Vermont School Librarians put their collective best foot forward, and there will be 3 “library” strands each day (of 9).  Overall, there are 70 fabulous sessions to select from, all of which will be of interest to librarians as well as teachers, technology specialists, and administrators.  Keynote speakers will be nationally acclaimed school librarian Debbie Abilock of NoodleTools.com and international educational technology leader Ruben Puentedura.  Endnote speakers will be Tom Corbett of Cushing Academy, which eliminated books from its library last fall, and Ed Barry, who will speak on the new Vermont technology integration “scenarios.”

Register early- the Dynamic Landscapes Conference frequently sells out before the EarlyBird registration closes.  For those intending to spend Wednesday or Thursday night in the Burlington area hotels & motels, be aware that St. Michael’s College Graduation 2010 is May 12 and 13, so you will need to reserve a room as soon as possible.  Information on accommodations, dining, etc., can be found via the search function at the Lake Champlain Regional Chamber of Commerce website.

Hope to see you at the Dynamic Landscapes 2.0 Conference in May!

Sue Furry-Irish,

Conference Coordinator

The deadline for articles this time is March 31, and you can expect to see them up on the VSLA website early in April.

Please see the Newsletter Guidelines before submitting.

Looking forward to hearing from you.

Marcia Peterson, M.S.
Library Media Specialist
Ottauquechee School
304 Dody Lane, P.O. Box 353
Quechee, VT 05059-0353
(802)295-8654

petersonm@hartfordschools.net

Dear Colleagues,

The official call for presenters for the joint VSLA-VITA-Learn Spring Conference, “Dynamic Landscapes 2.0: Synergy at Work”, is out. All library related workshops should be emailed to me, and I will pass them on to Ed Barry, the conference coordinator. Please email them to me as soon as possible at suzanne.irish@cesu.k12.vt.us .

This is not only a great opportunity to become a part of the wonderful Dynamic Landscapes conferences, it is also our spring library conference, and it is our chance to get together and share ideas among Library Media Specialists. So don’t hesitate, step up and share your expertise! We will need at least 25 proposals to make our contribution to this exciting conference. If you know some great presenters we should contact or if you have ideas for presentations you would like to see (but not give yourself), I would welcome your ideas.

Ed Barry’s clear and detailed call for presenters follows. Please remember to send your proposals through me, rather than to Ed as called for below. I will send the call as an attachment as well in order to facilitate printing.

Thank you and happy idea generating!

Sue Furry-Irish
Conference Co-cordinator

Call for Presenters

Dynamic Landscapes 2.0:
Synergy at Work

Sponsored by VITA-Learn& VSLA
Vermont Information Technology Association for the Advancement of Learning
& Vermont School Librarians’ Association

VITA-Learn and VSLA are pleased to announce their joint sponsorship of a two day conference at Champlain College on May 13 & 14,2010.

We are now REQUESTING PROPOSALS FOR PRESENTATIONS at“Dynamic Landscapes 2.0: Synergy at Work”

We are looking for a wide variety of applications of effective uses of technology in the classroom and the library including examples of integration using a wide variety of technology tools and applications.

We are looking for practical as well as cutting edge examples of how technology can facilitate and extend learning in the school environment and beyond.

We are looking for workshops in three formats

1. Regular one hour presentation style sessions – this is our greatest need.
2. Double hands-on sessions in a lab environment – we will offer two of these each day.
3. Double hands-on sessions where people bring their own laptops with them and needed software installed in advance.

The third format is often best used when showcasing a project someone has completed and then using a part of the session to do hands-on work on how to use the application or Web 2.0 tool or site that was used to accomplish the project.

Please consider sharing your expertise and experience with your fellow classroom teachers and librarians at Dynamic Landscapes 2.0. You will receive free admission to the conference on the day you present* and have a chance to network and share ideas with some of Vermont’s finest educators! Write-ups are due no later than February 19, 2010. The earlier the better!

Please send a write-up with a creative title and description with no more than 75 words. Please remember it is the quality of your write-up that draws people to your session.

Please include the following information along with your write up.

Name:
Position:
School:
School Address:
School Phone:
District:
E-Mail:

Co-presenters are welcome but only one person gets a complementary admission.* If you wish to bring students please contact me for additional information.

