Sparking TMC5: Questions to Explore

Who am I? Who are we? These age old questions have generated study and philosophical conversations for centuries and remain important today as a basis for building for the future.

This fall at TMC5 in Winnipeg, Manitoba school library leaders and practitioners will gather to study the role library learning commons can play in helping learners find their place and make sense of their worlds by exploring papers, interacting with guest speakers and collaborative work based on the theme of Culturally Relevant and Responsive School Library Learning Commons.

Working together we will uncover opportunities, challenges and possibilities to enable fostering a culturally relevant and responsive school library learning commons.

These subthemes will help frame the work of TMC5 Symposium:

• Learning Environment
• Instructional Approaches
• Learning Partnerships
• Leveraging Technology

We want you to participate in TMC5 and help us to explore these ideas. To get your thinking started, consider these possible questions for TMC5 research and study:

• How can we enable every student to see themselves and their community?

• How can we help every student grow to be informed and active Canadians and global citizens?

• Who can we collaborate with to ensure students gain many perspectives?

• What stories do our learners need to hear?

• How can we help our learners build deep knowledge of communities and caring of others?

• How can we incorporate the power of the arts to broaden student cultural knowledge?

• How can technologies help to connect students to real worlds and experiences?

• Why is it important to take a lead on issues of diversity, equity and inclusiveness?

Explore a few resources to get you thinking about culturally relevant and responsive school library learning commons. What are the opportunities, challenges and possibilities you are pondering? What questions would be useful for you to explore?

Check the TMC website and plan to participate. We need your stories, research, strategies and observations to collectively build voice for the future work of school libraries. Papers are required by October 1, 2017.

Attendance at the symposium is not a requirement; for those who cannot attend the actual event, we invite conversations  via our blog http://tmcanada.blogspot.ca/ and Twitter, using the hashtag #tmcanada2017.

For planning purposes, please let us know if you hope to submit a paper. If you have any questions or wish to discuss this initiative further contact Carol Koechlin by email or by phone (416-751-0889), or contact any member of the planning committee. Watch for more details coming soon regarding the TMC5 program and registration information on the TMC website.

Planning Committee for Treasure Mountain Canada TMC5

Anita Brooks Kirkland, CSL Chair – anitabk[at]bythebrooks.ca
Carol Koechlin, CSL Vice-Chair – koechlin[at]sympatico.ca
Liz Kerr, CSL Treasurer – richlizkerr[at]gmail.com
Jo-Anne Gibson, CSL Communications, SAGE Conference Co-chair – jagibson[at]pembinatrails.ca
Vivianne Fogarty, SAGE Conference Co-chair – vfogarty[at]pembinatrails.ca