1. meet with the teacher to have an insight as to the project expectations and assessment criteria

2. check if the same topic is being taught in other classes (e.g. world languages) for cross disciplinary cooperation 

3. organise a very short workshop for students (in the presence of the teacher(s) involved in this project) focused on key Approaches to Learning (ATL) skills, including Information Literacy, Critical Thinking, and Media Literacy, and acknowledging the IB Learner Profile Trait of being inquirers, thinkers, reflectives, knowledgeable, and principled

4. Make sure the workshop  cover the basic research skills, including finding, assessing, and selecting resources, citing their sources (including images), and paraphrasing the given material

5. help students put the research prompt in an inquiry based question to shift it from being a traditional assignment to an inquiry one

6. provide the teacher with some resources with different formats (books, ebooks, audiobooks, articles, charts, videos etc.), to meet all students’ needs

7. make sure the teacher is familiar with the provided tools, giving them a short training if needed

8. encourage the teacher to share the list with the students AFTER they find their own resources, to make an inventory of these ones, and use what they feel would support their research

9. help students explore and brainstorm different media for presentation to best share their findings with the team

10. follow up with the teacher during the research process and schedule times for library help, in whatever way would seem convenient to the teacher

11. meet with the teacher to reflect on the project result (check some of the projects or attend the presentation, if the teacher allows for that), to celebrate success and check for points to be improved 

12. coordinate with the teacher regarding the next concept to be taught, and brainstorm ideas on how help could be given to the students.

Relevant posters, infographics, videos, slides etc. to be shared with the teachers, posted on the library website, as well as in the classes and library, if possible.

1. talk to the teacher to make sure he is familiar with the school privacy policy, if available, or go over the basic privacy expectations while using their computer

2. arrange with the teacher for an interactive digital citizenship workshop for the students, to cover the online safety, cyberbullying, privacy risks, and responsible AI usage, making sure to highlight the fact that AI is a helping tool, not one to do the work for students. It is there to help brainstorm ideas, not to jeopardise students’ imagination, genuine work and safety

3. collaborates with the teacher to have students come up with an infographic/poster on the topics being covered. 

The librarian will collaborate with IT, the middle school language arts teacher, and World language teachers, to provide similar training to all middle school staff and students. Also, to encourage the grade 7 class to share its poster/infographic with the rest of the classes and have a discussion as to what needs to be changed/added, so a final version of the poster would be put in all the middle school classes. This should be done under the supervision of the above teachers and the librarian.

1. design an interactive digital citizenship workshop, to address the topics of:

• detecting misinformation and fake news, by using real-world examples of fake news, and clickbait articles, and how to verify them, using the  5 Ws strategy::

  • Who wrote this?

  • What is the source?

  • When was it published?

  • Where is it from?

  • Why was it created?

• copyright and plagiarism

• addressing the drawbacks of AI content with regards to bias, hallucinations, privacy breach, misinformation etc. and learning how to spot these

• managing online privacy: by helping students understand data tracking, digital footprints, and responsible social media use.

2. work closely with the teacher to make sure students have a sound understanding of this topic

The librarian will:

• coordinate with the high school principal to allocate a time to teach the above workshop to all high school classes for consistency

• meet with the rest of the high school team, to make sure that research skills and digital citizenship are incorporated into all assignments, where teachers have to set these as clear expectations with every assignment. 

• start a high school mini challenge, where each class would come up with their own version of presentation to cover the above topics. The best presentation to be shared with the whole community, posted on the library website and in all the high school classes.

The librarian meets the school counselor over lunch. The latter seems really worried. On investigating the matter, the librarian finds out that the Head of School needs to present a report on how the school supports all students. To complete her report, the HoS needs a list of assistive tools, open educational resources, and an example of how we support all students with different backgrounds, capabilities, and challenges.

The curated list has to reflect the diverse theme of the meeting, and should show an extensive collection of resources in different formats. The librarian is very surprised to hear that. Why do you think so?

The librarian will:

1. meet with the school counselor, to get a better insight as to what topics need to be covered, and what resources could be added

2. categorize each requirement in a different section and discuss the tools and databases which the school is subscribed to, and that are relevant to each of these categories

3. work with the counselor to select the tools they see would best suit the purpose 

4. run a quick check on each of the selected, to make sure there are no broken links or problems with logging in

5. curates a final list of resources for each of the categories (ATL Skill: Information Literacy | Learner Profile: Knowledgeable), through an interactive curation tool (e.g. padlet) to allow for adding comments, votes, feedback etc. (ATL Skill: Research & Organization | Learner Profile: Communicators

6. generate a usage report for each of these tools and records that on the list

7. look for more reliable resources online, and check their safety measures with IT, before adding them to the list

8. make sure the list includes different formats of resources (books, ebooks, articles, videos, magazines, different languages and reading levels etc.)

9. creates a poster on the importance of “Varied Texts” in learning to support inquiry and open mindedness

10. add the poster to the list

for example spotting fake news contest, Book Tasting, Blind Date with a Book

Catalysing

Connecting

Co-creating

Challenging

+ 1 catering

“I don’t teach just what I think is important to students, but plan content in context with what is happening in a teacher’s classroom. The right lesson has to occur at the right time” (Sekinger, 2022).

The librarian is “a multitasker, playing the role of a media specialist, student support teacher, designer, curriculum leader, and of course, a librarian” (Definition of an Effective, 2018).

Definition of an effective school library. (2018, November 11). American Association of School Librarians. Retrieved July 15, 2021, from https://www.ala.org/aasl/sites/ala.org.aasl/files/content/advocacy/statements/docs/AASL_Position_Statement_Effective_SLP_2018.pdf

Donham, J., & Sims, C. (2020). Enhancing teaching and learning: A leadership guide for school librarians (4th ed.). ALA Neal-Schuman.

Sekinger, N. (2022, November 16). The truth about school libraries. besmirched by some these days, here's what libraries in schools are really up to. Virginia Education Association. Retrieved February 24, 2025, from https://www.veanea.org/the-truth-about-school-libraries-besmirched-by-some-these-days-heres-what-libraries-in-schools-are-really-up-to/