ALA midwinter Philly

Cold, slushy and full of cool librarians.....Sharon Hamer, Amy Short, Jennifer Kelley Reed, and I are here for midwinter meetings.  Most of midwinter is about meetings - AASL Affiliate Assembly, L4L learning and a host of workshops.  Lots of nice informal talks too as we run into people from MLS, MLBC, Horn Book and colleagues from around the country - all of whom have great ideas that I love to borrow and bring back home.  For example, the legislative arm of ALA showed some great promotional videos that Amy Bloom and the Advocacy Committee could use as exemplars for our work in Massachusetts.  We always find some good stuff to bring home.

Reading and the Common Core

AASL=seeing your favorite people in the world in person. I subscribe to Library Sparks mostly for Tony Buzzeo's monthly column on lessons aligned to the Common Core.  So, of course, I went to see
Tony Buzzeo's presentation on Reading and the Common Core.  Tony pointed out at the beginning of her talk that we have a HUGE opportunity with the ELA Common Core.  Using EBSCO and other databases has great links to periodical articles and the lexile level for the articles is given for each article.  Teachers will love this.  We also talked about some great informational text authors--Steve Jenkins

She showed us reading standards that we can cite--and many of these are activities that most good school librarians are already modeling all them:

• Pulling out evidence from a text to answer a question
• Comparing 2 texts on a similar topic to show how they are alike and different
• Selecting and sharing books with appropriate complexity for the intended grade level
• Quoting accurately from text (great place to use document cameras/ebooks) to answer a question--and describe what you can infer (start with -- what is a character like?  then show us in the book where it says that)
• Integrate information from several texts on the same topic in order to write or speak knowledgeably about the subject (great opportunity to use a combination of books and periodical articles)

ALWAYS document what you do--attach the ELA standard to what you are doing and make sure classroom teachers and your administrators know that you are doing this. 

Join forces with colleagues--choose topics and divide the work to develop curriculum.  She also recommended Novelist Plus, which has many common core lesson plans.  Massachusetts databases do not include Novelist Plus (just Novelist) and she suggested school librarians request this upgrade to help them with common core.

A couple of books new to me that I will definitely be purchasing:
Do you know which ones will grow? by Susan A. Shea
A wizard from the start by Don Brown
The boy who harnessed the wind by William Kankwambe
Farmer Will Allen and the growing table by Jacqueline Briggs Martin
When the Beat was Born:  DJ Kool Herc and the Creation of Hip Hop by Laban Carrick Hill
My First Day by THE AMAZING Steve Jenkins
Lifetime: the Amazing Numbers in Animal Lives by Lola M. Schaefer
Mr Tiger Goes Wild by Peter Brown (pair it with Mo Willem's Naked Mole Rat)
Pedal It! by Michelle Mulder
Locomotive by Brian Floca

Great handouts here

PBS Learning Media

I have long been a fan of Teachers' Domain, so was eager to go see its new incarnation as PBS learning media www.pbslearningmedia.org

You need to set up free account with email and PW; there is an email account you can use (they will help you set it up) so you can set up an account for students to use

34,000 digital resources, includes:

• Short clips from longer PBS national programs and local productions, some are from high-quality partners (e.g, NASA, Smithsonian), and some are produced specifically for the site
• all clips are selected to be tied to particular curriculum and all are tied to standards
• many clips are associated with a lesson plan that indicates how to use the clip appropriately

All clips are searchable by keywords, grade level, subject area, and by CCSS standards and some national stantdards

• Clips can be saved using favorite buttons and saved to folders; folders can be shared
• There are also clips organized by public media series, state and local collections, curriculum topics and theme
• There is a whole collected of "characteristics of highly effective teaching and learning" that could be used for PD within your school--short videos showing many best practices for teaching and classroom management

Themed-content in middle school literacy practicing reading and writing in the content area (pbslearningmedia/collections/midlit), including science (energy, plate tectonics, health), ELA (character development, personification), social studies, mathematics--most populated at science and social studies

• Lesson plans go with all topics and have been created and vetted with and by experts/teachers
• Includes a number of literacy strategies--categorize, compare/contrast, find evidence, etc etc

We looked at 2 excellent lessons -- one on cowbirds and one on Pocahontus.  The workshop participants all agreed that the lessons were engaging (actually fun and very interesting), and there were some excellent student activities and assignments embedded into each one.    These would make excellent assignments for supplementation, homework, self-paced work in a topic area.

Many, many middle school math lessons and activities will be added soon

IDEAxCHANGE - AASL 13 Day One

When I had the privilege of attending AASL11 two years ago in Minneapolis, one of my favorite parts was IDEAxCHANGE, also known as the Exploratorium.  It's a chance to talk to librarians from across the country and find out what neat, innovative, groundbreaking things they're doing in their libraries, learn from them, get ideas, get inspired, and go home ready to try something new. 

