Krystal reflects on her teaching journey, highlighting insights gained from a recent learning retreat, particularly on designing accessible digital learning materials, which has revitalized her approach to teaching.
Category: Thoughts
Who am I? Recovery, discovery, and peace.
It’s undoubtedly been a long time since I last posted on my blog or any of my social media accounts. Some of you may have been wondering where I’ve been and what I’ve been doing, and others may not have even noticed my absence at all. Honestly, if the shoe were on the other foot,…
Opinion: 2023 Softlink report – Part 2/3
Welcome to part two of my opinion piece on the 2023 Softlink report. The first part, available at this link, covers my thoughts on this year’s participant numbers. My plan for this post is to dive deeper into school library budgets and staffing. I think understanding these aspects is powerful, as they are crucial for school…
Research tips from SICS Academics
I recently attended the School of Information and Communication Studies (SICS) Research Retreat, which was held in person on the Wagga Wagga campus. During that time, I picked up some great research tips from my colleagues. So, I thought I’d share them with you: It was really affirming to see these things reflected in my…
Paraphrasing is not *just* about avoiding plagiarism
One of the adjustments I had to make when stepping into the world of teacher librarianship was my understanding of paraphrasing. During my schooling and first couple of uni degrees, I was operating under the assumption that paraphrasing was changing someone else’s writing to not be word-for-word when using it in my writing. How wrong…
Opinion: 2023 Softlink report – Part 1/3
The 2023 Softlink report has been released for 2023 and I am FINALLY getting around to writing up my thoughts on it. I am pleased to see that there was a significant increase in respondents this year, particularly in New Zealand! As a result, two separate reports, one for Australia and one for New Zealand…
Microsoft Word Skills
Written instructions for six important skills in Microsoft Word.
Book-sell blurbs for YA
I have recently been trying to think of ways I can help overworked, time-poor, teacher librarians (TLs), particularly those with smaller teams or working by themselves. In a conversation with one of my TL colleagues, she got me thinking about how time-consuming and difficult it is for one person to read ALL THE BOOKS (not…
Reflecting on giving feedback
Once upon a time, there was a senior geography teacher and she had a year 11 class filled with 10, bright and diligent students. One day, the teacher gave the students their marked assessments back. To her surprise, despite the generally high quality and marks awarded, the students seemed unhappy. The teacher, who had spent many years developing relationships with…
Book review: See you on Venus
I visited my old workplace recently and I got to talking with my lovely library ladies about new books that had come in over the past year. I didn’t realise how much I missed buying for a school library collection! So, I have decided to help them out a little by reading some of the…
The Lifting Librarian 