#NYLASSL2017

A selfie at the end of the conference with the fabulous co-chairs, Maria and Tina

I have a Texas sized heart that has enough love for my library and author peeps in Texas AND my BAEs in New York.  That said, greetings from a bus filled with normally NOT quiet librarians (seriously!) but who are currently exhausted from a couple of full days of fun, laughter, and of course, excellent PD in Buffalo, New York!

Kudos to co-chairs, Maria and Tina, who did an excellent job at organizing, delegating, coming up with Plan Bs, and leading an amazing team of folks to put on the best conference ever!

From cool new name tags with a QR code linked to the schedule and the wifi passwords 

attached to gift mugs and every other detail in between, this conference rocked.  Gene Luen Yang, the National Ambassador for Young People's Literature (the job title that he's had with the most syllables) kicked off our conference with an inspiring and entertaining keynote.  We learned that although Superman was not his favorite superhero growing up, he is now.  In fact, I like this theory a lot, “He just might be an Asian American Jew.”

Just as Gene is an ambassador for literature, books can be ambassadors for us and the kids in our lives.  “Every kid/reader needs books that act as advocates and ambassadors…These books teach us to love others…We all need to get outside of our comfort zone…” and that’s why Gene came up with the “Reading Without Walls Challenge.” So if you haven’t done it already, read a book from a genre you don’t normally read, a character who doesn't look or live like you or a topic you don't know much about.

I was lucky enough to be asked by Maria to be Gene’s handler.  I couldn’t have asked for a better job and a better person to work with.  In his breakout session he shared about his experiences in the classroom (for 17 years!) and how he had his students draw comics in his Algebra II and Computer Science classes.  They used a program called “Comics Life,” their photo library or something like “Long Shot Comics” because “anyone can draw dots.” This gave me great ideas on how I can collaborate with my fifth grade math teacher (maybe even this year since the state math test is over!). 

“Comics are a visual narrative medium that asks our students to read.”

“Drawing well doesn’t make for great comics.” Hmmm…really?

Does that mean even I should try it?

At the same time as Gene’s breakout session was a popular workshop called, “Oh, the Places You will Go! – Bringing the World into Your Library with Technology.”  Mike Drezek chatted with my friend, Kirsten Murphy, on Twitter the night before and as part of his presentation he connected with her and her fourth graders in Forth Worth! I’m sorry I missed it! 

AASL President-elect and newly crowned “Dr” Steve Yates was our keynote speaker at lunch.  He shared all the ways to get involved in AASL and how AASL can support us.  He also shared the new covers of our new standards to be unveiled at the annual meeting. What a personable guy!  As a Yankee through and through, I love that Alabama accent and talking to him about the football games.  Boy, would I like to go to one of those some day.

At around this time, I heard that Gordon Korman was not going to make it to our Knickerbocker banquet that evening.  There was bad weather in New York City and no combination of transportation would get him there in time.  Maria, Tina and their team came up with the idea of a lifesized #FlatGordon.  Steven played dead and was the model.  This was perfect.  Gordon accepted his award via Skype and it was almost as wonderful as if he was there in person.

The Knickerbocker Banquet

Congrats to Principal Rich Pogue from Tamarac on his administrator award!

Congrats to Ellen and Stephanie for their awards!

Librarians excited to take a selfie with Gordon!

With fellow graduate students and friends

Saturday

Kristina Holzweiss also had trouble getting out of the city and ended up on Amtrak.  She arrived later that night exhausted.  Since she’s always pushing her students to persevere, the idea never crossed her mind to give up.  She gave an inspiring, emotional keynote this afternoon at lunch. I spied lots of wet eyes.

Saying goodbye to Steven Yates

Conference chairs with our SSL President, Michelle Miller

Sue Kowalski with Gordon!

We didn't know we needed tissues for Kristina Holzweiss's keynote!

All of the workshops were packed and buzzing.  People were excited and pumped to return to their libraries on Monday with new ideas and end-of-year energy. We are excited to be together again in 2018 on Long Island.  Yes, I love my new friends and colleagues in Texas but I will never forget where I began.  Thanks for the inspiration and love, NYLA-SSL.

Epilogue: The Leaping Pictures

Gene Luen Yang!

AASL President-elect Dr. Steven Yates

Amazing Conference Co-Chair Maria Muhlbauer

Just the amazing everything Sue Kowalski

More amazing everythings Sara Kelly Johns and Kristina Holzweiss

The Go-To person and former Conference Chair Jim Clark

My permanent conference roommate who always makes me laugh and fabulous colleague at Schodack Maureen Squier

Going Beyond Skyping with Grandma

Today I presented a workshop at the Regional Technology Awareness Day 2016.  I called it "Video Conferencing with Elementary Students:  Going Beyond Skyping with Grandma." You know I love my Skypes and opening up my library to the world and, consequently, the world to my students.  It's one of my favorite things I do in my job.

