Learning Commons
“There are three ingredients to the good life; Learning, Earning, and Yearning"
- C. Marley
Welcome to our Learning Commons at Springbank Middle School. Our aim is to provide ongoing support to teaching and learning. Students are engaged, and have access to, leaning and critical thinking through multiple devices and multiple literacies. The use of technology facilitates inquiry-based learning that can happen any place, any time, any path.
The Learning Commons is open Monday to Friday from 8:15 a.m. to 3:45 p.m. Students are welcome Monday, Wednesday and Friday during the half of the noon break that they are not eating lunch. The expectation for behaviour in our Learning Commons is that our voices are lowered out of consideration for others who are reading, studying, or working on assignments, and that there is no excessive fooling or running.
Homerooms have the option of booking a regular timetable block in the Learning Commons or booking on an as needed basis, or a combination of the two. Individual students and small groups are welcome whenever space is available.
Students are allowed to sign-out four books for the equivalent of two 6 day cycles. Students are asked to be mindful of the “due date” stamped in the book. Books can be renewed. We circulate print copies of the overdue list to homeroom teachers weekly. Students will also receive a series of three e-mails (to their rvschools account) to remind them to return overdue items. If books are seriously overdue, no more books may be signed-out until this is rectified. If a book is lost it will need to be replaced or paid for.
We endeavour to offer to the students information retrieval in various formats such as books, the Internet, DVDs, magazines, and even the telephone. Our school is dual track with English programs as well as French Immersion. This is reflected in the Library collection offering Fiction and Non-Fiction in both languages. Our collection development in English and French is highly influenced by the Alberta Learning curriculum, as well as the needs of the students and their course work. We are a middle school and thus have a responsibility to develop the collection in a manner appropriate to this age group. All of our holdings are easily searched on the Online Public Access Catalog available at springbankms.rockyview.kohalibrary.com. Students can also log in to view their individual account information (items signed out, due dates, borrowing history).
Nuturing literacy, and reading for enjoyment, is also a high priority. Our Fiction section offers many genres such as fantasy, mystery and detective, animal stories, historical fiction, adventure stories, graphic novels, science fiction, and other selections.
It is our hope that students will acquire an appreciation of the Learning Commons for the services it offers in information retrieval , as well as the enduring pleasure of reading.
