Concurrent Breakout Room Seminars- Session 2
Breakout Room 510 - Equity through Editing: Contributing to Wikipedia for Social Justice Inside and Outside the Classroom
Tasha Bergson-Michelson - Castilleja School, Linda Swarlis - Columbus School for Girls, Amy Pelman - Harker School, Corey Baker - On Sabbatical, looking for next Great School
Did you know that fewer than 18 percent of Wikipedia biographies are about women? And that fewer than 20 percent of Wikipedia editors identify as women? It follows that a diversity of races, nationalities, and LGBTQIA+ people are also sorely underrepresented. Who better to take up the cause than librarians? In this session we'll look under the hood of Wikipedia and give you the keys to getting started as an editor. We’ll also provide some inspiration and tools for editing Wikipedia in the classroom, during which students will surely experience information creation, sourcing, and citing in a whole new light.
Breakout Room 511 - A Classroom in the Home: Re-claiming rights to privacy and participation in virtual instruction
John Byrnes - St. Martin’s Episcopal School
Digital participation has some common ground with the 'problem' of student attendance. Applied as a blunt instrument, some practices of forcing students to keep cameras on, requiring participation during a set window, use of proctoring software goes against some of the best practices of School Librarians protecting their student's privacy. Moreover, some of these structures also enforce a hierarchical structure to virtual lessons that can ignore student voice and student buy-in. Through samples of policies and Q & A with session attendees, we will approach the question of student privacy in virtual and hybrid learning.
Breakout Room 512 - The Archives--Your School’s Living History
Renee B. Chevallier - Ursuline Academy of Dallas
Increasingly, independent schools of all stripes are realizing the importance of their histories and the role institutional history plays in their continued success. The archives can be a selling point for admissions and development as well as an inflexion point for bringing curriculum into the student’s everyday lives and experiences. Discussion will include sharing ideas for the challenges presented by the archives--participants decide the direction!
Breakout Room 513 - Let’s Get LIT!
Kristen Armstrong - Gill St. Bernard’s School
The Project LIT Community is a national book club that encourages students to become better readers and leaders. This session will focus on how to get started and share some of the successes that the GSB chapter has had this year. We will also talk about the challenges of running a high school book club at a school where students are already maxed out.
Breakout Room 514 - Library Management 101: How to lead as you deal with administration, budgets, staff, and whatever else is stressing you out!
Tinsley Silcox - St. Mark’s School
Managing a vibrant and active library/information center is rewarding and sometimes terrifying. When you find yourself being the person who gets the 3:00am call that a pipe burst above the 900s and what should we do, it quickly becomes less glamorous. Our session will be an open discussion for new and seasoned managers--sharing ideas that have worked and those that have failed. Topics may include how do I advocate for more staffing/how do I justify current levels of staffing, working with administration, budgeting 1-5 years in advance, dealing with challenged material, and more.
Breakout Room 515 - Picture Books for Everyone
Sara Spencer - Montcrest School, Marilyn Baillie Best Picture Book Award [Canada], Jury Member
Elementary School Librarians LOVE reading and sharing picture books. With most schools being in remote learning for part or all of the school year, reading the same picture book is a timesaver. Let’s share our top 3 picture books & curriculum connections that span five grades or more.
Breakout Room 516 - Diversity Audits: Sharing the Burden!
Robyn Martin - Lovett School, Matt Ball - Pace Academy
Many schools are considering or are doing a diversity audit. We are part of a group of three schools located within a mile of each other, serving the same community with a lot of the same titles in our collections. One of the schools had started an audit, and as we all talked about it, we thought it might be a good idea to share the work. In this breakout session, we'll discuss how we are going about this gargantuan task. We'd like others to share their approaches and, as a group, talk about what we hope to gain from this process.
Breakout Room 517 - The Opioid Crisis and News Literacy--a Cross-Disciplinary Approach
Erinn Salge - Morristown-Beard School
After witnessing close family friends navigate their losses to the opioid crisis I was inspired to bring programming about it to my school community. By pairing with the Wellness department and incorporating aspects of news literacy into the lesson, I created a cross-disciplinary unit that was rewarding and substantial. I also worked with our Director of Academic Writing. I may co-present with one of my collaborators and I plan to detail the progress of the project in its third year running.
Breakout Room 518 - Libraries IRL: Don’t Let the Perfect be the Enemy of the Good
Nancy Florio - Kent School and Christina Pommer - Saint Stephen’s Episcopal School
Librarians tend to be natural planners who thrive on organization. Yet our school days are often filled with surprises. This session will discuss how to manage your library in real life, designing curriculum, programming and displays that are timely and work for your school, even if they don't always measure up to the ideal program in your head. Maybe it’s one-shot lessons, new faculty who don't understand the role of the library, or multiple teachers requesting last minute lessons---at the same time. This interactive session will share common problems and solutions to help you take steps towards the library program of your dreams.
Breakout Room 519 - Mindfulness and Self-care
Tanya Hamilton, Mary Campise, Patty LaValle, and Katy Valente, Personal Counseling Department - Ursuline Academy of Dallas
Please join the Ursuline Academy of Dallas Personal Counselors for a session focused on mindfulness and self-care during Covid. You will be guided through a short meditation to calm your mind and body. The remainder of the session will be time to share and reflect on what you have done to navigate and cope with Covid in a positive way.