I don't have a website that I can post information so decided to include some of my resources here. That way you all can benefit!

I've used four different types of video conferencing tools with my students in three different areas of the building with as few as a half dozen kids to as many as two grade levels.

Skype

https://www.skype.com/en/

Probably the most popular and simplest to use.  Almost everyone has Skype or can easily download it to their computer.  It's free and easily accessible.  Perfect for author visits and classroom mystery connections (ie, what state do you live in and give hints).  Sometimes it is spotty with the connection, however, lately I haven't had any trouble with it (watch now I will!).  New features of Skype:  group calls and screen sharing.  This really brings it to the forefront of the video conferencing tools available, especially since there is no cost involved!

Look closely and you can see the "Skype" on the screen.
This is Stephanie and she is a towboat captain in the Gulf.  She Skyped us from her boat.

FaceTime

https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT204380

If you and the person/people you are video conferencing with have an Apple product, this is the video chatting tool to use.  You can use it from your Apple phone, iPad or computer.  I have plugged my dongle into my phone and projected it straight onto my SmartBoard.  Sometimes I have challenges with it with our wifi at school and sometimes it has worked beautifully. The image is usually clearer than Skype when it works.  

I've read that you can get FaceTime for Android and PC devices now, but haven't tried it myself.

FaceTiming with a monorail pilot!

Google Hangout

https://hangouts.google.com/

We had a semi great experience with this once when video chatting with an author/illustrator couple that were living in two different states.  We could hear them but they couldn't hear us or there was bad feedback when we tried the sound.  This was an unusual experience and I understand that it can be very easy.  I know high school teachers promote this for students to use with each other to work on homework.

This is Anna Kang. Look closely and you can see Chris Weyant at the bottom of the screen.

And here's the illustrator, Chris Weyant holding up a sketch for us!

Cisco WebEx

https://www.webex.com/

WebEx is a paid video conferencing tool where you get a link and ask all participants to log on using that link.  I used it a couple of times last year and it was cool because the authors were able to share their computer screens with us so we were able to see early versions of books.  Unless you are using a lot of video conferencing with sharing of documents during the chat, the free tools would work just fine for your needs.

This is WebEx.  You can see Daniel' Miyares's name at the bottom left corner of the screen.

Rabbit

https://www.rabb.it/

Hop on over to Rabbit because it is just starting to launch into education so you can be at the forefront of it all.  This is a group video chatting app that gives participants the opportunities to engage in activities together (ie, watch videos, karaoke, play games).  I haven't used it but thought it would be great for teachers who are flipping their classrooms.  Students could watch the videos together at the same time and have conversations, ask questions, solve problems in real time.  It's free, too.  Check it out and let me know what you think and how you might be able to incorporate it in your classroom.

And Just a Few More...Doing the same thing...It's just what you prefer...

Ooovoo

Popular with teens (maybe?). You can video chat with up to 12 people at a time. You can record your video chat for later and text during while chatting.

Booyah

Chat with up to 12 people at one time.  No fee, no registration and no login.

Viber

Free photo, text, phone call sharing with other Viber uses.  Really not necessary in the classroom but could be a useful tool if you were going out of the country and wanted to keep in touch with family and friends and didn't want to get a phone plan.

If you have any questions or just want to talk this through a little more, don't hesitate to email me at srattner@schodack.k12.ny.us.

"Panel Folks"

If you were at my presentation you were lucky enough to "meet":

Emma Virjan "Author/Illustrator" Extraordinaire from Austin, Texas.  She has a new Pig in a Wig book coming out in January.  Check out her website here.

Stephanie Cavaliere, Towboat Pilot in the Gulf

Jennifer Underhill, Florida State University Schools, School Librarian, University School Associate Professor--Mystery Skypes are Fun!

Jacob Bogage, Reporter for the Washington Post

I'm so glad they were able to video conference in today! How fun was that?!

ALA Post Blog #2--There's a 6 minute video involved! #alaac15

It has been on my list now for a week to blog about my experiences at ALA.  I'm not sure why I keep putting it off.  Maybe because if I actually reflect upon the experience, it means that it is actually a thing of the past and yet I want to hold on to the memories and feelings for a long time.

