BCTLA News from the BCTF

Liberal education bills violate chater right to freedom of association

2011-04-13T15:38:00.000-07:00

BCTF News Releases: 2011 April 13

In summary, the teachers‟ position is that the provincial government by its legislation unilaterally voided existing terms in their collective agreement, and prohibited future collective bargaining, on the subjects of restrictions on class sizes, class composition (number of special needs children integrated in the class), ratios of non-enrolling teachers to students (teachers not assigned to classrooms, such as librarians, counsellors, and special education teachers), and workload. The teachers say that these matters have a substantial impact on their working conditions. The legislation also affected some other related issues, such as school calendaring and hours and days of work.

Reasons for Judgment

Court rules teachers have right to grieve changes to working and learning conditions

2011-03-31T10:42:00.000-07:00

BCTF News Release: 2011 March 31

Court rules teachers have right to grieve changes to working and learning conditions

Teachers are applauding a decision by the BC Court of Appeal that requires principals and superintendents to ensure that any oversize classes are appropriate for student learning throughout the school year, not just on a particular day at the beginning of the year.

“This is an extremely important decision because it means that the legal obligation to ensure a class is appropriate for student learning continues beyond September 30,” said BCTF President Susan Lambert. “Principals and superintendents must reconsider their determination of appropriateness if the classroom conditions change, or if promised resources or assistance are not provided or are withdrawn during the school year.”

Since 2002, when the BC Liberals stripped class-size and composition language from the teachers’ collective agreements, thousands of teachers have filed grievances in an effort to ensure the teaching and learning conditions in their classrooms are workable. About 15,000 outstanding grievances for 2006–11 remain unresolved.

This case began in 2009, when a teacher in Alberni filed a grievance regarding her Grade 5 class, which had more than the legally allowed number of students with Individual Education Plans (IEPs). Recognizing that the class was not appropriate for student learning, the teacher was provided with an integration support aide. However, the frequent and prolonged absence of the aide made providing appropriate education much more difficult and breached a promise made at the beginning of the school year.

“We’re gratified that the Court of Appeal has upheld our position that teachers have the right to grieve unacceptable class-size and composition, and that appropriate learning conditions must be upheld throughout the school year,” said Lambert. “We are determined to restore these stripped provisions because we know that contractual guarantees are the best way to ensure that students’ needs can be met in classes that are manageable. Both teachers and the public expect changes.”

BCTF public opinion research released last week shows strong public support for restoring contractual language to limit class sizes. Nine out of ten British Columbians believe it is important that BC teachers have a contract that protects learning conditions, and 84% believe that restoration of the right to negotiate learning and working conditions is important. In addition, 70% believe funding for public schools is too low.

For more information, contact Nancy Knickerbocker, BCTF media relations officer, at 604-871-1881 (office) or 604-340-1959 (cell).

Bargaining for our future

2011-03-01T10:10:00.000-08:00

BCTF: 2011 March 1

In a recent speech at the British Columbia Public School Employers’ Association (BCPSEA) AGM, BCTF President Susan Lambert, emphasized our determination to renegotiate the split of issues, and our desire for a constructive round of local and provincial bargaining. The BCTF plan is for salary, benefits, hours of work, and paid leaves to be at the provincial table with all other items negotiated at local tables.

Not since provincial bargaining was imposed in 1994 have locals had the opportunity to update “stale” clauses, and to revise and enhance provisions to more adequately address today’s teaching environment. No progress has been possible in improving working conditions, personnel practices, and professional rights including professional development.

Teacher salaries in BC continue to lag further behind most other provinces. In Vancouver, the city with the highest cost of living in Canada, we are $9,981 behind our colleagues in Toronto (5 max.). Closer to home the situation is even worse. At 5 max., we are currently $11,311 behind our colleagues in Calgary and $11,580 behind teachers in Edmonton (where 5 max. will rise to $95,135, and 6 max. to over $100,000 in September 2011). In addition teachers in elementary schools in Toronto get 220 (increasing to 240 in 2012) minutes of prep time per week.

Other occupations traditionally compared with teachers are also outpacing us. Police, firefighters, and nurses have higher starting and maximum salaries than our category 5 in Vancouver.

The October 2010 BCTF Bargaining Conference set as a salary objective parity with teachers in Alberta and Ontario. Teachers need and deserve to be paid fairly and in keeping with our colleagues in the rest of Canada. We have been subjected to government wage freezes and legislated settlements for over a decade. We cannot allow the decline in our salaries to continue.

Bills 27 and 28 enacted in January 2002, which eliminated the class-size and class-composition limits in the provincial collective agreement were challenged in BC Supreme Court. We await the result and hope that the unjust contract stripping of class-size and composition ratios (for learning assistance, ESL, counsellors, teacher-librarians) will be declared illegal. Locals would then be empowered to at least pursue the manner and consequences of the implementation of the class-size/composition limits that currently exist in legislation. Students’ learning conditions are our working conditions.

Teachers will not accept another legislated collective agreement. We want a fair deal at the bargaining table.

BCeSIS Status Update

2010-09-22T08:54:00.000-07:00

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GZoNAEWOy34

In memorium: John Church

2010-09-17T18:19:00.000-07:00

Teacher Magazine: 2010 September

By Gary Onstad

John Church was a teacher, writer, curriculum developer, school trustee, and strong supporter of public education.

He earned a BA in history and after teacher training took a Master of Arts degree in history. He taught at elementary and secondary schools in Prince Rupert, Langley, and Vancouver where he was social studies department head for 10 years at Gladstone Secondary School.

In 1964, John Church joined the Professional Development Division of the BCTF. He took a leave of absence to be a representative of the UBC Faculty of Education in a CIDA-sponsored teacher training project in Tanzania in 1968.

There, Church established a teachers’ resource centre and taught social, science, and history methods courses to prospective secondary school teachers. On his return to Canada, he wrote an extensive school library study, “Personalized Learning.” This led to the establishment of demonstration school library projects in Vernon and Vancouver from 1970 to 1975. In addition to his interest in school libraries, Church wrote positively about the curriculum development model that gave teachers a significant role in the process. He was a key player as teachers gained direct and shared sponsorship of curriculum revision.

In the late 1970s, Church was a consultant with the Canada Studies Foundation and chair of the board of Project Canada West. This successful curriculum development project involved 14 teams of teachers and students in four western provinces. The project produced uniquely Canadian curriculum—one of Church’s professional passions. He felt strongly that the traditional British and more recent American influences needed to be balanced with Canadian points of view.

Church’s service to education was recognized in 1982 when he was awarded the GA Fergusson Award, the highest honour granted by the BCTF. The following year, he was granted Honourary Life membership in the Federation. He was also an Honourary Life member of the BC School Teacher-Librarians Association and the New Democratic Party.

Education was a high priority for both John and his wife Shirley Church. She was division head of English and modern languages at Langara campus of Vancouver Community College. They were articulate, perceptive, intelligent members of the education community.

In November 1984, John Church was nominated by COPE to run for Vancouver School Board in a campaign labelled “The school wars.” After years of Social Credit restraint and cutbacks, COPE presented a platform of “No More Cuts!” Vancouver voters responded by upsetting the incumbent and compliant NPA Board and electing a COPE majority. Church chaired the important Education and Student Services Committee.

When the board submitted a “needs” budget $14 million over what the government decreed, the entire school board was fired. But to Church’s delight, in the by-election the government was forced to call, COPE swept all nine seats. The cutbacks were never made.

John Church continued his work in education long after he retired. We will all miss his vision, comprehension, and tenacity. Much of his life was dedicated to support for the importance of public education and we will always honour and respect his efforts in the ongoing struggle.

Gary Onstad is a retired Vancouver teacher.

Teacher-librarians on the loose at the legislature

2009-12-06T23:28:00.000-08:00

Teacher Magazine: November/December 2009

A group of teacher-librarians representing the BC Teacher-Librarians’ Association (BCTLA) visited the legislature on National School Library Day, October 26, 2009.

On October 26, several MLAs, some joined by members of the BCTLA team, supported Drop Everything and Read (DEAR) by going to Greater Victoria elementary schools and reading with students.

Other members of the group met with Adrian Dix and Shane Simpson in the Opposition Caucus room and discussed with them substantive issues surrounding teacher-librarianship and public education. Vancouver examples proved worthwhile as these engaged the interest of Dix and Simpson. The Vancouver teacher-librarians who were on the team are very familiar with the working and learning conditions of Vancouver school libraries and were able to provide accurate and devastating statistics to demonstrate the inequities between schools (e.g., two school libraries, in schools with similar student FTEs, with vastly different teacher-librarian staffing levels) which are a result of the lack of funding, the removal of ratios from the contract, and the lack of leadership from the ministry (refusal to refresh Developing Independent Learners: The Role of the School Library Resource Centre), all combined with site-based decision making.

Later in the morning, Pat Parungao met with Liberal MLA Richard Lee and showed him the school library inquiry video, created by the Vancouver teacher-librarians’ inquiry group. (http://schoollibraryprogram.pbworks.com/Video-Project).

Meanwhile, the other members of the group visited the Legislative Library and found common ground there talking with the library staff.

The library is spectacular, and still houses a card catalogue and microfiche for items that have not yet been added to an electronic database.

The group worked with the librarians to have a copy of the book, The Fourth Way: The Inspiring Future of Educational Change by Andy Hargreaves and Dennis Shirley ordered, and directed toward the MLAs we met with.

Following this, at the appointed time in the day, the group participated in the DEAR Challenge in the beautiful surroundings of the Library Reading Room.

Members of the team met for lunch with Robin Austin, the opposition education critic, and Diane Thorne, deputy education critic. We discussed a wide range of issues around school libraries and education in general, including class size and composition (and the recent ruling), learning resources selection, support for Aboriginal learners, recent cuts affecting K–12, the overall lack of funding for K–12 including the trustees’ call to delay all-day Kindergarten, and the growing federation of all education stakeholders in support of renewed funding for the K–12 system. Before the meeting, the NDP did not know of the recently exposed Liberal cut to BC ERAC (Educational Resource Acquisition Consortium) ($1.2 million ministry grant reduced to $500,000).

Thorne and Austin were engaged by the description of initiatives under way in school libraries to support learning, such as the automation of SD43’s Aboriginal Education Library. They also seemed very interested in the large number of post-secondary degrees possessed by the team members. It just came up as a comment, but the fact that in particular one team member has five post-secondary degrees demonstrated the expertise of teachers working in school libraries and in the K–12 system as a whole.

We believe that the best part of this meeting was forming relationships that will hopefully continue in some form or another.

At 1:00 p.m., the entire group reconvened and picked up our reservation/seating passes, left our belongings at the security check and passed through the metal detector into the gallery. Very few MLAs were in session on each side of the house. It almost seemed as if the MLAs asking questions were positioned in relation to the MLAs behind and beside them in a way such that when the Hansard TV camera was on each of the speakers it appeared as if more MLAs were in the house.

Private members speeches about National School Library Day were given by MLA Ron Cantelon and MLA Diane Thorne (Coquitlam/ Maillardville). We were happy to hear that Ron Cantelon’s daughter-in-law is a teacher-librarian and that Ron supported DEAR. Diane’s speech presented a thorough understanding of the role of school library programs, mentioning inquiry and critical thinking.

As an aside, we were joined in the gallery by individuals introduced as leading members of the technology industry as well as the leader and deputy leader of the BC Green Party. Kevin Krueger, in his non-answering of questions about the effects of the HST on the tourism industry, mentioned that he had just met with the technology group and that they had told him that they “love the HST”! At this, members of the technology group in the public gallery burst out laughing.

The BCTLA team felt quite at home at the legislature and used every resource in our lobby efforts. We think the BCTF was very well-served by letting a group of teacher-librarians loose on the legislature building. The team proved very resourceful, one of many speciality-area-related capacities, including also a propensity for information seeking and provision, which was employed during the day.

We felt that the visit was very valuable and we look forward to the BCTF pursuing more opportunities to work directly with MLAs, including providing the Opposition with information about cuts to the K–12 system and statistics that may assist the Opposition in their efforts in Question Period and in estimates debates. We were pleased to see this as focus in the BCTF Executive key decisions from October 21–22, 2009.

We were very happy to be able to bring our knowledge to the table in support of BCTF, BCTLA, and K–12 public education in general, and thank the BCTF for supporting our lobbying visit. We look forward to more of our members meeting with MLAs in ridings when the current session breaks. We hope next year to have National School Library Day finally proclaimed, and will begin work early on more MLAs’ participation in DEAR. We do hope that next year they will read in the legislature (not just loudly thump their desks and voice agreement when the suggestion was made that the MLAs read after question period).

