April 19-22 marked the annual TLA Conference for 2016. I always enjoy and learn so much at this conference, and this year was no exception. The crazy flooding in Houston had us all a little concerned at first, but everything turned out just fine. *April 19 - Tech Camp Tech Camp is the annual technology preconference geared toward school librarians. This year the keynote speakers were Two Guys and Some iPads Drew Minock and Brad Waid. They were very inspiring and they taught us about lots of apps. I also went to a makerspace session that gave ideas on implementation and resources. I attended a Google app tips and tricks session that was informative and fun! Finally I played around in the makerspace area that was set up for us to tinker with. *April 20 - I was fortunate enough to hear Caldecott winning author and illustrator Dan Santat talk about his inspiration for his winning book Beekle at the Children's Round Table meeting. He also talked about his newest book, Are We There Yet? Can't wait to get this book! The majority of the rest of my day was spent setting up for the annual Bluebonnet luncheon with my fellow GCISD librarians and lots of other awesome librarians from all over the state. It was hard work setting up for 1000 people to attend, but the end result was awesome! With the remainder of my day I went to the 2nd annual illustrator sketch off! It was so much fun! Each illustrator was given a topic and a time limit to draw their interpretation of each topic. Then they signed their drawings and gave them all away! I didn't win, but Ms. Harms, the librarian at Timberline Elementary won! *April 21 - Thursday was a very full day! I began the day at a session with authors talking about their newest science fiction books for middle grade readers (3rd-6th grades). I was most excited to hear picture book author and illustrator Peter Brown talk about his newest book Wild Robot. I'm a huge fan of his picture books and his first novel sounds amazing! Can't wait to read it! I was also fascinated by the authors' discussion of "genrefying" the fiction section of the library. Meaning, the books would be organized by genre, rather than author's last name. They were all in favor of genrefying in order to help kids find what they like to read. One issue was raised, however, that some books can be categorized as 2 or more genres. I agree with this, but this discussion helped me in my debate of whether to genrefy, or not. Afterwards, I went to the exhibit hall where I met up with Jarrett Krosoczka again. What a treat each time I see him! He is just amazing! I got his newest book signed for our library! I also got to meet Nathan Hale, author of the Hazardous Tales graphic novels. I got his newest Alamo Hazardous Tales book signed for our library too! I was then off to help take tickets at the annual Bluebonnet Luncheon that honored Laban Carrick Hill and Theodore Taylor for their biography of DJ Kool Herc titled When the Beat was Born: DJ Kool Herc and the Creation of Hip Hop. As always, a great time was had by all. Author Laban Hill gave his acceptance speech in poem format to honor poem in your pocket day. Illustrator Theodore Taylor talked about his various inspirations for his illustrations. After the luncheon I headed over to the author lip sync battle! What a fun event! Authors came and told us about heir newest books and then lip synced to a song that represented each book! It was so hilarious and fun with props and a tiara for the winner! The winning author was Aaron Reynolds, author of Creepy Carrots! Can't wait to get his new book President Squid! *April 22 - The week wrapped up with the Texas Association of School Librarians annual breakfast with Diary of a Wimpy Kid author Jeff Kinney. I loved hearing what he read growing up from Judy Blume novels to comic books. I also loved hearing the story of his awesome book store. And to close out the conference I helped my fellow librarian at Cannon Elementary, Mrs. Berumen, with her amazing illustrator panel. I got to hear all about the upcoming books of several illustrators including LeUyen Pham, the illustrator if the Princess in Black books and Tad Hills of the Rocket books. It was such a fascinating panel. I had such a great week of listening to authors and illustrators talk about their craft and their upcoming books! My to be read list is definitely exploding. I guess I better get to work reading!
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Mrs. JohnsonMrs. Johnson is the librarian at BCES! Archives
May 2017
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