CSLA Conclusion

My Presentation and Handouts are posted at http://milpitashigh.pbwiki.com/CSLA-Presentation

I did stay around for Saturday at the conference. I went to three presentations that day.

LGBQT Services was an ok presentation. It was more about advocating for having those resources available in your library. I was hoping for suggested resources to have, although the presenter did provide links for booklists which I will get to eventually.

Ellen Hopkins' presentation was interesting. I enjoyed hearing about how and why she has chosen the topics in her books. Her diss of Stephenie Meyers was interesting although I don't completely disagree with her comment that Bella centers her life around Edward and doesn't develop her own self.

Barbara Jeffus' presentation was depressing...but not really anything I didn't expect. The state of our schools in regards to libraries continues to sadden me. I realized that the city of San Jose has only ONE high school with a full time credentialed librarian...that is a tragedy.

CSLA Day 2

I love conferences for the opportunity to be refreshed and reminded why I do this job. There are many inspiring people working in this field that amaze me with what they are doing and how they tirelessly work to provide the best for their students. I attended two sessions today and presented at a third.

International Reading Road--I enjoyed this presentation about providing students with a global perspective for reading choices. Since I have a teacher that requires students to read books set in another country, the annotated bibliography alone provides me with something I can use right away.

Making Connections between the printed word and the digital environment. Full disclosure--I try to attend any session that Mary Ann Harlan presents because she has a real sense for what teens like and how to reach them. She didn't disappoint. Once again, I have interesting titles to look for as well as some new thoughts and ideas for interacting with my students digitally.

My presentation was on Statistics. There were some major technical difficulties which were frustrating since this was my first time presenting at a conference like this. The audience was very generous and my two friends sitting in the front row assured me that I handled it well. Now that it's over I can relax and enjoy the rest of the conference.

The Old-Time Radio show at the presidents reception was fun! In junior high summer school, I took an elective class where we listened to a lot of the old radio shows--green hornet, the shadow...This was in the mid-70's and these were "old school" to us but still fascinating for our squirrely teenage minds. I don't remember any "content" associated with that class i.e. worksheets, lessons, discussions, but I sure remember those shows. Hmmmm are any of those available to download to my Ipod? I think I need to do some searching.

Ok, it's time to sign off.

CSLA--Day 1

Arrived in Sacramento at noon and was able to check in and unload the car before heading to my two workshops.

Workshop #1--Doug Achteman's Reading, Technology and the Media Center
Workshop #2--Michael Cart's What's New in YA Literature

I've always believed that if I come away from a conference with one or two new ideas that I can use right away, it has been a successful conference.

I got that and more today. With my school focus on reading I have several items to share with staff from Doug's presentation.

Michael's list is always a perfect tool for building my collection with books the kids will read. I've already bought three on the list and picked out one for my niece's Christmas gift.

This is just the beginning...I can't wait to see what the next three days have to offer.

Meanwhile, it's great to reconnect with friends and network. I'm a bit surprised at how many people I know in library world.

Me as a Dewey Decimal Section

I found this very fun it was in my American Libraries email this morning. You can create your own at: http://spacefem.com/quizzes/dewey/

LeighAnn 's Dewey Decimal Section:

084 Collections in French, Occitan & Catalan

LeighAnn = 25978144 = 259+781+44 = 1084


Class:
000 Computer Science, Information & General Works


Contains:
Encyclopedias, magazines, journals and books with quotations.



What it says about you:
You are very informative and up to date. You're working on living in the here and now, not the past. You go through a lot of changes. When you make a decision you can be very sure of yourself, maybe even stubborn, but your friends appreciate your honesty and resolve.

Find your Dewey Decimal Section at Spacefem.com

Veteran's Day

Happy Veteran's Day--a big thank you to those who've protected our freedoms.

This photo was taken by a former colleague and the flag image overlayed by him. I use it as my desktop background. It always reminds me of how blessed I am to live in the USA.

History

I was a history major in college and my emphasis area was 20th century history. I focused on the civil rights movement, student movements and women's movement of the 60's and 70's. These were the decades of my childhood and I had vague memories of events of those times. Last night, I witnessed a moment in history I don't think I will ever forget. The U.S.A. elected a president who is a product of those movements. Like me he was a child and didn't participate in those moments, but his life and work was formed by those moments. The election of Barack Obama is profound whatever your ideology. I'm glad I was here to witness the moment.