MASL

Friday I was delighted to be able to attend my first MASL (Maryland Association of School Librarians) Conference where I was able to present about the un-deweying pilot that started this blog.

One of the things I loved best about this conference was that the Morning Keynote Speaker, Andy Plemmons, and the Afternoon keynote Speaker, Matthew Winner, were both practicing school library media specialists.  They were talking the talk and walking the walk.  Their presentations weren't full of , "When I was in the library..." but "In my library.." and I think that is so valuable.  It made them relatable and their ideas and insights and thoughts practical and applicable.  That is always significant to me because there is nothing worse than walking away from a presentation and thinking that i took nothing away because it wasn't realistic in a day to day teaching sense.

 My first session of the day was Reaching Diverse Readers Through Diverse Reading Programs with Jennifer Siderius from Frederick Co., MD.  She had some awesome ideas for ways to engage readers.  I was particularly impressed with how she worked with the classroom teachers to make sure that the mystery book bags were specific to the reading levels within a class.  WOW!

The next session was the one Kelly and I presented at and we had a pretty full room.  There were lots of questions and feedback.  I have to admit it was a bit daunting to see Andy Plemmons turn up to hear our session. 

After a delicious lunch (sidenote - be prepared to gain some pounds if you attend this conference as there is food EVERYWHERE), the next session I went to was Best Book Sites (so far).  I have a HUGE list of sites to visit this weekend.  I am learning to pace myself and put some things on the back burner for another time.  Do small things well and add on instead of doing many things poorly.
Matthew Winner was the presenter for this session and it is obvious that he has a passion for literature.  He read aloud from an advance copy of "Little Tree" by Loren Long.  I see this being a book coming to a professional development near you very soon.

And then Matthew ended the day, as the keynote, with a presentation entitled, "What Makes a Hero?" and challenged all of us to think about the legacy we are leaving.  I was ready (almost) to head back to school right that day and get started.

There's No Place Like Home

Today was my first day as a "visiting" summer librarian for another school in my district. Their librarian is happily celebrating the birth of her new baby girl (this morning!) and I agreed to spend 12 hours this summer at the library so students in the school's summer enrichment program and from the surrounding community could check out books. 

I was a bit apprehensive because a fellow librarian posted on Facebook last night that she had 0 participants show up at the school she is covering this summer (also not her own school).  I know I have a captive audience in the summer program students but I am not sure about the community ones.  I did send out a Tweet last night to remind them and I know the principal did ConnectEd calls and a flyer went home before the end of the school year. 

I do have some familiarity with this library because Cara, the librarian, was my mentee during the past school year.  She has done a great job making the library a more "kid friendly" by reducing the clutter on the shelves, increasing signage and making popular items more readily accessible.

BUT...it still feels like a foreign country to me.  I miss my Un-Deweyed library as students walked up to me today and asked me if there were any books about dirtbikes or giant pandas or Pokémon.  I missed being able to stride confidently over to the shelf and say yes or no.  I knew the Dewey section to look in but it isn't my library and so I had to look to find that section and then find the right shelf and then find the right section within the shelf.  I have a list and I spent some time pulling some books for students for next week.  But not being able to find the material instantly was frustrating for me.  I felt like I was spending time wandering along the yellow brick road looking for the land of OZ.

And I miss my series section and my graphic novels section.  I miss being able to recommend something on the fly.  I didn't realize how often I did that until that was taken away.  When you are using someone else's collection, you don't realize how different it is from your own. 

But there is good news.  I am walking around and seeing some new titles that I do not have and checking out some authors and series that are not in my collection. 

And I am meeting some new munchkins!