Wednesday, February 5, 2020

OLA SC 2020 Day 3 Reflections

Friday was still #RedForEd but it was also the third day of the Ontario Library Association SuperConference. Here are my reflections and report from that day. (And before I forget, I want to give a big, big thank you to my co-planner, Kate Johnson-McGregor. Is it okay to say "I love you, my friend" publicly? Well, I hope so because I just did. [Love you too, Richard!])

Me, Kate, and OLA President Richard Reid


Friday, January 31, 2020 - 7:00 a.m.

Who has a meeting this early in the morning? The OLA SuperConference planners do! This meeting is an important time to chow down together and reflect (using the "2 Stars and a Wish" format) on how the conference has been proceeding. We should have taken Deanna's advice to get a proper group shot photo across the street. We chose not to, and that meant that there isn't a quality image of all of us planners together like the one we took last year (with all our champagne glasses).

I popped my head into the Tinlids-sponsored Forest of Reading invitational breakfast briefly to hear the speeches. It was filled with authors and selection/steering committee members, as well as huge appreciations for Meredith Tutching, the director of the Forest of Reading.  


Friday, January 31, 2020 - 9:00 a.m.

Two OSLA-sponsored sessions began at 9:00 am and two others began and 9:50 am. Easing the High School to University/College Transition: Building Effective Programming to Bridge the Information Literacy Gap was presented by Sophie Bury, Samhita Gupta, Sarah Shujah, Christopher Tamasini, and Kate Johnson-McGregor. There was also Designing a Library Learning Commons Through an Equity Lens and Becoming an Equity Leader by Rabia Khokar. I am proud to tell people that Rabia was in my Library Part 1 AQ course with York University and in a short time has become an important figure in the school library community. I wished I was able to stay for longer than a few minutes at a time, especially at Rabia's talk. I always learn so much when I'm around her. However, I needed to ensure my other OSLA sessions were properly supported. Speaking of support, I was so pleased to see and meet Rabia's sister, who came to watch her presentation and support her sibling.
Great panel at Easing the HS to Coll/Uni Transition

It's a packed room for Rabia!

At 9:50 am, it was difficult to choose between sessions, even for the presenters! We had Make Writing: The Encore with Angela Stockman, Melanie Mulcaster, Pam Taylor and Amanda Williams-Yeagers and at the same time, there was Schools and Data Privacy, or Don't Let Dreams Turn Into Nightmares with Andrew Campbell. I really liked both but I couldn't stay, because there were two huge events that needed my attention.






Friday, January 31, 2020 - 10:45 a.m.

 We were so fortunate to have Shakil Choudhury as the OSLA School Libraries Spotlight session. Even the people from Thinglink who were hired to create the sketchnote based on his talk said they were captivated, as was Robert Nishimura, the OLA "photographer on assignment". Once again, thank goodness for the summary visual, because I was called out of the talk to deal with some last-minute logistical issues related to the other big event from Friday - the OSLA Sandbox. I really, REALLY wanted to stay and listen but duty calls. I even have to postpone getting one of Shakil's books for my principal (who registered for the conference but was unable to attend), but it will happen.

Friday, January 31, 2020 - 12:30 p.m.


The OSLA Sandbox is a huge experiment. It's an odd beast - 7 different presentations happening simultaneously in a Minds-On-Media-style set-up for two hours on the Expo Hall floor. There are a lot of moving parts to this portion that can be challenging to juggle. I want to thank Emily Burns and Jennifer Marriott for their patience with last-minute changes and alterations. I also want to thank Denise, Roland and Sonny for agreeing to be an addition to the program.


Even though we couldn't accommodate everyone's set-up requests, I feel like it was a successful second "kick at the can". We improved from last year - for instance, we had bigger, more visible signage advertising exactly what this was - and we still have room to improve even more. I also want to thank a teacher-librarian from TDSB who really gave me an "AHA" moment. She said that she couldn't afford to purchase a day's admission to the conference, but she was able to buy a pass to the Expo Hall and was looking forward to the Sandbox. It hit me - the OSLA Sandbox might be one of the few professional learning opportunities available to attendees who, for economic reasons, cannot experience #OLASC fully except through the Expo Hall. The Expo Hall is great - lots of authors to meet, tons of supportive vendors (with great swag), the Idea Hub, Poster Sessions and Gadget Zone, not to mention the Style Lounge - but having the Sandbox as part of the Expo instead of being on the main floor as a "session" means that we increase the learning opportunities.  








Overview of the OSLA Sandbox

Friday, January 31, 2020 - 2:00 p.m.

The final OSLA sponsored session was a great one: The A-Z of LGBTQ for K-12 by Robin Stevenson and Tom Ryan. Once again, I didn't get a chance to spend time listening to Robin and Tom because I had to help with dismantling the OSLA Sandbox. After all, Kate Wilson had a large audience waiting for her to present at S.T.E.M-ing Up Storytime immediately after her Sandbox time! (Sadly, I'm not even sure I got a photo of Tom and Robin - sorry!)

