SCASL Overload

Hotel rooms are great places to compose blog posts. All is quiet on the conference front. Let's jump back in time to . . .

THIS MORNING! It was a busy day at the convention center in Columbia. The one bummer was that a session on Prezi was cancelled. Not to worry as there were 5 others from which to choose.

Dr. Loertscher was presenting a session on Transforming Learning Commons. This topic resonated with me - it's been a project in the making at my school for almost 3 years now with no end in sight. The core of his presentation was creating a knowledge building center on the learning commons using Google Sites. This is a great tool. I have a virtual commons a la google now. So I've been google-ized at SCASL.

The next session was w/ Frank Baker. Frank had worked with the state instructional technology team when I was with the team. His forte is visual and media literacy. Frank has a special talent for stretching one's mind painlessly. I came away with new ideas that will work well with my virtual learning commons that is under construction.

The next event of the day was the keynote address. David Loertscher was the keynote speaker. He began his keynote by calling out my name - was I present and if so, would I come up to the stage. Clueless in Columbia here made her way to the stage not knowing what to expect. Well, the next period of time was interesting. I had the honor of assisting him with his presentation - reading the slides as he said. David has low vision, part of macular degeneration. So I went from wondering what was going to happen next to having a wonderful time co-presenting as it were, reading the screen script which I had not seen previous to this. It reminded me of auditioning for district band - had to sight read a piece as part of the audition process. Reading words is like that, too. One can read the words or one can give life to those words as they are read. Funny thing was, as I was reading the script, I realized that I have a long way to go in transforming my media center into a learning commons. It's a true work in progress or as the saying goes, a very fluid environment. David's presentation was great - not because of me but because of his thoughts and ideas.

The awards luncheon followed. I sat with some of my profs from USC - earned my MLIS there having graduated May 2010. It was great to see them again. They had introduced me to the world of David Loertscher via his articles and books while I was in grad school.

I went to the First Year with a Flexible First Grade session. I picked up a couple of ideas I can use at my school not only w/ first grade, but other levels as well.

At the Ten Hidden Secrets in DISCUS, I bumped into a former instructional technology specialist with whom I worked. She is also a media specialist at a high school in Aiken.

The capstone event of the day was my presentation. I thought I would have a few people, given the time of day and other events happening at the center. I was surprised with 25 or so folks including Dr. Loertscher. The downside was the Internet was slower than a snail on hot glue. But overall it seemed to go well. Hopefully when I do it again tomorrow morning, it will go even better. I know I forgot to mention a couple of things, so I'll need to jot down some notes to keep me on track.

I had a chat with David Loertscher after I presented. He has invited me to write an article - traditional format for one audience/publication. Then ramp it up a notch into the virtual world with a hyperlinked article - a virtual tour of my Learning Commons. This is a first for me, an honor to say the least, but a heavy responsibility. I'll need to plot it, plan it, and do it. I have the ingredients; just need to put them into a great recipe.

And now it's time to call it a day. A very busy day at that with surprises, renewing professional contacts, and learning new things. I'm always in a learning mode.

Do media specialists have ADD?

Oh this is so funny. I was talking with another media specialist from my school district this afternoon and she said she noticed I was presenting twice. Well, I made light of it, stating I was scheduled for the earlybird special on Friday.

Fast forward to 5 minutes ago and OH OH! I was selecting sessions to attend and when I got to Thursday afternoon, I finally saw what she had seen earlier. Uh huh. And the story doesn't end there. I reflected upon the 2 email notifications I received, and had questioned to which room was I really assigned for Friday morning. The song, "I Can See Clearly Now" comes to mind. And I roared with laughter as I realized that I just might have ADD after all. Those two email notifications were indeed informing me that I had been scheduled to present my topic not once, but twice.

And tomorrow @ 4:30, the curtain will go up and the show will begin! I'm still laughing at myself over this, but I'm ready and that's a good thing.

Maybe as media specialists we are such multi-taskers that FBR sets in - that's Fly By Reading. I do that alot and sometimes, I miss the tiniest of details. Well, a principal once told me that the devil's in the details. Being more of a visionary and imagineer, I tend to see the forest, not the trees. Call it a bird's eye view as opposed to the worm's eye view.

With that, it's to infinity and beyond, and finalizing things for tomorrow!

Doing the SCASL 2011

Time to catch up on everything. I'm in Columbia, SC as we speak attending the 2011 SCASL Conference. For those of you unfamiliar with SCASL, it is the South Carolina Association of School Librarians. But, does this really accurately describe and/or fit the role for the 21st century? Think about it . . .

Meanwhile, back to the conference. Today I attended a preconference workshop entitled "Leadership Strategies for Building Communities @ Your Library". Dr. David Loertscher did an excellent job in challenging the attendees to think without a box - I like "thinking without a box" better than "outside the box". Why? Not sure except that without a box, it's a "no holes barred" scenario, enabling or empowering one to imagine beyond infinity what might be possible in a school library.

Oh, there's that word again, "library". Rambling right along here, I dont have a library. I have a Learning Commons that contains a library collection, a media center, a mini computer lab, an e-classroom, a readers theater, a discovery dock AND an information island. Yes, I imagined those words and gave them life at my school. All without a box, too!

I have a desk plate that reads "those who see the invisible will do the impossible". I think that captures the essence of how I approach my craft, that of serving as a library media technology specialist. I haven't come up with an improved title yet. I highly suspect it will hit me in the near future though.

The SCASL conference theme for 2011 is Building Community @ Your Library. And so it is the purpose of the Learning Commons. It's the perfect community building playground. More on this in a future post.

For now, I need to review the program and identify sessions that are important to me and my imagination. I also need to finish or polish my presentation for Friday. I'm presenting Friday morning @ 8am. My presentation is entitled "Is your media center stuck in the 20th century?" So is it or is it not? The choice is yours!

I don't believe in boxes. I believe in infinity and eternity.