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Special Events
Attend any or all of these special events at no additional charge.
- Celebrate Conference
- Exhibits Opening Reception
- A Storytelling Extravaganza
- ELMSS Symposium
- One Book, One Conference
- AASL National Conference Closing Celebration
Celebrate Conference: First-Timer’s Orientation
Thursday, November 5, 12:30 p.m.–1:30 p.m.
Room 217
sponsored by
Is this your first AASL National Conference? Are you a new AASL Member? This session is especially designed for new AASL members and first-time attendees to the AASL National Conference. AASL member-leaders and others will share helpful tips and strategies to help you get the most out of an AASL National Conference. Be sure to select the “This will be my first AASL National Conference” choice in Step I when you register. The first three hundred first-time attendees that attend Celebrate Conference will receive a box lunch, sponsored by ABDO Publishing Company.
Exhibits Opening Reception
Thursday, November 5, 5:00 p.m.–7:30 p.m.
Exhibit Halls B and C1
A Storytelling Extravaganza
Thursday, November 5, 8:00 p.m.–10:00 p.m.
South Carolina Ballroom
Stories—the original social network! We share our lives and heritage in stories, whether from long ago or just last week. Stories are funny, touching, mysterious, mostly true, and wrap around us until we’re tangled up in the whole world. Join your friends and colleagues as spellbinding performers from the National Storytelling Network celebrate the everyday and the fantastic in a casual evening of traditional and original tales.
The Storytellers
Steven Henegar
Celebrate the wonderful variety of stories that we use to share our lives. Vibrant original and traditional stories revel in the everyday and the fantastic, discovering the common experiences that connect us all: Truth & Liessm for all occasions.
Kuniko Yamamo
Her heartfelt stories, hand made masks and stylized movement create a magical world of tradition and possibility. The music of her flute and thirteen-string koto surrounds traditional tales, folk songs, and personal experience.
Madafo Lloyd Wilson
His storytelling and musical programs are presented in the tradition of Griot, the African storyteller, musician, poet, teacher—the one responsible for keeping alive the principles and values of the people.
Meet the storytellers after the performance for a Q&A session to inspire you and your students to become more involved in storytelling.
ELMSS Symposium
Date/Time TBA
The Educators of Library Media Specialists Section (ELMSS) of AASL is pleased to present its first research symposium at the AASL National Conference. As educators, scholars, and researchers, ELMSS members create new knowledge about the school library field and impart that knowledge to the profession’s newest members.
The topic for the symposium is the Standards for the 21st-Century Learner, released in 2007. The standards are the basis for curriculum development and implementation in school libraries. The symposium will open with a look at school library curricula past and present, and an overview of the standards. The group will be forming research teams to develop, present, and critique questions for substantive research on the implementation, teaching, and learning of the new Standards. The work will continue as research teams formed at the symposium will continue to work to begin the research.
"The Standards for the 21st-Century Learner present a unique research opportunity for school library scholars. The standards are new and different from previous information literacy standards, and there is much to learn from careful observation and study of how the 21st century learners learn the skills, responsibilities, dispositions, and self-assessments needed to become the effective users of ideas and information envisioned by the school librarians." Gail Dickinson, ELMSS chair.
One Book, One Conference
Friday, November 6, 7:00 - 7:45 a.m.
Room 213A
Born Digital: Understanding the First Generation of Digital Natives by John Palfrey and Urs Gasser is the "One Book, One Conference" selection for AASL national conference. Put this book on your summer reading list so that you can discuss it with your colleagues at your school and with your students when school starts again.
Where to buy it? At Amazon.com or at your local bookstore.
Reviews
"The target audience of Born Digital consists of those digital immigrants who teach, raise, and work with digital natives. Ideally, parents would be reading this book to balance out alarmist media accounts of chat room kidnappings, MySpace bullying, and internet brainwashing. Teachers and communicators would be reading it too, to better relate to the digital natives they're trying to teach. And policymakers" Read more...
"As the authors say, this book is part of a longer discussion--not the history of a watershed in time, but the record of a moment. Let's make sure everybody is included." Read more...
"Understanding Our Digital Kids: A new book offers a guide for mentoring the children of the Web." by Adam D. Thierer
Read...
AASL National Conference Closing Celebration
Saturday, November 7, 7:00 p.m.–10:00 p.m.
ImaginOn
300 East Seventh St.
Charlotte, NC
Fee: This event is included as part of your conference registration fee. Guest tickets may be purchased at $50 per person.
Before you leave Charlotte, AASL is hosting a party for all national conference attendees. Join us for food, music, and more and ImaginOn, a facility that brings stories to life through extraordinary experiences that challenge, inspire and excite young minds. Storytelling and tours of the facility provided. For walking directions to the reception visit the information desk. Limited shuttle service will be available from all official conference hotels.
