Collected out now!
http://www.slanza.org.nz/collected.html Our recent seminars with Dr Ross Todd were challenging and inspiring. I know attendees came away with an enormous amount to think about and to put into practice. If you were fortunate enough to attend then this issue will reinforce the focus you took away, if not here is your chance to get the message! This issue of Collected will give you insight into how people are really using Dr Todd’s ideas, and what you could do to gather evidence, from the very simple tasks to projects which run throughout a term. Collaboration with other staff was also a very strong theme. Dr Ross Todd himself has penned the lead article. Lisa Oldham was fortunate to spend some time with Ross during his visit, and relates the messages he shared with her to the many resources available on the Services to Schools website. Senga White details the collaborative partnerships being built in her school and Michele Whiting looks at EBP through the lens of a school principal. Scattered throughout this issue are examples of the direct action that school library teams around the country have already taken. Adaire Hannah shares some of the ways in which her library team measure student achievement, and also they ways that the information is shared with the school community. Bridget Schaumann describes the action she took on returning to school, and reflects on the lessons she learned, and the changes she will make to the lesson plan as a result of that data-gathering exercise. Plenty of food for thought along with regular columns, book reviews and professional development opportunities. With grateful thanks to Miriam Tuohy, National Executive member for the Central region, who expertly, diligently and patiently produces this professional journal for our enlightenment. Lisa Salter
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Term three is just whizzing by in the North and spring in the air. I do hope the regions down South are starting to defrost!
I expect you have all had a chance to puruse our new website. Miraim Tuohy has provided us with an improved site which we hope members will find useful http://www.slanza.org.nz/index.html . Collected magazine is just about ready! We look forward to sharing this edition with you very soon. The SLANZA Awards and Life Membership process is under review. We would appreciate any comments, suggestions, complaints regarding the present process from anyone who has something to offer the review team. Please send your ideas to Lisa Salter [email protected] by the end of Term 3 and I will report on the changes in due course. Region News- Te Tai Tokerau Term 3 events: Check out our blog to see the two interesting events in Northland this term: http://slanzanorthland.blogspot.co.nz/ Southland Term 3 coffee meeting Pam Garry (John McGlashan College) will talk about her recent visit to Suzette Boyd’s fabulous library at Scotch College in Melbourne Where: Salt Café, Esplanade, St Clair When: 4pm Wednesday 29 August Everyone Welcome ~ we’d love to see you there Please RSVP by Monday 27th August to Bridget at [email protected] or Carole at [email protected] Below is the report which Fiona Mackie gave at the AGM held in Wellington earlier this month. It is posted here so that all members can see it. On behalf of the SLANZA National Executive, I'd like to welcome you to the 12th AGM for our organisation. I know your heads are full with all the ideas from today's seminar, so will keep this brief. As an organisation representing school libraries and all who are interested in them, we are dedicated to spreading the word about what you all do, and the difference it makes to all our students. One such opportunity was the recent Inquiry into 21st Century Learning Environments, which SLANZA made a submission to on your behalf. Michele Whiting and I were invited to speak to the Select Committee, to expand on our submission, which we did in June. Our three main points were: A well resourced library with qualified staff makes all the difference Librarians or teacher librarians know how to access, locate and use information in multiple formats, as well as being able to work with students and teachers to give them the skills to locate what they need and use it appropriately Short changing school libraries directly impacts on student learning and achievement and does not give them the skills necessary in our world of information overload On the School-Libs list-serv, there are often messages regarding hours being reduced, roles being combined or eliminated, and threats to the existence of school libraries. We all know how valuable and essential a well resourced and staffed library is, and the effect it can have on student learning and achievement, but as Dr Ross Todd has reminded us today, school librarianship can = occupational invisibility! The Executive had been wondering how we could start an Evidence Based Practice movement in New Zealand, so when we heard that Ross was coming to Australia, it seemed the perfect opportunity to kick start it for all. I think you'll agree with me that the seminars in Auckland and Wellington have given us a clear direction and a straight message - stop the blame game, free yourself from the habit of learned helplessness, and just do it! Although we made every effort to make the cost affordable by subsidizing all members who attended, we knew that only a fraction of you could attend. To support everyone, Ross has generously allowed us to host his slides on our website, as well as permitting us to record the presentation for members