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Showing posts from October, 2020

Gaining Perspective

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Literacy and Internet Access in Developing Countries I loved this week’s assignment. It got me thinking about things other than what is currently going on around me. Teachers are running at full capacity. Homeroom classes are now split into two rooms and the teacher is going back and forth between them. He or she is also teaching students remotely providing 90 minutes of face to face learning time per day. It is definitely a very interesting time to be a teacher! I am truly overwhelmed by the dedication of staff to meet the needs of the students. Room To Read I find that thinking of others during hard times can be a good way of gaining perspective. My research led me to learning about John Wood, a former executive from Microsoft and Room to Read, an international literacy nonprofit organization. In a nutshell, I love what Room to Read is doing. “It builds bilingual libraries, schools, and computer labs in developing countries. The organization also collects donations of English-langu...

Responding, evolving and still laughing!

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FYI: this blog post has lots of memes to keep us laughing during stressful times!  I have decided to be very upfront and honest when answering this week’s assignment questions as I want to think about strategies that will help the staff in our current situation. I’m not quite ready to dream about what I could be doing ICT-wise in a non-COVID situation. How can we, as educators and Teacher-Librarians share what we’ve learned with our wider communities of practices?  How can we best respond to the needs of our staff, in their wide spectrum of abilities and experiences, with the most appropriate and useful professional development? What tools and strategies are best implemented to meet the professional development of staff?  How can we evolve and adapt this practice to be more responsive to the personalized needs of the educators, staff, admin, parents, and other members of our educational community? Winnipeg schools are now moving to Code Orange which means that parents hav...

Connectors make connections in a connected world

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 I must admit that I had a little trouble thinking of how I could answer this week’s assignment questions. After a quick google search, where I literally typed “strategies for networking”, I found an article not at all related to education but gave me a great starting point. Here are my 3 takeaway strategies from a BDC article entitled “6 strategies to improve your business networking skills”: 1. Make a plan Image taken from City of New Westminster  “At the beginning of the year, when working on their business plan, entrepreneurs should also look at their networking strategy and answer questions such as: Who do I want to meet on a regular basis? Who do I want to do business with this year? At the end of the year, assess how you did in meeting your goals and how relationships with people in your network helped your business.” ("6 ways to improve your business networking skills", 2020). This reminds me of the school plans that teachers make at the beginning of a school ye...

Fostering a Reading Culture at School

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  #1  Parti cipate  in b ook clubs such as  MYRCA  (Manitoba Young Readers Choice Awards).   This is a great  book  club that promotes Canadian literature  and is heavily  encouraged  by school and city libraries. Students in grades 4-8 read from a list  chosen by a committee.  In years past, students would meet a couple of times a week in the library  for reading time, discussion or activities.  At the end of the year, the students vote for their favorite book. I’ve usually  done an Oscar-themed party, red carpet and all, where the academy  (the MYRCA book club students), choose s   the school award  winner . Each student is assigned to be a book’s representative and writes an acceptance speech  from the book’s perspective.   The  winner  accepts the award  and makes his or her speech .  Occasionally, tears are  shed,  and s nacks always follow.  ...