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!!!

I’ve also come away learning just as much as if I had traveled to a convention center or hotel.  Now, don’t get me wrong.  I still love to travel and attend conferences for that face to face connection.  But, webinars certainly have their place, too.

Paul from P21 sent this note last night:

“I’ve already posted a discussion thread on the Cyber Summit (http://www.weareteachers.com/community/p21-cyber-summit) with your webinar title, so please feel free to post additional ideas, questions for discussion or links there for the community—As I said, we hope the conversation continues beyond the temporal confines of the 60 minute webinar. In that discussion post, you’ll find a PDF of your slides as well as a link to the online recording of your webinar.”

The new adventure last night was that I was one of three co-presenters for the webinar.  I’d always been on the receiving end and so it was quite a switch to be on the other side of the slides.   I will have to give a great shout out to Paul with the P21 folks.  He made sure the technology worked and was pretty easy to use.  He walked us through every step of the way and his help was invaluable.  My co-presenter, Melissa Johnston who is a Doctoral Student from Florida State University and Vince Barnes (my principal).  The time went fast as did my voice (I talk REALLY fast when I’m nervous sometimes).   I think we helped provide a little clearer picture of what P21 Skills look like at the elementary school age.

Our webinar was part of the P21 Cyber Summit this week.  Each day for the last couple of weeks P21 had anywhere from two to three webinars going on.  I know I was most honored for them to invite me to be a part of this.  I’m also glad that they archived all of these webinars because I wasn’t able to attend very many.  It will be good to go back and listen to some that I missed.

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The National Board for Professional Teaching Standards (NBPTS) announces its public review period for the Library Media Standards.  Practicing library media specialists fill a majority of seats on standards committees with other members representing districts, states and higher education.

The Library Media Standards will be available for public review January 25 – February 17, 2010. The standards can be accessed at http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/librarymedia

Please visit the NBPTS website <www.nbpts.org> for information on standards development. For assistance or additional information about the public review process, please contact NBPTS at nominations@nbpts.org.

Please take time to review these important standards for the profession.

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.