SLAV Primary Conference Poster Gallery – May 24th 2021

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SLAV Primary Conference Poster Gallery – May 24th 2021 Our thanks to those conference attendees who participated in the poster gallery competition! We had 6 wonderful submissions, all sharing great ideas. The criteria specified for our poster gallery submissins were … Continue reading

Professional Learning Resource Round Up

As we all respond to the directives and guidelines in relation to COVID – 19 our association is working hard to ensure we are doing all we can to support our members.

With some schools needing to close for indefinite periods of time there may be a need for your school library staff to indicate ways they are exploring professional learning during a period of school closure or changed operations.

To assist, we have created this post, listing a range of professional learning opportunities made available to members.

A range of presentations from past Professional Learning Events can be accessed via the SLAV Member Login page HERE.

Over the past two years we have created podcasts of all of our Reading Forum events as well recording a selection of presentations given at our major conferences. These podcasts are available to anyone online and can be accessed HERE.

Synergy is our online, research based, journal. The most recent edition of the journal is closed to members only but all other editions of the journal are made freely available in light of the Associations interest in being collegiate and supportive of the wider professional community. We encourage you to explore the wealth of information from current and past editions HERE. 

Digital issues of our publication – FYI – can be accessed HERE. 

As a SLAV member, you also have access to resources from the International Association of School Librarianship through our partner membership status. There are some wonderful resources to be accessed on the IASL website and we encourage you to find time to explore them. Login details are available on our Member Login page.

Finally, a word on our 2020 Professional Learning Calendar. As we advised in our most recent newsletter we are doing all we can to ensure we are keeping our members and presenters safe, and are responding to guidelines and directives accordingly.

Events – cancellations and postponements

Our March 23 conference has been cancelled.

The IB workshop to be held in conjunction with DATTA Vic at Kardinia College on April 16 has been cancelled.

Our May Masterclass in conjunction with LMERC – Powering Learning: Supporting Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander perspectives has been moved to September 4.

Our May 29 Conference – School Libraries: Powering Primary has been moved to September 14.

The National Education Summit on August 28 and 29 at MCEC, a strand of which we are a partner in providing, has been postponed to a later date yet to be announced.

All other Reading Forums, Workshops and Masterclasses

The remainder of our program are events that are to be held in school venues. At present we are continuing to plan and offer these events on the understanding that a decision will be made a month to two weeks out from each as to whether they are to go ahead. As it is very difficult to know exactly where we will be in two months’ time this approach is hopefully the best response in unknown times.

If you have any queries about this, please contact the SLAV office on 0477 439 593 or email slav@slav.org.au

We encourage all members to stay in touch with each other in these challenging times. Our branch structure is an excellent source of local support.  We encourage you to reach out and offer collegiate advice wherever you can and to ask if you need help or assistance. Our social media platforms can also be a source of connection. Please do reach out, we are open to assisting you in any way we can.

Weaving the Future – Inquiry based learning & DigiTech curriculum


On Friday, 17 March, School Library Association of Victoria conference Weaving the Future: Inquiry Learning within a Digital Curriculum will feature, Dr Mandy Lupton from QUT and Paula Christophersen formerly of VCAA.  Focus of the day will be the Digital Curriculum and the role of School Libraries can take in its implementation and execution.

Dr Mandy Lupton is a Senior Lecturer in the Faculty of Education at QUT and well known to library and literacy professionals through her blog Inquiry Learning and Information Literacy.   Mandy teaches units in the Master of Education (teacher-librarianship) and has undertaken a number of research projects into inquiry learning and information literacy.  She will present a number of tools for the design of inquiry learning curriculum including questioning frameworks, process models and Mandy’s GeSTE windows model for information literacy. Delegates will have the opportunity for hands-on application and evaluation of these planning resources.  This is an opportunity to work closely with a renowned Australian information literacy specialist.

