ALA Annual 2013 Day 3

I think I ended this conference on a good note! I began the day in the uncommons waiting for the exhibits to open. I spoke with a really nice doctoral student from FSU for about 20 minutes about librarianship and climates (she was from Georgia so it was fun to tell stories about blizzards.) Then I went and stood in line to meet Katherine Applegate and get signed copies of The One and Only Ivan for my school and myself. I spoke with some very nice school librarians in line including Beth McGuire who even took my picture with Katherine. She was very nice at her signing and told me writing Ivan's story was painful at times (like going into labor) but someone had to do it. She was a hoot!

Next, I went to a session about Maintaining Teen E-Collections. The session was further broken up into table talk break out sessions about different topics regarding e-collections. I sat at a table for school librarians first. The speaker spoke about the Here Be Fiction summer reading program and although I thought it was a great program; I wish we had talked more about the general topic. Then I switched to What Teens Want to discover what kind of e-books I may want to order for the library. However, we only discussed where students get their book recommendations from (friends and family) and how to choose a platform for e-books. Needless to say, I walked out after that talk because I wasn't getting what I wanted from the session overall. However, opportunity struck as I returned to the exhibit hall. I witnessed an enormously long line and asked who was signing. It was none other than Elizabeth Wein, author of Code Name Verity, which is nominated for the Green Mountain Book Award! I anxiously stood in line and received a copy signed for my school and had her newest ARC signed for myself. It was a very exciting experience and I cannot wait to read the book!

I completed my final sweep of the exhibit hall which was set to close in a couple of hours so books were flying off the shelfs at discounted prices or free. I met a very nice vendor from Enslow Publishing who once lived in a town that neighbors mine and he gave me a great selection of nonfiction and historical fiction titles for my library. I also nabbed some books from other vendors looking to pack up less to bring home.

Unfortunately, my More with Less: Putting School Library/Public Library Collaboration session was not what I expected either. Instead, presenters were promoting another program they used. I must admit that I was extremely disappointed by this because I already have a supportive public librarian and I wanted to hear about successful collaborations and gather ideas. Luckily, I do have some ideas of my own.

By the time, I returned to the Conference Center for Battledecks, the Exhibit Hall had been torn apart and now consisted of crates and boxes. We were running late due to a shuttle delay but we made it for the end of the rookie battles and the entirety of the Tournament of Champions. For those of you who don't know about Battledecks, competitors are given a topic (related to library- ex. Librarians in the past and future) and a set of random slides to narrate. These slides often consist of lol cats and other memes which competitors must connect to the topic. The outcomes are hilarious. Competitors are judged and winners receive shiny fedoras while each of the remaining competitors goes home with a feathery boa. Battledecks is the best way to end the conference.

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Location:Chicago, IL

ALA Annual Day 2

Today was a very productive day for both learning and networking!


I began the day listening to Temple Grandin speak. I had to sit outside the main event because I was planning to attend another session and couldn't make the whole presentation. Temple Grandin was diagnosed with Autism at two years old. She worked hard to not be just another person on the spectrum and emphasized to the audience that it is a spectrum with a range of abilities and talents. She discussed how everyone thinks differently and she was a visual thinker. It's important to have visual thinkers in society because they are the world's problem solvers. Temple Grandin was very motivational and made me realize how much we label our students and makes me hope that one day it will end.

Afterwards, I attended a conversation starter about digital badges. The session focused on Mozilla's Open Badges with a spotlight on Passport by Purdue University, another badge program currently in beta. Badges are earned through meeting goals and a set criteria then displayed on a digital bulletin board for all to see. This effort would be a great way of microcredentialing an e-portfolio, collecting evidence, and easy to keep track of (data tracking). Digital badges promote competency based learning and connect well to standards. There are a lot of add-ins users can integrate with the digital badge system such as Learning management integration and social media sharing. According to presenters, the process of implementing the badge system was fairly easy. They also said the leader board was a great motivational tool for badge earners.
New York Public Library is using digital badges with its summer reading program. I think it would be a great way to track readers' progress but there need to be intrinsic incentives applied to the program as well so readers learn to read for the sake of reading and not just to earn badges. I could see using badges to ensure students met required tasks for a research project or achieved lesson objectives. I could also see badges applicable to short term projects. This is definitely something I want to experiment with in the future.

I attended the inaugural session of Apps, Apps, and More Apps: Best Apps for Teaching and Learning sponsored by AASL. The committee highlighted the fact that free apps aren't necessarily the best value; you get what you pay for; however, I still found their choices to be cost efficient. Unfortunately, I found the list to be a bit skewed with many resources for the early and elementary teachers but still discovered some great apps for middle school and high school students. The categories were: books, STEM, organization and management, social sciences, content creation, and media sharing.
In the Books category, I discovered two useful resources for middle school/high school students. Al Gore: Our Choice lays out a plan to solve the climate crisis while acting as a young readers' edition of An Inconvenient Truth. Shakespeare in Bits allows students to explore Shakespeare's plays in an interactive way using visual storytelling, full narration, and character webs to bring the classic literature to life.

