Presentation Slides: Let's Get Kids Reading

 

A Virtual Visit to the Hiroshima Peace Park

My friend, Ched Magaspar who teaches in Japan is a volunteer for the Hiroshima Peace Volunteers. For more than a year, their volunteer organization has conducted projects promoting peace in Japan. They have published books and stories online and have reached out to partner organizations abroad. Their  recent project involved the distribution of a story books about survivors of the Hiroshima bombing to schools in the Philippines.

Last weekend, Ched invited me as observer in a virtual walk through of Hiroshima Peace Park. The volunteers told stories of their volunteer work, the rituals in Hiroshima that they conduct to commemorate the dead and the victims of war and oral stories they gathered from those who have passed on. There was no hate. Only love. It was a restorative experience.

The event was in coordination with REAL Innovative Connections who organized a group of 5th grade classes in Hawaii and New Jersey. Teachers were touched and the families of the grade school students were thankful to hear these stories from an era that seemed too far off now. Yet, the issues of violence, racism, genocide and authoritarianism are so real to this day. How these issues destroy families, societies and thousands of lives. 

We need to hear these stories. We need to heal from the wounds of the past. The Hiroshima Peace Park Volunteers' stories need to be heard.

We are doing something about this. 

Let's Get Kids Reading!

 

"Let's get kids reading more! Join KIDS' CHOICE BOOKS, a free parenting webinar, this Saturday, May 22.

Ms. Zarah Gagatiga of the Philippine Board on Books for Young People and the National Book Development Board will take you through books appropriate for grade school students, including a presentation of the Best Reads Kids' Choice (2014 to present).

Teacher Zarah will share reading tips and strategies and answer questions about today's digital readers. The hour-long Zoom webinar will be on Saturday, May 22, from 2:00-3:00 PM.

Reserve a slot here, today: (bitly link)

http://bit.ly/KidsChoiceBooksMay29

The talk is an hour's worth of show and tell of books appropriate for grade school students; a presentation of the Best Reads Kids' Choice (2014 to present) of the Philippine Board on Books for Young People and the National Book Development Board in comparison to the National Children's Book Awards (2012 to present); and a discussion of reading tips and strategies for the digital reader of today.

ePosters for Library Summer Program: Pedagogical Support on Research

 

Summer Library Program: Pedagogical Support for Research

The past couple of days was spent on research skills instruction and one-on-one consultations with our high school juniors. In a few days, we will end the Academic Year 2020-2021 but before things close, I sent out to our juniors (who are incoming seniors) a letter informing them of the library's summer program.

Dear Juniors,

As you journey further on in the EE and SP,  we, in the BA Library, will continue to support you. As your reading and research companions, we are opening library services during the summer. 

We can assist you on the following:

1. Borrowing of print books and resources through book drop and pickup delivery. Send Flynn an email for your book requests. His email address is library@beaconacademy.ph.

2. 30-40 min Zoom meeting with Ms. Zarah. We can talk and learn about the skills involved in research using your EE/SP topics as context and content. The skills to cover are:

-  selecting and evaluating sources and references - how to funnel topics, sub-topics vis-a-vis a variety of sources of information

-  discussions on citations and referencing following the MLA, APA standards

-  connecting the relevance of an annotated bibliography and gathered data when writing your first draft of the EE/SP

- others: using writing models and formatting, time management and self care

Schedule: Once a week, every Wednesday 9-11.30 AM beginning on June 16, 2021 - July 7, 2021

June 16 - Selecting and Evaluating Sources
June 23 - Citations and Referencing
June 30 - The Annotated Bibliography and Writing the First Draft
July 7 - Writing Models, time management and self care

This is the Zoom Link *****

Attached is a PPT presentation of the library's database and online subscriptions and a Quick Users Guide to the BA Library. 


Have a safe and enjoyable summer, Aristea!
 
Ms. Zarah :-)

Wonder and Wander With Books This Summer

Ajooma Reviews: Do You Like Brahms, Love Struck in the City and When the Weather is Fine

It has been a busy first half of the year. One more week and it's June! Summer is up ahead. While I have been very much involved in community work, literacy advocacy and initiatives online and of course, work from home, I am updated on my Kdrama watch list. It grows long by the day, I tell you. Romcoms and slice of life genre are my biases so, I have them up on my list. 

Here are three Kdramas that I really enjoyed after watching True Beauty. 

Do You Like Brahms is a Kdrama about young musicians and the pursuance of their dreams. Park Eun Bin plays the aspiring violinist but she is a bit short in the talent department. Nonetheless, she is diligent and dedicated to her job as an intern in a music and arts foundation. This makes her an endearing female lead. Park Min Jae plays the male lead in this drama and it is such a delight to see him essay a conflicted character breaking out into his own. He and Eun Bin have chemistry. Their look and personalities complement each other so, when the scene of their first heart break happened, I wanted them to be back in each other's arms again.

