Podcast PD?

"Listening is an attitude of the heart,

a genuine desire to be with another 

which both attracts and heals."

~L.J. Isham

So an interesting question or idea has been bouncing around in my brain for a week or so now...

Can podcasts be considered professional development?

I first started thinking about this after listening to the DeCodEd the podcast by Rolland Chiadic and Chris Cluff and they were discussing this idea from the side of being podcasters and creating their podcast.  (Season 2- Episode #35)

Does having a professional conversation with another educator count as professional development?

It's a very interesting idea. 

I am not a podcaster, but I do listen to a lot of podcasts. 

Which then leads to another question...

Does only listening to podcasts help you grow professionally or do you need to be "in" the conversation?

In the past year or so I have really developed a love affair with podcasts. I like to listen to them while I drive to school each morning, while I am walking the dog or doing work around the house. 

I like being involved in a conversation that challenges my own thinking, 

that presents a new idea I haven't thought about, 

that teaches me something, 

that helps me to understand other people, 

or that extends my current thinking.

I especially like listening to podcasts that introduce me to new people, new books, or new viewing.

As I started to thinking more on these questions it of course led to more... questions!

Has listening to podcasts made me a better educator?

A better person? A better listener? 

I'd like to think that the answer is yes, to all points. 

I have found that the podcasts I enjoy have really opened my eyes to things I didn't know before or to humanity and how we interact with each other. I also think that listening to other people share and explain their thoughts has made me a better speaker and better able to articulate my own thoughts when speaking. I've always considered myself a better writer than speaker and if I need to share my thoughts via speaking then I will write a script for myself. But through listening to podcasts I think I have actually become a better speaker.

I'm more comfortable with voicing my opinion of things and not feeling like I have to apologize if it's different than other people's opinions.

I'm more comfortable with pausing if I need to think about a question, to mull through an idea, to ask for clarification.

I'm more comfortable with asking questions and to probe for more information. This has been a great addition to my skill set as an educator. Asking students questions about their thoughts, their work, their process is a necessary skill to hone for all educators and by listening to conversations on podcasts that are centralized around asking questions I feel that I have really been able to develop a deeper skill set in this area. 

I also ask more questions of myself.

What else do I need to consider?

What don't I know?

Whose perspective haven't I considered?

What will I listen to, read or view next that will add on to my learning?

I think this line if thinking and questioning lends itself to considering how we interact and have conversations with our colleagues. 

How might we use the conversations we have with our colleagues to springboard into further professional development?

How might we use our listening skills to develop questions that will further guide our professional learning? 

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My Current Podcast List

Revisionist History- Malcolm Gladwell

Armchair Expert- Dax Shepard

I Wish I Knew EDU- Ramona Meharg

Against the Rules- Michael Lewis

Broken Record- Malcolm Gladwell

WorkLife- Adam Grant

This Week in Ontario EduBlogs (Live)- Stephen Hurley and Doug Peterson

DeCodEd- Rolland Chidiac and Chris Cluff

The Year End Report

Year's end is neither an end nor a beginning but a going on.

~Hal Borland

This is my second year as a teacher-librarian and my first year creating a year end report for the library learning commons. It was an assignment for my Teacher-Librarian Specialist AQ but I won't lie... I really enjoyed making it!

First of all, Canva is absolutely one of the best things out there. It's so fun and easy to create a really professional looking product like an infographic or year end report.

Which I did! LOL

Secondly, I have come to discover that I am a data nerd. I love looking at the numbers that relate to how the library space is being used by the school community and how the data can help to inform our practice moving forward.

The areas of focus. 

I chose to focus my report on 5 main areas:

*Collaboration/ Inquiry
*STREAM/ Maker Culture
*Circulation and Collection Stats
*Visits / Events / Presentations
*Fostering Literacy

and I included a Moving Forward section at the end.

Inspired by...

I originally started by creating an infographic that was modelled after the one shared by Leigh Borden (@msbordenTL) on Twitter. I liked the concise nature of the infographic for sharing snapshot of the data and a summary of the report for those stakeholders who may not have time or inclination to read a multi-page report.

I like the clear and succinct picture that an infographic offers.

But I want it all...

