Looking Ahead: Words from Texas Association of School Librarians Chair 2021-22

by Jill Bellomy, TASL Chair 2021-22, Librarian, Highland Park Middle School Library and Lead Librarian, Highland Park ISD

We did it! We made it to the summer after one incredibly trying school year. Last August, did you wonder how we would make it through the first semester yet alone the year? I certainly did. Yet here we are! Throughout the months, we were challenged and stretched. We learned and grew. We creatively met the needs of our students and staff in brand new ways. We served as technology troubleshooters daily. We helped teachers discover different ways to engage students in person and online. We ran our homes while also focusing on the needs of our schools. We kept kids reading and learning. We have so much to be proud of, school librarians!

That said, our experiences looked very different from school to school. Many of us could perform the essential functions of a circulating library, but not much else. Some operated full curbside service to get books to large numbers of remote learners. Others could not even circulate materials as administrators called us to serve other duties. Some welcomed students back into their spaces, and others were never able to do so. Most felt they existed in survival mode, facing challenge after challenge and just trying to get to the finish line.

Whatever your situation, TASL recognizes that you endured a year like no other. We want to support you as you look ahead. We hope to help all our members take the necessary steps toward running engaging library programs that are again the hub of the school. To move from surviving to thriving!

TASL will continue to strive toward our mission of promoting library services and librarianship in Texas school libraries. We will pursue that in many ways that include connection, advocacy, and professional development. These are more important now than ever!

CONNECTION.

We encourage you to reconnect with colleagues in your area and across the state to form and grow your PLNs.

• Thank you to the many members who volunteered for TASL Committees!
  You will form new connections and will help us do the vital work of the division. If you missed the chance to volunteer this time, watch for another opportunity to assist in the spring.
• To stay up on the latest, be sure to follow @TxASL on Twitter (if you aren’t already.) Heather Hornor and our exceptional Social Media Team
  keep us in the know, and the TASL members are constantly posting innovative ideas. So follow for inspiration and new connections!
• Watch for an exciting new online community coming soon to TLA. This community will replace the listservs and will allow members to engage in more dynamic, meaningful conversation. Some TLA members are beta testing the platform this week, and it looks very promising.

ADVOCACY. 

TASL continually promotes librarians as valued teachers and leaders on our campuses, advocates for strong school libraries at the state level, and fosters advocacy skills in our membership.

• You will find advocacy resources curated for you on the TASL website. Bookmark these to help you stay proactive in your efforts!

• Brooke King and the TASL Legislative and Advocacy Committee do an excellent job of providing additional resources throughout the year. For example, last year’s School Library Bingo was fun and effective.

• One meaningful way we advocate each year is by presenting and exhibiting at the PTA Launch Annual Conference. This year’s conference is July 30 - August 1 at The Gaylord Texan, Grapevine. Watch for a chance to sign up to work a shift (or two!) at the TASL booth. Serving at this conference is a great way to champion school libraries and to sharpen your advocacy skills!

PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT. 

We provide professional learning at conference and throughout the year to help our members grow in the many roles we play in our schools.

• We are already hard at work planning for TLA Annual Conference 2022! This year’s theme is perfect: Recover. Rebalance. Reconnect. Start making plans to attend April 25-28 in Fort Worth in person, if you can!
• Thank you to all who submitted proposals.  There are many innovative submissions!  We will be in touch as we evaluate the submissions and select the best learning opportunities for our members. 
• Watch for more learning offerings from Lakeisha Branch and the TASL Membership Committee in the months to come.

Echoing the sentiments of our TLA President Dan Burgard, it is now time to take a much-needed breath. You deserve some self-care after serving so many for so long. Rest, recharge and reflect over the upcoming weeks. If you think of ways TASL can help you or have ideas to strengthen our division, please share at https://bit.ly/TASLfeedback or reach out to me at jillbellomy at gmail dot com.

This year, we rose to the challenge before us, gathered strength and knowledge from each other, and persevered. Now, we can take the lessons learned and move forward stronger than ever. With smoother waters and sunnier skies ahead, the future is bright, school librarians!

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.”

Examining the Impact of School Librarians

by Rebekah Friedman, Communications Manager, College of Information and Communications, The University of South Carolina, and Dr. Lucy Santos Green, Professor of Information Science, University of South Carolina

Ask Lucy Santos Green to explain Guided Inquiry Design and she’ll tell you about rollercoaster engineers and toy cars. Three years ago, Green — now a full professor in the School of Information Science at the University of South Carolina— co-taught a unit on force and motion to a class of teachers-in-training. Instead of assigning textbook chapters or drawing diagrams on the board, she brought in a rollercoaster engineer. The students made models with toy cars and tracks. And they even created videos to illustrate what they’d learned. “They were able to come out of that unit with a strong understanding of what force and motion are and how those concepts are used by an engineer when designing a rollercoaster,” Green says. GID units like these — inquiry-based collaborations between school librarians and classroom teachers — have gained momentum in K-12 education. But what type of time and support do teachers need? And how critical are librarians to their success? The Institute of Museum and Library Services awarded Green a $376,000 grant to explore these questions. Her findings could boost support for librarians to work side-by-side with classroom teachers and potentially prevent school librarian jobs from being cut.

