Library Ties

Jan McGee, Elizabeth Dumas (LASL President) and Carl Harvey.

Last week I had the pleasure to head down to Louisiana and spend a few days at the Louisiana Library Association.  The Louisiana Association of School Librarians is the state affiliate to American Association of School Librarians (AASL).  LASL is a division of the Louisiana Library Association.

One of my favorite parts of being President-Elect of AASL is that I get a chance to represent the association at some of the state conferences.  Many years ago the AASL Board votes to start a rotation so that the AASL President (President-Elects and Past-Presidents) would visit the various state conferences on a consistent basis.  Earlier this year I visited Nevada and the other state on my list this year was Louisiana!  The goal of the program was to help build and reinforce the connection between our affiliates with AASL.

The reason I enjoy it so much is the people.  Over the 2 1/2 days I was there, I got a chance to meet some amazing librarians doing some amazing things.  LASL is luckily to have quite a dedicated group at the helm of their organization.  They ran a wonderful conference.  I had the honor to present a couple of sessions – Engaging the Profession and 21st Century Skills are Elementary.  It was great to share some of the things AASL is working on.  Even more exciting is that we’ll be back in LA for ALA this summer in New Orleans.

Besides the time I was sharing in front of the group, I got time to sit back in the audience and enjoy of the session they offered.  There were some wonderful session such as Skyping with an Author and What to Read Next after  Percy Jackson with some great tech connections.   You can see some of the resources on the LASL wiki!  I also had the chance to attend their awards reception and the author luncheon with Wendelin Van Draanen who is an amazing presenter.

Carl Harvey and author Wendelin Van Draanen

But, as I said before the people are what makes these conference so wonderful.  The little chats and conversations in the hallways, before and after sessions, or at the meal functions were certainly the highlight for me.  I came back for ideas I can use in my own library as well as feedback for AASL, too.  I’d also like to thank LASL for the newest addition to my tie collection.  Its wonderful!  Thank you to all the great librarians in Louisiana for a great visit!  Looking forward to being back there in June!!!

Tags:   AASL · American Association of School Librarians · conferences · LASL · Library Media Programs · Professional Development · Reflection · school librarians · school libraries · school library media programsComments Off

There was so much amazing stuff from Thursday and Friday at the Follett Software Users Conference last week that it has taken me a little while to process it all.   Not to mention, I just didn’t have time to write in Chicago as it was happening.  Now that I’m “Back Home again in Indiana” I’ve had a chance to sit down and write a little bit about the rest of the conference.

Don Tapscott – Keynote

The highlight of the conference I think for me was the keynote by Don Tapscott.  He said, “We have the best education the 18^th century could provide.”  He said it is time for us to think of a new model.  We need to move to collaborative learning.  Kids need to learn how to reinvent their knowledge base multiple times in your lifetime.  We need kids that can solve problems, put things in context, and love learning.  Work and learning are the same thing for the future.  He said it was not about technology, but rather a change in the how a teacher interacts with their students.

Social Media in Education

If you haven’t checked out all the amazing things Shannon McClintock Miller is doing at her school, you are missing out.  Shannon is the District Librarian at Van Meter Community School in Iowa.  She shared a plethora of ideas and tools for using social media in school.  You can check out her presentation here.  I got a few minutes to chat with Shannon and she is an amazing librarian!

Advocacy

Mary Barbee from Georgia and Connie Williams from California shared some ideas and thoughts about advocacy.  A couple of things that really stuck with me is: What do you see when you come in the front door?  Is it a list of rules or a place of possibilities?  How can we make the library an inviting place where our users want to come and can feel a part of it?  Mary also had a wonderful walk through checklist that administrators could use to see what their library should have!  What a great idea!  Connie had a quote that I really liked, “A rock pile ceases to be a rock pile the moment a single man contemplates it, bearing within him the image of a cathedral. – Antonine de Saint-Exuperty.  What do you contemplate the possibilities are for your library?  We have to create the vision and then work to make it happen!

