So, since the last posting has been a little while, it seemed appropriate to catch-up after a most busy fall.  So, here are the highlights of the last few weeks.

* I am very excited to be a candidate for President of the American Association of School Librarians.  The election is this spring, so I encourage all AASL members to get out there and vote (vote for Sara Kelly Johns for ALA President, too!)!!  You can read more about my candidacy on my website or check out my Facebook group.

* The AASL conference this fall was a wonderful learning experience.  Keynotes danah boyd, James Patterson, and Marco Torres were amazing.  I still need to find some time to go back to my notes and process some of their messages.   As always it was a great time to meet with my colleagues, friends, and the vendors, too.

* I’ve been working as part of the Library Media Committee for the National Boards for Professional Teaching Standards.  I am in awe of the company I’m surrounded by in our meetings.  Each person brings such a unique perspective and opinion as we work to rewrite the Library Media standards to become National Board Certified Teacher.    We still have a couple of months to go before we’re done and I look forward to it.

* C.L.A.S.S. (Connected Learning Assures Students Success) has been a main part of my professional development for a long time now.  This month I presented/facilitated at their Related Arts Day and attended the Support Team Day.  The monthly e-Tools I write was just finished, too, so I’ve gotten to spend a lot of time with my C.L.A.S.S. friends.

* A few articles published as well as waiting anxiously for my copies of my new book which should arrive by years end.  The 21st Century Elementary Library Program is published by Linworth.

* Just last week I attend Peggy Sharp’s annual trip through Indianapolis to talk about the Best Books of 2009.  I wasn’t disappointed.  I got lots of great new ideas!

* School was a busy place, too, with three grade levels doing a major project.  We also use our PLCs to provide professional development for our teachers about wikis.

I make this list for a couple of reasons.

1. I’m getting older and it helps me to think back to remember what I’ve done, so I can reflect a bit on the accomplishments and see potential for improvements down the road.
2. It reminds me that there are opportunities abound.  We have to be willing and ready so that we can jump on those adventures and see where they take us.
3. I think it is amazing the interactions with people all of these events have brought.  I got a chance to meet in person many folks I know virtually.  There were people I knew and new people to meet.  Networking to me is so critically to our job because I think it helps us to broaden our thinking and perspective.  I sometimes need that little push there and these conversations help to create that.

I know I’ve used this phrase before in an article and probably in this blog if I went back and looked, but Barbara Pedersen from C.L.A.S.S. says it best, “As good as we are, we can always get better!”  This fall has been an amazing time in my professional career as there have been opportunities and changes for me to get even better!  I know that everything on my list this year will have an impact on what I do with students and teachers the rest of the year.  I can’t wait to see where the path will take me now!

Our school for the last several years has adopted the C.L.A.S.S. Model for our instructional model.  One of the tools C.L.A.S.S. shared with us is the idea of a hallway greeting.  You’ll find things like this outside every learning space in our building.  The idea is to provide a variety of opportunities for students to read text no matter where they are in the building.

My hallway greeting this week comes from a poster I got at ALA this summer.  I grabbed it the minute I saw it because it went with a book by author Amy Krouse Rosenthal and illustrator Tom Lichtenheld.  Separately they have done some amazing books, but together they do some unbelievable work.  There latest book, Duck! Rabbit! is perfect for using with students and teachers.  It is all about perspective and how everyone may look at the same thing and see something completely different.  Being able to step back and see something from another perspective can be an invaluable skill to learn when working with people.  Sometimes we get so focused on how we see things that we don’t take a minute to consider there might be another way to look at it.

There are lots of ways to use this book, but two ideas that quickly came to my mind:

Consider sharing this book with teachers at a staff meeting before discussing a heated topic.  Starting the conversation by thinking about looking at the issue from all perspectives could lead to solution that works for all.

Consider sharing this with students when you need to help them resolve a conflict.  Letting students see there are different ways to look at the issue may help them start to understand how each other are feeling.

Rosenthal and Lichtenheld’s book is certainly one I’m glad to add to my collection.  It will be right there next to The OK Book which I loved as well.  I can’t wait to see what new books we’ll see from them next.

