News from the Conference Day 2

Greetings on day 2. Today I began the day with a very early breakfast and then got over to the convention center to work at the registration desk at 7:00 am. What was I thinking? It was great, though. I can highly recommend it as a place to volunteer to see people as they arrive and make new friends too. George Pilling was there and brought us some of the CALIBK12 stickers for those of us who forgot to print them out. We pasted them on any badge holders we got our hands on. Thanks, George, even if we don't win a prize.

Those of us at registration didn't make it to all of the opening session, but I did get to go hear the featured speaker, Joe McHugh, present Slaying the Gorgon - Storytelling and Media in the Electronic Age. He was fantastic! A great story teller and very creative in bringing together images from advertising and the web to illustrate his points. I wish we had video so everyone in CSLA could see and hear his talk. Kudos once again to the conference committee for finding an amazing, entertaining and inspiring keynote speaker.

After the opening session, attendees had a chance to visit the exhibits for an hour or so before the first concurrent session. I still haven't gotten in there except for a brief tour last night. There's always tomorrow.

1st concurrent session: ABC's of Leadership - Barbara Jeefus, Jim Duke, Chela Cortez, Claudette McLinn, Jeanne Nelson shared their road to leadership in our organization. Sandy Schuckett facilitated this interesting peek at what brought them all to CSLA. It was the conclusion of the attendees that this needs to be presented in a larger forum to inspire more people to participate in CSLA as officers and chairs, and it's a job for all of us.

Next on to the Legislative Lunch with informative words from our own Jeff Frost. The word is not good on the budget situation, even for this current school year. We all need to continue to contact our legislators, especially the 30 newbies in the Senate and Assembly. If you have a supportive legislator, why don't you encourage he or she to mentor a new person on the importance of school libraries to student achievement? We need to watch for the dates to be announced by CSLA for legi days in the district, etc.

2nd. session: I attended the session on Textbook Management, with Rob Darrow, Gene Menicucci, and online with us, Paula Ford. I got lots of great ideas to pass on to my district to upgrade our textbook software. We do a pretty good job of retrieval of textbooks at my HS, but the district as a whole, needs to get better control, so I can go home with some good info.

3rd. session: I attended "Is the Google Generation Information Literate?" Zorana Ercegovac presnted her findings from a case study with secondary school students. I think we all related to her findings and she will share her presentation and pretest with all of us to use at our schools. She has a new edition of her book just published based on this study as well. It would probably be great for my teachers to read.

Well, I'm off to the President's Reception with a live radio show, refreshments and goodies to take home. Don't you wish you were here? I do!