Representing BCTLA through the BCTF: Heather Daly (BCTLA president), Karen Lindsay (BCTLA vice-president Advocacy),Moira Ekdahl (BCTLA liaison chair), Val Hamilton (BCTLA web steward), Michele Farquharson (BCTLA continuing education co-chair), Sandra Hedley, Kathy Inglis, Geoff Orme, Pat Parungao (former BCTLA president), Mark Roberts (former BCTLA president), and Cheriee Weichel.

Down with homework

2009-03-05T20:33:00.000-08:00

Teacher Magazine letter: 2009 April

Regarding “Down with Homework!” (Teacher, Jan./Feb. 2008).

As a teacher of senior English, I have gradually moved to a no-homework policy (the only exception being the reading of novels, for which there is simply not enough class time). Senior students have athletics, hobbies, social lives, and jobs, all of which are inescapable if not essential parts of modern life. I want to respect students’ needs to become fully rounded individuals rather than being overstressed, always-studying educational automata. Students are given enough class time to do the work, resulting in much more work being done, skills being developed, and attitudes toward school being improved.

There has been no loss of skill or marks as nearly as I can tell, on both in-school assessment and on provincial exams. We have also moved into fully student-directed literature studies,
where students choose the novels and stories they read. We have our students doing 15 minutes of nonschool-related (but for-credit, if students so choose) silent reading daily. The result? Kids are reading more, enjoying reading, and in a school of 1,300, we have 1,200 books signed out of the library at any given time. You know you are doing something right when the librarian has waiting lists for novels and buys more books because the kids have so many signed out—this
in a school with a high ESL population.

The upshot of all this is that giving students less homework and more choice seems to be paying off.

Chris Stolz
Surrey

BC drops everything and reads!

2008-12-11T13:51:00.000-08:00

Teacher Magazine: November/December 2008
By Karen Lindsay

On September 2, 2008, the British Columbia Teacher-librarians’ Association challenged not only students and teachers, but the premier, members of the legislature, and people across BC to “Drop Everything and Read” for 20 minutes on Monday, October 27.

For many years, teacher-librarians have organized special school events to mark National School Library Day on the fourth Monday in October. This was the first year they took their celebration to the general public, and the response was wonderful. Hundreds of people signed up on the Drop Everything and Read Facebook page , and hundreds more on the BCTLA’s DEAR blog. People signed on from across BC and as far away as Israel!

Teacher-librarians agree that making BC the most literate province in Canada is a worthy goal. An educated population makes the province wealthy in so many ways. As teachers, they also know the impact that good modeling has on children. Seeing the adults around them put aside business for a few minutes to let pleasure reading be their priority sent a powerful message.

Originally the brainchild of Surrey teacher-librarian Bonnie Chapman, the Drop Everything and Read (DEAR) Challenge was tested in many schools across the province on National School Library Day last year. Hundreds of BC students engaged in silent reading from 11:00 a.m. to 11:20 a.m. that day, and the response was terrific.

“You could hear a pin drop!” “Kids didn’t want to stop after 20 minutes.” This year’s campaign really seemed to capture people’s imaginations. Teachers and teacher-librarians invited
their MLA, the mayor, trustees, their superintendent, local athletes and actors to come and read with their students—and they did! Parents took the DEAR challenge into their workplaces where they read quietly for 20 minutes away from the phones.

Finance Minister Carole Taylor set aside “some pleasurable reading time in the Vancouver-Langara constituency office.” Premier Campbell commended the BCTLA on the initiative.
And Education Minister Shirley Bond celebrated National School Library by taking part in the Drop Everything and Read challenge. At Carson Graham Secondary School in North Vancouver,
students, and staff were joined by Lieutenant Governor of British Columbia Steven Point in celebration of First Nations literacy.

Responses from schools were the stuff that warms a teacher-librarian’s heart. Several schools wrote to say they were going to Drop Everything and Read every month for the rest of the year. DEAR went well enough in some high schools that they are now willing to pilot a daily silent reading program that could become a permanent part of their timetable.

The BCTLA would love to see the DEAR campaign grow so that in the next few years other provinces take up the challenge as well. Given a few years’ practice, I think BC could take
on the whole country in a DEAR challenge! One of the best things about DEAR is the way it puts
everyone on the same page, if you’ll excuse the expression. No matter where you are politically, you can get behind the value of a few minutes’ peaceful reading. If your school was not involved this year, do not despair; DEAR will be back to celebrate National School Library Day 2009.

Karen Lindsay is teacher-librarian at Ecole Reynolds Secondary, Richmond.

PSAs say YES

2008-11-27T17:00:00.000-08:00

BCTF School Staff Alert
2008-09 #8
November 27, 2008

Our Provincial Specialists’ Associations provide a source of support and a vehicle for communication for a wide variety of subject and service areas to teachers throughout the K–12 public education system.

Following their recent meeting, the presidents of all 33 PSAs issued a statement on the Foundation Skills Assessment urging a strong YES vote.

We, the presidents of the Provincial Specialists’ Associations, met and after much discussion and reflection on the Foundation Skills Assessment issue, agreed that a YES vote is important and appropriate.

Following their statement, they gave the following reasons:

The Foundation Skills Assessment tests do not help teachers teach or students learn.
They take valuable time and resources away from teaching and learning.
The FSA results are misused to rank schools based on a very narrow measure and set up a false impression of public schools, teachers, and students.
The FSA and overuse of standardized testing narrow the curriculum and reduce the opportunities for students to engage in meaningful learning experiences.

DID YOU DROP EVERYTHING AND READ?

2008-11-13T14:37:00.000-08:00

BCTF E-News
Vol. 8, No.3, November 12, 2008

On Monday, October 27, at 11:00 a.m., the BC Teacher-Librarians’ Association was urging everyone to spend at least 20 minutes reading. Fifty reports are in from schools around the province giving numbers of students and staff who participated. At Carson Graham Secondary School in North Vancouver, students and staff were joined by Lieutenant Governor of British Columbia Steven Point in celebration of First Nations literacy. MLA Claude Richmond, Mayor Terry Lake, school trustees, and councillors along with members of the Kamloops Blazers WHL Hockey team joined Sahali Secondary School in Kamloops and were featured on the local TV evening news.

You can read more at http://bctladear.blogspot.com/2008/10/send-us-your-numbers.html.

The numbers tell the story

2008-10-31T15:52:00.000-07:00

BCTF: 2008 October 31

http://www.bctf.ca/uploadedFiles/issues/Education_Finance/TheNumbersTellTheStory.pdf

Drop Everything and Read!

2008-10-15T20:44:00.000-07:00

BCTF School Staff Alert: 2008 October 14

The British Columbia Teacher-Librarians’ Association is marking National School Library Day by urging everyone to participate in the Drop Everything and Read! challenge.

On Monday, October 27, between 11:00 a.m. and 11:20 a.m., people young and old across BC will stop to read for 20 minutes in celebration of the joy reading can bring.

Studies show that daily silent reading is a very effective way of improving reading comprehension, increasing vocabulary, improving spelling, and broadening understanding of others. “Let students choose what they want to read from a well-stocked school library or from home, and then give them the time and space in which to read—away from the threat of tests and questions,” says Karen Lindsay, vice-president of the BCTLA, who would like to see the DEAR challenge grow to include other provinces.

Groups and schools who decide to participate should contact their local media and highlight the importance of libraries, books, and adults as role models in encouraging children to read.

The BCTLA has created a Facebook page to allow people to make their reading count. Point your browser to http://www.new.facebook.com/event.php?eid=38741982688 or search for “Drop Everything and Read!” at www.facebook.com.

Join with children, parents, trustees, administrators, and politicians in highlighting the need to maintain and reinstate library services in schools.

The Canadian Coalition for School Libraries is unequivocal, “School library programs are being drastically reduced across the country as school boards confront funding shortfalls. But cuts are occurring when researchers abroad have determined that well-stocked, professionally staffed school libraries which remain open during the day are linked to student achievement, reading, information literacy skills, and success at the post-secondary level.”

BCTF Education Funding brief

2008-09-30T18:01:00.000-07:00

BCTF: 2008 September 30

BCTF Education Funding brief is presented to the Select Standing Committee on Finance and Government Services

BCTF President Irene Lanzinger, in her presentation to the BC Selecting Standing Committee on Finance and Government Services, urged the provincial government to focus on overcoming poverty, and improving services to children.

Five key priorities are addressed in the Education Funding brief:

Eliminate child poverty: set a target, create a plan, and take action.
Provide a universal childcare program and fully fund the early literacy programs initiated by government.
Restore the level of service to students with special needs.
Reduce class sizes so that all children get adequate attention to their learning.
Fully fund costs for services that the province has downloaded onto boards of education.

Members can access the complete submission by going to bctf.ca.
http://www.bctf.ca/uploadedFiles/Publications/Briefs_Position_papers/EducationFunding2008.pdf

The Select Standing Committee on Finance and Government Services is a legislative committee that is touring the province to gather input before the next provincial budget. Members can also have their own individual say on budget priorities by going to www.leg.bc.ca/budgetconsultations. The deadline for submissions has been extended to Friday, October 24.

Learning Roundtable, June 11, 2008

2008-06-25T15:18:00.000-07:00

BCTF Report on the meeting of the Learning Roundtable, June 11, 2008

BCTF: 2008 June 25
http://www.bctf.ca/IssuesInEducation.aspx?id=16102

2. Decline in specialist positions

The statistics provided by the ministry showed that the number of non-enrolling teachers had stayed about the same over the past four years. The BCTF handed out statistics that show dramatic declines in numbers of teacher-librarians, counselors, and special education and ESL teachers—going back to 2001–02 when formulas for these positions were in the collective agreement.

The Minister said that was not a useful comparison. Those were collective agreement provisions that the government had eliminated in order to give flexibility to school districts. She ignored the fact that it was budget cuts that made it impossible for districts to maintain the non-enrolling positions and the service they provide.

Specialist teachers: Who are we and what do we have to offer?

2008-02-28T22:30:00.000-08:00

Teacher Magazine: 2008 March
By Paul Boscariol and Janice Neden

The term specialist teacher is often heard and used, but do we really know what it refers to? A specialist teacher can be defined as one who has training in a specific discipline taken as a major in undergrad studies or taken throughout the university education program. This training has prepared the teacher with the knowledge and skills necessary to most effectively teach that area.

What is the importance of a specialist teacher? The specialist teacher is extremely important to ensure that our students are receiving the best level of education in that particular discipline. In the case of technology education, a person trained in that discipline knows far more than what the tools and equipment are and how to use them. The training includes how to safely manage a class of students who are in constant motion, using the tools and equipment, performing tasks and operations that have inherent safety risks. This is achieved through both the course of study and supervised practicum in a shop. Another example is that of learning assistance and special education, where teachers have specific training that gives them the tools and skills necessary to identify learning challenges that students may have. The second part of this process is to develop and implement appropriate programs to assist the students to be successful. These are but two examples of many areas where a specialist teacher is required to ensure that grade and age level, subject area, safety, identification of special needs, and learning support of students are effectively met.

The BCTF Provincial Specialist Association Council (PSAC) has identified and supported the need to recognize the importance of specialist teachers in our schools. To that end, PSAC put forward the following recommendation to the Executive Committee in November 2007. This was developed from an ad hoc committee consisting of: Irene Lanzinger, BCTF president; Fran Robinson, past EC member; Pat Clarke, BCTF staff; Janice Neden, Learning Assistance Teachers’ Association president; and Paul Boscariol, BC Technology Education Association president.

PSAC Recommendation—Specialist teachers
That the AGM amend BCTF policy 47.D. 01 to read:

1. That all assignments to teaching positions should be appropriate in terms of the member’s specific qualifications and teaching experience, and appointments should be made in consideration of relevant qualification and experience factors pertaining to grade and age level, subject area, special needs, learning support, and student safety in any proposed teaching assignment.

2. That where teachers are assigned or choose to teach in areas where they may lack specific qualifications and/or relevant experience, a plan of professional support and development be provided through such programs or activities as district/local joint mentoring programs, post-certification training opportunities, and local union, PSA or LSA organized professional development.

While it is the hope of PSAC that specialist teachers be employed in these positions, it is also understood that this cannot always be achieved for a number of reasons. To accommodate this situation, the ad hoc committee developed a second part to the proposed amendment that would provide proper training opportunities for non-specialist teachers who find themselves in such a position.