A computer, projection system, screen and speakers will be provided and rooms will have Internet access. We do encourage you to bring your own laptop with needed software already installed. Please specify if you have any special equipment or other needs and I will let you know if we are able to accommodate your request.

Write-ups are due no later than February 19, 2010. I encourage you to have them in well before that if at all possible. You will be notified soon after as to the status of your presentation proposal.

If you have any questions or you wish to bounce possibilities off me, please do not hesitate to contact me at ebarry@mtsd-vt.org

Thanks.

Ed

PS: If you know someone who would be a great presenter, please pass this along. We DO rely on all of you to make this a successful conference. As you all know, our strength is in our Network. Lets put it to work!!

* If you do a double session you will either get a co-presenter in free for the day with you, or you will get two days free admission.

I was back in Sinai a few weeks later under different conditions. My companions were a dozen teachers and 150 middle school kids studying reef ecology.

We’d loaded school busses at 4 AM for the drive to the Cairo airport. When our chartered plane landed in Sharm el Sheikh, the kids piled onto different busses for the hour drive to Dahab, a funky resort town up the coast. What our hotel lacked in quality it made up in charm and location – right on the beach with lots of outdoor space for seventh graders to roam around.

The reef snorkeling was challenging. Each small group of a dozen kids swam with a marine biologist, snorkel master, and faculty member. It was cool to watch kids in my group overcome fears, gain confidence, and enjoy the water.

Besides time in the water, kids studied marine life and causes of reef destruction, tested water quality, made art, and participated in drama simulations. In the evening, they performed skits and had a bonfire.

Each group visited Nabq, a protected area where desert and ocean environments meet and the coast supports a mangrove forest. Small groups sipped Bedouin tea and learned a little about traditional Bedouin life.

Kids had a great time but it was definitely exhausting for faculty to be on duty and constantly vigilant with 150 daffy middle school kids. Below are kids in my group.

Cheers, Beth Phillips

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)

Student begins to work with wire.

The Red Clover book we selected was Sandy’s Circus by Tanya Stone.  I did research on the internet to find two You Tube sites to show students after reading the book to them.  The first was an old black and white video of Alexander Calder actually performing his circus and the other was a kids’ Art Display made by K-5 students in Calder style with wire circus figures and mobiles after Tanya Stone had come to their school.  My students found it totally fascinating.

During Art Class in the following weeks, Kate had the students make wire circus creations with fanciful odds and ends.   Among the materials Kate used were twisteez wire, pipe cleaners (regular and shiny), wire edged ribbon, buttons, beads, feathers, toothpicks, pencil eraser heads, pom poms, marker caps, and shish-ka-bob sticks.  Large detergent bottle caps and styrofoam were used to stand up figures.  Styrofoam used in packing allowed for the display of several youngsters’ work in one scene. Several students got so excited about the project that they worked on ideas at home.  One class’s work was on display in the library.  Many students wanted to take their work home to give as holiday gifts.

Student displays her first finished product

Kate also had the book Roarr: Calder’s Circus, by Maria Kalman (copyright 1993 so it needs to be found in an out of print book source).

Kate and I also used this project as one our Professional Development goals for the year.
Pat Cook, Librarian at Dothan Brook School, Wilder, VT (Hartford School District)

Fanciful creature

Trio of performers

Complete circus scene

Young writers and readers at St. Francis Xavier School in Winooski were recently treated to a visit from children’s book writer Jamie Gilson, author of twenty funny and nationally acclaimed books for elementary school age students.   The visit was organized by School Librarian Kathleen Finn.

Students in grades 2 to 5 at St. Francis Xavier have been reading Mrs. Gilson’s books since school began. On the day of her visit, Mrs. Gilson spoke to these students about how her ideas develop and how the book process works, from manuscript to finished product.   The importance of the back-and-forth process between editor and writer – and many, many rewrites – was emphasized.   She showed the students samples of her original, edited manuscripts; some illustration drafts; and what her books look like when translated into German, Dutch and Braille. After the presentation, there was time for questions that students had formulated prior to the author’s visit.

