An "Elevator Pitch" IRL

Usually in this blog, I write about things that have already happened. For today's blog, I'm writing about things to come.

The local news (such as The Toronto Star and CityNews) has shared that the province intends on auditing four school boards. There will be a huge meeting of the TDSB Finance, Budget and Enrolment Committee on Wednesday where some decisions will be made. To help trustees make their decisions, there is a special meeting the day before. I have applied to be a delegate at the marathon board hearing on Tuesday, April 29, 2025. Each delegate will only have three minutes to share their comments.

This is similar to an "elevator pitch". I am familiar with the concept. In fact, as part of one of the Additional Qualification courses that I teach, candidates are required to create an elevator pitch to promote school libraries. This specific task on Tuesday holds a lot more weight than a class assignment. I do not want to exaggerate the importance or impact of my words, but I want to do my part to ensure that, as the board scrambles to find savings, that school libraries are not included in the cuts. 

I am still waiting to see if a) I was accepted and b) when my allocated time slot will be. If I get a chance to present, then maybe I will post a copy of what I said here on my blog. 

In the meantime, if a picture is worth a thousand words, here are a few images (or $7000 worth ;>) to indicate the things that go on in school libraries in a typical week.

I improved my Forest of Reading Blue Spruce loose parts provocations. This one, for "Still My Tessa" invites the participants to explore "How do you show who you are?"

This is a sample from the "More Than Words" loose parts provocation: "How do we communicate?"

This student example is from "When The Stars Came Home" and the prompt, "Where are the stars? Where is home?"

This is part of a STEM project that some Grade 8 students are working on.

This part of a McDonalds Happy Meal was the fodder for lots of discussions with the ESL students.

I brought a new tent into the library. One student thought it was the perfect place to get work done. 

This close-up is from the Earth Day clean-up initiative. I took photographs of the action.

Wish me luck with this endeavor. (This coming week is also the Forest of Reading Voting Day and the GTA Resource Fair. Busy, busy!)

Minecraft & Media Moments

Minecraft endures.

I was an "early adopter" of Minecraft and used it extensively in my programming from 2011-2018. I loved playing it myself with my own children and marveled at all the fantastic curricular connections that were possible. I "backed away" from it for a while but slowly started to return it to my repertoire in 2022. (If you search my blog for the term "Minecraft", you will end up with pages and pages of results.)

Here we are in 2025 and Minecraft is still incredibly popular. At my school, I've seen renewed interest among the teachers and students. Our unofficial IT expert on staff and I spent a Friday evening removing extra account profiles on Chromebooks so that the Grade 4-5 students had enough space on their devices to run Minecraft. Their teacher, the talented Lexi Williams, integrated coding and Minecraft for a series of engaging lessons. The Grade 2-3 teacher, Kerri Commisso, organized some super provocations with only a tiny bit of help from me, as part of the final tasks related to our collaboration time together. I helped set up Minecraft on the Chromebooks and, after some initial exploration and self-directed inquiries, asked them to "make a fraction in Minecraft". Here are some of the results:

Even though Kerri doesn't have personal experience playing Minecraft, she saw how motivating it was for her students and incorporated Minecraft into her language and science program. She found a great Minecraft-themed poem to use for shared reading, and had students make connections between their study of solids/liquids (Grade 2) and forces (Grade 3) and Minecraft. What I admired about the way she used Minecraft in her classroom was how she did not leech all the fun out of the activity and allowed students agency in demonstrating their knowledge. It was playful and honoured all the learners where they were at in their learning journeys. She was able to document their discoveries to show that "serious play" was happening and that learning expectations were being addressed. Kerri, you are an amazing teacher and your students are lucky to have you!

Minecraft Mania isn't just happening in my school. The Minecraft movie was just released and McDonalds has Minecraft-themed Happy Meals for both kids and adults. My son, husband, and I made a midnight McDonalds milkshake run when Friday turned into Saturday, and we treated ourselves to the adult Minecraft Happy Meals. Check out the packaging and the toys!

I'm taking my Media Specialist AQ right now. I love how taking these courses causes me to think deeply about media in my personal and professional life. As part of the AQ, participants are required to keep a "media log", which is a reflection journal. These are some of the things I wrote about related to this Minecraft Happy Meal in my media log. (For reference, the KCs stand for the Key Concepts, which shape how media literacy education can be examined, according to the Association for Media Literacy.) They are:

1. Media construct reality.
2. Media construct versions of reality.
3. Audiences negotiate meaning.
4. Media have economic implications.
5. Media communicate value messages.
6. Media communicate political and social messages.
7. Form and content are closely related in each medium.
8. Each medium has a unique aesthetic form.

