Out of State?

For those of you planning on working in schools out of New Jersey, you might want to look at this site. 50 States has information about everything students would want to know about the US, but it also has from the Departments of Education and Certification (or equivalent licenser) for each state. It might not have the exact requirements, but it at least has the right people to contact to find out what the requirements are for your desired state.

RASL meeting minutes- April 16th

In case you missed it, here's what happened at last week's RASL meeting:

Recap of "NJ Children's and Young Adult Author Day" at Woodbridge Public Library: see the NJLA website for details on the authors

Check out the Internet School Library Media Center: http://falcon.jmu.edu/~ramseyil/index.html
-ISLMC has pathfinders for specific subject areas (eg. Egyptology)
-the page is being shut down, so check it out while it's still there! Also, check archive.org for closed pages

Scholarship Reminder: Al Staley Scholarship
-$750
-3 available: one for a media specialist without certification, one for a current MLIS student, one for a potential MLIS student

Job Opportunities:
-Cranford High School: FT SLMS (listed on Cranford BOE)
-Ewing Elementary School: FT SLMS (listed on Rutgers job board)
-Jefferson High school: FT SLMS (Rutgers job board)

Discussion: School Library Media Month
-creative ideas:
-bookmarks with authors by genre
-scavenger hunt
-read-alouds (high schoolers to former elementary schools)
-reader recommendations (teachers write up blurbs about their favorite books from when they were teens, with photo)
-student book club (high schools): once a month students; student-run
-encourage students to donate books to school library/start a "take a book give a book" swap
-to find out what other schools have been doing, see these websites:
-http://falcon.jmu.edu/~ramseyil/libslmday.htm
-http://schoollibrarymedia.pbwiki.com/FrontPage
-http://www.ala.org/ala/aasl/aaslissues/aasladvocacy/schoollibrary.cfm

Discussion: Students with disabilities

-http://dsp.berkeley.edu/TeachStudentsWithDisab.html (college website, but applicable to school libraries)
-Collection: Books on CD/Playaways partnered with hard copy book; large print books
-Facilities: physical arrangement (aisles, shelving, seating areas); computer stations to accommodate wheel chairs, headphones, screen magnifiers
-"The High/Low Handbook"- high interest books for students at lower reading levels

Upcoming:

NJLA Conference: April 30-May 1 in Long Branch; early registration is closed
NJASL Spring Meeting: Saturday, May 3 at the Hilton East Brunswick; $35
NJASL Fall Conference: November 13-15 at the Hilton East Brunswick

Final meeting of the semester: tentatively scheduled for May 1st, but will probably change due to NJLA conference: check the RASL website/blog/LISSA listserv for updates!

Help Save RIF Funding

From the RIF website:

"Reading Is Fundamental was eliminated from the President's proposed FY2009 budget. Congress can save it.

Contact your congressional representatives and urge them to support RIF's $26 million funding appropriation.

Last year, 4.6 million at-risk children were able to choose and keep 16 million free books through RIF programs. Without this funding, these programs will cease."

Take action.

Great Depression Lesson Plans

One of the great resources you can find on the AASL School Media Month site Renee posted earlier is a pdf of wonderful lesson plans involving the Great Depression. You can find the link straight to the pdf below:

Great Depression Lesson Ideas

National Library Week: Reference Desk

Check out ALA's NLW promo videos on YouTube. Enjoy!

[For some reason, the videos are posted under several user names. Use this link for the username AmLibraryAssociation to see them all (I think). ]

It's National Library Week AND School Library Media Month

AASL has ideas and information for promoting School Library Media Month on their website here. (For some reason, the @ your library home page links to older materials for school libraries - still good, but just be aware that some of it appears to be from past campaigns.)

Here is the information on National Library Week. Be sure to check out the YouTube videos--post them on your blog, MySpace, Facebook, and send them to your friends.

Fall registration info

Fall registration begins April 6, 2008 at 10pm! The schedule of classes is available here.

New! Alicia has put together these fabulous tools to help you plan your course of study:

SLMS Course of Studies Planner (pdf)
Coursework for SLMS Certification - On Campus (pdf)
Coursework for SLMS Certification - Online (pdf)

For more info on planning your course of study, check out the Classes page on our RASL website.