From Library to Learning Commons: ERSLN Presentation 9 September 2013

Welcome
Mater Christi College
Learning Commons
Tuesday, 10 September 2013

Programs
From Library to Learning Commons
Advocacy

A school of
Good Samaritan
education
1,050 girls
Years 7-12
Celebrating 50 years
Our curriculum framework is the MYP - Middle Years Program 7-10 (IB) VCE, VCAL and VET are offered at Year 12.
School is divided into Middle (7-9) and Senior (10-12) schools.

Information Fluency program
IF program has run for over 9 years - lessons once a fortnight to all Year 7 classes, taught out of context and rotated through the Domains
Based on the Five As - Aquire, Acces, Analyse, Apply and Assess (Lee Crockett)
2013 - different approach, as a class begins a research task the T-L will work with them to ensure the 5As are taught in context and just-in-time.
Evaluate at yearʼs end.

Wide Reading and
Year 9 Literature Circles
English classes from 7-12 read once a fortnight or once a week
Year 9s Literature Circle

Homework &
Study Club
Homework Club for Middle School and Study club for Year 10s, teacher staffed, hot drinks and biscuits
Scholastica - for silent study for senior school - always supervised by staff and open late until 8.00 twice a week.

The Edge
Edge - all year levels - for those who love reading and writing, meet once a fortnight - excursions to Reading Matters, incursions of writers.

“Creating schools for the 21st century
requires less time looking in the rear view
mirror and more vision anticipating the
road ahead”
Ian Jukes (The Committed Sardine)
This is from Ian Jukes whose Committed Sardine blog is a great resource and it sums up the dilemma we faced when we began formulating a vision for the library in 2010.
We needed some help trying to predict what we would be doing and the role of the library with the change that was about to take place - 1:1 computing.
How do you anticipate the road ahead if you donʼt know what the future holds?

My revised manifesto
for a 21st century
teacher-librarian
Joyce Valenza - manifesto written in October 2010.
Joyce articulated the types of activities and skills that were needed
since revised it earlier this year.

Adapted the manifesto to our own mission statement for the space and the stafﬁng in the library
Communicated to - principal and whole school staff meeting
Advocacy - important to target the staff and how it can support them and affect educational outcomes
begin by establishing relationships with staff and then proposing an opportunity to work with them
Induction day for new staff - take-away brochure about the services and the support you offer

http://www.blogtap.net/wp-content/uploads/2010/02/obama-yes-we-can.jpg
First thing was to change the culture
This costs nothing
We became a “Yes we can” library
Respond in this way to every request
Examined what we do with regards the students as a ﬁrst priority rather than the library staffʼs beneﬁt

Get rid of as many rules as you can especially those that were made for the benefit of the staff rather than the students
3 rules only - no food, no borrowing without a card, no borrowing with overdue books
doors were opened - security gates dismantled
bags were allowed in
no limit on loans
increased loan period to 3 weeks for all resources
puzzle table, cards
sit on the floor
increased opening hours 7.45-5.00pm
open all recess and lunch (closed first 10 mins)
bumper crowds

Does it impact on student learning?
Does it make their life easier.
why were they lining up in a corridor packed with lockers prior to entering the library which was supervised?
have use of all areas without asking permission

we supply coloured paper, they can use the laminator, they can come in the out-door and go out the in-door
they can use poster paper, we hold books for them if no card,
we basically donʼt say no, we ﬁnd a solution to their problem and ﬁx it.

Scholastica VCE study centre
Scholastica
Supervised by staff at all times
Open late on Tuesday and Thursday until 8.00pm
For Year 10 (Higher Study) Year 11 (mandated to attend) & 12
Changed culture of study for VCE students

2011
1:1 laptop program
2011 - MAC introduced
whole school went from windows and PCs to Mac Laptops
Year 12 did not receive a laptop - class set of ipads provided

2011
1:1 laptop program
Next year will see roll-out of new computers to Years 9, 10, 11 and staff. Year 12s will inherit staff machines
Year 7s will have an ipad and keep until year 9 - then a MACbook

Classroom tools LibGuide
Advocacy is more than providing data to principals
Supporting the students and teachers at every opportunity
Raises your profile and that of the library
Word spreads especially if you celebrate achievements alongside the teachers you have supported at staff meetings
Refreshers to staff briefings
Many staff were finding it difficult to move to MAC
Made a conscious effort to be ahead of and provide support, one-on-one sessions, workshops on professional learning days
Built the classroom tools LibGuide - work in progress
Promote applications and websites through the LMS rather than the email system

Fewer classes were coming to the library
T-L still visiting classes but print collection was not being used - began a deselection process - discarded books that did not support the curriculum, over 10 years old, hadnʼt been borrowed
and unattractive
Re-think and change
IWB in every classroom and everyone had a device
Demand for the Seminar room declined dramatically
What to do?