Free Digital Resources

Ann Sheehan brought together a list of online tools that were free to access.   There were many I knew about, but the list contained many I hadn’t seen before.   Some of my favorites from the list are:

• Eduscapes – http://www.eduscapes.com
• Thinkfinity – http://www.thinkfinity.org
• Free Federal Resources for Education Excellence – http://free.ed.gov

What’s Next with Destiny!

Many of the updates they talked about will come in the December update.  We’ll see a mobile app coming for Destiny (Android platform), RDA compliant for cataloging, connections with Follett Shelf, and much more.  Some of the things coming sooner are with the Standards Search they will include connections with Common Core and other national standards.  Also starting April 1^st, if you have updated to 9.9, Destiny will now have the option of the One Search feature for free!!!!!  I can’t wait to get that one set-up.

Learning Commons

Robin Cicchetti shared the transformation of Concord-Carlisle High School using the Learning Commons model.   This model focuses on the library as a place to create and share information.  It is more than just a warehouse.  The librarian is a facilitator to learning.  Space is flexible where students can work in small groups, they have an area to present and share their thoughts and ideas.  Robin’s school has gone that direction and you can learn more about that from her presentation that is linked here.

Leveled Library

My presentation was about our Leveled Library, which I refer to as my first branch library.  We were able to be proactive when it was set-up to show how the library could be a part of creating these resources for guided reading.  It also helped to prove why our main library did not need to be leveled.  We used Destiny to help leverage for data with tracking what is being used and allow teachers easy access to see what we have.

Rick Jones, Carl Harvey, and Marge Cox

But, I think my favorite thing as always about any conference is the interaction with people.  There were several dear friends at the conference and I enjoyed the chance to catch-up with them.  I met several new friends and just the interaction and conversation outside the session leads to a lot of learning, too.

I have lots of ideas swirling in my head about how what I learned could impact our library program.  Today was back to school and the normal catching up from being gone along with practice for a webinar I’m doing with Connie Williams next week.  We had our first graders in doing some writing activities that were a lot of fun, too.  But one thing my friend and mentor Marge Cox shared in her session was a challenge.  Before you get back in your routine and lose sight of the information you learned, go back this week and implement something you learned, try a new technology tool, and share what you learned.

If you weren’t able to attend, you can search the Twitter hashtag #fsc11 to see a lot of what was happening.  Looking forward to the next FSC Users Conference next year!

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This afternoon the session I attend at the FSC Users Conference focused on Professional Development.   It was more a discussion than a presentation and it was so interesting to see the different perspectives and ideas that the group.

The primary question we discussed was when does a training become professional development.  My thought is that training is just “how to” and professional takes the “how to” and then goes one step forward to “now what do I do with it.”  These learning experiences can happen one on one, small group, or even a large group.  The key part for me is making sure that anything we offer focuses more on “now what do we do with it” and less on the “how to”.

So thinking about what makes a good learning experience / professional development opportunity for an educator, here would be some thoughts that swirled in my head…

• Relevance / Purposeful – First and foremost it has to be relevant to their job.  How is this training going to make me a better educator?  How is this training going to impact what happens in my classroom every day?  The purpose has to be clear and easy to see for the attendees of any professional development.  If I can’t see the connections, I’m going to tune out before the session even starts!

• Conversation (what do we do with it?) – This one kind of overlaps the one above, but one thing that is important with professional development is not only the skill, but the conversation about how am I going to use this new skill — whether it be a teaching strategy or new piece of technology.  This goes back to the purpose again.  One of the things I’ve been doing lately is trying to provide professional development during the teachers Professional Learning Community meetings.  I was finding whole group to be difficult to schedule and it is really hard to show how something might work with all the age levels in an elementary school.  By doing them in their grade level PLCs, I have the time to focus in on exactly how it might work and look in Kdg. or 2nd grade and not be distracted by the other levels.  The conversation is more rich and focused.

