I've had this privilege before, when we met in January 2013 as a group at OCT headquarters. There are some big differences between then and now.
Back then, it was a single day, face-to-face experience. I looked at the photo I had scrapbooked as a memento of the occasion, and I notice that the group consisted of mostly white women.
Now, we have a much larger team at work and when we are done, we will have had four online meetings plus virtual consultations via shared digital documents. Our group is thankfully much more diverse and I feel pretty confident in saying that there was no tokenism involved - every group member is a significant voice within the Ontario school library community. As for me, I feel like I'm bringing much more to the table than I was before, because not only did I take the Additional Qualifications (way back in 1998, 1999 and 2000), now I also deliver/teach the Teacher Librarian AQ for York University (in a blended model format, in 2018 and 2019 - sadly not for 2020 due to the COVID-19 situation). We have committee members at all stages of their careers but the common factor among them all is a passion for school libraries and learning.
The group includes:
- Tina Zita (OCT)
- Troy Hill (OCT)
- Dahlia Benedikt (OCT)
- Shaina Haas (OCT)
- Deidre Smith (OCT)
- Lily Harfouche (OCT)
- Jonelle St-Aubyn (PDSB)
- Diana Maliszewski (TDSB)
- Shelly Merton (KPRDSB)
- Alanna King (UGDSB)
- Heather Webb Makin (TDSB)
- Rabia Khokhar (TDSB)
- Darren Pamayah (YRDSB)
- Kelly Maggirias (YRDSB)
- Jim Blackwood (PDSB)
- Helena Mesich (DPCDSB)
- Johanna Lawler (GECDSB)
I was quite impressed with how willing the OCT representatives were to allow us to take the time to really process and discuss some really big questions. Tina did a wonderful job of capturing that intense discussion in a sketchnote. Big thanks to Tina for pivoting to a new tool when the original one we were using to record our thoughts was insufficient for the types of concepts and interconnectedness that was emerging through the conversations.
Note: This image was created by Tina Zita and appears here with her consent.
I hope that the shading and hues adequately reflect how we see equity issues permeating all aspects of the guidelines. I can't speak for the Ontario College of Teachers as a whole, but the representatives that worked alongside us really listened and took our concerns seriously. The committee members are strongly advocating for very specific language and directives related to culturally relevant and responsive pedagogies, and not just because of the recent events and protests.
I also want to thank Troy for facilitating the land acknowledgements during each of our meetings. Troy is on secondment to the OCT from his Mohawk reserve. This was the first time I had ever heard a land acknowledgement done in an Indigenous language. It's beautiful and it makes me want to do more in the 2020-21 school year to make the land acknowledgement we do at my school more meaningful and relevant.
I'm really excited about how we are adding to and improving the guidelines for the Teacher Librarian AQ. As Tina described it to us, OCT provides the guidelines, like design notes, and it is the AQ providers that create the courses from those notes, like floor plans based on design notes. As an AQ instructor myself, I look forward to implementing these new guidelines. As a TDSB TL facilitator, I look forward to promoting these guidelines even with teacher-librarians that already have their AQs completed (or partially completed, as there are 3 courses but not everyone takes all 3). Thanks again, OCT, for the opportunity!
(Edited on Thursday, June 11, 2020 to add photos of the team. Please note that all people that appear in the photo have given written consent for their image to appear on my blog and on Twitter. I also have posted two photos because we had some issues when taking the pictures so not everyone present was in a single shot.)
Note: this image was also created by Tina Zita and appears with her consent
I also want to thank Troy for facilitating the land acknowledgements during each of our meetings. Troy is on secondment to the OCT from his Mohawk reserve. This was the first time I had ever heard a land acknowledgement done in an Indigenous language. It's beautiful and it makes me want to do more in the 2020-21 school year to make the land acknowledgement we do at my school more meaningful and relevant.
I'm really excited about how we are adding to and improving the guidelines for the Teacher Librarian AQ. As Tina described it to us, OCT provides the guidelines, like design notes, and it is the AQ providers that create the courses from those notes, like floor plans based on design notes. As an AQ instructor myself, I look forward to implementing these new guidelines. As a TDSB TL facilitator, I look forward to promoting these guidelines even with teacher-librarians that already have their AQs completed (or partially completed, as there are 3 courses but not everyone takes all 3). Thanks again, OCT, for the opportunity!
(Edited on Thursday, June 11, 2020 to add photos of the team. Please note that all people that appear in the photo have given written consent for their image to appear on my blog and on Twitter. I also have posted two photos because we had some issues when taking the pictures so not everyone present was in a single shot.)
No comments:
Post a Comment