At first, my husband couldn’t believe these were adult Happy Meals. It took both a great deal of persuasion/explanation from me, as well as (Hello Doubting Thomas) for him to look up online to get confirmation that indeed, the target audience of this product are adults. If I decide to save all the paraphernalia related to it and bring it to school, I might ask my students:

• What does this Happy Meal tell you about McDonalds?

• What does this Happy Meal tell you about Minecraft?

• How can you tell this is a Minecraft Happy Meal? (KC #7 or 8)

• How much did it cost? How much does a “regular” Happy Meal cost? (KC#4)

• Can a grown-up buy a kids’ Happy Meal? Can a kid buy a grown-up’s Happy Meal? (KC#3)

• I got a card that lets me use a McDonald’s themed Minecraft skin in Minecraft, but only Pocket Edition (now called Bedrock Edition). Would I want to? Why? (KC#1 or 2)

• I looked at the toys for the adult meals vs the toys for the kids meals. Based on the options, what does McDonalds think is important to kids vs adults in their toys? (KC#5)

• What impact does media tie-ins have on movie sales? Will more people go to McDonalds because of Minecraft? Will more people go to the movies because of McDonalds? (KC#6 or 4)

There are so many more questions that I could have posed about this media text. 

I don't know if I'll ever be able to capture that exhilarating feeling of when I first got into Minecraft, and the thrill of my initial forays into that blocky world. It seems easier to set up worlds, and play together. Maybe I should revisit that idea I had about re-establishing a Minecraft Club at school. We'll see. In the meantime, I'll take my Minecraft Birdy figurine to school and listen fondly to the hallway conversations of the students commenting on their Minecraft experiences.

Inclusive Education: GoalBall and Loose Parts

 I knew I wanted to write about two specific things for today's blog post, but I wasn't sure how to tie them together. After rolling around the ideas in my head, I realized that both are "ways in" for different people and examples of inclusive education.

Goal Ball Demonstration Event

My school has, what I believe is, the only Goal Ball team in the school board. I mentioned in January that we were starting a Goalball club. Three of us on staff received training on the sport from a Paralympic-level coach. Our staff drop-in club didn't obtain the traction we needed to keep it going, but our student teams were well-received. We ran sessions for the girls on Wednesdays and boys on Fridays. (The gender segregation was at the request of the girls.) To cap off the end of our "season", we provided a goalball demonstration at the Bloorview School Authority. According to their website,

Bloorview School Authority is an educational facility that provides innovative school programs to children and youth with special needs. We are located on the same site as Holland Bloorview Kids Rehabilitation Hospital, but we are a separate corporate and legal entity. Each year hundreds of children and young people from across Ontario benefit from our individualized educational programs, which are set up in conjunction with ongoing therapeutic and medical care. Students may be clients, inpatients or day patients of Holland Bloorview Kids Rehabilitation Hospital.

I am friends with their newest teacher-librarian, Mona Cheema, and so we connected to make this visit possible. Mona even arranged for us to take a tour of the Prosthetics and Orthotics Lab, as well as a walking tour of some of the parts of the school, such as the fully accessible playground and the pool. 

I don't have a lot of photos of the day, because there are strict rules around taking pictures of the students who take classes at Bloorview and anything that might identify individuals. 

Our students were amazing. They played extremely well. Goalball is usually played in silence, so that you can hear the jingle of the bell in the ball to know where and when it is coming. Our audience consisted of many of the youngest students at Bloorview, so there were lots of gasps, cheers and other extraneous noises during the game. Our players were able to participate even with this extra layer of challenge. 

This particular group of students tend to be a bit on the shy side, so I didn't know how our students would react when, after the game, they were approached by some of the students and educators with questions. Our athletes were attentive, modest and polite. Some of the questions were, "How did you get so awesome?" and one of our Macphail reps simply replied, "We practiced."

We also had a mini-workshop led by two of the staff members of Bloorview on disability awareness. When asked about media representations of disabilities, they responded with positive, affirming portrayals, such as in Dav Pilkey's DogMan series! Our students were lauded for including low vision students in sports, but the funny thing is that our team consists of many people of differing abilities, all of whom benefited from participating in this particular sport. Yes, we have a member on our team who is blind, but we also have students who are on various points of the autism spectrum, and students who are currently physically disabled due to injury. 