If you've been keeping track, you will notice that I haven't had lunch yet. This is where I made what I'd consider to be my biggest goof-up of the conference. Around 2:30 pm I checked with my mini-unicorn (the OSLA version of where we had to be and when) and I erroneously thought I had time to grab some lunch across the street. I thought we weren't due for our next duty until 3:45 pm - WRONG! All the conference planners were supposed to be in line ready to go on stage for 2:45 pm because the closing keynote was scheduled to begin at 3:00 pm. It was at 3:00 pm or 3:05 pm that Kate and I received a Slack notification asking us where we were. We ran like our shirt tails were on fire down to the massive room and flew to our seats just in time. (Emily, Zack, Elizabeth - I am SO SO sorry we were late!)

Friday, January 31, 2020 - 3:00 p.m.

This was the first and only keynote I was able to attend completely, and I am certainly glad I did. First of all, I got to see Fay and Fluffy received the OLA President's Award for Exceptional Achievement. Secondly, Choir! Choir! Choir! was amazing. I got to go on stage, not once (for Sweet Caroline) but twice (to capture the audience singing Don't Stop Believin'). I wish I had considered their song picks before I did my karaoke the night before!





Friday, January 31, 2020 - 5:30 p.m.

For many people, this signified the end of OLA SuperConference, but for OLBA (Ontario Library Boards of Ontario) and OSLA (Ontario School Library Association), this was just the beginning of another important chapter. For OLBA, it's OLBA Bootcamp, a chance for "representatives from public library boards across Ontario to share their perspectives". For people in OSLA, Friday night was our kick-off dinner, with awards presented and a celebrated keynote. 

There were 3 winners of the 2020 Angela Thacker Memorial Award:

Alison Bodner from Manitoba


Alanna King from Ontario


Sarah Wethered from British Columbia


And the Leading Learning Implementation Award went to Pembina Trails School Division in Winnipeg, Manitoba.


The three individual award winners were very gracious and clicked almost immediately upon meeting each other. (Below is a photo of the three of them.)



Big thanks should also go to Eric Walters. He was our opening keynote for Treasure Mountain Canada 6 and the entire room was both impressed and moved by his stories about undertaking big projects, phone calls in the car, mass mailings of autographed book marks (especially when the estimate of 20 participants turned into 150+!) and how educators make a difference in the lives of students.


(One more day of reflections coming up!)

MEMORABLE MOMENT: Singing with reckless abandonment with Choir! Choir! Choir! Days later, and I'm still humming the songs. (Thank you for teaching me harmony to Karma Chameleon!)
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Tuesday, February 4, 2020

OLA SC 2020 Day 2 Reflections

Day 2 of the conference was filled with important meetings, recognition, and talks.

Thursday, January 30, 2020 - 8:00 a.m.

No time is wasted at the Ontario Library Association Super Conference - even early morning times. My duties began with an appearance at the TALCO breakfast. TALCO stands for The Association of Library Consultants and Coordinators of Ontario (https://www.talcoontario.ca/). This is their AGM and the OSLA conference planners pop in to eat, send greetings on behalf of the OSLA/OLA and accept thanks for the conference. 

Thursday, January 30, 2020 - 9:00 a.m.

Farrah and Mona's Keynotes illustrated
This was the time for the Keynote: Mona Chalabi for the entire conference (not just one sector). Kate, my OSLA co-planner, and I were unable to attend because we had a very important meeting scheduled. Some representatives from Ontario's Ministry of Education were invited to the conference and came. Kate and I were asked to show them around the conference. I'm neither going to mention their names here nor share any photos of them, because I'd like to protect their privacy. I'd like to assure those of you that read my blog who work in schools that it was NOT the current Minister of Education that came - maybe he was too busy making disparaging remarks about the teachers' unions in press releases and on social media. Our three guests were very happy to have been included and were very engaged and curious. Kate and I showed them around, pointed out some of the great posters and displays (like the ones explaining the status of school libraries throughout the province based on region). I think and hope that the two of us did a good job of representing OSLA and OLA, by providing a balanced overview of the challenging issues facing the school library sector while still championing the great achievements. (If you were at the conference and were wondering why you weren't asked to meet them, please don't take it personally. We did not want to overwhelm our guests with a large contingent of tour guides.)


Thursday, January 30, 2020 - 10:45 a.m.

OSLIP project members speak
Our "official" tour with the Ministry of Education representatives ended when we brought them to attend the session called OSLIP One Year On: Update on the Ontario School Library Impact Project by Heather Buchansky, Dianne Oberg, Mary Cavanagh, Marc D'Avernas, Kate Johnson-McGregor, and Sarah Roberts. This ambitious project seeks to examine the impact that having a qualified school library professional in high school has on the information literacy levels of students as they move into post-secondary education. 


Erik and Mike
Another session occurring at the same time was Manga Academia - using Manga in the Classroom by Erik Ko and Mike Barltrop. I spent a lot longer lingering in this session than I had intended, partly because the speakers were just so passionate about the topic. I consider myself to be pretty knowledgeable about manga but I really admired how Mike and Erik showed how all the aspects of Ontario's language curriculum can be addressed using manga. The free teachers' guides were probably a tempting draw to those unfamiliar with the format but willing to try it with their students.

Thursday, January 30, 2020 - 1:00 p.m.

