Tag Archives: website evaluation criteria

Reflection: nErDCampPA 2021

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Salutations Readers!

On July 15, 2021, I was thrilled to attend the 2021 nErDCampPA, the second that’s happened in my new home state of Pennsylvania. I attended the 2020 nErDCampCT in Connecticut and sort of (unfortunately) seemingly forgot having attended or anything I learned that day, since I never did blog about it and only recently rediscovered my notes in Google Keep.

I don’t want that to happen with all that I learned at this year’s nErDCampPA, so here’s some highlights.

  • Pennsylvania’s Young Reader’s Choice Award
    (Psst…. click the above title for the website.)
    Students can vote if they’ve read at least 3 nominated titles. It sounds much more “real-world” for kiddos to vote on titles other PA kiddos are reading than the “Mock Caldecott” I tried last year, at the urging of my library team, since we’ve been team-planning from Spring 2020 through Spring 2021. The Caldecott award is kind of abstract. Voting in schools and public libraries happen in March. Depending on the building, a librarian might be able to use Title 1 & Title 3 money for purchasing PYRCA titles.
  • Pairing STEM Books with Hands-On Activities
    I got to meet some fantastic authors/illustrators of picture books; they discussed their current and upcoming books and shared links to their social media accounts and resource websites. I’ve curated the links here on this Pinterest board.
  • Where Did You Get Your Information? Research in Picture Books
    Author Annette  Whipple shared an acronym to help with choosing sources. We’ve probably all heard these aspects in another order that is commonly considered a “swear” word that I don’t like encouraging kiddos to use. Instead, she chooses to reorder the letters so the acronym is CARP (which is a type of fish) for Current, Authority, Relevant, Purpose in source evaluation.
  • How to Keep Writing When Life Conspires Against You
    Use the “Pomodoro method” as a way to keep yourself on a timer track when working.
  • Q&A for Educators Interested in Writing & Publishing Books
    Advice from  Kim Ventrella: [Even if your book seems like a common topic or concept,] the unique thing that you will bring to the process is your experience and voice, and that doesn’t need to be copyrighted 😉 Everything has been done in some form. The important thing is your unique twist and perspective, and how you execute it.
    Advice from  Saadia Faruqi: “Short story writing, magazine writing etc. can be a very good way to get practice not only in the writing process but also get used to rejection! If you keep getting rejections on one particular manuscript, it’s time to retire it (for the time being) and work on something else. Read what you want to write.”
    Advice from  Samantha M. Clark: “Don’t judge your manuscript by a published book. Just keep going.”

Overall, it was a wonderful day to help me build vision as a pre-published author of #kidlit! Hope you’ve enjoyed my highlights from the 2021 nErDCampPA.

Happy RLGing! Ms. Tyler

Presenting at my state’s library conference in September 2016

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Hello Everyone,

After what has been a long hiatus from blogging on Read + Learn = Grow!, I have finally returned; much has happened in three months!

I am now a school library media specialist in a K-5 school! My school in a small city away from my hometown, so I have relocated and started an exciting professional adventure.

Back in September, I presented two sessions at my state library conference for school and public librarians. Below is my reflection on my session and information about the three sessions I attended.

My Two Presentations

My two presentations, “Bingo! Getting Kids Interested in Genre” and “WWWDOT Website Evaluation Criteria,” went really well. I had over fifteen attendees for the genre presentation, the first session slot on a Saturday morning, and about eight, four of which stayed, for the WWWDOT presentation, the last session slot on the same Saturday.

After the genre presentation, six attendees completed my session evaluation sheets, all with very positive comments. Four gave me all 5s (High) on usefulness of information, sufficiency of information, clarity of presentation, relevance to job, overall evaluation of presentation, and overall evaluation of presenter. One respondent gave me all 4s, while the last gave a mix of 5s and 4s. Three respondents individualized their plans to implement what was presented, with one using a Makerspace, another conducting a unit with fourth grade students, and the third implementing my “Genre Bingo” in a public library. One respondent thought the hands-on portion of most value, while another appreciated the TinyURL to get to the session handouts.

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Session 1: “Come One, Come All – Bring the Whole Family”

These librarians learned that multi-age programming is best for their community. For example, when they offered “Mini Golf” for only teens, just three teen patrons attended. When they offered “Mini Golf” again for all ages, over fifty patrons attended and enjoyed putting balls through wickets made from bookends. Two other examples of interesting events where the “Family Fort Night,” which featured patrons bringing blankets and pillows to make forts around a fake bonfire to read stories as they munched on marshmallows, and the “Frozen Sing-Along,” which featured songs and scenes from the popular Disney film with audience participation sections, such as throwing snowballs at the Snow Monster. This library also offers summer programs every weekday with free lunch for K-12 students.

Session 2: “EverFi”

EverFi is a web-based program of courses designed to help students with financial education, STEM readiness, healthy relationships, diversity and inclusion, and career leadership and success. Each course has teacher resources aligned to Common Core State Standards. Most of the K-12 courses are geared towards middle and high school students, yet some are appropriate for students in fourth and fifth grade. Teachers create free accounts, and students have individual student accounts grouped as classes. Students can be directed to use any module, a select few, or complete the course. Accounts for students under the age of 13 do not have last name or email required. If interested, teachers can contact an EverFi school manager to get behavior survey data on their students.

Session 3: “Genrefying Your Library”

These high school librarians saw a 67% increase in usage and saw the fiction circulation double when they genrefied their library media center. Genrefying refers to grouping fiction books first by genre then by author last name. They purchased Demco “all in one” stickers to place on book spines and used websites like FantasticFiction and NoveList to help with categorizing titles. When working in Destiny, they suggested completing both the sublocation and copy categories. The copy categories then become visual search button options in the OPAC, and it is possible to run historical collection statistics based on copy category. One of the presenters mentioned librarians might want to label the titles first then batch edit the copies in the OPAC using barcodes. For them, if a story has magic, it is fantasy, not science fiction, and historical is anything prior to 1995. Canva.com was suggested as a place for genre posters and signs.

Enthusiastically,

Ms. Tyler