Episode 42 – Jamie Osborne

JAMIE OSBORNE is a middle school teacher-librarian in Richmond, BC, Canada. She writes at https://thebiblioz.wordpress.com/ and recently published her first episode of The Biblioz podcast for teacher librarians.

In our conversation, Jamie addresses the challenges of moving students from an unhealthy focus on grades to the uninhibited freedom of failure-free learning. She explains why she enjoys her new role in the library so much and describes her personal transformation from Twitter lurker to contributor, blogger, and now podcaster. Jamie also shares some of her personal habits and passions and offers some solid recommendations for books to read, Twitter accounts to follow, and more.

Follow Jamie!
TW: @TheBiblioz
IG: @TheBiblioz
Blog: https://thebiblioz.wordpress.com/
Podcast: https://apple.co/2MTMBXL

Find the highlights from our conversation at the timestamps below:

• 0:56 – Jamie describes her current role in education as a new teacher-librarian at a middle school in Richmond, BC, Canada.
• 1:39 – One challenge she recalls from earlier in her career was when some of her high school students and parents seemed more focused on marks than their learning, and students seemed unable or unwilling to take risks. Since that time, it’s been a pleasure to move to the library where she enjoys designing learning experiences that take place without the involvement of marks. This fall, she’s excited to introduce a multidisciplinary course for 8th Graders called STEAM 8. Students will be free to pursue learning and creativity in all sorts of directions, much of their work modeled closely on the design process and all of it without traditional marks attached.
• 4:46 – Jamie discusses the things that currently ignite her passion in education: empowering students to become more confident and creative, take risks, think outside of the box, and adapt to new challenges.
• 7:42 – Jamie explains how and why she went from being a Twitter lurker to a Twitter contributor, blogger, and now podcaster. A highlight from June 2018 included a visit to the ISTE conference in Chicago, where she interviewed some of the biggest names in the librarian niche and published their thoughts on her Biblioz podcast.
• 11:13 – Areas of personal passion and learning include painting, calligraphy, photography … anything visually creative. She enjoys pushing herself and growing beyond her creative comfort zone.
• 11:50 – Personal habits that contribute to Jamie’s creative success relate to self-care: exercising, taking times to shut off mentally, and setting clear personal boundaries.
• 14:08 – On Twitter, Jamie recommends @ExLibrisMrHunt, @ErinKCald, and  @Esther_Memmott.
• 15:14 – For edtech tools, Jamie looks forward to unlocking new learning experiences for her students through Google Expeditions.
• 15:37 – As a librarian, you know Jamie’s got a great book pick for us. It’s Launch: Using Design Thinking to Boost Creativity and Bring Out the Maker in Every Student by John Spencer and AJ Juliani.
• 16:36 – If you’re looking for another quality podcast to add to your daily commute this year, check out Educated by Design with Michael Cohen (@TheTechRabbi).
• 17:23 – Finally, when she’s got no brainpower left for anything productive, Jamie’s watching Hinterland on Netflix.
• 18:48 – We sign off on the interview, and Jamie reminds us how we can follow her content online. See above for details!

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Song Track Credits

• Intro: Relax (by Simon More)
• Outtro: Starley – Call on Me Remix (by DJ Zhorik)

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