Up in front

The February 2010 issue of the teacher-librarians' professional journal, "Scan" (vol 29 no 1) features a photograph I took on my iPhone late last year, as we were wrapping up the Bear and Chook books rap at school. Note the presence of a ubiquitous Bear and Chook in the lower left hand corner.

Christmas comes to High Street

Lunch with visiting teacher-librarians - High Street, Penrith.

Today I had a visit from the editor of "Scan" (my old job!) and two teacher-librarians undertaking their retraining course with Charles Sturt University. They had come to absorb the atmosphere of the school library and hopefully pick up some tips to try out in their own schools. It's always fun to be a mentor, and I find I usually learn as much from the process as my "mentee".

Access: blog post inspires blog post!

My post of yesterday, about my colour blindness, was inspired by Snoskred's great post on Aussie Bloggers about people telling the truth, and what good blogs should include (and avoid). In turn, my blog post has inspired Craig Thomler's latest post on eGov au.

Craig asks, "Do government communications discriminate against - or for - the visually impaired?" He continues, "Despite the requirement for government in Australia to ensure our websites are accessible, I worry both that we do not do enough, and that we do too much, in this area."

I added a comment to my post, clarifying that my Curriculum Directorate colleague (at Ryde State Office of the NSW Department of Education & Training), mentioned in the post, did spread the word about my "condition" - with my permission, of course - and I became an unofficial colour evaluation guinea pig for several Units' webpage revamps for the Departmental website while I was there.

Mind you, while I was able to help them with specifications to aid my red/green colour blindness, there are other types. Where does all the beta testing end? ;) I know we tried to address numerous aspects of accessibility for the "Scan" and School Libraries web pages while I was there, and our tweaking of the book rap blogs and wikis have been ongoing. But it seems there's always so much more you can do to make a site more accessible and equitable.

That web composers are open to suggestions (and complaints) from people trying to use their site, is of paramount importance. For example, as pretty as Flash animations may be, to use only such a visual on the front page of a site can mean that people using old browsers or computers can't even progress to the page with contact details to lodge a complaint! (I've been there before!)

Thanks for the link to my blog post, Craig!

Synthesis!

On Monday, the staffs of seven schools in our learning community gathered in my school’s assembly hall to hear Jamie McKenzie speaking on the importance of authentic learning in today’s schools.

I first became aware of USA-based Jamie McKenzie (and his online writings in From Now On) when commissioning one of my first articles as editor of the teacher-librarians’ professional journal, Scan. It’s amazing to look at the date on that article and recall that it was in 1998 when Lyn Hay, of Charles Sturt University, provided “An interview with Jamie McKenzie” (for Scan, vol 17, no 2, pp 5-7). Jamie had become a guru among teacher-librarians around the world for his then-current investigations into power learning and imagining the “post modem” school. The printed interview ended up being a prelude to his visit to Sydney, later that year, for a professional development day attended by many teacher-librarians and a few intrigued school principals. Teacher-librarians following Jamie McKenzie’s work found much to bolster their efforts in collaborative teaching, and Jamie has continued to be a great advocate for the work being done by Australia’s teacher-librarians. But how far did his message reach?

A full decade on, some of his emphases have certainly evolved but it was rewarding for me to be back in the teacher-librarian role, and seeing Jamie’s latest messages about questions of import, authentic learning and assessment, the “smart use” of information communication technologies (ICT), quality teaching and learning, and the embracing of complexity, being shared with a room full of attentive teachers, executive staff, teachers’ aides, not just the seven teacher-librarians. It was also pleasing that he, again, complimented Australia’s teacher-librarians for their ongoing proactive role in supporting teachers and students grappling with authentic learning and the smart use of technologies (and he included print books as one “technology”).

More commentary follows on my other blog, where I attempt to synthesise about synthesis!

Connect, Collaborate, Create

Today, I was an invited presenter at the 2007 Connected Learning Conference, held at the Novotel, Brighton-Le-Sands. The topic of my brief contribution was book raps, and how they were great examples of connecting, collaborating and creating. I can only guess that my audience included principals, teacher-librarians and computer savvy teachers.

