Seven years ago I worked in a high school, I left to work in a primary school and discovered my passion for working as a TL. After 7 years in this primary school, and having spent almost four years in their library, I decided to move to a high school library. I returned to the same high school I worked previously – a coming home.
One of the first things I noticed was how far the library, Resource Centre, had come in the time I was away. It really has become a hub where new meets old, traditional teaching and learning has morphed with new dynamic practices. All of which is to improve literacy and I believe providing opportunities for real time practice of transliteracy.
he Learning Management System, Canvas, is fully integrated and utilised. With students accessing, discussing and submitting class and assessment work. Teachers are communicating, presenting, and marking work online. Students and teachers have access to Turnitin to support teaching and learning. Students and teachers are becoming more proficient with Google Suite and in some case OneDrive. This adoption of these platforms provide an immersive use of platforms, which as the students progress through the years are becoming more proficient.
In the Resource Centre we manage and support staff and students in using these platforms, in collaboration with the IT Coordinator. It is vital that we have great collaborative relationships with all departments to ensure that we are providing current and relevant resources to support teaching and learning (obviously :P). We are also continuously looking for opportunities to engage and challenge our students with areas with the services we provide. This includes, a MakerSpace (run by the STEM department but located in the Resource Centre), BreakoutEdu, and other digital resources
We have introduced BreakoutEdu into the curriculum with huge success. BreakoutEdu is an educational escape room style teaching resource. All activities are curriculum based and students need to collaborate, communicate, draw on their knowledge and problem solve in order to solve riddles, clues and create to unlock a series of locks. They are often asked to navigate through web links, through QR codes, to find information to assist them. There are also digital breakouts as well as a part of the subscription, which can provide data for teachers if they choose to use as an assessment.
We have several textbooks available to staff and students where the teacher, and event he students, can access 24/7. While this access is great, the features available is what makes it great. Everyone is able to add notes, highlight, share other resources or links they have found with the textbook, for everyone to access. This is still fairly new I am really excited to see where we can take it, at the moment students are preferring the physical books, however, I believe that the more they are used as a tool to support transliteracy the more proficient staff and students will become.
Something that we have also recently implemented in LearnPath to our Library Management System, Oliver. LearnPath allows the library staff to bring like resources: books; websites; clickview; and so on, onto a dedicated page within Oliver for staff, students and parents can access to support all areas of teaching, learning and recreational endeavours. It’s still early days but it‘s simply AMAZING!
There is so much more within our library services and the potential for even more. We have VR available for classes to interact with the world in and immersive way. Staff and students have access to ebooks and audiobooks. I am excited to introduce staff and students to the Goodreads platform this year to support the reading culture in our school.
It’s hard to pinpoint what could be done better, as nothing is perfect nor permanent. However, being on top of what is current, relevant and beneficial to our school community is high on the list to ensure we provide best practice in service and resource management. As a library team we are researching, testing, sharing and collaborating with staff and students to understand their needs and pedagogies so that we can improve with them, and in some cases be one step ahead. The challenge is to be able to maintain the support of executive to have the time, and budget, to sift through the plethora of what is available in this digital climate to find the best.
My school and library have really brought the traditional and new pedagogies together to support the skills required to improve the transliteracy skills of our staff and students. There is so much growth and change in the last year, since I have been in the Resource Centre, and even more in the last seven years in my absence. I am excited to see where we go to from here. The library team works smarter to provide as many opportunities for teaching, learning, literacy and now transliteracy to the whole school community.