In this issue…
- SAYL News in Brief
- Scholarships, Grants and Awards Opportunities
- Employment Opportunities
- Training and Continuing Education Opportunities
- AkASL Puffin
- As Seen on Alaska School Librarians Facebook
- Almanac
SAYL News in Brief
Something to Celebrate (AASL)
“April is National School Library Month, and that is a great reason to celebrate! But, there’s no reason to wait until almost the end of the school year to have some fun, build community, and promote your library program.”
AkASL Delegate Sought
Alaska Association of School Librarians (AkASL) is in need of a volunteer Alaskan school library professional willing to commit to a three-year term as the Alaska delegate to the American Association of School Librarians (AASL) Affiliate Assembly. The term will run June 1st, 2017 through May 31st, 2020.
AASL State Delegates are the intermediary between Alaskan School library staff and the AASL Board of Directors, via the AASL Affiliate Assembly.
The AkASL delegate will
- Provide a channel of communication for reporting concerns of AkASL and its membership to AASL.
- Participate as a voting member of the AASL Affiliate Assembly.
- Make reports to the AkASL Executive Board (E-Board) regarding AASL governance, initiatives, and concerns affecting AkASL.
This position requires:
- A clear, working knowledge of the issues, trends, and concerns Alaska school librarians are facing.
- The ability to promote activities and communicate concerns passed by the AASL Affiliate Assembly back to AkASL Members.
- Attendance at the AkASL Executive Board Face-to-Face meetings, usually held in September (Anchorage) and February/March (at location of AkLA conference).
- Online attendance at AkASL E-Board monthly meetings held via videoconference.
- Attendance and participation in AASL Affiliate Assemblies held at ALA National Conference (June), and AASL National Conferences (biennually, November of odd years)
- Regular communication with AASL Affiliate Assembly, AkASL E-Board, and AkASL general members.
Travel to required meetings and conferences will be provided by AkASL. The delegate will need professional leave for 3-6 days during the school year (depending on travel logistics and conference schedule) arranged through their district.
Contact AkASL President, Karla Barkman for more information.
In Support of Battle of the Books (Knowledge Quest)
“Some people criticize this competition as just a memorization exercise. Some say children just guess and don’t read the books. No program is perfect, but I think there is fantastic value in Battle of the Books for school libraries for public relations purposes. But even more importantly, there is fantastic value in Battle of the Books for children.”
10 Ideas to Ensure That Project Based Learning is Grounded in Process, Understanding, and 21 Century Skills (21st Century Educational Technology and Learning)
The MEGALIST for RESEARCH: Everything Your Students Will Need! (Media Specialist’s Guide)
Summer Reading Plans 2017 (Eliterate Librarian)
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Scholarship, Grant, and Award Opportunities
Ongoing, Monthly (due April 15th). Awesome Foundation: Awesome Innovation in Libraries Chapter. $1000 to provide a catalyst for prototyping both technical and non-technical library innovations that embody the principles of diversity, inclusivity, creativity, and risk-taking.
Closing April 16th, 2017. Snapdragon Book Foundation Grant. $500 – $20,000 to improve school libraries for disadvantaged children (primarily project-based collection development).
Closing May 5th – Sara Jaffarian School Library Program Award for Exemplary Humanities Programming. $5000 to recognize, promote, and support excellence in humanities programming in elementary and middle school libraries that serve children K–8.
Closing May 12th –2017 Banned Books Week Grants Offered through Freedom to Read Foundation’s Krug Fund. $1,000 and/or $2,500 in support of activities celebrating Banned Books Week (Sept. 25–30th, 2017).
Closing May 20th – SLJ School Librarian of the Year Nominations. $2,500 cash award, plus $2,500 worth of print and digital materials from Scholastic Library Publishing.
For the complete record of scholarships, grants, and other award opportunities posted in SAYL Mail, visit the SGA Archives.