The Executive Committee, after much debate, deleted part 1 of this recommendation. Part 2 was amended to read:

That professional support such as district and/or local mentoring programs post-certificate training opportunities and local union, PSA, LSA organized professional development be made available when teachers are assigned or choose to teach in areas outside of their relevant experience and the teacher requests such assistance.

It is difficult to understand how, on one hand the BCTF recognizes specialist teachers through the individual Provincial Specialist Associations and through our collective PSA Council, yet they do not want to recognize the same in policy. A precedent has been set with the recognition, in policy, of counsellors as specialists, yet there is a resistance to recognize the rest of the specialists. The intent here is to give due recognition to all, and not to have the counsellors’ recognition removed.

The focus should not be on preventing recognition of specialist teachers, but rather on recognizing specialists in policy and improving the training opportunities and support for those who, for whatever reason, have found themselves teaching in an area they have not been trained in. Within our membership, we have a wealth of expertise and experience that can be utilized to assist with post-certification training opportunities and mentoring programs. Let us not lose this opportunity to recognize specialist teachers.

Paul Boscariol teaches at LV Rogers Secondary School, Nelson and Janice Neden teaches at McGowan Park Elementary School, Kamloops.

Agree? Disagree? More to add? Send us your views (newsmag@bctf.ca) and we may print them in the next issue.

Foundation Skills Assessment—no end of problems

2008-02-06T14:46:00.000-08:00

BCTF: 2008 February 6
http://www.bctf.ca/

As Grades 4 and 7 students began writing FSA tests on Monday, the problems came pouring in by phone and e-mail: computer crashes in all parts of the province; administrators denying parents the right to exempt their child from the tests; children walking to neighbouring schools to take the online portion of the test; libraries and computer labs off limits to the rest of the school for up to two weeks while the tests are being written. At a news conference held at the BCTF on Monday, February 4, teachers, a local president, and a retired superintendent raised similar concerns about the Foundation Skills Assessment.

News Conference on FSA

Nancy Zegarchuk

Students begin writing FSAs--Ministry out of touch with reality

2008-02-04T17:28:00.000-08:00

BCTF: 2008 February 4
http://www.bctf.ca/NewsReleases.aspx

Video: Teachers concerned about FSA
http://www.bctf.ca/multimedia/mediaframe.cfm?asset=167

Today thousands of Grades 4 and 7 students in British Columbia will begin writing Foundation Skills Assessment tests. Teachers know these tests are not useful and they take valuable time away from teaching and learning.

This year for the first time, all students will be required to complete the multiple-choice portion of the test online. Some school libraries and computer labs will be closed to students for up to two weeks during the writing of these tests.

“The Ministry of Education is completely out of touch with the realities in our schools,” says Irene Lanzinger, president of the British Columbia Teachers’ Federation. “Many elementary schools, particularly those in poorer economic regions of the province, will be scrambling to find enough computers for all students. Some students will have to walk or take a bus to a neighbouring school to complete the online portion of the test.”

Parents have been calling the BCTF to ask how they can have their child exempted from the tests. Many report being bullied by the principal or superintendent who are insisting that their child write the test. In some instances, parents are resorting to keeping their children at home for the duration of the tests then find that the administrator has administered the test once the child returns to school.

“Parental requests have been completely ignored,” says Lanzinger. “If parents really want this test as the ministry keeps insisting, why are they forcing students to write?”

The Federation is advising parents whose rights have been denied to exercise their right under Section 11 of the School Act to appeal to their school board.
For a detailed backgrounder on the issues involved with FSA tests, please see: http://www.bctf.ca/fsa.aspx

For more information, contact Kathleen MacKinnon, BCTF media relations officer, at 604-871-1881 (office) or 604-340-1959 (cell).

Songs of peace

2007-12-31T23:09:00.000-08:00

Making the world a better place
Simon Fraser Elementary School Peace Choir

By Murray Dobbin

Marisa Orth-Pallavicini has been the teacher-librarian at Simon Fraser Elementary School in Vancouver for six years, and today she is also the choir master of the school’s Peace Choir. Both themes—peace and music—come naturally to Orth-Pallavicini. The politics of social justice permeate her life and that of her husband, Vancouver City Councillor David Cadman. And music is key to her life as well, she has been co-writing the music for the Euphonious Feminist Non-Performing Quintet for 12 years. She believes music is a powerful force for good in the world and that belief was at the root of her decision to form and lead the choir.

"The Simon Fraser Peace Choir began in April of 2006 when I had an invitation to bring together a choir to perform at the Opening of the Mayors for Peace and the International Peace Messenger Cities’ conference, which was part of the World Peace Forum in Vancouver in June of 2006. As teacher-librarian at Simon Fraser who had led student choirs in the past, I decided that this was a wonderful opportunity to start a choir with a purpose: to sing for peace, and to try to do what we could to make the world a better place."

Membership in the choir was voluntary and was open to all grades except half-day Kindergarten because of rehearsal scheduling. The Peace Choir’s first concert was performed at the Orpheum Theatre on a Saturday morning in June. "It was a very exciting start for our choir. One of the people who heard us that day was Reiko Ono, a survivor of the atomic bomb dropped on the city of Nagasaki during World War II. She was so impressed with the choir that she asked to come and visit our school."

In September 2006, the Peace Choir members met again and decided to sing for the school’s Remembrance Day assembly. After each concert, membership in the choir is again open to all students, so that students can join after having seen a choir performance. "The Peace Choir meets when we have a concert to practise for or when they need to learn a new song. The repertoire of the choir is now up to 12 songs." They meet at lunchtime once a week and on Wednesday afternoons during the last period of the day. The choir has grown from its original 40 members to 71 and they need to hold separate rehearsals for primary and intermediate students until the last week of rehearsals before a performance because the space is limited in the library.

Word of the choir gets around. Last December, they received an invitation from the teacher-librarian at Emily Carr Elementary School to do a concert. That led to an interest in Simon Fraser’s Student Council (Orth-Pallavicini is their teacher/ advisor) project to raise funds for children in Malawi who had been orphaned or seriously affected by HIV/AIDS. The council was raising money by selling beaded AIDS ribbons made by the children in Malawi and their caregivers. "The students and staff at Emily Carr decided to have a penny drive and sell some of the pins to support our efforts," says Orth-Pallavicini, "The Peace Choir worked on a song, For Nkosi, sung in English and Zulu, and a script explaining the issue of HIV/ AIDS. This was a real challenge for them but it turned out wonderfully."

Teacher newsmag spoke to five of the young students in the choir: James Cuevas, Anika Hundal, Amber Looi, Misa Lucyshyn, and Kieryn Silver. All were enthusiastic about the singing—James revealed, "I used to just sing in the bath tub and in the shower but in the Peace Choir I could really sing." But they were just as excited by the theme of the choir and its overseas project. Misa Lucyshyn said, "What’s important about peace?

The world is not all peaceful. If children see violence every day they will grow up to be violent and afraid. If children grow up in peace they will grow up to be peaceful people that will make the world better and safe."

All five were especially proud that they were helping people in Africa who were suffering from AIDS or who were orphaned by the disease. The impact of the lives of orphans on the lives of Canadian children was obvious. "The children in Africa have just been forgotten," said Amber. "Their parents have died of AIDS and now they just have to find a way to fend for themselves. It’s very sad."

All the choir members have their favourite song, it seems, but one was top of the list for several. That was For Nkosi. The song, written by Orth-Pallavicini and her fellow songwriter, Pat Davit, is a dedication to Nkosi Johnson. This slight 11-year-old South African captured the hearts of millions of TV viewers, when his address at the 13th International Aids Conference in Durban, South Africa in 2000, was televised worldwide. Subsequently he and his adoptive mother, Gail Johnson, established a series of Nkosi’s Havens for mothers with AIDS and their children. Nkosi died in 2001. His entreaty to everyone—"Do all that you can, with all that you have, in the time that you have, in the place where you are"—is featured in the song.

After the choir performed at Emily Carr Elementary School on March 12, the school community raised just over $500 selling the beaded AIDS ribbons. In June 2007, the peace choir recorded a CD of eight songs called Songs for Peace with the support of the parents and the school. These CD’s are still available at a cost of $10 to cover recording and production costs.

For Orth-Pallavicini, the choir experience has been both a joy and a challenge. The biggest surprise? "I had expected the older kids to be the most eager to join initially but was actually deluged by the youngest ones—Grade 1s and even Kindergarten—wanting to join. And even more surprising, the young ones loved the more complex songs and had no trouble with foreign languages (like Zulu). They were fine with complicated lyrics and for many of them English was their second language."

The challenge in the HIV/AIDS project is "...keeping alive the links and connections with real people in Africa. Those personal connections are powerful learning experiences. We get letters from CAYO (Counselling of the Adolescent and Youth Organization) the group on Malawi we work with. CAYO’s Executive Director Fryson Chodzi visited the school last June."

The next major external gig for the Peace Choir will be at the BCTF’s Public Education Conference on Friday evening, January 25. Orth-Pallavicini is a little nervous as any choir master is when challenged by an important performance. But she’s confident her children will be ready.

Murray Dobbin, a Vancouver author and writer, is acting assistant director and Teacher editor, BCTF Communications and Campaigns Division.

DROP EVERYTHING AND READ!

2007-10-11T10:19:00.000-07:00

BCTF E-news - October 10, 2007

The organizing committee of the BCTLA 2007 Fall Conference has come up with a challenge in honour of National School Library day, October 22. As host of the BC Teacher-Librarians' Association Conference, the Surrey chapter of the BCTLA is issuing a challenge to the citizens of British Columbia: Drop everything and read.

In celebration of the joy reading can bring, the Surrey BCTLA is envisioning every child, staff person, administrator, and parent stopping to read for 15 minutes at 1:00 p.m. on October 22, National School Library day and International School Library Day.

Teacher-librarians in BC

2007-09-26T12:45:00.000-07:00

BCTF research on staffing

Teacher-librarians in BC are certified teachers typically with further education beyond a bachelor degree in teacher-librarianship. The role of the teacher-librarian has been described as involving two main areas. One is to provide instruction for all grade levels in research skills and reading, and to enhance information and technological literacy. The second area is the development, maintenance, and management of a well-stocked school library. This includes selecting appropriate reading material in a variety of media (books, CD-ROM, interactive computer technology, for example), as well as ensuring the school library materials are current and complement curricula.

According to The United Nations (UNESCO, 2000), "the school library provides information and ideas that are fundamental to functioning successfully in today’s society, which is increasingly information- and knowledge-based. The school library equips students with lifelong learning skills and develops the imagination, enabling them to live as responsible citizens." Further, a strong relationship between the presence of a teacher-librarian in an accessible, well-stocked school library, and student success has been well documented (see Haycock, 2003).

Despite the demonstrated importance of teacher-librarians and libraries, library services was one of the areas hardest hit by funding cutbacks and teacher lay-offs resulting from removal of staffing formulas from teacher collective agreements, implemented by the provincial government in 2002.

Since that time, funding for K–12 public education has been partially restored and teacher-librarian staffing levels have slowly begun to improve. Table 1 shows the changes in library services (program area 1.07) staffing levels since 1997. For example, in 1997, there were 778 teacher-librarians and 20 administrators assigned to the library services program area.

Between 2001 and 2003, teacher-librarian staffing levels were cut by over 23%. It was not until the government removed a funding freeze and began to put money back into public education in 2005 that staffing levels began to recover. 2004–05 was the last year of a five-year decline in staffing levels and the 2005–06 school year saw an increase of 7% in teacher-librarian staffing. However, by 2006–07 there were still 175 fewer (19%) full-time-equivalent teacher-librarians compared to 2001.

Table 1 also shows that the number of administrators assigned to the library area has increased steadily over the 10-year period shown. Since 1997–98, FTE administrators working in the library services area have increased by over 50%.

The full report is on the bctf web site: bctf.ca/publications.aspx?id=5630.

Table 1: Library Services staffing, 1997–98 to 2006–07

New BCTF School Libraries web page

2007-08-15T14:24:00.000-07:00

New content on the BCTF web site:
School libraries web page

http://www.bctf.ca/IssuesInEducation.aspx?id=13266

Impact of Bill 33 on Class Size and Class Composition

2007-06-28T18:15:00.000-07:00

http://bctf.ca/uploadedFiles/Education/Bill_33/BCTFSubmission.pdf

What is the school library’s role?

