TLA 2021: Celebrate Differences, Empower Voices

by Kristi Starr, TASL chair 2020-2021, librarian at Coronado High School, Lubbock ISD

 

The 2021 Texas Library Association conference is rapidly approaching, and I hope you’ve decided to attend. Though things look different from our usual beloved conference, we still have many opportunities to connect and interact. Thanks to an early decision on the part of the Programming Committee co-chairs, TLA executive board, and TLA staff, we've had ample time to plan a wonderful online conference. I can’t give enough props to ProCo co-chairs Valerie Prilop and Melanie Scales, TLA president Christina Gola, ProCo/TASL liaison Ann Vyoral, and of course the amazing staff at TLA for all their work. 

I’m excited about what you’re going to experience next week. We have a variety of sessions: live, simulive with live chat, simulive with live Q&A after, and on-demand. Live sessions offer exactly what their name implies. The simulive sessions are pre-recorded but provide either a live chat with the presenter(s) during the session or a live Q&A with the presenter(s) immediately following the recording. On-demand sessions may be viewed at any time. ALL sessions will be available to watch through June 22. 

If you’ve registered for the conference, look for an email on Monday, April 19, that contains your log-in credentials and provides more information about the conference and platform. If you have more questions, check out the conference FAQ page at any time. We invite you to follow along and contribute to online conversations using the Twitter hashtag #txla21 Also be sure to check out the conference schedule in the winter edition of the Texas Library Journal. 

TASL is featuring two speakers who are new to TLA - Michelle Easley and Julie Stivers.

https://www.michelleeasley.com/meet-michelle

Michelle is the founder of Positive Push Press, a publishing and consulting company. She is an experienced librarian and accomplished library leader both in Georgia and at the national level. I first heard Michelle when she served as a powerful voice on AASL past president Mary Keeling’s Task Force on Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion. We are fortunate to have her join us this year for two sessions - “Open Your Virtual Doors” (Friday, 1:45) and “Disrupt Inequity With Your School Library Program” (Friday, 4:00). Michelle is also the author of Increase Diversity in School Library Collections and Programs. Find out more about Michelle at https://www.michelleeasley.com/

https://www.libraryjournal.com/?detailStory
=julie-stivers-movers-shakers-2019-change-agents

Julie Stivers is the librarian at Mount Vernon Middle School in Raleigh, NC, part of the Wake County Public School System. Attending Julie's presentation at the 2019 AASL conference in Louisville, KY, was one of my highlights. Julie is a champion of inclusion and student voice and authored Include, one of six volumes in AASL’s Shared Foundation Series. She was named one of Library Journal’s 2019 Movers and Shakers. Julie’s TLA sessions are “Auditing Our School Library Space & Program With an Equity Lens” (Saturday, 10:15) and “Equity: Moving Beyond Intention to Inclusive Practice” (Thursday, 3:00). You can find Julie and her campus library program at https://mtvernonlibrary.weebly.com/

The other live TASL sessions are

• “Advocate This, Not That” with Stacy Cameron, Brandi Dawson, and Emma McDonald (Thursday, 10:15)
• “Letters About Literature: Student Engagement and Inclusion” with Rebekah Manley and Abby Harrison (Friday, 1:45)

Simulive sessions with live Q&A at the end of the presentations are

• “LGBTQ+ Advocacy in the Library and in The Classroom” with Heather Hornor, Mahoganie Gaston, and Camille Stafford (Thursday, 1:45)
• “Windows and Mirrors: Mexican American Literature for Youth with the Rivera Book Award” with David Bowles, Xelena Gonzalez, Dr. Sandra Murillo-Sutterby, and Priscilla Delgado (Thursday, 4:15)
• Digital Playgrounds for MS and HS: Using Choice” with Claire Hogg and Angie Pidgeon (Friday, 10:15)
• “Library 24/7/365: How to Promote Your Program to Families at Home” with Brooke Corso, Keris Christie-Law, Tracy Frey, Paige Miller (Saturday, 10:15)
• “Science and Library Collaboration for a Curriculum-Aligned Makerspace” with D’Anne Mosby and Rhia Johnson (Saturday, 1:45)

We have many more familiar names and faces as well as some Texas school librarians presenting for the first time at TLA. Whether new or familiar, I’m quite confident you’re going to find amazing content. Additionally, you’ll have access to ALL conference content until June 22, so you won’t be limited in the number of sessions you can attend. Be sure to check out the TASL sessions, but don’t forget the Young Adult Round Table (YART) and Children’s Round Table (CRT) programming, Programming Committee sessions, and so many more.

