Alanna hosts our first episode in this series on challenges and strategies for collaboration coast-to-coast in the school library. She is joined by our #CollaboNation panel of experts Lila Armstrong @Lila_TL_EWP in Campbell River, British Columbia, Sonja Clark @MrsClarkLLC in Surrey, British Columbia, and Leigh Borden @msbordenTL in St. John’s, Newfoundland. Topics today include making your space more collaborative to entice collaborative planning.

Read Lila Armstrong’s article at the Canadian School Libraries Journal: Looking to Get Colleagues on Board? https://journal.canadianschoollibraries.ca/looking-to-get-colleagues-on-board/

Alanna talks with Lisa about the paper and how being part of a selection committee helped give her a solid background for choosing books that would appeal to both children and adults. Lisa shares how her own family background fighting anti-Semetic injustices has given her a deep need as an educator to promote peace and equity. Shoutouts to Undergrounders by David Skuy, Macy McMillan and the Rainbow Goddess by Shari Green and The Breadwinner by Deborah Ellis.

Alanna speaks with authors Ann Y.K. Choi and David Albertyn, and reader/educator Fiona Ross, about their new project The Author’s Book Club which helps readers and authors to connect. This group is working hard to bring a virtual community together that celebrates the work of Canadian and Indigenous authors. With 50 authors welcoming these connections, the club really recognizes the reader is the heart of everything that authors do. Find out more at: https://theauthorsbookclub.ca/

Shoutouts to Toronto International Festival of Authors (TIFA), Terry Fallis, and Jesse Thistle.

Lisa Lewis reads her paper Ignite a Lifelong Love of Learning: Create an intergenerational book club in your library learning commons and invite your community to explore the diverse world of the human experience https://tmcanada.blogspot.com/p/tmc6-lewis.html

Alanna talks with avid, lifelong readers Aviva Dunsiger and Ramona Meharg about books that greatly influenced them as Aviva and Ramona were also coming-of-age. Ramona explains how reading The Outsiders taught her a lot about the power of loyalty for making friends feel like family. Aviva reflects about how Judy Blume may have formed her later choice of women’s studies in university and how it really is an artifact of the 70s. Read Into This celebrates our very first poem recitation as Ramona performs Robert Frost’s “Nothing Gold Can Stay”.


Shoutouts to Beverly Cleary, Jean Little, Tiger Beat, C.Thomas Howell and Patrick Swayze.

Lisa Corbett hosts author Jesse Thistle and Ontario educators and book club members in this pre-recorded Zoom Meeting. Lisa asks Jesse about the issues and vulnerability displayed in this memoir. Thistle advocates that this book would be a great addition to the school library as it is both a warning and a success story.

Lisa, Beth and Alanna explore some non-fiction topics, including graphic novels, and dig into whether the person who takes us to the library as kids (if someone did) makes a difference to what we read.

Shoutouts to our parents, and lots of amazing graphic novel creators. (As well as Rolland Chidiac and Chris Cluff, who started some if this thinking)

Pippa Davies, Director of Learning Commons, and her colleague Cynthia Duncalfe, Curriculum Consultant, speak with Alanna about increasing the impact of their digital library learning commons at Heritage Christian Online School. Innovative lessons in pivoting to online learning for schools everywhere here are provided in detail by Pippa and Cynthia. Shoutouts to Seesaw, Zoom, Flipgrid and Lego for helping build rich assignments for remote learning.

Pippa Davies reads her paper Exploring Digital Horizons within the Culture of the New Learning Commons
https://tmcanada.blogspot.com/p/tmc6-davies.html

Alanna talks with Krista Sarginson and Will Gourley about books that greatly influenced them as teens which were, coincidentally, both books by Canadian author Timothy Findley. Krista and Will share their circuitous journeys to teaching and the indelible impressions of edgy Canadian literature. Challenging power structures and the constructs of gender and love, Findley’s influence helped our two guests be critical, suspicious and even subversive. We also try to find middle school books that stir us to see those outlying perspectives.

Shoutouts to the bygone years of OAC (grade 13), professor Warren Hartman at Brock University, Mr. O’Hanley at Father Henry Carr SS in Etobicoke, ON, and Mrs. Simpson at St. Mark High School in Manotick, ON