The Library is My Happy Place

My initial inquiry into resources related to information literacy led me to an article by Copeland and Jacobs in the journal Teacher Librarian entitled, "The power of collaboration between school librarian and classroom teacher". This article describes a successful collaborative relationship where a teacher librarian and classroom teacher taught students research skills to elementary school students. Copeland and Jacobs write, "the school librarian and teacher planned the unit together, determining student goals related to social studies content, information literacy skills, and communicator/collaborator skills." (Copeland & Jacobs, 2017, p 23). One reason this article is an excellent source is that it lists challenges that teachers may face when considering collaboration and offers possible solutions. As I'd had success finding articles on my chosen topic of information literacy in the journal Teacher Librarian, I narrowed my search within the L...

I am old enough to clearly remember using a card catalog when working on research projects. Library research has changed dramatically since I was in elementary school. Back in the 80s, when flipping through the cards in the catalog, the only books I would have seen would have been library books that had been selected by a trained librarian. Nowadays, students searching on the internet are likely to be overwhelmed with resources of varying quality and reliability. A trained teacher librarian can teach information literacy skills that will help students find what they need and assess the information they discover. I have spent time studying this topic in previous courses (see my symbaloo webmix on digital literacy created a year ago), but I feel that it is a vital topic that is worth revisiting.  UBC Library By searching for information literacy on the UBC Library website, I was overloaded with over 350,000 journal articles, nearly 325,000 newspaper articles, 125,00...

Quote from http://www.doug-johnson.com/dougwri/collaboration-and-reflection.html Image created in Wordswag app by Holly Broadland Collaboration It is widely acknowledged that there are huge benefits to collaboration in school libraries. The Canadian Library Association's Leading Learning document states, "The library learning commons plays a key role in cultivating and facilitating collaboration to provide rich experiential learning opportunities. It provides not only a physical space to develop skills and engage learners, but is also a portal to virtual connections, both local and global. It is important to acknowledge the diverse needs and contributions of all players within the school learning commons community, both in terms of resource formats and access to information and collaboration opportunities." (Canadian Library Association, 2004). My current position is as a classroom teacher in a primary class. Unfortunately, I am not able to collaborate wit...

For my Module six learning curation, I started a Symbaloo account and created my first webmix . I started with the MediaSmarts website and the resources found in module six and branched out from there. I curated twenty-five links and categorized them into Images, Videos, Websites, Lesson Plans, Articles & Blog Posts, Books, Workshops, and Tools. I found the Symbaloo platform easy to use and I enjoy the visual element of the webmix. It reminds me of Pinterest, which I use frequently. I liked the fact that I was able to upload a photo of my choice for each tile and I tried to use the logos from the websites that I found or screenshots from videos. I have been interested in the topic of media literacy for years, so I added links to "Made You Look", a revised version of a Canadian book about advertising. I also remembered a Vancouver-based organization called Check Your Head and linked to two of their workshops on media literacy and gender in advertising. I feel that I...