I look forward to “seeing” you at #txla21 and face-to-face in 2022 in Fort Worth where we will embrace the aptly-worded theme “Recover, Rebalance, Reconnect.”

Teacher Day @ TLA: Teachers + Librarians = Dynamic Duos

 by Joni Harris, School Librarian in Garland ISD, Garland, TX

Collaboration is an important part of every school librarian’s job description. While collaboration can take on many different forms, every form of collaboration has a goal of supporting and enriching learning opportunities for our students. However, collaboration with our teachers does not happen overnight. Spark a collaborative partnership and create a new dynamic duo with a teacher by attending the virtual Teacher Day at this year’s TLA conference! 

The TLA Annual Conference will be held virtually for the 2021 year, but will continue to be made up of books, authors, technology integration, makerspaces, curriculum connections, and supportive librarians. This is a teacher’s dream!  Connect with your teachers, encourage their innovation, inspire them to greater collaboration, and impact their instruction by inviting one or two of your teachers to join you at this year’s Teacher Day @ TLA!

Teacher Day @ TLA will take place on Saturday, April 24, 2021 from 10:00 a.m. through 12:00 p.m. This year's Teacher Day will provide classroom teachers with the opportunity to experience a special one-day event during the virtual TLA conference. With pricing designed for the teachers, they will have access to the full virtual conference experience. 

This is your chance to inspire your teachers and spark a new dynamic duo collaborative partnership! You, as the sponsoring librarian, will play a crucial role in identifying interested teachers, and helping them secure permission to attend and secure funding. You, the librarian, will also help guide them through the registration process and ensure that our guest teachers have a positive experience. 

The planning committee is already at work putting together a fun, interactive, virtual day for the teachers who attend, as well as the sponsoring librarians. Now is the time for librarians to put a plan in place to identify strong candidates among the educators they know to attend and experience the TLA annual conference.

The focus of Teacher Day is to provide an opportunity during the conference for educators to learn about strong school libraries and their potential impact. The goal is for the teachers that experience Teacher Day to return to their districts as library advocates - or perhaps even become librarians themselves. 

Details and application information can be found at www.txla.org/teacher-day. This event has become an annual highlight, and you won’t want to miss this opportunity to increase collaboration on your campus. 

The Power of Community

by Shirley Robinson, TLA Executive Director

The days leading up to March 11 were some of the most stress-filled I’ve ever experienced professionally in my 25-year nonprofit and association management career. Our incredible TLA staff were in full-on two weeks out from conference hustle-mode. Concerns over the threat of COVID-19 and what its impact could be to our conference were looming with dozens of calls and emails a day from members, exhibitors, and suppliers. When we ultimately made the decision with our Executive Board to cancel the conference that morning of the 11th, it was a relief that we had made the very painful but correct decision to protect the health and safety of our members and their communities. Ultimately, that same day the City of Houston banned all large events and the rest of the State and nation were all facing similar decisions. It was a time of uncertainty and shared commiseration of loss and mourning as we began the journey of the unknown.

Today, just a little more than four weeks later, the TLA Executive Board, membership, and staff are excited to be launching our first ever Virtual Conference. We’ll have more than 40 hours of pre-recorded content, live sessions and chat rooms for members to interact on April 21- 22, with even more fun surprises to come throughout the summer with an expanded learning series! A good quarter of the programs are targeted to our school library community with many more that may pique an interest you didn’t know you had. We’re thrilled that many registered attendees have chosen to convert their conference registration over to the Virtual meeting where they’ll receive many more hours of CE than they could have in a face-to-face conference. We’re also excited to see many members registering from far reaches of the state (and even some out of state) that haven’t previously been able to make the trip for time or budgetary reasons. If you know a school librarian who hasn’t attended TLA before please encourage them to register at https://txla.org/annual-conference/attend/schedule/.

