Auntie Librarian

I always look forward to our SCASL Conference because I come away with so many nuggets of insight, innovation and inspiration that excite me and improve the library services I offer my students. This year's conference experience was nonstop action for me, like a bullet train.

Of course, we have been preparing for SCASL's annual conference long before last week. The IT Committee prepared a session and display board on our new membership management software: Memberclicks, readied the Guidebook Conference App and continued to update our website as needed by our conference planners. Memberclicks sent a $50 Amazon gift card, as well as some pens and stickers. It was great fun giving them away. Cathy Jo's idea to put the names of all members who had updated their memberclick's profile was genius. It thrills me to no end that Judy Garner, the librarian who won the $50 gift card, is buying books for her library with it! Next year I'd like to put another of Cathy Jo's ideas into action by giving avatar awards like, cutest avatar, most mysterious avatar etc.

As a candidate for President Elect, I was required to prepare a short talk to introduce myself after our first keynote address. In addition to this I was asked to "unveil" our new site during the first General Session.As I prepared my presentation, it was inspiring to look back at SCASL.net when she was just a baby. Isn't she adorable? This picture was taken 13 years ago.

Book Boot Camp had a session, so I prepared an Animoto on humorous books at the middle school level and lined up with the other middies to talk about books. Tamara Cox and Monique German are like rock stars to me, so I was thrilled to actually be presenting with them! They are so professional and polished, and they take everything they do to the next level of awesome.

Ain't no party like a middle school party baby!

Can you believe I happened to luck out and get a ticket to the sold out Taste of Columbia Tour? That was simply amazing. Our guide, Dawn, was wonderful. We spent the evening laughing, singing, eating and drinking. What's not to love about that? My favorite restaurant was Pearlz where we had Oysters on the half shell. Here we are at the Tin Roof.

I'm gonna whoop somebody!

It felt good to relax after all that hard work, but I still had one more session to go the next day. Friday morning, my colleague Pam Fowler headed to Columbia with a car load of students to do a 9:45 iMovie presentation with me. By the time I made it downstairs from the second General Session and Toni Buzzeo's awesome keynote, our session was full. Not only that, but I had just learned that I was President Elect and had to plan the next conference. My head was spinning! Our students did a fantastic job and most people seemed to come away with at least one thing they could use. I think the green screen app we shared was impressive to many people. So, we shared it in Cathy Jo Nelson's "Don't Worry Be Appy" session and then took our students out for cupcakes! This made for the perfect ending to an amazing conference experience. It seems that I am going to get off this bullet train for a few days and then get right back on another one as I take the reins of SCASL's President Elect and begin to plan the 40th Annual Conference.

Students make the best technology presenters!

At our annual holiday faculty lunch in December before we all headed off for break, my principal did something different. He recognized the teachers who had perfect attendance so far this school year. I was inspired by this idea. I thought, "We should do this for our students too!"

Next year, I am going to plan to recognize our top readers in December or January. I think this may promote participation in our reading program. It definitely can't hurt right? I don't necessarily mean prizes or awards, I am just thinking of recognizing them and telling them to keep up the good work. We had a Super Reader event in December, and that would have been the perfect opportunity to recognize the top reader from each grade level. Next year, we'll do that.

Half year perfect attendance also caused me to reflect on the highlights of my school year from August until December. I try to take pictures of everything I do. Looking back though the pictures helps me review and remember. I often use the pictures in my annual report. So, over our break I put together a photo collage of the highlights.

We got some cool new seating in the periodical area. Now students can sit down and browse through a favorite magazine. I wanted to play off of the bright colors of our Chihuly type sculpture and capitalize on the green tones of the library, so I got some Granny Smith Apple chairs. They are modern looking and the kids love them. We also got an end table that flips up to double as a laptop or table stand. That is not seeing much action yet, but I hope it will.

The Day of the Dead Family Library Night had all the right ingredients: a craft, refreshments, we even had authentic Mexican bread, a writing activity and a presentation about the holiday by one of the Spanish teachers at the high school. Despite the fliers, announcements and advertisements in the local paper, student and parent attendance was really disappointing. Maybe our community is just not ready for something like this. However, the faculty came out for me. I was blown away to have eight teachers attend the event. What a heartwarming treat that was.

I am pleased with how well the Super Reader Program has gone and the Divergent book club was fun. We are excited about the movie premiering in March. Our school wide read of Sharon Draper's Out of my Mind was wonderful and extremely worthwhile.

One of my favorite new additions to our library venue is Chess Club. I am proud to say that I now know how to play chess. I am not that good at it, yet, but I can play. I am also proud to say that my teacher was and still is - a student! Emily is so patient with me! I really enjoy our games. We now have tournaments almost every week and our principal has agreed to purchase some new boards and even a timer for us. We plan to have tournaments between the three grades as well.

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