Lots of deja vu moments. Once again, Colleen and I were venturing off for a lengthy car journey to speak at an education conference about ICT (information and communication technologies) and collaborative teaching; one of my first duties at "Scan", in 1998, had been a similar task. The Novotel is also the annual venue of Selwa Anthony's author management conferences, Succeed With Me, so the rooms, decor and even the wicked food offerings were all very familiar. (Bang goes the diet for this week.) There were also lots of well-remembered faces from my time at Ryde State Office of the NSW Department of Education and Training. Most of these people couldn't believe it had been over five years since I was working with them at Ryde, as editor of "Scan" - and neither could I!

The whole day was most rewarding - really great keynote speeches that had everyone both overwhelmed but invigorated about future possibilities in education! - and the pen souvenir I was given, as a presenter, is very cool in its Star Trek inspired plastic tube!

Poem envy

Today our school played host to a brief visit by prolific poet Steven Herrick, this year's patron of National Literacy and Numeracy Week. The students (and teachers) were enthralled by his deceptively easy style of almost-conversational refrains, often based on keen, real-world experiences that flow as a series of pithy and/or wry observations of the human condition - and not a stereotypical rhyming word in sight.

I came away from the session feeling like I wanted to reach for a pad and pencil and just let the ideas flow. I wouldn't be surprised if most of the students felt just as inspired. Unfortunately, we were all back to work all too soon.

Steven Herrick says he wanted to be a professional soccer player, wasn't good enough to make it in that chosen field, but started writing poetry at age 18, earning his first $5 after sending a quirky poem to a magazine.

Interestingly, I was working at "Scan" (the professional journal for teacher-librarians) when a bit of a debate broke out about how SCIS was cataloguing Steven Herrick works. Some of his volumes are actually novels, even though they might appear, at first glance, to be thematic poetry anthologies. Because he doesn't want students thinking that individual poems in those books could be read in any order, not to mention that the books might languish unnoticed and unread in the poetry section, Steven Herrick requested the cataloguers to reconsider some of his his books as novels.

In another example of an effective use of Youtube, here's Steven Herrick with the delightful Ten things your parents will never say, from "Poetry to the rescue":

Writers blogging

I just discovered that a writer/reviewer/editor friend, Judith Ridge, who works on the editorial staff of the long-running "School Magazine" (NSW Department of Education & Training), has a very slick and erudite webblog, The New Misrule Blog. Judith focuses on children's literature, of course, and her blog was recently reviewed in the latest issue of the professional journal, "Scan", my own old editorial stamping ground. A "Scan" reviewing colleague, Carol Thomas, praised Judith's work in the review, suggesting ways teachers might use it for both information, and as a weblog model of excellence. Carol also provided some pithy comments on blogging and the Internet in general; I absolutely love Carol's incisive observation that "the electronic world is choked with egocentric ramblings".

Egocentric ramblings? Mmmmm, sounds a lot like my blog?!

If you follow the link above to Judith's site, you'll see she links to blogs from other colleagues and contacts from my days at State Office, including former editor of "School Magazine", Jonathan Shaw, and the zany novelist, poet, globetrotter and film buff, Geoffrey McSkimming, creator of Cairo Jim!

Write now!

I attended my second, once-per-term, teacher-librarians' district meeting today (back into the swing of a decade ago, when I was last practising as a teacher-librarian in schools!). It was great to be in such a positive, enthusiastic atmosphere with like-minded professionals. One of the guest speakers was Lee FitzGerald, a friend and former "Scan" editor. It was great to catch up with her and hear all the brave and exciting teacher-librarian challenges she's trying out in her school.

At one point, there were three "Scan" editors standing together over afternoon tea: Lee, the current editor Cath, and yours truly! A photo opportunity, but noone had a camera. Someone suggested we were perhaps the "three wise monkeys" and Cath quickly claimed being the one with her hands over her mouth. We were interrupted before assigning the other two monkeys.

Towards the end of the session, a teacher-librarian recognised me by my name tag, and gave me a great compliment about the quality of my book reviews in "Scan" over the years. What a buzz! I've been reviewing books and teaching resources for "Scan" since the early 90s, and I've now become quite accustomed to writing a pithy review in only 100 words; it's quite a skill to convey as much evaluative information as possible in such a short paragraph, and I guess I forget that these reviews get read and appreciated - even anticipated - by people.

"What else do you write?" she asked.

Mmmmm. "Nothing that's ever earned my agent a commission," I admitted guiltily. (Hi Selwa!)