After viewing a few examples of different long-form year end reports for my AQ course I knew that it would be a great way to tell the story of our library learning commons and the transition that we have undertaken in the last two years. A big part of me REALLY wishes that I had done a report at the end of last year, my first year in the TL role, but I didn't really even know about year end reports then.

I did then what I knew how to do. 

Now that I know better, I do better.

~Maya Angelou

What really jumps out at me as I look over the report is the pictures of the learners interacting with the space. 

The multiple ways the space has been used.

The numbers of educators and students willing to take risks. 

Willing to try new things. 

Willing to say "yes, and".

Some of the numbers are staggering to me to look back on.

We are given 190 school days each year and hope that we make the most of it.

Hope that we fill each and every one of them with as much learning, questioning, wondering, making, thinking, reading and fun as we can.

We hope we connect.

When I look at this report I see a community of readers,

of makers, 

of problem-solvers,

of "doers", 

of writers,

of creators,

of tinkerers,

of learners.

And I'm so very lucky to be a part of it. 

And so here it is....

The Year End Report. 

Sharing the LLC Space- An Advocate's Infographic

It is true not all has been accomplished that the earnest advocates would desire, but a start has been made. Frank B. Kellogg
Read more at: https://www.brainyquote.com/topics/advocate

I am currently taking my Teacher-Librarian Specialist AQ and one of our assignments was to create something to promote the use of the LLC to one of our stakeholders- the learners, the educators, the caregivers, etc. I ended up creating an infographic aimed at the students that use the space and the uses available within the space. I think this could also be aimed at caregivers who might be unsure of the direction the LLC is going, at staff who are new to our building, and to advocate for school libraries in general.

It also got me thinking that I wanted to create a second infographic outlining the co-planning, co-teaching, collaboration from an inquiry stance opportunities available to educators who might be interested in teaming up with me (or their teacher-librarian) to help develop students #InquiryMindset.

Advocate. Promote. Share.  

After creating the first infographic, I shared it on Twitter (because that's what I do with pretty much everything these days...) and it got a lot of attention and it really began to make me think. Why do we share our pedagogical journeys on Twitter, or on a blog, or on a podcast, or or or...

Why do I tweet?

I tweet and share my journey in the LLC because not only am I proud of what my school community has accomplished in transitioning to a Learning Commons space and the risks that are being taken by learners every day but to pay it forward. 

I was helped along my journey. 

My questions were answered. 

I was given support.

So as an educator, it's my job to help others on the same path as much as I can.

So if even 1 tweet finds its way to someone who was looking for help, then I have added some good into the world.

I also feel that in our current educational climate any and all advocacy for school-libraries is important.

I want to shout from the rooftops about the importance of a school library. 

I want to share every good news piece, no matter how big or how small, with every person I pass on the street.

I want to reach policy makers and care givers.

I want to reach skeptical educators.

I want to preach to the choir of teacher-librarians so they will also advocate.

Advocate for their space, for their learners, for our future.

And so in that spirit I share here my infographics.

Free to "copy" from, "borrow" from, modify and re-share.

Always re-share.

What the Librarian Read- Part 2

Goodbye Reading. Hello Coursework. 

I started my Library Specialist AQ on Monday, April 15th and I'm super excited about it... but I also realize that it's really going to cut into my reading time.

Oh, I'm sure I'll still be reading lots- but it will be articles, posts, and discussions. Valuable of course, but not books of my choosing.

So what did I read while I was still reading books? Here are books 12 through 21 for 2019.

12. This Is How It Always Is by Laurie Frankel

13. Washington Black by Esi Edugyan

14. Brown Girl Dreaming by Jacqueline Woodson

15. In Conclusion, Don't Worry About it by Lauren Graham

16. I'll Take You There by Wally Lamb

17. Harbor Me by Jacqueline Woodson

18. Sissy: A Coming-of-Gender Story by Jacob Tobia

19. By Chance Alone: A Remarkable True Story of Courage and Survival at Auschwitz by Max Eisen

20. The House Girl by Tara Conklin

21. In This Together: Fifteen Stories of Reconciliation by Danielle Metcalfe-Chenail

Some thoughts on these books... in no particular order.

