To paraphrase the inimitable Dorothy of Kansas (with apologies to Frank L. Baum: "New curriculum, PBL, leadership - oh my!" The Learning Commons has never been more never been more essential to the growth of a school. As the central host for many of the Presentations of Learning in our building, it has been a privilege to witness (and support) excited students from Gr. 1 to Gr. 12 collaborate, create and present to parents and community members. It has been a lot of work to gather a wide variety of resources and begin digitally organizing them for educator and student reference and research in support of the new curriculum. The project I am proudest of has been the One Book, One Family of Schools: I am Malala Project. When I first heard about the One Book project hosted in Chicago a few years ago, I was very curious about how that project could be replicated in a school district. While I broached the topic with my fellow teacher librarians a couple of years ago, the idea got traction last spring with my Principal, Sean Lamoureux, who realized it would be a great Innovation Grant project. Sean wrote up the proposal using my initial information, we received the Innovation grant and then I went to work finding the resources we would need to ensure that our Family of Schools (our four feeder elementary schools and us) would all read I am Malala or a primary picture book/easy reader related to Malala Yousafzai's life story. Over the course of this year, classes have partnered together to create projects on personal identity related to Malala, created book trailers, discussed in classes and then, proudly watched as Malala received Honourary Canadian Citizenship in May of this year. Sitting with a grade 8 class, watching live as Malala spoke to the House of Commons was one of the most emotional moments of my year.
This experience has been one of many powerful leadership opportunities this year. I've worked with more colleagues on projects (science, math, self-assessment, social studies, english, Allied Youth, Global Citizens, languages) than ever before. My experience with coding increases and is widening to include Edison robots to go along with Sphero's and Code.org projects. Digital citizenship continues to grow in our building with steps forward and backward. More international students are reading from our Hi-Low collection and there have been thrilling moments when students who self-reportedly never read discover they love a book or series we've recommended.
For me personally, the greatest struggle this year has been my own perception of my abilities and self. I spent much of the school year believing that my work had little to no value and that I was not perceived as a valuable member of the school team. Self-perception is a tricky thing, and it took me a while to realize that I needed some support. Having received that, I am able to look at things a little more clearly and recognize that I have no control over others' reactions or perceptions. I can only serve as best I'm able, treat others well, and do my best to be gentle with myself as I do the leadership and library cha-cha!
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