2007-04-01T16:06:00.000-07:00

The following letter to the minister of education from teacher-librarians in School District 68 (Nanaimo) is printed here with their permission.

We, the teacher-librarians of School District #68, are very pleased with your commitment to improve literacy in BC. We have just read your recent press release, which outlines the millions of dollars to be spent enhancing the public library system, as well as increasing support to these programs: ReadNow BC, Ready Set Learn, Literacy Now, and Adult Education.

We are wondering, however, what role you see for the school libraries in British Columbia. Almost all children attend school in BC, and all schools have a library. Many international studies have shown that a professionally staffed and adequately funded school library will improve student literacy and achievement (Lance, Keith Curry, 2005).

School libraries not only provide access to quality literature, they are the focal point in the school for teaching research skills, the use of databases, and appropriate use of online information sources. School library collections are developed to support the K–12 curriculum, are age appropriate, and are staffed by teacher-librarians qualified to assist students with their literacy needs.

Public libraries do not share this mandate, as their audience is much larger and public library collections are not curriculum specific. School libraries are, therefore, an integral part of any literacy program, and need to be recognized and supported.

Equitable access to literacy materials is essential for all school-aged children. Unfortunately, many school-aged children are unable to access a public library due to geographic or social difficulties. This is not a consideration with school libraries, which, in theory, should be accessible to all school children each school day.

We would like you to explain, Ms. Bond, why your government is so completely silent on the important role played by school libraries in improving literacy for the children of BC? Why are school libraries not mentioned in any of your publications? We would like to hear from you how you intend to increase support for school libraries, which have been notoriously understaffed and underfunded for years.

Elsa Armstrong, Lynn Barnes, June Bouchard, Janice Brantner, Helen Fall, Linda Irvine, Karen Leeson, Margaret Litch, Cindy Lowry, Robert Lussier, Donna McDaniel, Kathy McKierahan, Iris Mennie, Katherine Miller, Robyn Mylett, Bonnie Palfrey, Ann Rainboth, Lene Rounis, and Elizabeth Sansoucy-Jones.

A note from your teachers

2007-03-20T16:21:00.000-07:00

A report from the BCTF to the members of the legislative assembly
http://www.bctf.ca/publications/NoteFromTeachers.aspx

Good article on self censorship

2007-03-01T15:57:00.000-08:00

I commend Murray Corren for his timely argument against a parent’s right to remove her child from parts of the curriculum ("A censor? Who, me?" Jan./Feb. 2007 Teacher). Last year I had a child removed from my class production of A Christmas Carol because the parents objected to the Christmas (not Christian) overtones. The child clearly wanted to participate in the play and, in my view, would have benefitted from doing so.

If it can be shown that parts of the provincial curriculum are harmful to the development of a child, reason would dictate that the curriculum be changed. The governmentally sanctioned policy of pulling one child out of the classroom seems wrong, not only because of what the child will miss, but because the other children would suffer—if indeed the curriculum was harmful. Of course no parent(s) has convinced the provincial

Also in your Jan./Feb. issue of Teacher, is a letter from Richard Peachey who maintains that a parent should, and does, possess the right to remove her child from parts of the curriculum for "genuine conscientious reasons." What Peachey finds objectionable is homosexuality. Yet the position of our courts and governments, as made plain in The Charter of Rights and Freedoms, is that homosexuality is acceptable in our society. As Corren rhetorically asks, how can a parent be allowed to restrict learning stimuli from her child that the society has affirmed to be worthwhile and in a child’s best interest to learn?

For "genuine conscientious reasons" our provincial government has included instruction on same sex families. I think it is timorous for the same government and school boards to permit some parents to dispense with parts of the curriculum, particularly instruction that promotes sensitivity toward people with a different sexual orientation. Peachey’s putative right to deny his child this instruction is not defensible in a society expressly opposed to bigotry and hate.

Jim McMurtry, Surrey

Liberal budget fails students

2007-02-20T16:16:00.000-08:00

BC students have been ignored in the Liberal government's budget-a document that fails to improve students' learning conditions-but focusses resources on additional bureaucratic government assessment and data collection.

"There is nothing here for our students," says Jinny Sims, president of the BC Teachers' Federation. "Public education does not benefit from BC's robust economy. Overall, education funding in relation to the province's GDP continues to decline, and the government continues to pay less per pupil than it did in 1990." The government would need to increase funding to school boards this year by more than $200 million to restore funding to 1990 per student levels.

Sims says, "This budget provides virtually nothing to improve education services for our kids, and certainly, there is nothing to ensure students receive the learning resources that are so lacking in our schools."

Sims says, "The premier's priority is literacy, but there is a disconnect in this budget as it does nothing to address the real needs of students in our classrooms. Instead, the government implements one-off literacy programs that are nothing more than photo ops.

The budget fails our most vulnerable students and the government concedes that its education system does not perform well in serving some groups. Sims says, "This budget provides nothing to help the critical needs of students who require additional assistance to succeed. Our students with special needs are ignored. Over the past four years, we have lost many of our specialist teachers, such as librarians, counsellors, and learning assistance and special education teachers."

Instead of providing our kids with the learning conditions they need, this government is focussing on the further bureaucratization of our schools and collecting data. Neither leads to improved learning.

A censor? Who, me?

2007-02-01T15:51:00.000-08:00

(BC Teacher: 2007 January/February) by Murray Corren

I have just finished gushing to a colleague about the Breadwinner trilogy of children’s novels written by Canadian writer Deborah Ellis and how they would make a thought-provoking choice for literature circles in her Grade 5 class.

"Oh, but I have a child in my class who is Muslim and his mother is very sensitive about anything touching on that. In fact, I would have to let her read the books first before I could use them in my class," she replies.

In the September issue of Teacher, I published an interview I conducted with Ellis during the World Peace Conference in which we discussed the trilogy. The novels tell the story of the experiences of two girls whose lives were profoundly affected when the Taliban ruled Afghanistan. When I asked her what message she hopes her books send to young readers, Ellis replied, "If kids who read my books remember them when they get to be decision makers, and their government says it’s time to go to war, hopefully they’ll remember that there are real people under those bombs... and will think seriously before letting their government get away with killing [those people] in their name." It seems to me that is a pretty important message to give to kids who are about to become the adults of tomorrow.

But should a teacher allow one parent’s sensitivities to decide whether or not these, or any other children’s novels, be read in her classroom? To what extent do we deprive children of opportunities to view the world from a variety of perspectives because of a fear of parental backlash? Whose worldview should we privilege and whose should we censor? Who should decide what gets taught and what doesn’t?

I have seen and heard about numerous other examples of how we self-censor in our classrooms or have our classrooms censored for us. At one elementary school where I taught, two children were excused from the entire year’s music classes because of their parent’s religious beliefs. Last year, when C.S. Lewis’s The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe hit the big screen, a teacher who intended reading the novel to his Grade 3 class stopped doing so after the first chapter when a child indicated he couldn’t sit through the read-aloud because he is a Jehovah’s Witness. A student teacher told me of a parent who insisted his child was not to see any images of people or animals where the eyes could be seen and that she had to black them out! I am certain just about every teacher in this province could tell similar stories.

So, the question then is: What rights do parents have to determine what parts of the provincially mandated curriculum their children will learn and how they will learn it? Many teachers may be surprised to learn that those boundaries are very restricted and, have, for years, been clearly defined by the Ministry of Education. The policy, currently described as the Alternative Delivery Policy, clearly defines the areas of the curriculum where students and their parents or guardians may arrange for alternative delivery of instruction; namely, the Health curriculum organizer of Health and Career Education K to 7, Health and Career Education 8 and 9, and Planning 10, and the Personal Development curriculum organizer of Personal Planning K to 7. The policy does not apply to any other prescribed learning outcomes in those IRPs. Nor does it apply to any other BC provincial curriculum.

In a letter from the deputy minister sent to all the education partner groups in September 2006, this policy was, once again, reiterated "in order to clarify some common misunderstandings" with regard to its application. "The policy does not permit schools to omit addressing or assessing any of the prescribed learning outcomes within the health and career education curriculum," the letter states, and goes on to say, "Neither does it allow students to be excused from meeting the expectations of any prescribed learning outcomes related to health. It is expected that students who arrange for alternative delivery will address the learning outcomes and will be able to demonstrate that they have done so."

Just so that we are all clear, the Alternative Delivery policy applies only to the health organizers of the above-named IRPs and to no others. What this means is that there are no other areas of the curriculum that students have the option of not being in attendance or accessing alternative means by which to achieve the required learning outcomes. So, when a student says he or she can’t participate in lessons, other than those of the health organizers, for whatever reason, our response needs to be that they are required to be in attendance and are not exempted from meeting the prescribed learning outcomes.

This brings us back to the examples described earlier where teachers have allowed parental pressure to determine what and how we teach to meet the requirements of the curriculum. As professionals, we have a duty to address the learning needs of all our students by ensuring that they be exposed to ideas, materials, and knowledge that informs and educates them about the world in which they live. When we relinquish our right to professional autonomy and bend to the dictates of a small segment of the parent population, we do a disservice to our students as a whole.

So, when a parent declares that a teacher’s choice of a novel to be used in class must be vetted by the parent first; when, in social studies, children are learning about the different family models, a parent objects to the inclusion of same-sex parented families; or when a child is not permitted to attend music or physical education classes because of the religious beliefs of the family, we need to take a stand. Our response should be, "This is the public education system and I am required to follow the mandated provincial curriculum. If you are not happy about that, there are other educational options available to you and to your child."

I have often heard it said that if we take such an approach, we shall lose students to the private education system. My response to such an assertion is, an overwhelming number of parents want their children educated in a public system that reflects the values of a diverse and inclusive Canadian society, values espoused in the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms. In other words, why should we allow ourselves to censor and dumb down public education and reduce it to its lowest common denominator simply because the system doesn’t meet the needs of a few parents and their children?

Let us now replay the encounter I described at the beginning of this article. This time, the teacher immediately sees the value in using novels such as the Breadwinner trilogy with her students, asserts her professional autonomy, and declares, "I think it’s important for my students to learn about the plight of children in Afghanistan, and I’m going to use those books to help them see the world from another perspective."

My question to all of us, as the guardians of public education, is: Are you prepared to protect and uphold the right to do what is best for all your students, to provide them with quality opportunities to learn about the world around them, and to fend off efforts to censor teachers and, ultimately, the children we teach? I hope your answer is a resounding, "Yes!"

Murray Corren is a Coquitlam teacher at the Winslow Centre, Curriculum and Staff Development Department.

The Alternative Delivery Policy can be found on the ministry’s web site at: www.bced.gov.bc.ca/policy/policies/alt_delivery.htm.

Free library cards!

2007-02-01T15:49:00.000-08:00

(BC Teacher: 2007 January/February)

The Ministry of Education recently sent out notices to all students in the province offering them a "free" public library card.

Coquitlam teacher, Jennie Boulanger wrote the following letter to her MLA:

Dear Diane Thorne, MLA

I am a resident of your constituency and an elementary teacher in Burquitlam’s riding. Please find enclosed a class set of notices given to me today to distribute to my Grade 4 students.

If you could be so kind, please return these to Honorable Minister of Education Shirley Bond. I find it appalling that our precious tax (education) dollars would be spent on such an outrageous piece of (false), self-congratulatory propaganda.

I’m sure that there was at least one BC student not eligible for a free public library card prior to our current government’s probable policy change. What I’m not so sure of is why the money for this lovely letterhead and distribution to probably 500,000 students wasn’t spent on buying library books for schools instead.

Once again, we are subjecting our children to a shameless piece of advertising. "...our government’s way of encouraging you to ...enjoy the gift of reading." Indeed.

Unfortunately, my 10-year-olds didn’t receive these to take home. Instead we discussed how this "news" seemed strange, considering that we have been to two local public libraries already this school year and already had our "free" library cards for some time. Some students brought up concerns about saving our trees instead of using paper needlessly for notices such as these.

Perhaps (if a Spring Session is held) you could bring up some of our future-voters’ concerns in Legislature. Thank you for considering my request.

Jennie Boulanger, Coquitlam

Thousands spent on free library cards

2006-12-11T15:44:00.000-08:00

(BCTF E-news, Vol. 6, no. 5, December 11, 2006)

The minister of education has spent thousands of dollars sending letters to parents of all K12 students telling them their children are now eligible for a free public library card.

Most public libraries in the province provide cards free of charge already. Some people are upset at this enormous waste of money, especially in light of the number of school libraries that have been closed or had their hours reduced.

