Forward thinking in school librarianship...

*This post was written by Meg Brooke, Supervisor of School Librarians for Jefferson County. 

Twenty three years ago I interviewed for a library position in the system where I was moving my family. In preparing for the interview, I got my interview outfit ready (Ok…hate to say it, but this was my first thought!). I knew that I needed to get my mind and interview skills ready, and so I prepped by doing lots of reading on what was new in library theory as well as  in technology, and I talked to several practicing librarian friends. The CD-ROM was just starting to be used, and I memorized what the letters stood for and learned about information that was available on the CD-ROMS. I had a MacIntosh computer that I could use at home, and I felt prepared. But, whoa, Nellie! 

Dr. Robert Mitchell, superintendent of the system at the time, interviewed me, and I was amazed!!! This was 1990, and Dr. Mitchell was envisioning students being able to access our school library from their homes. Wow!  My finite mind could never have dreamed that big…everyone having a computer at home and being able to retrieve information from our school library…. but I’m thankful that others have minds to be able to see what possibilities lie ahead. 

Remember: computers were just appearing in schools around that time, and the library where I was hired to work had no computers….ZERO.  It took a few decades to get there, but his vision did become reality. (a side note…..Dr. Mitchell was a hero to me in several ways, but I’d love to add that he left the system a year after I was there and started the first daycare in the area that had cameras so that parents could log in and see what their children were doing whenever they had a chance to do that. A real forward thinker!)

Dreams of what our libraries will become must move from the ideas that many were taught and have practiced, too, if we are to move toward the vision of the library that our students will need.  In Harland’s The Learning Commons: Seven Simple Steps to Transform Your Library, we are given some questions to ask ourselves as we think about the future of our particular library. 

Ponder these:

• ·         Does your school need a library when most information can be accessed in the classroom using the Internet? (This is a question that we need to be able to answer!!!)
• ·         What is it that your library offers to your users in addition to accessing information?
• ·         Are you doing it well?  Could you do it better?
• ·         How can you increase and improve services?
• ·         Could you make a shift in your service?

We’ve heard the term libraries without walls, and we’re there. Dr. Mitchell got it right!  Our students can access Atriuum, Nettrekker, the AVL, and many ebooks outside of the school library. One leadership session at the upcoming AASL conference and one that was recently presented in a webinar entitled A Library in your Pocket is a reality NOW!  

High schools are without walls, providing online courses for students via ACCESS now. Our buildings are seeing changes as methods of teaching are moving toward more technology, and our library spaces will need to follow suit as well.  No longer are we just protecting what we have…our books, our AV, our equipment, but we are morphing into being the promoters of how to use what we have so that our students and teachers can easily access and use that information. 

This is just a smidgen of food for thought that you’ll find in The Learning Commons by Pamela Harland.  I hope you’ll check it out if you’re interested in moving your library forward into one that will meet your students’ needs.  

Be the “Dr. Mitchell” in the lives around you!

Come to the AASL Conference in Hartford!

Only days are left to get the discounted registration rate for the AASL Conference in Hartford!

Advance registration rates end October 17th.



Here are some of the concurrent sessions on Friday, November 15:

• Challenge Your Four Walls with a Twitter PLN
• Game On: Scratch in the Library and Classroom
• Game On: Using the Latest and Greatest to Entice Patrons and Promote Literacy
• Give the Kids the Keys: Students Drive the Independent Project
• Lessons from the Winners Take All Community Read
• Leveraging the Library: Sci-Fi, Storytelling, and New Media Ignite Student Interest in Science
• Making the Case for Tablet Computers
• No-Fear Nonfiction: Meeting the Challenge
• Presenting Social Issues in Teen Literature
• Rising to the Challenge: Preparing Students for College-Level Research
• Rocks in the River: The Challenge of Piloting the Inquiry Process in Today's Learning Environment

And that is just Friday! Plenty of opportunities abound to rub shoulders with some of the best librarians in the business. This type of professional development always brings out the best ideas in technology, books, programming, and literacy promotion.

Conference friends are a built-in bonus and the friendships continue through Twitter and ALA Connect.

So, come and join the fun and remember the old adage that "you get out of it what you put into it!"

