It's in Hartford--you can go

And you should:  http://national.aasl.org/

NCLE and why it matters

Judi Moriellen presented to AASL about its involvement with the National Center for Literacy Education (NCLE).  NCLE is an affiliation of approximately 30 educational groups focused on literacy.  The resources shared and collected on their site are incredibly useful for librarians, and they send out twice-weekly postings with articles on topics that school librarians are sure to find useful.  For example, recent postings have included research on why reading skills in boys lag behind those for girls, and things to consider before you flip your classroom.  Please take a look at their website, and start following them on twitter or RSS feed--you will be glad you did.  NCLE is at http://www.ncte.org/ncle

Why does it matter?  For years librarians have known how much we have to offer--especially in supporting student literacy.  This initiative helps us to access terrific resources that we can share with our faculty and administrators, and it also provides school librarians with an opportunity to share our best practices and ideas.  Please use this resource, and look for ways that school librarians can contribute to this venture.

Digital Learning Day

February 6 is Digital Learning Day and it is a great opportunity for school librarians to show their stuff.  One topic discussed at AASL involved how we can do this simply and effectively.  Sue Kowalski from the Pine Grove Middle School in East Syracuse, NY was an inspiration as she explained how her students completely organized the event for her--resulting in after-school "tech smackdowns" where students are encouraged to come to the school or public libraries and teach one another digital games or how to use their devices.  Students created an animoto to publicize the event, and were all asked to "tell three teachers" to come!  To read more about plans for AASL in Digital Learning Day check out Sue's post on the AASL blog:  http://www.aasl.ala.org/aaslblog/

Legislative updates

I sat in a session this morning with Jennifer Duffy of Cook Political report, who shared an amazing knowledge of Washington politics and current climate to help us think about how library leaders can strategically approach the federal government on library issues and funding.

The session began with a video shared from the chair of the FCC talking about the key role libraries play in bridging the digital divide--and how they are vital for national communications!

Opportunities that Duffy described included:

• Demographics are shifting, and many of the people who use libraries heavily are also the people who appear to be voting, such as recent immigrants
• Moderate voters, those who don't care for extreme conservative or liberal positions, are those most likely to affect election outcomes

But the challenges are also significant:

• Duffy reported that the current Congress and Senate is extremely dysfunctional and it is incredibly hard to get anything done.  Most members are relatively new (majority of Congress has served less than 3 years) and rigid ideologically.  They move from crisis to crisis and don't get much done.  For example, Duffy said many educational funding bills are up for renewal and it is unlikely all will be passed.
• It is very difficult to assess public opinion accurately due to changes in technology--fewer people have landlines, and fewer answer their phone; it can be difficult to find a way to reach many key demographic groups using any one form of access.  Consquently, polling data is not as clear as it once was.

Settling into Seattle

MSLA members are at the ALA Midwinter meeting in Seattle this weekend.  The sun is out and we are expecting a few more noteworthy events as we plan our time here.  Several people were out early this morning to meetings with colleagues at AASL with lots of focus on our L4L database, common core, and coordinating information among members across the country.

As always, the informal interactions are terrific when there are thousands of librarians gathered in one place--from the sign at the Pike Market Fish Market announcing "librarians do it quietly!" to a fruit vendor telling us that he's enjoyed meeting so many nice librarians (and realizing we ARE a nice group).  This morning I ended up at a coffee shop for breakfast and quickly learned the woman sitting next to me was on the ALA notable books committee for children's books, and she'd read hundreds of the 1500 books recommended this year (as had her husband!).  She was full of information about which books she thought really stood out from the crowd (and no, it wasn't Wonder--though she liked it).  It was one of those moments that make you realize how much we all love what we do--as we happily discussed children's books for almost an hour.  Tonight we are off to explore the vendor hall exhibits and have dinner with AASL colleagues before we meet with the affiliate assembly tomorrow.  Stay tuned!

The National Writing Project presentation on Why Digital Writing Matters for Learning

All writing matters. Writing is not just what is on paper. Why does this matter?
Digital writing is how we write, share, collaborate, publish, and participate today and into the future. What does this means for the future of writing?

Http://digidalis.nwp.org

some thoughts on common core

We know the curriculum better than anyone else in the building—this adds huge value in rolling out Common Core--remind your principal and superintendent about this often

We know technology and how to use it to gather information and create products that show learning

In order to do what we do well, we need to be able to do it—time to collaborate, time to plan, time to teach.  

When we don’t have this, and don’t do our jobs well, we lose librarians.  If you CAN do these things, you owe to those who don't to advocate on their behalf.

Pennsylvania School Library Association just completed HUGE study on status of school libraries in PA and will next develop an information literacy curriculum summer of 2013 correlated with the Pennsylvania Common Core—something for Massachusetts to keep an eye on. 

Digital reading is getting teens and young adults reading—don’t worry about print vs. ebook, just look at how kids are reading and go there!  New Pew Study out this week:  http://libraries.pewinternet.org/2012/10/23/younger-americans-reading-and-library-habits/

“Librarians teach process!  Librarians are Common Core—this is what we do!”  Melissa Jacobs-Israel, NYC public schools.  New York City public schools have “unpacked common core” for librarians:  http://www2.lhric.org/libsys/IFC.html