I’ve had the privilege the last few years to not only attend the workshop, but be part of the amazing staff that puts this workshop on each summer.   This year I worked mostly in the Creative Strand teaching about the 21st Century Learner, Blogs, and Wikis.  I also hopped into a couple of the other strands talking about Literacy and Research projects.  It was so much fun.  An added plus is I get to show the potential the library media program can have in schools.  Sometimes it can be a little bit of a downer when folks come up and say, “my librarian would never do anything like that”, but we’ve planted a seed of what might be possible.  The teacher may just be the one to go back and help spark a collaborative experience with the library media specialist using some of these creative tools.

This week also brought in two amazing guest speakers with Martha Kaufeldt and Jean Blaydes Madigan.  While I was only able to catch part of Martha’s presentations, she shared great ideas for how to structure the classroom, creating procedures for students, and how that all relates to the brain and how we learn.  Jean spent the entire day focusing on how movement and exercise impacts the brain.  It was truly amazing!

Even with my time mostly devoted to leading sessions, I always come away learning something new and exciting.  Here was just some of the things that come to mind.

• Attitude is key!  The whole week of C.L.A.S.S. is such a positive experience.  You can’t leave thinking that anything is possible.  I know I leave every year with a positive outlook and helps to get the year started off right for me.
• Jean Blaydes Madigan’s day is still kind of milling in my mind on how I might be able to add movement to the library experience.  For example, couple I come up with a movement to help the kids remember the Big6?  I think that might have real possiblities.
• One of C.L.A.S.S.’s motto is “As Good As We Are, We Can Always Get Better!”  Each session I was leading, I came away with ideas of how I would do it differently or better next time around.
• Just popping into other rooms, I saw books I wanted for the library (and me) and picked up ideas on how teachers were using them with kids.
• Conversations are so important.  Just the chance to interact with other educators can be so rewarding.  Having been a part of it the last several years, I’ve become friends with many of the staff and some attendees, so I love the chance just to chat and catch-up with them.

Walking away I always marvel how I got involved with such an amazing learning experience.   My story with C.L.A.S.S. spans my entire teaching career.  My first school was one of the very first C.L.A.S.S. schools.  I can remember Barbara Pedersen, the founder of C.L.A.S.S., coming to our school that first year I was teaching for a professional develoment day.  It was my first introduction to C.L.A.S.S.  Fast forward a year or so and I was able to go to Summer Institute for the first time.  That first summer I remember learning a lot and some of the pieces started to fit.  But, things changed.  I left that school for a new opportunity.   My new school had worked with C.L.A.S.S. years before, but wasn’t currently invovled.  So, while I was certainly able to use what I had learned, the chance to build on that knowledge wasn’t there….yet!   Fast forward a few more years and a new administrator brought C.L.A.S.S. back into my professional world.  It didn’t take long to link the connections of the library media program to C.L.A.S.S. and before I knew it I was working with the C.L.A.S.S. folks on some projects.  I think that wasn’t an accident that C.L.A.S.S. came back into my life.  It is now a critical part of who I am as an educator!

So, last week was amazing!  In a few days I head off to ALA for another amazing week with my librarian colleagues and I can’t wait!  The summer is going fast, but having a great time, too!

From their website, C.L.A.S.S. exists to:

? Translate brain research into practical classroom application
? Provide research-based techniques that drive successful learning
? Prepare current and future educators to become exemplary practitioners
? Create a philosophical foundation in the school community that empowers the growth of students in becoming productive contributors in society

C.L.A.S.S., Connecting Learning Assures Successful Students, is a comprehensive curriculum model and philosophy. The C.L.A.S.S. Model provides a philosophy of teaching and learning, standard-based curriculum development, and research-based teaching strategies based upon the constructs of brain-based learning.

Even though I am part of the presentation staff, I always come away learning tons for the participants and other C.L.A.S.S. staff.   This year I helped in the curriculum strand helping teachers develop year-long plans based on mapping their academic standards.  I also shared some sessions on Literacy, and how the C.L.A.S.S. model works with the library media program.  Summer Institute is always just a positive week to rejuvenate and think about how we can set-up our schools, classrooms, and library media centers to be a successful learning experience for students.  Our entire district has adopted the C.L.A.S.S. model, so I am always working to make connections and including the C.L.A.S.S. strategies in our library media program.