Updated 3/12/08 to add additional links and photo credits that I forgot.  Forgive me, it was late and I was in a hurry to get something posted! – Heather

Today marked the beginning of the 2009 SCASL annual conference in Greenville.  I am fortunate enough to have been allowed by my principal to attend,   Many of my fellow colleagues in the library world haven’t been as lucky.

Once again, I’ll be sharing my notes and thoughts from my experiences at conference.

I drove up to Greenville yesterday – after a side trip to Charlotte, NC.  I had to stop by the Apple Store to get a replacement battery for my Macbook.  Thankfully, it was covered under my warranty!  I couldn’t attend conference without my laptop!  But it sure made for a LONG trip – a little over 4 hours in total.  Anyway, here are the sessions I attended today:

Storytelling Through Pictures – Take a Walk on the Wild Side

Presented by Donna Goldsmith, Tim Van Heule, and Cathy Arnold – This pre-conference session was an all day experience beginning with a morning ride on the trolley to the Greenville Zoo.  We were met by a zoo guide who provided a very enjoyable and informational explanation of the animals: how they came to the zoo; their care and feeding; endangered species renewal plans; mated pare matching, etc.  Throughout the tour we were given the task of taking photographs to be used in our digital storytelling session in the afternoon.  In addition to my taking photos for the session, I also agreed to be a Roving Reporter for the SCASL IT Committee – I agreed to take photos and video interviews from our group to be shared with the folks who couldn’t make it to conference this year.  We are using the SCASL Ning to share information and live streaming of some sessions from conference.

After returning to the convention center and a boxed lunch, we met back up and were introduced to various storytelling tools.  See the presenters website for the tools they discussed: Flickr, Glogster, Photostory, etc.  After uploading our photos to Flickr, we were to use one of the tools they covered and create our own digital story of out trip.  Sorry, I don’t have one to share as I didn’t get to that part – I was too busy talking and going through others photos!  I kinda got sidetracked by all of the giraffe photos everyone took.  I love the giraffe.  I don’t know if you can see it in this photo, but the female giraffe is resting her head on the male giraffe’s back.  How sweet is that?  Another highlight of the giraffe segment of our trip was watching the little kids try to throw crackers to the giraffes – not an easy feat.  We learned that a zoo worker would go out later in the day and collect all of the crackers that didn’t make it to the giraffes and then feed them to the pair.  It was interesting, if someone sad, to see how the giraffes had to contort to reach the crackers on the ground.  

Can We Work Together?  Using Collaborative Tools

Presented by Cathy Nelson and Fran Bullington – As a member of the IT Committee, I assisted Cathy, Fran and Anne Lemieux with streaming the session using UstreamTV.  This was one of our efforts to include folks who couldn’t make it to conference this year.  I was in charge of the camera and chat room (once we figured it out!)  I am by no means an expert and I apologize for the poor camera work.

The session focused on using Wikis and Google Documents to collaborate with teachers and/or students to collaborate on group projects.  If/When I get the links to the session, I’ll update this post with them.

Reflections

While I truly enjoyed both sessions – the Zoo and the picture perfect, beautiful day were wonderful and I had fun working the camera for Cathy and Fran’s session – I must say the highlight of the day was having dinner with Cathy, Fran, Anne, and Doug Johnson! Fran took us to Flat Rock where I had a tasty meal and we shared fabulous conversations and laughs together.  I bet we were the highlight of our waiter’s evening!  Doug is a HOOT and a witty fellow!  I’m looking forward to attending one or two of his sessions, as well as his keynote, tomorrow.

Well, its getting late and the first session starts at 7:45 tomorrow morning and I want to make it there on time, so gonna hit the sack.

Photo Credit:

Greetings from SCASL 2.0: Experience the Journey @ your library.

DSC01317 by Greenville Instructional Technology – FlickrCC

DSC01315 by Greenville Instructional Technology – FlickrCC

More from Thursday:

I forgot to mention the fun I had last night at dinner with Cathy Nelson, Jessica Donaldson, Chris Craft and Fran Bullington at the Liberty Steakhouse and Brewery – after Chris made us walk all the way around Broadway at the Beach!  Not that I minded, too much, as I don’t believe I’ve ever visited there at night.  It was neat to see the lights and walk over the bridges.  And I got a kick out of watching Chris get so excited about feeding the fish.  Those were some HUGE fish – they were even biting the ducks!  Of course, I also teased him about the idea that you’re supposed to work OFF a meal, not work up to a meal!

