There are all sorts of planning strategies among school librarians. The “write it on the back of your business card” plan, the “keep it in your head” plan, the “overflowing file folder of everything I might ever need to get this project done” plan …

AASL has launched a new L4L online planning tool to help members plan and track the implementation of their building or district L4L initiative. It requires a yearly subscription fee.

You can learn more about it here:

AASLblog » AASL’s Planning Guide for Empowering Learners Webinar available On-Demand via kwout

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!

Gulp - the new AASL guidelines, Empowering Learners, cost $42.  $42 for 64 pages.  That’s a lot.

But as I’ve been discussing the guidelines with friends and colleagues, it occurs to me that the document identifies instructional partner as our #1 future role … and yet the guidelines have little to do with creating a school environment that makes that partnering possible.  Instead, the guidelines primarily concern themselves with collection development, staffing, and library management.

Now isn’t that interesting.