VAASL 2014 Annual Conference

Mary Ivory with author Neal Shusterman

I attended the VAASL Annual Conference in Roanoke, VA from November 6-8, 2014.  This was my first experience at a conference for librarians; however I have attended state conferences for middle school educators in the past.

After registering, I immediately began pouring over the conference guide to select the sessions to attend.  There were so many great choices and I appreciated that many were offered more than once so that I could balance out a schedule.  It was difficult making some of the choices because there was so much being offered that I could see being useful in my classroom now, and to keep in mind for my future role as a librarian. The best session that I attended was Middle School Medley presented by Dawn Farrell and Alicia Garbelman from Lake Ridge Middle School in Woodbridge, VA.  I can see many possibilities for using what they presented right now as a classroom teacher and in the future as a librarian.  Other great sessions included:  150 Best Websites Selected by AASL, Using Twitter in Your Library, Using Pinterest As a Tool for Organization in Your Library, and The Contemporary School Story which was about using different novels with students that relate to some sort of standardized testing in schools and how the characters handle taking those tests.

The opportunity to meet authors David Baldacci, Neal Shusterman, and Kimberly P. Johnson were high on my list of things to do.  I am so glad that I signed up for these special events with these talented individuals.

I am so glad that I had the opportunity to attend this conference and I am looking forward to attending again next year!