David Loertscher
David LankesIan Jukes
Inspiration came from Personal Professional Learning
Blogs, tweets, journals

David Loertscher is the driving force behind the Learning Commons idea
These publications are invaluable
Began reading these and envisaged a Learning Commons for MCC
Passed them to the Director of Curriculum

Learning
Commons
Engagement
Student
Centred
Flexible
spaces
Connectivity
Higher
Order
Thinking
PARTICIPATORY
LEARNING
COLLABORATION
Showcased
Learning
Loertscher 2010
Presented to Curriculum and Learning Team (Learning Leaders, Domain Leaders and specialist learning leaders)
Then to Leadership team - deputies and facilities
Innovations Group and then whole staff
The Learning Commons would become the learning centre for the whole school - teachers and students
ESL, Tech experts, Tutors, careers, ed support would be on-hand, one-stop-shop for learning
Need for a bigger space
What could we accommodate initially?
Careers and pathways were now on site with ofﬁce modiﬁcation

Study Tour to USA (2012) - attend ISTE and more recently the CEFPI conference has provided inspiration

I visited some University Libraries and Public Libraries and arranged interviews with librarians to speak about Learning Commons
Pace University NYC

Learning Commons at Pace University

Pace University Learning Commons
English tutors had ofﬁces within the library

NYC Public Library
NYC Public Library - traditional

Brooklyn Public Library
Brooklyn Public Library -
Have since built an information commons
Meeting with planners and librarians who showed me the plans and drawings

http://www.libraryasincubatorproject.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/01/2013-Jan-15-info-common-252-1024x683.jpg
Brooklyn Public Library
Information Commons
providing for users who have begun using Public libraries as their place of business
Internet connections, computers, book making machine, break out spaces, small lecture and meeting rooms, conduct workshops.

CEFPI Conference
NZ 2013
Council of Educational Facility Planners
International
CEFPI conference Auckland NZ
Visits to new learning spaces
talks from leaders in the ﬁelds of education and architecture
How we learn and how we need to change our thinking and pedagogy
For change to succeed we need to make it hard to imagine how to use the space in the old way - e.g. Seminar room - does not support or work if teacher centred learning

Library Auckland Girls’ Grammar
Planning for the future must involve the students
new systems are required to generate new ways of doing things
Key role design and furniture has is in enabling teachers to change pedagogy
When planning for the future, do not draw from the past
must have the right pedagogy in place - no building will provide this but it can help to drive change forward

Change to the physical space required change to the virtual space and so went from Wordpress Blog to a LibGuide as our webpage
Easier to edit, easier to navigate.
with the deselection of books and reconfiguring the shelves we found an increase in usable floor space - we could now accommodate 4 instead of 3 classes
Half the Year 8 cohort working on an IDU using the space in a flexible manner

Learning Booths
idea stemmed from visiting Bialik a few years ago (with principal and deputy) and observing students who would come out of class to the library in small groups and they would gather
around one computer and all watch a small screen.
students display their work and present to smaller groups rather than the whole class sitting through 24 presentations
collaborate when working on a common task
compare their homework discussion points
lunchtimes - play an interactive game online
supports extra curricula activities Anime club - drawings by members can be displayed to small groups
brainstorming online - using Padlet

2010
Vision Statement
Communicate
Culture
Change
Help
Desk

Proposal
2011

Learning
Commons
Proposal
(Physical
and
Virtual)
Communicate
2012
Careers
&

Pathways
2013
Learning

Booths
From Library
To Learning Commons
this is our journey
communication at every step
successful because this library has a high proﬁle and support of the principal and teachers have beneﬁted from the support of the library
Advocacy:
keep records of every request from teachers
all the LibGuides I prepare
spreadsheet of all classes where Information Skills are taught
attend year level meetings and circulate especially to Humanities and Science domains -research focused subjects

Thank you
Thank you
Questions
Tour

Acknowledgements
The Library as Incubator Project. 2013. Announcing: The Shelby White & Leon Levy Information Commons at Brooklyn Public Library | Library as
Incubator Project. [online] Available at: http://www.libraryasincubatorproject.org/?p=8612 [Accessed: 25 Jul 2013].
School Library Journal. 2010. A revised manifesto. [online] Available at: http://
blogs.slj.com/neverendingsearch/2010/12/03/a-revised-manifesto/ [Accessed: 25 July
2013].
Tumblr. 2013. President Obama yes we can. [image online] Available at: http://www.tumblr.com/tagged/yes-we-can [Accessed: 25 July 2013].
Unknown. 2012. Change. [image online] Available at: http://lifewithmisty.ﬁles.wordpress.com/2012/05/change_button.jpg [Accessed:
25 July 2013].
Unknown. 2013. David Lankes. [image online] Available at: http://quartz.syr.edu/blog/?page_id=27 [Accessed: 25 July 2013].
Unknown. 2013. Lucacept banner. [image online] Available at: http://jennyluca.com/ [Accessed: 25 July 2013].
Unknown. 2013. David Loertscher. [image online] Available at: http://www.teacherlibrarian.com/about-2/staff/ [Accessed: 25 July 2013].
Unknown. 2013. The paradigm shift banner. [image online] Available at: http://www.marktreadwell.com/ [Accessed: 25 July 2013].
Unknown. 2013. Daring librarian banner. [image online] Available at: http://www.thedaringlibrarian.com/ [Accessed: 25 July 2013].
Unknown. 2013. Free technology for teachers banner image. [image online] Available at: http://www.freetech4teachers.com/ [Accessed: 25 July 2013].
Unknown. 2013. Ian Jukes. [image online] Available at: http://www.nesacenter.org/page.cfm?p=1142 [Accessed: 25 July 2013].
Unknown. 2013. The unquiet librarian banner image. [image online] Available at: http://theunquietlibrarian.wordpress.com/ [Accessed: 25 Aug 2013].
Unknown. 2013. SCIL banner image. [image online] Available at: http://scil.com.au/ [Accessed: 25 Aug 2013].
Images
Acknowledgements

From Library to Learning Commons: ERSLN Presentation 9 September 2013

Recommended

Recommended

More Related Content

What's hot

What's hot (20)

Viewers also liked

Viewers also liked (9)

Similar to From Library to Learning Commons: ERSLN Presentation 9 September 2013

Similar to From Library to Learning Commons: ERSLN Presentation 9 September 2013 (20)

Recently uploaded

Recently uploaded (20)

From Library to Learning Commons: ERSLN Presentation 9 September 2013