Monthly Archives: May 2019

Information literacy, education and elections

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It is evident that literacy is an important skill for navigating life’s journey.  From a rudimentary age, reading and writing are methods in which people, including children learn to communicate their thoughts and ideas.  Naturally, oral communication is the first skill a child learns.  Why?  Well from personal experience and basic understanding of anthropology (I like the TV show Bones) …. I have learned that children are all masters of oral literacy.  Well, all my children were adept at saying “NO!” before they were toilet trained.  But aside from that unnecessary anecdotal story, literacy is more than just being able to read and write.

ACARA has clearly defined literacy as “Literacy involves students listening to, reading, viewing, speaking, writing and creating oral, print, visual and digital texts, and using and modifying language for different purposes in a range of contexts”.  Literacy is no longer just the domains of text.  It is a domain of skills.

In previous years, information literacy was sometimes known as information skills and or digital literacy.  But that shortened the scope of the term to just the mechanics of it rather than including associated behaviours and attitudes.

Some could argue that information literacy is restricted to the domain of academia and that the average person has no need of it.  Well after the debacle of yesterday’s election I can clearly say that the information literacy is sadly missing in Australian adults.

  1. Information literate individuals would realise that 70% of popular Australian media is owned by the same organisation that funds one of the political parties.
  2. Information literate individuals would also realise when there is bias
  3. Information literate individuals would realise that there is misinformation and how to identify it.

But we don’t live in an information literate world.  Information literacy is a life skill that everyone needs.  Otherwise, we doom ourselves, our nation and our future outcomes.

 

#note – I have very strong political leanings and I am not apologising for them.

 

 

Its more than just a place for books. Its a place of safety.

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eslfuntaiwan / Pixabay

Lunchtime in`my school library is always an interesting event.  We have 1500 students from years 7-12 on a single co-educational campus.  On some days, we would easily see 500-600 bodies wander through our doors.  Most lunchtimes we average about 120-150 students per day but on busy days, the numbers peak at around 220 during the lunch rush.  We obviously host various members of the whole school community but the main people that find joy in the library include, our senior students; lunchtime minecrafters, gamers and social misfits.  

Our library is a haven for many of our students.  They seem to find refuge within our walls. Our biggest clientele are our seniors; who have the freedom to wander to the local shops, cafes and parklands but somehow prefer to be sprawled across the beanbags retellíng fart jokes (or worse) or playing Uno or Chess in their study area.  I’d like to say they were coming as they love my company, but I’d be lying.  What they do love is our temperature controlled climate, our beanbag zone and free wifi.  Whilst some of our seniors do study in their frees/study lines; most of them tend to play on their phones and or watch videos on their devices.  We used to rouse on them… reminding them that study lines were for study. But then we realised that the reasons our seniors visited us was that they felt safe and happy here; and not because they wanted to use the resources.  For these students – the library was a source of wellbeing.

AdultsOnlyMinecraft / Pixabay

Another demographic that truly enjoys the library are our little minecrafters.  These little year 7 & 8 boys (mostly, with the odd girl) race to the library before school, recess and lunchtime EVERYDAY to play minecraft.  They get so excited when they line up outside our cyber room. I tend to walk VERRRYYY slowly up to them drawling my Hellos and social chatter.  Their impatience is palpable. You can see their little shoulders rising and hands itching to log on.   So I stop, ask them about their day, query the state of the weather or some small talk; only to have one of them finally ask;

 

“Miss!  Can you please just open the door and then talk?”.  

 

“OF COURSE boys!! Silly me… just jabbering on like a turkey on thanksgiving.  Have… “

 

“Miss!! The door!!”

 

Then I open the door and in whoooooooooooooooosh go all the boys (and odd girl).  They speedily log on and start to build stuff and kill each other (online only) in Minecraft  world.  The happiness in that room is patently visible and a better beacon of hope than any Patronus that Harry could ever make.  

 

I have a very astute department head that saw a need for a wellbeing space within our school and set up a section of the library to fill the emotional buckets of our students.  We currently own about 10 different types of board games, 10 packs of uno cards and another 10 packs of playing cards. Well we start every semester with those numbers…. They do get lost, misplaced… go on walkabout, etc … BUT, our games are so popular that they fly off the shelves as the kids bolt in at the start of lunch.  The seniors tend to take most or all the UNO cards, till I discovered some year 8 girls were hiding sets under a shelving unit between lunch breaks to get ahead.

SNAP!     422737 / Pixabay

 

SHHEESSH that was sneaky… admirable.. Yet sneaky… well done girls!  

 

 

 

Our board games range from the classics such as battleship, scrabble and chess to other games like dungeons and dragons, connect 4 and backgammon.  We have now added a puzzle corner (a 5000 piece work in process, that i think may amuse the staff more than the students) and a box of lego for our sensory kids.  