From the “Encouraging Reading Through Technology” session I wanted to expand more on my notes regarding the “Senior Athletes Read” program.  The READ posters/trading cards are of only senior student athletes.  The posters are displayed around the school and at the games.  Their school has a specific block/period during the school day (4th block?) for athletic practice.  During this block, the coaches have made arrangements for the athletes to read to elementary classes.  The media specialists design the posters and trading cards and photograph the students.  The posters are printed on an HP Designjet printer and are laminated.  Other items I failed to mention include banners promoting reading are paraded during pep rallies “Win, Fight, Read” or something like that.  Another program was their book club – they read The Christopher Killer by Alane Ferguson and invited their local coroner to participate & talk about her job. Resources on their handout:

• Photostory
• Scholastic Video Booktalks
• Blogs
• CrazyTalk
• Turning PowerPoint slides into a screen saver

Friday:

I did decide to sleep in an extra hour!  So there were only two sessions I attended; however, both were excellent and ended EdTech on a high note.

Reaching Out Beyond the Walls: Distance Learning for Everyone – presented by John Woodring.  Despite some technical difficulties with the Internet access, this was an interesting session using Wiziq for distance training/meetings.  I’ve been toying with learning a system (preferably free) that we can use in our district media specialist association to provide access to our meetings/workshops for folks who can’t make it in person to our meetings.  Despite the technical difficulties, I found it interesting to chat with folks he’s been collaborating with.

Using Excel for More Than Spreadsheets! – presented by Donna Goldsmith from the SC Department of Education.  She showed examples of using Excel for interactivity in the classroom.  This session was awesome and Donna was a blast.  I so would have loved to have been in her classroom as a kid (or adult!)  Since she said her materials would be on the EdTech website, I didn’t take notes; however, as of right now they are not there.  I’ve emailed her for copies and would be happy to forward them on once I get them.

I will say the items she showed were real “wow” as well as “duh” moments for me.  For example: inserting a map of the US as the background (turning off the grid lines) then using comments to enter the state name/capitals (making sure to resize the columns and rows really small).  You could also put a picture of any diagram (cell structure, disection photo, etc.) of anything you want to label and use comments and/or create a matching type worksheet.  DUH! moment for me.

I didn’t stick around for the Luncheon.  Mom and I had a nice lunch at Margaritaville and did a little more shopping and walked around The Gay Dolphin before heading back to the condo.  You can see more of the photos my Mom snapped while we were in Myrtle Beach on my Flickr Photostream.

Saturday we had an early breakfast (well early for me since I don’t usually get up unil well after 10am if I’m on vacation or weekends) and checked out of the condo.  We stopped at the 501 Tanger outlets, had lunch, and headed on home.  Since we were passing by the Sumter Outlet mall, we just had to stop – boy is it NOT worth the stop.  There were only like 8 stores, but Mom could have stayed there and spent some money at the Antiques store.  We got home after dark and couldn’t bring outselves to empty out the car.  Spent all day Sunday unpacking and getting organized for today.  Since there was no food in the house we headed into Orangeburg to the IHOP!  Pecan Coffee Cake Pancakes, YUM! So, another fall vacation has come and gone.  Time to get back to work.

PS:  Oooh, reminder for everyone to plan for the Upstate Technology Conference: “Teach Tomorrow Today,” June 23 – 25, 2009.  The Call for Presentations is open.

Not to make anyone jealous, but I’ve actually not been to work all week.  *grin*  I’ve been enjoying the nice (well it WAS nice) weather over here in Myrtle Beach, SC.  Each year I take the week off of school to come vacation for a few days and then attend the EdTech Conference.

Mom and I arrived in Myrtle Beach on Saturday, and I couldn’t have asked for a more beautiful day to drive/arrive.  Yes, you read right, my Mom comes with me each year – hey, she lets me use her time share exchange so I don’t have to pay for a hotel!  The least I can do is let her tag along and be her chauffeur for her shopping excursions.  Such a hardship on my part isn’t it?  Sunday was an equally beautiful day; however, Monday through Wednesday it rained.

This year, to save my school/self money, I became a full-time volunteer for EdTech in order to receive free registration – all I have to do is attend assigned sessions and scan peoples badges for those wanting to receive recertification credit.  How cool is that?!  The beauty is that I was assigned almost (if not all) of my first choices in sessions.  Gotta love those EdTech folks!  I also helped stuff conference bags Tuesday night.  Let me tell you, those EdTech folks are a hoot!  I never thought I’d have fun stuffing bags.