Our students enjoyed the spacious, comfortable, and modifiable options in the Bloorview library, such as tables with adjustable heights and big, cozy beanbags.

Big thanks to all the professionals at Bloorview for welcoming us to your facility and giving our students a chance to share their newfound skills with a wider (and very appreciative) audience!

Forest of Reading Review via Loose Parts

It's very close to the time where students vote for their favourite Forest of Reading book. We've been reading these books since January, so it can be a challenge for children to remember the books enough to select their preferred title. To help remind students about the content of each of the Blue Spruce nominees, we had a buzzer-like quiz review. This benefits some but not others. The Ontario Library Association offers access to hearing the authors themselves read their books - this is a bonus feature if you register for the Forest of Reading. This lent itself well to the return of my Loose Parts stations in the library. I decided to set up five of the books for loose parts provocations for one week, and then rotate and have the other five books set up as loose parts invitations. 

The one major wrinkle in my plan is that my new round tables have not yet arrived. We don't have enough table space. I set it up on the carpet, but I didn't have a lot of time to set it up as aesthetically pleasing as I would have liked to have done, since I was supply teaching the period before my first group of "guinea pigs" arrived. I'm posting my initial photos here so that people can give me suggestions on better question prompts, or more suitable materials to offer, or better work spaces.

The prompt for the book The Little Regent is "How does a good king serve?"

(I might alter the prompt to say "What makes a good king?")

Note that the term "king" is used for male and female rulers in parts of Nigeria.

The prompt for the book When the Stars Came Home is "Where are the stars? Where is home?"

(I might include some of those flat pattern blocks, since in the book, the mother makes a star quilt using flat pieces of fabric combined in an intricate pattern.)

The prompt for the book Asha and the Toymaker is "What makes a toy attractive?"

(I wonder if I should tweak the prompt to say "How can you make toys that will sell?" for simpler language.)

The prompt for the book Lost Stick is "How might you find the right stick?" (I had a student keep asking me, "So, what do we do?" What if I rephrase it to "How can you tell which stick is yours?" or "Where might you go to find that special missing stick?"?)

The great thing about this loose parts activity is that there really isn't a "wrong" way to complete it. Yes, some students will just completely ignore the prompt and use the parts to make whatever picture they want. That's okay. As long as they aren't swallowing or stealing any of the manipulatives, then it's fine. I remember from my Kindergarten AQ days that choosing the right materials, prompt and surface to work on are all very important considerations. I noticed too that I didn't have enough spots for students to work. Usually in a kindergarten class, there are so many other options that students can self-select and don't get mad waiting for their chance at a certain center. 

At least I have multiple chances to "get this right". Being inclusive or serving those with different needs isn't about getting everything perfect on the first try, or even scoring on how many times you do X. (Please note this, estranged relative of mine who likes to judge my actions.) I hope these efforts will help our students to recall the books they've read and make an informed choice as a voter. (Speaking of which, don't forget that the Canadian federal election is on April 28. Our Grade 5-8 students are participating in CIVIX's Student Vote program. Adults, take the time to be informed and participate in the democratic process.)

Media Environments - Playgrounds and Green Screens

 Two weeks ago, I mentioned that I began taking my Media Specialist AQ with AML. Even though it's a lot of work, I enjoy taking AQ courses. They often help inspire me to try new things or look at existing practices with a new lens and fresh approach. 

My camera roll on my phone suggested to me that the two big topics that preoccupied me this past week were creating a green screen mini-movie project with the Grade 2 students that are in the class where I'm partnering with their teacher for social studies, and taking my Stage 1-2 ESL students to the playground to reinforce the vocabulary they were learning from the prior week's lesson.

Both of these involve media environments. One is digital and one is physical, but both can be very exciting and motivating for students. 

Green Screen

Another important media literacy education concept is to compare and contrast. In addition to comparing the two lessons from this week, I wanted to compare the most recent green screen experience with my last one. My thoughts? This one was completed much more quickly than the previous projects. It took us four periods over two weeks, instead of one period a week over three months. We took some short-cuts this time around. We didn't make storyboards on paper; we compiled the plans orally. I did some lessons related to Key Concept #2 (Media constructs versions of reality) and a lesson "about" rather than "through" media when I taught them how the green screen worked, by erasing the background and allowing the producer to insert one of their own. Our script was also very quickly assembled, with the teacher typing suggestions provided by the group of students. I was the one who used iMovie to stitch the visuals from DoInk with voice overs into a final product.

