I have been away from public school since the summer of 2020. I have spent the past two years working nearly full-time for the Arkansas Army National Guard. In March, I had the opportunity to teach as an adjunct instructor for McDaniel College in their school librarianship program. It has been wonderful to be involved with graduate students preparing to join our wonderful profession as school librarians. After beginning to teach the course, I discovered that the Arkansas Association of Instructional Media had scheduled a conference in April. I thought the timing would be perfect to attend especially since the course I was teaching covered Personal Learning Networks (PLNs). There are few better places for one to develop a PLN than at a conference!
When I was a school librarian, I really loved attending conferences. This was especially true if I could attend one near the end of school in the spring semester. It was always exciting to learn new technology and connect with authors and their new works. I encourage all administrators to send their school librarians to such conferences with the understanding they must bring their learning back to the school. I have always viewed a school librarian as a leadership position since we impact the entire learning community. It was always fun to bring back new ideas and technology to share with teachers and students during the year, especially near the end of school. It always helped me stay energized right up to the beginning of summer. Such energy and excitement are contagious! I couldn't wait to attend the conference since I haven't attended one for several years, pre-pandemic.
In the paragraphs below, I will share highlights of my learning from the 3-day conference.
Tik Tok Book Toks
One of the topics we cover in my current class at McDaniel College is Personal Learning Network development and social media. I used this conference as a way to model best practices for my graduate students. I sent Tweets, Instagram posts, and Facebook posts to the #SLM508 and #AAIM22 so they could observe highlights of my professional learning at the conferences. I have always connected with other professionals by using this practice at conferences and other learning events. I hope my students will enjoy building their PLN via social media as they move forward in their careers. Sometimes being a school librarian can be a lonely place since most schools only employ one. With a PLN, we are never alone as professionals. There is always a learning conversation happening via social media, especially Twitter.
Keynote Speaker Todd Nesloney
I really enjoyed hearing Todd talk about his experiences as a classroom teacher and administrator. Some of my biggest takeaways were that we all need to share our stories as school librarians. Todd suggested that if we do not tell our own stories, someone else will tell them for us! He discussed empowering students to help us tell our stories via social media by allowing them to take photos and help create the posts that go out. He also shared that we can Tweet to authors when we read their books. We never know when an author might respond and interact with us. This is important and exciting for students to see!
Another wonderful idea from Todd was his suggestion of inviting school board members, central office administrators, community leaders, and others to read to students. If they can't come in person, send them a Zoom. Everyone should be modeling a love of reading to students at all grade levels. I really love this idea! He also stated that administrators should be able to find plenty of funds to purchase books. There were many more ideas that he shared. Be sure to follow him @TechNinjaTodd on Twitter.
Book Challenges
I attended a session about book challenges. The best takeaway from this session was the suggestion that school librarians should know their district's selection and challenge policies. School librarians should review these processes with administrators so everyone is aware of the procedure. This should alleviate most problems that would be encountered. In addition, I remember more than one district having a challenge policy that required the complainant to read the entire book being challenged to discourage a select portion from being taken out of context. I also recall one district placing the responsibility to suggest a comparable text on the person making the complaint. This is a topic I want to continue researching since it has become a frequent issue in recent months. There are also resources for book challenges at ALA and AASL.
Tik Tok Book Toks
I have noticed that TikTok has become very popular with young people in recent months. When I saw that Dena Meriweather, the school librarian at Bigelow High School, was having a session about it, I had to check it out. Dena shared her story about how she had the idea to use TikTok to create book talks to share with her students during the pandemic. I thought this was a very innovative way to reach students, especially during the COVID lockdown period. I plan to write more about this in a future blog post. I look forward to sharing information about this with my graduate students!
Malvern ELA Teacher TikTok
I was excited to attend a session by a middle school ELA teacher from Malvern. Claudine James discussed how she had to evolve as an educator during the pandemic. After she discovered the COVID crisis was going to continue into the fall of 2020, she realized she had to adjust her strategy to reach students that were frequently not at school. After she talked to her students about posting lessons on YouTube, she realized few students were watching her videos. She then started posting her lessons on a new TikTok account. Her students helped her come up with the username @iamthatenglishteacher. She immediately began gaining hundreds and eventually thousands of followers. By January 2021 she had 100k followers. One of her lessons gained 54.5 million views. She has now gained national attention. I love seeing educators step out of their comfort zones to reach students where they are! The most important takeaway for me is that she asked her students what they thought might be the best approach. What can we learn from this?
Copyright and Creativity
I attended a session about the Copyright and Creativity resources website (copyrightandcreativity.org). The session was led by Brittany Fleming who is also a trainer for the site. I was very excited about this since it is a resource we share in the class content I have been teaching at McDaniel College for Learning Technologies. Brittany gave a brief overview of copyright laws, the four factors to consider, and the website resources at Copyright and Creativity. The site features a copyright-related curriculum for grades K-12. The content is free and only requires a login registration. I plan to write more about this wonderful resource in a future blog article.
PLN and Modeling Best Practices for My Graduate Students
Next Steps
There is so much to unpack and reflect upon from this three-day conference. I plan to write a piece about Dena Meriweather's TikTok Book Toks very soon. I think this is a great way to reach students with popular social media. I also want to share more about the Copyright and Creativity site. There are so many excellent resources to explore and it needs to be done in a dedicated blog article.
I hope you enjoyed reading the highlights of what I experienced at the conference. Learning online during a webinar or a Twitter Chat is a wonderful thing, but in my experience, it doesn't have the impact that an in-person conference can have on personal learning. Being able to meet colleagues and visit is priceless. The fact that we get to hear leaders speak in sessions and share their best practices inspires us to take action. I hope that this can become a regular happening for all educators as things continue to improve following the pandemic.