• Impact – How is what I’m learning going to impact kids learning?  Big question, but one that should be in the mind of anyone planning a professional development opportunity for teachers.

• Marketing – Mentioning the word professional development to teachers can create a very quick groan from some folks.  I’ll admit up front I have an elementary background, so I tend to love themes and finding “cute” ways to entice teachers.  At the same time, you have to deliver what you promise.  Future learning opportunities will depend on the success of the last thing they attended.  So, make sure to be clever and interesting so they want to attend, but also ensure to follow through with the promises made.

• Fun – Lastly, you have to have fun!  Most of the professional development I do comes before school, after school, during the teachers prep, or other odd times.  There has to be an element of fun.  Maybe some nice chocolate on the table.  Maybe a theme and decorations.  We all have our own style, but we have to make sure to create an environment where people feel comfortable and want to be there! A little element of fun can help with that.

One thing we didn’t talk about in the session, but probably is something to consider is what is the role of the school librarian in providing professional development?  For me, it is a key role we play in the building.  Its a part of being a leader is sharing.  Whether it is technology, literacy, or other talents and knowledge, we have a lot to offer and share.  We need to be a part of the team that creates the professional development plan for the building. We should be a part of the group that is presenting and sharing.  Not only is it a visible example of how the school library program plays an important part of the school, but we’re connected with tons and tons of resources and tools and we need to make sure to get that information out to teachers so it can impact kids.  For me, it is essential that the school librarian plays an active role in professional development.

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The first thing I attended today at the Follett Software Users Conference focused on report builder.  In this day and age, data is an important piece in telling the story of a school library.  Destiny has many created reports that are easy to run, but sometimes we want to know even more.  Report Builder gives us access to create the reports we need or want.

I’ll be honest that I’ve used Report Builder before, but I never felt like I was getting all out of it could.  There are lots of options you can choose and data fields you can pull from.  Sometimes my reports came out in these piles of stuff that wasn’t help for me (or anyone else for that matter!).  I think the biggest take away from the session was to really take a minute and think out what information do I need and making the fewest choices within Report Builder to get that information.   The Follett trainer did a great job in walking us step by step through the Report Builder explaining what each option could or couldn’t do.  I think it will make me think just a little bit more as I’m going through each step so I can make sure to get the result I want.

My other take away was I need to do a better job of sharing some of the online trainings and resources Follett has made available for Destiny.  I think those eModules could be very helpful to the librarians in our district.

As I have a feeling will become a trend for this conference, the session was also full of other questions, thoughts, and ideas from user.  Some very specific to their individual schools, but some that apply to everyone.  I think this conference is likely to be very rich in conversations about “How do you do this….” or “How can I do this….”

The conference is off to a great start!

Tags:   fsc11Comments Off

My bags are all packed and I’m ready to head to Chicago this week for the Follett Users Conference.  You can see the agenda here and the list of presenters.  It looks like it will be a great few days of learning!

This conference I’m sure will be full of new things we can do to expand our use of Destiny, but the program looks to go beyond that.  I have no doubt I’ll be coming back with ideas on how to make my library program even better!

I’ll be sharing a session called Curriculum, Collaboration and Library Connections.  We’ll be talking about our library branch – The Leveled Library!  Looking forward to sharing what we’ve accomplished at my school, but even more excited to see what I can learn from everyone else!

As with all conferences, my favorite part is going to be the people.  I know several good friends that are coming and I am soooo looking forwarding to spending time catching up.  I’m also looking forward to meeting new friends.  The conversations with old friends and new will make the conference experience even richer.

It’s going to be a great couple of days in the windy city this week!  I can hardly wait to get there!  If you aren’t able to make it to Chicago, check out the conference buzz or search the hashtag #fsc11 in Twitter.