Why the speed? This was not meant to be the final product for this unit, so I didn't want it to "take over". I also find that students sometimes lately have trouble with persevering on long tasks. 

I can't show the final result here, because the film shows the face of one of the students. I wish I was able to take photos of the "making of" process, because it was interesting, but by using just a single cell phone to compile it, I didn't have enough devices (or extra people) to create this artifact. Yes, I could have had the students do it, but many of them were involved with the filming and then the script writing. These are some of the stills we used.

Some of the following reflections and personal questions come from my Media AQ log:

It was fascinating to see the class reaction to the video. We watched it at the end of the day on Thursday. The kids were so loud that they could barely hear what was said. They squealed about seeing J (our human protagonist) on screen. They exclaimed when they saw the puppet they were responsible for manipulating. I’ll have to think more about why they reacted like that, instead of sitting transfixed to see the fruits of their labour. 

I did have some questions about the final product. Could it be considered cultural appropriation? After all, when we were at IMLRS 4, we learned that there are certain Indigenous stories that are only allowed to be told at certain times of year. Since this is a creation story, is this a sacred oral text that only Indigenous people should tell? What other things can we do with this video?

Playgrounds

Key Concept #1 is "Media constructs reality". For my ESL students, we were focusing on a black and white drawing of a playground to review certain nouns and verbs. I wanted it to be even more authentic, so I took them to the recently renovated playground nearby. I find that students need a lot more external, extrinsic motivators to encourage them to read or write (or even speak, for some learners). They "earned" the ability to go when everyone was able to name the four main playground structures. 

After our visit, we looked at the photos we took and the students chose which ones they wanted printed. I wish that they had the attention span or the English terms to be able to explain why they selected the photos that they did. (Apologies if it sounds like I am approaching things from a deficit mindset. It just feels challenging lately to hold and keep their attention. Is this spring fever?) That would have addressed Key Concept #8 "Each medium has an aesthetic form that is unique". We give thanks to our very kind and patient OA, who printed the photos in colour for the students to use in their writing. We also "gamified" the activity a bit by spreading a few photos out and having students determine which caption the teacher wrote could match with the photo. 

It's my hope that my Media AQ, in addition to the Spring session of the York U TL AQs (just Parts 1 & 2 this time around) will be encouraging media environments for me to "up my game" and make my lessons as meaningful as possible. 

A Nice Ice Inquiry

I teach both the Grade 1-2 classes one period focused on STEAM activities. At the beginning of this month, we looked at snow and investigated whether snow floats or sinks. In that post, I expressed hope at attempting another inquiry, to see about building long-lasting snow people. 

Unfortunately for our inquiry, most of the snow had melted, so I modified the challenge. Every student received a single ice cube in a tiny Ziploc bag. They had to do something that did not involve electricity (i.e. putting it in the fridge or freezer) to try and prevent the ice cube from melting. 

I had high hopes. Two weeks prior, we drew ways to protect hypothetical snow people. The week before that, we shared our thoughts and extracted some of the most promising ideas. We discussed insulation and surrounding it with material at the same temperature.

Most of these concepts flew out of their heads. Many copied the actions of others, even when there was clear, direct evidence that their method wasn't working. Their favorite tactic was to fill the bag with water from the water fountain. This would be no surprise to someone who requests no ice in their Coke; the ice melts in the surrounding liquid, even if the liquid is "cold". 

Even when we compared results, students still flocked to the fountain to fill their baggie.

Some students did attempt other methods. Some blew on the bag, hoping the air would keep it cool. I was surprised to see how many students kept handling their ice cube. Did they forget that their bodies were warm and contact would increase the rate that the ice cube melted? Some tried to make air pockets, with varying success.

Not all of the efforts were baseless. One of the best attempts was from a student who shoved paper towels in as an attempt to insulate. A student in a different class used his water bottle to store the plastic bag with the ice; his attempts were thwarted because he kept opening the bottle to check on his ice!

For one of the classes, I tried to model my thought process, and another student "copied" my example. We thought that inside the school was too warm, so we opened the library window and kept our ice cubes outside. This tactic helped the ice cube last for the 40 minute period, but the noon sun eventually reduced our solid to a liquid. Other students tried to copy, once they saw what we were attempting, but this resulted in many dropped bags outside the window. 

