I was privileged to attend the AASL conference earlier this month and I am still just in awe of my colleagues from around the country. This is Part 2 of my reflections on the conference. Part 1 can be found here. This part will focus on the individual sessions that I attended. I'm going to group them by the two major strands: Apps and Makerspaces! AASL Best Apps for Teaching and Learning!The AASL has curated a list of the best apps for teaching and learning. This year's list is awesome, and should certainly be reviewed by teachers and administrators to see how these apps can be best used in the classroom. An interesting note... not all of these apps are free. In fact, some of them are quite costly. When asked about they aren't promoting free apps, one of the media specialists on the panel stated that librarians regularly pay $25-30 for a good book, what is stopping us from paying $1-3 for a great app? Whoa. What a great point. Particularly because when talking about purchasing in bulk, the apps become 1/2 price when you purchase over 20 copies... so a $1 app costs the same to buy 10 copies as it does to buy 20 copies. So about the apps... In the interest of brevity, I won't list them here... but you can check them out at the AASL website! But you HAVE to see them... they are awesome. Please check them out! It's worth mentioning that the previous winners are also archived on the AASL website, so you can see the best apps from 2013 and 2014, too! MakerSpaces in the Library!Makerspaces are the new trend in libraries. Before we talk about it, I'm sure some people are wondering, " What is a Makerspace?" Check out this short video: I know what you're thinking - but WAIT... A library is ALREADY a Makerspace... right? Libraries have always been places where people come together to make and create. But libraries are thought of traditionally as quiet spaces. A world of no... just NO. Libraries should not be quiet! They should be the heart of the school, full of students learning and creating. Learning is messy. Creating is noisy. Embrace the insanity!
*Steps off soapbox* So let's talk about what these amazing librarians had to say! The first session was by Diana Redina, Media Specialist at Stewart Middle Magnet School. You'll want to check out her blog, Renovated Learning, for sure! Her presentation, Makerspaces & Libraries: How to Bring Some STEAM Into Your Program, was a hit! There were around two hundred people in the room - it was standing room only. She discussed lots of popular Makerspace ideas, including:
She shared even more than what I put here, but these were my favorite take aways. What a great session - and ironically, my Donor's Choose project for 3 Ollies was funded DURING the session! How awesome!!! The second Makerspace session I attended was entitled Full STEAM Ahead! Create Maker Spaces Using Your Library Print VBooks with an eBook Connection Using QR Codes, presented by Lisa Hathcock and David Burrow. It was also full of great resources for Makerspaces, including:
I also went into the actual AASL Makerspace area, which was super fun. There were some really cool toys in there that I have on my radar to check out in the future! My favorites were:
There were SO MANY awesome speakers and sessions at AASL15... I am still wrapping my brain around my session notes and going through files! Like the keynote speaker Heidi Hayes Jacobs said, "We should all leave here emotionally disturbed." I definitely am unsettled (in a good way) by all that I learned at AASL! More changes are coming to the SPMS Media Center, and it's going to be AMAZING!
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About the AuthorHi! Welcome to my blog! My name is Christine Hurley. This is my 17th year of teaching - I've taught Kindergarten, 4th grade, elementary media, and now I am in my 6th year of teaching middle school media! Archives
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