TMC4 Highlights

Yet again the Treasure Mountain Canada symposium experience exceeded our goals and wishes for success. TMC 2016 brought together creative and energetic minds from sea to sea to sea virtually to study the diverse papers on the TMC collaborative Book to Cloud publication. Face to face participation in Toronto was enriched by the voices of enthusiastic practitioners and school library leaders from six provinces. Many participants we welcomed back for the third and fourth time and we were delighted to have so many joining us for the first time.

Friday evening we enjoyed greeting old and new friends at our delicious ‘kick off’ dinner at Joe Badali’s restaurant. It was confirming to learn more about the work of our keynote speaker David Cameron, researcher People for Education. He encouraged us to move beyond measuring things that are easy to count in our work in school libraries and develop ways to address student success that consider what really counts in preparing learners for the future. Leading Learning is the place to start!Saturday was a very interactive busy day of working through the papers at Table Talks and playing with innovative ideas. As Diana Maliszewski tweeted, “ideas were flying –literally “

Table Talk Presenters

Lisa Ainsworth - Teacher/Teacher Librarian Assessment Collaborative Inquiry

Melanie Mulcaster - Making it Work: A Learning Commons Approach to Engaging Middle School

Caroline Feibauer - Spheres of influence: Can a teacher librarian make a difference? Part 2

Peggy Lunn and Elizabeth Iori - Blueprint for a Teacher Librarian Alternative Placement Practicum: A practical guide to hosting a Teacher Candidate in your School Library Learning Commons

Diana Maliszewski Purposeful Play: Games Based Learning in School Library Learning Commons

Monica Berra and Leona Prince - Culturally Response Aboriginal Resources

Michelle Campbell - If You Build It, They Will Come - Sharing Makerspace Bins @ Upper Grand District School Board

Alanna King - #BIT15Reads: Building a Participatory Learning Community of Professional Readers

June Rysinski - Coming together For Learning: Reflecting on our past and Mapping our Progress

Diana Maliszewski - Climbing Mountains - Methods for Mentoring Teacher-Librarians

Cindy Van Wonderen - Leading Together for Inquiry learning

Greg Harris - Evolution of inquiry based learning at Ardagh Bluffs Public School

Focus Speakers

 Monica Berra creatively shared her journey in Prince George school district to lead schools into the maker movement and Dr David Loertscher followed up with a virtual maker space his San Jose students created in Symbaloo. Time to play in a virtual sandbox of learning environments spawned rich ideas and discussions for building participatory learning environments.

Dr Dianne Oberg in sharing her paper reminded us that, “Adoption is easier than Implementation.” Another key learning that resonated with everyone is the concept of flipping the questions we usually have when working with principals. Instead of requesting support for the library, ask the principal, “How can I assist you?” This approach aligns so well with the collaborative approach of a Library Learning Commons.

The day was sealed with personal and collaborative commitments to further the implementation of Leading Learning and the growth of School Library Learning Commons in Canada.

The extended session led by Liz Kerr and Anita Brooks Kirkland was well attended and resulted in the development of a survey to ‘test the waters’ for support to proceed with work to establish a new national association for school library learning commons in Canada. Browse through my Storify to catch a taste of the rich professional learning in Twitter time https://storify.com/carolkoechlin/tmc4-2016-in-toronto#publicize In past posts we have thanked our OLA partners for their support. Enough cannot be said to recognize their assistance in making TMC4 a memorable and successful event. We thank OSLA Council for the award recognizing the accomplishments of Treasure Mountain Canada. This award is testimony to the national work this ‘gathering of the minds’ has been able to achieve and a thank you to every paper shared, the organizing committees and participants who have made TMC a force for change to enable the best school library learning commons for every student in Canada. Here is the link to TMC4 papers https://sites.google.com/site/treasuremountaincanada4/ We need a partner for TMC5! Bring TMC to your district in 2018 and showcase your association nationally. Contact anyone on the TMC planning committee with your ideas for a combined event. Start thinking about your goals now for the future and turn those into research for TMC5 papers! Thank you everyone!

Leading Learning Together!

By Jeanne Conte

Nothing says learning like a group of focused like minded educators who are led by strong focused like minded leaders.  Carol Koechlin and David Loertscher are bullish about ensuring that school libraries remain current in todays ever evolving educational landscape.  Treasure Mountain Canada 4, that took place as part of the 2016 OLA Super Conference, focused on the growing impact of the new Canadian standards of practice for school library learning commons in Canada.  Papers were sorted according to three key areas: co-teaching for deeper learning, innovation for learning, and building a learning community.  Contributors came through in spades!

For the first round I attended Lisa Ainsworth's mini session where she described her experience with co-teaching.  Lisa experimented with co-teaching models that bring the whole notion of co-teaching beyond what we normally think of as co-teaching in a school library learning commons.  Imagine the power of co-teaching across an entire unit of study, where two teachers plan and execute all aspects of student learning, co-planning, co-teaching, co-assessing, and most importantly, co-reflecting.  Co-reflecting is a key practice that is often glossed over, yet it is likely one of the most important aspects of collaborative practice.  After all, when teachers have the opportunity to reflect and apply new learning to future practice they have gone beyond using reflection as "the autopsy" and moved into the rich territory of true reflective practice.

It was also great to see the varied entry points of participants.  Everything from maker spaces in the library learning commons (LLC) to analysis of progress with LLC implementation over time was highlighted. As I flitted from presentation to presentation, I was caught up in the enthusiasm of presenters and their audiences.

Treasure Mountain Canada is, in my opinion, aptly named.  It is indeed a treasure to have this trove of research conducted by educators and teacher-librarians at the front line.  I absolutely loved Linda Hill's leadership pyramid that places the impetus for leadership, not with senior leaders, managers, or supervisors, but at the front line where the real action is.  The action is all about learning for ALL involved.  The role of higher management then becomes one of sparking creativity by unleashing potential and offering educators the space and support they need to get the hard work of leading and learning done.

Hopefully Treasure Mountain Canada will continue to inspire library leaders as the school library community moves forward with realizing the vision of Together for Learning and Leading Learning, or as the TMC button says Leading Learning Together!

TMC4 Photo Slide Show!

Enjoy this photo show of the highlights from Treasure Mountain Canada 4!