Two books that I would consider to MUST reads for all educators and parents right now are Sissy: A Coming-of-Gender Story and This Is How It Always Is. Both books provide an honest and open look at the heartache and pain that individuals who are gender non-conforming or transgender face. This is a piece of our community that has been ignored, left-out and hurt for too long. When I speak to my daughters about their experiences with a classmate who is gender non-conforming and their utter acceptance of this child and the child's choices in clothing, activities, passions and humanity I believe that we are headed for a beautiful future. e

I want that future for us.

But it will take work and that work starts with reading, and learning and reading some more.


I am ashamed to say that Brown Girl Dreaming and Harbor Me are the first two books I've ever read by Jacqueline Woodson.  A good friend of mine is always raving about her writing and how much his daughter loves her books so I knew I had to give them a try and wow, have I been missing out. In the past few years I have really grown to love books that are written in poetry. The words slide through your head and create these beautiful pictures as you are reading. I'm finding too, that many of my students enjoy reading noels written in this form as there were two of them in this year's Silver Birch selections. Harbor Me was just WOW. The topic. The characters. The depth of the storylines and the connection to the world we live in today. If you have a middle grade reader in your life, get them this book and read it together.

I read In This Together over the course of the last few months as part of a book chat among educators in my school. Once a month we have been meeting to discuss three sections at a time as part of our ongoing commitment to reconciliation and learning more about the true history of Canada in relation to Indigenous people. I found some of the sections in this books to be thought provoking, eye opening and provided me with the opportunity to face my own history and role in colonization. Since it's split up into fifteen different sections, written by fifteen different authors it's a great introduction for those just starting on their journey of unlearning to relearn as we move towards reconciliation in this country.


I am currently working my way through a spy thriller to offset the amount of professional reading I'm doing for my AQ and hoping to regain some momentum with my reading again soon, but with everything there always needs to be a balance and I think for the next little bit reading books might not be in the cards for me...

Maker. Space. Inquiry. Place. What might be the connection?

Maker Space. Maker Ed. Open Making. 

Maker Opportunities. Fab Lab. Maker Culture. 

There are many names and motivations behind implementing 
maker learning with your students. 

The maker movement and its benefits for student learning has been an ongoing focus of the Library Learning Commons transformation over the past two years. The staff at my school have been working to implement curriculum focused maker learning to help both students and other educators see the value of hands-on maker learning as a way to work through the process of their learning, to integrate 21st century competencies into their every day work, and ignite a passion for making and creating. 

Maker Culture: A Place to Start

Last year we created a Maker Culture PLN to develop our understanding of the Maker Movement, to attempt maker opportunities to explore with our students and to share our learning with the staff in our school community. Our learning over the course of the year culminated with an opportunity to "hack the staff meeting". We shared our learning with the staff by creating a carousel of maker stations for the staff to tinker, play, and explore with their grade level teams. 

The stations were well received and many educators began to seek out time to co-plan and co-teach maker infused lesson in the Library Learning Commons. 

Make. Literacy. 

Another attempt to integrate maker learning was through our Forest of Reading program, specifically Blue Spruce and Silver Birch. In the 2017- 2018 school year, both programs were run primarily as classroom based activities. Teachers were invited to share an inquiry bag with their students to spark interest in the books prior to reading. Each bag contained an item or theme word related to the book that could be used as a Minds On for students. Educators and students would then read the book together and explore a maker task or inquiry prompt together related to their reading. 

A collection of these maker inquiry prompts from the 2017-2018 school year can be found at bit.ly/TinkerInTheForest under Archive/2018. 

We adopted a similar program for the the 2018-2019 school year with one small tweak- the Silver Birch program is running as an open book club for students in Grades 4-5 who are interested in joining. Students have been invited to explore their own making interests as they connect to their reading by creating artifacts to share at our Museum of Learning. This has also provided an opportunity to explore badging and the concept of attaching success criteria and goal setting to our making. 

Open Making. Genius Hour. Passion Projects. 

One of my main goals in exploring maker culture and the maker movement has been to provide students an opportunity explore their own maker passions and maker inspirations OUTSIDE of the curriculum. I am a full believer in hands-on learning and the belief that students (and adults!) learn best through doing and so we should look for opportunities to uncover the curriculum through making. 

But I also believe in making for the sake of making. 
Making for the joy of making. 
Making for the learning about making. 
Making for the beauty of making. 
Just making. 