Mrs. Gilson’s uncanny eye and ear for what kids are like at this age is key to her success, from her earliest titles first published in the late ’70s to those published in the last few years.   Notebook in hand, Mrs. Gilson has been prowling school classrooms for years in the Chicago suburb where she lives.  “This is the way my books grow,” she says.  “I watch what kids are doing and write stories based on what I see.” The everyday stuff of elementary school – such as field trips to catch spiders, chess clubs, class clowns, and substitute teachers – is foundational to her fast-paced, engaging, and witty books.  Mrs. Gilson’s most recent book is Chess – I Love It!  I Love It!  I Love It! (Clarion, 2008), and her 1982 title Thirteen Ways to Sink a Sub (the winner of five child-voted state awards) is being reissued this fall as a “Classic” by Marshall Cavendish.  It has already sold over a million copies in paperback.

Jamie Gilson at Rick Marcotte Central School

Jamie Gilson Visits the Marcotte School

While in Vermont, Jamie Gilson also visited her grandchildren’s school in South Burlington, the Rick Marcotte Central School.  She spoke to the second through fifth grade students there.  Mrs. Gilson has a granddaughter in second grade, and a grandson in fifth grade.  Photos were taken by her son-in-law Martin LaLonde and sent to us by Mrs. Gilson’ daughter Anne Gilson LaLonde.

by Kathleen Finn

Interested in some new ideas to help promote the Green Mountain Book Award?  It’s difficult to get students to read beyond what’s required of them for class.  We have been trying to get increased participation for years and came up with a new plan.  We created a new promotion to encourage our students to read more GMBA books.
It all began with offering the sweet incentive of ice cream!

Our Plan:

•    Create New Shelving Section:  We moved GMBA books to an area where they are more visible and accessible.

•    Implement a GMBA punch card program:  Each time a patron reads a GMBA nominee we punch the corresponding image on their card.  When they’ve read three titles, they get a personal invitation to our “GMBA Make Your own Sundae” voting party.

Punch card: The student puts his/her name on the back of the card.

•    Create Promotional Advertising: Designed new signage, buttons and displays to get the word out.

•    Library Staff wears buttons in support of the GMBA.
•    Library Staff actively includes GMBA nominees when recommending books to individual patrons and during book talks for classes.

The End Result; We’ve tripled the number of student participation in the GMBA program!
We’re really excited about our increased participation in the program and are looking
forward to our “Make Your Own Sundae” voting party in the spring.
If you have any questions regarding our promotions let me know via e-mail.

This is a snapshot of the poster that we’ve displayed above our books. If you’d like a jpeg file, or the original publisher file let me know and I can e-mail it to you.

Written by:
Jill Abair< Library/Administrative Assistant jabair@ccsuvt.org
Philip Crawford, Library Director
Pictures taken by: Jill Abair

As Vermont Library Media Specialists, you will have the chance to shape the direction of the topics to meet your needs.  Online surveys will help us identify areas of professional development, and there will be a social networking site developed for the “Issues” strand of coursework.  Look for that in early 2010.

We are also looking for instructors to join our faculty.  If you enjoy working with adult learners and would like to share your knowledge with fellow practitioners as a learning leader, send your resume to Judy Kaplan. (Judith.Kaplan@uvm.edu).  I am looking for folks who might also be interested in teaching the basic courses in the sequence.  The minimum educational requirement is a MLS or a Master’s Degree in content.

Already proposed and set to go early next summer is a 3 credit course taught by Anna Bolognani:

Powerful Web Tools for the School Library Media Center: Changing the Way We Teach and Learn
Course description and goals:
This class will explore Web 2.0 literacy and how tools such as blogs, wikis, twitter, social bookmarking, mashups, podcasting, and vodcasting can be used to foster collaboration and learning in our schools.
Participants will explore current research and information on student learning in the digital age.  Through the use of blogs, wikis, twitter, IM, social bookmarking, mashups, podcasts and vodcasts they will become familiar with the technology and develop ideas on how to use them for collaboration and lessons in an educational setting.  Students will use web tools to develop a multimedia web based presentation.

In the formative stages are several others that will be available in following semesters:

School Library Leadership in 21st Century Schools
3 credit course-Fall 2010
Course description:
21st Century Standards have been developed to meet the changing educational needs of learners in schools across America.  Library Media Specialists are asked to revision the future for school library practice for the future, and the future is now.   This course will explore the ideas presented through the AASL documents, Empowering Learners: Guidelines for School Library Media Programs (2009), and the Standards for the 21st Century Learner (2007).  The focus of the course will examine the concept of educational leadership, and  offer ways to create leadership opportunities for Library Media Specialists to become agents of change and educational leaders within the school community to ensure the continued support of equitable access to resources, both physical and virtual through Library Media Centers.

