ALA / Vegas update!

I’m in the Vegas airport waiting for my flight to Atlanta…there is actually FREE wireless in the Vegas airport (FREE is not so often the case in airports, I’m learning), so I’m taking advantage and blogging. Where to start?

First day of ALA (Friday, June 27)

Went to Doug Johnson’s pre-conference, which I have blogged about already.

After the pre-conference, we had dinner at a very good mexican restaurant and then went to the AASL Affiliate Assembly meeting. These meetings are a time when leaders in state associations all over the nation get together and discuss what is going on at the state level. The meeting is actually pretty interesting, because you meet people who are doing the same things you are (in terms of conference planning and such). After this meeting, it was off to bed.

Saturday, June 28

Saturday was a day to walk around the exhibit hall (which is MASSIVE). Many people collect freebies (advanced copies of books, pens, bags, you name it) and mail them home. The post office in the exhibit hall always has a long line. I have never mailed anything home, because I just can’t pick up bunches and bunches of things that I cannot be sure I will ever use, but I can see how it is tempting to do so. I’ve never been a packrat (imagine!) and I think that just stops me from picking things up. It is fun to see what the publishers are giving away. Some of my favorite finds include a galley of a new Mo Willems books (something about a mole….it’s in my suitcase), a stressball in the shape of a chicken, and pens that change colors – I am very easy to please. In addition to walking around the exhibit hall, I attended a session about extending read alouds with “cute” stuff. This session could have been very good and one that should have sent me home with a bunch of new ideas for my storytimes, but instead, it was actually a little boring. A typical “sit and get” where the speakers showed us what they had done, but did not really involve the audience. They tried, I will say that. The session was late afternoon, after lunch and I think a lot of folks were just worn out by then. After that session, Kitt and I took a tour of Hollywood at night. It was neat to see the strip and all of the interesting people who live in Hollywood! However, our driver was a little scary and I am convinced that California has no laws about driving. You can go as fast as you want and cut off as many people as you want and no one will care.

Sunday, June 29

Busy day! Started with exhibits (again). On Sunday, I visited the ASPCA booth where they were having (what I thought would be) an informational session and Paws-and-Books, a program that brings dogs to schools and hospitals so that children can read to them. I’ve heard about this program before. Children who are reluctant and struggling readers tend to do really well reading to dogs because the dogs can’t correct them or try to get them to read faster…basically, much better listeners than adults or other children. When I went to the booth, I was the only person there. I was there and a dog was there along with someone with ASPCA. I got to read to the dog and I LOVED it. It actually made me cry, because I am really missing my own dogs. But, this is a wonderful idea for children and I really hope that I will be able to do something like this in my own school or perhaps SCASL can partner with the SC ASPCA to promote it in South Carolina…I know that at my new school, there is a kindergarten assistant who volunteers with dogs who may be able to do something like this. I can’t wait to find out! On Sunday, we had another AASL Affliate Assemby meeting. This was a voting meeting where we passed different commendations and concerns brought to AASL by the different regions. I also got to go to the Newbery / Caldecott banquet, where I sat next to Kathleen Krull! Best $89 I ever spent. Selznick’s speech was amazing. Dinner was amazing. Awesome experience.

Monday,  June 30

On Monday, things were slowing down. Exhibit hall time, another session to help read alouds be more fun and this one was WONDERFUL! The speaker was dynamic, she had fantastic ideas and I do have lots of new fingerplays, string stories, cut and tells, etc. that I can bring to my storytimes. Exactly what I was looking for the first time around. I also helped stuff bags for the Coretta Scott King Breakfast, which was the next morning. I ended up coming back to the bag stuffing room later in the day to help set up the room for the breakfast with the rest of the SCASL folks (and Valerie Rowe Jackson from RCPL). This was actually really fun. After setting up the room, it was time for dinner and rest – we had to get up at 4am the next morning.