 What is Guided Inquiry Design?

The GID model brings together librarians, teachers and even local professionals to design and implement educational units as a team. The inclusion of outside experts underscores how concepts like force and motion can translate into day-to-day life. “More than ever, our students need to understand that what they’re doing in the classroom has real-world application,” Green says. Students review a broad range of information sources on the topic to formulate research questions that pique their interest, a technique intended to promote a better understanding of the subject matter. That doesn’t mean they can skip over the hard parts. GID-trained educators provide enough structure throughout the unit to keep participants on track, and they set rigorous criteria for the final projects. Participants come away more engaged and better prepared to think critically beyond the classroom. “It’s not just about delivering content to your students and having them regurgitate it like a computer,” Green says. “It’s about helping them navigate the information landscape and come to strong conclusions.”

 Proving the Value of Librarians

From bolstering research skills to promoting digital literacy, the scope of what modern librarians do has seen a rapid expansion since the rise of the internet. Yet between 2009 and 2016, about 15 percent of the nation’s full-time school librarian positions were eliminated, according to the National Center for Education Statistics. Previous studies have suggested that school librarians have a powerful impact on student success rates, but Green hopes hers — which will span up to 6,000 students over three years — will be exhaustive enough to prove it.

“The existing data isn’t always used by systems when evaluating their librarians and allocating resources,” she says. “We need to continue collecting hard data to advocate for our profession.”

Research team members are GID co-creator Leslie Maniotes, associate professor Melissa Johnston from the University of West Georgia and assistant professor Ismahan Arslan-Ari from South Carolina’s College of Education.

 Teachers from 60 schools comprising a diverse range of ages, geographical areas and socioeconomic classes will independently teach units in a traditional way for the study’s control data. Then, a GID-trained librarian and classroom teacher will lead the same unit to a different group within the same school. Both groups will be scored on their mastery of the content. Green will also observe instruction and gather feedback. Once completed, the study’s data will be made publicly accessible, fueling additional research for years to come.

 Kristin Fontichiaro, a clinical associate professor at the University of Michigan School of Information, says the school library community is buzzing with excitement about the questions the project may answer. “Dr. Green’s research is poised to fill a critical gap in our understanding of how our aspirations — for students to engage in deep and thoughtful research — play out in the real-world constraints of school libraries,” Fontichiaro says. “Her analysis will help reveal how skilled librarians navigate the inquiry learning process with students, where they struggle, and where there are opportunity gaps. These insights will help library educators better target instruction for aspiring librarians and open new avenues for future research and inquiry for the profession.”

 An Incredible Opportunity for Texas School Librarians

 The EQuIP (Educational Quality through Instructional Partnerships) Research Team is recruiting thirty outstanding school librarians from the States of New Jersey, South Carolina, Wisconsin, and Texas, who would like to be a part of this groundbreaking project. If you are a fulltime K-12 public school librarian and you are interested in helping measure the school librarian’s impact on student learning, then join the EQuIP project! School librarians who are chosen to participate will receive a scholarship to complete the fully online 2022 GID summer institute taught by none other than Dr. Leslie Maniotes, GID co-designer and teacher trainer. You will also receive a stipend, and financial support to attend TxLA at the end of the grant project, along with additional opportunities to present with the research team. The best part is that all participation activities are already part of your daily school library practice!

 To secure your place follow the steps below:

      Watch this brief, 4-minute introduction video explaining EQuIP’s research goals, expectations, and why it’s a great opportunity for you and your students.

2.     Email Dr. Green at lgreen2@mailbox.sc.edu to express your interest. You’ll receive instructions on how to obtain permission from your school system and school administrator to participate.

3.      Build your school team and submit signed letters of agreement.

The EQuIP Website includes detailed information to help you become familiar with the project, and advocate with your administration. You can also access the How to Participate page for quick videos that explain the study, how to select your school team, and answer other frequently asked questions. Join the EQuIP team today and help measure the impact of school library and classroom instructional partnerships on K-12 student learning. More than ever, it is vital that we not only make sweeping declarations about the school library being the heart of the school, but that we take time to investigate our own practice to see the specific decisions we’re making that most benefit our students and are most worthy of our time! Commitment applications must be finalized by April 26, 2021.

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.