Fall Conference in Brattleboro
The VSLA Fall, 2009, conference was held at Brattleboro High School in October. Our morning speaker was J’aime Foust, author of Dewey Need to Get Organized (my answer to that question would be “yes!”). J’aime encouraged us to make a pie graph showing the most important things in our life, then make another pie graph showing what we are really doing. She suggested that we repeat the exercise in 6 months to 1 year to see if anything has changed. I admit that I tucked my conference notes away, and did not come across this idea until just now as I sat down to write. I did manage to borrow J’aime’s book from a friend, though, so now I am encouraged to try this exercise and look for more ideas in the book. My favorite piece of advice from J’aime? “The trash can is your friend.”
A chance to gather and chat before the first session of the day
Amy Howlett of the DOL talking about Readers Advisory Basics
Workshops continued throughout the day. I attended Amy Howlett’s session on Readers’ Advisory Basics. Amy works for the DOL and does Rapid Reviews for the VLA. She reminded us that turning kids into readers is the key thing that we do. She presented many tools, from books to websites to her own handouts. My favorite was her approach to “reading” a book in 10 minutes. There are many features that give us clues about a book, and if we are willing to skim through and skip ahead (yikes!) to the ending and epilogue, we really can learn a lot about that book in just 10 minutes.
J’aime Foust inspires us to get organized
New member Chris Putnam-Poulliot talks with VSLA President Marsha Middleton
The semi-annual VSLA membership meeting was held after lunch. Minutes of the meeting are available on the VSLA website.
The day concluded with a presentation by artist John Steven Gurney, who has illustrated all of the A-Z Mystery books. There is also a new series of Calendar Mysteries, which is an off-shoot of the A to Z series. Mr. Gurney also wrote and illustrated a book called Dinosaur Train, which has been made into a TV series.
As usual, I came away from the conference thinking that it is one of my most valuable professional development activities of the year. So much is packed into one day, but at a comfortable pace. And it all relates directly to many aspects of our jobs as School Librarians.
by Marcia Peterson, Librarian at the Ottauquechee School (Hartford School District)
Comments are currently closed.