Tuesday, February 4, 2020

OLA SC 2020 Day 2 Reflections

Day 2 of the conference was filled with important meetings, recognition, and talks.

Thursday, January 30, 2020 - 8:00 a.m.

No time is wasted at the Ontario Library Association Super Conference - even early morning times. My duties began with an appearance at the TALCO breakfast. TALCO stands for The Association of Library Consultants and Coordinators of Ontario (https://www.talcoontario.ca/). This is their AGM and the OSLA conference planners pop in to eat, send greetings on behalf of the OSLA/OLA and accept thanks for the conference. 

Thursday, January 30, 2020 - 9:00 a.m.

Farrah and Mona's Keynotes illustrated
This was the time for the Keynote: Mona Chalabi for the entire conference (not just one sector). Kate, my OSLA co-planner, and I were unable to attend because we had a very important meeting scheduled. Some representatives from Ontario's Ministry of Education were invited to the conference and came. Kate and I were asked to show them around the conference. I'm neither going to mention their names here nor share any photos of them, because I'd like to protect their privacy. I'd like to assure those of you that read my blog who work in schools that it was NOT the current Minister of Education that came - maybe he was too busy making disparaging remarks about the teachers' unions in press releases and on social media. Our three guests were very happy to have been included and were very engaged and curious. Kate and I showed them around, pointed out some of the great posters and displays (like the ones explaining the status of school libraries throughout the province based on region). I think and hope that the two of us did a good job of representing OSLA and OLA, by providing a balanced overview of the challenging issues facing the school library sector while still championing the great achievements. (If you were at the conference and were wondering why you weren't asked to meet them, please don't take it personally. We did not want to overwhelm our guests with a large contingent of tour guides.)


Thursday, January 30, 2020 - 10:45 a.m.

OSLIP project members speak
Our "official" tour with the Ministry of Education representatives ended when we brought them to attend the session called OSLIP One Year On: Update on the Ontario School Library Impact Project by Heather Buchansky, Dianne Oberg, Mary Cavanagh, Marc D'Avernas, Kate Johnson-McGregor, and Sarah Roberts. This ambitious project seeks to examine the impact that having a qualified school library professional in high school has on the information literacy levels of students as they move into post-secondary education. 


Erik and Mike
Another session occurring at the same time was Manga Academia - using Manga in the Classroom by Erik Ko and Mike Barltrop. I spent a lot longer lingering in this session than I had intended, partly because the speakers were just so passionate about the topic. I consider myself to be pretty knowledgeable about manga but I really admired how Mike and Erik showed how all the aspects of Ontario's language curriculum can be addressed using manga. The free teachers' guides were probably a tempting draw to those unfamiliar with the format but willing to try it with their students.

Thursday, January 30, 2020 - 1:00 p.m.

After grabbing some lunch from the food court across the street (Manchu Wok - yum!), many of us attended the Ontario Library Association Annual General Meeting. This had the potential of being tense. Last year, the OLA AGM was a stressful event that left many people feeling insulted, abused and abandoned. This year was different, thank goodness. Procedures were clearly understood and followed. The most contentious issue for the school library sector was returning to an amended by-law change. There was a by-law consultation committee struck with different representatives from the school library sector; they engaged with the I-Think model to come up with phrasing that satisfied all interested parties. (For more details, see https://tmcanada.blogspot.com/p/tmc6-whalley.html, Kasey Mallen Whalley's paper about the process.) Despite some concerns about the lack of the term "teacher-librarian" in the new wording, the new version of the by-law was passed. I have to say that it was a huge relief for me. It means that some of the rifts between teacher-librarians, library technicians, library clerks, MLIS librarians and others can begin to heal and we can move forward together.

Thursday, January 30, 2020 - 2:50 p.m.

Tracey asks if we should water rocks
This time period was a busy one for those interested in school libraries. There were three stellar sessions to choose from. There was Co-Teaching, Collaboration and Engagement for Learners by Heather Stoness, a Halton DSB teacher-librarian and the recipient of the 2020 OSLA Teacher-Librarian of the Year award. Simultaneously, there was Collaboration: From Aspirations to Reality by Tracey Donaldson, one of my fellow TDSB teacher-librarians. Then there was Marie Kondo Your School Library by Durham DSB teacher-librarian Isabelle Hobbs and Grand Erie DSB library technician Sara Haddow. I did my best to peek at all of them, while still helping the three presentations that were in queue for the next time slot. I was only able to get a brief taste of each of their talks, but I hope they'll put their slides up on the conference website, www.olasuperconference.ca, when they get a chance.

Introducing Isabelle and Sara

Jenn introduces Heather


Thursday, January 30, 2020 - 3:45 p.m.

There was a plethora of options in this time slot as well. There was Canadian-Sikh Heritage Resources by Ramandeep Sarai, Jillian Toombs, and Stephanie Cheung. Another option was Reading Aloud to Kids Big and Small by Rachel Seigel. For something different, there was Raising Your Voice in the School Library - a Chance to Chat, run by Jennifer Brown and members of the OSLA Council. I'm not sure if it was because it was near the end of the day, but there were a few snags that had to be dealt with - the technology was acting up for Ramandeep, Jillian and Stephanie at first, and the OSLA session was initially in a theatre-style room, which would have been disastrous for the type of conversations they hoped to encourage; Jenn arranged things and quickly moved to the room where the OSLA AGM was scheduled to occur, and all was well. 

