Jumping in at the Middle

The new term has started and flown by.  We’ve welcomed the new Year 7s, who are already making good use of the library and have become lovely additions to our lunch and breaktime regulars. This year group includes my new form, the first ever librarian form!  Woohoo!  It’s wonderful having a form again and good to see so many of them popping up during their free time.

This term we’re hoping to start loaning out DVDs, most of which were kindly donated by the parents and carers of the last year’s Year 11s and 13s.  It would be great if we could start stocking films as well, so if any of you fancy doing any fundraising…?

Apologies to any students who have been struggling to get their colour prints through the queue: there have been problems with the software that controls the printing, but hopefully that’ll be fixed soon. 

The main mission of the term so far has been running Information Literacy sessions with the new Year 12s.  These hour long sessions have introduced them to the need to evaluate websites when conducting research, and tools to do it.  They’ve also been taught about the importance of referencing and citation.  The most exciting element of these lessons has been introducing them to the idea of a PLN and suggesting ways that they can start their own.  The idea of using Facebook for study groups has come as a minor revelation, and I’ve been assured that there are now active study groups for nearly all of the A level subjects being taught in the school, and they’re just starting to open these up to include friends in different institutions, so hopefully they’ll all quickly be gaining something new from these groups. 

The biggest struggle with all of this has been the battle we face every day with the county internet filter.  Facebook, Twitter, all blocked, which you can understand in schools.  But Tumblr?  Tagxedo? I know that this isn’t a new problem (how the psychology department have managed to teach Freudian theory when every useful website is automatically blocked as pornography, I have no idea) but it’s becoming much more of a barrier to the way that our students learn.  This isn’t just about throwing new fangled things at them, as some of the more traditional teachers in the school seem to think.  It’s about giving them the tools and frameworks to teach themselves, become truly independent learners with a network of their own creation there to support them.