ASLA New Librarians Conference June 9th

Leadership for the 21st Century

ASLA New Librarians Conference

It’s back!  The Alabama School Library Association (ASLA) is offering a special professional development opportunity for school librarians who have been librarians for three years or less. This pre-conference is held in conjunction with ASLA’s Annual Simmer Conference. You will have an opportunity to meet other new librarians in Alabama, ASLA Board members, ASLA officers, “Library Girl” Jennifer LeGarde, and hopefully join networks in your area of the state affiliated with ASLA.  You will learn about what ASLA is, what we do, and how you can be an active part of the organization.

You must be new to the library profession, not just new to the position. 

This pre-conference on Sunday, June 9, 2013 will provide:

• All meals - Sunday lunch, Sunday dinner, Monday continental breakfast, and Monday lunch

• Lodging for Sunday night at the Hilton Garden Inn in Liberty Park

• Complimentary 2013-2014 ASLA membership

• Complimentary registration to the ASLA Summer Conference on Monday, June 10^th

• Opportunities to network with local and national school library leaders

• Information on professional organizations and potential leadership possibilities

Best of all, this experience is FREE!

This opportunity will be available to only 25 new school librarians, so act now!   For more information send your name and e-mail address to Jennifer Anders at janders@jefcoed.com or call 205- 379-5550

ASLA (Alabama School Library Association) is a professional organization dedicated to the improvement of instruction through the utilization of media and technology. It provides a forum for school librarians, administrators, curriculum specialists, teachers, school librarianship educators, graduate students, professional association leaders, and retired library media professionals to promote excellence in education in Alabama through effective school library programs.

ASLA is the state affiliate of the Association for Educational Communications and Technology, the American Association of School Librarians, and the Alabama Education Association. 

ASLA Call for Proposals

*Text taken from a message to members of the Alabama School Library Association from Carolyn Starkey, ASLA President Elect and conference coordinator. 

The Alabama School Library Association would like to take this opportunity to invite you to share your knowledge with us at our ASLA Summer Conference 2013 on Monday, June 10th, 2013, at Irondale Middle School. Last year our conference had 220 registered librarians, 25 school administrators, 11 vendors, and several authors in attendance, and we hope to top those numbers this year.

Our 2013 conference theme is “leadership@yourlibrary,” and we particularly want to focus on librarian leadership roles in our schools in support of the implementation of the Alabama College-and-Career-Ready Standards. Opportunities for sharing include 45-minute concurrent sessions (two computer labs available for hands-on workshop proposals), a 30-minute free-visit poster session period, or a 10-minute “Speed-Dating” type event where you will have 10 minutes to share a Common Core / ACCRS lesson plan three or four times with rotating small groups of participants for your grade level.

Our morning keynote speaker is the nationally-known school librarian Jennifer LaGarde, aka “Library Girl.” Jennifer, a National Board Certified Teacher (NBCT), is a 2012 School Library Journal Mover and Shaker and was named a 2011 winner of “I Love My Librarian” award by the American Library Association, The Carnegie Corporation of New York and The New York Times Company. You can read Jennifer’s blog “The Adventures of Library Girl” at http://www.librarygirl.net/.

For our luncheon keynote speaker, we have the return of our extremely popular 2012 luncheon speaker, Dr. Thomas Bice, Alabama State Superintendent of Education. Before his January 1, 2012 appointment as State Superintendent, Dr. Bice served as Alabama’s Deputy State Superintendent of Education for Instructional Services, Superintendent of the Alexander City School System, high school principal, career tech director, alternative school teacher/director, special education/residential school director, early childhood teacher/parent trainer, and as a teacher at the Alabama Institute for the Deaf and Blind. Dr. Bice also serves as an adjunct professor of Educational Leadership at Auburn University.

If you have any questions, please feel free to contact Carolyn Starkey (ASLA President Elect and conference planner). Deadline for proposals is April 1, 2013.

The conference proposal form and tentative schedule can be found on the ASLA website. 

Not in Kansas anymore...

