Disaster to District Literacy Success -reprise

 

Reprise

From Conference Disaster to District Literacy Success

By J. Gillett & P. Kirkey

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The Central Okanagan Teacher Librarians’ Association’s

Education Week Author Visits

Background, Win-Win Situation

Resiliency is the new buzz word in education and business. Things go wrong—how successfully you bounce back is a measure of your resiliency. The dedicated teacher-librarians in School District 23 are certainly a resilient crew! When the 2005 BCTF strike resulted in cancellation of BCTLA’s fall conference in Kelowna, the Central Okanagan Teacher Librarians’ Association (COTLA) was left exhausted, disheartened, and with a huge debt. At the same time, a seed of hope was planted when Roch Carrier, one of the conference’s keynote speakers, offered to return to the Okanagan sometime in the future. Who knew then that almost four years later we would be looking back and saying, “I don’t know if this would be happening if the conference hadn’t been cancelled!”

Mr. Carrier’s postponed visit took place in the spring of 2006 and coincided with Education Week. From that modest beginning COTLA’s annual Education Week Author Visit was born. Instead of having our keynote presenter speak to the already converted teacher-librarians at a BCTLA conference, Roch Carrier spoke to students and staff members in our district, university students and faculty, the public. It was such a success that COTLA has been organizing major literary events as part of our district's Education Week celebration ever since. These sessions continue to grow in popularity and in the process attract the best of the Canadian literary world. Each year thousands of students and adults in our community are impacted by the author presentations. Everyone wins in the process: Students get to see, hear and interact with Canada's finest writers; authors get to share their craft with appreciative audiences; teacher-librarians benefit from the public's increased awareness of the valuable role we play in the literacy chain.

Authors, Formats, Venues, Numbers, Involving the Community

Presenters, presentation formats and venues have varied over the years, but the one constant has always been the promotion of the three Ls: Libraries, Literacy and the Love of reading. As mentioned, in 2006 Canadian literary icon Roch Carrier was our guest. He spoke to large groups of students who had been bussed to five of our schools (elementary, middle, secondary, immersion, non-immersion). He also spoke to students and faculty at UBC-Okanagan and made an evening presentation to our community at large. He read from The Hockey Sweater and shared his vision of Canada and what it means to be Canadian. Students knew they were in the presence of someone special (and were equally impressed when told that excerpts of The Hockey Sweater appear on the back of every Canadian five dollar bill!). Everyone went away happy—the 2000+ students and adults who took in the sessions, the teacher-librarians who had made a connection with the French Canadian community, and district administrative personnel who immediately saw the benefit of these presentations.

In 2007 our presenter was Governor General Literary Award winner Paul Yee. His itinerary mushroomed into a two-week visit that saw him speak at 21 schools (elementary, middle, and secondary), at UBC-Okanagan and to the community at large. Mr. Yee brought Canadian history and folklore to life with his tales of the experiences of the Chinese in “Gold Mountain.” 2500+ students and adults took in Mr. Yee's presentations; the teacher-librarians connected with the Chinese community, and district administrative staff immediately asked, “What have you planned for next year?”

In 2008 our presenter was CBC producer/writer Karen Levine. Ms. Levine is the author of Hana’s Suitcase, a multi-award winning book about the holocaust. Her presentations were not “readings,” nor were they viewings of the award-winning CBC documentary, but rather audio visual presentations narrated by Ms. Levine in the style of a detective story where three strands are interwoven: the story of Hana Brady, the story of Fumiko Ishioka, and the story of how Karen Levine herself came to write the book. Her message was powerful and well received by both students and adults. Over the course of a week Ms. Levine made four presentations to large groups of students at our community theatre, two presentations at secondary schools, and an evening presentation to our community at large. Close to 3000 people took in Karen Levine's presentations, collaboration between the teacher-librarians and the Jewish community was rewarding, and district administrative staff listed the event as a major highlight of Education Week!

One of our main goals has been to involve the community. With this in mind, COTLA has always sponsored a free evening presentation to the community at large. Where possible, we have also tried to involve outside agencies such as UBC-Okanagan and the Okanagan Regional Library System. Connecting with Kelowna's French-Canadian, Chinese-Canadian and Jewish communities took our civic involvement to new levels. Even our corporate sponsors have embraced the enthusiasm for literacy by reading and sharing the guest authors’ books and stories. The feelings engendered by these events for our association are always positive and serve as a subtle form of advocacy.

Budgets, Sponsorship, Profits, Giving Back

There are costs associated with bringing a major author to town for an extended period of time (flights, hotels, meals, incidentals, social gatherings, agreed upon fees, etc.). These costs have to be factored into the budget and passed along to the schools that choose to participate. In an effort to limit costs charged to schools, COTLA decided early on to try to partner financially with the school district and local businesses or service clubs. Initially, this required rounds of letter writing, phone calls and offers to present at meetings, but with the success of the program it is easier to attract sustaining sponsors. For our 2009 Education Week author visit we already have financial commitments from three local organizations. These partnerships have proven to be win-win-win situations: Sponsors are quietly acknowledged in mail-outs to schools, parents, teachers, media outlets and in advertising campaigns; costs to schools are reduced; our teacher-librarians' association has been able to turn a yearly profit which can be parleyed into professional development opportunities for our members and increased literacy opportunities for our students. For example, in 2008 COTLA subsidized the cost of hundreds of copies of Hana's Suitcase that were brought in for gifts and sales to students and the community.

Added Bonus: Advocacy without Formally Advocating!

We began this adventure with literacy in mind, but have reaped the benefits of public awareness and quiet advocacy. Everyone in the Central Okanagan—children, parents, teachers, CUPE members, administrators, school board trustees, media personnel, sponsors, UBC-O faculty and students, the public at large—is reading and hearing about libraries, literacy and teacher-librarians. The whole endeavour has had a ripple affect that has boosted the profile of teacher-librarians within our educational system and the community at large.

Organizing a Similar Event

Mounting a major literary event for your community might sound like a daunting task, but in reality it can be done if there is a small group with a strong will and a degree of organizational skills. Stay tuned. For the fall issue of The Bookmark we are hoping to put together a step-by-step manual for organizing a major literary event (time lines, budget, example letters, etc.). In the interim, should you have questions that need answering, you can contact the authors at these email addresses: jgillett@sd23.bc.ca or kirkey@shaw.ca

About the authors:

James Gillett, elementary teacher-librarian SD23, has written for/spoken at various levels (Saskatchewan's Minister of Education, Canadian Modern Language Review, Canadian Learned Society, The Bookmark, etc.).

Pat Kirkey, retired teacher-librarian SD23, was BCTLA's 2006 co-recipient of the Diana Poole Memorial Award of Merit as the most outstanding teacher-librarian in the province.