to download in the future. The Executive are also working on a PD session for regional committees to present to members in Term 4 or early next year. I mentioned that members would be able to download the presentation, and it gives me great delight to announce that SLANZA members will soon have access to a new website, with a password enabled section for members. We want to make it a one stop shop for all, so the wiki is going to be alongside the site. There will also be a space dedicated to sharing ideas and supporting each other as we start our Evidence Based Practice programmes and research. I'd like to thank the brilliant Miriam Tuohy for all the work she has done, investigating options, mapping out the new site, as well as creating a beautifully clear and inviting site. Thanks too to the team working with Miriam, for all their contributions to this process. I'd also like to pay tribute to a group of people who, under continually difficult circumstances, still provide their students and staff the best service possible - all the people working in school libraries in and around Christchurch. At the recent Otago PD weekend, I was fortunate to be able to spend time with some Christchurch members who travelled to Dunedin, and was moved to tears by their stories and the struggle many of them still face. Their dedication to their schools and students is inspiring. And now I come to something I haven't been looking forward to doing - farewelling two long serving Executive members who have been wonderful examples of inspiration and leadership for SLANZA. Donna has been on the Exec since 2009 , has been our Communications Leader for the past 3 years and is the powerhouse behind the superb online magazine Collected. Donna is stepping down from the Executive, but will be guiding the team who work on Collected. Donna, please accept this small token of our thanks for all you have done for us. APPLAUSE Senga has been part of the Executive since 2006 and was President from 2009-11, and has now come to the end of her time as Immediate Past President. Senga persuaded me to stand for President, and has been a role model for me coming onto the Executive. We're not losing Senga entirely as she is continuing to represent SLANZA on the EPIC Governance Group, as well as assisting with Collected. Senga, you have made a huge difference to SLANZA and I'd like you to accept this with our love and gratitude. I'd like to officially welcome Bridget Schaumann to the Executive as President-Elect and I know that she will bring a huge amount of prior experience, as well as energy and enthusiasm for SLANZA and it's members, as President from July 2013. Every year we award certificates of recognition to a range of people who deserve recognition for the efforts made to create readers, support student learning and achievement or the role of the library and library staff. The certificates will be awarded in person at special regional events. I am delighted to announce the following awards have been made: Please see the previous posts on this blog for these details, and congratulations to all the recipients. Life membership has been something that members have been requesting for some time, and it gives me great pleasure to announce our first recipients. We were really impressed with these nominations whom I am sure you will all agree are so deserving of being our first recipients. There will be very special presentations to each recipient held by the local committees, to celebrate and thank these people for all they have done for SLANZA. Our first life memberships have been awarded to Liz Probert, Jill Stotter, Dr Penny Moore, Judi Hancock, Elizabeth Jones, Margaret Forbes and Karen du Fresne who were the original steering committee directly responsible for the creation of SLANZA. Without these dedicated women, SLANZA would not have been born, the IASL conference would not have been held in Auckland in 2001 starting so many of us off on the path of effective school librarianship, none of our national conferences would have been held, and we would have remained a bunch of small associations that had nothing to do with each other, without a voice, without a presence. APPLAUSE And speaking of Conference, Conference 2011 was great (even if I do say so myself!) Conference 2013 planning is well underway and will be in Wellington, July 15-17 at Wellington Girls High, so put it into your diary and budget for it now! The theme is Winds of Change, which is all about sustainability - sustaining school libraries, energizing partnerships, generating enthusiasm and empowering learners. Thank you for joining us today. I appreciate you giving up your Saturday or even weekend to participate in professional development and our AGM. The Executive is committed to providing its members with a range of PD opportunities, and Ross's seminars are just the start. Your feedback via the recent PD survey will help us to organize PD in the future, but we always welcome your suggestions and ideas. Please continue to support your regional committee's events as they are always focussed on you! Go well, go safely and thank you for being here today. Fiona Mackie SLANZA President August 2012 To recognise those who have played such an important role in the creation and development of SLANZA as an organisation, the National Executive instituted Honorary Life Memberships and called for nominations from the members. The convenor of the Awards Committee, Lisa Salter, was impressed with the calibre of the nominees and the amount of thought that had gone into the applications.
