Reassuring
Spent the day today with Manhattan school librarians, about 100+ of them. I talked about building a culture of reading at the school and then spent some time booktalking new boos to elementary and then secondary breakout sessions.
The good news:
1. Almost every one of them brought a book with them to the meeting.
2. They were enthusiastic about the free books they received. Their coordinator had asked me to recommend 10 titles for each level and then distributed them to the attendees.
3. They laughed in the right places. They participated in all the right places as well as we talked about our reading lives and reading communities with one another.
What I hope will happen now:
1. More folks will get on Twitter. I gave them a list of 10 folks (Donalyn Miller calls them epicenter readers) to follow initially. I talked about Twitter chats as PD.
2. More of them will schedule time to do #bookaday (thanks again, Donalyn) over the summer.
3. More folks will try out apps such as Vine and Voxer to connect to kids and books and reading and one another.
The Big Takeaway:
These librarians care about kids and about books and reading. They can feel overwhelmed by fixed schedules and CCSS lesson plans and all the other things they must juggle. But each and every one of them wants to help kids connect to the right books at the right time.
So while I am drained (the heat and humidity must have followed me from Texas) and talked out for the day, I am happy to see so many folks who want to learn about new books and strategies to connect kids to them. Tomorrow I head to Queens; Wednesday takes me to Brooklyn. That will be my NY tour this trip. I am in NY state of mind tonight.
The good news:
1. Almost every one of them brought a book with them to the meeting.
2. They were enthusiastic about the free books they received. Their coordinator had asked me to recommend 10 titles for each level and then distributed them to the attendees.
3. They laughed in the right places. They participated in all the right places as well as we talked about our reading lives and reading communities with one another.
What I hope will happen now:
1. More folks will get on Twitter. I gave them a list of 10 folks (Donalyn Miller calls them epicenter readers) to follow initially. I talked about Twitter chats as PD.
2. More of them will schedule time to do #bookaday (thanks again, Donalyn) over the summer.
3. More folks will try out apps such as Vine and Voxer to connect to kids and books and reading and one another.
The Big Takeaway:
These librarians care about kids and about books and reading. They can feel overwhelmed by fixed schedules and CCSS lesson plans and all the other things they must juggle. But each and every one of them wants to help kids connect to the right books at the right time.
So while I am drained (the heat and humidity must have followed me from Texas) and talked out for the day, I am happy to see so many folks who want to learn about new books and strategies to connect kids to them. Tomorrow I head to Queens; Wednesday takes me to Brooklyn. That will be my NY tour this trip. I am in NY state of mind tonight.