I'm really going to have to fix this, you know... I now have about five skeletal children's book projects in my head, and on random computer files. As I walk to and from work each day, the words and ideas flow so easily. But when the computer gets turned on, they just don't transpose into something tangible. I end up playing on various bbs sites, telling myself I'm writing, but it's not really helping my word count. (Maybe I'm the fourth monkey? The unwise one, with his hands in his pockets?)

This blog is keeping me writing more regularly, sure, but I very much need to get regimented and show some real progress with my writing projects. Okay, the first of the month is almost here: a new beginning?

The longest title

Today I gave up an afternoon of my vacation to be part of committee for the Department of Education & Training's COGs (Connected Outcomes Groups) project. We are investigating the list of potential literary texts that will be included in the units of work being developed for teachers. Fascinating stuff - and a good way to prepare for, and ease into, the daily grind when school starts back next week!

As the meeting wasn't going to take up the whole day, I was able to organise morning tea and lunch with my wonderful colleagues still working at SCIS/Scan. It was rather nostalgic heading off for a peak hour train (in the rain, but who's complaining?), with a Star Trek novel to read on the long commute to Ryde. Just like old times...

I took the SCIS cataloguers something a bit unique; a children's anthology of short stories I found at Galaxy Bookshop a few months ago, with surely one of the longest titles ever:

Noisy outlaws, unfriendly blobs, and some other things that aren't scary, maybe, depending on how you feel about lost lands, stray cellphones, creatures from the sky, parents who disappear in Peru, a man named Lars Farf, and one other story we couldn't quite finish, so maybe you could help us out, edited by Ted Thompson with Eli Horowitz, with an introduction & almost half a story by Lemony Snicket (McSweeney's, 2005).

Sadly, it was already on the SCIS database. Beaten by New Zealand. Drat. (I hadn't actually noticed that it was a 2005 book, and the writing contest printed on the inside of the bizarre dustjacket had already expired.) Oh well, it was a fun thought.

My Sassy friends

In November 1993, I was invited by Selwa Anthony, literary agent extraordinaire, to attend an all-day seminar and gala dinner for her little band of authors, and soon-to-be-published authors, at the Novatel Hotel in Brighton-le-Sands. It was called "Succeed Some More in '94" (and was a follow-up to a very successful dinner the previous year, "Succeed With Me in '93", named for a book she'd just written with Jimmy Thomson).

At the time, I was deep into my proposal-and-sample-chapters for a book on the social history of the Aussie soap opera, Number 96, and the wonderfully encouraging Selwa was going to agent it for me. While that project did the rounds of the publishers - twice - and gathered a lovely collection of encouraging rejection slips, it was eventually seemingly accepted by Allen & Uwin (for two weeks) in 1995, who then declined to offer a contract on it after all. Sigh.

So, rather than try to self-publish the thing instead, I launched the briefest of details as a website and started working on some other book ideas. Despite the fact that, so far, I haven't earned Selwa any percentages, she keeps inviting me back. Yesterday was "Succeed, it's Heaven in 2007".

Selwa has faith in me that I'll eventually get my act together and complete something both literate and commercial! I did get an article published in a "Starlog" magazine for Star Trek: The Next Generation (an interview with actor Leonard John Crofoot, who played Data's little gold android offspring). Mind you, I have incorporated a lot of skills learned at "Succeed with Me" seminars into my daily life, and it's paid off in so many other ways than just financial and literary ones. There has been advice I've used to tighten my book reviews for Scan, improve my mental health and feng shui, lose many kilograms, and how to use visual clues to tell when people are telling the truth. I've also been part of Selwa's unique brand of networking, helping out numerous other authors with their various writing projects. And I knew all the right answers when being interviewed for my editing position at Scan.

From November 1995, when Selwa added her annual Sassy Awards to the night's entertainment, it really added some glitz and glamour to the nighttime activities. Ten or so trophies are given out each year, to Selwa's most successful authors or editors. (Feeling a bit like the ultimate phony, as Selwa's longest-attending "author" who's never actually earnt her any $$$$, I even received a Sassy myself, in 2000, for my "Positive Attitude", from that year's Sassy presenter, Harry M Miller.) Last night, Toni Lamond was back, along with Maria Venuti (this year's Sassy presenter), Jeanne Little, science fantasy author Ian Irvine, Jennifer Green, Barb Angell, Tara Moss... And so many more.