Tags:   21st Elementary Library Program · fsc11 · librarymediaprogams · Professional DevelopmentComments Off

Over the last few weeks, I’ve been introducing our students (and teachers) to a new resource we have at our school.  myOn Reader <www.myon.com> is a new product from Capstone Digital.  The product is a collection of hundreds of digitized books.  Students can read (or have them read to them) from books on a variety of topics and levels.  Teachers have the option for them taking a short comprehension quiz at the end of the book.  There are also options for the text to be highlighted as the computer reads it to the students.  A dictionary is available for students to use while reading as well.  Beside the quiz, students can also rate and write book reviews about the titles the read, too.  The collection of online books can be accessed from any computer in the building or student can login from home to read even more.

myOn has even more features.  There is an interest survey where students let the computer know what it likes as well as a quiz to determine their Lexile reading level.  Based on that information, the computer also recommends books to the students that meet their interests and reading level.  However, students are not just limited to those books and can read any book in the database.  Teachers can also create lists of books based on their theme or classroom units of study for students to read.

My role as the librarian has been to get it set-up, give student an introductory lesson, and provide support for our teachers with the program.  I can also help make recommended lists for students based on their classroom curriculum and topics.

I’m a member of the Capstone Digital Advisory Board, and as soon as they showed us this product I knew I wanted to try it with our kids.  We’re just scratching the surface.  I’m sure once we have all the students logged in and using it, we’ll find more ways to utilize this resource.  Our students seem to really enjoy it and our teachers are up for trying this new resource that is just another way to get books into students hands.  There are lot of data options we can check to see how students and teachers are using the program, so we’re excited to get started with it.  I’m excited to see how this new tool takes off and the potential it has.

Tags:   Capstone Digital · myOn ReaderComments Off

As I sit here watching it snow on top of the ice from the last week, I’m getting a little time to play catch-up on a few things.  Last Saturday I spent the day at the Indianapolis Marion County Public Library at the Indianapolis Youth Literature Conference.  This is the second annual conference sponsored by IMCPL, IUPUI School of Library and Information Science, and Kids Ink Bookstores.  This year’s speakers were Andrea Davis Pinkney, Brian Pinkney, and Patricia McCormick.

Andrea and Brian spoke together sharing about the marriage between words and pictures and a little bit about how the marriage of an author and illustrator work.  It is always so interesting to see how they work, where there ideas come from, and how all of that comes together to the books we all love to read.  The Pinkney are interesting because they work so much together.  Typically authors and illustrators do not work together.  So, this is a unique relationship that has produced some amazing books.

Patricia McCormick shared some of her fascinating research that has lead to her young adult novels.  The slides and photos were unbelievable.  While not the most uplifting presentation, it was just amazing to listen to her stories.

Besides the authors, there were breakout sessions with chance to ask the authors questions, learn about graphic novels, listen to some of the new and upcoming titles, and eBooks, etc.  Lots of choices for learning besides just the author presentation.  Oh, and there were plenty of chances to buy books!  I came home with several bags full!

It was a great one day conference.  The conference is the perfect size where you get time to interact and meet with the authors.  A great way to spend a Saturday in January!

Tags:   Andrea Davis Pinkney · Brian Pinkney · Indianapolis Youth Literature Conference · IUPUI School of Library and Information Science · Kids Ink Bookstores · Patricia McCormickComments Off

One of the major “to do” items on my list as President-Elect of the American Association of School Librarians is to appoint all the committees, task forces, and editorial boards.  Below is a message I am sending out via various AASL Communication channels.  If you are a member of AASL, consider volunteering!!!

———————

AASL Members –

I’m so excited to kick of 2011 by beginning the process to appoint all the various AASL Committees, Task Forces, and Editorial Boards.  This is where the work of our association happens.  As we speak there are committees and chairs hard at work helping to move our association forward.  My task as President-Elect with support from the AASL Appointments Committee is to begin appointing chairs and committee members for works that will begin/continue in July of 2011.

This is where you, the members of AASL, are critical.  We need YOU to become active and involved in our association.  So, how do YOU get involved?

