Enhance Your #AASL19 Experience with a Preconference Workshop

By Alice Bryant on 10/01/2019 • ( 0 )

We school librarians LOVE our conferences. We collaborate, we chat, we network, we think, we plan. This year before the AASL National Conference kicks off, why not take a moment for your professional development and attend a preconference workshop? With the AASL Standards in mind, the preconference planners thought long and hard about how to enhance attendees’ experiences and create inspirational sessions in which attendees can further their knowledge and subsequently familiarize themselves with tools and methods to enhance their teaching and learning for their students.

A fabulous leadership opportunity awaits at the first preconference session Wednesday afternoon November 13. “Leadership: Strategic Thinking, Decision Making, Communication, and Relationship Building” featuring the wise and wonderful Ann M. Martin and Kathleen Riopelle Roberts will motivate attendees to evaluate and design a leadership strategy for their current work experience. Ann and Kathleen will give you the tools to achieve best practices and succeed!

Delve into two of the Shared Foundations during “Shared Foundations: Collaborate” presented by Mary Catherine Coleman and “Shared Foundations: Inquire” presented by Lori Donovan. These two sessions will examine how school librarians today can achieve their goals and implement best practices using the strategies learned in these preconference sessions.

Shorter two-hour preconferences are also available the morning of Thursday, November 14. Join Mona Kerby for strategies to improve your collection during “An Introduction to Collection Development.” Explore how to make connections with other educators using the AASL Standards during Liz Deskins’s “Content-Area Collaboration for Secondary Grades.” Turn your favorite picture books into compelling lessons in “Lessons Inspired by Picture Books for Primary Grades” with presenters Maureen Schlosser and Rebecca Granatini.

Spending an afternoon on Wednesday or a morning on Thursday before the conference begins is an excellent way to grow as a professional. Taking an extra day might seem tough for a busy school librarian, but in terms of investment, taking that extra time BEFORE the conference starts is sure to be a great personal investment to dig deeply and learn great techniques and strategies that are sure to enhance personal growth.

Please consult the entire list of #AASL19 preconferences to make your conference experience complete: https://national.aasl.org/preconferences/.