Visual Arts bibliography

Here is another bibliography of books about  teaching Visual Arts.

Visual_Arts_2009

TDSB teachers may contact the library at (416) 395-8289 to borrow.

Rowan

Dr. Christopher Spence books

The Professional Library has compiled a collection of Chris Spence books for you to explore. Two of the most recent titles are:

• Leading with passion and purpose: Creating schools that help teachers teach and students learn, 2009 
•  The joys of teaching boys: Igniting writing experiences that meet the needs of students, 2008

I have been reading On time! On task! On a mission! A year in the life of a middle school principal (2002) by Dr. Spence and have found it an exhilarating look at the realities of working with today’s youth. The focus is on educational soundness and believing in achievement.

The Professional Library has ordered and is awaiting delivery of Dr. Spence’s newest book titled Achieving, believing and caring (2009).

Please contact the Professional Library at 416-395-8289 to check out these excellent materials.

A reminder to visit the new Just Read It page within Chris’s Place on the TDSB website for book recommendations and participation in the program.  Submit book reviews and win prizes.  “Just Read It encourages all students, staff and the entire TDSB community to engage in the joy of reading and to share the experience of reading a wide range of books with each other. Whether signed out at a school library, the local public library, read at home or read in the classroom, all books submitted will be tracked and counted throughout the year.”

Esta P, Librarian

And so it begins …

We are starting a new school year and the media is full of reports and news items about education, schools and school boards.  Here are links to 2 recent Canadian reports:

• An ‘F’ for Social Promotion by Zwaagstra and Clifton, published by the Frontier Centre for Public Policy,  in which the authors discuss the issue of promoting students who may have mastered the necessary knowledge and skills, and
• Key Factors to Support Literacy success in School-Aged Populations, by Julia O’ Sullivan, published by the Canadian Education Statistics Council, in which the author discusses the link between dropouts and poor literacy skills and the importance of identifying difficulties in the primary grades, not mention teaching fundamental reading skills beyond the primary grades.

Rowan

Headwear for the tour guides

On September 2nd and 3rd, we had over 200 teachers tour Tippett, to see the fabulous resources available for classroom and professional support.   Rowan (L) and Judy (R), 2 of the tour guides, are sporting buggy headwear id-ing us to teachers.

Library Summer Hours

The Professional Library is open during July and August to assist TDSB teachers with their AQ courses, prepping for next school year etc. Our hours are 8:30 to 4:30 and at least for the first 2 weeks in July we are fully staffed to accommodate everyone. The Librarians will be available to help you find the articles  and books you need. Give us a call at (416) 395-8289 for more information.  Click on  PL_bro08_Word for our brochure.

Have a great summer,

Rowan

Impact of music instruction on literacy

The May 2009 (Monograph #19) Ministry series What Works  Research Into Practice is titled Placing Music at the Centre of Literacy Instruction.  Children benefit from music instruction; it helps with memory, auditory perception, metacognitive and phonolgoical memory. The authors recommend the following techniques to aid in music and literacy learning:  singing, using percussion, melody, expressing song in writing.

Rowan

3 Internet reference resources

The April 15th 2009 issue of  Library Journal, includes recommended reference resources, both book and “free” digital. I checked out the following 3 web pages and they look pretty good for teachers and students:

1. Earth Portal for the environmentalist, includes the Encylcopedia of the Earth  containing all sorts of eco and enviro hot topics and articles. Searching it seems to be better by the A-Z topic and not the basic search box (unfortunately true for many webpages). Secondary level.
2. Poetry Foundation, is made available by the publisher of Poetry magazine. They have  created a vibrant web page with text and video and a searchable database of poets by name, occasion, popularity, first line etc. Includes a children’s poetry section and Jack Prelutsky has some tips on introducing kids to poetry. (The library has a lot of books by Prelutsky.) Mainly secondary level, but does access kids poetry.
3. UNdata is basically a federated search service that allows the global user to search all the UN databases at once – education, economic, countries, populations etc.  Again the search structure is kind of basic and the page itself is a tad plain, but it  gives you world on information at your fingertips. Definitely secondary school level.

Rowan

Toronto fun

Here are a couple of interactive and cool ideas:

CBC Metro Morning is asking its listeners to write a haiku poem about Toronto. The deadline is this Friday; read it over the Vox Box at (416) 205-5807.  I bet this would be fun project for all students. (Haiku: three lines, 5 syllables, 7 syllables, 5 syllables)

On the weekend, I received the Luminato 2009 catalogue of events, many of which are free. One event that caught my eye was the guitar festival including voting on the best Canadian guitar song.  Go online and vote on your favorite and then in June take your guitar to Dundas Square and play along as they count down to the number one song.  How cool is that!

Rowan

World Digital Libary

Next week, April 21st, the World Digital Library is scheduled to be launched.

From its home page:  “The World Digital Library will make available on the Internet, free of charge and in multilingual format, significant primary materials from cultures around the world, including manuscripts, maps, rare books, musical scores, recordings, films, prints, photographs, architectural drawings, and other significant cultural materials. The objectives of the World Digital Library are to promote international and inter-cultural understanding and awareness, provide resources to educators, expand non-English and non-Western content on the Internet, and to contribute to scholarly research.”

Librarians of the world unite! National libraries from around the world have partnered to present significant cultural treasures in a digital format. This could be very cool and an great education tool.

Rowan

TDSB elementary census results

Here is a link to the TDSB elementary census  (2008 Parent Census, Kindergarten – grade 6, System Overview Detailed Findings) and an article written by Kristin Rushowy, education reporter for the Toronto Star (it summarizes some of the statistics).

Rowan