Power Up Conference Scholarship Applications Due January 11

Who doesn't want a chance at a free registration at a national conference?!?!

The second Power Up Leadership Conference for Youth Managers and Staff (btw, that's all of us who work with youth in libraries; we all lead no matter where we are in an organization) is happening March 28-29, 2019 in Madison WI at the Pyle Center.

This national conference brings speakers and attendees from across the country together to explore leadership, advocacy, developing leadership skills and leading from where you are. The one and a half day conference is a great opportunity to immerse yourself in thinking about leadership and management and advocacy.

Scholarships to cover the full registration for ten lucky recipients are still open. Scholarship applications are due by January 11. Click here to read about the scholarships and access application form.

The Importance of Being at the Table

I'm at the ALSC institute this week in Cincinnati with a few hundred sister and brother youth librarians learning a ton and meeting many new colleagues. What I love about these biennial Institutes is the concentrated sessions with plenty of time network with regional librarians who don't often get the opportunity to attend ALA conferences. There is no committee work so all our time is learning and connecting with new friends.

This year, the overarching theme is the importance of making sure we get everyone at the table. We in youth librarianship should be leaders in inclusion, equity and diversity.

The programs so far have really celebrated this concept with thoughtful reflections and stirring calls to action on identity in children's programming; decolonializing our book selection methods; demystifying advocacy; true advocacy that recognizes every child and so much more yet to come in the next two days.

I will be presenting on the importance of reaching out and being a leader in connecting community and library to benefit all kids. It's exciting to be part of the group of energetic and innovative colleagues sharing programs, thoughts and action..

The next Institute will be held in Minneapolis MN Oct 1-3, 2020. You might want to mark your calendars now for this immersive experience.

Wanna Know ALL.THE.THINGS. in YS-ville?

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Well, actually I can't *quite* guarantee that but I can open the door to learning a passle of useful information on creating amazing Youth Services in the library.

I'm back in the CE saddle again in September teaching an 8 week basics course on Youth Services called Youth Services 101 at University of Wisconsin-Madison iSchool Continuing Ed Dept.  This course is perfect for library assistants, associates, directors of small libraries who wear ALL the hats, part-timers and full-timers...really, anyone who would like a more solid grounding in working with kids birth though age 18 and their families.

We'll look at child and adolescent development, programming power, outreach, library spaces, advocacy, savvy planning, service trends, teamwork and more. Its a chance to take a course based on the youth services coursework of Masters Degree in Library and Info Science students - so you'll be in the know.

The course is practical, lets you share your thoughts, challenges and successes and gives you the big picture thinking to increase your confidence in working with youth in your community.

Hope you can join me this fall as we learn and share together!

Registration Discount for Youth Services 101 Course

August 27 is the registration deadline for a 10% early bird discount for the YS 101 continuing education course I am teaching for UW-Madison iSchool.

The 8-week course starts Sept 11.

It's a "basics" course perfect for library para-pros, volunteers, directors who want to know more about the ins and outs of administering youth services staff, staff at small libraries who do ALL.THE.THINGS. and anyone who wants to get an overall view of youth services. This post has a few more details.

Please feel free to share the info. And see you all in school this fall!

Back to School!

I'm excited to be teaching a fall online UW-Madison SLIS/iSchool CE class that has been a long-time dream - Youth Services 101. It's an eight weeks "basics" course perfect for library para-pros, volunteers, directors who want to know more about the ins and outs of administering youth services staff, staff at small libraries who do ALL.THE.THINGS. and anyone who wants to get an overall view of youth services.

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From the beginnings of youth services through looking at future trends, we'll examine the how's and why's that make youth services great. Topics include: child development info; programming mightiness; collection development skill-building; planning and visioning; advocacy; partnerships and communities of practice, success with difficult patrons; and creating kid-friendly environments. No textbooks needed for this wild ride into the guts of great youth librarian-ing!

Registration is now open (with a 10% discount if registered by August 27).

And if you've got the basics down, don't forget to check out the other great library and youth courses
Fostering Inclusivity; Creating Top Notch Customer Services; Programming for Tweens; The Disability Community in Your Library; and Creating a Coding Club at the Library.

A huge thanks to the University of Wisconsin Madison SLIS/iSchool CE department for supporting great CE for library staff at all levels and in all types of libraries!

Come on! Let's learn together!!

How Do You Manage THAT?!?! Part Deux

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It's almost class time again!