After grabbing some lunch from the food court across the street (Manchu Wok - yum!), many of us attended the Ontario Library Association Annual General Meeting. This had the potential of being tense. Last year, the OLA AGM was a stressful event that left many people feeling insulted, abused and abandoned. This year was different, thank goodness. Procedures were clearly understood and followed. The most contentious issue for the school library sector was returning to an amended by-law change. There was a by-law consultation committee struck with different representatives from the school library sector; they engaged with the I-Think model to come up with phrasing that satisfied all interested parties. (For more details, see https://tmcanada.blogspot.com/p/tmc6-whalley.html, Kasey Mallen Whalley's paper about the process.) Despite some concerns about the lack of the term "teacher-librarian" in the new wording, the new version of the by-law was passed. I have to say that it was a huge relief for me. It means that some of the rifts between teacher-librarians, library technicians, library clerks, MLIS librarians and others can begin to heal and we can move forward together.

Thursday, January 30, 2020 - 2:50 p.m.

Tracey asks if we should water rocks
This time period was a busy one for those interested in school libraries. There were three stellar sessions to choose from. There was Co-Teaching, Collaboration and Engagement for Learners by Heather Stoness, a Halton DSB teacher-librarian and the recipient of the 2020 OSLA Teacher-Librarian of the Year award. Simultaneously, there was Collaboration: From Aspirations to Reality by Tracey Donaldson, one of my fellow TDSB teacher-librarians. Then there was Marie Kondo Your School Library by Durham DSB teacher-librarian Isabelle Hobbs and Grand Erie DSB library technician Sara Haddow. I did my best to peek at all of them, while still helping the three presentations that were in queue for the next time slot. I was only able to get a brief taste of each of their talks, but I hope they'll put their slides up on the conference website, www.olasuperconference.ca, when they get a chance.

Introducing Isabelle and Sara

Jenn introduces Heather


Thursday, January 30, 2020 - 3:45 p.m.

There was a plethora of options in this time slot as well. There was Canadian-Sikh Heritage Resources by Ramandeep Sarai, Jillian Toombs, and Stephanie Cheung. Another option was Reading Aloud to Kids Big and Small by Rachel Seigel. For something different, there was Raising Your Voice in the School Library - a Chance to Chat, run by Jennifer Brown and members of the OSLA Council. I'm not sure if it was because it was near the end of the day, but there were a few snags that had to be dealt with - the technology was acting up for Ramandeep, Jillian and Stephanie at first, and the OSLA session was initially in a theatre-style room, which would have been disastrous for the type of conversations they hoped to encourage; Jenn arranged things and quickly moved to the room where the OSLA AGM was scheduled to occur, and all was well. 

Stephanie, Jillian, and Ramandeep share books

Thursday, January 30, 2020 - 5:30 p.m.

The last workshops of the day ended at 5:00 pm which meant a new frenzy of activity - preparing for the OSLA AGM and awards ceremony. This was extra important to me because we were trying something unusual - an interactive mosaic data wall. Questions were posted on fabric and the number of answers corresponded to the number of buttons sewed in a line. Participants took their string/thread and wound it around the buttons that matched their responses. My friend Peter from Dufferin-Peel DSB asked, as he was corralled into cutting lengths of thread for the task, "Wouldn't it have been easier just to do an online poll on your phone?" - it totally would have, but the purpose was to collaboratively create a piece of art that represented both our individuality as well as our commonalities. 

Walquieria, Alanna, Andrea and Dawn try out the wall

"I want to play it like music" said Shelly (with Lisa)

The winners of the various awards presented before the OSLA AGM were:
  • Stephen Hurley and VoicEd Radion, winner of the OLA Media and Communications Award
  • Heather Stoness from Halton DSB, winner of the OSLA Teacher-Librarian of the Year Award
  • Tim Pedersen from Peel DSB, winner of the OSLA Administrator of the Year Award
The speeches were lovely. Heather's was solid and straight-to-the-point. Tim's words made the audience cry (although technically Laura Badovinac got our waterworks started with her heartfelt introduction for Tim). Stephen's speech had people nodding their heads and laughing (as did Lisa Noble and Beth Lyons - thank you so much ladies for presenting the introduction, including the use of my costumes that Doug Peterson predicted). 




Usually we conduct the Annual General Meeting first, because most people are inclined to leave after the Awards Ceremony. However, we were asked by OLA to reverse the order because we needed the OLA photographer (and OLA Manager of Technology), Robert Nishimura time to take pictures of the OSLA Awards as well as the OCULA Awards and the Public Library Award Gala (that all happen around the same time). Well, that plan backfired because our speeches went so long, and there were so many great photo opportunities, that we made Robert late. Sorry! 



Tim advocated for abolishing scheduled book exchange periods and advocated for free flow access to the library - to paraphrase, "I was an avid reader and I needed to go to the library every day". He described how the library helped him during challenging moments of his life, and he ended his speech by reading part of a picture book, something he does with his staff at every staff meeting or school professional learning session.



Lisa Noble added an extra surprise to Stephen Hurley's award. She mentioned that one time, on "The Dock" (the Saturday evening call-in music program on VoicEd) that Stephen mentioned he could really use a scarf, and that blue was his favourite colour. Lisa secretly organized a group of VoicEd listeners / educators to collaboratively knit him a scarf that she put together and presented to him.



Thursday, January 30, 2020 - 8:00 p.m.