This year was no different.  There were 36 tables, and I stopped by at least 5 that had a MSLA member, so go us! We are out there on the forefront doing amazing things and teaching others, and I think we should be really proud of what we're accomplishing in the field.   Just to give you a small taste of the presentations I walked by: library centers, featuring Newton library teacher Jessica Lodge and her partners, Cari Young from San Antonio and Carolyn Vibbert from Dumfries, Virginia, Library Pals, an online, virtual penpal partnership between Newton library teacher Jennifer Reed and a librarian in Minnesota, Boston Arts Academy/Fenway High School Library Director Deborah Lang Froggatt's presentation on using iPads to enable free agent learning, tables covering how to teach copyright, responsible digital citizenship, writing mentor programs in the library, Common Core connections, using picture books to teach civics and current events, a new filing system that combines non-fiction and fiction together using new subject headings, and so much more.  

It can be almost overwhelming at times, but it's also an energizing, exciting moment because you walk away buzzing with ideas. I've already jotted down at least ten things I want to try when I get back to school on Monday - even though I know some of them will take a lot of time! The IDEAxCHANGE was phenomenal, and I can't wait to see what tomorrow and Saturday's concurrent sessions bring.  Best of all, I don't have to agonize as much as I did last time about which sessions to attend, because 70 of them will be recorded and hosted on eCOLLAB by AASL (all handouts and materials distributed at the IDEAxCHANGE are also available there), which is free for all AASL members.  

Welcome to AASL 13

It's a beautiful morning in Hartford CT and we're getting ready for AASL 13.  There are lots of MSLA members and we'd love to have you blogging with us.  If you're interested, let us know!

It's preconference day here and I'm presenting with Judi Moriellen and teams of librarians and teachers from around the country to show that teacher-librarian collaboration is a terrific way to boost the efficacy of both teaching partners.  My favorite first grade teacher, Marianne Duffy, and I are showing off some of the terrific research we do together with her ELL class.  I am guessing that if you can do research with grade 1 ELL kids, you can do research with anybody!

This afternoon's Idea Exchange is another opportunity to get some great ideas.  I'm working with the Essential Links group there to show off the resources AASL has cached for members. Please come over and say "hi" and find out what we've been collecting to help school librarians.

ALA After Hours

It's not all fun and games at ALA--for example, this morning I am eating my first ever Egg McMuffin after discovering McDonald's was the only place open to get breakfast at the Convention Center.  (It's actually not horrific).  And I am suffering from "convention shoulder," which is caused by lugging heavy bags of free books.

But after hours it is fun and games here!  Saturday night several of us went to a special performance of the famed Second City comedy troupe, in a special performance for librarians.  They worked in great bits about budget cuts and crazy patrons, and you could hear Valerie Diggs laughing from a block away.  The program was put on as a scholarship fundraiser sponsored by ProQuest, and funds are designated for students in library school programs (YAY).

Last night Kathy Lowe, Amy Short, Sharon Hamer and I were invited to a party at the world headquarters of Encyclopedia Britannica (our new Massachusetts encyclopedia on our state database!). We got a tour of their base of operations led by a man named Ted who is apparently the historian of the Encyclopedia Britannica and a man you'd want by your side at a trivia contest.  I had no idea that Britannica had been published in the US continuously since the 1700s.  We also connected with the California and Colorado school library association members and got heartening news about how their strong advocacy efforts are beginning to pay off (in Colorado they're getting money, in California they just aren't laying off as many librarians as in the past--everything seems to be relative in libraries).  We got back to our hotel in time to see lots of splendidly-dressed people leaving the Caldecott-Newbery banquet and from reports in the ladies' room, that was just wonderful too.

Retired (not)

The AASL Retiree Special Interest Group (SIG) is a group of former school librarians who have remained actively involved in our profession and are seeking to formalize their role within AASL. Ann Marie Pipkin from Alabama has chaired the SIG this past year. This was AASL's first SIG; a new Student SIG has since been formed as well.

The group met at ALA Annual this week to review progress made so far and to make plans for the future. Kathy Lowe and Linda Friel from MSLA were among the participants.

Mentoring
Hilda Weisburg (NJ) reported on the New Jersey Association of School Librarians' (NJASL) mentoring program, which is made up of volunteer retired members. Her recommendation is to start letting other states know how retirees can participate in their state organizations and encourage states to get their retirees involved.

AASL Hartford program - Mentoring: A Win Win Proposition
A proposal from the Retiree SIG for a panel of retirees to speak on mentoring opportunities available within ALA has been accepted by the AASL Conference Committee. The NJASL program will be cited as an example of how to implement a mentoring program at the state level. SIG members were asked to volunteer to facilitate breakout discussions.  Fran Roscello (NY) asked for ideas for an activity for retirees at the AASL conference in Hartford, CT in November. Dinner (or breakfast) with Your Local Retired Librarian was one suggestion.

The Membership Committee has started calling retired librarians to see if they want to remain active in AASL. Ann Marie Pipkin asked for volunteers to continue calling others. Allison Cline (the SIG's AASL staff liaison) has written a script of talking points. Also, a point person is needed to connect with the Student SIG group.

Ann Marie asked if anyone is interested in chairing this SIG next year and Irene Kwidzinski (CT) volunteered to take the position.

ALA has a Retired Members Round Table that Ann Marie encouraged all to join and attend its meeting at the ALA Midwinter Meeting in Philadelphia next January.

After the meeting, several SIG members adjourned to Emilio's Tapas restaurant for some informal networking. See the photo here: http://flic.kr/p/eZ1UCo 

No matter where you are on your professional trajectory, there are always ways to stay involved and continue to contribute to the profession - and keep on going to national conferences!