In the Library Learning Commons with Ms. Gatzke

(CNR) Since 20 19 our district T-L's have been donat ing weeded books to schools in Ghana . A former Surrey Schools student of Ghanian heritage l eads the project, finding particular schools to supply with these collections. At the last update, she had supplied  two schools and was working on partnering with a third school for our next shipment of books.   Having taken part in weeding our collection and filling up a “Books for G hana” box myself last year, I am confident that these books are good tools for learning, but certainly do not equal a complete and current set of resources! We do follow guidelines to make sure we aren’t sending “spoiled milk ” - outdated or innappropriate titles – yet o ur collection has its limitations in the first place. There is only so much we can send.   This week’s prompt gives me a chance to look into the bigger picture of libraries in Ghana. What else do learners have access to, beyond the boxes we send?   A quick search b...

Staff Requests   This September, we T-L's surveyed staff as to which types of collaboration activities they’d like to do with us. The response was : a lot of people want to do a lot of things!   This was great to see. Teachers want to work with us. They want to bring kids new experiences. They want to infuse learning with technology.   The Numbers   For the purposes of this post, I’ll use the example of coding activities we offered . Here is our question and the responses:   We have nine 50-minute  collaboration blocks per week. .. And equally enthusiastic response for other collaborations with maker activities, information literacy, and arts.     With these numbers, we need some   creative solutions . This challenge is actually a great opportunity; our solutions can   support teachers in growing their own ICT practice.   Solution One: Towards Free Inquiry   I’ve found it takes three lesson periods for kids to becom...