Common Ground - Day 2 and 10 Reflections

Can I just say that I had a great time at my first Common Ground?  Day 2 had just as many wonderful presenters as Day 1. However, it did seem that attendance was lighter and attendees at sessions kept getting scarcer as the day wore on.

I started my sessions with Wole Moses from Microsoft and his presentation "Hacking the Classroom" where he was discussing Office365 and many of the applications available to educators in Maryland.  I am very excited to explore Mix more closely.  I think this may change the future of sub plans!  I really appreciated the fact that is was NOT a sales pitch but a discussion of what we already have.  I wish the setting had been a bit more intimate.

Moving on to BCPS' own Jen Weaver and her "Great Infographic Challenge".  I have to say that Jen makes everything seem so attainable.  She is so positive and delightful.  I am already thinking of how to create a library infographic to display. Jen may be getting some S.O.S. emails from me in the future.

(On a side note:  Someone took the little Lego people that were on display at the Office of Digital Learning's Poster session.  They were Jen's personal ones from when she was a kid and she was hoping to share them with her daughter.  If you have any knowledge of their whereabouts, because I am sure it was an honest mistake, please send them home.  You can send them to me and I will get them to her.  My school address is Edgemere Elementary 7210 North Point Rd, Baltimore, MD 21219)

Kelly and I met during the next session to do some last minute prep for our presentation but I was able to sneak into last part the SAMR Smackdown session presented by 4 representatives from the Office of Digital Learning in BCPS!  The room was packed and the discussion was LIVELY!

Then it was time for Kelly and I to get to work and start our presentation.  But would anyone even still be there?

YES!  There were people there and they weren't just friends from BCPS who stuck it out until the bitter end of the day to support us but real live other people, who didn't even know us, but came to hear what we had to say! WOO HOO!  I wanted to go hug every one of their little necks and say thank you.

Kelly and I did our presentation and I admit, nerves ruled the day and I forgot to say some things I wanted to share.  I forgot to say that my kids love this as much as I do.  I forgot to say that we have lots of sub categories. I forgot to say that I love my job.  I hope the attendees got that point.  I hope they read the blog and see all the stuff I missed and I hope they ask some questions on the blog or through Today's Meet. I appreciate the people who took the time to stay and talk and ask questions and reach out.  I am glad that a dialogue was started for others. I saw smiling faces and nodding heads and that is always a good sign. 

Now that it is done and over with, I am kind of sad that AASL rejected us.  I would have enjoyed the opportunity to present again and tweak it to fit a different audience and to attend that conference.  I am already thinking of what I could do for next year...maybe :-)

And now...TOP 10 REFLECTIONS....

1) BCPS has a WHOLE lot of talent.  We have amazingly fabulously wonderfully talented individuals who are not afraid to push the envelope, try new things and SHARE.  We were well represented and I was proud to be a part of Team BCPS and Office of Digital Learning.

2) BCPS buddies stick together.  We made sure that our poster sessions were attended and our concurrent sessions were attended and that we smiled and said hello. We tweeted about each other and our sessions. That's a big deal when you are feeling like a little guppy swimming in a big goldfish bowl.

3) Always hold your long skirt in one hand as you travel up the escalator lest it get caught and grind the whole thing to a stop while it is full of people on their way to their first session of the day.  (I heard this happened to some poor unsuspecting young thing and they were still talking about it the next day - bless her little heart!)

4) If you ask nicely, the desk clerk at the hotel WILL wait until the elevator door dings and you step in before he laughs at the fact that you were so tired you could not remember your room number and had to get off the elevator and go ask him (even though it was Day 2 of your stay).

5) We all have a little Laid Back Louie and Neurotic Nancy in us just waiting to come out.  Thankfully Kelly and I were laid back and neurotic at opposite times and it worked! 

6) Free Post-its!!!  Yep, I got to feed my addiction one give-away table at a time!

7) Driving the Bay Bridge isn't so bad (except for that scary part where I used the EZPass ONLY lane and ended up traveling in the only eastbound lane open on the westbound span and it was my first time crossing the bridge EVER!)

