VAASL Conference 2018 – Gearing Up for the Future
I had an amazing time at the VAASL conference in Williamsburg. This was the first conference I have been able to attend. There were so many great sessions over the two days I was there. A lot of the sessions focused on makerspaces and creating a culture of reading in the school. I enjoyed the makerspace area to enjoy creating and trying new ideas. I was very inspired by the other librarians and their experiences. The final speaker was Alan Gratz. He was a great speaker and I can’t wait to read all of his books. The best part was being there with the other Longwood students and alumni.
VAASL 2018 Conference
I was so excited to attend my second VAASL conference. My first session was with the author April Henry. Her presentation was excellent, and I was able to take away the information about her writing and resources she would use with students. I am going to have my student enter into the contest for mystery writing on her website. At the end of the session, I was able to meet April Henry. Her quote, “You can edit bad stuff, but you can’t edit nothing” resonated with me because I currently teach a writing class.
My next session was Keva Planks. I love Keva Planks. The presenter was awesome and shared that on the Keva Planks website there are ideas for using the planks in any classroom. The activity I liked the most was creating an “image” that represents a book and explaining how it does.
I also attended the sessions on collaborating with secondary math teachers and graphic novels in the classroom and library. Overall, these two sessions also provided me with resources to use in my future library.
In the future, I plan on attending all the days of the conference.
VAASL 2018 Conference
I just returned from a whirlwind weekend at the VAASL (Virginia Association of School Librarians) conference in Williamsburg. This was my first library conference and it was a memorable experience. I was exposed to so many of the latest and greatest in library trends, materials and online sources and received a wealth of information that will be useful in my future library. The most impactful aspect of the weekend was the focused sessions on emerging trends. They were far more in depth than I expected and detailed 50 new educational websites and apps, 82 children’s books published in 2018, augmented reality and virtual reality (AR & VR) for library use, audiobooks, library lessons and resources for the nonfiction books on the 2018 VRC (Virginia Reader’s Choice) list. This conference was a surprisingly hands-on experience that made my library education come to life and made me even more passionate for library learning. It was a learning experience that was beyond what I get in my current graduate classes. I learned so much from the conference and can’t wait to make attending an annual tradition since the experience was so meaningful.
