Saturday Workshop Blasts

WLMA is adding a new feature to Saturday afternoon, free 3-hour workshops that are included with your conference registration price.  The only requirement is that conference attendees pre-register for these workshops, as some have limits on the number of attendees.

To register for a workshop, click the "Preregister here" link next to the workshop name.


Session 6 Workshop Blast 1:15-4:00

(yes, these are free, awesome workshops - plan to stay the whole day. pre-registration required) 


Workshop Blast #1 - Kathy Dorr - NCCE - Introduction to the Library of Congress
Preregister here  (limit: 30 attendees)

Bring your Own Laptop for this session! 
Learn creative ways to connect literature with primary sources. Browse primary source sets and activities from the Teacher page. Explore www.loc.gov and search, save, and create your own sets from its vast collections. Share your findings and begin using books as hooks to primary sources with your students.


Workshop Blast #2 - 
How COOL is your Library? - Diana Janzen, Megan Johnson, Laura Day, & Mark Ray - Preregister here  (limit: 35 attendees)

Bring your Own Laptop for this session! Based on a successful activity at a WLMA Columbia Gorge Regional Meeting, this hands-on workshop will use future-focused small group discussions to develop a crowd-sourced Google Form survey that can be used for program development and advocacy. The ‘How COOL is Your Library?’ Project aims to help teacher librarians ensure that their programs and spaces are the best they can be supporting student learning, outstanding instruction and educational innovation. Serving both advocacy and program development outcomes, How COOL is Your Library aims to meet the following objectives: 1) Identify how to make your school library more Connected, Open, Outgoing and Learning-centered; 2) Assess perceptions of the school library program by stakeholders; 3) Connect with stakeholders to strengthen the school library program; and 4) Better position the teacher librarian to lead, teach and support student learning. Combining face-to-face and digital collaboration, participants will talk, share, post, review and walk away with a ready-to-use survey for their school.


Workshop Blast #3 - Angie Benedetti & Jerene Battisti - Preregister here


Once again join Battisti and Benedetti as they whet your appetite with this feast of new literature for teens and the readers who love them. This menu presents new fiction and non-fiction titles for middle school, junior high and high school readers. Each participant will take away a fully annotated bibliography of over 80 titles, which includes fantasies, biographies, fun non-fiction, historical and realistic fiction titles. Participants will also be made aware of recent trends in publishing and will have wonderful books to share with students. 


Jerene Battisti is the Education and Teen Services Coordinator for the King County Library System and Angelina Benedetti is a Cluster Manager for the King County Library System.



Workshop Blast #4 - Three Hour Split (Britannica, Proquest, Informational Texts) - Preregister here
1:15 - 2:10 - Brady LaMotte - Collaborate, Engage, Empower:The Leadership Role of a Teacher-Librarian
Britannica Digital Learning will be presenting few projects and resources that Teacher-Librarians can use to provide essential leadership in their schools. We will talk about how these roles connected together, since they are almost always doing more than one of these items at the same time. The Teacher-Librarian is a Catalyst in the school. Next to the principal, the librarian is one of the few people who work with students and teachers, modeling new technology and strategies. They need to be seen as a resource and an ideal collaborator for other teachers and Britannica Digital has developed innovative resources designed to help Teacher-Librarians solidify their unique position in the school.
2:20 - 3:15 - Jeff Cutler - Making it Even Better -- New Content and Tools in ProQuest, Jeff Cutler, Sr. Account Developer/Trainer, ProQuest
Join us for a look at some exciting new content and new educational tools in Washington ProQuest resources, coupled with a review of ProQuest's best Common Core supports.
3:25 - 4:20 - Deborah S. Ford - Informational Texts and Where to Find them: Online Resources for Nonfiction and the Common Core State Standards
With the implementation of the CCSS, educators will be faced with an increasing need for nonfiction and other informational texts. By grade 4, 50% of what students read should be informational. By grade 8, the rate goes up to 55%. At grade 12, the rate is 70%. These standards are not just for English Language Arts classrooms, so what’s an educator to do? Where can you find the informational texts that are being required with increased rigor?”

Presented by: Deborah B. Ford, Junior Library Guild’s Director of Library Outreach, is an award-winning library media specialist and international speaker with almost thirty years of experience as a classroom teacher and librarian in K–12 schools. She is the former District Resource Librarian for San Diego Unified School District, which serves over 180 schools. Traveling across North America, she does seminars for the Bureau of Education and NEFLIN, including “Increasing the Effectiveness of Your School Library Program,” “Best Books of the Year,” and “Web Resources for Educators.”