Tuesday, July 1

Coretta Scott King breakfast, which is always wonderful. Kitt and I took tickets and Amanda, Valerie Rowe Jackson, and Ida showed publishers to their tables. It is always so exciting to see authors and illustrators like Ashley Bryan, Christopher Paul Curtis, etc. I’m such a nerd when they are around. After the breakfast, it was time to visit Disney Land. We were only 5 minutes away, after all. Disney Land was fun (like you’d expect it to be). Much smaller than Disney World, but still magical. Rode rides, ate a really expensive plate of fruit and had a great time. After Kitt and I returned from Disney Land, the SCASL folks had a conference planning meeting over dinner. There are lots of wonderful ideas floating around…can’t wait to start announcing all the good stuff! Marty flew in late and then it was vacation time!

Wednesday, July 2 – Sunday, July 6

Marty and I had a GREAT time. I’ll spare the day by day details, as it was a typical Vegas vacation. Went to many hotels to see the fab themes they all have, tried our hands at a little bit of Blackjack and slots, but did not win anything. Marty’s theory is that the casinos are trying to save money just like everyone else. We’ve been there a number of times before (this was my 3rd trip; Marty’s 6th) and the casinos just seemed really tight this time compared to other times. Oh well. Marty is very good at budgeting his spending day by day, so all’s well at the Fort home! There were two big highlights of the trip – Marty surprised me by asking me to marry him again. I got some new bling and everything. Elvis married us at the Graceland Chapel. It was the best thing ever, because Elvis was awesome. We also saw LOVE at the Mirage and it was fantastic. Brought tears to my eyes, even.

That’s my trip out west! As I finish this blog, I am no longer in the Vegas airport, but at home. I’ve done laundry all day long and am happy, happy to be home with my dogs.

Hope your summer / conference experiences / etc. have been as wonderful as mine! If not, there’s still time

VBF

Doug Johnson!

Today, I went to Doug Johnson’s preconference, “Eating the 2.0 Elephant One Bite at a Time” or “Dipping One’s Toes in the Social Networking Stream.” The presentation goes by both names, apparently! Wonderful! It was an overview of 2.0 tools and how you can use them in a library or classroom setting. He went over wikis, blogs, RSS feeds, and social networks. Then, we had a “tool talk,” where he quickly highlighted some of the other great tools out there like Flickr, Big Huge Labs, Facebook, TeacherTube, etc. I use a lot of these resources, so much of this morning was a quick overview for me, BUT, I did get some ideas on how to take a step back and sort of think about how I am using these tools. I do plan to do a 23 Things professional development with SCASL this year and his presentation really allowed me to think about how to show some of these resources to our late bloomers, so to speak. Those folks who haven’t taken the time to play with blogs and wikis. My favorite new tidbit was the “In Plain Language” show he started each topic off with. Those are perfect little movies to show teachers (or SCASL members) what a tool is and how to use it. I knew about the “In Plain Language” videos, but seeing them today used the way Doug used them really kind of inspired me in the model we’ll use for our 23 Things.

There were a couple of “shout outs” that I got nerdy about during the presentation (since I am a good workshop participant, I did not yell out and get too excited, I must say), but inwardly, I was very excited to see Cathy Nelson’s picture up there when Doug brought up his Skype list and SCASL Blogs! was in his RSS Feed! Yay SC!

Right now, I’m blogging while I wait to go to dinner. We are trying a mexican restaurant that my dad loved when he was out here a couple of weeks ago. After that, Kitt and I have to go to the AASL Affliate Assembly meeting – 8pm – 10pm. Late!

Till tomorrow,

VBF

 

Mid-Winter is over!

I was going to go back and “fix” typos and such on the ALA Awards I blogged, but I’m not. If you want to see the press release which has all the information you need to locate the exact award winning title, you can find it here.

