At the end of April, I attended the 3 day state librarian's conference. I went as an attendee as well as a presenter. Last year I presented on how to update book projects with technology and loved it. So, I figured if I liked presenting one session, I would like it even more if I presented 2, so I submitted 2 proposals in August. Boy was I wrong. Unfortunately, I am not a person who methodically works on something for months prior to its due date. I was up past midnight every day the week before the conference putting together my 2 presentations, the whole time wishing I only had to present and prepare 1 presentation. I did a 2 hour presentation on Thursday night on podcasting. On Saturday afternoon, I presented with the high school librarian on building a culture of reading in your school.
Thursday Presentation - Podcasting 101
This was the session I was wishing I didn't have to prepare for .... and the world must have agreed with me that night. The high school librarian and I drove together to the Hershey Conference Center right after school. We arrived with time to check-in to our room and for me to set-up for my session that evening. As soon as she closed the door, she said, "I think I just locked my keys in the car". Yes, there they were laying on her seat, along with my laptop, microphones, and project in the back seat .... everything I needed for my presentation. I quickly called AAA, who said they would send someone as soon as possible, but they couldn't guarantee a time. Luckily, I knew another librarian who was presenting on later in the conference, so I called her and asked to borrow her laptop and project. I would just have do make do without microphones (a hard thing when your topic is podcasting and you were planning on giving participants time to try out the various podcasting applications). Just as a finished setting up her laptop and project, the guy arrived to unlock the car. After 10-15 minutes, he had the car unlocked, I grabbed my stuff, and made my way down to the room, quickly switched out laptops, and was ready for my session to start in 15 minutes. It went well, not my best, but pretty good and my participants seemed to learn a lot and enjoy it based on their post-session evaluations. Here's the
website I created for the participants.
Saturday Presentation - Building a Culture of Reading
I was so excited to present this session and the actual presentation exceeded my expectations. The high school librarian and I do a lot at our schools to try to build a culture of reading that extends beyond the walls of the library and Language Arts rooms. Our session was packed. The room seated 50 to 60 and there were probably over 100 people in attendance standing and sitting wherever there was room. We took turns presenting various programming ideas. Near the end of our presentation, a leader in the PA library world stood up and began reading an email she had written to our principal singing our praises. Immediately after she sat down, another person said that she had just written to our superintendent doing the same thing! Here's the
website we created for our participants. After our session time ended, we had people coming up to talk to us and ask questions as is usual at the end of presenting. However, one person that came to talk to us worked for a national library journal,
School Library Monthly. She handed us a copy of the magazine and asked us to write an article for the magazine that we would get paid to write. As communications with her and the editor continued in e-mail, the talk of writing a book has also come up. So, we're both hoping the article transforms into a book deal!