The day was not done! It was time for the all-conference socials. Last year, I supported the Games Night. This year, I supported Karaoke. Immediately upon arriving, I was grabbed by last year's OSLA conference co-chair, Alanna King, to do a group rendition (along with Lisa Noble and Kate Johnson-McGregor) of Natural Woman. I also sang Carrie Underwood's "Before He Cheats" on my own - and quickly realized that my soprano voice doesn't suit this alto song (but it always sounds good in the car).

This was a great event to get to know new people as well. I met Ardis Chedore from Cochrane (a real "karaoke librarian" and fabulous singer) as well as Nikki (the Manitoba School Library Association President), and Trish (who never sang karaoke before but braved it then), and Erica (who brought her 10 week old baby to the conference and like me decades before had a supportive mom to help out at the conference with baby duty) and a couple of other people that I had a wonderful time with but can't remember their names (like the Cinema Librarian at University of Toronto who shared a great story about pants vs trousers). 

Tanis taking (basketball) shots

Singing Meatloaf!

Trish takes photos

Erica, who sang well

How'd I miss getting the nametag?
Even with the intense socializing, I made it back to my room a little after 10:00 pm and went to bed a little after 11:00 pm. Stay tuned for Day 3 and 4 reflections!

MEMORABLE MOMENT: Watching the half-basked idea borrowed from MakerEd TO become reality and actually work. It was such a risk, and we nearly didn't do the interactive mosaic data wall, but I'm glad we tried it out.
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Monday, February 3, 2020

OLA SC 2020 Day 1 Reflections

I have so much to say and I don't know how to begin. How do I adequately summarize four days of incredible experiences gained from my time at the Ontario Library Association Super Conference?

I read some of  last year's reflections from last year and I'm going to quote myself:
It is traditional for me to write my reflections on my blog, summarizing sessions, highlighting key points and revealing my "so what" next steps. I don't think I can give my "report" in quite the same way for 2019. Experiencing the conference from the point of view of a planner, like some of my wonderful OSLA planners before me (Alanna King, Jess Longthorne, Sarah Oesch, Joel Krentz, Lauren Flattery, and many others) is a completely different experience. It is both more and less - more altruistic, less self-centered; more sessions to check in on and ensure things are going smoothly for all attendees, less workshops to personally attend for a significant length of time
So, I'm going to mimic the structure of last year's records and share my observations and discoveries. I'm also going to choose a "memorable moment", so I can explain why that particular memory was extra-significant.

Tuesday, January 28, 2020 - 3:50 p.m.

What's the fastest way to get all the way from the northern-most regions of Scarborough to downtown Toronto? I was determined to save OLA some money by not driving to the Metro Toronto Convention Centre this year and was going to drag my suitcase on the TTC, until my brilliant administrator, Matthew, suggested getting a lift to the GO train station near our school. Thank you Fiona for driving me! It was a fast, relaxed, roomy ride and a short walk to the hotel. I arrived with enough time to check in to the Intercontinental Hotel, set up my space, and attend our all-conference planners meeting.

Selfie in the spacious suite!

Tuesday, January 28, 2020 - 5:00 p.m.

It's pretty impressive to have all 25 members of the planning committee together in one room, all "vested" up. The red vests are very symbolic. I know of former planners who smuggled out their vest to keep as a memento of their Super Conference time with the team. It is visually unifying but also demanding (because wearing the vest signals to others that we know things and are the people to ask - we are in demand and on duty and we represent the organization through our actions and inaction). We got a run-down of things to expect and anticipated challenges from Zac, Elizabeth and Emily. We ate pizza for dinner and toured the space. 

The 2020 OLA SuperConference Team

Tuesday, January 28, 2020 - 7:30 p.m.

OLA SuperConference is legendary for the amount of parties and socials. This year was no different. It began with the Early Arrivals reception. The Super Conference feels like a reunion at times; it's an opportunity to see other school library professionals from across the province that you wouldn't see otherwise. I chatted with Amanda Caputo (OHLA planner) about her new house, Dawn Telfer (TL in TVDSB) about her new OSLA responsibilities, and many other friends and colleagues. Kate Johnson-McGregor, my OSLA co-planner this year, and I departed for our hotel room so we could review the "mini-unicorn" (which is the name for our detailed planning document outlining what's going on, who we need to take care of and where we have to be for the whole conference). We determined our supervision duties, sharing the load. After talking with Kate, I dropped by Jennifer Brown's hotel room to return some posters I borrowed and also touch base about the days ahead. Jennifer Brown is the 2019 OSLA President, and a wonderful friend and human being. A 5-minute visit went a lot longer but eventually I made it back to my own room to do some preparatory readings and then fell into a fitful sleep.


Wednesday, January 29, 2020 - 6:45 a.m.

The early bird catches the worm, or in my case, gets a really good breakfast! It's important to attend to your biological needs, which can be ignored in the hustle-bustle of all the jobs that need doing at SuperConference. I made arrangements with Lindsay Gibb and Kate Johnson-McGregor to eat at one of my favourite breakfast restaurants, Over Easy. Even the walk was beneficial - the cold outside air was invigorating. 

Wednesday, January 29, 2020 - 9:00 a.m.