The STEM category had a lot to offer. Science 360 created by the National Science Foundation contains visual scientific explorations, a built-in news feed, and social media capabilities including tagging to inspire students to discover science. The NASA app allows students to track the space station, follow related TV news and NASA' Twitter feed, and jam out to Third Rock Radio. Operation Math is geared mostly to upper elementary and middle school students to practice their basic operations skills, participate in training room exercises, and complete timed missions to unlock rewards. Simple physics offers physics challenges for secondary students which range in difficulty. Lastly, Tinkerbox offers engineering puzzle games, game design, sharing functions for students in upper elementary and middle school.

I was a bit disappointed with the apps on the Organization and Management portion of the list. The citation maker EasyBib, cloud storage Dropbox, and note-taking app EverNote all made the list; While these are amazing apps, I feel like they are apps which have been popular the past couple years, people are already utilizing, and therefore the list needed to showcase different tools. I did however find Schoology, an online Learning Management System where students and teachers can be connected 24/7, to be a useful tool.

A great deal of the social sciences apps were geared toward the elementary age level; however, a couple may be used at the fifth and sixth grade levels for special projects. Dependent on cost and content, I could see the value in purchasing Britannica Kids: Ancient Egypt recommended for grades K-6. The app contains reference information and engaging learning activities. MyCongress gives secondary students an inside look at Congress.

Lastly, apps for content creation and media sharing. EduCreations recommended for grades K-12 is an interactive whiteboard app. You can use it to create short multimedia presentations with sound, images,and text. Kid blog (and arguably related platforms) is a great place to blog safely and learn the basics of blogging. GarageBand allows user to create music or podcasts and is widely popular. Lastly, Videolicious (similar to Animoto) is a video editing app which can be used K-12 in three easy steps: choose content, narrate, and add copyright free music to create your own video.
Overall, I found there were some useful apps on the list and I will be happy to try some of these apps out in the library! Check out the full list here: http://www.ala.org/aasl/standards-guidelines/best-apps/2013

I spent some time in the exhibit hall and got to meet one of my favorite authors. Although I still love his books, I was admittedly disappointed by Gordon Korman's author signing. I recovered from my fan girl moment I had with Steve Sheinkin and spoke very light heartedly to Mr. Korman saying that I discovered his books a few years ago and loved reading his work; to which he coldly responded thank you, signed, and I just walked away.

The second day was overall successful.


- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Location:Chicago, IL

ALA Annual Day 1

Welcome to the Windy City and the ALA 2013 National Conference!

On Friday, our train got in relatively late (2PM) after the madness from the Blackhawks Victory parade was dying down. We decided to register and check out the exhibits. I got some really nice Wimpy Kid swag for my best friend. We ate at Lizzie McNeill's and walked the River Walk.

Saturday was a bit overwhelming for me. I raced to the conference center to catch AASL's Best Websites for Teaching and Learning. This year's list was a great compilation of resources; some which I heard of and some which were new to me. Wonderopolis made the list, which made me happy because we discussed Wonder Blogging at Dynamic Landscapes proving how progressive Vermont really is! I admittedly chuckled when Pinterest made the list because it hasn't been a tool I have personally found much value in as of yet. The Easel.ly Infographic creator website also made the list. I was also pleased to see the Code Academy make the list because I think coding is a 21st century skill that students and educators need; making the list proved the professional school library community agrees!
I was excited to learn about some new-to-me resources too. Smore looks like a great way to create newsletters (I have been looking for something like this!) Students can sign up for Lit Pick and receive free books and learn how to become a book critic, writing reviews of their selections. Four classrooms unite together to participate in Quadblogging.

There were so many excellent websites featured! Check out the full list here: http://www.ala.org/aasl/standards-guidelines/best-websites/2013

I ended up exploring the exhibit hall for the rest of the morning. My small victories were collecting more Wimpy Kid swag for my best friend, a newly minted elementary teacher and getting the book Bomb signed by Steven Sheiken. (Though admittedly, I had an awful fan girl moment!)

In the afternoon, I attended Arts 2.0: Libraries, Arts, and Technology. The speaker was very enthusiastic and had great ideas for art integration in the library. I am so happy that my school promotes student art work in the library. I would love to continue the art shows and add more programs. I thought about music and theater events too. We wrote 6 word poems and participated in some improvisionational storytelling. Five people line up; the first person starts the story, when the moderator says change, the second person picks up the story. The fifth person is responsible for concluding the story. We heard of some great websites to use for arts integration as well!

My first full day ended quietly. My roommates and I traveled to a Tapas restaurant and stumbled upon the Chicago Public Library! I hope to visit before we depart Tuesday evening! Chicago is a big city and it makes it difficult to attend social events when we're so spread out! All in all though, my first day was a successful balance of learning and networking!

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Location:Chicago, IL