Mme Bevan

Well I turned 40 today, or as a good friend said, it's the 20th anniversary of my 20th birthday.  Rather than post my top 40 reflections on theme 2, I decided to test out a web maker for this blog post. Click on the following  mindmup  for my big take-aways from this theme.  Image thumbnail In some parts of the country, the 3rd Monday of February is known as Family Day. In Manitoba, we celebrate the life and legacy of Louis Riel. This can be a challenging theme for French Immersion TL's. Finding appropriate French reference sources for a topic that is unique to Manitoba requires definite knowledge of the curriculum and an understanding of the needs of the students and teachers.  Resource-based teaching is successful when students are engaged in a meaningful use of a wide-range of resources. I created this Padlet as a way to showcase the online resources offered by the division.  How will I know that the suggested resources were effective? In addition ...

  My Big Take-Aways from Theme 1 Source   Teacher-Librarians wear many hats, including that of “information specialist”.  “An information professional or information specialist is someone who collects, records, organizes, stores, preserves, retrieves, and disseminates printed or digital information. The service delivered to the client is known as an information service.” (Greer, 12). In the above list of duties of the information specialist, there is no mention of “providing the answers to the questions”.  Source This may come as a shock to some of my clients (middle years students) who are looking for a quick answer to their research question.  My usual response is, “the answer lies within”, (use of theatrical voice and dramatic pointing to resource is necessary for full effect).  Although no doubt an Oscar-worthy performance, I need to consider the following: Students are developing their basic and more specifically, information literacy skills. Click ...

My Final Vision Project  sd8.bc.ca Create something to help students choose a French book and foster a French reading culture Why do students need help choosing a French book? Katherine A. McClellan sums up my experience perfectly in an excerpt from her master’s thesis. I completed my schooling in French immersion, and as a child, I too was very resistant to reading in French. I remember discussing with my friends that French books were bad, making such broad statements as “I don’t like reading in French.” Looking back, I’m not sure it was necessarily that I didn’t like reading in the French language, but more that I wasn’t finding books that peaked my interest that were written in French. (MCCLELLAN, 2009) How do you foster a French reading culture when the library is closed? To answer this question, I’m going back to my previous post and to my beliefs about fostering a French reading culture.  The key to get students to “buy into” reading in French is all about peaking t...

Learner Considerations  Image: pinterest.com Reality Check The more that I thought about the strategies used to teach students how to pick a good fit book in French, the more I realized that I was on the wrong path. In grades 5 to 8, they can pick a good fit book, they just don’t want to. Image: learningtech.com Observations When normal access to the library is happening, students can borrow up to 4 books, but one must be in French. Here is what I typically see when students are picking a French book. About a third of a classroom will pick a French book right away. Their love for reading is obvious and do not face any challenges. For those without that burning love of reading in French, they will: Choose a book that is way too simple Gravitate to a book that they’ve already read Grab the closest French book and head for the door Try to sneak out without a French book Literature Kathleen McClellan 's Master thesis exactly confirmed my observations. The literature on...

Fostering a Reading Culture in French for Grades 5 to 8 My initial idea was to come up with an infographic to help students choose a good fit book in French. Upon reflection, I realized that most students in grades 5 to 8 can choose a good fit book, they just don’t want to read it. Why is it so hard to get kids in to “buy into” reading in French? Before I can get to the heart of the idea, I want to address a few obstacles that are unique to a French Immersion school. 1. There is less choice when book buying.  Image courtesy of nbforum.com We have few options for buying French books.  We can buy Quebec published materials. While it is great that they are Canadian, the vocabulary is almost always too challenging for our students who are learning a second language.  We can buy books published in France, but we encounter the same problem. Cost is usually a deciding factor.  We can buy books translated from English to French. Scholastic  translates almost all ...

What are your key takeaways, learning and direction after all this exploration? Image taken from callcenterhelper.com Listen My key takeaway from this exploration is that the role of the teacher-librarian is ever-evolving but that collaboration with staff and students is at its core. What are the needs of the staff and students during this time? How can I support their literacy programs and respond to questions and concerns? Staff room impromptu conversations often generate a lot of ideas! I am trying to get away from using email to update staff. I think we all have email fatigue now. Maybe I could try using Teams? Or I recently heard about  Slack  which is an online collaboration tool. Something to explore!   What are the new avenues for development in your personal and professional practice? Image taken from inc.com Think outside the library ·        virtual read alouds – especially in French – I had an idea that a teacher could rea...