There is over fifty-years research showing that a well-stocked and properly staffed school library will improve academic achievement.

The teacher-librarian: A students’ best bet to acquire information literacy skills

2006-12-01T15:40:00.000-08:00

(BC Teacher: 2006 November/December) by Lesley Edwards

One of the truly gratifying aspects of my job as a secondary school teacher-librarian is the work I do with teens helping them to become better at finding useful information on the Internet.

I remember the Grade 12 student who appeared in the library with panic written all over her face. "I spent all weekend searching the web for information for my project and couldn’t find a thing. The assignment is due in two days." I asked her what her topic was and immediately pulled up three great sites using a Google search. She looked at me incredulously. "How did you do that?" she asked. Now this was a hardworking, intelligent student and yet she was flummoxed by a simple search. She had no idea how to use keywords effectively.

I remember a class doing a project on substance abuse. They had been given clearly defined questions to answer and yet several of them were having difficulty. When I checked with them to see what keywords they were using for their search they replied, "Shrooms." With a little coaching they were able to come up with the term psilocybin, which netted them sites from sources such as Brown University’s health education page. They learned that a search using slang results in sites that offer unreliable or biased information. I then directed them to the links provided at the bottom of Brown’s page where additional reliable information could be found.

Without expert guidance, how many students will learn to use a directory like the Librarian’s Internet Index at http://lii.org/, or go beyond the first page of Google to discover how to do an advanced search? How many know about the great online databases that many schools and all public libraries subscribe to? How many know that even the creator of Wikipedia does not recommend it for student use? And finally how many know how to evaluate a web site for accuracy, authority, and reliability?

Try this at home. Do a Google search using the keywords "Martin Luther King." The first hit seems great, but closer examination shows that it is hosted by Stormfront, a white supremacist group. Similarly, the first result of a Google search for "In Flanders Fields" takes you to the American Arlington Cemetery site, the second is a Belgian museum with nothing about the poem. The eighth is hosted by a Canadian white supremacist group—the Canada First Immigration Reform Committee. There are great teaching and learning opportunities here, but those "teachable moments" are too often lost when teacher-librarians are not part of the research process.

Public librarians also offer great information services but are more likely to provide the answer teenagers need rather than teaching them how to find the answer for themselves. When a class comes to the school library to do research, I make sure that part of their session includes learning and practicing information literacy skills.

For me, teaching information literacy is all about the process, the skills of finding information, judging its quality and usefulness, paring it down to essentials, and recombining it in ways that challenge the user to employ higher-order thinking skills. It’s about using information ethically and with integrity. We don’t hand teenagers the keys to the family car without training them to drive, so why are we so willing to turn them loose on the Internet without strategies for navigating successfully and staying safe? Who better to provide solid Internet-use strategies than a teacher-librarian?

Lesley Edwards is a teacher-librarian at Seycove Secondary School, North Vancouver.

For further information, read the following:
• "The Crisis in Canada’s School Libraries: The Case for Reform and Re-Investment" by Ken Hancock at www.peopleforeducation.com/librarycoalition/Report03.pdf.
• A report prepared for the National Library of Canada, "Elementary and Secondary Schools: The Role, Challenges and Financial Conditions of School and School Library Resources in Canada" at www.collectionscanada.ca/9/14/index-e.html
• "School Libraries and Student Achievement in Ontario" at www.accessola.com/osla/graphics/eqao_pfe_study_2006.pdf.

Testing scheme doesn’t improve score

2006-11-20T15:38:00.000-08:00

(BCTF E-news, Vol. 6, no. 3, Nov 20, 2006)

The BC Liberal government has been claiming it wants to improve student achievement, and by that it means test scores. Last year’s Grade 7 Foundation Skills Assessment reading scores are the lowest in five years, the same length of time the government has been in power.

When the education minister was questioned about the test results she said, “We have to ask ourselves, which [initiatives] are working and which ones are not.”

Closing school libraries and increasing class sizes haven’t helped students develop literacy skills. On the contrary, there is 50 years of research showing that a properly staffed and well-maintained school library is the best way to support academic achievement.

National School Library Day

2006-10-23T15:37:00.000-07:00

(BCTF: 2006 Oct 23)

October 23 is National School Library Day. "School libraries help lay the foundation for lifelong learning and students read more when they have access to a variety of materials to enhance learning," says BCTF President Jinny Sims. "Student achievement is linked to access to school libraries and it’s important that schools are well-resourced with curriculum-based collections and strong library programs." The annual survey of school library learning conditions conducted by the BC Teacher-Librarians’ Association points to a drastic need to support school libraries. In light of the government's stated commitment to literacy, the erosion of school library staffing and resources simply does not make sense.

Education funding. A brief to the Select Standing Committee on Finance and Government Services

2006-10-01T16:09:00.000-07:00

http://www.bctf.ca/uploadedFiles/Publications/Briefs_Position_papers/EducationFunding.pdf

BCTF salutes teacher-librarians

2006-10-01T15:36:00.000-07:00

(BCTF News Release: 2006 October 19)

Teachers around the province are celebrating the work of their peers through their support and acknowledgment of National School Library Day, October 23.

The BC Teachers' Federation (BCTF) says this day highlights the connection between reading and learning. President Jinny Sims says, "We are concerned about the lack of specialist teachers such as teacher-librarians, who foster our children's love of books. School libraries help lay the foundation for lifelong learning and students read more when they have access to a variety of materials to enhance learning. Our school libraries are staffed with professional teacher-librarians who know what information will stimulate and engage students."

Sims says student achievement is linked to access to school libraries and it's important that schools are well-resourced with curriculum-based collections and strong library programs. "The government must fully fund school libraries," says Sims, "not only by ensuring the shelves are well-stocked with current and cutting-edge resources, but by staffing the libraries with full-time teacher-librarians. It's alarming that in BC, only 18% of school libraries have a full-time teacher-librarian."

The BCTF is heartened that the provincial government wants BC to be world's literacy leader, but Sims says, "in order for that to happen, we need sufficient funding. School libraries should be places for our children to expand their knowledge and to feed their love of learning. Instead, they have become the hallmark of budget constraints and many school boards have been slow in repairing the damage that years of budget cuts have done."

Sims says the BCTF applauds the hard work of teacher-librarians and recognizes the unique struggles they face.

World Peace Forum: For the sake of the children

2006-09-01T15:30:00.000-07:00

(BC Teacher: 2006 September) by Murray Corren

Following her riveting presentation at the World Peace Forum in June, I had the honour of interviewing children’s literature author, Deborah Ellis. "Deborah is that all too rare artist whose deeply rooted sense of social justice is manifest in writing that is lively, lucid, and highly entertaining. In settings as diverse as Afghanistan, Malawi, Bolivia, medieval Paris, and Regent Park in Toronto, her novels chronicle the lives of youngsters faced with enormous challenges," was the verdict of the Vickey Metcalf Award for Children’s Literature jury.

This extraordinary writer is a long-time women’s rights and anti-war activist who has authored socially engaging novels about children living in environments of violence, conflict, and earth-shattering calamities. However, anyone reading her work will also be deeply touched by the extraordinary and uplifting acts of courage by her child-heroes.

Of herself, Deborah says, "My books reflect the heroism of people around the world who are struggling for decent lives. It has been a real privilege for me to sit with people in many parts of the world and learn how their lives have been drastically altered by war or disease, and how they try to remain kind in spite of it all. This has taught me how fundamentally alike we all are."

All the royalties from many of her books, translated into numerous languages, are donated to the education of women and girls in Afghanistan, to Street Kids International, and to UNICEF.

When I mention these generous acts of kindness, Deborah responds with, "Oh, it’s nothing." To date, The Breadwinner and Parvana’s Journey alone have raised over $500,000 to support the women and girls of Afghanistan.

Winner of numerous children’s literature awards, Deborah Ellis works as a mental health counselor in a group home for women in Simcoe, Ontario.

How did you become involved in anti-bomb politics and in feminism?
I came of age in l978, when the world was about to blow itself up in an atomic war. I write about what interests me, which is how people move about in a world of cruelty, and find some measure of kindness in that cruelty.

When I was in high school in Paris, Ontario, some local volunteers involved in the antibomb movement came and gave a talk and I became interested in it and became involved.

Unfortunately, the guys who were there were very chauvinistic. Various organizations were connected to the antibomb political movement, one of them being a feminist organization. It was then that I became interested in feminism.

Tell me more about those measures of kindness you have witnessed.
I have seen so many acts of kindness, I hardly know where to begin. I have seen people in the Afghan refugee camps, who have lost their own children through war or illness, take in other children who have lost their parents and made them their own.

You spent time in Afghan refugee camps in Pakistan prior to writing the "Breadwinner" trilogy. What were the circumstances that brought you to do that?
I and some others were doing solidarity work with Afghan women after the Taliban takeover of Kabul in September l996. I went over to the camps to collect their stories to share with others, and heard about girls masquerading as boys in order to support their families.

Who were some of the people you met?
I met former teachers, principals, and doctors working in secret trying to get medical help to people inside Afghanistan. I met a woman who had been married at nine years old and was widowed at 10 when her husband was killed in the war. I met women who smuggled guns for the Mujahadine into the country to fight the Russians.

I’d like to turn now to the "Breadwinner" trilogy. The books portray events that some might say are too disturbing for children to read about and could take away their innocence. What do you say to those concerns?
The children I’ve met who have read my books, or lived in the situations I write about, are capable of knowing the truth of the world as it is presented to them, and, at the same time, believing in make-believe, in dreams, and in decency.

What message would you like children to get from those three books?
We often carry with us the books we read as children. If the kids who read my books remember them when they get to be decision makers, and their government says its time to go to war, hopefully they’ll remember that there are real people under those bombs, people like Parvana, and will think seriously before letting their government get away with killing them in their name.

The Canadian government recently announced an increased expenditure of $17 billion on the military. How else do you think that money might have been spent?
A teacher in Afghanistan earns roughly $750 a year. Seventeen billion dollars would hire a lot of teachers, build a lot of schools, put a lot of people back to work, give a lot of people a sense of future.

There are Canadians who think we should not be in Afghanistan in combat mode, that our soldiers are being injured or killed. The theme of the World Peace Forum is the futility of war and how conflict does not solve problems. What would you say to those people?
We should not be in Afghanistan in combat. What invariably happens is that innocent people will be in the way of the fighting and will be hurt or killed. War not only destroys buildings, it also destroys the social fabric of a people and leaves them with no way of putting their lives back together. What we should be doing as Canadians is bringing a whole other set of skills—building schools, hospitals, roads, etc.—setting up an infrastructure whereby people affected by the war can begin to re-establish a functioning social structure that gives them peaceful alternatives to war. For instance, I think it’s in the Congo where a very exciting program is happening, where people are being given bicycles in exchange for their guns and are being shown lots of different ways they can use those bicycles to make a living.

Apart from the "Breadwinner" trilogy, what other books have you written?
Other books of mine are: The Heaven Shop, a novel about children dealing with AIDS in Malawi, Our Stories, Our Songs, interviews I did with kids affected by AIDS in Malawi and Zambia, Three Wishes, Children of Israel and Palestine Speak, Interviews I did with kids in Israel and Palestine, A Company of Fools, a novel about the plague in the Middle Ages is my favourite because it was the most fun to write, Looking for X, a novel and some books in the "Our Canadian Girl Series."

Deborah, thank you.

For any teachers considering using Deborah Ellis’s books in their classrooms but who may wonder if their students are ready for such powerful stories, I would say that I have used Deborah Ellis’s books in Grade 4 and 5 classrooms and, without doubt, children have received and responded to them with maturity, insight, and compassion that would put many adults to shame. So, if you are an intermediate, middle, or secondary teacher, and you are looking for a writer who will engage, inspire, and inform your students, I can think of no better choice.

Murray Corren is district staff at Winslow Centre, Coquitlam.

Celebrate school libraries!

2006-09-01T15:28:00.000-07:00

(BC Teacher: 2006 September) by Rick Mulholland

Almost every school has some form of a school library. To paraphrase a quote by American novelist Shelby Foote, a school is just a group of classrooms gathered around a library. In the past few issues of Teacher newsmagazine, we have read a number of articles relating to school libraries, their programs, their personnel, and how important they are to the education of our students. Now we need to turn the attention to something that is rarely done for school libraries. It is something that many teacher-librarians find difficult to do—we need to promote ourselves—we need to celebrate! This is supported by a leading researcher in school librarianship, Dr. Ross J. Todd, who says it is "part of critically reviewing objectives in relation to learning, and ensuring that student learning outcomes are not only able to be identified, but are acknowledged and celebrated by the school community."