And so the Genius Cart was born. 

Part open making. Part genius hour. Part passion project. 

And as it turns out...part inquiry. 

Behold... the Genius Cart. 

I wanted to provide an opportunity and a space within the Library Learning commons for students to explore making that interested them outside of their classroom activities. After combing through many posts (and of course, Pinterest!) the idea for the Genius Cart was born. 

As educators we love to approach things from an If - Then stance in order to measure or gauge the success of our endeavors to improve the learning of our students. I developed this If - Then statement as way to promote ongoing reflection of the Genius Cart and the success (and failures) as we worked to develop the students' capacity to work in an open making atmosphere.

I launched the Genius Cart by first presenting the idea to the staff at my school and providing time for the educators to explore the cart and discuss how this make opportunity might help to support the maker learning happening in their classrooms.

You can access the slide deck I used for this initial launch by visiting 

bit.ly/GeniusCart . 

Additional slides have been added since that first launch as we reflected and refined the use of the Genius Cart.

And then we launched!

A few observations about this initial stage of the Genius Cart:

• most staff were interested in bringing their entire class for an orientation activity involving a design thinking task
• a few teachers had thought ahead and booked the library space to integrate their ongoing maker activities with the Genius Cart
• many of the students who were coming during our scheduled open making periods did not come with a project in mind
• there was a lot of repeat making based on what had already been explored in class (e.g. structures)
• many, many, many students equate making with using a hot glue gun!
• students needed a lot of prompting to develop a plan prior to making, most wanted to jump in and "see where it went"
• at times the making appeared "purposelessness"- students were not engaging with the materials in order to learn a "maker skill" or to create a product, but mainly to tinker with the materials

Now what?

Moving forward we will be exploring the intersection between inquiry, design thinking and the maker movement during our time with the Genius Cart. To begin our exploration I developed a Zip Line challenge after consulting with another teacher-librarian who explored a similar design thinking in her LLC. Students were invited to work their way through the launch cycle by examining photos and videos of zip lines and sharing their ideas on an inquiry chart. A Wonder Wall documented the questions developed by students were recorded as well.

Students created plans and materials lists for their carrier designs and then we built, tested and shared our success. I documented the process, student observations and discussions as we worked through the iterations of their designs and testing on the zipline. You can see the video and photos I shared with our school community by visiting our virtual library learning commons. 

I'm still working through the qualitative data I collected and hope to share my thoughts and observations around the challenge soon before we head into a second Genius Cart inquiry. Stay tuned...


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I used the following resources/educators to help me with my planning:

Inquiry Mindset: Nurturing the Dreams, Wonders, and Curiosities of Our Youngest Learners

https://www.trevormackenzie.com/

@trev_mackenzie

@rbathusrthunt

Launch: Using Design Thinking to Boost Creativity and Bring Out the Maker in Every Student

http://www.spencerauthor.com/the-launch-cycle/
@ajjuliani
@spencerideas

Jenn Brown, Teacher-Librarian

@JennMacBrown

How do you define learning?

Learning. Engagement. Empowerment. 

This week I listened to a conversation on VoicEd Radio about learning and how we define it. I plan to listen to it again to try and solidify my thoughts around the conversation that took place and I think it should be mandatory listening for all educators. 

Follow this link to have a listen for yourself. 

So what is learning? How do we define it? 

These are great questions for all educators to grapple with on an ongoing basis. I don't believe it's something we can define one time and move on. It will be an living definition that changes as an educator grows in their pedagogical knowledge, as they build their capacity of assessment for, as and of learning, as they develop their ability to build trusting relationships with their students.

As they learn.

Learning is ongoing. Learning is a process. Learning is a collection of moments. 

Learning is the reflection of those moments. 

Learning is the discussions that take place within a community. Learning is looking back to move forward. 

Learning is asking questions and being okay to sit in the space with those questions and not always have all the answers. Learning is not knowing everything but wanting to learn more. Learning is saying "I was wrong and now I know better". 

Learning requires quiet moments of thinking. 

Learning requires that we make a mess and tinker with ideas, materials, and making. 

Learning requires that we pause and rethink. Learning requires that we listen just as much if not more than we talk. Learning requires that we recognize the knowledge of others and invite them in to learn with us. 

