Hello from Elaine

Really enjoyed going to conference. A big thank you to SLANZA northland for sponsering me. It was great to meet lots of like minded people and exchange ideas. Enjoyed the workshops especially Anita's on library displays, gave me lots of ideas to take back to share with my library teacher aide. Together we are creating a mural on native New Zealand animals in our library, to support our school Term three theme on our Country. I hope to get teachers and classes to contribute with visual and written language and art.

SLANZA Conference 2011 sessions online

A number of the presentations from the recent SLANZA conference session are now available online http://www.slanza.org.nz/conference2011.html
so check it out... from the keynotes with Joyce Valenza and Judy O'Connell to a variety of presentations.

One of the sessions I attended was with Miriam Tuohy on Bookapedia battles
http://www.slideshare.net/miriamtuohy/bookapedia-battles-8784559 which sounded like an amazing event at her school, generating lots of reading, writing, talking and laughing about books.

Angela's first ever blog post

I was lucky enough to be granted a registration award by the SLANZA Northland Committee of which I am truly grateful. I am happy to say I gleaned good information from all of the sessions I attended, and will be able to put it to good use over the coming months. Thank you very much SLANZA Northland.

I thought I would write my post on the Key Note speakers.

Opening address by John Carr, writer, cartoonist, performance poet and stand-up comedian. Well! what a way to start ! His presentation call "Cold ducks, Old ducks and the never-ending wave"had me in fits of laughter. He rapped and rapped, about Mango's Medi-tags and Colostomy bags. What a great way to start such a full on three and a half days.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9clYEG5evAM

This should bring up the Mango Rap if you wish to reminisce.

Judy O'Connell, "Do you have the keys to tomorrow?" Well true to her title, e-learning lecturer in Library and Information Management in the Faculty of Education, Charles Sturt University, Judy is a mine of new information. I joined the Tweet community and follow her, well, every now and then,tweeting still hasn't become part of my daily routine, the sites she introduces to us are very "now". I have checked a few out and found them very useful.

Joyce Valenza, "The Wizard of Apps (seriously remixed)". I really enjoyed Joyce's enthusiasm, I would love to be able to visit her library, one day. I absolutely agree with her this is the best time to be a teacher-librarian. (My case just librarian). Keeping up with all the new opportunities that are presented today is an ongoing challenge, sifting through what is available and choosing what would be relevant for my little library.

Paul Little, "Future Imperfect". I could hardly hear what Paul was saying, unfortunately. He was speaking on the changing language of today.

Carol Hirshfeld, "Feel the Fear". A woman of my own heart! I really enjoyed hearing about her life and how that gave her the strength to be what she is today. A very successful lady who is currently the General Manager of Production for Maori Television.

Fleur Beale, "The Usefulness of Boundaries". Fleur is a teen writer, whose stories are made up from people and activities of her everyday life. Fleur is a very inspirational speaker, well received by everyone.

Please feel free to add to what I have written about these speakers.

Cheers, Angela

A belated post ...

A belated post from me - my excuse is that I have been relaxing in sunny Rarotonga and since then have had a sad case of total information overload.

I found the ideas at the conference very stimulating both from the keynotes and the workshops as well as from the other librarians. It was great to connect with librarians not seen since the last conference as well as spending some quality time with my Northland "flockmates". Special thanks to Angela for providing transport and to my roomie Julia.

There was so much of interest at the conference. A few highlights were hearing ideas about marketing, branding and advocacy of the library. Being at the forefront of the e-book revolution when Wheelers launched their eBook Library Lending Platform and learning about how much Maori information was available through the National Library portal. Still working through all the material I received ....

Looking forward to seeing Bob Docherty again - do make the effort to see him if possible he is so enthusiastic about the books promotes it makes you want to go home and read them all!

SLANZA Conference 2011

Thanks Lisa for gettting us started here on our Northland SLANZA blog with some feedback from the Conference to our colleagues in Northland, and beyond...

There was a great group from Te Tai Tokerau...

• Lisa Salter, Ruawai College - Northland SLANZA National Executive rep
• Di Eastwood, Kerikeri High School - Northland SLANZA Chairperson
• Julia Smith, Kerikeri High School
• Liz Christensen, Ohaeawai School
• Angela Margison, Excellere College
• Trina Yuretich, Ahipara School
• Elaine Shields, Kaikohe East School
• Dee Brooker, Whangarei Boys' High School
• Stephanie Gibbons, Whangarei Girls' High School
• Jeannie Skinner, National Library

Here are most of us, sitting front and centre in the front row, early birds waiting for the rest of the crowd to appear... From left to right, Steph, Dee, Angela, Julia, Liz, Elaine, Lisa.

Lisa presented a workshop on good reporting, Julia presented a workshop on blogging, and Liz and Jeannie presented a session together on young fiction creating readers, and we can share elements of those workshops here. There is so much other good information to share too from all the various workshops we attended, so hopefully we are all going to have a go at posting here on this blog to pass on information and links with you.

To start off, here is a link to the two main keynote presenters, Judy O'Connell from Australia and Joyce Valenza from the United States. They were impressive, inspiring, challenging, overwhelming, encouraging, expert, articulate, generous, knowledgeable, passionate, and 100% committed to student learning and empowerment.

Judy O'Connell - see her blog Hey Jude and her presentation "Do you have the keys to tomorrow?" http://heyjude.wordpress.com/2011/07/18/do-you-have-the-keys-to-tomorrow/

Here is the link to the public document written during Judy O'Connell's workshop session, showcasing many of the great ideas shared during Find it fast and get things done http://bit.ly/mYILEn

Joyce Valenza - here is the link to Joyce Valenza's SLANZA conference 2011 presentation and many more of her fantastic ideas http://joycedownunder.wikispaces.com/

You can post and share learning and ideas in the SLANZA ideas section.

From here you can follow links to her school's virtual library at http://springfieldlibrary.wikispaces.com/ and her School Library Journal hosted blog The Neverending Search at http://blog.schoollibraryjournal.com/neverendingsearch/


The next SLANZA conference is in Wellington in 2013, so start planning to attend that one if you can !