PLCC AH PD

What a ridiculous title - I love it!!

If you have skills, hints or tips to share with your fellow TLs and are willing to lead an AH PD session in 2025, please email tlccin2018@gmail.com

PLCC AH PD dates for 2025: 20 February, 20 March, 22 May, 19 June, 14 August, 11 September, 6 November & 4 December

Thursday 27 November 2025

4-5.15pm

DoE Purchasing Policy - what it means for TLs

Thursday 6 November 2025

4-5.15pm

Unpacking the Library Policy

Vicki Bennett

Thursday 19 June 2025!

3.30-4.30pm

More amazing stories with more amazing women!

Thursday 22 May 2025!

3.30-4.30pm

Have you written a good book lately?

These authors have!

Georgie from CKT Speakers Agency hosts this session with four of Australia's best-known and loved authors and illustrators.

Cool Tools: Check out some awesome AI tools that can help you support teachers and engage students.

Library Innovations: Learn how to bring AI into your library resources and services in creative ways.

Let’s Talk Ethics: Share thoughts on the ethical side of using AI in education.

Who Should Join?

All teacher librarians who want to shake things up and explore new ideas!

Why You Should Attend:

Walk away with practical tips you can use right away.

Connect with fellow teacher librarians and swap stories.

Stay ahead in the ever-evolving world of ed tech.

This is a hands-on exploration of AI, so have your device ready!

Don’t miss out on this chance to boost your teaching toolkit with AI! Let’s embark on this exciting journey together!

Thursday 20 March 2025!

3.30-5.00pm

AI 101: Get a friendly introduction to what AI is all about—no tech jargon here!

Kathleen Marreiros

KM.pdf

Your presenter ...???

BONUS: As well as Kathleen's session, we have short visits from three special guests - Marc McBride at 3.30, Cassy Polimeni at 4.30 and Jacqueline Harvey at 4.45 - I hope you can stay and chat with them!

Thursday 20 February 2025!

3.30-4.30pm

Engaging reluctant readers with SSR

Penny Davidson

Penny says: after investigating why there had been such a decline in Stage 3’s reading and borrowing habits I investigated several strategies to try to engage students back into reading. I landed on Silent Sustained Reading and students in Stage 3 agreed to trial the strategy for Semester 2 in 2024.

As part of our staff profession development on improving reading results within the school I presented my findings about Stage 3’s reading habits, as well as how SSR could work as an effective reading strategy in the classroom/library, and how I planned to implement it to have the best outcome, as well as reflecting on how successful the program was.

Jade Arnold (PRC)

Thursday 28 March 2024!

3.30-4.30pm

Margot Lindgren, Beverley McWilliams & Ashleigh Barton

New titles to watch out for and the CBCA Notables - fabulous insights, as usual 😁

Books and backpacking - all an adventure and you're invited to join! 🛩️

Celebrations of the people we love, and a sweet vampire - all in the one backpack from Ashleigh 🧛

PLCC presentation March 2024.pptx

Thursday 29 Feb!

3.30-4.30pm

Melissa Kelly& Craig Beatty

Join educators Melissa Kelly and Craig Beatty in an exciting professional learning session designed to empower educators with the skills to create a captivating podcast in the school library. In this dynamic workshop, Melissa and Craig will share their expertise and insights on crafting engaging audio content, supporting student wellbeing, and integrating podcasting into the curriculum. Whether you're a seasoned podcaster or new to the world of audio storytelling, this session will provide practical tips, tools, and strategies to unleash your creativity and enhance a sense of belonging for your students through podcasting. Don't miss this opportunity to explore the endless possibilities of podcasting with two experienced educators as your guides!

Wednesday, 22 November 3.30-4.30pm

John Curtis: sharing some 2023 successes

The presentation will cover 3 main topics:

Teaching digital citizenship - we'll take a look at a scope and sequence with linked lessons and additional resources.
Programming templates - I'll share my program and how I track and organise outcomes, differentiation and lessons.
Library display ideas - I'll show some pictures of successful displays I have made and briefly share the how/why.

Thursday, 14 September, 3.30-4.30pm

reading engagement: have you tried these?

Kate Foster (Author pen pals), sonya engelen TL & the sydney writers' festival), megan Harte (dymocks lit club 4 kids)

Join Kate Foster, Sonya Engelen and Megan Harte as they present and discuss various programs that can help you further engage your students with authors, books and reading.

Thursday, 17 August, 3.30-4.30pm : Erin Wamala and Book Week read-arounds

Erin is a teacher librarian, literacy consultant, twice a storyteller with Story Box Library, CBCA judge, board member of the Melbourne Writer's Festival and proud owner of The Kids' Bookshop in Mitcham, Victoria. We suspect she is a genuine book nerd...

Thursday, 15 June, 3.30-4.30pm

See the link to Kathy's talk HERE

Kathy has been an educator for more than 30 years and TL for 18 at Bardia PS where she has seen the school grow from 95 to 1000 students and 98 staff. She has been the coordinator of the South West Sydney Library Network for three years and is passionate about advocating for the profession of teacher librarianship.

