PASSIONATE ABOUT SCHOOL LIBRARIES
Running both a school library and an Innovation Precinct, supporting creative thinking, prototyping and product making, means I am always on the lookout for new educational resources to engage my students. When I was offered the chance to try Spintronics, I jumped at it. I am a massive fan of the Turing Tumbles, which are made by the same creators of the Spintronics.
There is lots to love about Spintronics, so let’s beak it down.
There are so many benefits of a genrefied non-fiction collection. I can highly recommend it, but if you are just starting out or are facing a large non-fiction collection, knowing where to start can be daunting. Here’s my step by step guide to genrefying a non-fiction collection.
Signage is one of the most important things you can add to your school library collections to aid access and remove the barriers students might face in trying to access the information they need. Fortunately, you can now purchase a wide range of signage options from school library suppliers, but it can be pretty expensive. I have always made my own signage for my school library collections, using a variety of different tools, software programs and resources, making my signage fully customisable and a lot more cost-effective. Using a few tips and tricks, your signage can look as professional as purchased signage.
Non-fiction is seeing a bit of a resurgence in recent years and I am very much here for it. I love non-fiction and think big, beautiful and relevant collections have so much to offer staff and students of all ages.
But how best to present and organise your non-fiction collection? Would a genrefied collection offer the most for your students?
The CBCA Children’s Book Week is one of the biggest events in the Australian school library calendar. A perfect opportunity to celebrate Australian children’s literature and the work of school library staff and everything they do to support reading.
Each year, a theme is announced, along with the illustrator who will create the poster and graphics for the theme.
Welcome to September. If you are in Australia, most of us have celebrated (and survived) the CBCA Book Week. It’s always a massive week, month and term and such a fantastic opportunity to celebrate children’s literature and school libraries. For those overseas heading into the start of the school year, we wish you luck for the start of the year. Looking to start the school year well? Looking to continue to promote literature and reading? I’ve have some webinars, podcasts, articles and more for you. Here is your list of professional learning for September, 2023. Happy learning.
What is your teacher reference collection like? Dusty and unused? Tiny and unhelpful? Large and overwhelming?
When I inherited my current school library, the junior school’s collection was in the Junior Library but the secondary school teacher reference collection was not located in the library. The junior collection was large, with class sets, literature circles and teaching resources. The secondary TR collection had been housed in a staff area under the guidance of those responsible for guiding the pedagogy of the school. A move that made sense. The collection was certainly not as large as at some of my previous schools, but that was because junior and secondary was separated and the textbook TR was housed with the textbooks. The Secondary collection was books only, no resources. The majority of items are stored within departments in different storerooms, squirrelled away and a disaster zone all of their own. In this post, I am talking about the genrefication process of the secondary school teacher reference collection.
August. A big month in the school library world in Australia. If you are just trying to survive the month (like me) or thriving and looking to embrace any and all opportunities, here’s a list for you. School library professional learning opportunities for August, 2023. From webinars to podcasts, articles and more. Happy learning.
Being slightly competitive (at least when it comes to my school library) might have been one of the reasons I created a leadership collection.
As part of reinvigorating our non-fiction collection, we have genrefied and added books on a range of topics. One of those new sections is our Entrepreneurship collection, which features a strong collection of leadership books. This collection happened quite by chance, but now that I look back, it makes so much sense.
The benefits of reading fiction are well established. Reading supports wellbeing and mental health, develops comprehension, expands vocabulary, develops empathy and aids sleep, just to name a few. The lists of benefits from reading fiction, immersing oneself in an imaginative world, of joining a character and facing their world and emotions, are endless.
But how does non-fiction stack up? Does reading non-fiction provide the same benefits to readers as reading fiction does? Diving into the research around this turns up some interesting results.
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