2007 Fall Conference
Vermont School Libraries Association
Fall Conference, Thursday, October 18 th
At St. Johnsbury Academy, St. Johnsbury, Vt.
9:30 – 3:45 pm
The Power of Story in a Technological Age
Registration: $35 VSLA members; $40 non-VSLA members, boxed lunch included
Keynote Speaker - Laura Simms
Storyteller ~ Writer ~ Activist
Laura Simms is an internationally renowned storyteller, writer, teacher and activist committed to excellent performances and compassionate action in the world.
Her groundbreaking work combines ancient myth and fairytale with personal narrative. www.laurasimms.com
Schedule:
9:00 - 9:30 Registration, coffee, tea and snack (Art Center)
9:30 –9:40 Introduction from Jean Fournier, VSLA president
Welcome by Tom Lovett, St. J. A. Headmaster
9:40 -10:55 Keynote Speaker – Laura Simms -Storytelling as a
Path toward Peace (Black Box Theatre)
Laura will tell stories and speak about the unique reciprocal process of listening that defines the benefits of storytelling. Youth gain access to emotional intelligence, self worth, resilience, and caring communication. Creating and telling personal narratives opens the heart of sharing and exercises creativity. These are the potent motivations and means for sustainable learning and the foundation for making peace with oneself and others.
11:00 – 12:15 Workshops:
A. Blogs, Wikis and Social Bookmarking ( a Dynamic Combo)
How can librarians share resources dynamically by combining the power of social bookmarking with blogs and wikis? What are the differences between each and which practices do each of these support best? The session will include a brief hands-on session to start using each of these three tools.(limited to 20 participants)
Lucie deLaBruere is an award-winning Vermont educator, who is an edublogger for Infinite Thinking (sponsored by Google and West-Ed). She is passionate about digital equity and emerging technologies such as Web 2.0 and open-source technology.
www.LearningWithLucie.com or www.InfiniteThinking.org.
B. Hidden Treasures: Questing As a Way of Telling the Stories of Special Places: Our communities are made up of treasures- villages, cemeteries and natural places. These treasures can be adopted and studied, with explorations enriched by community resources and elders. Learning can be shared through a published treasure hunt, or Quest. This workshop introduces Questing, a compelling method for studying and sharing community treasures. Laura Dintino is the local program coordinator for Valley Quest. In conjunction with founder Steven Glazer she teaches Questing throughout New England. http://www.vitalcommunities.org/valleyquest/valleyquest.htm
C. Telling Stories with Your Students: In this workshop Mary Lockhart-Girdwood will discuss the process of working with students to develop storytelling techniques, demonstrate storytelling games, suggest how to select and learn stories, and provide inspiration to participants to create storytelling opportunities for their own students. Since co-founding Tellalore Storytellers in 1987, Mary Lockhart Girdwood has traveled throughout New England, performing stories from children’s literature to audiences of all ages. In 2003 she began enlisting high school students from the White Mountain School in Bethlehem, NH, where she is the librarian, to engage with her in telling stories to elementary school audiences.
12:15 – 1:30 Lunch
• Sheila Kearns, from Vermont Department of Libraries: Sheila will be available to discuss options you may be considering for library automation systems and will bring information that she has gathered about the products and services of a number of vendors as well as what information is available about open-source library automation systems.
• Walking tours of St. Johnsbury Academy, St. Johnsbury Athenaeum, the Fairbanks Museum will be available.
1:30 – 2:15 VSLA Annual Meeting (Black Box Theatre)
2:30 – 3:45 Workshops
D. Audiobooks for School Libraries
This session will provide an overview of the formats available, discussion of compatibility & copyright issues and selection tools for audiobooks. We’ll also discuss making use of the many story podcasts and streaming resources available online for free.
Pamela Burke is the librarian and all around computer and systems person at the Marlboro Elementary School. She also teaches digital research technologies at the Marlboro College Graduate Center. She keeps a blog called The SurRural Librarian where she loves to share good books, sites and ideas.
E. Creating Jr. Historical Societies Panel Discussion:
This workshop will focus on creating Junior Historical Societies and fostering an interest for local history and folklore amongst young people. Sherry Tolle,Terry Fairchild, and Peggy Day Gibson, will field your questions and facilitate a discussion about the particulars of getting local youth excited about their community’s history.Sherry Tolle is the Library Director of the Barnet Public Library. She has worked with the Barnet Junior Historical Society for the past five years and also owns and operates her own Bed & Breakfast, The Inn at Maplemont Farm. Terry Fairchild is the Assistant Librarian at Barnet Elementary School. She has been an active member of the Barnet Historical society for several years and has worked with the Junior Historical Society for the past seven years.Peggy Day is the Director of the Old Stone House Museum in Brownington, Vermont. During the summer she hosts a camp for local youth that revolves around the history of Glover, Vermont.
F. Creating Comics with Students: This workshop will focus on what makes comics a unique storytelling medium, and how it differs from other storytelling mediums. Cartoonist and teacher Robyn Chapman will lecture about the potential for expression the comic page holds. An exercise will follow in which participants will compose their own comic pages.
Robyn Chapman is a cartoonist and teacher at the Center for Cartoon Studies in White River Junction. She received her BFA in Sequential Art and has been independently producing, publishing and printing her own comics and zines. http://www.cartoonstudies.org/wrj.html
3:45 – 4:00 - Prizes awarded for the Creative Librarian Contest.(Black Box)
Registration
VSLA Fall Conference
(Please send by October 11th)
October 18, 2007 St. Johnsbury Academy, St. Johnsbury, Vt
Name: ____________________________ VT NEA member? Yes No
¬¬School: ______________________________
Address:_____________________________
Tel.: ___________________
E-mail: ______________________
Please list your first and second choices for the morning and afternoon workshops. We will make every effort to give you your choice of workshop.
Morning (11:00 – 12:15)
_____ A: Blogs and Wikis, Lucie deLaBruere (20 person limit)
_____ B: Questing, Laura Dintino
_____ C: Storytelling with Students, Mary Lockhart-Girdwood
Afternoon (2:30 – 3:45)
_____ D: Digital Audiobooks, Pamela Burke
_____ E: Jr. Historical Societies, Sherry Tolle
_____ F: Creating Comics, Robyn Chapman
Cost: includes morning snack and box lunch
_____ VSLA members: $35.00
_____ Non-VSLA members: $40.00
Please make checks payable to: VSLA. Sorry, we cannot accept purchase orders or credit cards. Please mail check and registration to:
Catherine Kidder, LMS
Newbury Elementary School
PO Box 68
Newbury VT 05051 802 866-5621 ckidder@fairpoint.net