Since joining TLA in early January I’ve already come to know and love the resiliency and spirit of collaboration of our library members. Even in my interview process I could see that the level of engagement and support of the association comes from an incredibly passionate and active base of members. This is a unique attribute that you don’t always find in associations, and it was exciting to see and has been even more exciting to experience. As we all navigate through the next few months, this resiliency will be a hallmark that not only helps the association to survive but we will thrive and grow through these lessons of innovation and creativity.

I can’t wait to meet more members from our school library community in the coming months. As a Mom, I thank you for the tremendous work you’re doing to support our educators and students, and as TLA’s Executive Director, I thank you for all you do to enrich this association. I am here for you – just a phone call or email away.

Shirley

Shirley Robinson, CAE
Executive Director
Texas Library Association

AASL 2019 National Conference Highlights: Thinking, Creating, Sharing, and Growing

by Daniella Smith, Associate Professor, Department of Information Science, University of North Texas

I attended the 2019 AASL National Conference in November, and it was amazing! As you can see from my picture, Texas librarians were well represented. If you have not gone to the AASL National Conference yet, I recommend that you add it to your agenda for 2021. Every time I attend, I learn something new. Many of the sessions were standing room only. Here are the highlights from some of the presentations that I attended.

The “Do the Bot: Librarians Using Robots to Impact Learning” session gave me several ideas for integrating robots into the curriculum. Three school librarians from Texas presented it. Their names were Archon Auzenne, Gloria Miller, and Lee Glover. They demonstrated how robots are used to teach subjects such as social studies, reading, and math multiple grade levels.

When I walked into the session, I was surprised to see the interactive displays for the Edison, Sphero, and Bee-Bot robots. I also liked that they had a display that incorporated a drone. I find drones interesting because there are trained drone pilots. Drone piloting is a STEM career that can impact space travel. The presenters shared a link for their presentation. I highly recommend viewing the presentation slides if you need ideas for incorporating robots into your curriculum: https://bit.ly/377hcvi.

Another engaging session was, “Let This “Dynamic Duo” Answer Your Graphic Novel Questions.” Mitch Greenwell (literacy coach) and Tim Jones (school librarian) presented the session. Some of the key points were:

• Graphic novels teach empathy by showing the diverse viewpoints of characters involved in adverse situations
• Helping students to create their graphic novels can help them to express their feelings. While students may not want to write an essay, they might enjoy telling their stories with artwork accompanied by text
• Graphic novels share the stories of diverse characters and can help students to understand complex social justice issues.

I also presented at AASL. One of my presentations was for the Educators of School Librarians Special Interest Group research symposium. My co-presenters were Drs. Maria Cahill and Judi Moreillon. When I am working, I try to blend research, theory, and professional practice. I was pleased that school librarians, school librarianship researchers, and school librarian educators participated in the session. Here are the slides from my presentation: https://bit.ly/2t1od0Z. Dr. Moreillon shared her slides too: https://bit.ly/2Pwsy48. You can read more about the symposium here: https://bit.ly/2qEdVTK.

In conclusion, there was so much to explore. I never get­ to all of the sessions that are interesting to me. There is still an opportunity to learn, although the conference is over. You can read more about the conference happenings by visiting the Attendee Information link and clicking on the AASL Digest for each day. You will find blog posts and other social media conversations reflecting various sessions. Also, full registration conference attendees can watch the presentations that were recorded until January 31, 2020. This link has the directions for accessing the archives: https://national.aasl.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/FA-Flyer.pdf.

 

AASL National Conference Session Voting!

by Nancy Jo Lambert, TASL Chair

Are you thinking about attending the AASL national conference in Louisville, KY, November 14-16, 2019? Want to have a say in what sessions will be offered? Now is your chance! Crowdsourcing is now open for concurrent sessions for the AASL National Conference!

What does that mean? School library practitioners, that’s you TASL School Librarians, may select up to 10 program descriptions for each of the programming strands – Inquire, Include, Collaborate, Curate, Explore, and Engage.

The window is now open for voting through April 5, 2019 for concurrent session proposals for all 6 Strands:

  

	Inquire		Curate
	Include		Collaborate
	Explore		Engage

According to AASL, the goals of crowdsourcing are to:

Help the national conference committee program co-chairs make final decisions on programming during the AASL National Conference

Encourage participation in and boost excitement for the upcoming AASL National Conference.