1.)  Go to the AASL website and check out the list committees. http://www.ala.org/ala/mgrps/divs/aasl/aboutaasl/aaslgovernance/aaslcommittees/committees.cfm

2.)  Consider which ones you think you would like to be involved.  Realize, too, that there are some committees everyone wants to be a part of, so make sure to have more than one on your list.

3.)  Go online and fill out the AASL volunteer form. (You will need to login into the ALA website for the form to work!)
http://www.ala.org/cfapps/committee/volunteerform

4.)  Fill out the form.  Make sure to choose several committees you would like to be involved.

During the month of February, appointments will begin.  My goal is to get as many people involved as possible.  But, the process doesn’t end here.  Throughout the year, the Board will also create Task Forces that have a specific job and time frame.  So, this will be another place for member volunteers!

Last year the AASL Board decided that committees have the option to work virtually.  Each chair will determine how best for their committee to work.  Even if you aren’t able to attend Midwinter or Annual, you can still be involved in an AASL committee by working virtually.

The volunteer database needs to be updated each year, so for those that have served on committees in the past, please make sure to go and fill out the form again!

If you aren’t a member of AASL, this is a perfect time to join!

Thank you for taking time to volunteer.  I look forward to working with you to help more the association and the profession forward.  Take this opportunity to get involved!

Carl A. Harvey II
AASL President-Elect

Tags:   AASL · American Association of School LibrariansComments Off

It’s Data Week at my school this week.  One of three or four times a year that we rearrange our daily schedule to provide teacher with a block of time to look at the data we’ve collected on each student.  Each day a different grade level has a 2 hour block of time to look at their data.  Special education teacher, our literacy coach, and the principal all attend.  They look at each and every student who is not on benchmark (determined by a variety of data points) and determine what interventions they need to move them forward.  We also use a database to track all the interventions so that we can keep track of what we’ve tried, what didn’t work, and what did work.  In a few weeks, we’ll put our building wide data team together to look at the data to see if their are curriculum or programmatic changes we need to make as an entire school.

So, what does this have to do with the library and me?  Several things:

1.) First of all, I attend all the data meetings.  I’m part of the conversations in seeing what our kids need and helping coming up with solutions.  I can recommend resources we have available in the library that might be helpful part of the interventions.  This keeps me aware of the issues for our kids, in our various grade levels, and provides me the change to be more helpful as we plan curriculum and instruction each week.

2.) Our database where we track student data was something we borrowed from another school and that I modified.  We are constantly revising our FileMaker Pro database.  I am by no means an expert with the program, but I continue to work and refine our database.  As we talk in the meetings, we’re constantly seeing need to add additional fields for data, sort data by certain fields, etc.  This is another role that I play.

3.) As we have become more efficient with our data meetings, we’ve found that sometimes they don’t take the entire 2 hours.  Rather than let anytime goes to waste, this is often a place that we provide additional professional development support.  For example, this week I’m working with each grade level on using our new online tool myOn Reader.  I love training in these small groups because I can customize how they might use the tool for their specific level.  It can be hard when offering training to show how a product works for both Kindergarteners and 4th graders when you have all the teachers in a large group.  These small group settings allow me to really focus in on how the tool will work best for each grade level.

So, for two hours every day this week, I’ll be working with a different grade level.  Each morning will be time well spent.  I’ll be learning and sharing with my colleagues all week long.  I’m certain there will be multiple opportunities for me to make connections and demonstrate the role our library program plays in the school.

Tags:   advocacy · data analysis · school library programsComments Off

Here it is almost a week since I got home from San Diego and ALA Midwinter 2011 and I’m finally get a few free minutes to reflect back on the conference.  When I got home, I quickly became engrossed in all the day-to-day things that need to get done as well as getting caught up from being gone.  So, now that those things are back on track, I can take a few minutes to reflect on the visit.