We can celebrate our programs by showcasing students’ projects in a number of ways, including displays in the library or office display cabinet and publishing written work in the school newsletter or on a web site. Why not approach the local newspaper to have students’ work published in the weekend paper? What about the local media showcasing the actual unit in action?

But the best way to celebrate school libraries is on the fourth Monday in October. International School Library Day was proclaimed in 1999 by then International Association of School Librarianship president Dr. Blanche Woolls and reaffirmed last year by the current International Association of School Librarianship president, Peter Genco. International School Library Day is an opportunity for school libraries to showcase their role in the promotion of reading and literacy skills as well as information literacy skills, which help to provide the foundations for lifelong learning. School libraries matter and make a difference!

In Canada, National School Library Day, which is celebrated on the same day as International School Library Day, was proclaimed by Roch Carrier, then National Librarian of Canada, at the National School Library Summit held in Ottawa in June of 2003. The first National School Library Day was held on Monday, October 27, 2003.

International School Library Day and National School Library Day provide the school community an opportunity to celebrate the importance of the school library. It is a day where teachers, students, parents, administrators, and of course teacher-librarians stand up and show the Canadian public that school libraries matter.

On Monday October 23, 2006, school communities around the world will be celebrating the 8th International School Library Day with the theme Reading. Knowing. Doing. This highlights the connection between reading and the application of knowledge. I urge every member of the BC school community to join their teacher-librarian in celebrating the important role that school library programs have in our education system today and in the future.

For more information, visit the following web sites: International School Library Day (www.iasl-slo.org/isld.html), National School Library Day (www.nsld.ca).

Rick Mulholland is a teacher-librarian at East Clayton Elementary School, Surrey.

Teacher-librarians working and learning conditions survey

2006-06-01T15:22:00.000-07:00

(BC Teacher: 2006 May/June)

Annually the BC Teacher-Librarians’ Association (BCTLA) surveys its members via its Working and Learning Conditions survey (W&L). The data gathered allows the group to track staffing and funding levels around the province and inform and advocate for teacher-librarians, school libraries, and school library programs. The 2005–06 survey marked the 25th annual survey of teacher-librarians of BC by the BCTLA. The online survey gathered a total of 852 responses from school libraries across the province. Responses were received from schools in all but two districts. In total, 50.7% of schools responded. The full report will be published with the Spring 2006 issue of The Bookmark and is also available on the BCTLA web site http://bctf.ca/bctla.

The research
According to Lance and Loertscher, Powering achievement: School library media programs make a difference: The evidence (2003), "In schools with well-stocked, well-equipped school libraries, managed by qualified and motivated professional teacher-librarians working with support staff, one can expect: capable and avid readers, learners who are information literate, and teachers who are partnering with the teacher-librarian to create high-quality learning experiences. Standardized scores tend to be 10 to 20% higher than in schools without this investment."

There are over 50 years of academic studies on the correlation between school libraries and student achievement. Most recent and notable include those completed in Alaska, Colorado, Pennsylvania, and Scotland. Similar results and conclusions were reported in all the studies: school library programs and teacher-librarians have a positive impact on student academic achievement.

Dr. Ken Haycock, in his recent report, "The Crisis in Canada’s School Libraries—The Case for Reform and Re-Investment (2003)," details the conclusions of a multitude of academic studies on the relationship between school libraries, teacher-librarians, and student achievement.

Haycock reveals a body of research evidence with a compelling link between student achievement and the presence of well-stocked, properly funded, and professionally developed school library programs and services.

School libraries in BC have a long way to go because of years of cuts and poor decision making.

Professional staffing
The BCTLA W&L survey results indicate that although there has been a marginal increase in the number of full-time equivalent (FTE) teacher-librarians in the province (this year there is one teacher-librarian for every 820 students instead of one for every 828 students as was the case last year), only 18% of school libraries have a full-time teacher-librarian.

This study found 95% of libraries had a teacher-librarian in charge. Just over 3% of libraries had a technician or clerk in charge and over 1% had another person (parent, volunteer or principal) in charge. Three schools did not have anybody in charge of the library.

The survey shows that the number of teacher-librarians, expressed in FTE/1,000 students has increased slightly at the elementary level to 1.45 FTE/ 1,000. Middle and secondary school levels teacher-librarian FTEs fall at 1.19 and 0.99 respectively. Previous studies have shown an overall decline in teacher-librarian FTEs of 0.28 per 1,000 students for elementary schools and 0.22 per 1,000 students for secondary schools between 1999 and 2003.

Funding
The funding allocation for BC school libraries generally falls short of the national standards. National standards from Achieving Information Literacy: Standards for School Libraries published by the Canadian School Library Association and the Association for School Libraries in Canada (2003) identify acceptable funding per student as being between $36 to $45 for secondary, $31 to $42 for middle, and $26 to $35 for elementary based on the average costs of materials in the year 2002. The BCTLA W&L survey revealed average provincial funding levels per student to be $12.33 at elementary, $13.38 at middle school, and $12.74 at secondary. Average school district budget allocations per student range from a low of $5.92 to $36.84.

School libraries can hardly be expected to maintain an up-to-date collection in good repair when funding with such inadequate budgets.

BC’s school libraries relying on fundraising to supplement core library budgets is cause for concern. Many schools turn to fundraising to attempt to fill the funding gap. The survey revealed that the amounts raised by parents, book fairs, bake sales, and other fundraising activities varies considerably by school, depending on the resources available and the wealth of the neighbourhood. The range of funds raised is further cause for concern given that it points to inequities in fundraising capacity and thus inequities in the provision of library services between schools. Data from the 2005–06 study, excluding those who did not report money from fundraising (117 out of 852 schools), show that the range of funds raised was from $50 at one small secondary school in the interior of the province to $45,000 for a school in the greater Vancouver region. This year, the provincial average amount raised per school was $2,410; last year it was slightly lower at $2,110.

Conclusions
The BCTLA welcomed the January 31, 2005 Ministry of Education news release that announced $150 million for school libraries, music, arts programs, and support for special needs students. It is not apparent, however, that this infusion has translated into substantive positive changes for school library programs and teacher-librarian staffing. The Ministry of Education web site identified that only 12 of 60 school districts indicated that they planned to use this funding for improving library and learning resources.

Although it is a goal of the government to make BC the most literate jurisdiction in North America by 2010, more attention must be given to funding and teacher-librarian staffing levels in BC public schools if this goal is to become a reality. BCTLA calls on the ministry to provide guidance for best practice by reviewing and revising "policies on school libraries and teacher-librarians based on best practice models" (The Crisis in Canada’s School Libraries, 39) to gain greatest return on the school library investment.

Cuts to teacher-librarians: Blame the schools

2006-04-01T15:20:00.000-08:00

(BCTF: 2006 Apr. 11)

Deputy Education Minister Emery Dosdall is providing weekly government spin for administrators and trustees through his weekly "Report on Education." On April 7, 2006, he reported on the budget estimate debates in the legislature. He noted that the opposition raised the issue of the reduction in teacher-librarian staffing levels. His response?

"There was concern expressed that the number of teacher-librarians has been drastically reduced since 2001. The minister expressed her view that these staffing decisions and priorities were best determined locally. She said, '...we believe that schools have to make choices about what's best to serve their students in this province. I actually have confidence in educators and parents and teachers working together to determine how best to serve those students...We fundamentally believe that's the best way for us to manage the system.'"

Commenting on the opposition criticism that the accountability contracts were virtually identical from district to district, Dosdall said, "And yes, all districts have a goal focused on literacy, as they should."

Despite 50 years of research showing the strong relationship between a well-staffed and resourced library and high literacy levels, the deputy minister still thinks that testing is the key.

Bringing home the school library sea

2006-03-01T15:17:00.000-08:00

(BC Teacher: 2006 March) by Kalen Marquis

Einstein stated that, "Imagination is more important than knowledge." This celebrated man of science knew that knowledge—whether acquired as facts or applied as skills—is not nearly as significant as what learners do with it. Einstein, who did his most important thinking visually, trusted the expansive and abundant imaginative process that transforms, transcends, and creates anew. He knew the importance of metaphor.

As a teacher-librarian, the picture I would like to paint is the school library as the ocean, the salt chuck, the sea. In its abundance, it is a marvel of sensory wonder, a book and resource collection that yields many timeless treasures. Whether archetypically "deep, dark, and mysterious" or meek, mild, and shallow, it mirrors the values and sensibilities, the wishes, wants, and dreams of each beholder. With each term’s beginning and ending, with every daily and weekly ripple created by staff and student borrowers, a sea of books and resources rises up, depositing carefully selected words and images in classrooms and in staff and student homes. One book at a time, borrowers literally bring home the school library sea.

In waves of fiction and non-fiction, the school library sea ebbs, pulses, crashes, erodes; it deposits and builds, creating and recreating each school’s cultural and educational heritage, the broadest and best of "old" and "new." From republished classics to the increasingly commercial contemporary, each book, poster, CD, and DVD advances and retreats, riding lunar tides of wind and water, before returning home—very often requiring a teacher-librarian’s replacement or repair.

Whether that teacher-librarian is perceived to be a meticulous seaside groundskeeper, a stealthy lifeguard, a knowledgeable ocean-park interpreter, a remote yet luminary lighthouse keeper, or even a much more fanciful, star-struck storyteller, depends upon the needs and priorities, the values and sensibilities of each school community.

Admittedly, after generations of decline that has left teacher-librarians on duty for just over one day a week in the average Canadian school, it is difficult to imagine a teacher-librarian with the time and resources to respond thoughtfully and lovingly to the minds and hearts of learners.

While current generations of students are trained in the narrow, equidistant lanes of highly chlorinated lap pools, complete with coaches, timers, and scoreboards to put them through their competitive paces, there is a growing call from the wisest, most seafaring families and educators: When will our children return to the more treasure-laden folds of the school library sea? Will we, with warm, daily welcomes and some requisite hand-holding, help children from land-loving families to move beyond smooth-bottomed wading pools and the narrow, directed confines of the lap pool? Will our children have the opportunity to seek the majestically shifting plains of sand and sea where they can venture out, swimming widely, deeply, and joyfully in every direction in the school library sea?

Setting sail in ships marked "Coalition for School Libraries" those bold seafarers know that the tide has been out for several decades and they must navigate in deep, dark, increasingly distant waters with the competing allure of a landlubber’s paradise. Their mission, on a nationwide scale, is to bring back the school library sea.

While teacher-librarians might be lured onto makeshift wharves to await these docking ships, their time is precious. As groundskeepers on litter patrol, lifeguards doing first aid, and interpreters preparing self-guided tours, their time is fragmented. They are distracted from their role as lighthouse keepers who salvage handfuls of fine books from across Canada and around the world—souvenirs of the Renaissance in children’s literature that no longer reaches school library shores.

As star-struck storytellers, they are often unavailable—too harried or hardened from hoping against hope that this year will mark the lowest ebb.

Like those on ships marked "Coalition," they are witness to a generation of seaside learners set loose with modern metal detectors to find treasures of a tinny kind, or lined up for a turn on high-powered hovercraft that skim across barren shores to reach a more distant worldwide sea. These exciting vessels do not come equipped with form-fitting life jackets, all-weather navigation equipment, or the depth sounder of a human mind and heart. They do not, as indeed they cannot, recognize the wisdom in Omar Bradley’s saying, "We need to learn to set our course by the stars, not by the light of each passing ship."

While study after study shows the importance of an abundant library sea with innovative, flexibly scheduled programs provided by an accessible and enthusiastic old salt, few decision-makers champion them. Knowledge, as Einstein knew, is not enough. Imagination—a starry-eyed picture and a lifelong educational vision—is desperately required.

Kalen Marquis is a fanciful, star-struck storyteller at Kanaka Creek Elementary School, Maple Ridge, and editor of Mr. Marquis’ Museletter, kwilville@shaw.ca.

The graphic novel

2006-02-01T15:13:00.000-08:00

(BC Teacher: 2006 January/February) by Darinka Popovic

"I don’t want to read." "Reading is boring!" "There is nothing in the library that I like."

Do you hear this from your students? Unfortunately these are the type of comments drifting through every school library, classrooms, and in many homes. So move away from the traditional novel and try introducing a graphic novel!

Graphic novels are a combination of illustrations and words that are designed to appeal to the reluctant reader or the lover of comic books. Think of the graphic novel as the still version of a video clip with closed captioning.