AASL encourages all school library practitioners to participate in this new opportunity, however, please do not ask for friends or family members that are not school library practitioners to participate.

TLA Conference 2019: Connecting to Innovate, Inspire, and Impact

by Nancy Jo Lambert, TASL Chair, Librarian at Reedy High School, Frisco ISD

The Texas Association of School Librarians has some outstanding programming in place for the 2019 Texas Library Association Annual Conference in Austin!

We hope that you will make plans to purchase a ticket and join us for Tech Camp this year! The time to register for Tech Camp is NOW! Check out this pre-conference experience for the forward-looking, technologically curious librarian: http://bit.ly/txla19tc and be sure to follow us on Facebook for updates http://bit.ly/techglamp2019

One of the new featured programs this year is the TASL Maker Playground! The Maker Playground, sponsored by MackinMaker, will feature 8 nationally recognized presenters who are expert makers! The Maker Playground will be open on Tuesday and Wednesday from 10-4. You can see the full playground schedule, presenter information, and videos here http://bit.ly/taslmaker

TASL is offering some amazing programs Monday-Thursday of conference. Mark your schedule now for the programs and presenters you most want to see! You can see program information by day here: http://bit.ly/tasl19programs and you can see the Flipgrid videos for all the TASL programs here https://flipgrid.com/tasl2019.

TASL is also hosting 2 Hands On Labs on Monday. You must purchase a ticket for these by March 31st. These nationally known presenters will guide you through the 3D design process using TickerCad and show you how to inspire creativity through digital storytelling using Book Creator and CoSpacesEDU.

And finally, our 39th Annual Texas Bluebonnet Award Luncheon, sponsored by Bound To Stay Bound, will be Wednesday at 12:00 and will feature the award winning book Sergeant Reckless by Patricia McCormick, Illustrated by Iacopo Bruno! You are cordially invited to purchase your ticket and come celebrate with us!

I am beyond excited about this year’s TASL Programming and I can’t wait to see you at #TXLA19! This year’s conference promises to be rich with learning and will provide many opportunities to innovate, inspire, and impact your school library!


Nancy Jo Lambert
Texas Association of School Librarians Chair 2018-2019
You can find me on Twitter @NancyJoLambert

Tejas Star Reading List: Mirrors and Windows in Spanish and Bilingual Children’s Literature

by Priscilla Delgado, doctoral student at St. John’s University, Tejas Star Reading List Committee Chair

What do Sonia Sotomayor, Chelsea Clinton, Frida Kahlo, Don Quixote and Jacqueline Woodson have in common?

They all have books either written by them or about them on this year’s Tejas Star Reading List!

The Texas Library Association has numerous reading lists for readers of all ages and interests, and the Tejas Star Reading List curates a yearly list of high-quality Spanish and bilingual books for ages 5 to 12. The Tejas Star books are intended to be read for recreational purposes (not to support a specific curriculum) and to discover the benefits of bilingualism and multilingualism. The stories selected on the list provide windows and mirrors into multiculturalism.

The 2019-20 Tejas Star Reading List features 18 titles that include fiction and non-fiction picture books, chapter books, and graphic novels with themes of immigration, identity, poetry, as well as stories of famous and important historical figures.

Several books on this year’s list are Spanish translations of bestselling English titles, including Amor (Love) and Los deseos de Carmela (Carmela Full of Wishes) by Newbery Award author Matt de la Peña, Ella persistió alrededor del mundo (She Persisted Around the World) by Chelsea Clinton, and El día en que descubres quién eres (The Day You Begin) by Jacqueline Woodson.

The theme of immigration and identity is evident in some of the books on this year’s list. Pura Belpre Illustrator and Tomás Rivera Book Award winner Soñadores (Dreamers) by Yuyi Morales shares her personal immigration story, as does author Alfredo Alva with Deborah Mills in La Frontera: el viaje con papá/My Journey with Papa. Caldecott Honor book Alma y cómo obtuvo su nombre (Alma and How She Got Her Name) by Juana Martinez-Neal celebrates the history and significance of the name given to Alma by per parents. Lola (Islandborn), a story of culture and belonging by Junot Díaz, reminds readers that “Just because you don’t remember a place doesn’t mean it’s not in you.”