As I sat at my desk last Friday afternoon after school, I watched my usual suspects lounge around the beanbags.  A great sense of protectiveness rose from me about their welfare. I know Tom# is having a rough time at school as he has argued with his mates.  I know James# is exhausted from footy training 3x week and is barely keeping up at school (he naps in the cushions most afternoons and I have to wake him up when I close the library up). I know Alice# is unhappy about having to move interstate next semester; Ethan# is angry that he didn’t get picked for the football team; Sophie# broke up with the boyfriend; Andrew’s# anti depressants are wearing off; and Gina# is not getting along with her mum.  I also know that Steve# drinks too many energy drinks and Miki# has fallen in love with another idiot boyfriend.

sweetlouise / Pixabay

For some of our students, the library staff are the ones that see them the most frequently.  I know with my usual crew, I see them before school, recess, lunch and after school. Then you can add the number of free periods they spend in the library plus the classes they play truant for whilst they spend time within our walls.  This means, that it is highly likely that we are the most frequently seen adults in their life after their parents. And for many of our students who have busy households; I may just be the adult that they see the most often.

Graehawk / Pixabay

Libraries are a place where you can find and use information.  They are also a place of recreation and wellbeing. A school library is a place where students should be able to read, study, learn, recreate and relax.  My department head said that there are four fundamental aspects to being a school teacher librarian. The first is Research – which is understandable as TL are information specialists.  The second is Resources – obviously as libraries have collections. Collaboration is the third pillar. TL need to collaborate with their colleagues to ensure that teaching and learning continues to thrive.  And lastly, Wellbeing. Libraries are a place of wellbeing for students. Besides providing resources for learning, we also need to provide resources to improve student wellbeing. Think of Maslow’s hierarchy of needs…. Unless we address the needs of students to feel like they belong to a community, then we cannot expect them to reach self actualisation.  

 

So when the little darlings are bumming around in the library telling another ‘fart joke’ that obviously isn’t funny to my middle aged brain, I take a deep breath.   I certainly do not want them to feel like they cannot come back to their safe place. I don’t want to rouse on these kids if they like to chill in the library, sprawled across the beanbags like giant squid. So instead of getting cranky when I hear bad jokes or when they play battleship, I only tell them to quieten down so they don’t disturb others.  The thing is that I only cranky if I can HEAR them play the game.  Afterall, what I cannot see nor hear, I can’t get upset with 😉

 

#student names have been changed.

Who am I? What do I do? – When an identity crisis occurs.

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What do I do all day?

 

Just chillin – Courtesy of Pixabay

 

To my mother, I read books all day and tell people to shush!

 

To my husband, well he is only concerned that I am happy (and I can still manage my children’s school drop offs and pick ups).  Oh and there is no need for vacation care. Winning!!

 

To my children, mummy goes to work in a library and reads books and then comes home with more books all the time…. Oh and mummy is home in the holidays.

 

To my colleagues, I am that Energiser bunny that nabs you in the corridor asking to come into the library to work on your next task; the idjit that goes to departmental meetings and ‘volunteers’ to help with planning. I am also that nutter that gets over enthusiastic during Book week, Roald Dahl day, Harry Potter day, Jane Austen day

What’s your skill? This is mine.

 

To me.  Well, I am a teacher of information.  I teach students (and their teachers) how to find, seek, use and create information.  I find resources that support the curriculum and wellbeing of my students. I teach students how evaluate their sources, protect themselves online, be aware of the legislation around copyright and academic integrity. I help students and teachers in their teaching and learning by co-creating units of work that promote critical thinking and reflection.  I create lesson plans and collate resources to commemorate special events such as Reconciliation week, Anzac Day, Eid, Diwali and Samhain.

Each teacher librarian will have different priorities depending on the school they are attached to and the personality they were born with.  Some TL are brilliant at curriculum planning and get heavily involved with the co-creation of units. Other TLs are great collaborators and involve themselves with the teaching and learning aspect.  Some TLs are fantastic at resource collection management and development. Their collections are constantly evolving with the community’s needs. Each TL’s practice will differ from the TL next to them, the one down the street, the next suburb, or interstate.  That’s the beauty within the practice of teaching. Each practice is unique as it is the individual’s interpretation and implementation of the teaching standards that leads to such distinctiveness.

Each teacher, in their own sphere has an impact on their students, peers and community.  Individually we cannot change the world, but we can change the experiences of the people around us.  We can change how our students learn about internet safety, about how to use online information ethically.  We can teach the skills to differentiate fake news from real news (and in an election week… OMG!). We can show them how to seek, identify, use and create information that is meaningful to them and others.

How we do it will vary… but the point is that teacher librarians are trained and equipped to teach others the skills to survive and thrive in an information society. 

We can show the next generation how to become active citizens in this digital world.