Making the most of your eResources

Sea-to-Sky TLs explore ERAC bundles
Recently, I had the pleasure of working with teacher-librarians in District 48. We talked about their vision for library programs and explored how to promote and better use the many resources they have at their disposal.

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How Tweet it is!

Build your PLN
I recently presented a workshop on using Twitter for teachers. This is a adaptation of a previous session for TLs and introduces teachers to the basics, as well as how they might use this platform to build a personal learning network. (Thanks Lisa for the original template.)

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Transforming Curriculum & Assessment

New directions in curriculum in BC
A workshop presented in conjunction with members of the Learning Services Department to teachers and administrators.

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RTLA 2014 - Fall conference

At the heart of Student Learning
While we had a slow start this year because of job action, the RTLA mini-conference was a big success. It was a great opportunity to network and encourage new TLs.

Our video Keynote was taken from a WLMA advocacy video. We set pro-D priorities for the year, and discussed plagiarism (Remix Culture), Twitter (Explore using Twitter to build your PLN) and looked a some fun webtools:

1. mapFrappe
2. QR code "go cards" (goo.gl qrstuff goqr.me)
3. Lingro: Instant word check
4. AWW  webapp.
5. Webpath Express
6. BigHugeLabs

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Krashen Redux*

Vancouver Teacher-Librarians mini-conference
A facilitated viewing of a video presentation by Stephen Krashen.

The BIO: Stephen Krashen is professor emeritus at the University of Southern California. He is a linguist, educational researcher, and activist, and self-professed "grammar wonk", has published more than 350 papers and books, and works in the fields of L2 acquisition, neurolinguistics, bilingual education, and reading. Krashen promotes the use of free voluntary reading during second-language acquisition, which he says "is the most powerful tool we have in language education, first and second."

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LT professional Development

eResources to explore
We spent the day working on the range of eResources available to staff and students. This was a refresher for some, and new to others: EBSCO magazines (searching for the right article), Learn360 (how to download clips), FollettShelf (what's new), Google Search (tips for better searching)

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Writing the IB extended essay

Tech tools to help!
Links from a presentation I prepared for IB students looking to explore a wider array of online resources.

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GarageBand - An underused resource!

This past week, I was asked to come to Homma for one of their iChallenge days. One of the sessions was on using GarageBand with students. The teachers were interested in the ESL possibilities as well as use in Music classes.

Garageband seems to be getting better and better with each new version. I shared a resource with the teachers that I had put together a year or so ago with some idea starters: making PSAs, recording poetry readings, doing a radio play based on a novel or fairy tale, interviewing a historical character or author, creating news bulletins or weather reports - the list is almost endless. Since it is installed on all the lab computers, it makes sense to explore this great program.

Here's the link to my handout: [LINK] [some notes]

I also sent out a list of some more up-to-date resources to consult, which I posted on my webapps blog: [LINK here]

BCALMER - Copyright basics

BCALMER asked me to do a short presentation on Copyright basics at their Fall AGM.

The implications for teachers and publishers has consequences for how resources are shared, promoted and used in the classroom. While there were some raised eyebrows at some of the new freedoms teachers have in using materals, the group did some good brainstorming about how some of the implications could turn into a "mal pour un bien". (à la Napster as the impetus for iTunes and a new model for music distribution.) We also talked about the fragility of the Canadian market, and the value of home-grown resources. No answers, but lots of discussion.

See my presentation web-page here: [LINK]

RTLA Fall Conference 2013

This year's RTLA mini-conference was on the theme of "Creating Engagement"

Our video-keynote kicked off the day with a look at Challenge-based and problem (or project) based learning. There was a lot of interest in exploring these ideas at future pro-D sessions.

We spent some time looking more closely at EBSCO magazine resources, and then there was a "roll-out" or Learn360 and FollettShelf.

Here's the link to the conference web-site: [LINK]


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