MAME Conference Presentations
Whew - is it just me, or do the turning of the leaves herald that whiplash season known as CONFERENCE SEASON??? I’m a bit behind on sharing about the Michigan Association for Media in Education (MAME) conference, the AASL conference, and the Sam Houston Book Festival, so the next few posts will catch me up!
At the Michigan Association for Media in Education October 21-23 at the Grand Traverse Resort, we were thrilled to host Christopher Harris and Ben Mikaelson as keynote speakers.
I was fortunate to get to present both alone and with colleagues:
- Nudging Toward Inquiry: Strategies for Moving Colleagues Toward Inquiry-Based Research - Building on the Stripling Inquiry Model, we looked at many small “tweaks” that can move instructional design closer to inquiry.
- Accidental Literacy: Centers in Elementary Libraries (with Phyllis Cornwall and Teresa Sensenig) - Phyllis, Teresa, and I, despite our different personalities and instructional approaches, have all found success incorporating centers-based activities in our libraries. White board easels, writing centers, listening opportunities, computers, magnets, felt boards, puppets, and other old- and new-school tools help our students learn socially and build literacy skills.
- Leading with Learning4Life (with Kathleen McBroom) - As the state L4L coordinators, Kathleen and I used the six-word memoir approach to help folks get started with the AASL Standards for the 21st-Century Learner documents on the local level. Michigan has over 700 school districts, and while funding is delivered at the state level, staffing decisions are made at the local level. Therefore, advocacy and promotion efforts can be most effective when they begin locally.
- Roundtable: Standards Q & A - This was an informal, low-key opportunity to chat with folks about how their implementation was going. It was really thrilling to hear so many librarians talking about how to move their personal or district practice forward.
State conferences are a great chance to talk with practitioners and build local networks. In the next post, I’ll summarize the national AASL conference!