I'm unsure if I should be pleased on dismayed with the way this evolved. On one hand, the students completely forgot or ignored all the scientific discussions we had and applied none of it to the experiment. On the other hand, maybe this was a good diagnostic tool to demonstrate that the concept wasn't solid (pardon the pun) in their minds, or that the excitement of playing with water and ice superseded their understanding of the task. 

For my next steps, I wonder how I might assess this. Should they be judged on their less-than-successful work with the ice? Or do I have them draw / write about what failed and why? Was having it "fail" a better or worse lesson?

The Food Factor

 Last week was a busy one. I visited our intermediate students while they were away on their overnight trip to an outdoor education center, hosted our final Winter 2025 guest speaker for my York TL AQs, and began my Media Specialist AQ with AML as a course participant. I don't know if it's because I had a week to prepare, but I felt as if my lessons with my ESL students were more cohesive and impactful than they have been. It also may have something to do with including food into the mix.

I use a book I purchased called "Everyday Literacy: Listening and Speaking" with my early-stage ESL students. Each week, it provides a picture prompt with some simple vocabulary to use. This week's image was about playing instruments in a parade. Usually, I don't do a lot around holidays. Some religions object to marking these occasions, and it prompts me to consider which holidays are and are not mentioned in public schools. However, in this case, my regular programming dovetailed nicely with St. Patrick's Day, which was Monday, March 17. We talked about parades a bit and used the St. Patrick's Day Parade as an example.

After my success with cooking French toast and pancakes with the students, I decided to look at another avenue using food. We bought some Lucky Charms cereal and "read" the box to understand what all those shapes and marshmallows were meant to be. We wrote using our sentence starters ("I see ...") and then branched out to work on verbs ("We can ______ cereal"). I noticed that the students were more willing to write when food was involved.

For the ESL students communicating at a higher stage, we continued to investigate popcorn. The novice learners are working on verbs and nouns, but the more advanced speakers are focusing on adjectives and descriptive words with more advanced vocabulary. They tend to be reluctant writers who second guess and question every word. They enjoyed eating popcorn and so we continued our investigations. We wrote procedures on how to make microwave popcorn. To add an extra layer of challenge, students were able to earn a piece of popcorn for every word they wrote. This was highly motivating, and I had students write much more than they usually do, because they wanted the food.

We also compared different flavours of popcorn, to add to our word banks. We sampled Chicago mix and white cheddar popcorn.

I've started my Media AQ and I need to seriously consider how to incorporate more media literacy education in my lessons for my multilingual learners. I really miss having a separate strand of media literacy as a reportable subject. With the new curriculum, media literacy is one of the "umbrella expectations" in Strand A, where it is meant to be integrated into all language instruction, but that does not seem to be the case most of the time. (Dear Ontario Ministry of Education: please release the examples for the Language Curriculum! What are you waiting for?) It can be challenging to try to understand how to express ideas around purpose and messages when you are still gathering basic nouns and verbs and simple means of expression, but it can be done.  Maybe I can talk about when it's typical to eat popcorn (media environments) or how cereal is not a universal breakfast food for many cultures but was promoted by companies as a "balanced breakfast" (economic implications). I'll figure it out - eventually. 

Keep Nimble

 How was your March Break?

What did you do on your March Break?

These are the questions I might face when I return from the week away from school. 

I can't say that it was particularly exciting. The time away was helpful and useful. I got caught up on providing feedback and tracking all the submitted assignments for my various AQ courses I teach. I took my parents to get a haircut and buy new shoes. I visited a colleague who will be retiring on Monday, March 17. (Congratulations Judy! Thank you for your many years of service to the school board!) I met with some friends for drinks. 

Two things of note that I also did:

1) I went to the gym three times this week.

2) I attended a Zoom meeting for the various chapters of the UNESCO Media and Information Literacy Alliance.

Both of these events reminded me that it's important to be linguistically and physically nimble.

Physically Nimble

I don't enjoy going to the gym. I don't get the boost of adrenaline from exerting myself to the limit. I don't have the satisfied exhaustion after a particularly challenging workout. I don't see the results of my efforts like my husband does. (He's probably in the best shape he's ever been, despite his age.) I don't get a thrill from beating my PR (personal records). It's also been a very busy February and March and events have prevented me from attending my usual Monday, Wednesday, and Saturday CrossFit sessions at the gym. However, I see the need for regular exercise. This week, I had the time to return to my regularly scheduled three times a week visits to the gym. I'm sore but it was necessary.