8) In late April in Ocean City on Wednesday night at @7pm, there is not much open for delivery to your hotel for dinner.  So, when you decide to "stretch your legs" and walk across the parking lot to the nearest bar and grill, it is most likely mostly bar and less grill even though the desk clerk assures you they have take out.  They did.  It was fine.  But one gentleman, bless his heart, did ask me my name after introducing me to his wife and then asked if I was there for Spring Bike Week and when I told him that I was there for a conference and that I was an elementary school librarian, he looked at me and declared I did not look like a librarian.  I wonder, does that mean I look like a biker? Are khakis the new leather?  Have flats replaced boots? Am I in need of a librarian makeover???? Although I did find this on the web so maybe this is something to consider for next year....

9)  Now I want more!  I want to go to ISTE.  I want to go to MASL.  I want to go to AASL.  I want to soak up these amazing ideas and bring them back to my little corner of the world and give them to my kiddos and my staff and my library friends.  So if you know of any funding opportunities, send them my way(or pack me in your suitcase).  I promise to share what I learn :-)

10) My little library pond has some new idea stones sitting on the edge of it.as a result of attending Common Ground.  I can't wait to see the ripples they make when I start to pick them up and toss them in!

Common Ground - Day 1

So today was the first day of Common Ground 2015. It started early and is ending late.  Tomorrow is the big presentation.  I wish I was as cool a cucumber as the presenters I saw today.  My head is swirling with lots of "OOOHHHH, I want to try that" and "OOOHHHH, I want to learn more about that" and "OOOHHHH, I wonder if I could go visit them" thoughts. 

Today I learned about QUADBLOGGING and using Skype and Google Hangouts from Nicole Cafarelli-Long, a dynamic speaker/teacher from Frederick County.  I foresee this coming to a library near me in the future.  Check out her class at mrslongsclass.com.

Then I walked into Rebecca Oxley's presentation entitled, "Turn Up Your Classroom" and, yowza!, that is one high energy, tuned in, techy librarian.  So excited to explore more of the links and sites she referenced.

Next up was learning how Stephanie Brandt created a culture of reading at her elementary school.  It was great to see my school's S.T.A.T. teacher in this session too and we got to have a quick chat/brainstorm session about how this related to our school.  Always good when someone from your school is hearing the same words you are!

Finally, I was able to see my own colleague, Joquetta Johnson aka The Digital D.I.V.A. , present about Mixing Hip Hop and Technology to Create Student Engagement.  What an enthusiastic, passionate speaker she is and so creative!  I was emailing a third grade teacher during her presentation saying, "You have to check out this website!  Your kids will love this vocabulary video on Ancient Egypt." 

Now off to bed (as if I can sleep!) and more new learning tomorrow.  Not sure if I am hoping people will stick around and be interested in what Kelly and I have to say or if they will want to get out of Ocean City and head home. Either way, I am grateful for the opportunity and proud of what Kelly and I have worked on together.

Just A Peek

Last post, I told you that I was off to run some circulation reports and get some updated numbers.  I ran ALOT of reports.  No. Seriously. ALOT!  Think of a number.  Now make it bigger. I was a data monster. I spent HOURS with numbers and spreadsheets and reports and it made me feel very official.

But now I am in a quandary. A perplexing position indeed.  I am not known for my ability to keep a secret.  However, I am pretty good at deception when it involves practical jokes.  Good news makes me giddy and I have lots of good news. But, I don't want to give it all away before our staff development and our presentation at Common Ground.

So, for tonight I will just give a peek of some wonderfulness.

Overall Circulations for the same period (November 2013 to April 2014 vs. November 2014 to April 2015) have increased by 827 or 8.3%. I consider that an accomplishment and success especially when factoring in that over 1000 titles were also weeded from the collection during that same time period. The goal of this genrefication project was increased circulation and we are still accomplishing that in our library.

And that is all I can say!  Honestly.  No matter how much you beg.  But I will say, that is the LEAST impressive of the numbers that I saw in my data.

YIKES!

I have been a bad blogger and I apologize.  I told you in a previous post that I was heading off to Spring Break and then, POOF!, I disappeared into a land of nothingness.  Trust me when I assure you that I have not been sitting around idle.  School resumed this week (Can that really be correct? It seems like so much longer!).  That means welcome backs, what did you read and guess what new unit we are starting for most of my students. 

It also means a new round of standardized testing which means, along with these new research units utilizing online resources, many of the laptops and netbooks I was given to be used in the library have been "borrowed" for testing resulting in a technology shortage in library land yet again.  Oh how I long for the day when the students in our building finally have one to one digital devices accessible to them.  It is coming.  So close and yet so far.  This does present a challenge when planning and an additional challenge when planning for a substitute. 