Frida Kahlo has become a cultural icon, and this is reflected in the two books about her that are on the reading list. Pura Belpre Illustrator Honor book Frida Kahlo y sus animalitos (Frida Kahlo and Her Animalitos) by Monica Brown is a picture book about the animals that inspired Frida’s art and life. Frida, el misterio del anillo del pavo real y yo (Me, Frida and the Secret of the Peacock Ring) by Angela Cervantes is a middle-grade novel about a search for a lost ring that once belonged to Kahlo.

Graphic novels featured on this year’s list include Los tipos malos (The Bad Guys) by Aaron Blabey, the first book in a hilarious, adventurous series, and La Matadragones (The Dragon Slayer) by Jaime Hernandez, a collection of Latin American folk tales.

Miguel y su valiente caballero (Miguel's Brave Knight) by Margarita Engle is a story of Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra, who would go on to write Don Quixote, which is considered by many to be the first modern novel. Las orejas de los animales (Animal Ears) by Mary Holland is a non-fiction work with engaging photographs and information on how animals’ sense of hearing works. Querido Dragón de Komodo (Dear Komodo Dragon) by Nancy Kelly Allen is a humorous exchange of letters between pen-pals.

Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor tells her life story to young readers in Pasando Páginas (Turning Pages). Rafael Lopez’s We’ve Got the Whole World in Our Hands/Tenemos el Mundo Entero en las Manos celebrates the lives of all young people in a modern take of the famous song “He’s Got the Whole World in His Hands.” Tomás Rivera Book Award winner Quizás algo hermoso (Maybe Something Beautiful) by F. Isabel Campoy and Theresa Howell is the true story of a community’s effort to add beauty to their surroundings.

Did you know that Tejas Star used to be a book award? Originally created in 2007 by the Region One ESC Library Advisory Committee, the Tejas Star Book Award was a statewide reading program in which children who read the books could vote for their favorite. In hopes of maintaining continuity and reaching a wider audience, Tejas Star became part of the Texas Library Association as a reading list in 2012.

The Tejas Star Reading List committee will be presenting activities and resources to use with this year’s titles at the Texas Library Association conference on Wednesday, April 17, 2019 at 2:45 pm. Make plans to attend to learn more about the reading list and to take home an activity guide with ready-to-use resources. The activity guide, as well as downloadable bookmarks and posters, will be available on our website: txla.org/tejas-star.

There is an old Spanish saying that goes, “El que sabe dos lenguas vale por dos,” meaning that a person who knows two languages is worth twice as much. It is the hope of the Tejas Star Reading List committee that these books will play a part in making this a reality for readers.

Teacher Day @ TLA - Take your collaboration to the next level!

By Jennifer Eckert, Library Specialist in Northside ISD, San Antonio

Collaboration with teachers is a large part of any school librarian’s job. We are always looking for ways to inspire our teachers to collaborate with us and utilize the library. Let that inspiration come from facilitating an experience at this year’s TLA Annual Conference!

Our annual conference – made up of books, authors, technology integration, makerspaces, curriculum connections, and supportive librarians – is the stuff of teachers’ dreams. Connect with your teachers, encourage their innovation, inspire them to greater collaboration, and impact their instruction by inviting your teachers to join you at this years’ Teacher Day @ TLA!

Teacher Day @ TLA, which will take place on Wednesday, April 17, 2019, provides classroom teachers with the opportunity to experience a special one-day event during the TLA conference, comprised of speakers, activities, and pricing designed just for them.

This is your chance to inspire your teachers! You, as a sponsoring school librarian, will play a crucial role by identifying interested teachers, helping them secure permission and funding for their attendance, guiding them through the registration process, and ensuring our guest teachers have a positive experience.

The planning has begun for a fun, interactive day for the teachers who attend, as well as the librarians who sponsor them. Participants are welcome to stay for the full conference. Now is the time for interested librarians to:


a) identify motivated classroom teachers and


b) start to lay the groundwork for conference attendance and travel funding.


The focus of this program is for classroom teachers who experience a TLA conference to return to their districts as library advocates and collaborators - or perhaps become librarians themselves. Details and application information about Teacher Day @ TLA, an event that has become an annual highlight, can be found at http://www.txla.org/teacher-day. Don’t miss this opportunity to increase collaboration on your campus!

