By Lila Armstrong
Toronto, 2020
The story begins in October, 2019. My district teacher-librarian (TL), Cathy Fowler, was visiting my school to brainstorm ideas for an upcoming renovation to the Ecole Willow Point School library. I had heard about the OLA/TMC conference, revolving around the themes of equity and participatory learning, and I asked for her thoughts. She encouraged me to attend and said that conferences always give you new ideas, and you’re always happy that you went. When she later offered to nominate me for the OLA/OSLA Ken Haycock Super Conference Grant, I accepted, hopeful that I could make it all work.
The announcement deadline came and went. I had long since given up on going to the conference, when in mid-January; I unexpectedly heard that I would be a recipient of the grant. I was suddenly pitched into a dash to price the trip, apply to my school professional development committee for extra financial support and pitch the trip to my family.
It’s a Go
It was a dark and frosty night when I arrived in Toronto, after a long day connecting from Vancouver Island. Given the health scare of Covid-19, still in its early stages, I had spoken to my sister, a front line doctor, at length about the risks associated with the trip. I had come very close to cancelling the trip entirely. That aside, it’s always a bit of a shock to navigate a big city when you live in a place where the population is 35,000 and to navigate your way around in the dark.
It was about this point in my travel day when I began to wonder: was this all worth it?
The answer, of course, was yes.
OLA Super Conference
I am an experienced teacher in my early 40s, but I’ve only been in a TL role for about a year now. I’ve done my share of conferences and university time. I like to think that I’ve experienced a sizable repertoire of events, cultures and travels. But to see so many TLs gathered, sitting in small groups over a coffee, hitting the marketplace for advanced copies and engaging in lively, intense conversations was quite something. If you are a regular part of the enormous learning machine that is the OLA/CSL, perhaps you have forgotten what your first visit to the Super Conference was like. But as a first-time attendee, I can assure you that it had a dramatic effect on me. What I began to feel was an intense desire to belong to this group, to be connected to a goal greater than my own school address, and to be sharing innovation of my own.
Treasure Mountain Canada
Friday evening, Treasure Mountain Canada convened for their 6th conference. Most of the TLs in attendance, a cozy group of about 50, were greeting friends and colleagues and catching up. Being only one of a few from B.C. and having no network outside of the province, I was worried that I might spend the weekend being a listener. Seeing that most of the attendees had relationships already, made me worried that it might be hard to break in. I made small talk with the people sitting around me to try to break the ice. My worries were unfounded; by the end of the evening, I felt warmly welcomed into the CSL fold.
It was on Saturday morning that TMC got down to business. Carol Koechlin and Anita Brooks Kirkland, co-chairs of the CSL sat before us, convening the day. I won’t deny that I felt a bit star struck: these are the two women who authored many of the articles that I read, quoted and studied during my year of coursework to become a certified TL. Add David Loertscher into the mix and it’s the TL Hall of Fame.
After a particularly robust group discussion and brainstorm about how TLs can foster relationships that lead to deep collaboration, Carol suggested that someone should write an article about the results of our collaborative Google document, and Anita asked for a volunteer. Right now!
I raised my hand.
It sounds dramatic, but this one action – made in a moment of excitement (“pick me coach!”) was a pivotal moment in how I started to view my professional learning network (PLN), its importance in my practice, and my place in it. In that moment, I had made my first connection with something bigger than my school or district. It was the beginning of me believing that despite my newness to the role of a TL, I had something worthwhile to contribute, and that the doors were open in this community to share learning, expertise and experience.
In the sessions that followed, I was moved by the underlying hum of innovation in the room. Everyone there was in that front train car, working to improve student learning through the Library Learning Commons (LLC) and sharing experiences with the goal of improving everyone’s abilities. We all know that you should not spend too much time with the folks in the front car, but from time to time, it has a truly electrifying effect. The effect on me was that I wanted to continue to spread the innovative ideas that were being fostered through CSL.
On Saturday, new connections were forged and ideas blossomed. I had a chat with CSL 2020 award winner, Alanna King, who later messaged me on Twitter to share some sage advice about collaboration. Diana Maliszewski gave me her card at the end of the day and said to reach out anytime. Everyone in this dynamic group shared ideas freely and worked in a collaborative process designed to improve everyone’s practice. They helped me grow my PLN into a nationwide peer group and I am excited to be continuously renewing my teaching practice and library programming.
Next Up
My involvement with the CSL continues, as you can see; although my submissions are not scientific (yet!), they are welcomed.
I was recently fortunate enough to participate in a Read Into This podcast about collaboration, based loosely around the article that I wrote for the CSL Journal entitled Looking to Get Colleagues on Board?. After an hour in our podcast group discussion, I had a page of new ideas for my own library; I had reconnected with my friend Sonja Clark, from my TL courses; I had a made a new connection with Leigh Borden; I had a podcast mentor offering to help me to learn how to podcast for myself; and a date set for a second episode of Read Into This.
The value of participating in conferences, whether close or far, rarely comes down to the simple cost. It is impossible to put a price on the connections that we make with those who are like-minded, who challenge us and energize us, who support us and who help us find our own voice.
I have new goals for myself which include improving engagement with colleagues at my school and strengthening idea sharing in my district TL circle. I also hope to become more active with the BCTLA and will be presenting at the BCTLA conference in October.
In the meantime, I saw the call for OLA presenters go out…I’m thinking hard about how I can get back out east while I wait for TMC to come out west in 2022!
Lila Armstrong has been teaching in the K-8 classroom for over 10 years and recently moved into an immersion teacher-librarian position at École Willow Point Elementary in Campbell River, BC. She has a B.A. in Political Science, and a Masters of Urban Planning from McGill University, along with a B. Ed from the University of Ottawa. Lila was preparing for a life in politics but realized that teaching was her calling. She and her husband are raising two small readers, and one large Golder Retriever. (Photo credit: Thomas Photography)