That's right ladies and gentlemen, let the Spring chaos begin.  Over the course of the next 4 weeks, I will be participating in a 1/2 day district wide staff development (sub needed), multiple afterschool meetings with Kelly regarding our Common Ground presentation (no sub needed thankfully), accommodating for standardized testing (sub again), multiple days attending Common Ground (sub again), 2 afterschool presentations to librarians in our district (no sub needed) and graduation of my own son from college (sub again).  This has resulted in my plan book looking similar to this flowchart (which has nothing to do with education except it reminded me of my librarian friend Laura in some weird way and I know it will make her chuckle when and if she sees it - Are you reading this, Laura?) instead of it's normal ordinary orderly way because there are so many contingency plans coming up with subs and schedule changes due to standardized testing.

But life is good library friends.  I have a stack of books kiddos read over Spring Break that they can not wait to tell me (and their peers) about and a few circulation reports that I can not wait to run, see the results of and share those with you.

So off to work I go.  Check back soon for some (hopefully) impressive numbers!

The Visitors Came

This is the first moment I have had to catch up. It seems as if the calendar items are all conspiring to occur at the same time.

 Kelly and I met about our Common Ground presentation and we both ended up with a long list of to-do's.  It's scary and daunting, and to be honest, a little bit exciting!  We have a plan and intend to work it. Priority on my to-do list is getting location fields set up for the fiction section. I am starting with the fiction section because there are a fewer amount of records to manipulate. Good news!  The Sports Fiction is finished.  It took about 1-1/2 hrs. to complete.  Bad news!  It is one of the smallest genres and there are 8 more genres to go in fiction.  I am simply refusing to think about Nonfiction section.  To quote that plucky little lady from the south,





When we finished, 3 librarians from our school system's Lighthouse schools came to visit.  (Can I just stop right here and geek out for a minute?  I just love company!  I am so proud of this project and the results we have seen.  So I get super excited when I know someone is coming.) These three ladies came to see my library set up and just to visit and ask a few questions.  They looked excited when they left.  (Hopefully you can read all about it when they send me some guest posts to share.)

And it turns out that Kelly and I will get a chance to present our Common Ground presentation to a group of BCPS librarians prior to the actual presentation in Ocean City.  I really am quite thankful for the opportunities that I have been able to experience and the ones that keep presenting themselves.

Spring Forward

Daylight Savings time arrived on Sunday morning and with it beautiful, hinting at Spring, weather arrived as well!  Not only is the clock springing forward but so am I.

I arrived back to work this morning armed with a notepad, post-its, pen and first period planning.  Time to get some serious Spring cleaning done in the library, my office and desk before I begin meetings with Kelly about Common Ground next week.  I also just found out that some visitors are coming next week to see the library so look for some future posts (hopefully) sharing some of their reflections after they visit.

Barkley and I are also going to take advantage of the nicer weather and start walking together.  (I hope that, by writing it publically, I actually follow through and do it!) I am looking forward to seeing some signs of Spring.

Choose Your Own

Do you remember these books from your childhood?

I used to LOVE reading the Choose Your Own Adventure series when I was a kid.  I always bought a new one at the Scholastic book fair.  For an avid reader like me, they were a great bang for my buck.  I could read and reread the book over and over and have a different story each time.  Deadwood City was my favorite.

Earlier this year, a third grade teacher was talking to her students about them and several kids asked me.  I brought one in from the public library to share with them and they were thrilled! 

The covers have been updated and there are new "secret endings" online but they still hold the appeal they did 30 years ago.

This week they were out on display for the first time. My display looked like this:

 

 

This morning, Monday, this is what it looks like.

I had "refilled" it everyday with books to make it fair for book check out.  If I don't do this, all the new books get checked out by the first few classes and that is NOT fair.

I am anxious to see if these continue to head out the door.

Kelly and I have set up a meeting to work on our Common Ground presentation.  Things are moving along despite this frigid weather we have been having.  I am keeping my eyes open for ANY signs of green.

Right On Time

Today has been one of those days with repeated bits of good news.  And it came right on time as I needed some positives. 

