Mottayaw

OELMA Conference

I attended the OELMA Conference on Thursday. It was my first time at the conference. It was a very nice conference with quite a number of sessions to choose from, especially in the afternoon. It was hard to pick just one session. I found out though, if you are brave, and you find that the session is not what you thought it was going to be, you can quietly leave and get something out of another session. The hot topics were either about books or technology. The book sessions were about book talks, picture books, hot books, Choose to Read Ohio, and Right to Read Week, YA Lit, and Reading rocks. The technology sessions focused on web 2.0, digital footprints, 21st century skills, and podcasts.

I attended 1.5 sessions by Allison Zmuda. One was titled, Leveraging the School Library for Student Achievement and the other was Practical tolls for Secondary Librarians. She is a very good speaker who has recovered from a stroke she had in March. She seemed very knowledgable about the field. I was reminded from the first session that making student work relevant to them is what is going to motivate them to learn. Students need to be engaged and interested in what they are doing. She offered the idea that we should collaborate with students and not adults. I have actually gotten some collaboration started with teachers in our library and I am not sure I agree that this is not the way to go. Keeping what the students need for learning in mind is most important. I also learned that we need to focus on ways to make our students inquisitive and dynamic learners. A lot of times these students are not the ones that fit into our holes neatly, like pegs. These may be the ones that seem off-task because they are quickly going from source to source to answer the questions that arise in their minds. The other main thing I took from this last session was that when students are doing research, we should make them come up with the essential question of want they want to research and do not give them a list of things they need to cover. Let them answer their own questions about the topic as they arise.

I took a page and a half of notes on another session about Library Advisory Committees. I am interested in getting one of these started and I wanted to get as much helpful information as I could. Before I start an adult committee, I may start a student advisory committee. I feel that there would be interest in this and I could get it started quickly. Student advisory committees are good because they give you a feel for how students see the library and what kinds of materials they would like to see in the library. They are also a good connection to what is going on in their classrooms in case you have no idea what some teachers are teaching.

All in all, I enjoyed myself. I met Sharon Draper. I enjoyed the exhibits and talking to the exhibitors. I also enjoyed lunch. It was tasty.

Denette