Roberta Harris Teacher Librarian

Over the years our school has tried a number of different initiatives to promote reading.  Fostering reading cultures in school is an ongoing challenge for children "who don't like to read."  We have silent reading every day, school wide for 1/2 hour.  Some students enjoy the time, others struggle with reading independently.   One way that we encourage students to read are through computer assisted programs that can read to them like Kurzweil and audio books.  Other ways are to read to them, introduce new books, explore their interests and purchase books that they will get excited about.   https://virl.bc.ca/read-watch-listen/listen/audiobooks/ I have shown the grade K/1/2 class how to "search" for books using our school library site.  This has been a great way to allow students the opportunity to look for books and to find them on the shelf based on the call number and author location.   Students get excited to find books where the...

The idea of inspiring and producing 21st-century learners is an overwhelming and enormous responsibility.  Adding to my apprehension is my lack of knowledge and training on how to teach 21st-century learners.   As with anything new, I will need to broaden my horizons and become inspired myself.  21st-century learning is not a new concept, but is fairly new to me.  I am keen to learn and accept the challenge “research shows that effective instruction in 21st-century literacies takes an integrated approach, helping students understand how to access, evaluate, synthesize and contribute to information”  https://ncte.org/statement/21st-century-literacies-a-policy-research-brief/  ("21st-Century Literacies," 2007, p. 5).  Currently in my classroom I am using a 20 year old science text. I am confident that I am not inspiring 21st-century learners.  I try to find a balance between what they need to know i.e. extracting information from the text, comp...

  I am interested in learning how to integrate STEM/STEAM into my classroom.  Before I can accomplish this I need to learn what it is and how to teach it.  Integrating Science, Technology, Engineering, (most recently Art) and Math should come naturally to most teachers but once they put a label on it, and tell us we have to teach it, I am immediately overwhelmed! Teaching STEAM in the classroom is not a new concept, but in a rural community it is not as familiar or as convenient to learn more about.  To be honest, it is something I have avoided until now. It just seemed so overwhelming, especially when you hear the word "engineering."  What do I know about engineering?   But, as we learned from Reidling, "curriculum changes occur often and the need for information will always exist" (2019, Reference Skills for the School Librarian, p. 3).  As teachers and teacher librarian's it is important for us to be current with the curriculum and that includes bei...