Wednesday, February 5, 2020

OLA SC 2020 Day 3 Reflections

Friday was still #RedForEd but it was also the third day of the Ontario Library Association SuperConference. Here are my reflections and report from that day. (And before I forget, I want to give a big, big thank you to my co-planner, Kate Johnson-McGregor. Is it okay to say "I love you, my friend" publicly? Well, I hope so because I just did. [Love you too, Richard!])

Me, Kate, and OLA President Richard Reid


Friday, January 31, 2020 - 7:00 a.m.

Who has a meeting this early in the morning? The OLA SuperConference planners do! This meeting is an important time to chow down together and reflect (using the "2 Stars and a Wish" format) on how the conference has been proceeding. We should have taken Deanna's advice to get a proper group shot photo across the street. We chose not to, and that meant that there isn't a quality image of all of us planners together like the one we took last year (with all our champagne glasses).

I popped my head into the Tinlids-sponsored Forest of Reading invitational breakfast briefly to hear the speeches. It was filled with authors and selection/steering committee members, as well as huge appreciations for Meredith Tutching, the director of the Forest of Reading.  


Friday, January 31, 2020 - 9:00 a.m.

Two OSLA-sponsored sessions began at 9:00 am and two others began and 9:50 am. Easing the High School to University/College Transition: Building Effective Programming to Bridge the Information Literacy Gap was presented by Sophie Bury, Samhita Gupta, Sarah Shujah, Christopher Tamasini, and Kate Johnson-McGregor. There was also Designing a Library Learning Commons Through an Equity Lens and Becoming an Equity Leader by Rabia Khokar. I am proud to tell people that Rabia was in my Library Part 1 AQ course with York University and in a short time has become an important figure in the school library community. I wished I was able to stay for longer than a few minutes at a time, especially at Rabia's talk. I always learn so much when I'm around her. However, I needed to ensure my other OSLA sessions were properly supported. Speaking of support, I was so pleased to see and meet Rabia's sister, who came to watch her presentation and support her sibling.
Great panel at Easing the HS to Coll/Uni Transition

It's a packed room for Rabia!

At 9:50 am, it was difficult to choose between sessions, even for the presenters! We had Make Writing: The Encore with Angela Stockman, Melanie Mulcaster, Pam Taylor and Amanda Williams-Yeagers and at the same time, there was Schools and Data Privacy, or Don't Let Dreams Turn Into Nightmares with Andrew Campbell. I really liked both but I couldn't stay, because there were two huge events that needed my attention.






Friday, January 31, 2020 - 10:45 a.m.

 We were so fortunate to have Shakil Choudhury as the OSLA School Libraries Spotlight session. Even the people from Thinglink who were hired to create the sketchnote based on his talk said they were captivated, as was Robert Nishimura, the OLA "photographer on assignment". Once again, thank goodness for the summary visual, because I was called out of the talk to deal with some last-minute logistical issues related to the other big event from Friday - the OSLA Sandbox. I really, REALLY wanted to stay and listen but duty calls. I even have to postpone getting one of Shakil's books for my principal (who registered for the conference but was unable to attend), but it will happen.

Friday, January 31, 2020 - 12:30 p.m.


The OSLA Sandbox is a huge experiment. It's an odd beast - 7 different presentations happening simultaneously in a Minds-On-Media-style set-up for two hours on the Expo Hall floor. There are a lot of moving parts to this portion that can be challenging to juggle. I want to thank Emily Burns and Jennifer Marriott for their patience with last-minute changes and alterations. I also want to thank Denise, Roland and Sonny for agreeing to be an addition to the program.


Even though we couldn't accommodate everyone's set-up requests, I feel like it was a successful second "kick at the can". We improved from last year - for instance, we had bigger, more visible signage advertising exactly what this was - and we still have room to improve even more. I also want to thank a teacher-librarian from TDSB who really gave me an "AHA" moment. She said that she couldn't afford to purchase a day's admission to the conference, but she was able to buy a pass to the Expo Hall and was looking forward to the Sandbox. It hit me - the OSLA Sandbox might be one of the few professional learning opportunities available to attendees who, for economic reasons, cannot experience #OLASC fully except through the Expo Hall. The Expo Hall is great - lots of authors to meet, tons of supportive vendors (with great swag), the Idea Hub, Poster Sessions and Gadget Zone, not to mention the Style Lounge - but having the Sandbox as part of the Expo instead of being on the main floor as a "session" means that we increase the learning opportunities.  








Overview of the OSLA Sandbox

Friday, January 31, 2020 - 2:00 p.m.

The final OSLA sponsored session was a great one: The A-Z of LGBTQ for K-12 by Robin Stevenson and Tom Ryan. Once again, I didn't get a chance to spend time listening to Robin and Tom because I had to help with dismantling the OSLA Sandbox. After all, Kate Wilson had a large audience waiting for her to present at S.T.E.M-ing Up Storytime immediately after her Sandbox time! (Sadly, I'm not even sure I got a photo of Tom and Robin - sorry!)

If you've been keeping track, you will notice that I haven't had lunch yet. This is where I made what I'd consider to be my biggest goof-up of the conference. Around 2:30 pm I checked with my mini-unicorn (the OSLA version of where we had to be and when) and I erroneously thought I had time to grab some lunch across the street. I thought we weren't due for our next duty until 3:45 pm - WRONG! All the conference planners were supposed to be in line ready to go on stage for 2:45 pm because the closing keynote was scheduled to begin at 3:00 pm. It was at 3:00 pm or 3:05 pm that Kate and I received a Slack notification asking us where we were. We ran like our shirt tails were on fire down to the massive room and flew to our seats just in time. (Emily, Zack, Elizabeth - I am SO SO sorry we were late!)

Friday, January 31, 2020 - 3:00 p.m.

This was the first and only keynote I was able to attend completely, and I am certainly glad I did. First of all, I got to see Fay and Fluffy received the OLA President's Award for Exceptional Achievement. Secondly, Choir! Choir! Choir! was amazing. I got to go on stage, not once (for Sweet Caroline) but twice (to capture the audience singing Don't Stop Believin'). I wish I had considered their song picks before I did my karaoke the night before!





Friday, January 31, 2020 - 5:30 p.m.

For many people, this signified the end of OLA SuperConference, but for OLBA (Ontario Library Boards of Ontario) and OSLA (Ontario School Library Association), this was just the beginning of another important chapter. For OLBA, it's OLBA Bootcamp, a chance for "representatives from public library boards across Ontario to share their perspectives". For people in OSLA, Friday night was our kick-off dinner, with awards presented and a celebrated keynote. 

There were 3 winners of the 2020 Angela Thacker Memorial Award:

Alison Bodner from Manitoba


Alanna King from Ontario


Sarah Wethered from British Columbia


And the Leading Learning Implementation Award went to Pembina Trails School Division in Winnipeg, Manitoba.


The three individual award winners were very gracious and clicked almost immediately upon meeting each other. (Below is a photo of the three of them.)



Big thanks should also go to Eric Walters. He was our opening keynote for Treasure Mountain Canada 6 and the entire room was both impressed and moved by his stories about undertaking big projects, phone calls in the car, mass mailings of autographed book marks (especially when the estimate of 20 participants turned into 150+!) and how educators make a difference in the lives of students.


(One more day of reflections coming up!)

MEMORABLE MOMENT: Singing with reckless abandonment with Choir! Choir! Choir! Days later, and I'm still humming the songs. (Thank you for teaching me harmony to Karma Chameleon!)
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