Reflection for PD for Michelle Loomis and Anthony Sabedra
Using the Library Resources for Spanish Cultural Projects
August 2023
We worked on this collaborative project over two days in the summer of 2023. We represent the Library and World Languages.
Our goal in this collaboration was to further explore and refine the research/investigative resources that exist for our Upper School students, and deepen their understanding of and comfort level with using reliable academic sources. Two projects, one in 6th grade Spanish and the other in 8th grade Spanish, anchored our efforts and provided the necessary structure. We came away from this experience with the realization that the availability of resources and information is profound and all encompassing. This in turn, provided the opportunity to redesign and restructure the questions that guided the student research.
This opportunity reminded the two of us of the many opportunities that exist for our disciplines/areas and how important these skills both at Burkes and beyond. Our ongoing goal is to prepare our students for the rigors of high school. We would like to encourage faculty in other academic disciplines to partner with the library and to use the phenomenal resources as well as the expertise of the staff. We are fortunate at Burkes in having the accessibility of materials both in printed and electronic/digital forms.
PD learning has always been beneficial to our work as educators and we are grateful to have had this opportunity. In looking forward, we would like to do more PD collaborative work in order to take our interests and projects to a more sophisticated level. We realize that in the end, both we, the adults, and the students benefit from this work.
Michelle Loomis and Anthony Sabedra