Tina, Jane, Beth
The first day of the conference is always very busy first thing in the morning. People arrive needing badges, bags and directions. I spent a bit of time at the Express Badge area distributing resources and replenishing supplies when they became low. (No job should ever be too "menial" for a planner to undertake.) I also made a promise to appear at 9:15 am on the VoicEd Radio show, "This Week In Ontario Edublogs" with Doug Peterson and Stephen Hurley. This meant that I couldn't spend time at some sessions I hoped to visit extensively. There were two wonderful presentations around this time that I was only able to briefly support: Snap, Spark, Provoke: Exploring Identity and Text with Provocations and Photography by Beth Lyons, Tina Zita, and Jane Dennis-Moore absolutely wowed attendees with the quality and quantity of items shared and presented. They even had their own hashtag - #olaSnapSpark - and the artifacts that came out of that session were amazing. I consoled myself by remembering that I'd be able to hear Jane's shortened version of the presentation at Treasure Mountain Canada later in the week.



The other 9:00 am session under our care was Primary Source Primer for Libraries and Archives by Jennifer Hoyer, Allison Little, and David Sprague.

We were so grateful to have Stephen Hurley and VoicEd Radio with us at the conference. Last year, we chose certain workshops for Stephen to attend and record. This year, we tried something different based on his suggestion. He created a mini-studio right near the registration desk and invited all sorts of people to come and have a 10-15 minute conversation with him. This new format was much more inclusive, spontaneous, and less logistically complicated (as we didn't have to arrange media releases and permissions in advance; sitting down at the microphone indicated consent).
The unfortunate part was that the live radio broadcast I participated in with Doug and Stephen (TWIOE live at OLA SC) was filled with technological difficulties. We started and restarted about four times. Sometimes our voices echoed with excessive reverberations, sometimes we couldn't hear Doug, and even after we thought things were sorted out, it turned out that Doug, Stephen and I could hear each other but Doug's portion of the show was completely silent and lost to anyone else listening. It was unfortunate, especially because there was some great discussion about the different blogs Doug chose to focus on this week. However, what I gained from the experience was Stephen's superpower of positivity. (This topic was actually part of the radio talk. My superpower, in case you were wondering, I consider to be the ability to charm.) Despite the setbacks, he was calm and cool. Even as he juggled the equipment, the Twitter feed, and technical problem solving, he comforted me and my anxiety about the malfunctions. All the other VoicEd Radio sessions were problem-free and very successful. Stephen told me that usually at a two-day conference, he records about 20 chats. At OLA SuperConference 2020, Stephen recorded 38 conversations!

Wednesday, January 29, 2020 - 10:30 a.m.

The next round of sessions included "Making Space" for Culturally Responsive Inquiry by Nancy Tucciarone and Maria Luisa Lebar. My responsibilities meant I couldn't stay there for long, but buzz was that it was an excellent session. 



Wednesday, January 29, 2020 - 11:20 a.m.

Rebecca and Lisa share some good book titles
There were a pair of great sessions in this time slot: Empowering Your Students to be Global Changemakers by Rebecca Hurley and Lisa Kao incorporated the UN Sustainable Goals in meaningful, age-appropriate ways. My friend, Lisa Noble, got a lot out of the talk. Intentional Cataloging for Inclusive Design in School Library Learning Commons came from Lorna Young, Andrea Sykes, Janice Hilber and Ann McGowan. Lorna, Andrea, Janice and Ann are from my school board, TDSB, so I made sure to snap a few photos of them in action. I was pleased to learn that Lorna, having worked in libraries for over 30 years, was presenting for the very first time! Kudos to Andrea Sykes for her unwavering support of these colleagues. 

Janice, Ann, and Lorna from TDSB

Wednesday, January 29, 2020 - 1:00 p.m.

Good news - I remembered to eat (and even to get food for Stephen Hurley, who was busy doing interviews). Bad news - I forgot to grab my receipt (an important part of invoicing expenses incurred during the conference). I'll consider it a "donation" to OLA. I planned to stay for the entire session - If I Had a Million Dollars (or $100): School Library Learning Commons Renovations and Refreshes by Richard Reid and Dawn Telfer. 
What stopped me? I got a request to touch base with one of our presenters. Turns out, it wasn't just any run-of-the-mill presenter; it was world-renowned author and educator Trevor McKenzie. Connecting with people is a top priority for Trevor - this is evident if you peruse his Twitter or Instagram accounts. Building relationships with individuals across the globe may be one of the secrets to Trevor's success and we spent some time getting to know each other and learning the "deeper stories".
Ruth, Kate, Trevor, and Diana after his session


Wednesday, January 29, 2020 - 2:30 p.m.

The dilemma is real. When there are not one or two but THREE fantastic sessions that you want to attend but they are all at the same time, what do you do? If you are me and you have many great friends around, you make arrangements so that you have a representative at each session, and then you promise to give a breakdown of exactly what happened. Friends of mine attended the Indigenous Spotlight: Dr. Debbie Reese talk. Since I was able to spend one-on-one time with Trevor, I had someone else soak up the message at Bringing Inquiry Mindset To Your School by Trevor McKenzie. I attended Equity in School Libraries: Using Inclusive Design to Deconstruct and Re-Design Your Library by Denise Cole.

Although, once again, I was unable to spend time from beginning to end in Denise's session, I was able to devote a good portion of the time to her talk.