Dr Kathy Rushton

USYD and the Foundation for Learning and Literacy

Thursday, 25 May, 3.30-4.40

Registered for this PD? Download the handout provided by Dr Rushton and have it handy!

Participant Handout.docx

23 February, 3.30-4.30

Dr Joshua W. Pate is a physiotherapy lecturer at UTS with expertise in a child’s concept of pain.

His interest in the field was sparked by simultaneously working at Westmead Hospital Pain Management Centre and working as a physiotherapist with children.

“Persisting pain can involve a horrible cycle of pain and fear and avoidance, so everyone needs to be on the same team – parents, doctors, physiotherapists, psychologists, coaches and teachers,” Joshua said.

Joshua will be talking about how his books can be used in the school setting.

Jade Arnold is our new PRC officer and will be filling us in on all the changes to the PRC for 2023. She will also talk about how she engaged student in the past, and we can share our ideas for boosting our own PRC numbers.

Thursday, 9 Feb, 3.30-4.30pm

Prepping for Term 1? Sharing ideas for a stress-free start.

Join Kathryn Schumacher from Pembroke Junior School (SA), Kathy Wyber from Bardia Public School and Gina Krohn from Glenfield Public School as we offer our ideas for anything from organisation and admin to displays and special events. Your ideas will be a valuable addition to our collective understanding, experience and resources!

Kathryn and Gina, identities TBC!!

10 November, 4.30-5.30

Swarovski Waterschool Australia is a global program that aims to foster Water Ambassadors by providing tools and training to help overcome local water challenges. Beginning in Austria in 2000, this program now spans 8 countries across 6 continents and reached Australia just last year. Swarovski Waterschool Australia Program Manager, Hannah Gentle, will present the success of the program to date, and provide information about how to apply for this fully-funded program in 2023.

Lugarno PS TL, Leonie Dufty, has had outstanding success with S3 and this initiative and will talk about this in the session. Leonie says "Our school has now been selected for the Global Manager of the Global Swarovski Waterschool Program to visit. He is from Austria and will come to LPS in October to witness all the wonderful work our students have produced during library visits. Additionally, we have been asked to be a lead school and host other schools next year, which will eventuate in a grant that will go towards our school rain garden.

Using Canva to create book trailers

Emily will share this 100% engagement and learning experience with a Canva walk-through and step by step demonstration of creating a book trailer.

20 October, 4.30-5.30

Emily Williams

4 August, 4.30-5.30

Di Laycock: President, SLANSW

Curating and Collaborating with Graphic Novels and Manga

There’s a mountain of anecdotal evidence that indicates graphic novels and manga are flying off school library shelves. However, while most of us are happy to choose graphic novels and manga that have been recommended by peers and publishers, how confident are we to make our own selections, display them in the most engaging way, take them into the classroom, or meet challenges regarding their appropriateness? In this session, Di will consider these questions and add your input to a bank of takeaway strategies and recommendations that will help make you the superheroes of your comics collections.

CBCA shortlist + our excellent ideas!

23 June, 4.30-5.30 ... or maybe 6

See and hear a number of TLs (including you!!) as we discuss the shortlisted books from various categories and provide some information about how we will be approaching a specific book with our students.

Will we focus on engagement, visual literacy, text analysis?

All will be revealed!

CBCA_PLCC_AH_PD.pptx

Why I don't have a makerspace...

'There is a huge push for introducing makerspaces to libraries but speaking to lots of librarians, they just don't feel they can manage one and often feel they are letting down their students by not having one. I have introduced many things to the library like libguides and genrefication but, as my talk will address, I don't have a makerspace for a number of good reasons. I will discuss the merits of makerspaces but also why we shouldn't be pressured into creating one, instead using the theory but doing it our own way and so not all falling onto the library staff.'

Christine Peterson: SCOTS PGC College, QLD

2 June, 4.30-5.30

Christine Peterson is Head of Library Services at SCOTS PGC College Warwick, Qld.

Previously a registered nurse, she moved into learning support when her daughter was diagnosed with dyslexia. In 2017 Christine completed her B.Ed through USQ while working full-time as an EA. She then took up a maternity contract in the school library, moving into a permanent position the following year. Christine has just completed the MEd (Teacher Librarianship) with CSU.

'SCOTS has 475 students currently enrolled from Prep to 12 with about a 1/4 boarding students from across Australia. When I say I am Head of Library Services it is a bit of a fallacy, I am the only librarian with 1 part-time aide and 2 libraries - and no makerspace!'

CKT presents ...

12 May, 4.30-5.30pm

Author and force behind Creative Kids Tales, Georgie Donaghey, has lined up a fantastic array of Australian authors for our next PLCC AH PD afternoon. Join Jackie French, Jules Faber, Zanni Louise and more!

Unpacking some favourites - picture books and thoughtful insights

10 March, 4.30-5.30pm

Penelope Oliver-Sharp (Ruse PS) and Margot Lindgren (http://momotimetoread.blogspot.com/) will unpack and discuss some of their favourite picture books. Penny will look at how she unpacks some of her favourites for the kids, and Margot will dive into aspects of picture books to give TLs new insights. It will be a picture book feast!

Apologies from me but I forgot to hit record so the first few minutes are missing...

