Science Through Stories

Great news! My presentation proposal called "Science Through Stories" for the Ohio Council of Teachers of English Language Arts (OCTELA ) was accepted.

This fifty minute presentation was inspired by the workshop I participated in for the Public Library of Youngstown and Mahoning County's Headstart teachers last February.

Here is a summary:

"Educators will be connected to literature that has been correlated to the Ohio Department of Education’s academic content standards, particularly the early learning/primary, science content standards. Sharing correlated literature using story reading and storytelling techniques (plus extension ideas) will be demonstrated. Science and storytelling resources (books and websites) also provided."

These correlations will also be posted to the Institute for Library and Information Literacy Education (ILILE) website with the support of one of my former Kent State University mentors, Michelle Baldini.

I am also thinking of creating a professional wiki that will make such presentation handouts electronically accessible (save paper) and eventually, share and showcase my library program handouts.

ALA Midwinter Conference Schedule (Actual)

Italicized events are personal, sight-seeing events, not professional, conference related sessions.

Also, this "actual" schedule varies drastically from my planned schedule because of the distances (and time) involved in navigating to the various sessions.

Friday, January 15
6:00 p.m. - 7:00 Registration and Exhibit Hall
7:30 - 8:30 ALSC Speed Networking
9:30 - 10:00 Emerging Leader Reunion

Saturday, January 16
8:00 a.m. - 9:00 Sunrise Speaker Series featuring Elizabeth Gilbert
9:00 - 10:00 Exhibit Hall
10:30 - 12:00 OCLC Reaching Consumers through Nontraditional Methods: What Can WorldCat Do for You?
1:00 - 5:00 Visited McCloskey's Make Way for Ducklings sculpture and walked part of the Freedom Trail
7:00 - 7:30 BWI Social
8:00 - 9:30 Attempted to attend the Notable Children's Videos Committee, discovered it was canceled but met Queens Children's Librarian Sueli Zaquem
10:30 - 12:00 ALA Social where I attempted to meet the EMIE Bulletin Editor

Sunday, January 17
8:00 a.m. - 11:30 LNOSCY Committee Meeting
12:00 - 1:00 Exhibit Hall
1:30 - 3:00 Cataloging of Children's Materials Committee
4:00 - 5:00 The Role of Commentary in the Standards Review Process from the ALA Office of Accreditation
Monday, January 18
6:30 a.m. - 7:30 (the last) Martin Luther King Sunrise Celebration, met EMIE Bulletin Editor
7:45 - 8:45 Youth Media Awards
8:45 - 9:15 Exhibit Hall
9:20 - 10:00 Youth Council Caucus

ALA Midwinter Conference Schedule (Planned)

Friday, January 15
7:30 - 8:00 ALSC Speed Networking
8:00 - 9:00 USBBY Presents the 2010 Outstanding International Books List
9:00 - 10:00 Emerging Leader Reunion

Saturday, January 16
7:00 - 8:00 OCLC Dewey Breakfast Update
8:00 - 9:00 Sunrise Speaker Series
10:30 - 11:30 OCLC Reaching Consumers Through Non-Traditional Methods
11:30 - 12:30 HarperCollins Childrens Books Seasonal Title Presentation
1:30 - 3:30 AASL/ALSC/YALSA Joint Intellectual Freedom Meeting
3:30 - 5:00 Great Interactive Software for Kids
5:15 - 7:00 Alexander Street Ethnographic Video Screening
8:00 - 10:00 Notable Children's Videos Committee
10:00 ALA Social

Sunday, January 17
8:00 - 12:00 LNOSCY Committee Meeting
1:30 - 3:30 Cataloging of Children's Materials Committee
4:00 - 5:00 Role of Commentary in the Standards Review Process
4:00 - 6:00 ALSC All Discussion Group Meeting

Monday, January 18
7:30 - 9:00 ALA Youth Media Awards
9:00 - 10:00 Youth Council Caucus

Collaboration Through Technology

As I prepare for my first American Library Association committee meeting at the midwinter conference next week, I reviewed Maureen Sullivan's "Leadership Principles and Practices" handout that I received during my Emerging Leader experience.

In my last post, I set up a vision for 2010 that utilizes more technology in my professional life. Therefore, it is important that Sullivan's handouts reminded me of the underlying purpose of using such technology; Technology aids collaboration.

The connection and collaboration of individuals around the world through the internet is indeed "... a synergistic process through which the outcomes are greater than the sum of the individual efforts."

I am excited to meet my fellow committee members next Sunday and am interested to experience their unique collaboration techniques and tools.

New Year, New Visions

It seems that I am moving toward becoming even more immersed in the technological world, especially with how it can be used in my professional life.

This afternoon I became a member of the free, social networking, and book-focused site called Shelfari. I envision that it will replace my Excel spreadsheet of read books. As a librarian, a list like this provides me with helpful reminders for book talking or, in other words, for marketing titles to readers. Not only will Shelfari organize this list in a more detailed, visually stimulating, and interactive way, it also offers instant reading recommendations ... a feature librarians refer to as "readers' advisory."

I also have a firsthand understanding of widgets through the successful addition of a Shelfari widget to this blog.

Cheers to another year of Learning!

My Father Reading Merry Christmas Mouse

On the Seventh Day, I successfully uploaded the first of many videos on a YouTube account.

Background at this post.