Stephanie, Jillian, and Ramandeep share books

Thursday, January 30, 2020 - 5:30 p.m.

The last workshops of the day ended at 5:00 pm which meant a new frenzy of activity - preparing for the OSLA AGM and awards ceremony. This was extra important to me because we were trying something unusual - an interactive mosaic data wall. Questions were posted on fabric and the number of answers corresponded to the number of buttons sewed in a line. Participants took their string/thread and wound it around the buttons that matched their responses. My friend Peter from Dufferin-Peel DSB asked, as he was corralled into cutting lengths of thread for the task, "Wouldn't it have been easier just to do an online poll on your phone?" - it totally would have, but the purpose was to collaboratively create a piece of art that represented both our individuality as well as our commonalities. 

Walquieria, Alanna, Andrea and Dawn try out the wall

"I want to play it like music" said Shelly (with Lisa)

The winners of the various awards presented before the OSLA AGM were:
  • Stephen Hurley and VoicEd Radion, winner of the OLA Media and Communications Award
  • Heather Stoness from Halton DSB, winner of the OSLA Teacher-Librarian of the Year Award
  • Tim Pedersen from Peel DSB, winner of the OSLA Administrator of the Year Award
The speeches were lovely. Heather's was solid and straight-to-the-point. Tim's words made the audience cry (although technically Laura Badovinac got our waterworks started with her heartfelt introduction for Tim). Stephen's speech had people nodding their heads and laughing (as did Lisa Noble and Beth Lyons - thank you so much ladies for presenting the introduction, including the use of my costumes that Doug Peterson predicted). 




Usually we conduct the Annual General Meeting first, because most people are inclined to leave after the Awards Ceremony. However, we were asked by OLA to reverse the order because we needed the OLA photographer (and OLA Manager of Technology), Robert Nishimura time to take pictures of the OSLA Awards as well as the OCULA Awards and the Public Library Award Gala (that all happen around the same time). Well, that plan backfired because our speeches went so long, and there were so many great photo opportunities, that we made Robert late. Sorry! 



Tim advocated for abolishing scheduled book exchange periods and advocated for free flow access to the library - to paraphrase, "I was an avid reader and I needed to go to the library every day". He described how the library helped him during challenging moments of his life, and he ended his speech by reading part of a picture book, something he does with his staff at every staff meeting or school professional learning session.



Lisa Noble added an extra surprise to Stephen Hurley's award. She mentioned that one time, on "The Dock" (the Saturday evening call-in music program on VoicEd) that Stephen mentioned he could really use a scarf, and that blue was his favourite colour. Lisa secretly organized a group of VoicEd listeners / educators to collaboratively knit him a scarf that she put together and presented to him.



Thursday, January 30, 2020 - 8:00 p.m.

The day was not done! It was time for the all-conference socials. Last year, I supported the Games Night. This year, I supported Karaoke. Immediately upon arriving, I was grabbed by last year's OSLA conference co-chair, Alanna King, to do a group rendition (along with Lisa Noble and Kate Johnson-McGregor) of Natural Woman. I also sang Carrie Underwood's "Before He Cheats" on my own - and quickly realized that my soprano voice doesn't suit this alto song (but it always sounds good in the car).

This was a great event to get to know new people as well. I met Ardis Chedore from Cochrane (a real "karaoke librarian" and fabulous singer) as well as Nikki (the Manitoba School Library Association President), and Trish (who never sang karaoke before but braved it then), and Erica (who brought her 10 week old baby to the conference and like me decades before had a supportive mom to help out at the conference with baby duty) and a couple of other people that I had a wonderful time with but can't remember their names (like the Cinema Librarian at University of Toronto who shared a great story about pants vs trousers). 

Tanis taking (basketball) shots

Singing Meatloaf!

Trish takes photos

Erica, who sang well

How'd I miss getting the nametag?
Even with the intense socializing, I made it back to my room a little after 10:00 pm and went to bed a little after 11:00 pm. Stay tuned for Day 3 and 4 reflections!

MEMORABLE MOMENT: Watching the half-basked idea borrowed from MakerEd TO become reality and actually work. It was such a risk, and we nearly didn't do the interactive mosaic data wall, but I'm glad we tried it out.
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2 comments:

  1. Lisa NobleFebruary 4, 2020 at 6:09 PM

    The mosaic data wall was fabulous, and we'll tweak it. It was an incredible gift to be at the Thursday night awards ceremony. Both Tim and Stephen's speeches were so gorgeous. I wouldn't have missed them for the world. And I obviously need to have a listen to your alto song.....

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  2. Alanna King @banana29February 4, 2020 at 6:42 PM

    I loved our moment together at karaoke. I’m still divided on how to make the AGM feel as essential as the passionate speeches. I wonder if there’s anyway we could get them posted/printed?

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