Ever moved to a new city? If you’ve not been through this, it’s quite an experience. Originally from the coast, moving to this area about ten years ago turned my whole world upside down. The interstates are much more complex here than they are down South, so it was difficult to navigate. Well before GPSs and Google maps, I literally could not even make it to the grocery store without calling for help. I didn’t know the tornado culture of Birmingham at all, and had an all-out panic attack when suddenly one Wednesday morning sirens erupted in our neighborhood. Another aspect that made the move difficult was starting over again on friends. It was hard to know who to trust and who could be counted on. These are things that only time could help.    

Transitioning to a new school this year has been very similar to a geographic move. Having spent the past five or so years at a quaint little elementary school (and the five or so years before that at another heftier elementary school), middle school has been a new adventure for me in more ways than one!

The first order of business has been figuring out the people. Who works here and where are their classrooms? The school website has been a great resource for determining who is in which department and which grade level. Using this information, I created email groups in my contact lists to ease communication with them. This has helped me begin to memorize who teaches what and in what grade levels they belong.

I believe that one of the single most powerful indicators of becoming successful in a new environment is learning the culture. The “hidden curriculum,” so to speak. When I’ve been accustomed to working with one administrator and now there are three, who do I go to about what? How does the copier work and what are the rules? Where is the faculty restroom? When do I have bus duty and what are the procedures? How does the financial secretary prefer me to submit paperwork and book fair money? I’ve never had to submit grades or attendance before, so how do I log in to iNow, set up my grade book, and post grades and attendance? What is a department meeting and in which department do I belong? These are only a few from the eternal list of questions that have flown around my brain this year.

Next, because I know that understanding what the teachers teach is the springboard to collaboration, I began reading and reviewing the curriculum for each grade level. I miss being able to know exactly when the 4^th grade teachers are going to cover certain objectives in their social studies curriculum, and exactly when the 2^nd grade teachers cover the life cycle of a butterfly. My first attempt to fix that has been to print courses of study from ALEX and organize them into a nice, neat binder. I read and reread those standards every chance I get, in hopes to know it like the back of my hand like I did the K-5 curriculum. It is helping to initiate some dialogue with the faculty about teaching lessons with them.   

Also important has been adjusting to the library facility itself. At first I was frustrated because I could not print (all devices were disabled as we were setting up 21 new desktops) and couldn’t find scissors, paper, pens, tape, etc. An abundance of basic supplies were HERE, I just couldn't find them. It has taken some time to discover and reorganize to suit my own style and preferences. I also have several maps scribbled out as a guide for rearranging the main library space. That will take some time for sure, but I would like to accomplish minor renovations as I settle in and make the place my own.

Other differences for me this year have been learning the quirks of the equipment at this school, how to manage student aides, and dealing with the incredibly destructive nature of middle school students. (Seriously, why do they break everything?!) A few months into my move, everything seems so incredibly difficult that I kept wondering if I had made a mistake. The kids were great, the teachers were great, the administrators were great…it just didn’t feel like home yet.

With all these adjustments, though, over time I have grown to really love my new school. I’m still learning and trying to figure things out, and hopefully will continue to do so for years to come. But…it is beginning to feel like I just might belong here after all. 

Common Core Standards - 5 Things...

Rebecca Harris has written a wonderful article in SLJ's April issue: "All Aboard! Implementing Common Core offers school librarians an opportunity to take the lead". The article offers some background on Common Core Standards as well as lots of advice. Within the article there is a list highlighting how to get started.

According to Christopher Harris in his article "How to Get Started" in School Library Journal's latest issue, there are "five things you can do to get started with Common Core" (SLJ, April 2012).

To paraphrase, here they are:

1. Be the expert you've always been with curriculum issues, etc. Be sure to attend training sessions - online, face-to-face and read everything you can on the subject

2. Collection development - "focus on literary nonfiction resources"

3. What is already there on your shelves that can be used? What is online? Which databases do you subscribe to that will be useful? How will you use the Alabama Virtual Library more?

4. Harris says your library is the textbook - How will you spend the funds that you have? (however meager)

5. Harris says to work at the district level to secure new online resources. Money will go further that way.

Even though this process will work at different paces at different schools, it is something that we can all be working toward and thinking about. The whole emphasis is on reading and understanding texts better. There is a huge emphasis on students being more prepared for high school and college. That means the textbooks that they have been reading with small "excerpts" of whole texts will no longer really be adequate. So, our job will be to find whole texts for students to examine and read. Also, they will need to see multiple points of view and come up with their own opinions according to Barbara Stripling, Syracuse University (haven't we been talking about critical thinking for years?).

