Peggy Thomas President, OLA Ruth Hall President, OSLA Session 1708 Feb 27, 2010

1. New Directions for Ontario School Libraries Peggy Thomas President, OLA Ruth Hall President, OSLA Session 1708 Feb 27, 2010

2. A Brief History • January 2007 – meeting with Ministry of Education • April 2007 – money from Ministry of Education to OSLA for the writing of a school library document • January 2008 – Draft document Together for Learning presented at Super Conference for comment and feedback • Spring 2008 – continued consultations with stakeholders

3. What we heard: • Need more in-depth explanation and concrete ideas to bring the Learning Commons to life • Need to be more inclusive • Keep the strong literacy focus • Provide implementation ideas

4. The Result A Document constructed as: Vision and Ideas to Consider when implementing this vision in the school library Two copies to every school Web presence to allow the document to grow and to reflect our learning

5. Responding to an Era of Complex Change The Learning Commons is: • An approach to learning • A way to focus on learning collaboratively • Flexible, responsive, expansive • Virtual and physical spaces

6. The major shift: • The Learning Commons is the whole school • Everyone is a learner and a stakeholder • The School Library has an integral and transformative role to play in the implementation

7. Why a Learning Commons?

8. Not entirely new, and yet... • Growing disconnect between the way students learn outside of school and what is permitted inside of school • Radical change in technology and how we define ourselves as learners • The Learning Commons provides an environment for the transformation

9. Key Components of the Learning Commons • Physical and Virtual Space (pg. 9-10) • Equitable Access (pg. 10) • Learning Partnership (pg. 11) • Technology in Learning (pg 12) IT’S YOUR TURN: With a partner add to the Ideas to Consider section for 1 component Share with the group

10. SPACE: Physical Virtual Hellerup School, Denmark Brantford Collegiate, ON

11. Equitable Access

12. Learning Partnerships

13. Technology in Learning NCSU Learning Commons

14. Learning to Learn: From Information to Knowledge Creation • Reading Engagement • Multiple Literacies • Critical and Creative Thinking • Discovery and Guided Inquiry • Learning to Learn Read one section Note key ideas “tweet” back to the group (post-its)

15. Reading Engagement

16. Multiple Literacies Defining literacy is a process of continuous negotiation that is fuelled by social, economic and technological changes. • To be literate is to have the skills and knowledge to make meaningful connections between what one knows and what one is trying to understand, apply or communicate. Loertscher, Koechlin & Zwaan, 2008

17. Critical and Creative Thinking Good questions are the driving force of critical and creative thinking and therefore one of the best indicators of significant learning. Good questions are those that force students to challenge their taken-for-granted assumptions and see their own underlying biases... the best questions send students on rich and meaningful lifelong quests, question after question after question. Wesch, 2008

18. Discovery and Guided Inquiry

19. Learning to Learn

20. Developing the Individual Quality education includes the education of the heart as well as the head; it includes a focus on the whole person… It means preparing students to be concerned citizens who have empathy and respect for people within their increasingly diverse communities. It means providing opportunities for students to understand deeply the importance of civic engagement and what it means to be a global citizen... - Avis Glaze, 2006

21. The Role of Personal Qualities & Importance of Individual Growth • Imagination and creativity • Confidence and self-esteem Cultural awareness and social contribution • Importance of individual growth • Engagement of all Learners • Intellectual Curiosity • Respect and Responsibility • Initiative Browse through pages 30 - 33. What visual images come to mind?

22. Engagement of All Learners Turning hard work into hard fun requires helping students relate their work to their own lives and the culture in which they live. This type of learning, inherent in the Learning Commons, is sticky — it stays with the learner. And it creates an environment where the individual will grow and flourish. ( pg. 33)

23. Transition and Change Take a moment to consider your first steps? And how the LC could be developed at your school • Supports from the Document: • Evidence-based practice • Personal Learning Networks • Professional Learning Communities • Beginning Questions

24. Contributors • Anita Brooks Kirkland • Michael Budd • Timothy Gauntley • Cathi Gibson-Gates • Wayne Hamilton • Roberta Henley • Carol Koechlin • Diana Maliszewski • Larry Moore • Michelle Regina • Esther Rosenfeld • Michael Rosettis • Hetty Smeathers • Peggy Thomas • Lisa Weaver

25. Advisory Consultants • Ray Doiron • Ken Haycock • David Loertscher • Ross J. Todd • Debra Wallace • David Warlick

26. With the financial support of: Literacy and Numeracy Secretariat of the Government of Ontario’s Ministry of Education

27. OSLA SPOTLIGHT SPEAKER: Dr. Chris Spence on Dealing with Change “Change of this magnitude is never easy and once you embark on the journey, you soon learn that many people don’t like the discomfort involved. Stern resolve then becomes important because standing still or going backwards are no longer options. [What] is required is that we are open to it {change}and willing to embrace it,… thoughtful about what we preserve and what we reinvent, and that we have the courage to stay the course, despite what critics may say.”