Read, Explore, Empower

Your monthly guide to engaging professional development for school libraries and educators

Jan 31, 2025

This is your monthly roundup for school libraries and educators. If you don’t have time to read Three Thoughts for Your Week, I hope this may be easier for you to digest. In the last week of each month, I combine all I’ve found into one concise newsletter. Helping you discover a variety of professional development opportunities including articles, webinars, podcasts, face-to-face training and discussion groups.

Article of the Month

Join my ‘Article of the Month’ discussion group.

Here is the link for the January/February 2025 discussion - School library Professionals’ Perspectives on Current and Future Workforce Challenges by Margaret Merga et al. I think this is a fantastic piece of research. What are your thoughts?

Share your thoughts here

Highlights from this month Three Thoughts for Your Week

Read Something

The Two Meanings of Reasoning and the Future Path of AI by Mike Caulfield This article exemplifies how school librarians can use AI to support student learning and reasoning. We don’t necessarily have to understand how AI does what it does but we can work through its reasoning to make sure we are happy with its output.

Rethinking Collaboration by Sally Flint. Reading an article based on one of our podcasts is always heartwarming, especially if the message has been understood. Sally unpacks her thinking from listening to FOSIL, Education and School Libraries. “Reflecting on how librarians can help teachers, it is clear that even if we don’t have all the answers, librarians do have a vital role in supporting the wider school curriculum”.

Finding my Lifejacket. From inside the membership Althea Briers shares the value of Engaging and Empowering School Libraries for herself. “Joining Elizabeth's membership was like finding a lifejacket. It connected me with a group of like-minded individuals who are doing incredible work in the inspiring world of school libraries”.

Why making reading easier may be a bad choice by Alex Quigley. This short piece links to my long-time thinking on this subject. There is a time and place to make reading easier for students, especially if they are reading on their own, however, we must push them to read and understand the harder vocabulary when they are in a group or class setting. If they are never introduced to the vocabulary they need it makes it harder for them in the long run.

On the other hand, if we are catering for students whose first language is not English then allowing them to keep up with the lesson by providing simpler to understand transcripts surely is acceptable. The interesting thing about these types of articles is that it is not a one size fits all…

An article by Tom Mullaney landed in my inbox and I felt it was important to share! Please Don't Use Generative AI To Mimic Historical Figures. Putting voices to historical figures seems like a cool thing to do. Until you think about the ethics of putting words into dead people’s voices… So much can go wrong…

Watch Something

I like the videos that Chris Goodall produces. They can be used in classrooms to generate thoughtful discussions. This one is for primary students but he also created something similar for secondary. Just look up his name on Youtube

Engaging and Empowering School Libraries Podcast was joined by Adam Barry who helped us unlock the potential of school libraries by turning the spotlight on the host Elizabeth Hutchinson. He questioned me about what a school library is and does, marketing and networking and left me with a challenge. It was a fun conversation and we hope you enjoy it too.

The future of AI, work, and human potential by Lars Thomsen. His TedX talk is both easy to listen to and gives a positive take on the use of AI… there is always a different way to look at things.

How to use Well-Grounded AI Argument Analyzer created by Mike Caulfield This looks very interesting and I would encourage school librarians to take a look… we and our students need to have better arguments grounded in facts!

Listen to Something

A new podcast that I found over the holidays is called AI in Education. In this episode AI News (and no research) they chat through different articles and reports and share their thoughts. Nice and easy to listen to.

AI Hitting its Stride in 2025 from the AI Educator Dan Fitzpatrick. This short 8 min chat from Dan is a useful way to hear his thinking and keep up to date with what is happening in education. It was great to hear that critical thinking and lifelong learning will continue to be important in 2025 as these are areas close to many school librarian’s hearts.

Dr Margaret Merga, associate professor at the University of Notre Dame Freemantle, Australia, talks about the need for school librarians in every school. They suffer the same problems we do in the UK. Listen in from 48:55 to about 57:27! https://www.abc.net.au/listen/programs/wa-afternoons/afternoons/104827832