I must say that I was shocked when the audience admitted that few had heard of Dr. Sims-Bishop before. I used Twitter as my way of capturing some of the main points from Denise's talk and I was appreciative of how she highlighted other scholars and colleagues.


Wednesday, January 29, 2020 - 4:00 p.m.

As I look back on the conference, there are times where I ask myself what I was doing at that moment. This is one of them. I was planning to attend the OLA Keynote: Farrah Khan but something pulled me away and for the life of me, I can't remember what that was. I think it might have been helping with the Opening Night Party set-up. (This is where I accidentally prevented someone from entering the party early and they were from the company financially sponsoring the gala - oops!) Thankfully, a "graphic facilitator" from Thinglink sketched a visual summary of the talk, so I was able to look at the overview sketchnote to get a sense of what I missed. After the keynote was the All-Conference Welcome Party. "Dream Here" is the theme of the conference, and we had cartoonists doing caricatures, people doing Tarot card readings, a DJ playing music, and lots of food and drink.

Wednesday, January 29, 2020 - 8:00 p.m.

Why did I think I'd be able to try and FaceTime into my Kindergarten AQ course during the conference? Technically, the conference planners are expected to "work" at the parties. Granted, the work involves socializing with the attendees, ensuring they have a good time. That's not particularly hard to do. What is hard is overbooking yourself. I missed the buzzing of my phone (which I had put to vibrate so it wouldn't interrupt the sessions I had to sneak in and out of) and was unable to connect with my course instructors. My night was far from over. I went out with a group of library friends (Christine, Lisa, Jenn, Kate, Joel, Gordon, Feather, and Michelle) to the Elephant and Castle for a late dinner. The group was cheerful, slightly boisterous, and exuberant. Thank you to Bill, our server, for being so patient and understanding.

At this venue, Lisa and Jenn were able to tell me more about Dr. Debbie Reese's talk. (I should mention at this point that I had the incredible honour and pleasure to speak briefly with Debbie myself. I met her in the Speakers Lounge, introduced myself, and offered to escort her to another Indigneous stream workshop she wanted to attend prior to hers. I tried not to be a fan-girl but I did tear up a bit when I thanked her for being so brave and courageous with her work. She told me that she was surprised the team had selected her to speak and initially encouraged them to choose someone from Canada. I told her that her work was so important and makes huge ripples up here and not just in the US. She gave me a short summary of what she had planned to talk about during her session. Later on, via my friend, I gave Dr. Reese one of the fabric fidget mazes I created.)


Dr. Reese's talk was challenging but compelling, and supported with plenty of evidence. She talked about three problematic Canadian authors who position themselves as Indigenous but should be examined much more carefully. (This is a tough one, because I have books in my library by one of these authors, and one was a guest author at a friend's school.) I'm going to be chewing on the words and ideas shared for quite a while. 

MEMORABLE MOMENT: My memorable moment from Day 1 (other than meeting Dr. Debbie Reese) was during the All-Conference Welcome Party. I was wearing various badges, including my ETFO ones. Karen McGrath, who was the past president of OPLA (Ontario Public Libraries Association), past president of OLA (2012) and former director of Niagara College Library and Bookstore Services, came up to me during the party. She pointed to my "Cuts Hurt Kids" button and said, "That's the only button I care about wearing this year." I immediately took it off my red vest and gave it to her, which she wore proudly for the rest of the conference. Thank you Karen; that kind of support means the world to me and to the educators in Ontario right now.
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Monday, January 27, 2020

What's in my Reading Pile?

Today's blog post needs to somewhat short and sweet. I've got to get ready for the OLA SuperConference. While I was packing for the conference this weekend, I debated about whether or not I should bring some reading materials. I gave myself a good shake and refrained from including any of the books I need/want to read. After all, it's a library conference; chances are that I'm going to be buying a lot of books there! (Shakil Choudhury's Deep Diversity and Dr. Debbie Reese's An Indigenous People's History of the United States for Young People are two contenders).

Here is just a brief list of the books that are on my "to be read" pile.

 We Got This: Equity, Access and the Quest to Be Who Our Students Need Us to Be
Cornelius Minor
(c) 2019

ISBN 978-0-325-09814-2

Why am I planning to read it?
Jennifer Casa-Todd, influencer extraordinaire, tagged me in a post about the ISTE Librarians Book Club. I like being part of book clubs (see the last one I did on White Fragility). I tried to source it locally, but I had to order it online.






How To Be An AntiRacist 
Ibram X Kendi
(c) 2019

ISBN 978-0-525-50928-8

Why am I planning to read it?
I was hoping to get into the Learning Forward book club that Noa Daniel was promoting. This is the chosen book so I bought it in advance. Sadly (or happily), there was huge interest in the club and I wasn't able to get into the focus group club. I've heard good things about it and want to read it.




The Inconvenient Indian: A Curious Account of Native People in North America
Thomas King
(c) 2012

ISBN 978-0-385-66422-6

Why am I planning to read it?
Well, actually I'm 84 pages in so far. Dean Roberts, a teacher at my school, lent it to me. I started to read it but then I had all my Forest of Reading books to finish first. My husband, while cleaning up after me (a sad but regular state of affairs in my house) said he peeked at it and was impressed with the quality of writing (which is high praise because he's very particular).