Anyway, as a way to 1) prove to folks (sic principal) I did attend sessions, 2) have a record of my notes for referral, and 3) share what I’ve learned with you guys, I’ll once again post my notes and thoughts about my conference experiences.  So here goes:

Wednesay

Your 2.0 Sandbox: Come Play and Learn – presented by my good friend Cathy Nelson.  I hadn’t planned on attending any sessions on Wednesday, but since it was for Cathy, I of course volunteered to facilitate!  As always, I had fun.  I also enjoyed going to lunch with MaryAnn Sansonetti, Julia Davis, Jessica (sorry, can’t remember your last name!), Cathy, and Chris Craft.  MaryAnn sure loves hush puppies!

SC Online Resources – presented by Catherine Giddens from SC Department of Education – focus was on online professional development opportunities for South Carolina teachers.  They also mentioned Thinkfinity.org (formerly MarcoPolo) and DISCUS.

I was invited to attend a DEN dinner by three different people (thanks guys!) and got to hear more about OnePlaceSC and the great services Discovery Education provides.  My whole lunch group was there along with some other folks I know (in person or by reputation) and I’m seriously considering applying to be a DEN STAR Educator.

Thursday

Today I had a full schedule of sessions to work/attend.  The day started with a bang, started to peeter our, but then finished on a high note for me.

Encouraging Reading Through Technology: Ideas on How to Promote YA Books - Presented by CayLen Whitesides and Robin Mitchell from York Comprehensive High School

Awesome session!  Well worth getting up early to attend.  Here are my notes:

• Use Photostory Booktalks (written/performed by students) as part of their independent novel projects.
• Put message on the marque outside the school (at the road) “Read More Books” so passerby’s are reminded to read, too!  In our case, we’d put this on our internal message board.
• Senior Athletes Read: The media specialists create READ posters of the high seniors to post around the schools.  The seniors choose the book they want to be photographed with and the location of the photo shoot.  The media specialists also created “trading cards” of the seniors with the READ photo/poster, team name, student name, and jersey number on the front.  The back contains their stats: graduation year, position, height, weight, AND FAVORITE CHILDREN’S BOOK.
• In conjunction with the Senior Athletes Read, the school’s COACHES organize the student athletes to go to the elementary school to read to the youngsters.  They hand out their trading cards to the kids (’cause to the elem kids, the high school students are their heroes just as college and pro athletes are our kids heroes)  Of course, their school has a block (or in our school, a class period) assigned as athletic practice.
• Author cards – similar to their senior trading cards, but the front is the picture of a book and the back contains the authors webpage, a couple of other titles, and just a bit about the author.
• Book flyers – picture of the book, summary, and other titles.
• Book PowerPoints – cover of book, book summary, StreamlineSC (United Streaming to non-South Carolinian’s) video clips for relevant info (example, for The Nature of Jade by Deb Caletti they included a clip about elephants and another about teen panic attacks.)
• But the best of the best (for me – and a “duh” moment) was the idea of using a digital picture frame as a literacy promoter.  They save their PPT slides as jpegs and load them to the digital picture frame to highlight whatever they are promoting – be it a single title, an author spotlight, a genre’ spotlight, etc.  She also stated they wrote a grant to pay for purchasing them!  How cool!  [An audience member stated that they now make digital photo frames that play MP3 and/or .avi files.]

Cool Free Tech Tools for Teacher Use – Presented by Michael Edwards from Pelion High School

Presenting freeware products that could be useful in classrooms.  The majority of the items are “games” that he created himself using Mediator software.  I would link to them, but don’t have his permission.  If I obtain permission, I’ll update this post.  The tools he shared include: Cool Timer, TI Flash Debugger, Random Student Picker, Jeopardy 3/4, Adventures in Learning, Koosh Ball Kraze 1 & 2, Trivial Pursuit, President Squares, Think Link, Wheel of Knowledge, Beat The Clock, Seen it: Physical Science Edition.

Apple – Engaging Learners with Innovative Technologies – presented by Janice Adams – showed us some tips and applications in Mac OS X – Leopard.  Included: dictionary app, widget feature in Safari, calculators (standard, scientific, programmers) and Grapher (graphing calculator app).  There were more, but I can’t recall them right now.

