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!

Sound the bells! Light the lanterns! The Politicians are coming!

by Jennifer Rike, Timberview High School Librarian, Mansfield ISD, TASL Legislative & Advocacy Chair

Every two years our state Legislators meet. On January 19, 2019, the Texas State Legislature will reconvene. Each year there always seems to be legislation that affects libraries. Our own Texas State Library and Archives just went through the Sunset Review Process as required by the legislature every 12 years.

So what does that actually mean to us? Well, we need to keep informed. Wendy Woodland does an awesome job doing that for us. She keeps up with proposed legislation that affects libraries. From broadband to funding and everything in-between, Wendy follows the proposed bills.

Wendy can follow the legislation but she cannot protect our libraries without our support. When the legislature comes into session in January, we will begin receiving email updates. There will be times you will be asked to contact your representative and ask them to support or veto certain bills. Most of the time this will need to be done quickly. Please heed the call.

So how can you be prepared to respond quickly?

• Identify your representative

• Add them to your contacts list in your phone 

• If you are not a member of the Texas Library Connection distribution list, please join (this is how Wendy keeps us informed). 

• When you read the request to contact your legislator, if at all possible do so immediately. I have all too often thought “I’ll get to that……” There are many roads paved with my good intentions. 

We can also be proactive.

• Invite your representative to visit your campus. If you have the opportunity meet them and start building a relationship. It is harder to say no to someone you know. 

• TWEET on the 17th of every month. We are trying to build a positive perception of school libraries. Brooke King created a wonderful infographic with the monthly tweet topics. I will work to remind you a few days before the 17th. Include photos (keeping in mind student privacy), if you can.

• Share your library story with your stakeholders. We cannot advocate in a bubble talking only to ourselves. 

I hope that this will be an uneventful year in the legislature for libraries. However, we are dealing with politicians, and as we know all too well anything can happen. So let’s be prepared to support libraries in Texas. Together we are a powerful voice.

Teen Read Week 2018: It’s Written In The Stars...Read!

By Lucy Podmore, Librarian at Tom C. Clark High School in Northside ISD

Next week we celebrate TEEN READ WEEK (TRW), and you might be thinking, “I celebrate teen reading everyday!” and, of course, you should, but TRW offers us a special opportunity to celebrate our reading lives in a unique way.

The theme for this year’s celebration is “It’s Written In The Stars...Read!” The Young Adult Library
Services Association, the group who promotes Teen Read Week, is encouraging everyone who works
with teens to inspire them to “think and read outside of the box, as well as seek out fantasy,
science fiction and other out-of- this-world reads.” (teenreadweek.ning.com)

What a great message to share with our young people - step out of your comfort zone and read
something different. Hear a different viewpoint, challenge your own thinking, escape to new worlds
created by the outstanding fantasy and science fiction authors who are writing for young people today.

I believe this call to “think and read outside of the box” also applies to librarians and the way we
promote reading to our students.  Change up your tactics and try new ways to reach your students this
week: use Bitmoji reviews, ask your regular readers to write shelf talkers for their favorite book, hop on
your school’s social media accounts and promote books there.  Ask your teachers, community members,
parents of students, PTA members if they would like to submit reviews for their favorite “out of this world”
reads, then publish those reviews so your whole school can see them. When our students see a
community of readers, they know that reading is something that is valued.  We know our best promotion
is modeling the behavior we expect, so consider new or different ways to have your community model
reading.

The Teen Read Week website has a great list of suggested activities to help you celebrate this year’s
event. It’s not too late to put together an “out of this world” celebration. Share your promotions online
using the hashtag #TRW18. I can’t wait to see everyone’s posts!

Good luck and happy reading!

Promotion cards we'll be using next week for #TRW18