The most important thing that happened on the last day of ALA Mid-Winter (Day 4) was the announcement of the ALA Award winners, so I don’t have much to add about that day. We did take a 21 stop tour of the city and I got to run up the Rocky steps and took lots of pictures which I will add to my personal Flickr page as well as the SCASL Flickr page. We had dinner at a wonderful restaurant, Moshulu and did some Power Up @ your library conference planning. Very productive dinner, I thought!

Yesterday was the travel day. Should have been very easy: leave Philly at 11:15am; get to Columbia at 1:30pm; do laundry; eat dinner; go to bed. However, nothing is every as easy as it should be, right? The day went more like: Leave Philly at 10am on different flight than original flight because original flight was cancelled; go to Washington DC instead of right into Columbia because new flight was not a direct flight but one with stops; stay in DC for 2 hours; get into Columbia at 3:oopm; stand at baggage claim for about 20 minutes before finally understanding and believing that my baggage is never coming; stand in line for 30 minutes to make a baggage claim; go home at 5pm with no baggage, (therefore, no laundry to do–which is sort of a good thing, I guess); eat dinner while waiting for baggage to be delievered to my house. Accept baggage at 9pm; go to bed very thankful that I have taken today off to do my laundry and get my regular life back in order before returning to my crazy professional world.

Conferences are great. I always learn something and now that I get to go to these national conferences with SCASL, I am lucky to get to see other parts of the United States that I would not have seen otherwise. 

Now to that stack of laundry,

VBF 

AWARDS AWARDS AWARDS !!!

And the winners are…

PS-I am SO EXCITED TO BE HERE!!!

PPS-Mo Willems is not really my boyfriend.

• John Newbery Medal honors-Elijah of Buxton; The WEdnesday Wars by Schmidt; Feathers by Woodson; winner-Good Masters! Sweet Ladies! by Laura Amy Schlitz
• Randolph Caldecott Medal honors-Henry’s Freedom Box by Kadir Nelson; First the Egg by Seeger; The Wall by Sis; Knuffle Bunny Too AWWWW; winner-The invention of Hugo Cabret by Selznick
• Michael L. Printz Award  honors-Dreamquake: Book Two; One Whole and Perfect Day; Repossessed; Your own, Sylvia; Winner-The White Darkness by McCaughrean
• Odyssey Award (new award!)…audio award- honors-Bloody Jack; Dooby Dooby Moo; Harry Potter and the Deathly Hollows; skulduggery pleasant; Treasure Island (listening library) Winner-Jazz (live oak)
• Coretta Scott King Award Sundee T. Frazier (new talent); Honors-November Blues; 12 Rounds to Glory; Winner (chapter)-Christopher Paul Curtis, Elijah of Buxton!!YAY! Winner (Picture books)-Secret Olivia Told Me; Jazz on a Saturday Night. Illustrator award-Ashley Bryan.
• Theodor Seuss Geisel Award honor-First the Egg by Seeger; Hello Bumblebee Bat by Lunde; Jazz Baby by Wheeler; Vulture View by April Pulley Sayer; Winner-There is a bird on your head! My boyfriend, Mo Willems
• Alex Awards American Shaolin; Bad Monkeys; Essex County Vol. 1; Genghis; God of Animals; A Long Way Gone; Mister Pip; The Name of the Wind; The Night Birds; The Spellman Files.
• Andrew Carnegie Medal Jump in! Freestyle Edition
• Sibert Award honors-Spiders Nic Bishop; Lightship Brian Floca; Winner-The Wall Sis
• Margaret Edwards Award Orson Scott Card
• Batchelder Award honors-The cat or how I lost eternity; Nicholas and the Gang. Winner- Brave Story
• Schneider Family Book Award Kami and the Yaks; Reaching for Sun; Hurt Go Happy 
• Laura Ingalls Wilder Award 
• May Hill Arbuthnot Honor Lecture Award Walter Dean Myers
• Belpre Award –Illlustrator honor-My name is Gabito; My Colors, My Word; winner-Les Gates Black on Halloween. Author honor-Frida Long live life; Martina the Beautiful Cockroach; les gates black on halloween; winner- The poet slave of cuba

Mid-Winter Day 3

This morning, because we had to get up so early and get to a meeting, Kitt and I ordered room service for breakfast. $75 later: I had cereal with berries and bananas and coffee and Kitt had eggs and potatoes. Could get the same meal for $10 at Waffle House! Jeez!

