Ms Stella Axarlis - Roy Lundin Memorial address -- Embracing change

Presentation annotation -- The challenges of globalisation and a knowledge based economy will require from individuals, the community and organisations, a desire for lifelong learning. This in turn will require from education institutions, the need to implement fundamental strategic changes to respond to rapid changes in the patterns of work, the requirement for skills for new and emerging industries and the changing social environment

Abstract -- The Delors report of 1996 of the UNESCO Task Force on Education for the Twenty-first Century which states that “education is at the heart of both personal and community development; its mission is to enable us, without exception, to develop all our talents to the full” has even greater relevance today.

“The concept of learning throughout life emerges as one of the keys to the twenty-first century. It goes beyond the traditional distinction between initial and continuing education. It meets the challenges posed by a rapidly changing world”

To meet the challenges of the Twenty-first Century Schools will need to:

• continue to reinvent themselves as organisations
• build the capacity of their students and the community
• support students to acquire knowledge and life skills, acknowledge others and gain a sense of their own worth
• embrace vocational education and training - crucial to achieving a world education and training system
• encourage life-long learners with high self esteem capable of meeting the challenges of higher education

Ms Lucy Baker -- STRAND: Literature

Where to begin with verse novels – selection, promotion and understanding what it's all
Verse novels are form and format identified, rather than the more obvious genre delineations. They are usually short, intensely emotional and deliberately written to appeal to readers rather than poets. This offers an option to librarians for less accomplished readers who are wanting more advanced stories and literature than what is usual in 'easy read' novels. By having a familiarity with the genre and an understanding of its strengths for young adult readers, librarians have yet another arrow in their quiver when it comes to serving the young adult community with enjoyable literature.

Ms Kirschty Birt -- STRAND: Learning

Starting a girls computer group can really take you places
Having taught in both the UK and Australia has given me a wide variety of educational experiences. As a digital immigrant who is basically self taught, I set about experimenting pedagogically and now my classroom looks very different from the way I taught 20+ years ago in a rural high school. To complement my own interests and those I thought were out there in my school, I set about starting a girls computer group. Results of this effort have been outstanding and I am keen to share my experiences.

Ms Barbara Braxton -- Session 1 -- STRAND: Leadership

Landscaping your library: putting the world of words into the world of kids
A presentation that offers ideas for landscaping your library based on established pedagogical principles to ensure it is the best learning environment you can provide.

Session 2 -- Minor Keynote -- STRAND: Leadership

Promises made, Promises kept, Promises forgotten
Mission statements have been the buzzword of business for years, and lately, have made their way into the education world. In this closing keynote address we examine meeting the mission by setting S.M.A.R.T goals, ensuring that our practices promote their achievement and assessing our success.

Mrs Patricia Carmichael -- Session 1 -- Minor Keynote -- STRAND: Leadership/Learning

This paper outlines the development of the Independent Learning Centre (ILC), as an integral function of the school library and discusses how the pedagogy of the ILC has impacted upon the whole school curriculum, and perhaps even further. The ILC at Concordia Lutheran College is a thriving, bustling learning space that resulted from the feedback, gained from the school community regarding independent learning, and an offhand remark by the teacher-librarian over coffee with the Administration, “Wouldn’t it be wonderful for the library to be the centre for learning in the school, you know, the heart and mind of the school, intellectually speaking…a venue for minds to come together…..” Since that rather naïve, lyrical (and dangerous) remark in 2004, the ILC has developed and grown into a learning space of its own that has taken the library along with it on the journey creating a new place and space for learning at the College. It could be said that the ILC has been the catalyst for collaboration and change for all the community of Concordia Lutheran College. More importantly though, results of feedback from our students, staff and parents indicate that the ILC has engendered something of far greater value: the vital role of interest for adolescent, psychological growth.

Session 2 -- Workshop -- STRAND: Leadership/Learning

The Independent Learning Centre: changing the face, space and pace of the school library.
This session is a hands-on extension of the previous keynote and provides practical information and advice on how to develop your own ILC.

Mr Rob Chandler – Keynote address

The teacher-librarian as curriculum leader
Presentation annotation -- Fullan. Hargreaves. Beare. Duignan, Robinson ... all names synonymous with outstanding research in the field of educational leadership. This paper will synthesise the views of some of the great educational leaders. Importantly, it will then suggest how these views might translate into the vital daily practices of the teacher librarian.

