Wow! It seems that's all I keep saying to myself - Wow!
Everyone told me that it's hard to describe being at National - and they are right. The amount of information that is given is almost overwhelming - even for a librarian!!!! Chicago is a great city, but for a first conference it's a little difficult to keep track of everything. Why? You need to develop a three dimensional schedule. Most conventions are held in a relatively small area unto itself. ALA Chicago is help over several square MILES. You need to be cognizant of not only time but place as well. Several attractive workshops had to be abandoned because of the realization that as of yet, we haven't perfected instantaneous transport! Other than that - It is amazing to realize that you aren't alone.
Librarians, especially school librarians, are sometimes isolated in our schools. We may be the only school librarian in our school or even in our district. Here, I have had conversations with academic librarians, specialists (the FBI Academy Librarian is sitting next to me at the computers - I didn't even KNOW they had a library!!!) vendors, etc. It's uplifting to know that there are so many professionals that share our values, and how friendly everyone is!
Talk about serendipity... Coming in from O'Hare on a 10 passenger bus - guess who was sitting right next to me? Sandy Kelly. Yep - we both travel a 1000 miles just to end up sitting next to each other making plans to meet up in all of this convention hoopla. The connections we make at convention may take us all over the world - or just to the next back yard!
And sorry Chicago - apparently we brought the rain in from MA. Rain Friday afternoon - Huge thunderstorm @ 3 - and they are predicting more rain today. Oh well. Just as long as it doesn't follow us back!
- Kelly Depin
I
Saturday, July 11, 2009
Chicago News
Well, here I am in the Windy City, which didn't feel very windy. In fact, after what we've been enduring weatherwise in MA, it felt downright balmy - even with the early morning rains!
My flight didn't get into town with enough time to do any real sightseeing, so I walked around the general vicinity of the historic Hilton where I'm staying, and looked at the archival photographs on display which documented its storied history since 1927, including the 1968 Vietnam protests during the Democratic National Convention. Every president since Roosevelt has visited, including many foreign heads of state and it's quite lovely. It's also the site of many movies, including the banquet scene from Harrison Ford's "The Fugitive," among others, as well as having its heli-port used during the filming of "ER."
Afterwards, I went to the Convention Center to get the "lay of the land" for tomorrow's early meetings, then taxied to Second City. LLAMA had sponsored a night of improv there, and the comedy acts were quite entertaining.
It's now very late, and I have to get up very early. Not a great combo, but that's what happens at these conferences!
More tomorrow.......
Alma
My flight didn't get into town with enough time to do any real sightseeing, so I walked around the general vicinity of the historic Hilton where I'm staying, and looked at the archival photographs on display which documented its storied history since 1927, including the 1968 Vietnam protests during the Democratic National Convention. Every president since Roosevelt has visited, including many foreign heads of state and it's quite lovely. It's also the site of many movies, including the banquet scene from Harrison Ford's "The Fugitive," among others, as well as having its heli-port used during the filming of "ER."
Afterwards, I went to the Convention Center to get the "lay of the land" for tomorrow's early meetings, then taxied to Second City. LLAMA had sponsored a night of improv there, and the comedy acts were quite entertaining.
It's now very late, and I have to get up very early. Not a great combo, but that's what happens at these conferences!
More tomorrow.......
Alma
Friday, July 10, 2009
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.
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.
Look for implementation plans coming soon from Kathy and I for our state. On to AASL Affiliate Assembly today - and more reporting later.
Thursday, July 9, 2009
L4L Training4Trainers
Valerie Diggs is MSLA's AASL Standards implementation chair, with Kathy Lowe as her partner. We are at the Learning for Life Training for Trainers Summit where we will begin to develop MSLA's plan for implementing the new standards within our districts with library staff, teachers, administrators, parents, and our school communities, as well as across the state.You can follow our summit experience on Twitter @mslalowe (#aaslL4L)
Sunday, June 21, 2009
Another Year, Another Conference
MSLA members will be attending the ALA Annual Conference in Chicago July 9-15. Join us here as we document our experiences.
Thursday, July 3, 2008
ALA Anaheim Slideshow
Here's just a taste of ALA in Anaheim. For all our photos, go to http://www.flickr.com/groups/ala2008msla/
Created with Admarket's flickrSLiDR.
Created with Admarket's flickrSLiDR.
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