The Executive is delighted to announce that Honorary Life Memberships have been awarded to the Steering Committee who worked tirelessly to create SLANZA: Karen du Fresne Margaret Forbes Judi Hancock Elizabeth Jones Dr Penny Moore Elizabeth Probert Jill Stotter As an organisation, we owe so much to the Steering Committee, who not only created a national organisation that we can be proud of, but who were also instrumental in bringing the IASL conference to New Zealand in 2000. Regional areas will be organising special events to present the awards to each recipient, and also to thank them for all they have done (and continue to do) for SLANZA and school library staff nation wide. Today we are very happy to announce the launch of our new-look website. There are several driving forces behind the changes to the website. We know from our website statistics that visitors to our site are most often looking for the latest SLANZA news, and for resources they can use - especially the latest issue of Collected magazine. So the major changes to our home page are:
The platform we are using is cloud-based, making it possible for the first time for National Executive members to each take a more proactive role in sharing information related to the work their team is doing. The redesign has also given us the opportunity to refresh the look of the website, and include some new material that we haven’t previously published i.e. the timeline (still a work in progress!) How to make the most of the new site
If you encounter any problems with the new site, please let us know. If you’re not seeing the latest version, you may need to clear your browser’s cache and reload the page. We’ve done our best to get everything running smoothly, but some things may take a little time to be fully functional (e.g. indexing the new site for search). If you have bookmarked pages within the old site, please take a moment to update these as necessary. And if you have ideas for content you’d like to see on the site, we’d love to hear them!
I'm getting very excited that soon I will be attending Dr Ross Todd's seminar about School Libraries Making a Difference: Evidence Based Practice in Action. I know that there are measures we can take to identify how we are making a difference, but so far what we've done at St Cuthbert's has been very subjective, so am looking forward to finding out more. Have you registered, as registrations are closing... There has been a Facebook group set up by Dr Todd and Lyn Hay, to link those who are looking at EBP, so I hope that I'll see you there We will be tweeting during each day using #EBPNZ, so search for that exact tag to find out more too. Fiona Mackie SLANZA President On Wednesday June 20th, Michele Whiting and I were at the Beehive to speak to the submission that SLANZA made to the Inquiry into 21st Century Learning Environments.
We were able to listen to three other presentations - Microsoft International, LIANZA and Alan Cooper who was representing a cluster of schools. It was great to hear the other presentations, especially as the key messages from LIANZA complemented ours. Our key messages were as follows:
It was a very brief block of time, but we made the most of it. We were asked about ancillary staffing, and Michele answered the question as she is the Principal at Corinna School and has first hand experience in managing her school's budget. We were also informed that we may be contacted again, if they have additional questions. We'll let you know if we hear anything further. If you liked the latest SLANZA Collected Magazine, which is full of articles and information about the whys and hows of curation and you were wowed by keynote speaker Joyce Valenza as she entertained and informed us at last year's SLANZA conference in Auckland then you might like to take a look at this short article written by the wonderful Joyce in the latest Syba Signs magazine.
Seven tools you may may not know you can search with, lists those tools and how Joyce is using them to help her students understand and take on board the skill of curation. More food for thought to put into the mix of how to curate what we find and use on the internet. What an amazing PD event that the Otago regional committee held today, and it isn't over yet.
We've been excited by Miriam Tuohy's Bookapedia Battles, and shared recommendations for lots of wonderful reading. Carole Gardiner gave us great tips on collection development, Pam Garry shared how Choccywoccydoodah gets her boys reading, we've investigated lots of wonderful iPad apps courtesy of Stephen Anderson, and started making a blog or website and explored the wonders of Google apps! (And I presented my fist keynote address - phew....) Dunedin has turned on gorgeous sunny weather for us, the food has been sooo yummy and the sharing between colleagues has been fantastic. Wow, and we have more tomorrow! Looking forward to Gill Fisher's presentation about building a book culture and David Elliot telling us about his new picture book 'A tale of two pigs'. |
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