LOL Librarian

Process is important and a key component of inquiry learning. I realized that in the library I could be looking at highlighting the research process differently. In a team meeting with our Grade 4 teachers, Ben ( @bgrundy ) asked if I could do something more hands-on to emphasis to kids the difference between search engines and websites. They were finding that students were citing 'Google' as their source of information since Google now provides a larger summary blurb when searching some key terms, so instead of visiting the web page the students only took notes from the summary blurb. Throughout the discussion, Tina ( @CMMorton ) shared that she uses the metaphor of a taxi to represent search engines. This metaphor mixed perfectly with the metaphor I had been using for the kids for the concept of the internet being a place that is a map that requires an address to reach the correct place. Building on this metaphor, I sought resources from our generous kindergarten team w...

Starting a new year and getting back into the swing of school means I was cruising through my drive in an effort to clean up the tomb. The benefits of doing this, is stumbling across documents you've forgotten and that were shared with you. This is a chance to breath new life into them.  My former colleague, Nadine Bailey  was the first one to introduce me to Hyperdocs as a tool to deepen comprehension and analyze text. Hyperdocs were developed by Lisa Highfill , Kelly Hilton  and Sarah Landis  and they discuss them through the lens of being a change agent, teachers can use this versatile tool for almost any subject and more importantly have their students make connections using different media, through videos, pictures, etc. I strongly encourage you to check out their site  https://hyperdocs.co . For guided reading, hyperdocs are a fantastic tool to deepen comprehension and analysis skills since students are working with the  text  in a meaningf...

" “Mother Tongue language” isn’t about a day in a year, it’s about a lifetime of language.  " - Eowyn Crisfield As a part of our United Nations Week, I began a read-aloud program inviting parents to read aloud in their mother tongue to our student. This is my third year running the program which I do twice a year, once during UN Week and again during our Book Week.  Being an educator and having a love of teaching reading, I know the value of maintaining a students mother tongue. It is the foundation for a child's literacy learning journey. The structure is fairly casual and simple, students are invited to listen to a story read by a parent during their recess. Teachers are sent a schedule of which languages will be featured during morning and afternoon recess, and they share it with their students.  I used a google form to invite parents to read about 2 weeks before the event and then a week before I set up a schedule, send confirmation emails and ensure there's ...