The next session I went to was horrible and I won’t embarrass the presenter by documenting it here.  The name for the session was a TOTAL misdirection and if I hadn’t been assigned to scan recert cards, I would have walked out.

Is There a “Second Life” for teachers and students? – presented by Gary Senn.  I’m a total beginner with the whole Second Life phenom.  I had already created an avatar (Sayrah Glazner), and finally was able to get off of the Intro Island prior to the session.  This session was good for me in learning more about how to move around/interact and for places to visit in SL for educators.  I was too busy trying to manuver w/in the program to take notes.  I still don’t know/believe there is a place for SL in my school (or any school), but I had fun learning more about SL.

Overall, today was a good learning day.  I hope tomorrow will be, too!  Somehow, the EdTech folks forgot to assign me to an 8am session, so I’m thinking of sleeping in another hour before heading out to the convention center. Think anyone will miss me?  Of course, the sessions all look like vendor pitches, so I don’t think I’ll miss out on anything…no money or clout to purchase their stuff!

***Note to me for things to bring next year:  a power strip!  I was surprised to see how many people brought laptops.  I’d say the number trippled or quadruppled over last year.  In most sessions there are only one or two power plugs and you have to get there early if you want to plug up or recharge your batteries.

Warning, long blog post ahead!

I’m finally getting around to writing about my trip to Greenville where I attended the Upstate Technology Conference (UTC) (June 25 – 26), and let me tell you I am still tired and on brain overload even now.

UTC ROCKED! Thank you Cathy Nelson for telling me about this conference. I had already signed up to attend UTC when I was told the dates for the Education and Business Summit (EBS) overlapped UTC. Thankfully, both conferences were in Greenville, SC (practically around the corner from each other) and my new principal agreed to let me slip out of our High Schools That Work (HSTW) sessions on Wednesday to go to UTC instead. THANK YOU! THANK YOU! THANK YOU!

Arriving at J. L. Mann HS I couldn’t help compare the school to my own school. It is amazing: new technology everywhere; whiteboards/LCDs in every classroom; large, open classrooms; ginormous library media center; computers all over the place; TV broadcasting over the computer; message displays in the lobby/café area; a drama/journalism studio; I could go on and on, but I’m sure you can already tell I’m envious! (BTW: Did anyone else notice the stairwell lights were motion censored to come on/brighten only when you entered the stairwell?!)

The other big surprise: blogs, wikis, Flickr, and other Web 2.0 tools WERE NOT BLOCKED! Now, this may have been only to accommodate the conference, but I’d like to believe that this is always the case.

The tone of the conference was set with keynote addresses by Ewan McIntosh and David Jakes. Both were awesome speakers – witty, informative, and engaging. Definitely not boring! If you don’t already subscribe to their blogs DO SO NOW! Both speakers stressed the need for educators to learn to use the Web 2.0 tools that our students and young people today are already using and for educators to develop an online learning community (professional network). Students shouldn’t be learning (and we shouldn’t be teaching) in isolation. Connecting with others enhances the learning!

I’m thankful teachers from my school as well as other Aiken County folks attended to learn from these masters. Hopefully, we can start a movement in our district to bring the ideas and tools to our students, too! A few of the concurrent sessions that made an impression on me were:

“Making Your Podcast More Pro” – Ewan McIntosh: After attending this session, I wanted to immediately take down my podcasts and fix them. Of course, this isn’t practical. At least I have better guidelines for future endeavors. Basically, my big mistake is having long intros. They should be no longer than 10 seconds and should state the purpose of your podcast/what you’re going to talk about so people can decide if they want to listen or not. Another tip, host the podcasts where your listeners can leave comments to promote an ongoing dialog.

“Thinking Out of the Xbox: Creative Writing Through Computer Games” – Ewan McIntosh: “Play helps us understand the world around us.” He equated reading a game (level) can be the same as reading a chapter. Not being a gamer, I was unaware of just how much text could be in a video game. He showed example of a teacher using the game MYST III: Exile to have students write about their thoughts, observations, feelings the game/visual/setting evokes.

“iPod-abilities in the Classroom” – MaryAnn Sansonetti: If you click on the title link, you’ll be taken to her wiki for this session, which has links for all of the notes I took so I needn’t post them here! Since I already have an iPod and am familiar with educational podcasts, I was mostly interested in ways to incorporate them into the classroom. Thanks MaryAnn for all the wonderful suggestions.

