I am super excited for and very proud of my good friend Tania Lineham, Head of Science at James Hargest College, who has just been awarded the very prestigious Prime Minister’s Science Teacher Prize for 2015. Tania is one of the most innovative, passionate and hard working teachers I’ve had the privilege of working with. (Huge emphasis on passionate!)
That in itself is more than enough reason for me to give her public accolade, however having just listened to Tania’s interview on Kathryn Ryan’s Nine to Noon Show on RNZ National aired this morning, I felt compelled to share it with my librarian and teacher friends.
During this short 7 minute interview Tania talks about:
- separating science fact from science fiction
- fostering critical analysis and scientific literacy
- developing critical thinking tools
- evaluating information, including the sources information comes from
- identifying reliable websites
- embedding digital citizenship
Any of this sound familiar? Are these the topics of conversations we have in our libraries? Or if not, are they the types of conversations we’d like to have with our teaching colleagues or should be having with our librarian colleagues? These skills, among others are opening topics of conversations in which both teachers and librarians have things to share with each other
Tania has been and will always remain one of my flock-mates. She is a strong collaborator and we had many professional discussions when we worked together which really inspired me in my role as a co-educator. Well done my friend. It is richly deserved. (and the piccy at the top is just for you)
sengawhite.nz 