The four week CE class exploring issues in youth management (personnel, advocacy, difficult patrons and partners) that I'm teaching offered by UW-Madison SLIS starts on Monday Jan 30. This crowd-sourced problem-solving adventure helps you navigate some of the stickier wickets you encounter in running a youth department.

Just a heads up - there is a 10% registration discount if you register by Monday January 16.

This version of the course covers different material from part one - and you don't need to have taken that before heading into part deux.

Hope to see you there!

Taming the Youth Management Dragon

How many times do you say, “They didn’t teach me this in school!” as you navigate some portion of your day as a youth librarian and/or manager?  There are so many conversations to be had that we are digging in to re-offer our online CE course How Did You Manage THAT?!?! - the Sequel running January 30 - February 24, 2017

Whether you were in our first class this fall or not, join us to take this hands-on, hearts-out course on youth management issues. We’ll explore the delicate dance of navigating personnel issues (library staff, patrons and partners) as well as discover tips to more effectively balance, advocate for and marshall resources to make smart management decisions. The course will be collaborative as you share your own experiences and ideas that have worked in managing your youth services area.

Registration is now open for this course as well as other amazing courses for youth services librarians through the UW-Madison SLIS CE office. And you get a 10% discount if you register by January 16, so don't delay! Hope to see you next year!

Come to School with Me on Youth Management!

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I'm happy to say I have the opportunity to once again present "How Do You Manage THAT?!? Issues in Youth Services Management Part 1", October 17-November 11 for UW-Madison SLIS CE. This course was originally offered in fall 2014 so I'm pumped to examine the issues in this first version of the course.

What are we covering?

•  Collection Development Mojo – savvy selection, weeding, confounding conundrums (bindings, salespeople, cold calls, awards, earning a place on the shelf)
• Strategic Planning Power – big picture visioning; outcomes and goals; balancing services; statistics power
• Room Management and Space Issues- from chaos to calm; involving your public; creative space-making; managing behaviors
• Leadership from Within – fostering  relationships with other library staff; dealing with reluctant administration/board/patrons/co-workers/employees;
• Zen Balance and Creative Engagement – partnerships/collaboration; PLNs

Active participation in discussion, a short paper that helps you identify a goal to work on and presto! You've earned CEUs and valuable insight from this crowd-sourced course where we all help each other examine these issues. Problem-solving and sharing are hallmarks of this learning opportunity.

Registration is now open (with a 10% discount before Oct 2). But don't delay; the course tends to fill fast!

And please check out the other UW-Madison SLIS fall CE courses. My colleagues are knocking it out of the park and each class is dynamite!!!

Kudos to ALSC

It was with real pleasure that I read that ALSC is offering their recently cancelled bienniel Institute (originally scheduled to take place in Charlotte NC in Sept) as a Virtual Institute online.

It is a BIG thing to undertake the cancellation of a major conference  - especially one that had already opened for registration. The ALSC board under the leadership of Andrew Medlar, with the able assistance of the ALSC office staff, listened, encouraged member discussion and input and researched what we as an association could do to respond to the law passed in NC that went against core values of our division as well as basic human rights.

The process was transparent and input deep and thoughtful -on all sides. The decision was a difficult one but one that I wholeheartedly supported. The ALSC board promised to honor the work of the institute organizers as well as committed participants by offering a way to still hold the conference - perhaps as a pre-midwinter conference in Atlanta or virtually.

I am very pleased that the decision was to go virtual on Sept 15-16, the time when the Institute would have been offered in Charlotte. Many of us had blocked out that time already. And for just slightly over the cost of an ALSC online course, ALSC members and non-members are invited to register for two days rich with online content. For many people who struggle to afford the costs of registration, lodging and transportation, this is an incredible bargain!

Head on over to the Virtual Institute webpage and register - and I'll see you virtually in September!

Conquering Management Issues

It's time again for CE school to start at my alma mater, UW-Madison SLIS! And I'll be returning to teach with How Did You Manage That: The Sequel.

