Network meeting: May 4, 2010
Post date: May 11, 2010 9:25:44 AM
ISLN Network Meeting: May 4, 2010
Overseas Family School, Elementary Library
23 people attended
Jan Cox (OFS) received apologies from Lisa Patton (CIS) and a message from Kirk Palmer (SAS) re a new opening in the upper primary library for next year.
[Update: Kate Brundage, a current teacher at SAS who also is a librarian, has filled the position of Sally Burk, who is moving on to Berlin -- info compliments of Tim Ramsey (Follett)]
Barb Philip (TTS), President, ran the meeting.
The minutes from the last meeting were accepted.
Membership
New membership structure mentioned. A letter had been sent to everyone explaining the differences between free membership and the varieties of paid membership.
A letter needs to be sent out to all heads of international schools explaining the benefits to the whole school of paid School Membership (i.e., discount on PD like the Hands on Literacy conference).
Membership fees are due by the end of June. Membership cards will be issued.
An updated membership form/invoice is now available on the wiki.
Mention was made of Judy Kong (NLB) getting honorary membership in light of her work on behalf of the network. Barb Philip (TTS) will write a letter to the National Library Board informing them of this.
Liaisons with other organizations
National Book Development Council -- reciprocal 10% discount on PD -- e.g., on the upcoming Asian Festival of Children's Content
IASL (Int’l Association of School Libraries)
Discount for conferences;
Newsletters 3 times a year;
Listserv -- 3 people are nominated to receive it -- and they can pass it on;
PD as a regular part of our meetings?
Discussion of what we could do -- either collectively or individually. People offered ideas of what they would like to see, e.g.,
Local authors;
Book talks;
Book sharing;
Recently published books, e.g., for the Red Dot Awards;
Sharing of policy documents;
ICT ideas/sharing/training;
Break-out groups by age (e.g., infants, juniors, middle, senior);
Focus on topics and age-appropriate books, e.g., on sensitive social issues like divorce or adoption, or on popular curriculum topics like the environment;
How we each collect unit of inquiry books;
Web 2.0 tools that are good for making/keeping lists of books;
Treasurer’s report
[Ruth Soeding (GESS), Treasurer, hadn’t arrived yet, so Barb Philip provided this information.]
Bank accounts not fully transferred to the names of the new Executive Committee members;
S$ 6,788.18 in the bank.
Membership in IASL cost us US$200.
ASO (Australian Standing Orders) - payment made for books purchased for Red Dot Awards.
Trophies and medals for the upcoming Readers Cup to be paid for.
Hands on Literacy conference subcommittee report
Lorena Ferreira (UWC Dover), Chair of the Subcommittee reported.
The Call for Papers should be ready by Friday or Monday. The Presenter Registration website is almost ready to go. A PDF brochure is also being prepared (which will be downloadable from the website).
[Update: Call for Papers site is now live.]
Dr. Carol Kuhlthau can now make it -- in addition to Dr. Ross Todd.
Everyone in the network is asked to spread the word, once the Call for Papers is live.
Discussion of places to advertise the conference, e.g., IB/AP, OZTL, etc.
Sponsorship is coming along, Ben Farr (TTS) reported. Just heard that Intrepica is giving us $3k. Asian Geographic is giving us goods. Follett has signed up for $2k. Better Toy Store is giving us $2k in goods. APD is giving us $500. AustralEd will offer a workshop, as will Shamini Flint. Also talking to Market Asia Distributors re what they can do. Etc.
The conference will have different strands identified:
Digital Literacy
Traditional Literacy
Visual Literacy & the Arts
Research & Inquiry
Early Years
Librarianship
Other
PD Sharing: A Year 9 Reading Trail Ning
Jacqui Makselon (TTS) did a 30-minute presentation on her Year 9 Reading Trail project, which she did this past year in collaboration with the English Dept.
They set up a protected Ning with 167 members (155 of which were students -- a whole year group). NB: As the ning is protected, Jacqui cannot provide a link to it.
Some of the goals were:
to encourage a range of genres of quality literature;
to encourage independent reading;
to encourage students to be analytical;
to stretch students as readers;
to use Web 2.0 tools to excite them;
to help students develop their own independent reading program;
to aim for an "intellectual edge";
to help teachers, who wanted tangible evaluation of skills transferred;
A Reading Trail -- a personal journey... possibly including a poem, a mindmap of key ideas and themes of the poem, fiction, graphic novel, picture book, song lyrics, online information source, biography, magazines, news items, classics, short stories, reviews of movies, etc.
Duration: over a term and a half.
Students customized their own page/blog.
Rules included: pages were monitored, no texting language, and only positive comments on other people's pages/postings.
A reading record was kept and monitored, though the format was up to the students.
Parents were encouraged to be involved.
Final assignment: a 1-3 minute oral commentary on the experience.
For more information, contact Jacqui Makselon directly at Jacqui.Makselon@tts.edu.sg.
Readers Cup
Upcoming event: Monday, May 10 -- at AISS. (The date had been moved from Tuesday the 11th as AISS could only host it on Monday the 10th.)
Registration forms due by Thursday if you want Certificates of Participation. Please arrive by 3:30 PM.
Barb Philip (TTS) reported on how much she enjoyed attending the French school's preliminary Readers Cup.
Three cups: Junior, Middle, and Senior. Each winning cup/team will receive $500 in free books from Bookaburra Books.
Jobs: moving on?
It seems no one is moving on -- with the exception of the notice from SAS noted earlier.
PD/Author Visits Feedback
Linda Twitchett (AISS) and Amanda Dollin (AISS) briefly discussed the IB/AP Librarian Continuum Workshop they attended recently in Sydney.
The dinner with Emily Gravett in early April was noted -- as well as her preference not to have any direct contact with teacher-librarians.
TTS has been looking into getting Babette Cole as a visiting author, but her fees are in the range of S$12,000 for a week, so deemed too expensive. Joyce Dunbar is still a possibility.
Lorena Ferreira (UWC Dover) reported very favorably about John Farrell, a singer/songwriter, whom she had for a week in March.
Margriet Ruurs was a great success at both the UWCs and at CIS in March.
Upcoming PD
Asian Festival of Children's Content, May 6-9, here in Singapore. Several members due to attend: Katie Day (UWC East), Barb Philip (TTS), Ben Farr (TTS), Linda Twitchett (AISS), Alison Hughes (AISS), and Amanda Dollin (AISS).
IASL/SLAQ conference in Brisbane, Queensland, Australia -- September 27 - October 1, 2010 -- Katie Day (UWC East) and Barb Philip (TTS) plan to attend.
Shanghai Learning 2.0 -- which has a Library cohort/strand -- September 16-18, 2010 -- Megan Graff (CIS Toh Tuck) and Stacey Socholotuk (CIS Toh Tuck) plan to attend.
Door prizes
Jan Cox (OFS) and Amarjit Kaur (Avondale) won the door prizes, which were books donated by APD.
Future functions/meetings?
End-of-year function? Time is running out -- especially as OFS and CIS finish on June 5th.
Next whole network meeting: 1st week in September. Thursdays determined to be best. 2 September 2010 -German European School.
Send any corrections to Katie Day, Secretary: kda@uwcsea.edu.sg