Learning requires that we read and read widely. Read about others who are different than us, from different backgrounds than us, from others that we disagree with and want to argue with, and that we read with a window into our own world as well. 

That we read for fun. Learning requires that we question our reading. 

Most of all, learning requires time. 

Time to sit in the space of our learning. 

Time to move beyond what we thought we knew to be true. 

Time to come back to our thinking and re-think and re-learn. 

So what does all this mean for educators in the classroom?

Well, that is the question isn't it?

And it is a question without an easy answer. 

What the Librarian Read- Part 1

I have been a voracious reader my whole life. Almost every childhood memory can be tied back to book that I was reading as in coincides with other important memories.

I remember reading a Richard Scary book at the cottage at a very young age and sounding out the word "prefer" and my mom and her friends being so shocked and excited that I could read it.

I remember the many, many, many visits to the public library in my hometown with my mom. She would get these HUGE stacks of big books. I'm talking 500+ pages and there would be 10 of them. I couldn't wait to read the same books as her.

I remember starting the Harry Potter series. I remember being at camp when the newest one would be released and everyone would be clamouring to get to the tuck shop to see if their copy had arrived from the city in a care package yet. I remember reading in the dark after everyone else had fallen asleep and Dumbledore dying. I remember trying so hard not to cry too loudly but feeling like I had lost a friend.

When my first daughter was born eight years ago and then my second daughter three years later my reading time took a serious hit. A serious hit. It's only been in the past year and a bit that I've really felt like I've been able to delve back into books and read as much and as often as I want to. It's so wonderful.

So this year I decided to track my reading using Goodreads. I set a goal of 50 books for the year and am on track so far to make it for sure. I also thought it might be interesting to look back at my reading every now and then and talk about the books I've read, loved and learned from as the year progresses.

So here are the first eleven books of 2019.

1. Becoming- Michelle Obama

2. Awkward- Svetlana Chmakova

3. Britt-Marie Was Here- Fredrik Backman

4. Women Talking- Miriam Toews

5. We Are Displaced: My Journey and Stories from Refugee Girls Around the World- Malala Yousafzai

6. The Sisters of the Winter Wood- Rena Rossner

7. Born a Crime: Stories from a South African Childhood- Trevor Noah

8. Girl of the Southern Sea- Michelle Kadarusman

9. The Library Book- Susan Orlean

10. 21 Things You May Not Know About the Indian Act: Helping Canadians Make Reconciliation with Indigenous Peoples a Reality- Bob Joseph

11. On the Come Up- Angie Thomas

Thoughts on these books? Well to be honest I don't like giving book reviews and I don't like reading them. I want to decide for myself if a book sounds interesting. And yes, I do judge a book based on the cover! And the title. A good title and cover art will get me almost every time.

But here are some brief thoughts on some of the books for what it's worth....

I read Becoming over the winter break because my husband gave it to me for Christmas (so technically I started it in 2018...) and I felt like I had travelled back in time the Obama White House when intelligence and the pursuit of learning was celebrated. When moving forward to improve the lives of all people was the aim of society and I really didn't want to finish the book. I have tickets to see Michelle Obama speak in May and I'm over the moon excited.

Women Talking was recommended to me by several people and had been on my TBR list for quite awhile. I was very interested to read it and delve into such a troubling topic but I did not enjoy the ending. I felt it came too fast and left me wanting more.

I read We Are Displaced in a single day after a colleague read it and recommended it. LOVE.

The Sisters of the Winter Wood had everything I love in a guilty pleasure read- magic, mystery, set in the past and it was nice thick book! (I read very fast so I like my books big and juicy.) I also loved that the author and main characters (the sisters) in this story were Jewish and it was based on historical events. I'm hoping Rena Rossner has more books to come.

I am a huge fan of Trevor Noah and The Daily Show. This book did not disappoint and I've heard from multiple sources that the audiobook version is outstanding. It was an interesting look into apartheid and trying to learn more about why and how people treat each other in such horrible ways around the world.

The Library Book is a book that will stick with me for a long time to come. I could not put this book down. It's a look into the history of Los Angeles, the Los Angeles Public Library, the place of libraries in our society and our fascination with stories. This is a book I will re-read at some point.

What have you read so far this year? What should I add to my TBR list?