This four week course is for you if:

• you want to delve deeper into the hows and whys of youth services management
• you want to create a community of practice and supporters to learn management tips
• you are working at a library of any size or are a manager or are thinking about stepping into management
• you like working at your own pace in this asynchronous course taught between Jan. 29-Feb 19

It isn't necessary to have taken the first iteration on this course offered in fall 2014 because we'll be looking at brand new issues and brand new solutions. We'll also be using a marvelous "great-to-have-always-on-hand: text: Fasick and Holt's Managing Children's Services in Libraries

Here's what's in store:

“They didn’t teach me this in school!” Last fall, we explored youth services management issues in the first version of this class. There were so many more conversations to be had that we decided to offer a sequel! Whether you were in the first class or not, join us to take this hands-on, hearts-out course on youth management issues.  We’ll explore the delicate dance of navigating personnel issues (library staff, patrons and partners) as well as discover  tips to more effectively balance, advocate for and marshal resources to make smart management decisions. The course will be collaborative as you share your own experiences and ideas that have worked in managing your youth services area.

Topics

Don’t Take it Personnel – tips on managing staff, co-workers and administrators(!); hiring strategies; staff motivating/encouragement (and conversely, discouragement!); fostering  positive relationships with other library staff

Marketing vs. Advocacy – getting to “yes’ with colleagues and patrons; creating powerful collaborations/outreach; saying what you mean – and why

Success with Difficult Patrons and Partners – tips on respectfully working with (or ejecting) difficult patrons; strategies to create success with reluctant or difficult partners or library colleagues in nearby libraries; navigating complaints.

Strategic Moves towards Zen Balance  – creating the service you dream of,  getting on top of the grind on the way to vision; work/life balance; letting go (insert “Frozen” music)

Get all the details and register (including a 10% discount for early registration by January 10), stop here. And don't forget to check out all the great UW-Madison SLIS CE courses by my friends and colleagues. 2016 will be a great learning year!

Conferencing Outside the Box

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Library conferences often come to mind as the best places to put our bang-for-buck in-person attendance. But state and national library conferences are just the tip of the iceberg for great networking and learning experiences.  There are many opportunities to learn a ton if we step outside the library world and discover what else is out there.

Just within this month here in our state, we have had/are having three great statewide conferences that are perfect for public youth librarians to attend. One is with our library media peers in WEMTA; one with the WI Afterschool Association and one an early childhood conference full of great sessions. We made sure we could get a staffer to each.

Attending conferences outside the library world opens us up to new experiences, new ideas, new colleagues and new ways to approach our work. It's a great way to fill up our toolboxes and give even better service to our communities!

What are your favorite "out-of-the-library" box conferences (national or local)? I'd love to hear about them!

Elephant and Piggie Wow the Crowd

We have long been offering continuing education opportunities on a monthly basis for our day care providers. Because we are registered instructors, providers who take our free hour-long classes are able to gain credits for continued certification in our state's certification program. Libraries place such importance on early literacy that it makes sense to give providers the knowledge and encouragement to do just that through these workshops!

We recently did a workshop demonstrating how to create story extension activities using a book and one's own imagination. Activities that extend a story help children play with characters, plots and situations in the just-read book and more firmly embrace and enjoy the story and the concepts inside it. These extensions can be craft-based; sensory-based; pretend-play exploratory; art-based and more. The point is finding the kernel(s) of the book and extend them into the activity. Since we wanted to explore this in a simple fun way, what better books than Mo Willems' Elephant and Piggie (aka E&P in this post!) series to do the job?

Here's how it went down:

I read There's a Bird on My Head and demonstrated a fun nest hat the children could make. This was followed with I Will Surprise My Friend and a demonstration on how paper bag E&P puppets could help kids understand the situation of the rock hiding the characters (you can find the extensions used in this post).

Providers then picked a Willems' E&P book, and were given 10-12 minutes to read it and either working as a team or alone, come up with an idea for an extension idea or two that might work. The crowd was enthusiastic and came up with some great ideas. Here's a few they shared when we re-gathered and book-talked their selection and made their suggestions. Look what great stuff they came up with in just a few minutes:

Watch Me Throw the Ball - have the kids toss a ball and comment on all the different ways they throw (best throw to the left; highest; softest; kindest to the ball; best ball that went to the left; etc. Important to focus not on far the ball is thrown but how fun throwing the ball, no matter the result is!)

I Broke My Trunk - using paper towel rolls, let kids hold them to their noses. Talk about what might break their nose. Let the kids wrap their broken noses in toilet paper as a bandage.

Elephants Cannot Dance - have kids practice the dance moves Elephant does. Then ask them to try a new dance move (depending on the group, they may come up with plenty of their own). Add music and have a dance party!