There are three groupings of graphic novels. Most of us are familiar with the first type, a comic strip that has been compiled into a book. These include titles such as Calvin and Hobbs, Garfield, and Peanuts. Then there is the true graphic novel, a story with a continuous plot, which is supported by graphics and captions. The Pulitzer Prize-winning book Maus: A Survivor’s Tale by Art Spiegelman, which relates to the Holocaust, brought the graphic novel into the mainstream in 1991. The third format is the Japanese manga style of graphic novel, which is read from right to left. There are thousands of manga titles, often featuring a superhero.

Graphic novels are both educational and fun, but they can be very complex to decode. It is important that the reader take the time to look, absorb the images and then read the words that are presented. Children must read the words, and through the sequential artwork decode the meaning behind the illustrations and special effects such as the word bubbles. Illustrations can be colourful or are produced in black and white. The visual stimulation creates a situation where the reader must focus on the page to decode the necessary information. If a child or adult is having difficulty focusing on the coloured graphics try a novel that has black and white illustrations.

Teachers are able to use the graphic novel to encourage reading and writing in the school. You are able to use the graphic novel to teach literary techniques, create writing assignments and build bridges to the classic novel. For the child who desperately wants to read The Hobbit but is daunted by the length and readability, the graphic novel version opens a new world.

Though titles may be limited, there are graphic novels for every age group. For the younger child check out the books by Raymond Briggs such as The Snowman, Father Christmas or Ug: Boy Genius of the Stone Age. The Comic Adventures of Boots by Satoshi Kitamura and Little Buggy by Kevin O’Malley will appeal to children aged five and up.

The following titles will appeal to children ages nine and up: the Bone series by Jeff Smith, the Ultimate Spider-Man series by Brian Michael Bendis, the Akiko series by Mark Crilley, and Leave It to Chance by James Robinson. Delight the girls in your household with Jimmy Gownley’s Amelia Rules!, Amy Unbounded: Belondweg Blossoming by Rachel Hartman, and WJHC: on the air by Jane Smith Fisher.

If you want your child to delight in the joy of the classics then turn to copies of The Hobbit, Wind in the Willows, or The Adventures of Robin Hood.

For the older student check out the following titles: The Hobbit by David Wenzel, The Tale of One Bad Rat by Bryan Talbot, The amazing true story of a teenage single mom by Katherine Arnoldi, Persepolis 1 & 2 by Marjane Satrapi, Meridian 1 & 2 by Barbara Kesel, Promethea I & 2 by Jeromy Cox, The Books of Magic by Neil Gaiman, and Ghost World by Daniel Clowes.

The world of non-fiction is also available in a graphic novel format. A couple of examples included Jay Hosler’s, Clan Apis that tells about the world of bees or the biography by Raymond Brigg’s parents, Ethel and Ernest: a True Story.

Visit your teacher-librarian to see the wide array of product available for students of all ages. Graphic novels are available in a wide variety of genres such as science fiction, fantasy, historical, science, superheroes, and social studies. As you browse through the collection you need to be aware that not all graphic novels are suitable for the younger reader. Most graphic novels produced are geared for teenagers and adults. The material may be excessively violent, language may not be appropriate, and some books have an adult content. To assist the public, some publishers have a ranking system that is listed on some of the books. Age suitability may be listed but be aware, that there is no standardized method of rating material.

Looking for information on the web for children’s graphic novels? There is a site specific for the review these materials is called Sidekicks (for the younger reader) and No Flying No Tights (for the teen reader) at http://sidekicks.noflyingnotights.com/core.html.

Remember, the best way to raise literacy, is to expose your students to the wide variety of materials available. Have them read whatever interests them. Graphic novels might just do the trick!

Darinka Popovic is a teacher-librarian at Rock Heights Middle School, Victoria.

Put a teacher-librarian on your team

2005-09-01T15:07:00.000-07:00

(BC Teacher: 2005 September) by Karen Lindsay

All over the world, companies are reaping the benefits of collaborative effort. Automobiles are created by teams and job interviews are done in collaborative group settings. Can’t make it as a team player? You won’t get into McMaster’s School of Medicine. It’s not just a fad; it’s a recognition that results improve where many minds, skills, and perspectives are brought to bear. Shared responsibility improves performance, unleashes creativity, and broadens skills while reducing stress and building relationships.

Teaching, especially at the secondary school level, has not embraced this concept. Teachers spend much of their day planning, delivering, and assessing lessons in isolation. It is not unusual for a beginning secondary teacher to enter the profession facing four different lesson preparations per day, difficult classes, and five months of teaching without a preparation block!

There is no opportunity to observe more experienced teachers, and no time to work collaboratively with anyone. Over time, we become inured to, proud of, and perhaps even happy with our isolation. However, it is not the healthiest, most productive approach to teaching students.

Enter the teacher-librarian. Here is the one person on staff whose prime function is to support teachers in unit planning and lesson delivery. Teacher-librarians are committed to collaboration.

We work best when we work closely with individual teachers in the critical areas of designing authentic learning tasks and integrating the research and technological pieces required by various IRPs. Did you know that next to socio-economic issues, the single greatest factor affecting student achievement is the school library? Research undertaken and replicated over the past 60 years indicates that students whose teacher-librarians take active planning and teaching roles tend to achieve significantly higher test scores. In schools where teachers and teacher-librarians work together to plan, implement, and evaluate lessons and units of study, student results improve by between 5 and 20%. No teacher would wittingly deprive their students this opportunity for improvement, but for it to occur, classroom teachers need to make teacher-librarians a part of their planning, teaching, and evaluation routine.

No one needs to tell you that the demands of teaching are constantly increasing. Our students have so many more needs, and need so many more skills than they once did to be successful.

Curricular change seems like the only constant along with increasing class sizes. Nevertheless, it is important that students receive research assignments that teach them how to locate, evaluate, and use today’s information, both in school and beyond. No one person can be expected to have the experience, knowledge, and time to teach information literacy and technology skills, while continuing to teach the child, and the curriculum. Teaching in today’s school demands a team approach. Lean on your teacher-librarian.

During the planning of a unit, your teacher-librarian will focus on incorporating challenges that will call upon students to access, evaluate, and use information from multiple sources in order to learn to think, and to create and apply new knowledge. Intelligent decision-making relies on accurate and complete information. Through their collaboration, teachers and teacher-librarians, can provide students with specific opportunities to develop skills in information literacy and information technology, skills that they will need more and more both in school and outside its walls.

Co-planned lessons generally do not rely on textbooks, preferring to teach students how to locate and use resources that will meet the needs of the task. Frequently the products of a co-planned lesson might be PowerPoint presentations, mock trials, virtual seminars, or poster sessions, rather than pen and paper activities. Teacher-librarians often take responsibility for assessing the students’ process through the unit, as well as marking their reference list/bibliography.

What to bring to a collaborative planning session:

A unit you’ve already taught or an idea for a new unit.
Your expert knowledge of the curriculum and your students.
An open mind.

What the teacher-librarian might teach, using a task that requires critical thinking and problem solving:

How to formulate critical questions to guide the research process.
How to select the most appropriate resources to accomplish a given task.
How to search the library’s catalogue and locate resources in the library.
What a database is and how to use it.
How to search the Internet effectively.
How to check web sites for reliability.
How to use information ethically.
How to take notes and track sources effectively.
How to use process management tools for assigning responsibilities, tracking tasks, and setting deadlines.
How to organize, integrate, and present findings in effective ways.

If your school does not have a fully trained teacher-librarian, ask your principal why. If your teacher-librarian’s time is largely taken up providing preparation time and supervising book exchanges so that collaborative planning and teaching become impossible, ask your principal why. If information literacy skills are not fully integrated into your curriculum, if you and your teacher-librarian are not equal partners who plan, deliver, and assess work together, figure out why and do what you can to change that. Every school deserves an effective library program.

For most of the Western world, January heralds the New Year. Not so for teachers. September is our time for new beginnings and resolutions. This year, why not make one of them to plan at least one unit with your teacher-librarian?

Karen Lindsay is the teacher-librarian at L’École Secondaire Reynolds Secondary School, Victoria

Whither literacy?

2005-06-01T15:05:00.000-07:00

(BC Teacher: 2005 May/June) by Maureen L. MacDonald

I chased my dream to be an elementary music teacher, and it was good. But when I taught from 1969 to 1971 in a school with a marvelous library program and a dynamic teacher-librarian named Doris Fuller, I knew that I would make a change. I quit my job and returned to UBC to take a year in teacher-librarianship, and I have never regretted that decision.

When I was first a teacher-librarian, times were exciting for school libraries. Budgets were sufficient to allow the purchase of many new books each year—perhaps two or three per student. Walls were knocked down so that the one-room libraries could expand to the size of two or three classrooms to meet the demand for shelf and student space. Collections expanded to include more than books. Teacher-librarians practiced Co-operative Program Planning and Teaching (CPPT) with colleagues. Students borrowed books and tapes and, in my school, stuffed animals to read to.

The point of the library program always was, and still is, to enhance literacy. Long before the days of mission statements and school growth plans it was understood that literacy was our goal. No one said "improve literacy" and "slash the staffing and materials budgets" in the same breath. Not until just after the provincial election of 2001.

Is it any wonder that the members of the educational community are scratching their heads in amazement at the ridiculousness of the juxtaposition of the partial closure of libraries and the admonishment to keep up high standards? Scholars, parents, teachers, students, newspaper columnists, and members of the public fail to see any logic in the plan of the Gordon Campbell-led provincial government to underfund the public education system. Perhaps the benefit of this plan is only seen by the operators of private, for-profit schools that advertise to attract well-off students to their big libraries and their small classes.

BCTF members have dealt with the library crisis in a variety of ways—endless fundraising activities to stock the libraries, calling on volunteers to pitch in where there used to be staff, relying more on student monitors. Why do we try to fill the gaps left by deliberate underfunding? You know why! We don’t want the students to lose any opportunities to learn. We add to our own workloads until we can stand no more.

The breaking point for teachers has come. We cannot do more with less. We cannot even do the same with less. We can only do less with less.

Let’s stop covering up for the deficiencies in the system. Let’s let the public and the school community have a taste of reality. How will they know if we don’t show them? Wouldn’t a knowledgeable public want to see the restoration of the library programs cut by the Liberal government since 2001?

Literacy is the cornerstone of democracy. Our urgent and immediate job as teachers in this democratic society is to protect literacy. One way to do this is to recognize the changing social and economic conditions in society and to reflect that in public school libraries. In other words, provide students with well-stocked libraries staffed by professional teacher-librarians and learning will ensue. That, my friends, is common sense.

When I see the school library in the big picture, I notice that the outline has been erased and the image is getting smaller. Multiply this times a thousand schools. The picture is not pretty.

The stripping of teachers’ bargaining rights, the elimination of class-size and class-composition clauses from our collective agreement, the mockery of assuming that libraries can run without teacher-librarians, and the slashing of budgets for staff and materials was highly detrimental to the learning conditions of our students. Success is not achieved by supplying fewer resources.

We have a different set of MLAs to educate now. Let’s tell them what a good library program would do to enhance literacy. It is false economy to reduce educational opportunities because today’s students are the most valuable assets of our future.

Maureen MacDonald is a teacher-librarian at Elsie Roy Elementary School, Vancouver.

Is it a library or a bookstore?

2005-02-01T15:02:00.000-08:00

(BC Teacher: 2005 January/February) by Chris Bocking

My elementary school library has been closed for almost a week. Why? Well, a huge transnational corporation based in the United States has been using it as a profit centre. Yes, Scholastic Corporation has set up its books, pencils, stickers, and posters in attractive displays, and the students have been encouraged to bring money to school to support this "book" event.

Teachers who see Scholastic as a benign presence like being able to purchase books and stickers for their students. They argue that book sales raise money for the library. I suggest that these reasons are insufficient and that teachers should not support commercialism in the public school system.

Richard Robinson, who is not only chair, but also president and CEO of Scholastic Corporation, says on his company’s web site that his company is "dedicated to helping children around the world to read and learn." How noble.

That mammoth company had revenues of $2.23 billion in 2004. Elsewhere on the web site, we learn that the good people at Scholastic are "helping children learn, grow and be happy."

Staggering profits could not be achieved without willing support and tireless efforts of the teachers who volunteer tens of thousands of hours promoting Scholastic’s products to their students, collecting the forms, filling out papers, supervising book sales, and so on.

