STAT School Library Summer Institute

School ended Thursday - WOO HOO!  But I spent Friday morning crushing data(which is awesome and I will share with you later this week) for a presentation on Monday at a district wide Professional Development Day for library media specialists.  No, you did not read that incorrectly.  School ended Thursday and I had professional development day on Monday - my first real day of summer vacation!   WHAT??!!!???  And it was on the OTHER SIDE OF THE WORLD!!! And it was ALL DAY LONG!!! (Can you see me throwing my virtual temper tantrum?)

 

Think positive thoughts...think positive thoughts...think positive thoughts...

 

So when the alarm went off an hour earlier than usual this morning and the dog decided that he suddenly LOVED the backyard more than his comfy bed and yummy peanut butter filled Kong (Hello-that has NEVER happened before!) and traffic was moving at a SPEEDY 8mph on the beltway, I was pretty sure this was not going to go down as the best professional development day in history.

 

But then I walked in the door of the school and I saw my friends and hugged their necks and heard the birds sing and saw flowers bloom and the clouds part as rays of sun shone down upon us one and all. (Okay, so maybe I exaggerated that just a teeny tiny bit but it felt like that to me.)

 

We started out with a wonderful Q & A panel with library media specialists from the Lighthouse Schools in our district.  These folks deserve a huge round of praise for their trailblazing efforts.  They have forged a path for the rest of us to follow and were so open about sharing their successes and failures. 

 

Then off to my two morning sessions.  I learned about the newly redesigned BCPS One interface.  Then I moved on to learning about student centered flexible learning environments.  The facilitators structured the session as if we were students participating in a student centered, active, choice driven environment.  What a great application!

 

Lunch was wonderful with my former cohort buddies!  How fun to reminisce with them about our cohort days, catch up with each other and share the latest news.

 

After lunch,  I headed off to my 3rd session to learn some new assessment techniques.  LOVED IT!  Then it was time for Kelly and I to present our Un-Deweying session again.  I was pretty sure by this point in time that we would have, at most, 5 people.  But we had an entire room of attendees. 

Color me surprised!  I thought by now the bloom was off the rose and that my 15 minutes of library fame had burned brightly and faded off quietly into the night sky. But no!

 

 

Earlier in the day, a librarian stopped me in the hallway.  Literally stopped me in the hallway by grabbing me and saying, "I did it!"  She went on to tell me that she enlisted in a team of volunteers and had completely un-deweyed her entire library and SHE LOVED IT.  Her kids loved it!  Everybody loved it!  She was so enthusiastic and excited.  I felt great but considered it a fluke at the time.  I knew I had gotten some emails but I wasn't sure they were more than cursory interest or "thinking abouts" or "maybe I might" types of emails.  I mentioned her in my session and several attendees knew exactly who I was speaking of and her enthusiasm and started mentioning others who were talking about the un-deweying that was taking place in their libraries.  What a way to end the day on such an awesome high! 

 

Kelly and I spoke briefly about submitting to present at MASL this Fall.  Hmmmm.....