Professional Development Day August 19,2015

Today was one of my favorite days!  It was system wide Professional Development Day for the beginning of the 2015-2016 school year.

It's one of my favorite days that, unfortunately, involved one of my least favorite activities - early rising.  Our county is large and this meeting was a million miles away on the other side of the world! (Ok it was a 45 minute drive around the beltway but it felt like a million miles away.)  My iron quit working.  The dog didn't want to come inside.  I spilled my Altoids all over the floor of the car as I was driving to my carpool meeting point.  Oh yeah.  This day was off to a good start.  But nothing was going to spoil this for me because I love this day.

I love this day for so many reasons.  We get to welcome the new library media specialists.  We get to see our friends.  We get to attend some great presentations by our co-workers.  I always travel through this day in awe and wonder at how cutting edge and advanced our county is and how perceptive and attune, to what kids want and need, our media specialists are.  I leave energized and ready to try a million new things in a million different ways.  The best part is that I know I am not the only one leaving feeling this way.

After greetings from Ryan Imbriale, we started with our very own leader, Fran Glick, giving our keynote this year.  It was a celebration of so many accomplishments of so many people in our office and the importance of our cohort partnership with Towson University.  I saw so many people raise their hands when Fran asked who had participated in a cohort.  I think that is such a big part of why we have such great LMS in our county-because they were classroom teachers and understand how to teach and motivate and manage students.

Then Fran mentioned the Un-Deweying project that I have been a part of. (Hey Fran - next time a heads up would have been appreciated and I would have spent more time on my hair this morning!) The exciting part was when she asked who had begun to un-dewey their library in some way as a result of hearing about our project.  I was floored!  I knew people were doing it.  I've had emails and tweets here and there.  But to see all those hands.  First, I was humbled to have played a part in that.  But then I was excited.  That excitement just kept building all day long.  People stopped me to show me photos of their libraries on their phones.  They stopped to tell me how many books they weeded.  They stopped to tell me how long it took them and how many hours (for most -unpaid) that they sacrificed this summer. They told me about teams they formed to work together in each other's libraries. And every person who stopped me was smiling and excited.  They were raving about how much their library spaces had transformed and how clean and fresh and beautiful they looked.  There were new signs, freshly painted walls, shelf space that didn't exist before and new decorative touches added.  Every person was just as excited as I was when I did it. Holey Moley!  They didn't even mention what the kids were going to think or how they were going to react because they were in love with their library spaces again.

I can't wait to hear about their student reactions.  I hope I get emails and tweets (@eeslibrary) and see photos. I wish I could visit their libraries and see the reactions. 

I had a chance to do our presentation once again with Kelly.  I really thought people would be tired of hearing about it and that no one would be left to attend.  And yet, there we were, with every chair filled.  And we even got a round of applause at the end!  It's exciting to see the middle and high school LMS who are ready to embrace this.

But enough about our little project.  I attended some seriously wonderful sessions today. 

In my first session, I got to explore the fully digital, fully uploaded curriculum in BCPSOne.  It is like having 6 curriculum binders available to me anywhere, at anytime, with an internet connection and a few clicks.  Planning in my hammock or on my front porch?  Yes please!

Then I headed off to learn about Scratch.  LOVE IT!  My kids are going to love it.  Such a great presentation.  Watch out Edgemere.  This is coming to a makerspace time near you very soon!

Then Jeffrey Flynn presented on 30 Cool Tech Tools.  Some were oldies I had forgotten about but there are definitely some wonderful new ones that I was introduced to and can't wait to explore.  He was a very engaging presenter.

Lunch was wonderful as I got a chance to catch up with my peeps. My cohort buddies are the best!

After lunch, Kelly and I did our presentation and then it was off to learn about Creating Interactive Assignments in BCPSOne presented by Justin Hennaut assisted by the very knowledgeable Jennifer Weaver.  As always, a wonderful and engaging time was had by all. 

Then a closing "job alike" session where we met with our geographical counterparts to think, pair and share about our day.

So, today was a good day.  I hope it was just as good for you.

Mind Your Manners

When I was a classroom teacher (and mom to a wee one), manners were very important to me.  I made it a point to make sure that the little people in my life said "please" and "thank you" and "you're welcome" and "may I?" and "excuse me" and "I'm sorry".  They knew that people were finished and turkeys were done. We always wrote thank you notes for field trips or gifts or when visitors came.

So now the time has come for me to mind my manners and say,

 

 

I have so many people to thank and I know I will forget someone so I must apologize in advance if I do.

 

First, I have to thank Fran Glick who is my supervisor in the Office of Digital Learning(ODL).  Fran tossed out the idea of genrefying and let me run with it.  She read (and commented!) on the blog, emailed and tweeted and talked about me behind my back - in a good way.

 

Next up are Chimere Neal and Kelly Ray, both of whom are resource teachers in the ODL. Chimere helped me kick things off and was instrumental in helping getting the categories and corresponding graphics nailed down.  Kelly was a powerhouse who helped me craft presentation proposals and the corresponding presentations.  She gave so much of her own time to meet with me and work on this project.  She worked tirelessly on the project wiki, library wiki and Destiny solutions.  She truly was the OZ behind the curtain.

 

Remi and Donna, data clerks in the ODL, who came to my school and scanned and scanned and scanned my books and put them all into their new genre classifications so students could find them via location fields in Destiny.  You saved me so much angst and didn't laugh too loudly when I fell out of my chair!

 

Justin, Ben, Jen and Valerie, S.T.A.T. Resource Teachers, who came to my little corner of Baltimore County and peeled labels and label covers and more labels and more labels covers.  Then stacked books back on shelves - all the while laughing and making time fly by.  Thank you also for packing the seats at Common Ground even though my session was the last one on the last day.  You tweeted and came and made my day!

To the many fellow librarians who supported this project with time (labeling and shelving books), encouragement via emails and tweets and attendance at Professional Development sessions and enthusiasm for the project, thank you.  There is nothing like being supported by your peers and feeling like you can give something back to those who have shared so much with you, in so many ways, so many times before.

I'm not finished.  The blog isn't finished.  The library isn't finished.  I still have a bunch of things swirling around in my head that need to be done.  But the most important is now complete.  I have minded my manners and said, "Thank You!"