Teacher Librarian- Teacher of the Year Award!!

Wonderful to read that Mark Ray is the 2012 Washington State Teacher of the Year. He is a teacher librarian and instructional technology facilitator at Skyview High School in Vancouver. Ray has led his school in piloting an initiative called BYOD or "bring your own device," which helps students and teachers make educational use of any kind of gadget they bring from home, including cellphones and game systems.


"Getting to the truth has never been harder than it is today. The loss of libraries, teacher librarians and the ascendance of truthiness fundamentally hurts our nation. We are losing the expertise, resources and skills necessary to be informed voters and citizens. This is not about politics. All corners of the political and cultural debate contribute to our factually impaired fog. This is about fundamentally preparing our young people to be successful in work, college and life." Read more of his comments.

Considering the comments below and the fact that there are very few TLs in this State...Could it be that by innovating and evolving has kept him in his job?

"He reinvented himself and his job at the same time." said Skyview Principal Kym Tyelyn-Carlson.
 "So proud to finally see one of my fellow teacher librarians honored in such a way. Perhaps this will bring awareness to the ways in which teacher librarians prepare students by teaching Information Literacy Skills -- evaluating websites for accuracy and currency, recognizing bias in both print and digital media, accessing information for multiple sources and and making sense of it, respecting copyright and intellectual property rights; the list goes on and on. Only with these skills in their "tool kit" can students become productive members of a democratic society and not sheep following blindly the ranting of FauxNews and their ilk."  Information Sorceress October 4


"My God! We haven't laid off the last librarian yet? Surprising news." soy_bobo October 4


"Fantastic. Congratulations to a colleague, who teachers, manages a budget, orders when there is a budget, reads constantly, teaches students and teachers, keeps up to date on technology. We librarians are information brokers and ESSENTIAL to the successes, both in college and career, of our students. We touch every single student in our schools. We are irreplaceable. Now, state of Washington, restore our funding!"  Kathryn H. October 4

Comments: Vancouver teacher librarian named 2012 Washington Teacher of the Year

Vancouver high school librarian WA teacher of year

Wouldn't it be fabulous if Mark Ray went on to win the National Teacher of the Year Award? With his opportunities to create a greater awareness for the importance of the role would there be a chance that there would be a restoration of funding? I would love to believe so... What do you think?


I wonder how many other educators have introduced BYOD programs, or similar, into their schools and learning institutions. Have you? Maybe the article below may help you see some of the benefits of introducing them. Click on the link to read it.

Mobile phones and authentic learning tasks

"Dr Jan Herrington, explores the use of mobile phones as powerful ‘cognitive tools', where students’ phones can be used to research, produce and publish polished products of learning. Jan is Professor of Education at Murdoch University, and she discusses here some strategies for the design of innovative learning activities and tasks for mobile devices, using authentic learning principles, where whole units of study or projects can be designed around complex and engaging tasks."  from edtalks.org