In November I had the opportunity to attend the American Association of School Librarians (AASL) National Conference in Louisville, Kentucky. The 2019 Miller Endowment funded my conference registration as well as newly published professional development books on Inquiry and Collaboration to share back with my colleagues.It was wonderful to visit local independent school libraries, try Bourbon pecan ice cream, learn the term Kentuckiana, and reconnect with friends from college(!) and graduate school. More importantly, I discovered new tools like Genially, brainstormed with the founder of Noodletools, presented on graphic novels, and met Cece Bell.
Held every other year, this year's conference was heavily linked to AASL's standards and their overarching domains of Think, Share, Create, and Grow. Under the guise of this framework, here are a few reflections of my conference experience.
Think:
Several of the concurrent sessions I attended provided good food for thought, and I found myself having several Aha! moments.After a Rebecca Newland's session on integrating primary sources into research, I immediately integrated the Primary Source Analysis Tool from the Library of Congress into the 10th grade research process. The session reminded me that gathering a variety of primary sources from an event help round out a story as a primary source may not always be fully accurate.
In another session about LGBTQIA+ inclusiveness in libraries, the point was made that while various communities may be in different spaces to support members of the LGBTQIA+ community, there are a multitude of ways to help students. It is also key to remember that a person's identity is not a measure of age appropriateness. When choosing the appropriateness of a book for an age group, we need to stay focused on the behaviors of characters, not their identities.
I was inspired by two Lexington, Kentucky teachers from Henry Clay High School who are creating strong library and math connections. One of the most thrilling projects they discussed was a research project where geometry students make plans renovate the current library to meet the needs and demands of a modern library. In the end students present their ideas, including scale drawings of the proposed space, to an authentic audience, and librarian now has real student input in the renovation process.
Share:
As an optional preconference event, I joined a group of 12 other librarians for delicious Persian food and conversation with a local Louisville librarian. School librarians at this dinner were from Virginia, Florida, Alabama, and even Japan. Together we talked about instruction strategies and collaborating with teachers.When one librarian asked, "how are you implementing these new standards into your school library work?" I was proud to share the work our department has done over the past few years to map our already existing scope and sequence to the different sections of the new standards. It was great to think, "we are on the right track." I shared with this group recent work we had done on our library retreat where we looked specifically at the standards of Inquire and Collaborate. When I expressed concern about work with the Include standard, another librarian chimed in to say she had been part of a group who just completed a toolkit for implementing the Include standard in schools. It was exciting to share a meal with so many educators looking for the best ways to help students with their research and inquiry skills.
Create:
One reason I attended this conference was to co-present one of the concurrent sessions. Amanda Melilli of UNLV, Alicia Abdul of Albany NY High School and I presented on graphic novels in a session called "'That's Not Real Reading': Making the Case for Graphic Novel Inclusion in Every Classroom." The three of us met doing work for YALSA's 2017 Great Graphic Novels for Teens Committee so it was wonderful to once again reunite. Through Google docs, video chats, and multiple emails we had spent the last six months preparing this 60 minute presentation. You can view the presentation slides here. While Amanda's research grounded our presentation in the theory, Alicia and I were able to demonstrate the what it looks like to use graphic novels in public/private school classrooms. Hearing of the work my co-presenter Alicia does inspires me to discover new ways to collaborate with Wheeler faculty. This was my first time presenting nationally, and it was exciting to see that the subject of our talk was one people discussed both before and after the conference.
In the process of creating this presentation, my own understanding of the graphic novel format (yes, format, not genre) expanded as did my understanding of the work several of our upper school English teachers are doing with graphic novels. I was reminded of the great learning that happens in the process of creation. I was also reminded of how important each group member can be when doing collaborative work.
Grow:
Thanks to Christine Smith, I attended a symposium on Thursday night where various school librarians talked through the history and future of school librarianship. Almost like speed dating, I learned about past initiatives and puzzled over current challenges around collaboration, inquiry and support. I was reminded that sharing our work through blogs and social media is a great way for others to know the work we are doing. And while our Prescott Library has blogs, Instagram, and Twitter, we could certainly up our game in the amount we use them (especially Twitter).I was also challenged to reconsider what representation of learning looks like. Just days before attending the conference, I'd argued the importance of the 10th grade research project concluding with an argumentative essay. But after Joyce Valenza reminded us, research projects don't have to all look the same. I returned to questions I often wonder: what is it our students need to learn to prepare for college? What do students need to prepare for their lives beyond college?
How are we helping students learn how to learn? When are we getting in our own way?What more can school librarians do to support teachers and students in the inquiry and exploration process?
The amazing thing about these four domains is they all lead to one larger goal: Learn. While not explicitly stated, the standards, like this conference help frame our understanding, push us forward, challenge our conceptions, and ultimately ask us to remain active in the process.