Preparation for Observing a Class of students at a Toronto Public Library

I love being retired! I have lots more free time than I was working and I can choose what I love to do. What I love doing above everything else is teaching and sharing my thirty years plus teaching experiences with other educators.

I was very busy for the past few weeks as I was teaching a group of overseas school administrators visiting Canada learning about the Ontario education system.

One of the topics I designed and presented to this group of principals was called Learning Beyond the Classroom in which we discussed various ways of how students learn. To add to the experience,I also planned field trips for the group to various community institutions where Ontario students could learn outside of a classroom setting.

While planning for this group of overseas principals to visit a Toronto library one afternoon,  I learned that a Gr. 2 class from a neighborhood school would be there for a class as well. This would be a rare and treasured opportunity for these principals to observe first hand for themselves how Canadian students make use of the public library to enhance their learning.  I  contacted the librarian who graciously agreed to receive us for a library visit and was grateful that the library granted us permission to observe the children's librarian teaching this class on the same afternoon of our visit.

Before leaving the college, I discussed with the visiting principals the proper protocol while observing the students. I made sure that they were aware of the following during our library visit:

 - no picture taking of any of the students in the library

-  no interference with the class

-  keeping a good distance from the students

-  no interaction or conversation with the students

We also would follow any other protocol as set out by the Toronto library. The visiting principals were all looking forward to learning how our Canadian public libraries could benefit our youngsters and community as a whole.

R.T.
Toronto