Winnie's Great War
Lindsay Mallick and Josh Greenhut
Art by Sophie Blackall
(c) 2018

ISBN 978-0-316-44712-6

Why am I planning to read it?
I'm on page 77 as of 10:20 pm on January 26, 2020 and I have to finish it soon. It's one of the few Forest of Reading books that I haven't yet read. (Technically, as the adult running the program in my school library, I am obligated to read all of the books.) A student lent me their class copy of the book so I could read it and be available for Forest of Reading chats at lunch. Some of the other titles I still need to read (once I *finally* get my hands on an elusive copy) are:

A Grain of Rice
Nhung Tran-Davies

 Stowaway
Pam Withers

ETA - I forgot to include a book I have that I borrowed from the public library!

The 36-Hour Day: A Family Guide to Caring for People Who Have Alzheimer Disease, Other Dementias, and Memory Loss
Nancy L. Mace
Peter V. Rabins
(c) 2017

ISBN 978-1-4214-2222-0

Why am I planning to read it?
My parents (and my mom in particular) have memory loss and it's becoming more pronounced. I need strategies to help them out.



It looks like I read a lot of non-fiction for fun, but this is actually quite unusual. Plus there's articles for Treasure Mountain Canada and my Kindergarten AQ course. I won't have time for reading this week but I've got lots to look forward to!





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Monday, January 20, 2020

Breaking Things Can Be Fun

Today (Monday, January 20, 2020) is the first day that TDSB elementary schools are on (rotating) strike. I'm not going to write about that here right now.

I have (at least) three things that are percolating in my head from last week. Believe it or not, the ideas/events can be united under the title of "breaking things".

1) Breaking Apart A Couch Can Be Very Informative

My last media/library unit was about authority. My current focus is on furniture. Initially I was sad to learn that my old leather couch and chair needed to be removed from the library. In 2017, the hard-working and helpful Dean Roberts helped me cart the couch to the school - it was one of three comfortable areas with cozy furniture for students to use, but by far the most popular due to its size, stuffing, and relative durability. I didn't want to get rid of the couch but the cloud had a silver lining - my admin has promised to fund a replacement AND another teacher had a brilliant idea that we were able to use.

Old Photo (2017) of couch and chair


After seeing our wonderful caretaking team hauling the old furniture out of the library, Grade 2 teacher Kerri Commisso said to me, (paraphrased) "You're studying furniture ... are you going to take the furniture apart? The students would be really interested to see what's inside and how it's made."

That was an AMAZING idea. Problem was, the caretakers had already removed the chair and couch from the library. It was already in the huge bin and the bin was slated to be taken away the next day. Thankfully, our caretakers are accommodating and very flexible. I asked Dave about the possibility of making a video of us cutting apart the chair in the bin. He talked to Michael, our new head caretaker, who agreed! They took time out of their busy schedules to come outside with me and allow themselves to be video taped as we cut open the bottom of the couch. The weather was miserable and the couch was big but they made the effort so that our students could learn more about how furniture is assembled. My STEAM classes seem to think that the best way to attach anything is with either tape or glue. This video demonstrates that tape and glue are rarely used when building something you want to keep together. I also discovered that there were a lot more things inside a couch than I realized!

Here is the video!



My next steps (after getting the students to finish their Goldilocks / 3 Bears drawings to match furniture to users, showing the above video and reading "A Chair For My Mother") are to do some research on what would be the characteristics of a good sofa for the library and shop online. (I originally had a plan to go to Ikea with the students to see about the messages that furniture can give to a room but the work-to-rule has paused that plan.)

2) Breaking Loose Parts Can Be Risky But Creative

On Wednesday, January 15, 2020, I attended my first session of my York University Additional Qualification course. It's Kindergarten (part 1 for me) and it looks like it will be a lot of fun. One of the things our instructors, Gail and Kenisha, did during the first in-person class was to set out several provocations and allow us to interact with the objects, play and explore.

I don't *mean* to be troublesome, but as a learner I can be a bit unconventional. I thought about C, who wrote all over my library shelves with crayon. I thought about R, who tried to take ALL the trains for himself. I thought about E, who had to be sent back to the library to return the toys smuggled out in pockets. So, I grabbed as many things as I wanted to examine and I hid in the play structure to explore them at my leisure without having to share. (More on the play structure later.) There were tiles that you could write on with black marker, and it looks quite striking. I decided to try and use the black marker on other things I had collected. I drew on mini-tiles. I drew on big jewels. I drew on feathers. I didn't draw on the wood because I knew for certain that it wouldn't come out and I didn't want my instructors to despise me on the first day. I peeked briefly at what others were doing (and I wish I took a picture of the beautiful mannequin that someone else clothed and then stacked mini-tiles in their hands) but mostly stayed in my tent-like enclosure. I  overheard conversations about explaining to students how they could draw on mirrors at school but not at home, but I didn't partake in the talk. When it was time to tidy up, I thought I better start cleaning all the marker I had put on the loose parts. Big tile? No problem. Jewels? Uh-oh. I used the "mommy trick" of applying saliva, but that wasn't working. Thank goodness, hand sanitizer seemed to work, but not until I had spit all over the jewels I had borrowed. I asked if they still wanted the jewels back, and they did. When my principal asked me the next morning how the course went, I don't think he expected me to say "Well, I licked some of their jewels ..."

