SCASL Conference Notes

R David Lankes: Keynote

Notes and Quotes:

• don't be "too modest"
• share clear collaboration and announce its benefits
• recognize opportunities and potential to be involved and grow
• "boundareis are temporal and passable"
• we have an obligation to lead thought change
• "you can aspire"
• encourage communities to make smarter and more informed choices
• "bring the world into our classroom and bring the classroom to the world"
• every proposed filter is a moment of opportunity
• the core of librarianship is sharing instead of data technology
• repetition of "knowledge"
• developing and sharing the best practices with each other
• we have a "social mission" of values and ethics and service and intellectual freedom and civic discourse and...
• our goal is to generate great supporters of libraries
• not about an individual program or school, but about a community and world and workers and and and

Response:
Dr. Lankes keynote address certainly set the tone for the conference. It was both empowering and realistic about the goals and roles we have been studying in the MLIS program. I did feel a little like I would need to be Superman in order to fulfill the sort of social role and responsibility Lankes was suggesting. Sure as a whole group I suppose we can accomplish these major goals of leading a "revolution" in the "values" that he talked so much about. I know that those of us in that room certainly do value the things he talked about. I think that Lankes was offering collaboration and establishing connections as the new leader of the LIS school, which will no doubt benefit both USC and the schools in the state.

Passive Programming by Leigh Jordan: Session

Notes and Quotes:

• "I Spy" to acquaint students with the library
• one month program
• prizes rotate through the day/week
• 3-year program rotations (middle school)
• Big focus and programs during April's National Library Week
• One station per week in April
• Activity Ideas:
• Fortune teller template to recommend books
• Spine poetry
• craft/maker space
• duck tape website
• 9 Hole Golf course through the shelves
• Lego build & write 
• Memory with books/authors/characters
• Candyland through the stacks
• Use materials or texts or genres as themes for activities
• Advertise activities throughout school/on newsletter
• Summer drop in for middle schoolers and siblings
• 4 times over summer
• paid via district stipend
• open 2 to 7 PM

Response:
Ms. Jordan had many creative ides for her library. Some seemed rather involved and requiring several materials. Jordan did suggest that most were collected through donations or bought at second-hand stores, but would still require quite a bit of prep to include into the library program. One of her biggest suggestions was to develop the program over the course of a few years to really collect this many activities. I liked the creativity she displayed; however, I felt that most of the presentation could have been drafted into a suggestions list that could have been easily published and distributed for SLMS use and reading at our leisure. Additionally, "Passive Programming" was not at all what the topic of this session was, so I was a bit disappointed once the lecture actually began.

Reading Using Technology by Eve Heaton: Session

Notes and Quotes:

• Seven Sneaky Ways (to get kids to read)
• digital timer
• "realistic time"
• students to set timers to give power
• challenges and badges
•  build from easy to harder challenges over school year quarters
• ClassFlow for interactive lessons via Promethean
• "MicroCredentials" for skills building
• multimedia books
• i.e. Patrick Carmen, videos follow at the end of each chapter
• 3:15 series of short stories
• advertise as a "Scary Book Club...don't come, it's too scary!" (reverse psychology)
• online libraries
• free AT SCHOOL: epic!, Big Universe
• subscription: OverDrive
• gamify reading
•  BookAdventure.com
• Book Scavenger
• size matters
• DOGO News!
• Newsela
• ReadWorks and ReadWorks Digital to teach Text-Dependent-Analysis and test literacy skills
• transcripts and closed captioning
• have students listen only, then watch video
• have students watch video without sound to read captions
• Flocabulary (subscription)
• CNN Student News
• Discovery Education (subscription)
• YouTube (CC)
• My Simple Show
•  copy of her PPT: https://goo.gl/J0g9hw

Response:
Let me tell you, I was more than a little miffed when, at the end of the session, Ms. Heaton said that her whole presentation could be read on a published website. What a waste of an hour! At least I had some tasty hand pies from the Hyatt and got free swag from her room! Despite this, several of the ideas I have used in my own classroom before and have found them effective. I did learn of a few resources, but again, this could have easily been distributed as a published list rather than required a whole session of the conference.