Let's Go For a Drive - let kids pack and unpack a suitcase with clothes. Show them maps. Make a map of a walk around the block and walk with the kids showing them how a map works. Let the kids draw a map. Ask kids what they want to pack for a trip to the store; to the woods; to the beach; to a very cold place with snow.

My New Friend is So Fun! - Have kids draw a picture of their favorite friend.

I'm a Frog - have kids pretend to be frogs and cows. Ask them what other animals they would like to pretend to be. Use pictures of real animals to extend the idea.

Many of the providers had never heard of these books and realized that an early reader could work great with the kids in their care. It also stimulated alot of conversation of other books they love to use with the kids and how they could use the story extension concept to enhance the kids' enjoyment. Mission accomplished!

Need More Programming Chops?

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One of the most difficult parts of our work is often giving ourselves permission to try new things in our programming.  Sometimes we feel pressure from our administrators, our veteran colleagues or patrons to do - or not do - certain things. Combine that with tight budgets, tight staffing and tight time and the challenge really ramps up. We read exciting efforts in blogs and online but just can't seem to jumpstart them at our own place of work.

If you are looking to re-think, get re-inspired or explore programming a little more in depth, I invite you to join me in an upcoming online CE course: Power Children's Programming on a Budget.

This asynchronous course which starts on January 26 and runs for six weeks gives participants a chance to learn - and share experiences and tips that work wonders. We also explore strategic ways to plan, be a strong advocate and fit what you want to try into a busy work schedule. A bonus is our blog that will preserve ideas and thoughts.

Whether you live in Wisconsin or another state, this course is a great one to hone your programming skills! Hope you can join me!

Where Do We Learn?

Of course everywhere.

On social media, through blogs and in social media groups.

Through mentor-protege relationships - whether informal or set up through ALSC or a state association.

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Through our libraries - in fact this post is inspired by Katie Salo's library asking staff to teach each other about their areas of expertise. Wow, libraries of the world, do this thing! Wouldn't it be great if every library cared to make sure all staff knows what all staff work is about?!?!

Through attendance at state and national conferences - both inside and outside the library world.

Through webinars and online classes like our state's continuing series of webinars with panels of practitioners at libraries large and small; formal CE credit courses through SLIS schools and our statewide Wild Wisconsin Winter Web conference with 10 national speakers.

Through attendance at workshops outside our usual territory - and often relatively nearby. In the past month, four of our YS team have attended three different seminal, breakthrough, slaying-sacred-cow seminars on shaking up summer reading programs around the state. While we already push the envelope in this area, we are inspired by other's stories, experiences and support. And we drove to learn more!

Through reasoned discourse like that going on here and here.

Through conversations with colleagues in the library, patrons and kids.

All our learning, all our sharing (we each have the power to reflect on and teach each other) pushes our practice and grows our understanding. No matter where we learn, we can't help but get better.

Our opportunities are everywhere. Carpe perceptum!!

Let's Go to School Together Again!

Hey friends out in youth library land....I'm baaaaaack!

We had such a great time in spring exploring together the range of youth programming and smart and savvy ways to make it easier, that I am repeating the course beginning in January.

Join me for  Power Children's Programming - on a Budget, a six week on-line course for the UW Madison SLIS Continuing Education beginning the week of January 26. It is open to anyone, in-state or out-of-state, who is interested in this subject.

This course is perfect for any youth staffer interested in digging more deeply into programming for children, preschool through elementary ages. We'll explore: why we do what we do; how to do it better; negotiating the tricky currents of available staff, time, money and patron reactions.  You'll expand your community of programming peeps through robust dialogue, program shares and down-right feisty argument. 

Since it's an asynchronous course, you can dip into the content anytime each week. Lectures and readings are a mix of written text, webinars, slideshares, video and links to seminal posts about programming from bloggers including  Anne Clark, Amy Comers, Melissa Depper,  Abby Johnson, Amy Koester, Angie Manfredi, Brooke Newberry, Katie Salo, Beth Saxton and our friends at the ALSC, Little eLit and Thrive Thursday blogs.

We'll revive our class programming blog Kids Library Program Mojo that will fill with new content as the ideas and programs start popping up in the course and being shared. Coursework in this pass/fail course takes about 2-3 hours a week and the two brief assignments allow you to hone your thinking on programming (be an advocate!) and create/share a program. What could be more fun?

I hope you consider joining me for this most excellent learning adventure. I plan to learn as much as I teach!

