Professional Travel Grants for Graduate Students
Posts tagged John Schu
2016 VAASL Conference
7 years
What a fun and informative few days. I knew of Mr. Schu before going to VAASL but I had never had the pleasure of hearing him speak. On Friday he was one of the many presenters so I thought it would be fun to go see what all the hype was about. I must say I don’t think I’ve ever met anyone who loves children’s literature so much. He truly brought the books to life and made my reading list that much longer.
I was torn on which session to choose for my last one but after hearing that Audrey Church’s session was a conference favorite for the past few years it was a settled. We were flooded with so much information and I was introduced to new topics I had never heard of before such as ESSA. Good thing I went since I was the lucky recipient of Dr. Church’s new book. There’s nothing like leaving the conference with a prize!
VaASL Conference in Norfolk
7 years
I really enjoyed attending a multi-day conference where I could “just be” with people who are working in a field that I hope to break into i
n the near future. The Virginia Association of School Librarians (VaASL) conference was extremely well run and I left each day feeling like the sessions were well worth my time. I’m thankful that I was “forced” to go to at least one day of the conference for my SLIB670 class and I’m happy that I chose to attend more than one day. In the future I will make it a priority to attend the full conference.
Some of my key takeaways from the sessions I attended include: collaborate with everyone, be friendly, set boundaries, listen, invite people in to observe and to help, enlist student volunteers, keep a daily/weekly reflection log, tell people what you’re doing in the library, and always talk to other librarians. I learned about the twitter chats #VASL and #EdCamp, and also the ALA’s Best Apps for 2016. And lastly, I learned that John Schu is an amazing speaker with a big heart, and he really, really loves Kate DiCamillo.
Reading by the fire at the hotel.
VAASL Annual Conference: Norfolk 2016-2017
7 years
Oct
ober 20, 2016
Today was the first day of VAASL (Virginia Association of School Librarians). All I can say is it was a fire-hose of information! It was very overwhelming to be around so many librarians, and having to decide what sessions to go to! I appreciated Frances’ advice of sitting near the door (for easy escape) and tried to do at least half of all the sessions I attended (allowing me to see twice as many session). I started the morning in a session that linked the VA Reader’s choice books to state standards. They had great handouts about all the different activities that could be done at the elementary level, but didn’t address any of the middle grade books. From there I caught the end of a session on the magic of series (which was very disappointing). After the morning session we saw the keynote speaker, Dr. Rob Furman. I spent most of his session firing off e-mails to my colleagues back at Smart’s Mill about all the great resources he shared. I particularly want to check out James Patterson’s website www.readkiddoread.com (books for reluctant readers). In the afternoon I went to a session on becoming Google certified (which is very easy to do and only $10 to apply), then we went to the first timers tea and got all sorts of free books! My favorite session was the one I only caught the tail end of, which used themes to tie different fiction books together. The presenters were so animated, and there are so many great titles! I ended the day with author Ginjer Clark, who writes nonfiction books on weird animals. Her focus was on encouraging reluctant readers to engage in nonfiction by showing them the odd and disgusting. I had a great time seeing everyone at the alumni event, and was impressed by Audrey’s ability to name everyone (and so quickly!). I loved the tribute to Frances – “Oh the Places You Will Go!”
October 21, 2016
Today was a fabulous day – best day by far! All the sessions were absolutely amazing. I began with the Junior Library Guild and their new releases for middle and upper grades. I need to figure out how to get advance copies of books – what a tease! My next session was sponsored by a math teacher aspiring to be a librarian and which Tech Tools we should integrate into the library to win over our math and science teachers. My poor math SALT must have received at least 5 e-mails from me during this session! Then we went to a session on Picture Books at the middle school level. I was especially excited for this session as November is National Picture Book Month, and one of my reading promotions is to get each content to use a picture book to support their lessons. The keynote speaker today was Mr. Schu – who is the fabulous library ambassador for Scholastic. What a dream job! Such an amazing speaker, and he was able to create such energy in that room. Everyone should get a chance to see him speak!
October 22, 2016
Short day today – only stayed for two sessions. The first was on the Best Apps for 2016 sponsored by AASL. Many of these apps were new to me, so my principal is allowing me to use 10 minutes in a faculty meeting to share with our staff. My second session was presented by two first year librarians. It was titled I Survived! Overall it wasn’t the best presentation, but I did win a free book! It did make me think about what I would want to share at VAASL next year if I were to present as a first year librarian. So glad to have had this opportunity!
VAASL 2016
7 years
I had the great opportunity to attend the VAASL Conference in Norfolk, VA. This was the second opportunity for me to attend this conference. Again, it was a wonderful conference, and I cannot wait to attend again next year. It was very exciting to learn so many new things that I would be able to use in my classroom, as well as ideas for when I become a librarian. This year, just like last year, I came away feeling refreshed, energized and excited about teaching and becoming a librarian. I was able to attend Thursday, Friday and Saturday concurrent sessions, but my favorite day by far was Friday!
I attended, But they’re scary! Tech tools to over math and science teachers, using picture books in 6-8, charting the course with topics and trend and of course the keynote speaker, John Schu. The concurrent sessions gave me some great ideas to use for my current classroom as well as share with my teachers in the building. I am already planning on sharing the great tech tools in the math and science department meetings. Listening to Audrey Church’s top ten, was just amazing. I attended last year as well, and this year was just as good or better then last.
John Schu, was so inspirational to me as teacher, book lover and future librarian. As I look into the future to becoming a librarian, I plan to keep the quote “What do you want your library students to remember about your library 10 years from now?” and “Not to get the books back, but the readers back.” He is a person/librarian/lover of books, that we all can hope to become and be able to share with students. He gave some great book talks and ways to promote reading and libraries for every student.
Again, I was not disappointed by this conference and look forward to many more!