The most amazing thing about this year's seminar was the first sentence uttered in the first presentation. Helen Hope, an astrologer who has written 2007's twelve "Daily Horoscope" guides for Hinkler Books, asked for a show of hands as to who were the Sagittarians. Had we noticed that we Sagittarians seemed to have lost some of our magic in recent years? We all nodded "Yes".

It seems that yesterday, 25th November 2006, marked the return of Jupiter into the sign of Sagittarius! Pluto has been in Sagittarius since 1995, coincidentally(?) the year my "Number 96" book was rejected. Now, thanks to Jupiter, "a big year" is coming my way: one that "may forever see as crucial". My ruling planet of Jupiter returning is cause for great celebration - and Pluto's exit from Sagittarius makes 2007 "crunch time". (Notice how it ties in to my news a few days ago that I'm back in the school library next year?) Thanks Helen!

Time to kick in my "Positive Attitude" again - and finally redeem myself and earn that Sassy!

Ah, well, back to the manuscript...

Back to the books

As I mentioned here, I recently applied for a transfer - to my own school! - as the next teacher-librarian.

On Friday afternoon, I tried to ascertain just where in the continuum my application had progressed, but to no avail. Yesterday, my principal tried to find out the same information. While at first he had no news, later in the day he was contacted about what codes were required for the filling of the classroom teacher position I'd be relinquishing.

Today the confirmation came through: I've been appointed to the position of teacher-librarian. It's a four-day position, with the additional day per week being made up from our Priority Schools Programs (PSP) funding budget. This means that our school library can be made available to the school population five days per week, a similar strategy to the one I suggested at my first school (when I "fell" into the job as an untrained teacher-librarian, after I'd been doing the relief-from-face-to-face (RFF) teaching position the previous year).

So I start the new job in 2007. The last time I was in a school library, as the fully-trained T-L, was in 1997, before I was seconded to Scan as editor. A decade ago?

I shudder to think how much has changed. But I can't complain; my teaching colleagues are excited for me, and I'll be back in the unique teaching and learning niche that I find the most rewarding and exciting. Teaching is certainly a job that opens many doors and new challenges, often without even leaving the security of the Department of Education and Training.

The circular transfer

It seems a bit weird, but yesterday I had to fill out an Application for Transfer form - but only giving a choice of one school - so that I can transfer back to my own school, as a teacher-librarian. These days, most of the transfer process is done by computer; they enter all the data and the computer spits out your new destination.

After my job as Scan editor finished up in July 2002, the Department of Education and Training had no vacancies for teacher-librarians in my nominated districts, so I ended up back in a classroom, first as a supernumerary and then as a permanent teacher. I really like this school and, as much as I've enjoyed teaching Year 1 and 2 students the last few years, there is lots to miss about being the gatekeeper of information in a school library. Our current teacher-librarian has announced her retirement, and so - if all goes well - I will be moving into that position.

I've always felt that teacher-librarianship was my niche, where I could do the most good for the students and my colleagues in education. I'm looking forward to my return. (But it's daunting after so long away from the OASIS computer network - and budgets, stocktakes, book fairs, lost library books, etc.)

My greatest fear: remembering to write the correct four-digit school code on my form. That's no time to make a typographical error, and finding myself posted somewhere else more, um, scenic. Or my circular transfer ending up in the circular file.

Hokey smoke!

I was just reminded of a great story about workplace fire drills. Ironic, since recently, as the Occupational Health & Safety Officer at my school, I overhauled all the evacuation maps and escape plans in preparation for our next fire drill. (Fire drills are always fun in a primary school!)

When I was seconded to State Office in 1998, the office staff proudly presented me with a plastic hard hat, which meant, as the newest arrival, I was now Deputy Fire Drill Safety Officer! Oh well, it got me away from the desk for one day a year to undertake training.

One rather memorable round of safety officer training, held before I commenced my secondment, concerned a Very Serious Fire Drill. Although it was pronounced as successful - and everyone was congratulated - a few days later several neighbouring fire brigades arrived with their sirens blaring, responding to a supposed real emergency. But all 500+ staff members were still inside working on their computers.

The firemen ran in, axes and extinguishers in hand, totally perplexed to realise that noone had evacuated - because the fire was in the fire alarm cabinet!