Over all, Do You Like Brahms is a Kdrama depicting the lives of young professionals overcoming their own fears and insecurities with a little help from the community who believes in them. Once again, the value of a community in shaping a person and how it impacts his/her life is very much evident in this drama.

Love Struck in the City is again, the story of six yuppies living in Seoul. It tells of their daily lives and the choices they make on love and career. It looks as simple as that. Yet, at the core is the quest of finding one's self and being happy about it. These six characters are connected to one another and  through interviews done by an unidentified character, the documentary/oral history approach in storytelling works. It was like watching a magazine interview in three parts or installments. 

Kim Ji Woon and Ji Chang Wook make for a beautiful couple. They did find their happy ending despite the open ended and heart breaking resolutions that beset their friends at the final episode. Those loose ends and open wounds linger. It will make you wonder what will happen next and though there is no promise of a second season, it is better to leave things as they are.

And now I go the last Kdrama review for this post. When the Weather is Fine is one of the under rated dramas of 2020. I am happy to have seen this with my daughter. It is a visual feast, a well crafted story of redemption laced with comforting stories of family life and community. Park Min Young and Seo Kang Joon perfectly portrayed the disturbing silences inside them preventing them to love each other. And when they break this silence, their dialogues to each other  is poetry.

Up next in my Ajooma Reviews are three Kdramas, namely Dr. Romatic Season 1 and 2, Reply 1994, Vincenzo and Hospital Playlist.

Book Review: Frindle by Andrew Clements

 

Tingnan ang post na ito sa Instagram

Isang post na ibinahagi ni Zarah Gagatiga (@zarah815)

Bibliotherapy Session: Post Reading Activity - Identification, Catharsis and Insight

I had the opportunity to revisit the materials I made and created, as well as some writings and the research I did on Bibliotherapy last year. 2020 was an extraordinary year and a year in the pandemic has allowed me to see what was and what is. Thanks to Teacher Ani Almario for inviting me in her class to speak about Bibliotherapy, my passion project. I had a good look on what to do with the work I currently have.

Meanwhile, here is one activity in the Bibliotherapy session I demonstrated to Teacher Ani's class. I used the 3-2-1 Strategy of Sanacore to activate identification, catharsis and insight among participants.

Storytelling for Hope and Healing: Kate's Story During the Pandemic

Tingnan ang post na ito sa Instagram

Isang post na ibinahagi ni Zarah Gagatiga (@zarah815)

Scholastic Webinar: Collaboration in the School Library

In the survey I conducted with school librarians, majority of whom are from schools that have partnered with Scholastic's Reading Program, four relatively new roles emerged from the shift to online and the digital rendering of library services and programs. These are: 1) teacher of media and information literacy skills; 2) content creator; 3) research facilitator and 4) technology consultant. Previous to the pandemic, I think that there are school librarians who are performing one or many of the four roles. However, not all school librarians are doing so. Either that, or such roles are seldom being discussed among school librarians, round table discussions and professional assemblies. This is all rhetoric and further research is necessary to establish a theory of professional practice. 

Each requires specific skills and competencies from the school librarian. What is common among the four new roles is the skill to collaborate with staff in the library, teachers, school leadership and members of the internal school community reaching out to society at large.

Collaboration in schools and educational institutions are anchored on the studies and philosophical works of Lev Vygotsky, Jerome Brunner and John Dewey. It is a social skill that makes use of highly developed communication skills as well as the emotional and moral courage to listen to a partner when completing shared tasks. When a school community perceives the library as an essential part of its ecosystem of learning, it is not impossible to have the school librarian as partner, team member and collaborator in key projects and programs in the school. This is the ground work for Embedded Librarianship.

From selected readings and resources as well as reflections from my own practice, I made conceptual maps on collaboration in school libraries and the teacher and librarian partnerships. These are models we can refer to when we need to examine, reflect and plan tasks that involve the facilitation of research skills, the co-teaching of academic writing and the creation of content in online platforms or in physical formats.

School Librarians coordinate and cooperate with students, faculty, academic departments and student services, most especially the school leadership in planning and implementing services and programs. Furthermore, school librarians create paths for networking and linkages with members of the school community and the society at large. This model is common to many school libraries where the librarian provides access to information, resources and reading materials. Being a liaison of valuable information is a comfortable role that school librarians can do using varied technology tools. In this time of the pandemic, when school campuses closed down, libraries went online to continue the coordinating and cooperating roles. On the other hand, a school community can optimize the library and its precious human resources when the school librarian is part of the instructional and academic teaching force.