Meeting was all morning. Affliate Assembly and was updates and announcements and “sharing” time with others in our region. I really enjoyed hearing all of the things going on in other states. In our region is NC, KY, TN, GA, and SC (I think that’s everyone) and they are doing some wonderful things. One thing I heard again and again was that many school library associations are strands of their state associations (that would be like the SCLA being over all libraries in our state and us having a section). On one hand that seems very efficient as far as conference goes, on the other hand, I bet those school librarians sometimes get lost in the mix of public libraries and academic libraries, etc. Just like at ALA. I blogged after going to the annual conference that I felt sort of like a “black sheep” when in some of the sessions because I was a school librarian. In SCASL I always felt in good hands and supported. I wonder if they feel that way? In speaking to others planning conferences, I heard that a couple of states in our region start planning their conference 2 almost 3 years in advance. I think that’s excellent and really wish we could move to something like that. Sure, we do have a location that far in advance, but as far as speakers and such go, that “search” doesn’t start until after conference the year before because that’s when the President Elect is voted on by the membership. Perhaps I can help change that, however, I certainly do not want to end up planning another conference (the organizations that have so much time in advance to plan have their Past President plan conference). There were some library “stars” today: Keith Curry Lance, Alice Yucht, Deb Logan—all folks I read and know! They were speakers at the Affiliate Assembly. Oh the life of a nerd is so exciting, yes?

After the meeting, we walked around the exhibits some more, went back to Reading Terminal, and then listened to Kareem Abdul-Jabbar. He was one of the speakers for conference and gave an excellent talk about his research and how libraries affected his life. It was awesome. The person who founded the ALA Black Caucus (Dr. EJ Josey) was there. I learned that he was also a major player in starting the Coretta Scott King Awards.

After that was dinner of what was supposed to be “real” Philly pizza…I hate to say it, but I’ve had pizza like that at home. It was good, just not different.

The evening ended with a special screening of The Spiderwick Chronicles. WONDERFUL! I loved it…perfect mix of fantasy and scary. I will tell all of my 3rd, 4th, and 5th graders to see it!

Tomorrow morning is the big awards announcement day. I do plan to bring my laptop and will either blog or twitter the awards…whatever works.

VBF

Mid-Winter Day 2

Today was good.

This morning, realized two things not so great about the Ritz Carlton=hardly any plugs! I’ve got to charge my electronics, you know, Ritz! Coffe from lobby is NOT NOT NOT good. Yes, I have a coffee pot in my room, but I’ve got some quirks about hotels and using the coffee pot in the room is one of them. Even at the Ritz Carlton.

After all that, we were on our way to the Convention Center. We had some time to kill before our 10:30 meeting so we checked out the Reading Market. What an amazing place. Any kind of food you can think of is available there. And, Penn. Dutch own some of the spaces at the market, so you can only imagine the sorts of things available. I had one of the best lattes ever at Reading Market this morning. FYI. At 10:30, we went to a Discussion Group hosted by AASL Affiliate Assembly. I am still learning about the Affiliate Assembly, but from what I can gather, it is Presidents and President Elects of state associations throughout the U.S. There were about 50 people there. We had 4 topics which we talked about with a group. Facilitators and recorders moved through the groups.

Our topics were:

1. How do you recruit people to serve on your state board?

I’m not really sure that we have a problem in South Carolina. Of course, I have never been in the position of finding people to serve on the board. Perhaps when I am President, I’ll notice that it’s an issue. Ideas for recruiting include hosting meetings online, offering “carrots” such as conference registrations and hotel stays. Ida talked about the SCASL Leadership Academy.

