New York Library Association Section of School Librarians Conference
Huntington, NY – May 2018
Heather Turner, School Librarian at Fabius-Pompey Middle-High School, received a Professional Development Award from the Central New York Library Resources Council (CLRC) to attend this year’s New York Library Association Section of School Librarians (NYLA-SSL) conference. Read about her experience and standout NYLA-SSL sessions below.
The SSL 2018 conference in Huntington, New York was a fantastic opportunity filled with professional development and networking opportunities. I attended sessions that focused on technology, innovation, and the importance of literacy for our students. The lessons that stood out to me were the importance of librarians to (1) need to reinvent and rebrand ourselves in order to remain relevant in a 1:1 environment; (2) give students opportunities for reading for pleasure without a grade attached; (3) the need to give our students opportunities to empathize and identify with others through diverse works; (4) continue to grow and flourish in a challenging landscape.
The opening keynote was the amazing Ellen Oh who shared with us the importance of diversity in literature. She shared her origin story and where her amazing books originated. She is one of the founding members of #weneeddiversebooks. I was inspired and she gave me the words to explain why our students need diversity. A quote I will remember from her saying in reaction to those people who say well we do not have those kinds of people coming into our library or bookstore. Her response was perfect, “Well I do not see a lot of hobbits walking around so why do you have Lord of the Ring?” Fantastic response and her entire speech was inspiring.
Another session that stood out was the keynote by Pernille Ripp who is a well known in the twitterverse for her vocal stance on reading with students. She is a 7th grade English Teacher who immigrated to the the United States. She told of her journey of carrying a green card and the fear about being deported if she did not have it on her all the time. She talked of the day she became a US Citizen and how her connection with the librarian changed her teaching. She asked her students. “Why reading sucks?” to connect with them and perhaps even change their minds. An inspiring speaker whom I have followed on Twitter and was even more impressed with in person.
The highlight of the conference were the session of course. One in particular was extremely well organized. It was an ignite session which gave each presenter 5 minutes and they gave us an idea or a cool tool. Fantastic! I went away with 8 new ideas for my library to implement immediately. Using BreakoutEDU for library orientation was one of the highlights. I presented as well with Sue Kowalski (Pine Grove Middle School) about the evolving nature of school librarianship and it was well attended. It is wonderful to make those connections with fellow school librarians from around the state.
The keynote speakers, panel sessions, round table discussions, and poster presentations were fantastic and I thank you CLRC for the financial support that helped make this opportunity possible.
Heather Turner
Teach Librarian, Fabius-Pompey MS/HS
Are you interested in being our next Professional Development Award recipient? Check out the award page for the rules & requirements!
