The only advice you'll ever need. |
See, one of my first jobs was as a reading coach. I gave professional development, but it was only to my district and sometimes only a few teachers at a time when it was really short. And the for the longer PD my colleague and I enlisted the grade level lead teachers in the school and set up stations, each with its own topic, that the rest of the teachers rotated to throughout the day. Ms Clary and I were at one of the tables, but they all came to us to discuss the DIBELS scores of their classes. The point was empowering the teachers to acknowledge themselves as experts, and it was really well-received.
Actually... I should revisit this type of PD sometime.
At my next job I began writing intervention and DIBELS analysis materials, and worked my way up (ahem, "laterally moved" according to my paycheck) to writing professional development for teachers statewide. Five-hour-long workshops, in fact; however, I never gave the workshops. That was up to consultants around the state. My belief in scripts is tied directly to this job.
So, for real, getting the chance to write and deliver a morning-long workshop on my own was kind of a dream come true, or one of those "at least I can say I can talk for that long!" types of things.
Anyway, it was really awesome that Leah Langby asked me to speak at the Indianhead Federated Library System's Summer Reading Workshop!
Here's what I talked about:
--Summer Reading Promotion: you know, how I'm a bigger fan of breaking the fourth wall and leaving the puppets in Storytime. The group came up with some great "get them pumped" ideas, like reminding the kids multiple times that everything at the public library is free (even if they don't have cards, they can still attend programs!) and-- oh my gosh why haven't I been using this one already-- FREE A/C FOREVER! (why does it seem like the line toward the end of that clip hasn't been made into a GIF yet? Eh, whatever).
--Iron Fist Child Management: this was way better received than I even hoped it would have been. Never sure if I come across like a big meanie.
Sneaky picture I took |
--Examples of STEM programming: I even included art, as long as I could deliberately match it to some sort of science, which you can with most art. I do think there is a misnomer when deciding to use STEM or STEAM; the idea that science is for people who think linearly and art is for imaginative "out of the box" people, which is doing a disservice to both of these. STEM and art are all for bold, curious, imaginative people. The difference is that STEM fields need more women and people in general. What better way to spark a child's interest in science than exploring it in fun, kid-centered, unencumbered-by-state-standards-and-assessment way public librarians can?
So from now on, personally, I'm going to use the terms STEM, or STE(A)M, and I hope that doesn't get on too many people's nerves.
Here's Mayim Bialik saying what I just tried to say way better, and in GIF form.
So yeah. I also had grown people doing some of my Wild Records, and trying a Mythbusters experiment, and laughing a lot, which is basically the way I understand the world. SO, I think it might have gone pretty well!
Oh, here's the Pinterest page (handout)
And here's the slide deck I used (if the embed works):
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