#1 - The HUGE OPAC station that I used to have in my library has finally (after months and months of the task being pushed from department to department) been removed from the library and transferred to its' new home in a middle school.  So happy to see it go!

#2 - My book order has shipped!!  That means the new books will be here later this week and I can not wait! 

#3 - I received an email confirmation that I was selected to co-present at Common Ground.  (Not sure if this makes me feel ill or excited.)  Such a cool thing to be selected.

#4 - My 2nd grade is writing Fractured Fairy Tales and I am giggling at what they have created.  I can't wait to get them typed and displayed and shared electronically.  They are really cute.

Looking Back and Looking Ahead

January 1st - Happy New Year!  It's a day for traditionally looking back to see the (many)accomplishments and (hopefully) few regrets of the previous year and looking forward and making plans for the new year. 

So, in that vein, let's start by looking backwards.

1)  I ran circulation reports for the fiction and nonfiction sections for the same time periods.  Here are the results:

	11/18/2013-1/1/2014	11/18/2014-1/1/15	+/-  change
Fiction	764	1149	+385
NonFiction	176	695	+519
Total Checkouts (minus Everybody)	940	1844	+904

 So if the goal of this project was to increase the number of circulations, mission accomplished!  And that is the goal, isn't it?  All the hard work and hours have a clear payoff at the end. 

2) I submitted my first ever proposal to present at a conference (AASL).

3) I got to know my collection - intimately!

4) I weeded.  In January 2014, there were 8856 items in my collection and by the end of the Un-Deweying process, there were 7,812 items.  That is a difference of 1,044 items.  Some of these (let's say 10% or so) were normal weeding due to wear and tear but the rest were a direct result of the genrefication process.

5) I became an accidental blogger.  It's intriguing when I look at the blog stats and see that it has been viewed by someone in France, Germany or Russia.  I wonder what they must think and how they ended up here.  What possible search engine term did they use?

Regrets?  The first, and really only, one that comes to mind would be doing this mid-year.  I am a planner.  I am a thinker.  I like lists I can check off.  And yet, I plunged headfirst into this.  I may have been a bit less stressed and, honestly, done a bit less stress eating if I had made this a summer project.

Now to look forward.

1) Kelly and I completed the application to present at Common Ground. According to the website, we should hear by January 10th if our proposal was accepted or not.

2) I'll continue to monitor the circulation statistics to see if the upward trend continues.

3) I'll continue blogging.  I need to take the good camera in and take some clear shots.  We have a professional day coming up and I see that on my to-do list.

4) ??  Who knows what opportunities will present themselves!  I am going to be receptive and say "yes" more than "no" or at least try to do that.

 

Nonfiction Feedback

This was the first week for the new and improved nonfiction section of the library.  Students were super excited to explore the new categories.  If I had a nickel, for each time a student asked if this was a "new" book, I could retire!  They, and I, discovered so many neat books that had been languishing on the shelves. 

I put out the Flipcam again and here is a snapshot of the videos that were recorded:

 

 

I did have a few kiddos who seemed lost and not sure where to go.  It is much like going to Nordstrom's for the first time.  So many floors.  So much to see.  Where to start?  It can be intimidating.  I'm anxious to see how things go over the next few weeks. 

 

And the unexpected AHA that happened today?  A third grader asked, "So when we return our books, we don't use the numbers anymore, right?  So, how do we put them on the cart?"  Ummm...hadn't thought about that!  Here's the cart he was talking about:

 



 I love this cart.  It was one of the first things I bought for my library and I worked really hard teaching the students to look at the spine of the book and put it in the correct spot.  We have almost 500 kids checking out multiple books.  That is ALOT of books to shelve by myself.

 

Thank goodness for 1/2 days for students, and a delayed meeting with Kelly, because I was able to make some very quick changes. I removed the numbers and added the stickers from each category.  I tried to anticipate the most highly visited categories and combine those with lesser visited ones.

 

 

We are going to live with this for a week or so and then I plan on making 2x2 copies of the icons and finalizing the placement of them on the cart.

 

Shortly afterward, Kelly arrived and we spent a couple of hours working on the submission for Common Ground 2015.  It is hard to believe only a month has gone by since all of this started.  We had so much to reflect upon and even more "next steps" to complete.

 

Check back later this weekend as I am going to crunch some numbers and see how circulation fared in the new nonfiction section.