What I'm Up To

I've been away for a while, but I'm hoping a prose-style GDT "brain dump" of what I've been up and what I'll be working on will help me center and focus a bit. I spent part of my spring break with my school's administrators, who are among the most progressive and visionary people I know, at the National Association of Secondary School Principals conference in Phoenix. We were speaking on systemic and personalized professional development. Of course, I worked in some school library-specific talking points.

Also at NASSP, I heard Todd Whitaker speaking about manging difficult teachers and learned about student conflicts in ethical literacy. My personal conference highlight was Kipp Rogers' presentation on using mobile phones to support learning. Rogers divided cell phone use into three areas one, the first of which -- like calculators, cameras, and calenders --did not require service. The second area involves simple texting, allowing for students to use the technology like student response or polling systems, while the third incarnation uses web-enabled applications for full-on backchanneling and authoring. Rogers has donated handsets to bridge the digital divide.

This month, I'm looking forward to reading about some more interesting classroom applications of technology. I'm on the award committee for ISTE's SIGMS Technology Innovation Award, which highlights a collaborative project between a school librarian and content area teacher. Applications are open until the end of March, if you are considering applying.

Next month, Buckhorn will host a pre-conference for the Alabama Library Association on April 13. We were lucky enough to lure Buffy Hamilton next door from Georgia to do something really thoughtful on Transliteracy for a keynote, then Laura Pearle, Buffy, and I will reprise our presentation from the YALSA 3.0 Institute at ALA Midwinter. That afternoon, one of our librarians is sharing her trip to Forks, them my admins will talk about adolescent literacy before a teen panel on library use. It's only $15 with conference registration, which includes a plated lunch from our culinary students. Advanced registration closes for ALLA this week.

May 5th, I'm hosting a talk for YALSA in its monthly series in ALA Connect. The topic is Using Web 2.0 Tools to Promote Reading. 

If that topic interests you, be sure to register  for the half-day YALSA preconference before ALA Annual. This started off as "WTF? They ARE Reading!" but the work-friendly title is "Promoting Teen Reading with Web 2.0 Tools." It's all about electronic texts, multimodal books, and ways to engage with readers in new, digitally-facilitated ways. Eliza Dresang will be opening the afternoon, talking about Radical Change, and then we will ahev some top flight authors -- John Green, David Levithan, Malinda Lo, Kami Garcia and Margaret Stohl are confirmed -- as well as amazing practitioners to share their transliteracy success stories. At $99, it's a bargain, too.