Graphic courtesy of Pixabay

Thing 1 and Thing 2 = Empowerment

Hafuboti expresses what everyone feels in the CE class

Two things are happening that make me happy and excited and proud and want to run in circles of OCD happiness (I am controlling myself).

Thing 1.
I am teaching an online CE course for UW-Madison on issues in youth library management. In the description I lay out the narrow set of issues we can address in a four week course - some good stuff but by no means ALL. THE. THINGS. I also, as in all my CE classes, made it known that this isn't a guru-to-grasshoppers paradigm: "The course will be collaborative as you share your experiences and ideas that have worked in managing your youth services area."

Bless the participants. They are taking me seriously! In our first week, over 300 posts flew back and forth. Questions, answers, ideas, sadness, happiness, problems, solutions, thoughts and support, support, support for each other. It is clear that a community of practice is budding. We are all learning a ton. And I think we are all learning to be unafraid to put our thoughts and fears out there. The graphic in this post is from Rebecca Brooks who blogs at Hafuboti. It's her meme on how she feels about wanting to jump in. That's what I'm talking about!

Thing 2.
Our state youth library consultant, Tessa Michaelson Schmidt, is deservedly being named Wisconsin Library Association Librarian of the Year in a few weeks. Right there that is a Thing 2. It is very rare to have a youth person win this award and it makes my heart very happy.

Happier still, though, is what brings Tessa to this award. In just 2.5 years on the job, she created a statewide initiative, Growing Wisconsin Readers, that supports early literacy throughout our state with ready-made materials. She planned a Youth leadership Institute in 2013 that brought non-MLIS children's librarians together and gave them information and power that have made these people mighty. She has created shared system workshops and powered a new look at youth statistics that honors not just active programs and SLP statistics but all the ways we program and bring children to literacy.

But best, best, best of all??? Tessa has been a mighty person who has given voice and power to youth librarians (whether MLISed or not) throughout our state. She has empowered staffers from our smallest libraries to share their amazing work - through blog posts, through invites to present at statewide conferences and as part of webinars. She has opened the door and invited everyone through. As she says, "You're only leading if you're extending forward as much as you are reaching behind and pulling up others."

Word.

Youth Management School - For Real!

Before I begin, let me just say, any of us who work in youth services, whether official "managers" or line staff, are managing (or perhaps I should say juggling) alot all the time.

We each make decisions on collections, services, partnerships, intra-library collaborations, advocacy decisions, media matters, best use of our time/energy and a whole lot more. Sometimes we stay safely in the lane, following tradition, received wisdom or direction from above. Other times, after going to a workshop, webinar or social media peeps on the computer, we hop out of the lane and zoom to a better place.

So we all manage.

I have blogged about how excited I have been to find so many people sharing program and service ideas over the past few years. I can't say how important these ideas are for my practice and to my community. It led me to develop my first CE course this spring on Programming Mojo.  More recently I've been exploring great youth management ideas from bloggers like Erin , Cheryl and Abby and blogs like Library Lost and Found. It got me thinking more on how we manage our youth work and thinking again about how we all learn to approach our practice. Seems like there's lots to discover and and ideas to chat about.

If you want to join a conversation on youth management this fall, come to school with me!

I will be teaching a four week UW-Madison SLIS online course How Did You Manage THAT?!?! that looks at many of the issues we face each day in the youth services area. We'll learn and share together and have a great textbook to guide us (Managing Children's Services in Libraries by Adele Fasick and Leslie Holt - a book whose many editions throughout my career have served me well as a guide and a goad). Since this is an asynchronous course, you dip in each week at a time convenient for you.

I somehow think a class crowd-sourced blog will be involved again too. Hope you can join me and explore!

It's Not a Box! No, Really!!

We offer monthly meetings for day care providers during the school year to boost their early literacy might, introduce them to great books and methods to share books and to highlight our collections and services. We have been certified as registered CE instructors to help our daycare teachers keep up their learning and credentials in our state-level Registry.

In April, our training was all based on Antoinette Portis' multi-dimensional book Not a Box. We asked attendees to each bring a box of whatever size. Just in case anyone forgot, I gathered empty book boxes for a week or so prior to the training. Why did I worry?  Everyone brought one!!!

I put out a selection of our finest stuff: scrapbook paper, tissue paper, stampers, markers, foamies, felt pieces, feathers, glue sticks, eyeballs, yarn and any other doo-dad I could lay my hands on.  Tables to stand and work at were put out.