Scholastic is excited about the Internet’s possibilities for bringing future growth. In May of 2004 alone, Scholastic’s teacher web site had 1.26 million unique visitors. I have heard from teachers about the ease of ordering products online or using Scholastic’s phone service.

Does anybody still want to consider the library the heart of a school? Closing it down and turning it into a private, for-profit book and junk-item store to raise money is wrong. That should not happen. And teachers’ time could be spent in better ways than padding the profits of the largest book company on the planet.

For information on the upcoming Public Education Not For Sale II conference, February 18–19, 2005, go to http://bctf.ca/notforsale/PrivatizationConference.

Chris Bocking teaches at Keating Elementary School, Saanich.

But I changed the words around! Preventing cheating and plagiarism in the classroom

2004-12-01T14:58:00.000-08:00

(BC Teacher: 2004 November/December) by Diane Gallagher-Hayashi

You have handed out a math test to your class. You have arranged the desks to make copying difficult. You watch the class closely. A boy in the back row catches your eye. You stand up, stretch, and wander around the room. You can see nothing wrong in what he is doing, so you go back to your desk. He keeps checking his watch, but you figure he is just nervous about getting the test done on time. When you mark the test, you find that he has done all the questions correctly. Obviously he knew his stuff—you were worried for nothing. Or were you?

Changes in technology outstrip our abilities to keep up. Perhaps the boy in the math class really did know his stuff and passed the test fairly. Or perhaps he had downloaded all the formulas into his digital watch. Sound outlandish? Not according to Ann Lathrop and Kathleen Foss, who wrote Student Cheating and Plagiarism in the Internet Era. "Students today enjoy the challenge of discovering what they can accomplish with each new high-tech toy. Unfortunately, many are quick to see the possibilities of using the new technologies to cheat on tests and homework." (Lathrop et al., p. 10). Hand-held computers and programmable calculators can store and send information and questions to other devices (and other students) outside the classrooms. Pagers and cell phones can be set on vibrate, and text messages can be sent quietly to students writing tests. Access to the Internet has changed student research. The Internet has become a valuable tool for students, but it has also become a supermarket of term papers for students who wish to cheat.

The problem is not just accessibility to tools allowing students to cheat and plagiarize. Attitudes about cheating have changed too. Studies on student cheating show a marked increase in frequency and tolerance. A 1998 study of the academically top 5% of American students showed that 80% cheated (Lathrop et al., p. 30). Another 1998 study by the Josephson Institute of Ethics surveyed over 20,000 middle- and high-school students and found that 70% of them had cheated within the past year (Lathrop et al., p. 31). More disturbing is the change in attitude. Schab’s longitudinal study on cheating showed that in 1969, only 34% said yes when asked if they had ever cheated on a test; whereas in 1989 a full 68% said yes. In 1969, when asked if they agreed with the phrase, Honesty is the best policy, 82% said yes, but in 1989 only 60% said yes. For many students today, the issue is not, Should I cheat or not? but How can I avoid getting caught when I cheat? (Lathrop et al., p. 30).

The change in attitude and the increased access to technology that will allow students to cheat has teachers trying to create situations that make cheating and plagiarism difficult AND policing students’ assignments after they are done. Classroom teachers are not alone in their battle against plagiarism. Every school with a teacher-librarian has a ready-made expert in research. Giving assignments that are generic or using the same assignment year after year invites plagiarism and cheating. Trained and experienced, the teacher-librarian can help develop research units and assignments that are difficult to plagiarize. Compare these two assignments: 1) Describe Hamlet’s state of mind just before his death. 2) You are Hamlet’s psychiatrist. Write an entry in his file for the day before his death.

Both assignments would have the same criteria. A paper matching the first assignment would be very easy to find on the Internet. A paper matching the second assignment would be much more difficult to find.

The teacher-librarian can help the classroom teacher when a suspicious paper has been submitted. The teacher-librarian has an arsenal of tactics that can help find papers that have been plagiarized. The simplest is to take a doubtful line from the assignment and search for that line, enclosed in quotation marks, in a search engine such as Google, Yahoo, or Dogpile. If the student could find the assignment on the Internet, so can the teacher-librarian or the classroom teacher.

Working with the teacher-librarian to teach students good research and note-taking skills, and to require students to follow every step of the Ministry of Education’s Research Quest when they research will make plagiarism difficult and unnecessary. To become lifelong learners, students must know where to find information, how to evaluate and use that information, and how to evaluate their research performance. Once students become comfortable with this process, the temptation to plagiarize will be much less.

Diane Gallagher-Hayashi is a teacher-librarian at Stelly’s Secondary School, Saanich.

Resources Lathrop, Ann, and Kathleen Foss. Student cheating and plagiarism in the Internet era: A wake-up call. Englewood: Libraries Unlimited, 2000

You and your teacher-librarian

2004-10-01T14:53:00.000-07:00

(BC Teacher: 2004 October) by Lynn Turner

Are you looking for new ways to interest your students in reading? Would you like some unique resources for your classroom? Do you want to include research or enrichment in the curriculum? Are you looking for a different way of presenting information?

Your teacher-librarian can help.

Teacher-librarians are aware of the importance of free voluntary—recreational—reading and its role in the development of reading skills from Kindergarten through Grade 12. To that end, teacher-librarians can help students with their choice of library books--with appropriate reading levels, with favourite genres or authors, or perhaps with bibliotherapy.

Your teacher-librarian is your partner in promoting reading at all grade levels. While you are working on an individual basis with students, the teacher-librarian’s approach encompasses groups, classes, and frequently the entire school. Throughout the school year, teacher-librarians engage in a variety of activities, all with the goal of promoting reading, of encouraging students to become aware of and interested in books. From the most basic of promotions, such as bulletin boards and new book displays, to organization and implementation of long-term reading programs, teacher-librarians are constantly encouraging reading. Through story reading, storytelling, book talks, and book fairs, they present quality literature to the students.

Are you planning a thematic or curricular unit? Do you need posters, pictures, maps, or charts for your classroom to help with that unit? Ask your teacher-librarian, as most school libraries have a poster file that is available to teachers as well as to students.

The development of a quality collection is another aspect of a teacher-librarian’s role. That involves the selection of literature to promote recreational reading, the addition of resources in a variety of media to support the curriculum, and the elimination of outdated information and seldom-used materials. Declining budgets and increasing costs of resources make developing a quality collection a very challenging task.

Your teacher-librarian works co-operatively with classroom teachers to plan, teach, and evaluate units of study. The units might be organized around a central theme or might arise directly from a curricular topic. Co-operative planning and teaching, a central focus for teacher-librarians, involves several main steps.

Planning
During planning, the teacher-librarian and the classroom teacher meet to determine the topic to be studied, the learning objectives to be addressed, the procedure for the unit, responsibilities of the teacher and of the teacher-librarian before and during the presentation of the unit, the form of the final product, and evaluation. Planning meetings are not always lengthy or formal; many take place over lunch in the staffroom.

Gathering resources
The teacher-librarian ensures that there are enough resources in a variety of media and at a variety of reading levels for the group or class participating in the unit of study.

Teaching or presenting the unit
This is a team-teaching effort, with both the classroom teacher and the teacher-librarian assisting students with the unit of study. The classroom teacher will be oriented toward the subject material, and the teacher-librarian will be assisting students with the research process.

Evaluating
Both members of the teaching team can and should be involved in evaluating the research process and the final product.

Teacher-librarians are specialists in information literacy, usually referred to as the research process. This involves training students to access relevant resources, to evaluate the selected resources, to take notes from all types of media, to organize information into a logical sequence and present it in the student’s own words, and to cite sources of information and write bibliographies.

As school libraries become more computerized, and as the Internet becomes an increasingly important resource for research, teacher-librarians—exemplifying lifelong learning—have developed technology skills. In many schools, it is the teacher-librarian who is the computer expert.

In addition to the roles they fulfill in school, teacher-librarians provide leadership roles in education. Many have served on district and ministry committees. Some have been responsible for the development of curriculum, either at the local or at the provincial level. And many have made presentations to parents, to teaching colleagues, to administrators, and to student teachers.

In a number of districts in British Columbia, staffing of school libraries has been drastically reduced over the past few years. The cuts have made it difficult for teacher-librarians to do the job to the standard they would like. Nevertheless, they have worked through the challenges to try to accommodate staff and students.

If you would like more information about the roles of a teacher-librarian, or about the ways in which you and your teacher-librarian can work together to enhance students’ learning and perhaps make your job a little easier, speak with the teacher-librarian in your school. The B.C. Teacher-Librarians’ Association can also assist with any requests.

Lynn Turner is a teacher-librarian at Thornhill Junior Secondary School, Terrace.

The school library

2004-09-01T14:48:00.000-07:00

(BC Teacher: 2004 September) by Randi Louise Hermans

All children in Canada should have access to a school library run by a qualified teacher-librarian. Does your school have one? A teacher-librarian is a certified teacher who has an additional education diploma in the professional and management functions of a school library.

In 1998, the B.C. teachers’ contract had ratios for non-enrolling teachers. Schools were required to have one teacher-librarian for every 702 students. The language for non-enrolling teachers was stripped from our collective agreements by the B.C. Liberals in January 2002. Since then, many schools in our province have no teacher-librarian running the library, or the teacher-librarian time has been cut back to such a degree that there is no time to offer a quality library program. Many teacher-librarians have been forced to incorporate prep-time coverage into their library assignment. This is not the answer.

Teacher-librarians do far more than sign out books to students. Besides managing the collection, they teach research skills, encourage children to read, provide book talks and story times, work with teachers on co-operative units, organize author visits and book fairs, and select and purchase material to support the school curriculum. Teacher-librarians serve all students and every educational level, as well as every area of the curriculum.

Research done in nine states since 1999 shows that schools that have well-stocked school libraries, staffed by qualified teacher-librarians working with staff on co-operative units, have higher levels of student achievement. The research shows that scores are 10 to 20% higher in those schools. Similar results are likely in Canada.

In June 2003, the first Summit on Canadian School Libraries was held in Ottawa. Roch Carrier, the National Librarian of Canada at the time, deplored the state of school libraries in Canada: "The state of our school libraries can only be described as desperate in almost every province." British Columbia is one of the best provinces for school libraries in Canada, but unfortunately cuts continue to happen in all districts. A clerk or parent volunteer in the school library is not the answer. Many children are introduced to Canadian authors and Canadian stories at school. Children learn about our country’s culture and heritage by reading both fiction and non-fiction books written by Canadian authors. When teacher-librarians are eliminated or have their budgets slashed, these books don’t get purchased for the school library.

In his report titled "The Crisis in Canada’s School Libraries: The Case for Reform and Reinvestment," published in June 2003, Dr. Ken Haycock states: "Studies show that qualified teacher-librarians have systematically sought out Canadian books and other media to ensure that the Canadian experience forms a significant part of each child’s education."

The Canadian Coalition for School Libraries was formed in March 2002. Publishers, parents, authors, teachers, and teacher-librarians have joined forces to advocate for school libraries across Canada. The CCSL advocates for well-funded school libraries staffed by qualified teacher-librarians. More information is available on its web site: www.peopleforeducation.com/librarycoalition. As well, the B.C. Coalition for School Libraries was formed in the summer of 2003 to provide a provincial view and to advocate for school libraries in B.C.

Now that most homes and schools have access to computers and the Internet, parents, teachers, and administrators may feel that print resources are unimportant. But children need to learn the research steps in elementary school using print resources. The Internet can be a valuable resource tool, but students need to learn the process so they are not plagiarizing. Teacher-librarians working with classroom teachers are the best providers to teach this skill.

The School Library Manifesto was prepared by the International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions and approved by UNESCO in 1999. It states:
The school library provides information and ideas that are fundamental to functioning successfully in today’s society, which is increasingly information and knowledge-based. The school library equips students with lifelong learning skills and develops the imagination, enabling them to live as responsible citizens.

October 25 is National School Library Day and International School Library Day. Schools across Canada and around the world will be using this day to celebrate school libraries. Please find out what is happening at your school and help to celebrate it. The web site for NSLD is www.nsld.ca/.

If your school or your child’s school doesn’t have a teacher-librarian, find out why. Teachers, parents, and grandparents need to demand that their children have access to a quality school library.

In future columns, we’ll be sharing ideas about how you can work with your teacher-librarian. My sincerest hope is that you have a teacher-librarian in your school.

Randi Louise Hermans is a teacher-librarian and is vice-president of the B.C. Teacher-Librarians’ Association.