• AASL Board of Directors – The biggest part of my Midwinter agenda was the AASL Board of Directors meetings.   The Executive committee met twice to finalize the agenda for the board meetings and to review next steps decided at the board meeting.  For the last several years the board has used one of its meetings at Midwinter as a board workshop to work on the strategic plan.  Paul Meyer from Tecker Associates has helped facilitate this discussion of mega issues.  At the board meeting on Saturday, we reviewed action based on the concerns brought forth by the Affiliate Assembly in June as well as spend some time evaluating the strategic plan and how we are progressing.   The minutes from the meeting will be posted on the AASL website.
• President-Elects Meetings – One of the opportunities that I have enjoyed the most in being President-Elect is the chance to get to know ALA President-Elect, Molly Raphael, and the other division President-Elects.  We first got together at our President-Elect training in October where we spent a lot of time as a group.  At Midwinter we had the opportunity to come together again, albeit for a short time frame, to share and network.  I learn so much hearing what is happening in the other divisions and I really enjoyed the time.
• AASL Candidate Forum – The cycle continues.  Seems like it was just yesterday I was giving my speech at the AASL Candidates Forum.  In reality it was a year ago in Boston, and 2011 brings the next round of candidates.   I was privileged to be able to attend and listen to all those individuals who are running in the 2011 election.  We have amazing people on the ballot.  Make sure if you are a member of AASL to take a few minutes to vote this spring.
• Exhibits – My schedule was so crazy that I really only got time on Monday morning after the Youth Media Awards announcements to spend any time in the exhibits.  I always enjoy looking at the books coming out in the spring, checking on new products, and catching up with my vendor friends
• Youth Media Awards – One of my favorite things each year is to attend the Youth Media Awards.  It is always so much fun to see which book is going to take home the top honors.  A complete list is available here: http://www.ala.org/yma/
• Affiliate Assembly – One of my favorite meetings to attend each conference is Affiliate Assembly.  This is really one of the major pipelines for information from AASL to get to the various states and for information form the various states to get to AASL.  I got my start in the Affiliate Assembly when I was President-Elect of the Association for Indiana Media Educators.  From there, I continue to get more and more involved in AASL.    It is a great introduction to the work of the association.  This year there was also a wonderful presentation from the Texas School Library Association about some of the great resources they’ve put together to help connect parents with school librarians.  Here is the link: http://www.txla.org/tasl/parent-resources
• All Committee – Here is where most of the AASL committees meet during Midwinter.  Although some committees decided to meet virtually, others had face-to-face meetings during the conference.  Staff and board liaisons are available to provide support for questions and concerns as well as giving committees time to work on their minimum intended outcomes.  It is so much fun to see all these groups working together.  We know they spend many hours outside conference for the work of the association.   Soon I’ll be appointing committees for the 2011-2012 year.  Consider volunteering at: http://www.ala.org/cfapps/committee/volunteerform
• Networking – Lastly, my favorite thing about any conference is the networking.  I always learn so much hearing what my colleagues and friends all over the country are doing.  The chance to catch-up with vendor friends and listening to the projects they have on the horizon are always amazing.  Midwinter was a great chance to catch-up with friends and meet new ones…

A few others notes I made from MW….

• There is not much time left to apply for some of the many AASL Awards.  Deadline is February 7, 2011 for most of the awards. - http://www.ala.org/aasl/awards/
• AASL National Conference – Turning the Page – Minneapolis, MN – October 27-30, 2011.  Registration is now open! – http://aasl11.org
• AASL release a statement about re-authorization of Elementary Secondary Education  Act – http://www.ala.org/aasl/positionstatements
• Building Level Toolkit for AASL’s Learning Standards and Program Guidelines – http://www.ala.org/aasl/toolkits/
• AASL is working on a crosswalk between the Common Core and AASL Standards.  They are working on getting it all post online – http://www.ala.org/aasl/guidelinesandstandards/
• School Library Counts survey now open – http://www.ala.org/aasl/slcsurvey/ Please take a minute to respond about your library!
• Learning 4 Life Student Video Contest – http://www.ala.org/aasl/l4lvideocontest/

Tags:   AASL · ALA · alamw11Comments Off