favourite AI talks that I've attended as a listener, rather than as a speaker!) There are times when people use it and I question whether it's the right choice. (After all, there are two writers in my family and I strongly believe their work cannot and should not be replaced by AI bots.) AI still makes me feel a bit superior, and I get frustrated by how often AI is embedded in tools where I don't want to use it (such as Blogger, or Gmail). If this is how things have changed from 2023-2026, I wonder what AI will be like in the next three years. Only time will tell. 

Documenting the Documentary Film Making

 Last Monday, on May 25, 2026, my school had the incredible honour of having a TVO film crew come to record footage for an upcoming documentary on media literacy education. It was a lot of work to prepare for their arrival, because many classes were featured and everyone involved needed special permission forms signed. However, it was a very educational experience for the students. I hope that they learned several things about the visit. Here are a few things I hope the students appreciated.

Many People Make Movies

We had a team arrive at our school to collect footage. Everyone had a role to play.

This reminded me of the drawings I commissioned my daughter to create long ago to show the different jobs involved in the film industry. (I'll see if I can find it and include it here in the blog post. ETA - I couldn't find the file in time to share here but if I locate it, I'll add it eventually.)

Jen was the Production Manager. She kept the crew organized. She handled all the bookings and the paperwork. It was Jen that collected all the permission forms. She managed the logistics and schedules.

Kevin was the Producer and Director. He had the vision for what he hoped to see. He instructed the rest of the crew about possible shots and whom to film. Kevin watched the footage and asked questions of me and of the students.

John was the primary camera person. He filmed the video using a huge camera. He'd line up shots and recorded from several different angles using different lenses.

Chris was another camera person. He collected "B roll" footage as well as different angles to complement the ones John collected.

Sanjay was the sound technician. He carried around the long boom microphone and hung it over students when he needed to hear them better. He also wired me up with a body microphone so I could be heard.

Nathan was the assistant. A recent graduate of Seneca and York, Nathan offered help to John and Chris with batteries, wires, lenses and other equipment.

Everyone was important to the process and worked long and hard.

Lots of Time, Lots of Tech

The team from Primitive Entertainment Inc. (the ones filming on behalf of TVO) arrived at 8:10 a.m. and didn't leave until after 5:00 p.m. They had a trolley full of technology. The students were fascinated with the fuzzy cover on the microphone (there to stop rain and wind from interfering with the sound quality), the big lenses (which they had to avoid staring directly into because it ruins the shot), the tripod and term I forgot (half mat?) that held the cameras steady for longer periods of time, and Kevin's viewfinder that showed him what John was shooting. One of my students kept saying "pictures, pictures" when he saw the crew in the hallway.

When the students asked about when the movie would be ready, Kevin explained that it should be finished by next school year. This could be anywhere from September to June, but Kevin and his team had many schools to visit and, if they filmed as long as they did at my school, there would be a lot of footage to sort through and select for the final project.

Filming Doesn't Always Go According to Plan

We had a schedule of classes to see and moments to capture, but sometimes circumstances altered the plans. Sometimes a tangential comment would lead to interesting questions, or something unexpected a student would say would interest the director and have the crew focus elsewhere. We were a bit delayed moving from the library to go to see some of the primary classes and record some of their reading instruction. Big thanks to Sheri Hajiani and Maha Ngo for agreeing to have the crew film them teaching.

Sometimes something would interest the camera people as they filmed extra material to use in between shots, so they'd film in the hall or outside. It caused a bit of a stir, but people needed to understand that close-ups were only of students with forms and outside shots were distant enough to obscure faces, and were primarily just wide-view filler content. The crew was very respectful and were extremely accommodating to the wishes of others in the building. We ran out of time with Room 113 and our own sound malfunctioned on showing a video, so they returned back to the library to "finish up" for an extra ten minutes of filming, and the videographers really seemed to like filming some unscripted interactions between me and the students as they began to write a draft copy of an email to an author. 

I expected that we'd "casually manufacture" a conversation around replacing a library tree book display during the second-last period of the day, (a clear connection to media) but instead, the focus for the time Room 112 was in the library centered on the students serenely reading and borrowing their books, while the director asked them questions about the books they liked to read. The camera man said he captured some great shots of the students blissfully reading with the afternoon sun streaming behind them. Even though Media Key Concept #2 is "Media construct versions of reality", and filming students reading (and asking them questions on camera) wasn't "natural", it was more "authentic" than what we had planned about the library tree. 

During my ESL class first thing in the morning, one of my mischievous students decided to put his name tag (that was originally attached to the props he needed to make his comic on Book Creator) and stick it on my back. I didn't notice until the director asked if I realized I had something on me! 

