My one free day in Chicago!

First, I have to say, I have been following Kathy Lowes Twitter Posts, and it is getting me pumped to rework our districts' standards this fall. Thank you Valerie and Kathy for all you have been doing.
My flight to Chicago was smooth, and I was at my hotel easy peasy! I went right down to the convention center and got all of my convention materials and the first person I bumped into was Linda Braun, my Technology teacher from Simmons! Had a bite to eat with a librarian from Oklahoma, who has written and implemented a grant(through IMLS) to hold a library camp for middle schoolers interested in becoming librariaians. She has set it up so that the kids travel for a week to various types of libraries i.e. academic, public, special, research, and see the inner workings of the libraries they visit. In the end they each get a bag full of books donated by the libraries they visited. They stay in hotels as they travel, and take a bus from place to place. She has had 30 campers each year. This is her third year. The kids love it She figures even if they do not become librarians, she is building advocacy for libraries. This is what I love about coming to ALA -learning from other librarians.

Since this will be my only free time in Chicago, I city I have never been to, I took a double decker tour, a very down and dirty way to get an over view and bearings in a new city.
Having left the cold damp weather of Boston, it was nice to have a bit of sun in the late afternoon, and enjoy a very interesting tour. I'm going to enjoy a little downtime now and then off to listen to a talk with Russell Freedman, Candice Fleming, and others on Celebrating Lincoln and the challenges of creating aptivating biographies for children and young adults.
tomorrow will be afull day.

Chicago Vibes

Greetings from the windy city. The sharing and excitement has begun here with an all-day training session for Learning4Life implementation chair people from each state. Kathy Lowe and I are the co-chairs for Massachusetts, and spent the day engaged in thinking and planning on how to make the AASL Standards for the 21st Century Learner the guiding force for school libraries in Massachusetts. The new brand name for the standards is Learning4Life. The L4L name will be heard more and more often.

Look for implementation plans coming soon from Kathy and I for our state. On to AASL Affiliate Assembly today - and more reporting later.