Abstract -- In an outstanding paper ‘School Leadership and Student Outcomes: Identifying What Works and Why’, Professor Vivianne Robinson provides research evidence of the dimensions of leadership which result in the most positive learning outcomes. This talk will explore these dimensions and those of other leading researchers in the field. Michael Fullan, Andy Hargreaves, Hedley Beare and Patrick Duignan’s models will also be synthesised. Part two of the paper will address the application of these general principles of educational leadership into school libraries. The role of the teacher librarian in promoting effective learning is a crucial one. Why are some libraries beacons of excellence in student learning while others conform to a view of schools as “pufferbelly engines chugging incongruously through a high tech landscape”? Teacher librarians are pivotal, as leaders of learning.

Ms Janette Carter -- STRAND: Learning

Exploring the web for quality resources
A tour of what's new in the edna website and suite of tools. Participants will learn how to find their way around events, resources, news, groups, lists and related sites.

Ms Helen Dacy and Mrs Helen Stower -- STRAND: Literature/Learning

Fiction programs – Web 2.0 in action
Promoting a fiction program in a school is easier using Web 2.0 technology such as blogs, wikis, online journals, chats, forums, on-line quizzes, surveys and database creation. All these tools are being used to create a rich learning environment and literature sharing activities at Gregory Terrace. This workshop will provide an opportunity for participants to see how the Terrace fiction program is organised, and workshop ways in which these techniques can be adapted to individual school environments.

Ms Alison Davis -- STRAND: Learning

Comprehending stories and facts – reading between the lines
This interactive workshop will focus on the literacy demands of texts and how to support student engagement. This workshop will specifically look at strategies to support students to develop powerful reading strategies in order to manage, use and produce a variety of texts.

This workshop will include:

• explicitly teaching students to manage, use and produce a variety of texts using effective reading strategies
• teaching and learning strategies to explicitly teach comprehension M90-120min
• visual literacy and its importance in fully understanding text in constructing meaning
• explicitly teaching inferential comprehension across the text.

Miss Christine Kahl -- STRAND: Learning

Interactive whiteboards in the early years and beyond
In this session you will briefly look at a small school's journey describing how interactive whiteboards have been implemented across the school. We will then look at using the IWB across a range of curriculum areas from early childhood to year 3. Finally a display of how to create an interactive lesson for an early childhood setting and a middle school setting will be shown.

Ms Helen Hall -- STRAND: Learning

Resources for the study of Queensland history
During this session I would like to:

• present my efforts to pull together a diverse range of resources and sources for the study of Queensland history
• call on the two presenters mentioned to discuss their work

Ms Christine Harris -- STRAND: Literature

Language is a funny thing
Words tell stories. Those stories reveal things about human nature, culture, humour, conflict, transcendence, and about both writer and reader. But imagining stories can be easier than selecting the words. J. Gustav White said, ‘Our language is a funny thing – a fat chance and a slim chance are the same thing.’ The language we choose in speaking or writing reveals things about us and our culture. In Borneo, the proboscis monkey is commonly called ‘the European monkey’, which immediately tells us how they view European facial structure and that people there have a pretty good sense of humour. Simply from the substitution of one word. George Bernard Shaw said, ‘England and America are two countries divided by a common language.’ The English language is spoken by many countries, but there is not one English.

If one role of literature is to give a glimpse into ‘worlds’ and cultures, how can writers do this and still keep their integrity, tell the story they need to share, balance the reader’s understanding of the words and concepts in the book with the fact that much of the publishing is controlled by large international companies?

My series Audrey of the Outback is about a girl living in the Outback in 1930 and the books are being released in the UK at the same time as Australia. But will British readers understand or even want to read Australian colloquialisms? And what of the time difference between Audrey in 1930 and modern young readers? What’s a ‘sundowner’ or a ‘ning-nong’? How far should a writer go in using language as it is spoken, rather than how it is formally written? Do books that use slang win awards? Language has power. It is political and has cultural biases. Language can identify us with a special group. Last century, Australian indigenous people were forbidden to speak their own language. Many of the young people do not know the language of their heritage. Simply by the words we choose to say or write, we can become an outcast or a hero.

