Reflecting on LIBE 477B

A Lot of Work in a Little Time

It's an unusual experience completing a university course in a month's time, especially when working full time. That's exacerbated further when coursework happens to overlap with the end of the school year and all the hectic energy that that brings. During the timeline of this course, my life has had several major changes: I got a puppy a couple weeks in which added yet another busy element, and then a couple weeks before the course ended I found out I would be moving into a Teacher-Librarian role in the fall. 

This term is my very first in the Teacher-Librarianship Diploma program, and LIBE477B is one of my first two courses. I didn't really know what to expect from this course, but I have found it has been an excellent opportunity to reflect on my current teaching practices and how they could possibly transfer over into a Library Learning Commons setting.

I found that the opportunity to reflect made me more closely consider the excellent things I was already doing as an educator, and it made me question what our goals are specifically as literacy educators. In my first blog post of the course called "Exploring Technology As An Access Point to Literacy," I questioned what it means to be literate in our society, as a result of an experience I had with one of my students this year. This student loves to read, and loves to engage in in-depth, philosophical discussion with his teachers, but is incredibly reluctant to write down any of his thoughts. Aside from his writing, he is a dream English student, so how do I assess him? 

My posts "My Commitment to Improve As an Educator" and "Teacher-Librarians as Leaders: Connecting with Other Educators" led me to consider my goals as an educator and how I'm working towards them, and how I am actively contributing to and adding to my PLN. Prior to this course if I had been asked off-hand about my PLN or how I'm working towards my goals, I wouldn't have immediately been able to respond. I'm pleased with the progress that I've made this term.

My Digital Capstone

I admittedly was at a bit of a loss when I first heard about the Vision for the Future project. My past experiences as a student I thrived in projects that were prescriptive - I found comfort in knowing exactly what I needed to do. So a wide-open "digital artifact" project was rather daunting at first. 

I initially knew that I wanted to do something with poetry, as it's a unit I'm incredibly passionate about and I want to share that passion with other educators in the hopes that they would carry it on with their own students. Initially I thought about doing a video outlining how I set my unit up and why it works, but after consultation with my professor, I realized that the artifact needed to be "living" - in other words, it needed to be something that could be added to over time. I figured that a video series would be something that I would be unlikely to follow up on overtime, because video recording and editing can be a labour intensive process. 

Instead I went with the creation of a website that can be used as a resource for educators who want to incorporate spoken word poetry into their classes. In creating this website I once again was able to reflect on what I had already been subconsciously doing. I began with the poetry selections I was already using, and looked for how patterns and similarities in their content and their connections to the BC Curriculum core competencies. I was then able to identify where the gaps were in my collection so that I could begin searching for new poems to fill those gaps. 

What has resulted is a multi-page resource that educators across the world could use (even though part of it is aligned closely with BC curriculum). It is easily adaptable, so if and when I come across new poetry videos I could add them to the appropriate webpage; I've also given the opportunity for users of the website to submit poems that they think would be fitting for the various topics and core competencies. 

All in All 

I am grateful for the experience this course has offered me. The chance to intentionally reflect and push my practice is one that I am always happy to take, but that I rarely think to do on my own time. I am eager to see where the rest of the diploma program takes me, ad for the future reflection opportunities I will gain.