I believe we will be ready and it is an exciting time for libraries! But there is too much to discuss in a single blog entry, so click here to read the full article online.

My National Board Process

*This post was written by Jennifer Anders, school librarian at West Jefferson Elementary School. 

Over the past two years, the feeder pattern that my school is part of has been participating in a three year research study conducted by the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards and the Southeastern Regional Education Board. The researchers are trying to find out if marketing Take One! as a school transformation model is viable. Take One! is a process where a candidate can elect to do one National Board entry and bank the score, but also get a feel for the process before completing the full boards. This has been an intense, often frustrating, but for the most part, worthwhile project for me and my colleagues.

The first year of Take One! ( 2010-2011), I'll admit that I was not on board with the project. I was frustrated and because I'm the school librarian, became responsible for helping everyone edit and burn their videos. We were walking around confused and I was resentful that I was being "forced" to participate although I had an underlying belief that at some point I would want to become certified. I turned in a poor entry that I completed in about a week's time, and was rewarded with a score of 1.75. Compare that to a 1.75 on the ARMT. Red box! Year two would be different.

Over the summer of 2011, the researchers, organizers and school administrators met to re-organize and better meet the needs of the teachers for year two. They offered more support that was specific to certification field, bought us all kinds of cool DVD burning equipment and video cameras, but most importantly organized us into PLC's according to certification and gave us four, four-hour sessions to collaborate during school hours. I was named the teacher facilitator for the librarians. ( Yes, me, with the 1.75.) They also offered to pay for any candidate who wanted to pursue full certification. I talked with my husband, and we agreed that there may not be a better offer for me to certify, so I decided to complete the full National Board process.

I know several librarians who have certified with National Boards, and I have heard them talk about how difficult it was. I knew it wasn't going to be easy, but no one could have explained to me what the process would be like. One friend compared it to having a baby, and that may be the closest description for it. There were times during the process when I was glowing because I was creating great lessons, working with teachers and librarians and my students were engaged and learning. There were times when I had terrible nausea and headaches. They type of writing required was so alien and difficult. The page lengths, standards, and questions swirled around in my brain like the tornado scene in the Wizard of Oz and the time, time, time! Towards the end, I felt bloated and fat and tired, but not able to sleep. (This may have been a direct result of the stress M&M's.)

And then I was finished, and I knew I had completed something that would transform my teaching practice.

Although I have not been scored yet, or taken the assessments, I know this process was worth the trouble. There is one main idea I have really taken to heart from this, and that is to stop and ask myself, as it relates to my job, "Why am I doing this?" and "What will my students learn?"

 If you are considering National Board Certification, I would recommend that you not travel this path alone. I didn't. I had support from the Candidate Support Person provided by the research group, great friends, and most importantly from the ASLA National Board Mentoring group administered by Tywanna Burton.

     

Alabama School Library Association Summer Conference 2012

The Alabama School Library Association summer conference will take place June 12 at Mountain Brook High School in Birmingham. The theme is "Navigating the Standards".

Conference events include poster sessions, opportunities to meet authors and purchase their books, and browsing the vendors. Breakout sessions include technology-inspired lessons, creating book trailers, and teaching information-seeking skills.

Opportunities abound for presenting poster sessions and breakout sessions . If interested in either, please e-mail Elizabeth Hester at ehester@jefcoed.com.

This conference is a bargain for under $50 which includes lunch and time to meet with other school librarians in your district. More information can be found at the Alabama School Library Association website.

First Friday Recap: Alabama Virtual Library

Last week I and several others from our district attended January First Friday session, sponsored by the State Department of Education. The presenter was Deloris Carlito, and her topic was the Alabama Virtual Library.

The AVL is a resource cherished by every one of us, and we have several blog posts written here about ways to maximize the databases in our schools. Though we may have extensive experience using this great storehouse of information, there is always room for us to grow and add to our knowledge about the various databases.

