March 21, 2017 by plemmonsa

AASL Social Media Superstars

Social media has connected me with so many amazing educators since I started using it many years ago. I had no idea when I started using Twitter at a conference that it would connect me with so many people who I consider to be great friends as well as colleagues. Today, I can’t imagine what it would be like to not share on social media. Showing our work on social media allows us to define for the world what happens in school libraries. Through social media we inspire one another, push one another’s thinking, and connect the voices of our students. Social media has developed strong relationships with authors, developers, and vendors as well, and each connection means more opportunities to empower student voices around the globe.

I was surprised to learn on Sunday that I was nominated for the American Association of School Librarians Social Media Superstar Award in the category of Sensational Student Voice. Not only was I nominated, I was one of the three finalists. The other two superstars are Stony Evans and Beth Redford, who both doing amazing work with their students. Student voice is a main foundation of our library program. I want students to have opportunities in our library to know that their ideas and creations matter in the world. I want them to see that their work can have an impact within our school but far beyond as well. To be nominated in this particular category is a huge honor to me.

One of the most exciting things about this particular award is that it showcases to the world many individual leaders in the world of school libraries. These are people who share out of the goodness of their hearts to show their work, inspire others, collaborate beyond walls, advocate for libraries, and get student work out to an authentic audience.

If you are looking for some people to follow on various platforms of social media, this is one great place to start. Many of you will probably find people on this list who are already inspiring you. AASL is asking that people give public testimonies for the nominees on this list. This is a great opportunity for you to share stories about these individuals that they might not even know about. Many times I’m inspired by someone’s work, but I forget to tell them in detail about what their social media post caused me to do.

There are many names that are missing from this list, but I’m hopeful to see many of those names as this tradition continues in future years. Thank you AASL for this highlight of some of the important work happening in libraries.

I’m slowly making my way through the list to leave comments, and I invite you to do the same. You have until April 14th. The final “winners” in each category will be announced in a webinar on April 27 for School Library Month.

You can visit all of the superstars at this link.

June 6, 2016 by plemmonsa

West Georgia RESA Summer Camp for Library Media Specialists

west ga resa camp

It’s summer. Educators have the summer off, right? While on paper it may seem that educators have two months off, most of us continue to develop our professional lives and dream and plan for the upcoming school year. I’m excited to join media specialists from around Georgia and neighboring states at West Georgia RESA on June 20 from 8:30-3:30 for a summer camp for media specialists. I’m so thankful to West Georgia RESA for providing this opportunity to librarians around the state who often don’t have professional learning targeted directly at them. Registration is still open and costs $65 for RESA members and $85 for non-members.

What will we do together? Here’s a look at our approximate schedule for the day.

8:30-9:30 Opening presentation/Q&A Empowering Student Voice. We will set the stage for what it means to empower the voices of our students as well as think beyond the walls of our own schools.

9:30-9:45Break

9:45-11:00 Tools for collaborating, crowdsourcing and sharing. Disruptus game. sharing tools crowdsourced by us all and thinking about how to disrupt their uses. There are so many amazing tools out there, but we will use this time to think about tools that will allow us to crowdsource information and collaborate both synchronously and asynchronously to create classrooms that are part of a global community.

11:00-11:30 Harness social media and develop your own PLN. We’ll answer any questions about social media and look at how social media allows us to show our work, connect to opportunities, and empower all the voices in our library community.

11:30-12:30 Lunch

12:30-2:00 Makerspace Exploration. Hands-on exploration and a look at my own makerspace, how it’s funded, and how it functions

2:00-2:15 Break

2:15-3:15 Goals that Matter. Time to talk about goals and set some short and long-term goals

3:15 Final Q&A

We will of course be flexible and take into consideration the needs and requests of the group as we spend time together. Join us in Grantville, GA and bring your wisdom to share with the room. See you there!

March 29, 2014 by plemmonsa

Tell Your #whylib Story for School Library Month

April is School Library Month, and this year’s theme is “Lives Change @ Your Library”. This theme connects with Barbara Stripling’s campaign to sign the Declaration for the Right to School Libraries to show that school libraries really do change our lives.

Yesterday on Twitter, John Schu shared a thought about going to library school, and he had no idea the conversation that his tweet would open up.

I responded by sharing a brief glimpse at how I didn’t get in to library school on my first attempt. The conversation continued with more of our Twitter professional learning network sharing stories of perseverance, stories about professional background, and stories of how becoming a librarian changed their lives.

When I woke up this morning, the list of tweets had grown and more people had commented on how much they were enjoying the conversation about individual people’s journeys to becoming a librarian. I love this about Twitter. I love how one little comment can spark a conversation among colleagues across the country because they find a connection with the comment. This morning, we decided that a new hashtag had been born. After some discussion, the talented Jennifer Reed suggested #whylib as our hashtag.

Even author, Deborah Freedman, jumped in on the conversation with her love of the librarians.

We invite you to share your story in any way that you are moved: a poem, a video, a blog post, a series of tweets, a picture collection, a song, etc. Be sure to tag your story with #whylib and post on Twitter and other social media outlets. Let’s share our journey to becoming a librarian and share how libraries have changed our lives.