When everyone arrived, I read the Portis' book and talked about the importance of imagination, play and creativity. I gave a few examples of stories that you could extend with a cardboard box to accompany them (a car box for Sutherland's Dad's Car Wash; a train car box for Crews' Freight Train). 

Then the challenge. Create something out of their box using materials at hand and then work with me to find a picture book in the collection to match their box design. Read the book quickly. At the conclusion of the workshop, each provider then shares the box and booktalks the book with rest of the attendees. If someone had a particular book in mind that was checked out, they could, in addition to talking about a book on their box's theme, tell about the other book they use that works great.

The results were amazing. People took special care with their boxes, with their reading, with their booktalking and with their additional recommendations. As a children's literature expert, I also added title ideas as well depending on what each person made.

It was a perfect blend of creativity and matching books to object! Below please see their wonderful creations!


Rabbit, horse, robot



Space, VH Caterpillar, penguin, birthday cake

Garden, car wash, ladybug, monster, suitcase

Surprise box, box to leave your shouts in, garden

fun box, garden, playhouse, ?, ocean

On the Road with Unprogramming!

I love the opportunity to get out and share with library colleagues. But as many of you know, it's even more fun to get out of the library world and share with folks outside of libraries.

I'll be presenting tomorrow at the Wisconsin Afterschool Association conference in Lake Geneva. This two day conference is for providers as well as folks working in youth serving organizations like the Y and teen centers who work regularly with afterschool kids.

The fact that I will be at this conference is pure kismet. I was visiting a friend last fall and her dining room table was full of applications for presentations. Turns out she is the chair of this year's WAA conference. In our conversation, it was clear that libraries should not just be part of the association and conferences but also have a place at the table given our work with this demographic.

So "Book It! Creating Fun, Book Based Programs for School Agers" was born. Here's the description: Promote literacy and fun! Learn easy preparation ideas, how to adapt books to parties and tips on “unprogramming” (letting kids guide discovery). Best of all - leave with plans!

I'll be talking unprogramming ways to keep programs managable: collecting great sources from blogs and Pinterest; reasonable prep time; giving kids agency to discover and creating stations of stuff. The book party themes we'll talk about:  dinosaurs, Elephant and Piggie, Dr. Seuss and Diary of a Wimpy Kid programs. The Pinterest board is ready. So am I.

Let's meet new friends and potential partners and share the library good word!

Graphic courtesy of Pixabay

It's a Wrap!

It's time for a report-out and a shout-out because we finished the six-week online UW-Madison CE class: Power Children's Programming - on a Budget! Although I organized the information and loaded it up on the platform, I can tell you that each and every student made this a deep, useful (and...krikey I don't have enough praise-worthy adjectives to express the phenom that happened) course.

From the start, the class of 24 librarians from libraries of all sizes in WI and across the country jumped in and shared, cared, supported and explored programming. There were "Aha!" moments, "Oh no!" moments and discoveries about programming made everywhere.

At the beginning of the course, I told the class I didn't have the answers, only the questions everyone should ask themselves when we begin to put our programs together. And I asked everyone, no matter their circumstance or experience, to share generously in the discussion boards their own journeys, program ideas and discoveries. And did they ever. It was nothing to see 200 substantive posts a week, chock full of deep thoughts and great program ideas.

A huge thank you to the library folks in class for making this the experience that helped me learn so much more about programming and your libraries than I ever dreamed I could. I am so wealthy after these six weeks that's it's hard for me not to be all

(Thanks to Sara Bryce, my blog is sporting it's first gif!)

We didn't use a textbook. Rather, the class went through blog posts related to our content written by many of our thoughtful colleagues. So a gigantic high five goes out to you, my blogosphere friends and colleagues. YOU made this course as well:  Abby at Abby the Librarian,  Amy at Catch the Possibilities , Amy at the Show Me Librarian,  Angie at Fat Girl, Reading, Anne at so tomorrow,  Beth at Beth Reads, Brooke at Reading with Red,  Carissa at Librarymakers, Cen at Little eLit, Julie at Hi Miss Julie, Leah at Keeping Up with Kids, Lisa at Thrive After Three, Mel at Mel's Desk, Sara at S. Bryce Kozla, Tessa at Growing Wisconsin Readers and the many contributors to the ALSC blog who shared programs.      

The sharing of ideas sparked by the blog posts and the class made it a totally worthwhile trip. And now that the CE teaching bug has bit, what should I teach next?!?!