2. What is your state doing to implement/roll out the 21st Century Standards for student learners?

These standards were “rolled out” at AASL in October. I was surprised that there were folks sitting at our table who were not aware of this…considering the crowd. Anyway, seems as though most people have not done anything YET. There was a lot of talk about how we need to correlate these standards to state standards, which of course we do! Gail Dickinson, who is on the task force for the standards will be coming to our conference and I think a couple of other folks mentioned that people on the task force are coming to their conferences. I want to somehow get a copy of the standards in everyone’s hands. Yes, they can print them. But, will everyone go to the AASL website and do that?

3. How do we get started on rolling out the 21st century partnership?

This kind of confused everyone. While the 21st Century Partnership sounds wonderful and yes we agree with what its trying to do (teach students to be working adults…skills they need to succeed in the world), we wonder if it isn’t all too much. Our new standards, this partnership, ISTE standards. What do we really want to stand behind and push?

4. How is your state association using Web 2.0 resources?

My favorite! Of course, this is where I have links to go and visit to see what others are doing. CT seems to be doing a lot. Their association newsletter is posted online. They have a wiki that is open to the world. SC was the one with the most 2.0 “things,” but that’s because I enjoy playing. I would not say that our 2.0 “things” are being used in the best way possible. I would like to change that, but of course there is a learning curve and you can only do so many things at one time.

I thought all discussions were very interesting and I have a lot of links and state associations to take a look at now.

After the meeting, we went to the Exhibit Hall where we got our pictures taken with Senator Obama and Rocky Balboa. For real.

Of course, Obama was a cardboard standee and Rocky was an impersonator. Those pictures, I promise you, will be posted soon.

A trip to the spa was next and now it’s time for bed! Big day tomorrow….stay tuned!

VBF

Mid-Winter Day 1

A Few Philly Facts: 

1. They know where their car horn is!

2. No one seems to really know how far away I am from the “Rocky” stairs. Perhaps I should just put my librarian skills to use and look it up.

3. The Convention Center is a little confusing, however, I am very directionally challenged.

Today! My flight was delayed only a little, considering it was raining in Columbia AND in Philly. Some S.C. folks who flew later in the day were delayed much longer (in fact, we were all supposed to be here by now and they still aren’t here-it’s 4:30). Yesterday, I was hating myself for booking such an early flight (7:15am). Today, I am very happy with myself for booking an early flight.  Got to Philly. Checked into the RITZ-CARLTON. How did I end up here, you may ask? ALA opens housing online and it fills up very fast. By the time I went to book my hotel room, they were all full and I was put on a waiting list. One day, ALA sends me a message that says “your rooms are reserved at the Ritz-Carlton.” I am a very happy conference goer! This place is one of the nicest I have ever stayed at. I know this bed is going to be more cozy than my own bed and that NEVER happens in a hotel! Pictures will come later.

Check in and registration went smoothly.

Went to a panel/open forum about the new NETS*T. These are technology standards for teachers, saying what they must know to teach their students. The forum was an opportunity for ISTE to hear thoughts, ideas, suggestions, etc. from ALA/AASL. I thought it was going to be an open forum about the new NETS*S…comparing them to the new AASL standards, but I misread the press release. My fault…still a VERY interesting time talking with others in my field.

Now, getting ready to attend the Exhibit Hall grand opening and dinner. Will post more tomorrow!

VLB

Mid-Winter!

Tomorrow I leave for ALA Mid-Winter…I hope to be blogging regularly while I’m there. I do have a “new year’s resolutions” post waiting in draft form…hope to post that soon too.

The life of this “library goddess” is a busy one!

 Have a wonderful weekend and I hope to entertain you with posts from Mid-Winter!

VBF