When the Library is Closed: Professional Development for the Librarian

by Jackie (our student teacher in the library) and Cheryl

On October 29th we headed out to Citifield, not for a Mets game, but to attend the NYCDOE's School Library System’s Annual Fall Conference. The theme of this year's conference was “Connect, Create, Lead.” Jackie, a student at Pratt Institute’s School of Information and Library Science, and I split our time between sessions, compared notes, and enjoyed talks by authors James Patterson and Jerry Spinelli. Along with the sessions on ebooks, graphic novels, Common Core alignment in the library, inquiry, and technology, there was a larger message regarding reader engagement and how that can be implemented in the school, in the library, and most importantly, at home. Keynote Speaker James Patterson introduced the conference with a talk on his self-proclaimed “missionary work” to get more kids reading. A distinguished author and New York Times bestseller, he has recently started Read Kiddo Read, a website for parents and educators. The site has parent and educator reviews, tips for parents on how to get their kids reading more, and book lists such as the “I-Hated-To-Read-Til-I-Read-This-Booklist for Boys.” Patterson spoke of his experience with his fifteen year old and how he and his wife got Jack reading. Here are some takeaways from Patterson’s keynote: 1. Kids HAVE to read in the summer. As Patterson says, “Jack didn’t have to mow the lawn, but he had to read for 45 minutes each day.” 2. It is a shared effort of parents and educators to get kids engaged in reading. Patterson told us, “if parents don’t get their kids reading, it’s like giving them a disability.” 3. Let them read what they want to read. “It's our job as parents & educators to make kids read but we also need to find them books they love.” Let your child read It’s Disgusting and We Ate It. Any active reading is going to lead to active learning.  Similar to Patterson, author and teacher Torrey Maldonado gave a workshop called, “Getting Reluctant Readers to Read.” Maldonado grew up in Red Hook, Brooklyn in the 1980s. He explained to librarians that he grew up in a village that began to disintegrate. When this happened, his mother created a patchwork village. This included the Red Hook librarian and store clerks who would exclaim “here comes the reader!” and “when are you going to write me a book?” Along with the celebration of good grades and an emphasis on the power of the written word, Maldonado had a positive self-fulfilling prophecy with his powerful novel, Secret Saturdays. Now, Maldonado teaches at Park Slope’s M.S. 88 and gives lectures to young people about the power of reading.  Kids should have a huge influence on collection development as it is FOR them.  This is a philosophy we have been adhering to for years in our school library.  How can a young person develop a love for lifelong literacy if lifelong literacy doesn’t love them?

Maldonado also advocates for books that show children's race/gender/culture in a positive way.  Maldonado referenced a New York Times article that pointed to the lack of Latinos in children's books.

We attended a session on purchasing ebooks for libraries, taking away the message that school libraries should not (yet) be investing money on ebooks, at least until we can work out a more sensible model of pricing.   We also went to a presentation by the founder of a kid-friendly book review site called Biblionasium, a safe site where kids can keep track of their reading, share virtual shelves, and rate books.  We think our upper-grade students will love this social forum to connect around books.   In addition to the concurrent sessions, we had a chance to walk around the exhibitors area to peruse new books, apps, software, and hardware, and to get to talk to the various vendors who provide our students with resources.

While we are apologetic for having to close the library for the day, this kind of work is essential for us to continue to grow in a field that is continually changing.  In November, Cheryl will be attending the American Association of School Librarians’ (AASL) Conference, the national conference of school librarians.  She is looking forward to a stimulating time of learning, and bringing back lots more to our community of learners.