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Employment Opportunities
Media Specialist, North Slope Borough School District
Additional and up-to-date information at Alaska Teacher Placement
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Training and Continuing Education Opportunities
The following webinars are no cost and run approximately one hour unless otherwise noted. Opportunities not fitting your schedule? Many of these webinars will later be available as archives.
Tuesday, April 18th 10am – Now Hear This: #LoveAudiobooks (Booklist)
Tuesday, April 18th, 11am – 45 Ways to Support Struggling Readers: A School-Wide Approach (edWeb)
Wednesday, April 19th, 10am – Re-evaluating Existing Library Spaces and Furnishings on a Budget (Demco)
Thursday, April 20th, 10am – How to Make Blended Learning Work in Your School (Booklist)
Thursday, April 20th, 11am – 60 Tools in 60 Minutes (School Library Journal)
Tuesday, April 25th, 10am – E-rate Update: April 2017 (edWeb)
Additional and up-to-date opportunities at the Library Development Training and Continuing Education Calendar
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AkASL Puffin
The latest from the newsletter of the Alaska Association of School Librarians, The Puffin. To submit an article, please contact The Puffin editor.
4/13 – Notes from the editor
4/13 – AKLA conference artifacts by Raandi Miller
4/13 – smore from Caitlin Jacobson
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As Seen on Alaska School Librarians Facebook
A roundup of resources shared and questions asked on the Alaska School Librarians Facebook group. This is intended to give readers the chance to access resources at work if Facebook is filtered. Only timely questions, announcements, and links to non-Facebook resources are listed here.
4/2 – Interesting – primary source junkies take heed.
4/3 – [What the Trump Budget Means for School Libraries]
4/4 – I thought the “Games and Interactive Tools” section of this article might be helpful to your work in teaching digital literacy to students.
4/4 – Teachers needing material for World War I? Let the Library of Congress help!
4/5 – Planning is now happening for the 2018 AkLA conference which will be held in Anchorage. I am on the Planning Committee and also part of the Program Committee. We would like to hear suggestions for speakers. Please consider now to offer a session at the conference. I know many of us do awesome things with students in our libraries that others would like to learn about – please share your experiences. For many, this conference may be the only opportunity for professional development. Let’s make this a conference that adds value to what we do every day.
4/10 – Thank you, folks. On my way to Boston for NEA Rep Assembly in July.
4/10 – Here is a great post from Jennifer LeGarde on the difference between I Can’t and I Won’t and how we use it with both students and adults.
“How often do we use the phrase “I can’t” with students, or staff members, when what we really mean is, “I won’t, because… ” or “I’m choosing not to, because…?” To me, here are a few critical differences between those two statements:”
4/11 – [10 Reasons Librarians Are More Important Than Ever]
4/11 – Gen Hatke, Kazu Kibuishi, Raina Telgemeier among many others. Quite a line-up for a little convention!
4/13 – Not specifically a library thing…but then, all knowledge belongs to us, so enjoy!
4/13 – “The new Library of Congress Student Discovery Sets bring together historical artifacts and one-of-a-kind documents on a wide range of topics, from history to science to literature. Interactive tools let students zoom in, draw to highlight details, and conduct open-ended primary source analysis. Full teaching resources are available for each set.”
4/13 – Being old enough to have felt those cards under my searching fingertips, I loved this story (but I hated typing and filing those same cards when I became a librarian!).
4/14 – Just had the PE teacher do the whole “my job is more important than yours because I have some longer classes” bit. Told her I would give up my days if she comes and does my EOY stats. She just said she’s not having the discussion in front of everyone. This was after I found out she went through my mail and then told everyone about the books I had bought. That’s my thing to share with people…. really disappointed.
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Almanac
Check It Out Next Time!
The next issue of SAYL Mail will be April 26th.
To share news, success stories, resources, and opportunities, please contact Jared Shucha. To get SAYL Mail updates sent to your inbox, request a subscription to the AkASL listserv and ask a colleague to do the same!
[su_frame]Jared Shucha
Alaska School Library Consultant
jared.shucha@alaska.gov
(907) 885-0660[/su_frame]