Ms Paula Christophersen (formerly of VCAA) is a familiar presenter at SLAV conferences having introduced ICT in the curriculum and general capabilities.  As a major architect of the new Victorian Digitech curriculum, Paula is the ideal person to present Ways of thinking in Digital Technologies.  Through this Paula will explore the essential features of the Victorian Digital Technologies curriculum, paying particular attention to the different ways of thinking in the curriculum, namely computational, design and systems thinking. Exploration involves teasing out the breadth and depth of content associated with this curriculum, and how meaningful connections can be made with other learning areas.  As schools seek methods of integrating the new digital curriculum into both primary and secondary schools, this session gives library staff background and understanding to support digital learning through the STEM curriculum, makerspaces, coding clubs etc.

SLAV is pleased to be starting the year with professional learning support for Victorian teacher librarians, teachers and library staff generally.   Don’t miss out.  Register here.

eBooks & eResources – sharing experience

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As we commence the new school year, it’s timely to share this guest post from SLAV Council Member Julie Pagliaro.  In this post Julie, teacher librarian at St Kevin’s College, Waterford Library, reflects on the School Library Association of Victoria (SLAV) Workshop – eBooks and eResources held last term.  The management of digital resources is a complex matter for school libraries, made easier by sharing successful examples of practice through workshops such as this.

From Julie:

The School Library Association of Victoria (SLAV) Workshop – eBooks and eResources was an engaging day with everything that you have ever wondered about eBooks and eResources being addressed. David Feigham, Information and Library Services Manager from Mentone Girls’ Grammar School, set the scene, with his inspiring knowledge and experience on how to implement best practice strategies in this area of our library collections. Practical ideas followed on how to incorporate Kindles, how to promote ebooks and the importance of keeping usage records. Julia Petrov from St Patrick’s College, Ballarat emphasised that eresources should always be no more than three clicks away and we must make it easy for our users. The provision of ebooks and eresources requires flexible and creative thinking on the part of library staff.  By working together, we will be in a stronger position to know what works and how to achieve the best deal for our schools.

Presentations and notes from the conference will be available via the member’s area of the SLAV website.

General Points

  • Advantages of eBooks and eResources – they’re private, can’t be lost, instant, great for when a book is in high demand and you don’t want to buy multiple copies of it, content can often be differentiated according to different learning standards e.g., Online Britannica has low, medium and high levels
  • People still want print books over eBooks
  • EBook usage seems to be higher than NF. When we chose to introduce fiction eBooks first did we have the order wrong?
  • Provision of eBooks and eResources is higher in the Independent and Catholic sectors. It is concerning, that government schools are falling behind in this area.
  • One often repeated view, was that as a profession, we need to work together with our vendors in order to ensure we meet the needs of our students and staff.
  • Sometimes it is unwise to purchase outright. Consider more flexible options such as leasing.
  • Publishers are not the same and they often and do change their eBook licensing agreements. We must learn to manage this.
  • Don’t expect one provider to meet all of your eLearning needs.
  • Know your usage of eResources and examine whether you are meeting your school’s needs.
  • Access to your resources should be no more than three clicks.

You are invited to share your knowledge of ebooks and eresources via a ‘comment’.

Image source: Flickr https://www.flickr.com/photos/tribehut/8091234505

#SLAVConf – It’s a Digital World

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Last Friday, 7 August, 180 delegates met at the Etihad Stadium in Melbourne for the School Library Association of Victoria (SLAV) conference –  It’s a digital world.  Conferences such as these are exceptionally important for the school library community as they are showcases of the change that is actively happening in many dynamic school libraries.  Perspectives of the James Merlino MP, Minister for Education and Deputy Premier and Principal,  Marco Di Cesare, Caroline Chisholm Catholic College who was SLAV School Leader of the Year 2014, were particularly relevant.
This Storify captures some of the Twitter conversations from presentations and workshops.  Not all, because not all sessions were tweeted out by delegates, however, this collection offers an overview of links and ideas on the day.
Presentations and notes from the conference will be available via the members area of the SLAV website soon.

 

 

SLAV Conference: Students at the centre

It’s been a busy month for SLAV professional learning with a major curriculum-focussed conference, AusVELS: Constructing new Learners in March, followed by Libguides and Kevin Hennah workshops.  This broad range of events from curriculum, to delivery of online resources, through to library design, are an indication of the diverse professional learning required by school library staff.