Contemporary Issues in Children’s/Young Adult Literature: The Literacy Connection
3 credit course Spring 2011

Course description:
Reading is described as a “window to the world,” as a common belief listed in Empowering Learners: Guidelines for School Library Media Programs.  (ALA 2009)  Library Media Specialists face challenges in making the literacy connection between collections of literature for children and young adults and young learners.  New pedagogies for teaching reading skills and comprehension, written expression, and other communications skills impact student learning.  To be effective educational partners and collaborate with classroom teachers in literacy instruction, Library Media Specialists will be introduced to many of the recent learning theories and practices that are used in the literacy classroom.  Basic language literacy and other 21st Century Literacies will be addressed as well.  Library Media Specialists will use current children’s and young adult literature to apply these new pedagogies and literacies in the School Library Media Program.

Assistive Technology in the School Library Media Center
1 credit course

Course description and goals:
The School Library Media Center is arranged so students have complete physical access to library materials.  Aisles are wide, shelves are low, but can students actually access the content of your collection? Can the students see the print, can they use the computer mouse?   Assistive (or adaptive) technology can help all students who need accommodations to use library resources for their learning needs

Copyright News in the Time of the Social Web
1 credit course

Changes to concepts about copyright have recently emerged in response to the impact of Web 2.0 social network tools for student learning.  This course will provide a guide to navigate the new interpretations of fair use rules and how to help students and colleagues make sense of using resources appropriately.

Watch for upcoming announcements on the VSLA list serv, and consider joining our team. It’s great fun!

Judith Kaplan, MA, Library Media Specialist, School Library Media Sequence Coordinator , University of Vermont

Internationally recognized as an authority on medieval Cistercian architecture, Dr. Terryl Kinder recently spoke to students at Rice Memorial High School in a special visit sponsored by the Friends of Rice Library and supported by a grant from the Paul Post Foundation.

Ann Kenney (left), librarian at Rice Memorial High School, displays Architecture of Silence: Cistercian Abbeys of France by Dr. Terryl Kinder (right) of St. Michael’s College.

Kinder’s presentation discussed how the Cistercian monks evolved from their Benedictine roots and how they lived, worked and prayed in silence. She also described how the architecture of their monastic buildings-simple, beautifully proportioned and well-built-reflects the spiritual transformation to which they aspired.

Kinder’s time is currently divided between teaching at St. Michael’s College and living near the site of Pontigny Abbey in the Burgundy region of France. She has written several books, including Architecture of Silence: Cistercian Abbeys of France, which she co-authored with David Heald, the chief photographer at the Guggenheim Museum.

by Ann Kenney

The list, printed as a full-color brochure by VSLA-affiliate VT-NEA, has a print run of 30,000+ each year, and has often “sold out.” (Hint:  order your copies early!).  VT-NEA provides the printing and covers all shipping and handling costs to deliver copies to classrooms or your school library and to local bookstores and public libraries around the state.  Originally conceived and created by Leda Schubert, former VT Department of Education Library Media Consultant, and Laurie Huse, Communications Director for VT-NEA, Summer Reading for Kids has been featured on WCAX News, Across the Fence, and received an honorable mention from The Wall Street Journal.  Past lists may be accessed at:  http://www.vtnea.org/vermont_education_center/summer_reading_lists.aspx.

Barb Marvin of Colchester High School has already stepped up to the plate to cover the high school titles for 2010.  Contributors for both younger age groups are still needed. (Note:  as VT-NEA covers all the production costs, they do ask that list contributors be VT-NEA members as well as VSLA members).  If you are interested, please contact Shannon Walters at swalters@bsdvt.org at your earliest convenience.

Shannon Walters, Library Media Specialist, C.P. Smith School, Burlington, Vermont 05408
swalters@bsdvt.org
(802) 864-2228

Poetry Outloud Contest

Poetry Outloud Contest

One of our favorite and best-attended events in the library this past semester was the poetry declamation contest initiated and planned by the English Department in honor of a former faculty member, Graham Newell.  It was held on Parent’s Night, which brought more parents than usual to the library.  Over ten English classes participated in this National event (http://www.poetryoutloud.org/) coordinated as a first annual event at the Academy by English teacher Angela Drew.  Two Academy student winners will proceed to the State level contest and hope to win an expense-paid trip to Washington, DC, to compete at the national level.