PLCC Picture book talk MLindgren (Abridged).pptx

Favourite Texts_ Part 1- The Island.pptx

The Information Fluency Framework

Saturday 19 February, 11.00-3.30pm (time TBC)

Be a part of our IFF session via Zoom for information about the new Fluency Framework and how it can work in your library. We will be work-shopping how to incorporate the IFF into primary programs.

Morning session: introduction and general explanation

High school breakout

Primary breakout and wrap up with June Wall

Prepping your library (and yourself!) for Term 1

10 February, 4.30-5.30pm

Join a small panel of TLs as we talk about the various ways we prep our libraries for a term of teaching and reading. We'll talk programs, supporting staff, organising book clubs and fairs and more. We could all learn something!

2021 sessions

Last chance for reading recommendations with Tamara Reads!

9 December, 7pm - note the later time!

Our final PLCC AH PD session for 2021 - you'll need a bigger Christmas stocking - and we trust you're all on the NICE list (and have been there all year!). Tamara will review her latest favourites and help us all get lost in that wonderful world of words.

Visit Tamara's blog for more: http://www.tamarareads.com/

Huey the Bookbot

4 November, 4.30pm

Join Meena Tharmarajah from Huey the Bookbot, Cathy Drury from McCallums Hill PS and Rhonda Creasey from Wallsend PS as they discuss the introduction of Huey the Bookbot to school libraries, the amazing results that have been experienced and how your school can become involved!

Past sessions & recordings

Woodslane series

Karen Young - psychologist and author

28 October, 4.30pm

Karen began her career as a psychologist before she founded www.heysigmund.com, the website that brings the science of psychology to the art of being human. She has an honours degree in psychology and masters in Gestalt therapy. Karen is a sought-after speaker, both at home in Australia and internationally, on the topic of anxiety in children and teens.

Karen says: as part of the session, I will be discussing how my three books, Hey Warrior, Hey Awesome and But We’re Not Lions can be used to nurture social and emotional development in children. I will cover:

How 'Hey Warrior' and 'Hey Awesome' can be used to:
- strengthen children against anxiety and towards courage;
- normalise the conversation about anxiety and courage;
- teach children about the brain, and how this can be used to help them manage big feelings (including anger, anxiety);
- teach children about the various ways we can all ‘be the boss of our brain’ and strengthen it in positive ways.

How ‘But We’re Not Lions’ can be used to:
- open a conversation about putting our own boundaries in place and respecting the boundaries of others;
- discuss bullying - why, what to do when it’s happening, what to do when we see it happening, how to be a good friend;
- nurture empathy.

Karen and Woodslane have kindly provided copies in the series to give away during the session.

Photo: flickr.com

Date TBC - thanks Covid ...

Think there's more to repairing books than sticky tape? Then this session is for you!!

Hints and tips for book repairs - postponed until 2022

Louise Passmore

STEM & coding in your library: for beginners!

21 October, 4.30pm

Join us to see some practical examples for teaching coding and STEM lessons to primary students in your library lessons. Gain some ideas and strategies to link your STEM lessons to quality literature and research skills, and have fun in the process. Engage your students in library activities which are meaningful and target their interests. Lots of free, accessible resources will be shared! If the idea of coding, robotics and STEM is not in your comfort zone, this is the session for you.

Woodslane Series

Myke Mollard - author

This revised edition (due for 25 Oct release) of a unique A-Z book truly captures the range and diversity of our unique and wondrous Australian wildlife. Exploring common names, aboriginal names, Latin names and from every corner of Australia, the book includes over 400 native animals, from sea creatures and insects, to amphibians, reptiles, birds and mammals. The book highlights the endangered, sometimes the extinct and the rare beauty of Australia and its islands and territories. Fully indexed, this book invites and engages kids (and kid-adults) of all ages to find, discover and learn all the animal names and compare their different types. Originally assisted by leading biologists, author Myke has ensured the illustrations are anatomically correct as well as vibrant and enchanting. As a bonus, you can find one human in the book doing what Myke loves best as a recreational pursuit.

7 October, 4.30pm

She's back for a book chat 'n' Sip!

16 September, 7pm - note the later time!

Do you want to talk about books with colleagues? Come along and chat with Tamara from the PRC about her fave finds in the children’s/ YA scene this year, as well as some fantastic adult reads. Feel free to bring along your own must-read suggestions to share too! BYO beverage of choice - no need to share this!

We will have a book quiz - with prizes!

Judith Barker - author.pdf

Judith's bio and publication list

Woodslane series

Judith Barker - author

How to support literacy with phonemic awareness

2 September, 4.30pm

This may be of interest to your ES/1 and S2 colleagues as well. Please let them know about it!

Judith and Woodslane have kindly provided three copies in the series to give away during the session.

Tamara Reads: 12 August, 4.30pm

Our Premier's Reading Challenge officer with the DoE Arts Unit, Tamara, will be providing insights into the Challenge, answering any questions you have and troubleshooting those tricky things we just can't work out! With the changes to the PRC due to this current lockdown, it's important to be familiar with all the new rules so as many of our readers as possible can complete the 2021 Challenge.