The Texas Computer Education Association Annual Conference
San Antonio Texas – February 2019
The Central Libraries Resources Council’s (CLRC) Professional Development Grant helped enable me to attend the Texas Computer Education Association (TCEA) conference in January 2019 in San Antonio, Texas. As a Library Media Specialist at the elementary level in Liverpool Central School District, I have the unique ability to push in to classrooms and instruct on information literacy, technology, and literature. Since the schedule is hectic and does not allow for much free time for professional development, I rely on national conferences to further my education. Having attended previous national conferences, I look for new conferences to challenge my perspective and educate me on new trends and tools in technology.
The TCEA conference provided me with multiple workshops on a variety of topics including, but not limited to: technology, professional development, and school library management and advocacy. There was an abundance of sessions to choose from diverse enough to cover educational pedagogy, library advocacy, and the best new apps and tools for education – to name a few. It was also exciting to hear from some of the leading speakers on these topics from across the country such as Shannon Miller and Bill Bass; it was also great to hear from educators that are in the classroom every day to hear their tips and tricks in a practical way.
Some new tools and ideas I learned about were:
- Live Video Book Talks – created by students for other students to learn about new books
- Book Challenges – where students can be rewarded by reading books from a teacher selected list
- Pineapple chart PD – which allows teachers to teach skills in the classroom environment
- Future Ready Standards for School Libraries
- Tech tools such as Mentimeter, PlayPosit, Slido, List.ly, Mindomo, Purple-Planet, Kizoa, the Liner extension in Chrome, and many others
- Forest – which helps students build stamina
- Best Websites/Apps for schools, according to School Library Journal
- Many more…
The workshops that meant the most to me personally and professionally talked about future ready libraries and bridging the traditional library with the future of libraries. I particularly was reminded that literature is still an important piece of the library puzzle as well as integrating technology into everyday lives. It truly is an exciting time to be a library media specialist. I am eternally grateful to Central Library Resource Council for the grant, which helped me be able to attend the TCEA Conference. Below are various pictures from the conference. It was an invaluable time to network, be inspired, and refocus on why I do what I do every day be being a school library media specialist.
Thomas Scott Burgess
School Library Media Specialist, Liverpool Central School District
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