The words of one of my favourite coaches echoes in my ears. One day, I was bemoaning the need to go to the gym, and he replied that I didn't have to go to the gym. He said that I am an adult and I can quit anytime BUT I need to find something to replace it with to keep me active. It doesn't have to be CrossFit, but it has to be some sort of exercise. I can stop working out when my body doesn't allow me to do it anymore. (It's a blessing to be able to walk, run, lift and stretch. Many people lose these abilities when they get older.) These weren't comforting words, but they made sense. This is why I still keep going. I am not intrinsically motivated enough to go on my own to a gym and shape my own workouts. I need a class, a workout buddy (my husband), and a coach to guide and encourage me to complete the task properly. 

Linguistically Nimble

I am Canada's representative on UNESCO's MIL Alliance for North America and Europe. On Friday, we had a meeting with members from two other chapters - Africa as well as Latin America and the Caribbean. It was quite humbling to see how many different countries were represented at this meeting.

Because we had a large contingent from certain regions of Africa, there was a need to converse in English and French. Bilingual countries like Belgium and Canada were asked to help out.

It was, at this moment, that I truly wished that I had kept up my French studies. My French is passable, but not great. I was very thankful that Pierre and others were able to assist to a greater extent. 

I've written about my French-speaking abilities on this blog before, when I mentioned my 25th anniversary trip to Quebec City, and driving around Montreal for a short day trip. It truly is unfortunate that it was a single university professor that ended my French learning journey. There are so many benefits to being bilingual. Many people on the call were multilingual. It will take quite a bit of effort to get my French abilities back up to where I'd like them to be, and time is at a premium for me. (I'm starting another AQ as a student this coming week!) If you don't use it, you lose it, so keep speaking all the languages you know. It also challenges me to devote more time to crafting my ESL lessons so that it encourages the use of English but not at the expense of the students primary languages. 

Cooking & Community Walks - Outside the SLLC

Being inside my library has been challenging this past week. On Monday, I was displaced because there was a request to use the library for some professional learning by a board group. Using the library for non-library reasons by groups other than students is a significant and thorny issue, so much so that some people who have taken the York University Teacher Librarianship AQ I teach have used this topic for their independent inquiry learning project theme. School libraries, especially ones in high schools, will sometimes have their physical spaces claimed for other purposes and groups. One consequence of this choice is that the students are unable to use the library for their own purposes. For me and my students, this means no book exchange that day, no recess visits, and classes are relocated and disrupted. Honestly, I don't like it. I'm glad that people enjoy the library environment for gathering, but I don't appreciate the temporary eviction. I want to be welcoming and accommodating, but when these meetings happen regularly, it prioritizes adult comfort over student learning. 

On Monday, I decided to turn lemons into lemonade by devoting time to cooking with my ESL students. I checked beforehand and none of the children were fasting for Ramadan or had any allergies. (We will take a pause on preparing any more food after this, so that tasty tempting smells don't fill the hallway and impact students that are not in the ESL classes.)

One group made pancakes and another group made French toast. The French toast was an effort to avoid wasting the eggs that we used for the Grade 1-2 STEAM egg drop challenge. We talked about the cultural significance of Pancake Tuesday and the economization of food resources with French toast. (It's a way of using stale bread.)

The things I learned while cooking with the kids included:

• youngsters do not know how to crack eggs unless they are taught (some just smashed them on the table to open them)
• cooking is messy
• pouring anything from icing sugar to syrup usually results in large amounts on plates
• students love to eat

We also practiced offering pancakes to other teachers. Asking questions in English can be hard!

On Thursday, I voluntarily left the library to go on a community walk with Mrs. Ngo and her Grade 1-2 students. This is part of our social studies collaboration. The students used iPads to take photos of important parts of the community, that we will annotate and document once we return from our mid-winter / spring holiday. A huge puddle in the middle of the walkway led to some improvised problem solving. We stopped off in the public library to get warm, since the day was chillier than we anticipated.

As for the seismic shifts occurring in the library - things are progressing steadily. The soft seating and new tables have been ordered and the layout has almost been finalized (for now). Now, I need to clean my office, where I have shoved things that I don't yet know where to place in the new set-up.