So far, I am.  I look at things differently ("Those glasses remind me of Jenni Holm's!").  I notice things from an ALA perspective.  Like when I should be glancing through 100's of pictures of kids at sleep away camp searching for the ones of my own children, I see other things, too ("See that random girl in that camp picture?  See what book she's reading? No?  Well, look more closely because I am noticing that she is reading El Deafo!") and I'm still thinking all about the magic of Kwame.  How lucky we were to connect last summer over Twitter when I first read The Crossover.  How even luckier I was to share the book with students in the fall.  How even luckier we were to Skype with him in January and luckiest to be at ALA to cheer him on and watch him gain 20,000 more followers.

And it all began at the airport:

I should have left that pillow at home.  Yes, I packed a lot.  See my previous blog post. 

Note that I think those of us from NY were the ONLY ones there who actually worked and went to school the day we left for San Francisco.  People couldn't believe it when I said, "My student gave me this lovely bag YESTERDAY!"

I decided to create an Animoto on my experience.  I was there to celebrate Kwame, so there are a lot of pictures of him.  It looks like all I did was pose with authors and illustrators.  I learned a lot.  I networked.  Just being there, I soaked it all in.  And I know as these weeks go by this summer, I will remember more and just think how lucky I was to be there.  Thanks to Kwame for giving me the nudge--He even THANKED all of us (Susan, Mary Ann, his friends at the table I was at) in his speech! We are the leaders of the KAFC*!

Here's the Animoto...



*Kwame Alexander Fan Club

Ok...This is now finished...I can move on and think about 2016.  I can review books (Sunny Side Up, Crenshaw, George, Circus Mirandus...I've read them all believe it or not.)  I am moving on but not forgetting...

I'm Baaaaaack!!!!! Part 1--Top 10 thoughts about attending a huge conference

I got home from ALA Tuesday night, spent the whole day Wednesday in the city, tried to pull myself together yesterday and here we are today.  I know that these posts about the conference will trickle in because I just can't say it all in one post.  Today will be my Top 15 words of wisdom about attending ALA (or really any other huge 20,000 participant conference!)

1. Business Cards--Yes, it's good to bring them.  Yes, it's nice that mine were bright red.  But no, I did not need 500 of them at all.  I was getting into the habit of handing them out and then saying, "Please take one and then recycle it if you like."  Don't be shy--do hand them out but I'm not sure how many people I really expected to meet.  I thought my Twitter followers would increase exponentially.  Hmmmm....not.  I did make some new friends (yes, that's you, Carole) and having my card certainly came in handy there.
2. Businees Cards part 2--When YOU get a business card, write down something to remind you of the person who gave it to you.  That way, when you get home, you know who they are.  I am finding myself making those notes now, which is a bit challenging.
3. Wear funky clothes and you will get noticed!  Unless you don't want to, then wear clothes that will blend in.
4. Don't be shy.  Just start talking to everyone.  Look down and see where they are from on their name tags.  I found myself almost wanting to ask someone at the store today where they were from and asking what kind of librarian they were,  thinking I was still at ALA.  Ha!  I caught myself before I embarrassed myself!
5. Pack a box, packing tape and scissors, if you think you will be mailing things home.  I actually packed an extra duffle bag and brought two suitcases. I filled everything up and didn't have to pay for shipping or anything.  Take Southwest--2 bags fly with you for free.
6. Plan on no sleep, really and truly.  You get in after midnight and then have to get up at 6 the next morning.  
7. Unless you are a super dedicated runner, you won't work out.  I packed outfits to work out three times and I didn't run once.  Good luck to me tomorrow in a 4 mile race.
8. Plan only the author signings that you really want and go to the exhibit hall then.  The rest of them will fall into your lap if you are around.  And, if you see a book that you've been eyeing from blogs and early reviews, ask the publisher and they may give you a book before it's even the signing time.
9. If someone says, "Come to this party/event/etc"  GO.  You never know what you will find and who you will meet.  Saturday night my friend, Susan, took my under her wing and we ended up at four events/parties and it was truly a fun and memorable evening.  
10. Everyone looks "geeky" carrying those bags so it's all good.
11. Know that you will be using multiple means of transportation to get everywhere.  (See #9) I used Uber for the first time, traveled in lots of cabs, walked and used the shuttle, too.
12. Bring your own water bottle, granola bars, snacks.  I brought some of those squeeze apple sauces from Trader Joes and they were perfect for a quick sugar rush.   
13. If you make a couple of friends, you're golden.  (See #2--don't forget to get your new friend's card and write a note on it to remember who they are).
14. Room in your suitcase is premium.  Check the weather.  I really didn't need to bring an umbrella to California.
15. Clear out your iPhone space--You need to be able to take pictures immediatley.  OR bring a back up camera.  And if someone else takes a picture of you with their phone/camera have them text it to you right away or get their card and (See #2).
16. And just HAVE FUN!