Library News

LIBRARY NEWS

Hello everyone, 

My name is Georgia Flaskas and I am the new teacher librarian at Lalor North Secondary College. I am so excited to be a part of this amazing community and with our senior library officer Rose Mokdissi, we will be working hard to ensure that the library continues to be an inclusive and welcoming space for all. We are here to help our students and staff achieve the best learning and teaching outcomes by providing up to date, engaging and relevant resources and celebrating diverse voices in literature. 

As a teacher librarian, I will also be teaching information literacy skills and ensuring that all staff are provided with the latest curriculum resources. YEAR 7-9 LIBRARY/READING SESSIONS

As part of the College's commitment to improving student literacy outcomes, this year all Year 7 to 9 English classes have been timetabled to have one library/reading period per fortnight. The sessions are structured so the teacher librarian gives an introductory talk on new books or another aspect of library skills or resources, followed by students choosing and borrowing books and then reading silently for most of the period. Later, students reflect on what they have read by sharing views with their peers or writing in their journals. These sessions will see me team teaching and collaborating with English teachers and our English domain leader and Literacy learning specialist, Rebecca Lucas, by planning and modelling good reading practices, conducting reading conferences with students to learn more about their reading habits and extending on these by setting personal reading goals. 

During the first library/reading session, students received an orientation or refresher session and learnt about the resources we offer as well as gaining an understanding of how a library operates. Students were informed about our fiction and non-fiction collections; different genres and we spoke about how we choose books to read. During their second session, students were shown how to access the library catalogue, Library Solutions, in ‘School Favourites’ on Compass, enabling them to check library holdings, their current loans, place reservations and write reviews. Library Solutions also has a link to TV4Education where students can view an extensive range of films and documentaries. Throughout the year, we will be covering a range of topics including learning about new book releases, different book genres, the Victorian Premiers' Reading Challenge, Children's Book Week, reading comprehension strategies etc. I will be collaborating with the Year 7 to 9 English teachers where we will be creating reading profiles for each student enabling us to gain a snapshot into what students are reading, their reading stamina levels and more. 

Year 11 students, Uvisha and Daniel 

PROMOTING A POSITIVE READING CULTURE                                                                        Here at LNSC Library, we strongly believe in the importance of reading for pleasure and promoting a positive reading culture. Staff members have started displaying signs featuring what they have been reading on their office doors (or windows) and we hope this will encourage students and staff to engage and chat about what they have been reading too. Keep an eye on this space as we will be featuring different staff members and what they are currently reading in each issue. 

Our Careers coordinator, Sue Brownbill is currently reading ‘How to do the work’ by Nicole LePera

STUDENT AGENCY IN THE LIBRARY

It's fantastic to see so many student-led clubs around the College and to be hosting one of these in the library. The Film Club is having weekly film screenings on Fridays at lunchtime. We invite other groups from SMAD (Students Making a Difference) to use the space too. 

Any takers for Chess Club or Book Club? Please see Mr Tucker or Ms Flaskas if you are interested in hosting an event or starting a student club to meet in the library.

In coming weeks, all students and staff will also be invited to complete a survey about their reading habits and to suggest ways so we can improve our library. This is part of student agency. We also invite students (and staff) to contribute to the suggestions book at the circulation desk, where we will aim to purchase all book requests. 

LIBRARY EVENTS IN THE WIDER COMMUNITY

In other community library news, the State Library of Victoria is hosting a range of FREE online bootcamp Teen Writing Workshops from March to June for budding writers. Workshops will be conducted by a range of Australian authors including Lili Wilkinson, Don Giovannoni, Flora Chol and more. The workshops cover a range of genres including poetry, YA fiction, science fiction, playwriting, memoir and comics. For more information and bookings visit: https://www.slv.vic.gov.au/teen-writing-boot-camps

Meanwhile, Mill Park Library has a range of after school activities for young people, including a creative writing competition for teens which meets on the first Thursday of every month AND the youth takeover night on Friday 10th March.

Georgia Flaskas

Teacher Librarian/English Teacher