“Digital Storytelling 2.0: What’s Next?” – David Jakes: You can click the link in the title above to go to the wiki where the keynote slides and digital storytelling information can be found. Along with various storytelling tools, the message I took away from the Digital Storytelling session is that it’s “the story within the story” that should be the focus of any storytelling project. You’re going for the emotional impact, not the “we did this and this and this…” Use sounds, visuals, music, cutting to images, etc., all to evoke an emotion in your audience. Also, script and storyboard before you put together your digital story.

“Don’t Read to Me – A Presentation on Presentations” – Chris Craft: WOW! Chris used Cognitive Load Theory to show why bad presentations cause students to revert to bad habits because they cannot process all of the information you’re throwing at them (among other reasons!) Talk about a dynamic speaker with such a needed message! I admit, I’ve been a bad PowerPoint user in the past, but I’ve never been a fan of PPT to begin with. Needless to say, I immediately Twittered Chris to come speak at our school! Great thing is, he’s practically around the corner (relatively speaking) to Wagener, and best of all he said YES! Now I have to convince my principal this is a great idea, too! (Carrie, help me out!) Oh, you can also read Ewan McIntosh’s post about Chris’s presentation here.

Of course, I have a lot of additional notes (or should I say more messages to myself), and I went to a few other sessions, but this post is already long enough! [BTW, one of my teachers won a drawing at UTC, so not only did she take away the prize of new ideas, but computer speakers, too!]

I also want to say it was great to meet so many of my Twitter friends and people whose blogs I follow…many for the first time face-to-face. It was also a thrill to have lunch on Wednesday with Pat Hensley, Cathy Nelson, Julia Davis, Chris Craft, and MaryAnn Sansonetti … but to make my day even better, David Jakes and Ewan McIntosh joined us! I also want to send out a big thank you to the folks who organized the UTC. You did a phenomenal job and I can’t wait to see what’s in store next year.

The South Carolina Association of School Librarians (SCASL) Annual Conference begins this week in Columbia. This means that I will be away from school Wednesday – Thursday. It also means that you will find me a hyper woman on Monday when I come back with all the great ideas and information to share…bare with me, I’ll slow down and catch my breath eventually. While I love to go to all kinds of training, workshops, and conferences, SCASL is always my favorite. It is where I catch up with friends & colleagues, make new friends, and learn new teaching methods, new (or retooled) materials/resources, and learn of new technology and technology uses. I pick up free stuff from the vendors and take advantage of good deals. In other words, generally have a blast while learning, too!

I’m also thrilled that SCASL posted their program online and I’ve already mapped out my game plan. Here is what I plan to do/attend:

WEDNESDAY

• Full Day Pre-Conference: “Powerful (and Fun) Programming in the Library Media Center” given by one of my favorite professors from USC, Dr. Pat Feehan. In addition, I will be one of the sessions facilitators!
• Concurrent #1 I can’t decide yet between “Nuts & Bolts of Podcasting” or “M&M: Motivation and Marketing for Students in the Media Center.” Since the presenter for “Nuts & Bolts” is co-facilitating for Dr. Pats session, I’ll be asking her how she podcasts and if it’s different from what I’ve done, I may go to her session.
• Exploratorium and Exhibit Hall Grand Opening/Block Party following by dinner out with some friends (old and new I hope!)

THURSDAY

• Concurrent #2 “Digital Comics, Graphic Novels, Sequential Art, and Technology Enhanced Learning” presented by Annette Lamb.
• Concurrent #3 “Jamie Adoff – From Rock n Roll to Poetry/Prose and Everything in Between” presented by young adult novel author Jamie Adoff.
• General Session/Keynote Seaker Joyce Valenza – “Web 2.0 Meets Information Fluency: Designing Projects for 21st Century Learners.”
• Volunteering at the SCASL Store Booth
• Concurrent #4 “School Library Websites: The State of the Art – Information Landscapes for 21st Century Learners” presented by Joyce Valenza and one where I will be one of the facilitators! How cool is that?!
• Exhibit Hall Time & then out to dinner

FRIDAY

• Concurrent #5 “Booktalking the SC Young Adult Book Award Nominees” of which I am a committee member and will be booktalking The Christopher Killer by Alane Ferguson and Rules of Survival by Nancy Werlin.
• Volunteering at the SCASL Store Booth
• Author Celebration Luncheon – where I’m looking forward to hearing all the wonderful authors speak and learning the winners of the SC Book Awards!

As you see, I’m going to have a jam packed time at SCASL this year. I can hardly wait!