Here's the photo of what I made in the tent.



3) Breaking Rules About Centres and Limits Can Be Scary but Liberating

There's lots of room for play in my library space. I try to introduce new objects so that it's not boring and that different items can circulate. I knew that Mr. Tong's class were working in their regular program with the straws and connectors because they were studying shapes and solids in math so early last week, I thought it would be apropos to bring out the play structure I had bought with book fair funds. Together, we looked at the instructions and assembled the house tent. This was very exciting to the students but caused a new problem - everyone wanted to play in the house. I "solved the problem" by declaring that we could only have 4 students in the tent at a time, and for the first little while, they could only remain in the tent for a minute at a time, so that everyone could have a chance inside. I even had a timer so that it would be "fair".

This solution worked, but it didn't feel good. I talked with one of my new York University Kindergarten AQ instructors about it. She asked about the purpose of bringing out the house in the first place (which I was able to justify; I think she might have been concerned about the reduction in free expression because it was a pre-made kit with a set end result) and then suggested some questions that would allow the problem solving to be student-centered. (Her phrases were so good that I wrote them down verbatim.)

Let's think of a way where everyone has a chance to be a part of this learning experience.
This was much more invitational and positive than the "How many students should be at the house centre?" or "How long should students get to play here?" I was worried about overcrowding, but once again, there was a student-centered question that demonstrated the belief that children are competent and capable.

If there are a lot of us in the space, what might happen?
I liked the approach but I still worried about those super-shy students who might not get an opportunity to use the tent. She suggested that when students were dispersing for centre time that I ask the quiet students:

Where do you want to go?
so that they could claim the house area before the more assertive students took the spot. While talking to Gail, it inspired me to bring out more fabric and rods/connectors so that students could experiment with building their own tent / house / structure. 

I tried out the suggestions. It didn't work as smoothly - I had already "poisoned the water" so to speak with my pre-made rules. I took off the sticky note with the centre guidelines. I told one of the kindergarten classes that even though it said "4 people" before, it was up to them to decide what was safe (and I had the SNA watch the group carefully). More students were in there but they stayed in longer and exercised their creativity muscles much more than if they only had a minute to explore.

4) Breaking Down Large Atrocities into Individual Stories and Concrete Objects Can Encourage Curiosity and Empathy

I remember my Grade 12 and OAC English teacher, Mr. Sturm, telling us a story about a particular Jewish family and the horrible way one of them died. His point was "6 million people killed in the Holocaust is a big, unfathomable number. Knowing the personal story of one family makes it much more real."

As part of Jewish Heritage Month (and thanks to Indigo and Second Story Press), every Grade 6 student in the Toronto District School Board received their own personal copy of the famous book Hana's Suitcase. My principal encouraged me to ensure that the book had meaning for the students. He didn't want the students to get the book without any sense of what it meant. When my principal was a teacher-librarian, he brought in an actual suitcase for the students to examine and consider. We were provided a teacher's guide to the book, with links to the related film, but I wanted something quicker to capture their interest. I devised a short lesson that, it turns out, packed a punch.


I distributed this to groups of four. Without any explanation, I asked them to look at it and to answer the following:

  • What do you notice?
  • What do you wonder?
Students were curious. I took photos of one class and recorded comments from the other class because they were both so engaged and focus (but left my paper at school, so the comments are just from memory). They noticed that it was some sort of list, and in a different language. They noticed the writing all over the list, with check marks and a single name encased in a rectangle. They wondered if this was from a residential school. They wondered how the similar names (if they were names) were related. When they were told that the check marks indicated that those people were eliminated/murdered, they were shocked into silence. How were they killed? What happened to Georg Brady, the only name on the list without a check mark? When they were gifted with their books, students immediately opened the books and started to read. 

"I found the list!" exclaimed a student, his nose buried in the book.
"Hana, her name was on the list", said a second student.
"Hana was George's sister!" declared another student. 




5) Breaking Down Huge Concepts into Doable Definitions Is Worth the Time

Wednesday, January 15, 2020 was also the second part of our critical thinking workshop. Brenda Kim, dedicated Grade 4/5 teacher, and I really struggled with how to get the group to understand some pretty sophisticated concepts and use some critical thinking to make reasoned judgements. Brenda did a lot of the heavy lifting with lessons done in her classroom during social studies time to understand the word "effective" and have enough background knowledge on government and environmental issues. At the second day workshop, I asked Francine about how many terms can be introduced at one time and how to do it in a less-boring way. Francine gave different suggestions. The next day, Brenda and I attempted to finalize our work with the students on their social studies critical thinking question. They read articles, picked the 15 most significant words from the article, and then decided the most compelling argument. Never presume students know what you mean when you use certain words - the previous week, the Grade 4s and I had to review what "public transit" meant because there were some misunderstandings. In this lesson, we had to define significant and compelling. There's only so many times you can look up a word in the dictionary before it starts to get boring, so I tried something weird - I asked the students to define "significant" with their bodies.

Guess what? They ROCKED it! Two volunteers bravely offered their kinesthetic interpretations and they were magnificent. These were their "body definitions" of "significant".




So I broke a lot of things this past week, but all for a good cause - learning!



 
 






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