Collaboration in this framework is seen and applied as a shared process. The roles of the teacher and the librarian may be different but each lend to the realization of tasks and projects that lead to effective and meaningful learning experiences. It is important to establish a shared goal and an understanding of the complementary skills of the teacher and the librarian. 

I have blogged about specific tasks, projects and teaching partnerships. Follow the Teacher and Librarian Collaboration link to read about them. Below is another visual map that illustrates the teacher and librarian team up. 

The actualization of this model would depend on how the school leaders perceive the school librarian. The level of competencies of both the teacher and the librarian are factors in making this model a reality in many schools. Collaboration entails trust and so, personal attitudes and behavior toward each other come into play. Some teachers are not comfortable to work with the school librarian despite encouragement from the school leader. But, a creative and people oriented librarian can make it happen by deliberately communicating and planning with colleagues. These things take time, a lot of patience and strategizing.

References:

The Many Faces of School Library Leadership. Coatney. Sharon. Editor. Libraries Unlimited. California: 2010.

Montiel-Overall, Patricia. Toward a Theory of Collaboration for Teachers and Librarians. AASL, 2005 (PDF)

Standards for the 21^st Century Learner. American Association of School Librarianship. Chicago, Illinois: AASL, 2009

Trilling, Bernie and Charles Fadel. 21^st Century Skills: Learning for life in our times. California: Josey Bass/ John Wiley Sons, 2009.

Scholastic Webinar: Program Management in the School Library

One of the topics I focused on last Friday during the Scholastic webinar for school librarians is the adoption of a program management paradigm. Here is the framework I shared with participants of the webinar. If you missed the session, you can visit my blog to do the activities and view the slide presentations. Here are the links:

Priming Activities - https://lovealibrarian.blogspot.com/.../school-librarians...

PPT Presentation - https://lovealibrarian.blogspot.com/.../presentation...

Post Activity: School Library Program Management -

https://tinyurl.com/vfzwfthc

CNN PH Interview: Masaya Ang Maging Ako

 

A year ago, at the press launch of Mga Kuwentong Musmos where I was interviewed by CNN Philippines on our book, Masaya Ang Maging Ako (Gagatiga & Bauza, Lampara Books 2020). Our book is part of the 20 titles published by the international NGO, Room to Read and Lampara Books (along with three Philippine publishers). Adarna House and Room to Read has been working with the DepEd and LGUs to bring our books to communities where there are very few reading materials, or none at all. It was one of the many stories that inspired readers, content creators and industry leaders last year as the pandemic raged on.

 

 

We continue to create, to survive and to hang on to hope for better days to come.

First Quarter Online Author Visits of 2021

The first four months of 2021 have passed by so quickly! Schools that follow the regular academic calendar are on break and many have streamed their online graduation ceremonies on YouTube and Facebook. In our school, we are counting the days till June, then we will bid academic year 2020-2021 goodbye. We learned so much this year living through the Pandemic of 2020. I will be reserving a series of posts for this topic next month. For now, I reckon, as published author of children's books, the Online Author Visits I have had since January 2021.

This is a remarkable venture for me as an author. I used to get invitations from schools to do face to face Meet the Author and live Author Visits in classrooms and school libraries. With the lockdown and a year in quarantine, friends from the basic education sector shifted to the digital platform with many events such as book fairs, storytelling sessions and talks by resource person delivered through streaming channels. Even my publisher, Lampara Books have pivoted to an online platform to promote readership and market books and our expertise. There are learning and graces to be had!

Here is a rundown of the Author Visits I have had so far.

SUKI is LIFE with Zarah G - Last January 15, I was a guest at SUKI IS LIFE! my publisher's online shop and marketing space. It was a lot of fun talking about books of all kinds (of course, those published by Precious Pages and Lampara Books) and the readers who own them. What's more, I was able to promote my new book, Masaya Ang Maging Ako!

Characters We Love - This is an infographic I made for an Author Visit online during the Book Festival at De La Salle Zobel (DLSZ) Learning Resource Center in February. A few weeks after the schedule online visit, I received responses from students of DLSZ! This is always a happy news for an author like me. I love getting feedback from the readers I write for. Click this link to When Students Write Back to Me!

It was also in March when I had an Author Visit with grade 8 students of our sister school, The Beacon School. This was really fun! I used Campbell's The Hero's Journey as framework for my talk on character development.

And here is an online TeleRadyo guesting I had with AHA Eskwelang Pamilya Live where our book, Masaya Ang Maging Ako (Gagatiga & Bauza, Lampara Books 2020) was featured. I had an interview with Teacher Chynna about the benefits of reading and the empowering experience of finding one's self in the pages of a book.

ATM https://www.facebook.com/dzrj810am/videos/3247903775311725/

Posted by Zarah C. Gagatiga on Sunday, March 7, 2021