Library Services report for January 2012
What we did
January was Legends Celebration Month at the library. I did a 'Coyote Learns to Fly' read-n-tell session using the black feathers of crow. Our students learned how to use the range of dictionaries. Our library has rhyming, picture dictionaries and subject specific dictionaries. We celebrated Chinese New year by making Chinese lanterns. I did a show-n-tell with the Chinese musical instruments, paper piecing samples, and double happiness artifacts. We read a Chinese book, 'Mouse Match' by Ed Young and 'Daisy Comes Home' by Jan Brett. Since this is a year of dragon, we studied different types of Chinese dragons and rainbow Australian aboriginal dragon. We looked at Chinese pictographs such as the sun, moon and mountain. We hosted a Family Literacy Day Coffeehouse on January 26th from 1 to 4 pm. Families read together and played with puzzles, puppets and board games. Thank you for participating in the Raise a Reader contest. Read more at http://abclifeliteracy.ca/family-literacy-day%C2%A0 and http://familyliteracydaycelebration.blogspot.com/
We would like to thank Frontier College for donating books.
What we are planning to do in February
February is 'Love Our Library' month and our students will be writing book reviews and giving awards to books. Plus, we will be reading books and do special activities in February to mark the following days.
· February 1: Digital Learning day by making Wordles (Today is Week 1, Day 1)
· February 15: National Flag of Canada Day (Promotional materials will be distributed on February 7)
· February 21: UNESCO's International Mother Language Day
· February 26-March 3: Freedom to Read week
· February 16-21: Book Sale
· Launch, 'Look I am using my Shelf Marker' campaign
I would like to invite and request you to bring your favorite book when you come to the library this month and share with the students why do you like that book so much. I will be reading Anansi and Alligator stories, Flag day, and I love to read. Our guest presenter of the month for Heather Schpansky's class will be coming on February 7 from 2 to 2:45 pm.
Tammy and Kim have created awesome Valentines Activity Centers for our students.
Teacher Surveys
I would like to share the following two reports. The first one is about class size and differentiated instruction and the second is a survey of aboriginal teachers and their perspectives.
National teacher survey shows diversity as a key challenge in Canadian classrooms
OTTAWA, Jan. 31, 2012 /CNW/ - According to a recent national survey reporting on nearly 10,000 Canadian classes, one in every six students has an identified learning exceptionality. The survey, conducted by the Canadian Teachers' Federation (CTF) last October, drew responses from nearly 3,800 teachers, the largest number obtained in a CTF online survey to date.
"The fact that so many teachers responded to the survey is a clear indication that the relationship between class size and diversity is a major issue in our schools," says CTF President Paul Taillefer. "When we talk about class size, we also need to be thinking about the number of students with a variety of individual learning needs in those classes. In order to enhance quality and equity in our public schools, these two issues need to be addressed together," he explains.
Proposed Library Calendar 2012
Our proposed library calendar is posted on the following page. I will also include author birthdays.