Top 10 Reasons to Attend Conference

You’ve seen that beautiful new edition of Texas Library Journal encouraging you to register for this year’s conference, Perfecting Your Game, in Dallas, but you haven’t opened it. Or maybe you’ve seen a few postings that include the #TxLA18 hastag, but you still can’t commit to registering.  Here’s a handy dandy guide just for you:

Top 10 Reasons Why you Should Go To Conference:

1. It’s THE BEST place to network and expand your professional Learning Network.  You will meet THOUSANDS of librarians, who are all ready and eager to talk about every detail of library world.  It’s lonely being the only person on a campus who cares and understands about circulation rates, the latest 2X2/Bluebonnet/LoneStar/TAYSHAS lists or the pros/cons of self-check out, so it’s good to meet others in the know!
2. Learn new strategies to bring back to your campus that will help improve your overall library program.  You get to attend hundreds of sessions presented by librarians currently working in successful libraries and see/hear how they have made a difference on their campus.
3. Recharge! By the time April rolls around we’re all running a little low on energy and dreaming of the late night reading sessions of summer.  This conference will help you power through the final few weeks of the school year and get you ready to go for the following year.
4. MEET SUPERSTAR AUTHORS! If you have yet to meet and hear from some of the giants in children and teen literature, then this is your best chance to do so.  The only librarian conference bigger than TLA is ALA so ALLLLL of the publishers attend and bring along their top authors.  These authors appear on panels to discuss their work or some are available for book signings in the exhibits hall. There is nothing like reading a book written by an author you’ve met and sharing some insider details with your students.  Getting them to sign a book for you or your students = PRICELESS!
5. BOOKS! Like I mentioned before TLA conference is so big and Texas librarians are so widely respected the publishers make a great effort to share newly released or soon to be released books from both debut authors and well established authors at our conference.  Many times those books are passed out FREE OF CHARGE!  It’s a great way to get a sneak peek at tomorrow’s best sellers. Look for all the big and smaller publishers in the exhibit hall - it’s like several mini-bookstores in one place!
6. Exhibit Hall - the first time I attended TLA I was not yet a librarian and could not afford the full conference registration. I purchased a daily pass for the exhibits and was absolutely blown away by what I saw.  17 years later, I’m still blown away.  You know all those catalogs you see with beautiful looking furniture or have you heard about some interesting makerspace pieces or new database features? You can put your hands on all of these things and more in the exhibit hall.  There are also little mini-sessions in some of the vendor booths so you can hear from librarians on how these products are used in their libraries. It’s such a great way to really examine items you are considering for purchase before spending those limited funds. Save several hours for a thorough examination of the exhibits.  Bonus tip - there are always pretty awesome library T-shirts for sale and who doesn't need a new shirt??;-)
7. F2F meet-up! You know all those awesome ideas you’ve seen posted on #TXLchat oe read about in #TxASLTalks blog? Chances are you might might meet some of your fellow chatters and bloggers in person!  It’s always good to finally thank someone face-to-face (F2F) for their great ideas or inspiration and develop a professional collaboration. Who knows, that conversation might lead to virtual collaborations among your schools!
8. Library Specific Technology  - sure there are technology only conferences, but this is one that is geared specifically with the librarian in mind.  Learn about the latest tech tools that will help you energize your students, teachers, and broader community.  Hear how librarians are adapting these tools to support our library standards as well as the classroom TEKS. You can also register for Tech Camp and have the ENTIRE day dedicated to library programming and technology.
9. It’s Good to Get Away - I used to work on a campus that held a yearly leadership team retreat.  We would gather at a ranch, far away from campus, telephones, and computers, and discuss our plans and priorities for the upcoming year without the distractions or interruptions that would occur if this was held on campus.  While TLA conference isn’t quite the same experience, it’s a great way to move out of our everyday routine and reflect on your library experience with new voices and perspectives.  
10. Strength in Numbers - As mentioned previously, it can sometimes be lonely to serve as the only campus librarian and you may feel all the data you share on the importance of your program is falling on deaf ears. It’s an indescribable feeling to actually see thousands of fellow librarians who truly understand your job and may share similar experiences. We are stronger together and by gathering at conference we can provide each other the encouragement to continue to promote the necessities of our programs.  TLA is a strong vibrant community and having the support of that community is something no professional librarian in Texas should do without.