Info about scan cards…did you forget to turn yours in?

Folks have emailed me about this, so I thought I’d make a general announcement:

If you forgot to turn your scan card in, you can mail it to me at:
505 North Main Street
Greer, SC 29650

We are not dependent on the card to create your transcript, HOWEVER it helps keep down recurring costs to SCASL when we don’t have to purchase new cards every year, AND if your card was/is turned in, you’ll be entered in the drawing for a free registration to next year’s conference.

Oh… and I also heard from Doug Johnson who made it home safely and had this to say about our conference:
“Just wanted to say thank you so much for the opportunity to work with your South Carolina librarians this past week. I had a great time. The people in the sessions were great, the conference was well-organized, and people were all just as nice as could be.”

SCASL is the best!!

Amanda

Conference Wrap Up!

A huge thank you to everyone who helped make the 2009 SCASL conference a success! The rain held off until just after we left on Friday – the power of positive thought??? : )

I heard some great feedback and suggestions at conference -  if you didn’t get a chance to fill out the conference evaluation, please take a moment to fill our the survey. We can’t improve the conference without your input! Go to:

http://www.surveymonkey.com/s.aspx?sm=dROTcxeMnFYbr71MR_2b2N2w_3d_3d to complete the evaluation. Keep those comments coming – how could the schedule be improved? What really worked this year? What authors/speakers would you like to see at the 2010 conference? Obviously there are some things that are beyond the steering committee’s ability to change, but we take your comments and suggestions very seriously and everyone on the committee works hard to make conference the BEST professional development for media specialists in SC!!

I’ve had some texts and emails from some of our presenters – Dianne de Las Casas shared with me that she thought this was the most enjoyable state conference she had EVER attended – I think she loved us as much as we loved her and she was very sad to leave. She will be at AASL in the fall – if you are going, keep a look out for her! If you didn’t get to see one of her sessions, you missed a treat! I’ve heard from Dan Yaccarino and Phil Bildner and they were both impressed with our membership and were glad that they had a chance to come to our conference (neither had ever attended before).

I am compiling the handouts and presentations that were submitted before conference, and we’ll be posting those soon! We did several things during conference to be able to share some of the highlights of conference with folks who couldn’t attend – be looking for more information to come!

Don’t forget to register for the Read In! You can find the application here:

http://www.scasl.net/documents/readin-form.pdf

Next year’s conference is in Charleston, March 10-12th, 2010. I know libraries be facing many of the same economic problems as we did this year, but I hope we’ll be able to see a great group there next year!

Book Award Winners

2008 – 2009 South Carolina Book Award Winners.

Picture Book Award – Hero Cat by Eileen Spinelli.  There were 243 schools participating with 54,971 students who voted.  Hero Cat won by 8,291 votes.

Children’s Book Award – How to Steal a Dog by Barbara O’Connor.  There were 184 participating schools with 10,495 students who voted.  How to Steal a Dog won by 1,330 votes.

Junior Book Award – Cracker!: the Best Dog in Vietnam by Cynthia Kadohata.  There were 98 schools participating with 6,210 students who voted.  Cracker! won by 850 votes.

Young Adult Book Award – New Moon by Stephenie Meyer.  There were 73 participating schools with 2,024 students who voted.  New Moon won by 487 votes.

AASL Webinars

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

AASL is offering a series of four webinars designed for school library media specialists as part of School Library Media Month in April. The webinars will focus on the four strands of the new Standards for the 21st-Century Learner: Skills, Disposition in Action, Responsibilities, and Self-Assessment.

Skills & Content Standards: Let’s Mash ‘Em Up!

Presented by Cassandra Barnett

Wednesday, April 8, 2009 – 5:30 p.m. EST

Teaching Responsibilities:  It’s our Responsibility

Presented by Gail Dickinson

Wednesday, April 15, 2009 – 5:30 p.m. EST

Dispositions of the Exemplary School Librarian

Presented by Jami Jones

Wednesday, April 22, 2009 – 5:30 p.m. EST

Self-Assessment Strategies

Presented by Marjorie Pappas

Wednesday, April 29, 2009 – 5:30 pm EST

Member price per webinar is $50, or all four for $180.  Nonmember price per webinar is $75 , or all four for $210. More information, including a registration form, is available at AASL Education.

Conference Thank Yous!

Conference is over! Hope you are planning to join us next March in Charleston! Dates for the 2010 conference are March 10 – 12, 2010!

Our sponsors this year were AMAZING! Thank you to the following:

Jay Hope for providing a Bose sound system at all of our general sessions and luncheons.

Camcor for providing projectors for our concurrent sessions.

Books Are Fun/Upstate Book Fairs for donating books for the Awards Luncheon tables.

Juliana Hooper with MultiMedia Services for donating a SMART Document Camera as a door prize.

Watson Library Services and their publishers for donating a paid trip to AASL in Charlotte and a breakfast on Friday morning during conference.

Scholastic, Junior Library Guild, and Gumdrop Books, and Mimio for door prizes.

Britannica for sponsoring the Past President’s Breakfast.

East Educational, Follett Library Resources, and Ralph Davis for sponsoring our Awards.

Follett Library Resources for providing book award book marks.

THANK YOU!

Conference Evaluation Form and Volunteer Form

For those of you attending conference, our conference evalution survey is once again ONLINE!

 

The survey is open now and will be open until next Friday (March 20). We would love to hear what you thought!

 

If you are at conference, you can look for hard copies of the Volunteer Form at the SCASL booth in the Exhibit Hall or at the tables near the Registration Desk.  Click here for the online version of the Volunteer Form.

 

Thank you for all you do for SCASL!

Thursday Cognotes!

Find out what happened at conference on Thursday – read the Cognotes!

Happy Friday!

Valerie Byrd Fort

What happened Wednesday at conference? Check out the Cognotes!

Find out what happened at conference on Wednesday! Read the Cognotes!

Hope you are watching the LIVE sessions on the NING (http://myscasl.ning.com) and keeping up via Twitter, Facebook, Skype, etc.

 

Have a GREAT day!

Valerie Byrd Fort

SCASL Preconference Day Cognotes – March 11, 2009

Cognotes coming soon – GREEN this year

Nightly conference updates!

I’ll be online and available to chat via every means I can think of from 8pm – 9pm during conference (Skype, NING, Facebook – that’s all I’ve thought of so far – I’m a good multi-tasker)…I’ll also update the SCASL Blog each evening. Please feel free to ask me about the “going’s on” of the day at conference!
Here’s how to find me-
valerie.byrd.fort Skype
Search for my name in Facebook
SCASL Blog – you’re here
NING – http://myscasl.ning.com/

Valerie Byrd Fort , SCASL President