2015 theme Students at the Centre of Learning was reflected in the AusVELS: Constructing new Learners conference.  Regardless of all other change in school libraries, focus cannot stray from student learning and the collaborative relationships necessary for success.  The Storify of #slavconf tweets below provides an insight into the day, however, for a more complete experience see presentations and notes on the SLAV website.

Main presentations were:

  • Curriculum Update: Setting the scene, Dr David Howes, VCAA (changes to AusVELS that teacher librarians can tap into)
  • Teachers changing practice in their schools – implications for school libraries, Dr Rosemary Abbott – Loreto Mandeville Hall, Toorak (Rosemary’s PhD research provides a compelling argument for strong communication between teachers and library staff)
  • The Information Experience: Introduction, Professor Christine Bruce, QUT  (Christine’s knowledge of how students learn and interact with information is a beacon to all educators and particularly teacher librarians).

Members sharing effective practice through a range of workshops was also an important part of the conference.  Learning with and from each other at events such as this is a great help in building community and getting to know each other as members of the the school library community.  Well done.

Conference report: Process of change

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During 2014, School Library Assoc of Victoria has presented a full calendar of professional learning.  This post reflects on the conference School Library Roles: a Process of change held on 31 October at the Catholic Leadership Centre, East Melbourne.  The gathering of over 120 delegates reflected on the impact that change has in school library staff job descriptions, tasks and responsibilities and how it is to be managed.

Head of Library at Whitefriars Catholic College, Rhonda Powling, laid out the tone of the conference in her opening keynote.   Karen Malbon provides a thoughtful reflection on the presentation in her blog Infinite Possibilities where she says:

So often we hear gloom and doom stories about school libraries. Rhonda is optimistic for the future and drew our attention to the futuristic thinking of Mark Pesce and the 2013 ALIA discussion paper, Library and Information Services: the future of the profession themes and scenarios 2025.The three themes identified were convergence, connection and the golden age of information. Convergence generally means fewer jobs but require skills, connection is a library strength and the golden age of information is full of possibilities for libraries.
Libraries will flourish with professional expertise, connectedness, by building relationships with the community and by empowering clients. It is time to let go and move on. School library staff need to be open to challenges, creative, team based, collaborative and focused on the needs of community……. Read all of Karen’s reflection…

 

One of the aims of the day was to provide the conditions for delegates to discuss the variations between the roles of library staff and the impact on library team members’ situations.  Personal input and discussion, followed by presentations from a panel of library staff who spoke positively about their jobs and the students they encounter daily was encouragement for everyone to go back to school and look closely at their roles and the documentation supporting it.  Resources to support an analysis of roles and preparation for an annual review meeting can be found here.

There’s an increased emphasis at SLAV conferences to allow delegates time to try out new skills, discuss what works and simply swap ideas.  The ‘sand pit’ session facilitated by Glenda Morris, teacher librarian, was hands-on time covering a range of topics from web tools to makerspaces and search engines.  Comments from these sessions and more covered in the conference are captured in the Storify below.

SLAV conferences are increasingly about raising issues and building knowledge through the community.  School libraries are being challenged, as Rhonda pointed out in her keynote, yet the future is potentially very bright.   It does, however, require rethinking, reskilling and a good understanding of your role.

Partipation through a Virtual Learning Commons

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Delegates at the School Library Association of Victoria Conference last Friday, 8 August, designed and imagined possibilities for the creation of a virtual learning commons that encourages participation by the whole school community.

Lead by Dr David Loertscher and Carol Koechlin, the conference theme Virtual Learning Commons: Building a Participatory School Culture recognises that the school library has a new role. The physical space must change.  It must be flexible – ‘if it doesn’t move it doesn’t belong in the school library’. The book collection needs to be fresh and inviting and the learning situation should control the space.  Furthermore, a well planned and developed virtual library space can be a place of involvement for the school community.

Thanks to delegates who tweeted with #slavconf. This Storify is a compilation of those tweets providing an overview of the conference and resources shared.