One of Mrs. Carlito's points of emphasis that resonated with me were the three cornerstones of the Alabama Virtual Library:

• Equity
• Economy
• Excellence

There remains enormous variety in the social, economic, and ethnic diversity of our schools, both in the district and around the state. The AVL levels the playing field by providing 24 hour, free access to high quality information resources. It is obviously to our economic advantage to support use of the AVL, as we are not charged any fees as schools or individual users whatsoever to gain access. The resources included are top quality, highly recommended sources of information; over and again they prove their worth as solid, reliable, multifaceted sources to use with and recommend to our students and their families.

Suggestions she made for school librarians for promoting the AVL include:

1. Set the AVL as your library/computer lab home page. 
2. Create guides for teacher and student use.
3. Provide teacher PD on the Alabama Virtual Library.
4. Encourage teachers not to accept assignments unless the references list includes databases from the AVL. 

We must remember that we have to USE the AVL or we LOSE the AVL. Any opportunity we can take to thank our legislators for their continued support of the Alabama Virtual Library (or let our students share their thanks as well) will go a long way in securing this resource for our students.

Another point of interest Mrs. Carlito mentioned was the Helpdesk on the AVL site. If a user has any issues whatsoever accessing the resources or if a librarian needs training materials, use the Helpdesk to request materials (mouse pads, bookmarks, etc.) or assistance.

One of my most valued take-aways from this First Friday session was learning how to sort topic/keyword searches by Lexile level to ensure all students are reading the same topic on their individual grade level. For example, if you are working with a 5th grade class and they are researching American presidents, tailor each child's advanced search to their Lexile level, and boom! Everyone is reading material on their independent level yet also meeting their needs. Not too hard, not too easy, but "Juuust right!" (Elementary folks who do the Goldisocks lesson will totally get this.)

Okay, so maybe you're like me and have no frame of reference for Lexile levels. After all, many schools utilize the Renaissance Learning products to assess student's individual reading levels. Here is a link that can provide more information about Lexile levels and their grade level equivalent. It's not all inclusive, but it's a good start.

http://www.lexile.com/about-lexile/grade-equivalent/grade-equivalent-chart/

Who else attended the session? What were your take-aways from this presentation?

Enduring Values

I met Doug Johnson in 2009, as the coordinator for the Alabama School Library Association's annual summer conference. Doug was our keynote speaker, and one of the most enjoyable, creative, and dynamic speakers we had ever heard. Doug is a very respected thinker in the school library world. He has his feet on the ground in the technology world, but nobody knows better than us how tightly technology and school librarianship go hand in hand.

This post on his Blue Skunk Blog is a good one for us to keep in mind as we keep our feet to the ground working with children every day, but also striving for more in our profession. This post stirs reflection on your current practice as evenly as it is inspiring to achieve deeper and more lasting impact on our sweet babies.

Do school librarians have "enduring values?"

Common Core Toolkit (Repost)

*Today's post is a repeat of the original shared by Meg Brooke, the school librarian at Shades Valley High School/JCIB. 

Testing usually makes me not look forward to going to work.  Those times of staring into space and thinking about all of the work that needs to be done is frustrating.  This testing week, however, is different.  I’m incarcerated in my office, unable to leave for 3 whole mornings while testing goes on in the library with other administrators and facilitators, allowing me to get uninterrupted work time!  Whoopie!  Life is good!

One thing I’ve done today is to catch up on some PD reading, and I’d love to share an interesting 1-page article from the November/December 2011 LMC written by Julie Walker, AASL’s executive director. It’s an article that can help us be leaders with our library programs as our schools implement standards.  Julie writes about the Partnership for 21^st Century Skills, the P21, and how librarians can be leaders in this movement that is a requirement in the Race to the Top.  She explains that P21‘s CCSS (Common Core State Standards) leadership has created a downloadable toolkit to help guide educators through P21.   AASL has gone even farther by offering a “crosswalk” as well as a lesson plan database so that school librarians can become leaders in implementing these Common Core State Standards.  Using these tools from AASL can enable us to demonstrate how our particular school’s library program can be a method in accomplishing the implementation of these standards.

