Teacher-Librarians: Rising to the Challenge!

Chariho librarians Mrs. Mann (Ashaway Elementary School),
Mrs. Ward (Richmond Elementary School),
Mrs. Steever (Chariho Middle School),
and our friend Ms. Hayes (Frenchtown Elementary School)













This week I attended the American Association of School Librarians national conference in Hartford, Connecticut.  The theme of the event was "Rising to the Challenge", and the accompanying images of hot air balloons were everywhere.  It struck me how apt this metaphor was.  While the person in the basket has a degree of control over where the balloon travels, the pilot is still required to take into account the force and direction of the winds!  We all need to create a vision for where we'd like our libraries to go while taking into consideration all the outside influences that affect our trajectories.  With our heads in the clouds and our feet on the ground, we eagerly explored a myriad of ways to take our students to where we believe they need to go.

Our students are growing up in a world where information can be accessed from devices as nearby as a back pocket.  But merely having access to resources is not the same as possessing the critical thinking skills necessary to select the most useful, reliable and accurate information available.  (And, of course, we strive to ensure that our students have access to a library that provides much more than what can be found for free!)  Students also need to be taught how to be responsible digital citizens in an age where connectivity offers as much opportunity to grow as it does to harm.

A beautiful Friday night in Hartford

I am so excited to bring back what I learned to share with the teachers and students back at school!  I attended sessions that introduced me to new science books (and activities for using them in the classroom), websites that support the Common Core standards, and lessons for fostering media savvy students.  Throughout the conference there was an emphasis on not only guiding students through the research process but also on what needs to happen next.  As one presenter put it, "You have them pick the apples, but you need to teach them how to make the pie!"  I discovered some novel strategies for motivating students to incorporate new knowledge into their writing.  Other projects encourage them to support an opinion with evidence while considering the audience that will be addressed.  One example I was particularly excited by was having the students create a "trailer" to promote a book he or she really enjoyed using the web site Animoto.  I've already signed up for a free educator's account and I'm looking forward to experimenting with it!

Of course, we teacher-librarians aren't only interested in shaping conscientious members of a global community.  We are just as passionate about celebrating and promoting the joys of reading!  The conference featured an incredible number of authors and illustrators who were on hand to present at various sessions as well as to sign copies of their books.  In many cases, vendors were giving away copies of the books, and the lines of people waiting to receive one for their libraries were very, very long.  It was so much fun hanging out with my colleagues, though, that the time really did seem to fly by!

I met and received signed books from Michael Dahl (the Library of Doom series), Adam Gidwitz (the Dark and Grimm series) and Matt Holm (the Babymouse and Squish series)!  I was also looking forward to meeting Jenny Holm, who is the sister of Matt Holm and co-creator of the Squish and Babymouse books, but she wasn't there.  Matt added some graffiti to their sign that helped to explain her absence:

We hope you're feeling better, Jenny!

I was also extremely excited to meet the charming and hilarious Jon Scieszka.  (It rhymes with Fresca, although when I overheard someone ask him how to pronounce his name he replied, "Jon".)  He's best known for his books Math Curse and The True Story of the 3 Little Pigs, but he is also the founder of Guys Read, a web-based literacy program for boys.  I was disappointed (but not terribly surprised) that none of his books were available by the time I got to his table, but he was happy to chat and offered to sign the back of my conference badge.  It was great fun joking around with him.

The conference was both exhausting and energizing!  Thanks so much to all the people who made this incredible event possible, as well as to the vendors who provided free (signed!) books for our library: Perma-Bound Books and Capstone Publishers.