Ms Marj Kirkland and Ms Mary-Elizabeth Nash -- STRAND: Leadership/Learning

Literacy is everyone's business
This workshop will outline the process whereby one school developed a Whole School Literacy Plan and accompanying Action Plan. It will promote a multi-faceted approach to literacy by:

• developing a workable Whole School Literacy Plan and accompanying Action Plan
• creating a reading culture through structured programs
• scaffolding and modelling written assignments across the Key Learning Areas (KLAs)
• addressing multi-literacies (including Information Literacy) across the KLAs.

Ms Joy Lawn -- STRAND: Literature

Children’s and young adult literature airborne
Discover the best of new and recent books and how to motivate your students to read them. Literature through the primary, middle school and secondary school years will be presented. Books for wide and close reading will be celebrated, with a focus on graphic novels. Teacher librarians will be inspired to share these ‘Airborn’ books with their students and colleagues.

Mr Rob Moore -- STRAND: Leadership

Bookfair primary school outreach program for high school teacher-librarians (…or how to win friends and student enrolments…)
Aimed at high school teacher-librarians, the Bookfair primary schools outreach program operates on a number of different levels and can therefore be ‘sold’ to various constituents in your school community.

These include:

• helping to foster good relations with primary feeder schools (students, parents & staff)
• helping to make the transition from primary to high school a little smoother
• helping the teacher-librarian make meaningful interdepartmental contacts & contributions
• being an active leader who makes contributions to the big picture in your school
• helping to raise funds for your library (the least of the points on my agenda).

Ms Cathy Oxley -- Session 1 -- STRAND: Learning

Wikispaces and Animoto: creating captivating content
Engaging students in the classroom and capturing their interest is always a challenge. This hands-on session looks at two web sites where you can create captivating content.

Wikis are a great way to involve students because they capitalise on what students already like doing - sharing information with others in a collaborative way. During 2008 Redlands College Library has used Wikispaces to develop a wiki for their RIB-IT reading scheme, and you will be able to add to this, or begin making your own wiki.

Animoto is a web site where you can upload phgotos and music to create engaging animated video clips showcasing student activities at your school.

Session 2 -- STRAND: Learning

RSS feeds and Social bookmarking: capturing captivating content
With the vast amount of information available on the internet, new methods are needed to continually capture information that is useful and relevant. This hands-on session will show you two ways of achieving this.

Setting up an RSS feed reader and then subscribing to RSS feeds is a way to easily custom-make searches and retrieve information without a great deal of effort.

Social bookmarking, using sites such as Furl and Del.ici.ous, is another way of tracking useful and relevant information by tapping into the web sites that others with similar interests have considered useful and tagged.

Ms Vicki Palmer and Mrs Lee Fitzgerald -- STRAND: Learning

Guided inquiry. Just do it!!
Using one of Ross Todd’s favourite expressions as its title this session will be jointly presented by Lee and Vicki as each shares her experiences with the implementation of guided inquiry. Vicki will speak from an upper primary perspective and Lee will speak from a secondary perspective, using guided inquiries from both their schools. They will talk about what’s new and what isn’t new about guided inquiry, (including if there’s anything “misguided” about guided inquiry!) and about what has worked for them, and what has presented challenges.

Ms Helen Reynolds and Ms Deb Schinckel -- STRAND: Learning

Guided inquiry and the information search process: some ways of doing it
As a follow-up on Ross Todd’s sessions we are providing a discussion group to allow participants to contribute their ideas and current practice using a guided inquiry approach. Helen will discuss the ISP and compare it to the IP. Deb will share some of the approaches she has used with classes. Participants will be encouraged to share their experiences with guided inquiry and ISP in their school.

Ms Belinda Weaver -- STRAND: Learning

Put yourself in their space: libraries and Web 2.0 technologies
Web 2.0 technologies share a number of characteristics. They are social, interactive, participatory, free or near free. They involve sharing, and innovative reuse of existing content. They are customisable. They can function on multiple devices such as Web browsers, mobile phones, and PDAs. They aim for seamlessness - the wherever, whenever - that users increasingly want. Users can easily integrate other applications into their preferred interface. Libraries can use these technologies to get closer to users, to adopt a culture of continuous improvement based on user feedback, and to stay relevant to users in the age of Google.

Last updated 30 April 2008