To see, download, and print the tools from the article, click on the following links:

P21 Toolkit:       www.p21.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=1005&Itemid=236

AASL Crosswalk: 

www.ala.org/aasl/commoncorecrosswalk

AASL Lesson Plan Database: 

www.ala.org/aasl/lessonplandatabase

This database was an awesome resource!  Lessons with titles like Creating 21^st Century Superheroes; It’s Debatable; and Rock Star Road Trip will definitely create interest in our libraries while implementing the Common Core and AASL standards for the 21^st century learner.  I’d love for us to create some kind of similar database where we could share lesson plans, multimedia presentations, etc. with each other.  We have some great thinkers/doers/presenters in our group, and we could bank on others’ talents tweaking them to meet our particular needs instead of reinventing the wheel!

Walker, Julie. "Introducing the P21 Common Core Toolkit." LMC. 30.3 (2011): 21. Print.

Common Core Toolkit

*Today's post is by Meg Brooke, the school librarian at Shades Valley High School/JCIB. 

Testing usually makes me not look forward to going to work.  Those times of staring into space and thinking about all of the work that needs to be done is frustrating.  This testing week, however, is different.  I’m incarcerated in my office, unable to leave for 3 whole mornings while testing goes on in the library with other administrators and facilitators, allowing me to get uninterrupted work time!  Whoopie!  Life is good!

One thing I’ve done today is to catch up on some PD reading, and I’d love to share an interesting 1-page article from the November/December 2011 LMC written by Julie Walker, AASL’s executive director. It’s an article that can help us be leaders with our library programs as our schools implement standards.  Julie writes about the Partnership for 21^st Century Skills, the P21, and how librarians can be leaders in this movement that is a requirement in the Race to the Top.  She explains that P21‘s CCSS (Common Core State Standards) leadership has created a downloadable toolkit to help guide educators through P21.   AASL has gone even farther by offering a “crosswalk” as well as a lesson plan database so that school librarians can become leaders in implementing these Common Core State Standards.  Using these tools from AASL can enable us to demonstrate how our particular school’s library program can be a method in accomplishing the implementation of these standards.

To see, download, and print the tools from the article, click on the following links:

P21 Toolkit:       www.p21.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=1005&Itemid=236

AASL Crosswalk: 

www.ala.org/aasl/commoncorecrosswalk

AASL Lesson Plan Database: 

www.ala.org/aasl/lessonplandatabase

This database was an awesome resource!  Lessons with titles like Creating 21^st Century Superheroes; It’s Debatable; and Rock Star Road Trip will definitely create interest in our libraries while implementing the Common Core and AASL standards for the 21^st century learner.  I’d love for us to create some kind of similar database where we could share lesson plans, multimedia presentations, etc. with each other.  We have some great thinkers/doers/presenters in our group, and we could bank on others’ talents tweaking them to meet our particular needs instead of reinventing the wheel!

Walker, Julie. "Introducing the P21 Common Core Toolkit." LMC. 30.3 (2011): 21. Print.

Alabama Library Media Online

Have you used your ALMO today?

ALMO is our pet name for the state department's webpage for Alabama school librarians. It's filled with pictures of Alabama school librarians in action and ways to hone your skills.

Check the First Friday page (under Professional Development) for a list of upcoming sessions and topics.

The Publications page will give you links to all official state documents for school librarians, as well as archived sessions from past First Fridays.

Check the Library Happenings page for everything from Alabama School Library Week (coming up November 14-18!) to photographs of new libraries being constructed around the state. If you are in a school with a newly constructed library, please send pictures to the state department to have your school featured on this page!

The Resources page is also filled with information that is specifically tailored to our needs in Alabama. It is being updated often, so be sure to share any tips or suggestions with the state department.

Turning the Page...with AASL

AASL's National Conference theme is Turning the Page (photo credit: http://www.aasl11.ning.com/). As I reflect on Turning the Page on my own career, I think of the new activities I have done so far this year and my own hopes and dreams for the future. Skype with an author. Check. (Really! It was the most fun thing in the world for the 6th grade class who spoke with Jennifer Nielsen, author of Elliott and the Pixie Plot (photo at left courtesy of Jennifer Nielsen's website).

She loved them as much as they loved her). Write a blog entry. Check. Stretch my Book Fair dollars with an online fair and promote online Wish Lists for teachers. Check.