Capstone Conference Day/Silent Art Auction

Each student at the Academy prepares a Capstone project in their senior year.   On December 4, over 100 Capstones were presented on campus during the course of the day.  Juniors and seniors could rotate through the various venues to see their fellow students’ presentations, and the library was one of the busiest venues on campus.  A Capstone project highlight later in December was Hannah Spero’s silent auction in honor of her mother, an award-winning photographer, who died from melanoma when Hannah was 8.  Faculty, staff and students contributed art projects for the silent auction, and the art works were displayed on low shelving in the library.  A student violinist played music in the background and cookies were served just like in a big-city gallery.  As a backdrop, Hannah prepared a multimedia presentation about her mother and the disease which took her mother’s life. The event was attended by several hundred students and faculty members, and raised more than $600 which Hannah donated to an organization that funds melanoma awareness.

Odyssey Book Presentations at the Library

The last week of school the English department again used the venue of the library for the grand finale for a fun Humanities project.  Freshman Humanities students worked in small groups over the previous weeks to prepare a physical book which retold the Odyssey as a modern story.   Each book was formally presented to the library staff as if the students were trying to sell it to an editor for publication and to the library staff for inclusion in the collection.  The students prepared posters, book blurbs, and even bribes (in the form of chocolate kisses palmed off to library staff with goodbye handshakes!).  The library staff was impressed by the variety of abilities and skills the students honed working on this project:  imagination, creative writing, drawing, graphic design, teamwork, marketing, and presentation and public speaking skills.

Recommend a Book! Contest

Our newest staff member, Caitlin Smith, who comes to us with experience at Powell’s Bookstore, initiated this contest.  The students responded enthusiastically and quickly.  She gave the students a month to recommend from one to three books, prepared an eye-catching display, and posted the 24 book recommendations as they were submitted.  We displayed copies of the recommended books if we had them, and if not, we ordered a copy or the entire series.  The books and recommendations were displayed in a popular seating area of the library and more than half of the student-recommended books were checked out while the contest was underway!

Caitlin Smith and the student who won the $25 gift certificate to a local bookstore

by Linda Wooster, SJA Library Director lwooster@stjacademy.org (802- 751-2100)

The call for proposals goes out to the technology, library, and education communities January 11^th, with a February 19^th deadline for receipt of proposals.  All proposals should be emailed to Sue Furry-Irish at suzanne.irish@cesu.k12.vt.us by February 19^th or before.  Proposals should be 75 words or less (with a catchy title!) on a topic related to technology in K-12 education. Presenters will receive free registration for one day of the conference (one registration per one-hour workshop).

VSLA aims to bring 24 presentations to the conference mix.  While we will be looking for proposals that relate to the library media center, we must remember that conference participants will be a mix of librarians, teachers, and technology integration specialists. Collaborative projects or library uses that could be duplicated in classrooms will reach a broader audience.  At the same time, we are mindful that the spring conference needs to meet the special interests of our library community.  If you have an important idea to propose or would like to help the conference committee, please contact Sue Furry-Irish at the above email address.

This collaborative conference is a new venture for both parties, so librarians, let’s shine! Share your expertise with others, encourage synergy, and benefit from others’ creativity. Are you using Skype, blogs, wikis, podcasts, Flip videos, or wish you were?  Do you need clarification on 21^st Century Learning Skills? Are you dying to discuss Fair Use questions or policies on publishing, Web 2.0, and more? Come learn, share, meet, and teach at the Dynamic Landscapes 2.0 Conference this May 13^th and 14^th!

What time is it? It’s Twilight time, of course!

Last month I ran a contest where I raffled off a New Moon poster from the New York Times that I had laminated. Each student filled out slips with his/her name and the title of the book they were currently reading, and dropped it in the box. I ran it for about two weeks and I ended up getting a lot of entries. It was a pretty popular idea, and a good way to find out what else they are reading.

Jessica Langlois, Librarian, Proctor Jr/Sr High School