Professional Travel Grants for Graduate Students
Posts tagged VAASL 2016 Conference
VAASL Conference
8 years
Erin Miller and myself, presenting at VAASL.
I recently attended the Virginia Association of School Librarian’s Conference. I was able to pick sessions that directly relate to the library I am currently working in. I went to sessions on 3D Printing, No-Tech Makerspaces, Breakout EDU, Author Visits, and several others. I also had the opportunity to present with a fellow cohort member and school librarian, Erin Miller. We presented a session on how to create book trailers for all levels of technological expertise, including PowerPoint, Zoho, Animoto, PowToon, and iMovie. We had a great turnout and really enjoyed sharing information with colleagues. Upon my return, my principal asked to meet with me about what I learned. She was so impressed with the variety of sessions to attend and the amount of information I was able to bring back, she said she supports me attending again. She also allowed me to order tons of materials to recreate some of the ideas I learned about at the sessions! To top it off, I finished the conference with dinner and a speech by Linda Sue Park. I was able to teach my colleagues and come back and immediately implement things I learned. It was an amazing experience, and I can’t wait to attend again next year!
VAASL Conference – Norfolk, Virginia
8 years
Last week I had the pleasure of attending the VAASL conference in Norfolk, Virginia. It was a little overwhelming to hear so much good information in such a short amount of time. However, I came away with so many great ideas, and the men and women who presented have inspired me to take what I have learned and implement change for the benefit of our students.
Genrefying is at the top of my list; I wasn’t sold on it before I attended the conference – now I am a believer. Another great take away was how, why, and when to use picture books with middle school students. Every middle school should have a good collection of picture books to support the curriculum and student learning.
John Schumacher’s keynote address was a highlight of the conference. He knows the joy of reading and the joy of connecting a student with the right book that will make him/her a life-long reader.
Thanks to everyone who presented at the conference for providing such useful information and for the opportunity to attend. Looking forward to next year!
Virginia Association of School Librarian’s Conference
8 years
This past weekend I traveled to Norfolk, Virginia for the Virginia Association of School Librarian’s yearly conference. It was a wonderful learning experience and an opportunity to meet other librarians. Over the course of 3 days, I attended many fantastic sessions and learned so much from a wide variety of session offered each day. I attended 11 sessions in areas such as instruction, collection development, technology, makerspaces, and professional growth. It’s great learning from other librarian and hearing what activities and lessons they have had success with.
VAASL Conference 2016
8 years
This was my first time at the VAASL Conference & won’t be my last! I was impressed with the wide variety of topic sessions & the quality of the presenters. I left the conference with many ideas and inspiration for when I become a school librarian. It was great to have the opportunity to network with other school librarians throughout the state. I met so many wonderful professionals that are willing to share their ideas and activities. Thank you Longwood University for providing assistance so that I could attend!
Charting the Course: VAASL 2016
8 years
I charted my course to Norfolk, where the 2016 annual conference of the Virginia Association of School Librarians was held. As a student, I was delighted to start off with the session, “New to You! Lesson Ideas”, which was chock full of lesson ideas to use in an elementary school. Both new and classic books were discussed with innovative ideas to use them in the library classroom. Dr. Rob Furman followed up with an inspirational keynote presentation that proposed “Principles for Facilitating a Reading Culture” that included suggestions on technology tools, such as Plotagon and Kindoma. I was fortunate to be able to attend Dee Griffith and Marsha Stewart’s, “What’s New in Children’s Literature” session. I attended their 2015 session, and was so excited to see that they were doing it again this year with 2016 published books. Being able to see the books in person, to examine the readability, and find out their connections to SOLs will be useful for years to come. The next stops on my voyage were to learning about strategies for supporting English learners in the library classroom and finding the treasures in AASL’s Best Apps for Teaching and Learning. Day one of my journey ended with a gathering of Longwood students and Alumni where we paid tribute to our Professor, Frances Reeve. It was an unforgettable day. Day two started off with “Managing the K-1 Library Period”, where I found out cutting-edge techniques of incorporating centers to ease the check-out process while keeping students engaged in learning. I traveled on to the Junior Library Guild presentation on new releases, followed by a presentation by my amazing cohort classmates who taught us how to promote reading with the use of book trailers. The last stop on my session route was the “Addictive Magic of Book Series” where I learned the benefits of series for our students. This expedition was definitely rejuvenating, and I am already looking forward to 2017 in Chantilly (my home turf!). – Marci Hoyt
VAASL 2016 Takeaways
8 years
I was very excited to attend my first VAASL in Norfolk as a Grad student. There were so many choices for each session that it was often hard to decide which to attend! I attended 3 different Genrification sessions, since this is going to be something my high school is about to embark on and I will be a part of that for my clinical hours. I learned A LOT about this process, and my hesitations and concerns about doing this were dissolved. I’m excited to share the ideas and resources with my two librarians this week! I also attended a couple of sessions on research. The picture below (I’m in the center of the picture) is from a session titled, “Inquiry: Rubrics, Research, Reflection” which had several great tips, ideas, and lessons. I’ll be sharing these ideas with the English and Social Studies departments immediately, since these two departments often have students working on projects and conducting research. By attending this conference, I was able to network and meet other people who are doing terrific things in their schools and have their contact information for future questions/contact. I also came away with many, many resources that I’ll be able to share with my colleagues to help their students, especially with research skills. My biggest takeaway though was from the three Genrification sessions, and the change of perception I had on this prior to the conference. I’m excited to start this process in our library and I have three excellent people to tap into if/when we have questions.
VAASL Conference 2016
8 years
I just returned from the VAASL conference, Libraries: Charting the Course, in Norfolk, Virginia. This is the first time I attended a conference for librarians and I have to say I wish I could’ve stayed there longer! Due to a conflict, I was only able to attend one day of the conference, but I already know I am planning to attend the entire conference next year. I learned a lot about planning for the future in school libraries, new books in children’s literature, how to use Virginia Reader’s Choice books for instruction, and how to turn your traditional library into a learning commons. I am also really excited to talk with other students that attended the conference to share what I’ve learned and hear about what they learned!
VAASL 2016
8 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!
Virginia Association of School Librarians Conference
8 years
Michelle Yalavarthi
I had the opportunity to attend my first state conference for school librarians in Norfolk, Virginia. I was able to apply what I learned through my Longwood grad classes to the conference sessions. I was able to learn the best educational apps to use in education and share that knowledge with the other teachers at my school. I also learned about how to use student helpers most effectively in the school library. The information that was shared with me at the conference will impact how I manage my school library and teach students and staff how to use the latest technology. The conference was an amazing way to learn from professional school librarians in Virginia. I look forward to attending the conference next year.
VAASL 2016
8 years
I was so thrilled to attend my first VAASL Conference in Norfolk. I attended the Thursday and Friday sessions. There were so many options or sessions to choose from. I enjoyed meeting all the new people. It was a great opportunity to network with everyone. The format of the conference was easy to follow and the sessions were informative. The length of the sessions were perfect. I appreciate being able to view the documents and presentations of the sessions I could not attend. I am not a librarian yet, but the conference gave me insight on what to expect. The atmosphere was friendly and up beat. I appreciate this as there have been other types of conferences that were dry and boring. I recommend any educator attending this annual conference. I will not miss one in the future.