InSPIRing Conversations reflection

Spires of Prague photo: Dianne McKenzie

I did it! I lead a very successful conversation at the School Librarian Connection conference in Prague over the last weekend. I was sharing our school Human Library experiences. The presentation was very well received inspiring other librarians and teacher to apply this method at their schools and libraries. Right from the beginning I saw the light being turned on in the audience's minds making connections to their libraries and events, on how to host a Human library at their schools. I hope I spread the concept of Human library, a way to share our stories and learn from each other well forward.

Making connections.

Many colleagues approached me asking about the Human library as they were unable to attend the session but had heard good reviews and comments. I gave mini presentations and led personal conversations about the Human library throughout the conference weekend. I am very pleased that my presentation was reference during the following days.

Sharing ideas.

I am so glad that the School Librarian Connections organisation, a renowned company based in Hong Kong decided to host their conference in Europe (for the very first time!) bringing together a diverse group of librarians, teachers and educators for shared learning. The pre-conference workshops were lead by the notorious library experts in their respective fields. John Royce presenting on academic writing, citation and referencing. Katie Day on illuminating research: making the invisible visible in the research process. And last but not least Dianne McKenzie presenting on understanding and working with Information literacy /Approaches to Learning skills. As a MYP candidate school librarian and the MYP Coordinator it was highly useful discussing and studying this topic, seeing how the librarians are the key players in implementing the skills into teaching and learning. Being able to have conversations with these experts who are actually real, warm and funny people was one of my greatest takeaways, not to mention all other wonderful librarians and teachers I met during this conference. Having a face connected to a name that one turns for advice on the ECIS librarians forum or who's blog one is following for ideas and latest advances was a wonderful opportunity.

I truly recommend you signing up for a professional development conference. Not only signing up but also presenting. You make a difference!

InSPIRing Conversations

I am very excited to lead a conversation at the InSPIRing Converations Conference organized by the School Librarian Connections in Prague next week.
My conversation "Don't judge a book by the cover -The  Human Library" shares our experience of hosting a Human Library at the International School of Estonia for the lower school students. I will be a book on loan titled "Human library-what, why, how: running a successful living library in lower school" telling a story about our challenges and successes hopefully inspiring others to give this exciting learning format a try.

The Human Library works exactly as a normal library – readers come and borrow a “Book” for a limited period of time. After reading it they return the Book to the library. There is one difference: the Books in the library are human beings, and the Books and readers enter into a personal dialogue. The aim of a Human Library is to start a conversation that can challenge stereotypes and prejudice through personal dialogue. The Human Library is a place where difficult questions are expected, appreciated and answered.

This sound intriguing and pretty big... for the lower school.

I was challenged to make this format work for the younger readers. I defined the Human Library for the young readers as a verbal heritage tool, a way to share our stories, culture, hobbies, interests, skills in a real face to face situation, to learn from each other and about each other.

I am glad about the opportunity to share our experiences and at the same time learning from my colleagues and fellow librarians.

The very first ISE Human Library during sport themed "Healthy Mind in Healthy Body"  Book Week, school year 2013-2014

Human Library during the Book Week "We All Speak Music" dedicated to music, school year 2014-2015

Human Library hosted during Science week, school year 2015-2016

Besides sharing our experiences I am looking forward to learning from my colleagues and fellow librarians. As a MYP Coordinator and librarian I am very excited about the opportunity of participating in the "Understanding and working with Information Literacy skills /the Approaches to Learning in a library context." workshop lead by Dianne McKenzie.
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Reflecting on the CEESA Conference

CEESA Conference was an informative, exciting and relaxing professional development event. I can say this from both the presenter and a participant perspective. I am very happy that I decided to present at the conference after some nudging from my colleagues.

The Learning Innovated unConference were I presented along with my colleague Edna Vahter was a very flexible and organic, a bit chaotic:) event, where participants themselves set the format and the agenda for the day. We did not know what to expect, how the unConference plays out. Participating in an unConference offered a great opportunity to be a risk-taker and go with the flow. I'd recommend everyone to participate in one if possible. We had many many passionate and creative educators presenting followed by engaging discussions on a variety of topics. Reflecting on how to make the format even more meaningful - I would have loved to see more focus in the topics for presentation/discussions as current ones were very varied and did not "speak" to all and in some cases to any participants. The general focus was on personalized learning and included were design technology projects, use of social media, managing advisory meeting, online learning tools, learning space design, augmented reality tools and many more.

We also held an open unConference session to all CEESA Conference participants but without knowing the topics ahead of time the visitors had hard time finding us and identifying what was available.

Yet, at the end of the day I would join it again, and already have some ideas how to hold unConference at ISE or present at next year.

It was great to be back in Istanbul. The city was lovely with tulips and daffodils blooming, weather sunny with some spring showers. I felt happy to visit this diverse city again. I was really saddened that at the time there was a bombing in the center that gave many of us a scare.
As with the unConference I would still visit Istanbul again.

Take away from the weekend:

• Continue designing Learning Commons space in collaboration with Art and Design teachers and students. Give students the voice in what they want to see in the LC and have them design and carry out their ideas.

• Include a class set of fitness-balls in the Learning Commons for check out to use as alternative seats instead of chairs.

• Hold effective class meetings management using the discussion/suggestions box technique for problem solving, use social media and blogs to discuss serious global issues with students.

• Look into ways how to collaborate with International School of Latvia Design teacher.

• And last but not least understand the teens better after an engaging presentation by Tim Burns on teen brain development. Tip for everyone! Best way to take care of your brain is drink water, exercise and have good downtime (not watching TV or fidgeting on gadgets). And you whole body will be thankful as well. Easy, right?

Till next year?

Be literate!

I attended the seminar "How to Connect People to Books" led by Jonathan Douglas the director of National Literacy Trust from UK. The seminar was sponsored by Estonian Ministry of Culture and The British Council, and took place at the National Library.

I would like to highlight the following points from his presentation:

1. Reading and literacy is a fundamental human right.

2. Literacy changes lives.

If you have poor literacy you are...
...less likely to have your own home
...more likely to live in an overcrowded housing
...less likely to have children
...more likely to experience divorce

Also, social mobility (a persons ability to move from one social group to another) is dependent on reading for pleasure.
More info

3. Reading in general is associated with success.
On the other hand teenagers, especially boys who need to belong to a group and depend on peer approval, see reading as geeky, nerdy, boring and excluding. To promote reading among young adults and boys it is best know your audience - learn their interests, favorite brands, role models through which support literacy.

Here's an example:
BOAZ MYHILL, HULL CITY – GOALKEEPER on "Where the Wild Things Are" by Maurice Sendak

The story of Max's adventures when he sails away to the land where the wild things are has become an acknowledged classic of children's books. This book is the winner of the Caldecott Medal for the Most Distinguished Picture Book of the Year, 1964.

"It's a book about a naughty boy who says something he shouldn't to his mum. She sends him to his room and his imagination runs wild. He is transported to this mysterious island, or at least that's how I interpret it, where he plays with lots of animals and soon becomes king. This all happens between lunchtime and suppertime - he imagines all kinds of adventures. But he is eventually woken by the smell of his supper being delivered to his room by his mum. It's a great book for the kids and I read it to my twins almost every night."

Teenagers read magazines, newspapers, new media without realizing it. Use these tool to encourage reading.
Make reading social - creating book groups online or offline, read one book as a group (class, school, city...)

4. "Reading is the best ladder out of poverty" Gordon Brown

5. Reading is everywhere! Click here!