If/when I share this blog post on www.aml.ca, maybe I'll list all the Media Literacy Key Concepts and how they connected to the day. Let me end by saying it was a great experience. I hope that the footage they collected was useful to the project and that it will advance the cause of media literacy in the province and country.

Bravo! Bravo! Making a Successful Spring Concert

 Thursday, May 21, 2026 was our school's Spring Concert. I peeked back on my previous blog posts (I don't want to sound too repetitive in my reflections!) and the last time I ruminated on the Spring Concert was in 2025 when I reported on getting a concert ready when the main coordinator has been absent, and in 2024 when I was responsible for the kindergarten performances. 

I don't teach dance or drama this year, but I was still involved with the show. My focus for these thoughts are all about the little things that turn a good performance into a great one.

Being Ready

It's no surprise that advanced preparation benefits a performance. The more familiar students are with what they must do on stage, the more comfortable they will be when the time comes for the final viewing. What's tricky is making sure that those rehearsals do not become boring or dull or counterproductive. I was supporting a primary division class who had become tired of their review. To spice it up a bit, I asked them to do their act as if everyone except me had laryngitis. I provided the oral component and they were very quick to point out when I was speaking too quickly or too slowly, or to ask me why I was saying the lines a certain way. The process actually made them more critical and more conscious of the process. The teacher with the class of students playing recorder had a unique way of preparing the kids; at any point during the day, he'd declare that it was time to pick up the recorders and play. It wasn't stop-drop-&roll, but stop-popup-& play! They were SO ready for the concert.

The Aural Experience

Layering sound can be impactful. I took over coordinating the contribution from a different primary division class and a week before the show, I had an "aha" moment. We had narrators and we had sound effects; would it be possible to add soft instrumental music to enhance the cultural aspect of the material? We tried it out and it really added to the quality of the performance. We used this tactic for another class' show and it really helped delineate the "reality" vs the "dream" portion of their play.

The same goes for the band. Connie set up the chairs in three compact rows instead of two rows like before. I'm not sure if the reason for this decision was to consolidate the sound, but it served to contain and unify the instrumentalists.

The Grade 4-5s turned what would have been a mediocre rendition of some common recorder songs into something interesting and appealing to the ear with accompaniment that provided different musical genres to make it multilayered and unique. (This was an offshoot of a collaboration between the library and the music class that had originally intended to use AI to help generate the background supplements, but we realized that there's no replacing actual musicians yet - big thanks to Connie Chan's husband for playing the instruments that formed the backup for the jazz, rock and roll, and reggae flavored music to go with the recorders.) 

Having other people sing along with the ukulele club made the performance excellent. I am so grateful that Deliah Williams and Connie Chan agreed to sing a duet to the ukulele number. Their beautiful harmonies really added variety and texture to what could have been a very repetitive song. I'm also glad that in the end, I chose to use a lummi stick for a dual purpose - to mark the downbeat and conduct the ukulele players as they strummed in a syncopated rhythm. 

Clothes Make the Man-y

Props and costumes are so important. Ms. Thiya spent weeks and weeks working with the Grade 1 and Grade 1-2 class to design their own costumes, using leaf collection bags. The students were absolutely adorable!

The Grade 3-4s created their own conical villager hats after I gave up in despair. (It actually became a math and art lesson for them in their home class.) 

I ordered some beards for our "poets" to wear and it really helped these students get into character. I loved watching them thoughtfully stroke their beards as they struck a pose and pretended to think deep thoughts. 

These students also helped build the boat that they used as part of the play. I've never seen students work so carefully to measure and cut cardboard. They were worried when the handles fell off but were happy when we came up with a solution (thanks to Mr. Malisani's recommendations). 

My daughter and I also constructed some dragon hats and the actors loved them so much, one asked if she'd get to keep it after the show.

 

Visual Interest

To piggyback on the idea of props and costumes, adding movement to any potentially static delivery livens things up tremendously. For the primary choir, our last chorus included some clapping and stepping. I worried that the Grade 1s, 2s, and 3s would not be able to clap, dance, and sing at the same time, but they were fine. The addition of actions, even as simple as switching seats on stage, invigorated the Grade 2-3 number.

Student Voice

Giving students agency means that they care about the show because they had a say in what goes on. Ms. Thiya's play with Room 115 and 116 was based on their ideas about what whimsical things could exist in a reply to the question "What did you do at school today?" The answers had a mix of capybaras, soccer players, K-pop dancers, insects, flamingos, and other popular animals and figures. 

Letting students decide which role they'd like in the play was helpful. It actually became part of a lesson, as students analyzed their skills as drama performers and determined which job suited them best.

I want to thank everyone who had a hand in creating yet another memorable concert. It was a lean but jam-packed 45 minutes and the reward was hearing a visitor say that they paid $25 to attend a different school concert but it wasn't as good as this one, which was free!

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!