But how else can I work to Turn the Page on my own career? I plan on doing more of the same, but I also want to stretch my horizons by reading The Shallows: What the Internet is Doing to Our Brains by Nicholas Carr, AASL's keynote speaker and author of the all-conference book. Click here to see an interview posted on AASL's website. I want to do all of the things listed on this blog: read the fantastic ideas posted by school librarians and experts in the field to glean new ideas, plan to attend as many conferences as possible (This year's ALLA will be in Birmingham in April and a school librarian is at the helm: Steven Yates, Mountain Brook High School librarian. What does he have in store for school librarians?), and lastly try out all the new tech ideas listed on the AASL website.

One more idea that all of us can do to Turn the Page, if not attending the AASL National Conference, is register for the AASL virtual conference. Register online by 4 p.m. on October 26. Registration for AASL members is $99.

Leaders in Librarianship

Check out some of these great thinkers in the school library world! Their blogs are fantastic sources for daily PD.

Doug Johnson: Director of Media and Technology for the Mankato Public School System in Minnesota

Joyce Valenza: School Librarian at Springfield Township High School in Pennsylvania

Kathy Schrock: former School District Tech Administrator, currently a professor of graduate coursework
-Discovery Education's Kathy Schrock page

Supporting English Learners

English Learners (nationally, the terminology has moved from ESL to ELL to now just EL) are continuing to become a very specialized group of patrons in our libraries. Our district has recently moved from the pull-out model to the coaching model for EL support and instruction, and the EL department at our central office has done a fantastic job of communicating effective ways to best assist English Learners in our schools.


Although the inclusion of bilingual literature in a collection is an essential way to meet the needs of EL students, I have noticed personally that many EL students prefer English-only books. This may be a cultural issue, the desire to conform, or it may simply be that there are more options in English-only. However, we should support our EL students with selections of bilingual literature in every genre of our collections.


-With their permission to share, here are some helpful links provided by our EL department regarding bilingual literature in school libraries:


http://www.bilingualbooks.com/


http://www.wida.us/standards/elp.aspx


*Scholastic Book Wizard can help with this as well. Here is an example of a search for "bilingual."


These are specific tips offered by the EL department for all educators in supporting the needs of English Learners:
1. Establish a classroom community that values and celebrates all languages and dialects. 
[Implications for librarians: include literature with a variety of dialects!]


2. Encourage parents to develop and maintain primary language at home. 
[Implications for librarians: provide translations of library documents and communication in native languages. There is a procedure in place for securing authentic translations from professionals at the central office level. For more info, see your EL Handbook!]


3. Offer primary language support through bilingual parent and community volunteers, peers, cross-age tutors, and extended day programs.


4. Learn and use some second language yourself with students. You don't have to be fluent. Just learn a few phrases and key vocabulary! 


5. Understand the differences between supporting and developing the primary language.
[Implications for librarians: celebrate a variety of cultures through creative programming!]


What are some ways you have provided language support for English Learners? Please share!

·

First Fridays

On the first Friday of every month, the state department plans a webinar session to assist school librarians with professional development.

For many school librarians and in these difficult days of limited release time, these webinars are the preferred format format for professional development because it minimizes the time we are away from our schools. Because the state department offers these sessions twice monthly, this helps provide us with additional flexibility to choose the sessions that work best for our schedules. These are great opportunities for professional development!

See the list of sessions for the 2011-2012 school year HERE.

P90x for school librarians?

Okay, not really! But seriously, try this challenge to start new habits of tech integration "fitness!"

http://eisdworkshops.wikispaces.com/13+Things

Educate Alabama for Librarians

EducateAlabama is our state's new tool for evaluating teachers and measuring professional growth. We should be very proud that our state has the forethought to design such a useful resource for holding educators to high standards while also permitting room for differentiated growth.

In the fall of 2010, approximately 20 school librarians from around our state met in Montgomery and were charged with tailoring the Educate Alabama standards to the unique needs of our profession. Over the course of multiple meetings, the document was formed, eventually approved by the state department, and is now the sole resource Alabama librarians are to use in the evaluation process and in writing our annual professional growth plans.

Carolyn Starkey (Buckhorn High School) has created a LiveBinder which explores and explains all the nuts and bolts of EducateAlabama. She developed this resource solely to assist school librarians in Alabama, and is very generous with her materials!

 Check out Carolyn's LiveBinder here!