Handing Over the Reins

Wow.  So many emotions today! I went to my new school yesterday and spent a couple of hours looking around at the books and the setup and the mountains of accumulated stuff that I will have to trash.  It was really overwhelming.  I don't even know where to start, there is so much to do.  A good friend of mine was the librarian there many years ago, and there is still stuff there with her handwriting on it.  Yikes.  And that's just the stuff.  That's not anything that matters, like, you know, lesson plans, or books, or students.  Everything I look at is just something to deal with so I can concentrate on what really matters.  I'll be spending a lot of time there in the upcoming six weeks, for sure.

I went to a reading conference today that was pretty good.  Not great, but then again, when I keep my expectations low, I usually say that.  I saw some librarian friends there, and that was great, as always.  I saw a colleague from many moons ago when I first became a librarian, and that was awesome. We caught up on all our mutual friends and even snapped a selfie (sorry, not included here!).

Then, and this was such a wonderful thing: the librarian who is taking over the library at the school I'm leaving was there, and we got to talk for a few minutes.  Oh, I feel relief knowing that she will be the librarian there.  I was so worried that my replacement would be someone brand new to the library world (not that there's anything wrong with that) (I know--I was that person once, too) who wouldn't appreciate the great shape that library is in.  I am a little more at peace tonight knowing that it will be in good hands.

Tomorrow morning, bright and early before it gets ungodly hot, I will be moving the last of my stuff out of my old school and into my new one.  It's really just still hard to believe that it is all happening. Wow.

Spring Reboot

Yesterday, I went to one of my state's regional librarian conferences.  It wasn't the one for my particular region, but it was fine--plenty of people I knew, and I got some good ideas.  The conference for my region was held pretty far away, and I, of course, couldn't get professional leave to go on Friday.  But the conference I attended was about 1/2 hour away and on a Saturday--WIN/WIN!
At the start, I had a little something to eat while I sat with some librarians I did not know.  We had a great discussion about genrefying our fiction sections.  I am leaning more and more toward it...much to think about here.  It could be a good summer project.
Then I went to a session about a local man who was a civil rights leader (not on our state standards) who was friends with others who are on our people-to-know list.  All the attendees at this session got a free copy of the book--awesome! I am excited to share it with the kids and help them make connections among all these people they're supposed to know about.
My second session was so fun--an old friend presented a session about controversial literature and literature that makes a social commentary.  She noticed me in the audience about 1/2 way through the presentation and stopped to say hello.  Afterwards, we got to talk for a few minutes.  Another librarian came up and announced herself as the presenter's first groupie.  We laughed and let her know that I was officially the first groupie several years ago!
Then it was time for lunch, where I met a new friend, a librarian getting her MLS online and hoping for a school library job next year.  Our lunch time passed too quickly as we found lots of things we have in common.
The third session was a sneak-peak at our state award list for next school year.  I'd already seen the list, but not all of the books, so it was nice to start thinking about that already.  I picked up a few of the books from a vendor who had a great deal, so I can start working on them over the summer. Ooh, I just stopped to order one from Amazon.  The presenter mentioned that it is hard to get; indeed, Amazon had no copies in stock, but I bought it used from a third-party seller.  At least I will have it, as I'm sure librarians around the state will be clammoring for it soon.
I visited with a couple vendors after that and then decided to bag the fourth session and keynote and just head home.  It was a good day, and just what I needed to recharge for the spring.

VAASL!

What a great time I had at the VaASL conference!! A whole lotta work, fun time with old friends, and a little drama.  What more could we ask for?!?!

Lotta work: This year, as in years past, I presented two workshops on extension ideas to use with the VRC books.  Our state awards readers' choice award nominees list comes out each spring, and librarians like to use these books with our K-2 kids, so I put together some ideas for using the books in the library.  I was thinking back to when this all started, and I remember being appalled that my reading specialist just went from room to room reading all the books in a row and had the kids vote.  I wanted to make the reading more meaningful, so I gently insisted that I'd have to take over the VRC program.  That was in 2001, I think.  I don't think she was too disappointed not to be reading the books like that.

Then, one year, I was mentoring a lovely new librarian and we came up with ways to use the VRC books in our libraries.  I shared those ideas with the librarians in my county, and then everything started to snowball.  The reading specialist at my school created a summer class for teachers and librarians who were interested in using the VRC books, and we came up with lots of ideas there.  Another librarian friend and I decided to present at the state conference and share the ideas we'd found and created for the books.  And now it is just expected. 

It takes hours and hours to troll the Internet for each book on the list, looking for ideas and finding out what's out there.  Then I create lessons based on my own ideas (and improve the things I found online). 

Drama: I somehow got sick immediately after eating breakfast about 1 1/2 hours before my presentation.  What the heck?!?!? Who vomits?!?!?!  Not nerves.  Not a bug.  Who knows.

Fun times: The Thursday night entertainment was the best ever for VaASL!! Scooter Hayes, AKA Melvil Dewey entertained us with bunches of his songs from his CDs.  I've been watching his Dewey Rap video with the kids for years now, and he is a rock star to us. 



My new favorite word is Plagiarizzle.  If you plagiarizzle, you get in troub-izzle.  A great song by Scooter.  I totally think that kids will respond differently to any lesson on plagiarism if we just call it plagiarizzle!

Still Sleeping

Oh, my. I am seriously wiped out! I have done nothing more than sleep and read since I returned from the conference yesterday afternoon. I've slept most of the afternoon away, and it feels divine!

I don't know if I've ever written about my friend Lynne Farrell Stover before, but I was hoping that she'd be at our state conference again, and she was! In fact, I was in the lobby talking with our organization's president, and she hit me on the back and said, "Remember me!?" REMEMBER her?!!? Seriously, I think about her all the time and have told many colleagues about her fabulous books. I was flattered that she remembered ME!

This is the first of her books of Magical Library Lessons. It has tons of great ideas in it, and the following books (available at www.upstart.com) are great, too! I bought a set of them and asked her to sign them for me; I already have a set at my library, but I decided that I needed my own personal copies. One of the books I won at the silent auction at the conference, and that makes it extra special.

We sat together at the author dinner (we did last year, too, and are both traditional girls!) and just picked up where we left off. The other people were very curious about her writing, and I felt like the prop girl, pulling out her books as she talked about them. Too funny!

If you're a librarian and you're reading this, check out her books. In particular, I like how practical her ideas are--not pie in the sky theoretical concepts that are impossible to implement in the real-life classroom. One of the best sessions I attended was one of hers for using the book Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs. She had so many great ideas for incorporating economic concepts into lessons after reading the book. I'm going to find out when the movie is released and maybe do a One School/One Book/One Movie event. Hmmm....that means I'd have to read it 36 times. Sigh...now that's real-life librarianship!