Toongabbie Christian College

JENNY WALKER Parent 1990-2005 Staff Member 2000-2016

Do you ever daydream about what the future might be like? Science fiction writers used to daydream about landing on the Moon. People now dream of travelling to Mars! As part of my work as Teacher Librarian and IT Manager during the years 2000 to 2016, I used to look around our School and daydream about the future. I had been a TCS parent since 1990, and our family excitedly attended the library building opening. Back then, the library was basically the lower half of the current library, where primary and secondary students had to work together among all our books, journals, videos and computers. I dreamt of a separate library area for Primary students, with cosy reading areas, fun games and activities to do at lunchtime, bright paintings around the room, and of course, wonderful books! This expansion happened eventually. We took over a classroom, installed new lower shelves, created little reading areas, brought in fun board games, moved in our giant library bears, added a puppet theatre and puppets, comfy cushions, and, thanks to Liz Moore, added our huge striped bookworm cushion. This could comfortably support about seven students. Some of our talented secondary students painted our windows each year with colourful book characters. I also dreamt of an area where senior students could work near the special collections that were useful to them. Pot plants and lounge chairs would be part of this area too. We saw that happen when the separate Primary area was created. We all dreamt of air conditioning, and we had an ice block giveaway when it was finally installed. Dreaming up Book Week celebrations was always great fun. I remember reading our way around Australia’s big rocks, collecting coloured rocks along the way for ‘Reading Rocks’. Some years, students completed reading activities to earn library money that could be spent on special-book loans, hot chocolate, popcorn and lunchtime movies. Students created and swapped Zines, their own handmade magazines, and Big Night Out poetry readings were an opportunity for students to showcase their dramatic talents as they recited favourite poems in front of an audience. They bravely climbed up onto a stage made of desks pushed together to perform. Some students even wrote their own poetry. In 2009, I was able to dream about our new library as the old one was to be gutted and rebuilt. When I started at TCS, there were only two computers in the School with internet access, one in the library and one in the computer room. It was very slow dial-up access. Classes might type in a website address and wait 10 minutes for it to load! I dreamt of having fast internet access across the School, all teachers and students having their own login with an email account, a TCS Intranet, a networked colour photocopier, and a wireless network with mobile devices. What technology and devices do you see used during your school day? Can you imagine that a wireless mouse was such a wonderful thing that we had our one and only one stolen on a Big Night Out? Google searches, touch screens, USBs, DVDs, interactive whiteboards, video cameras in phones, iPads — these were new technologies during the time I was at TCS. Many of them are now old technologies! Praise God that He has provided TCC with such valuable library and technology resources. I pray that all who use them will do so wisely and well!

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