Design & Create

Come join us as we mashup video game creation and content in this hands-on workshop with Bloxels, a subscription platform that allows students to collaboratively design, build, and play their own video games. It can be used to create collaborative projects and assess learning in any content area! If you have a Chromebook or laptop navigate to https://build.bloxels.co/, or if you have an iOS or Android device download the Bloxels app, to preview created games and build with us!

This session will specifically look at our use of newsletters, use of Nearpod, partnerships with other school groups, our relationship with the public library, and a creative approach to an in-school “bookmobile” to increase student and staff engagement with the library. We’ll give practical steps librarians can take to use our successes as a model to reach new library patrons, and we will end the session with time for reflection and questions.

This session will cover visual journaling (VJ) as a pedagogical and reflective tool to be applied to both professional and personal practice. Participants will learn how the presenter collaborated with a fifth grade teacher to enhance reading instruction during a graphic novel study through VJ, how the presenter incorporates VJ into her own professional practice for research, and in personal practice for self-care. Participants will create a VJ page as well.

Are you looking for Makerspace Ideas to use with your secondary library patrons? This is the session for you! Two librarians, one high school and one intermediate, will present 50+ makerspace ideas that we have used successfully with our own students. We will share our knowledge and our philosophies, and we will have fun! We hope you will share, too!

Inspired by the Chicago Toy and Game’s “Young Inventor Challenge (CC),” school librarians created a camp where learners imagined, designed, and created board games. Explore ways to use the ideas of the Young Inventors Challenge to generate opportunities for learners to become the next Hasbro™ inventor! Whether adding to an existing makerspace, coteaching game design within classroom curriculum, spawning a club, or designing a camp, use the seeds of inspiration for your next Grand Plan!

Interact with a book? Join Bento Book Club, where students (individually or with friends/family), have an interactive reading experience, and can be a great alternative 'no club book club' for students who want engagement without social pressures. Attend to brainstorm, share ideas, actively participate in bento activities, & learn how to replicate the model for your school situation. Leave with book ideas, sample activities, & everything needed to begin a Bento Book Club in your own library.

With a glut of online information, see how to curate and organize all your online resources using several digital tools. Streamline your digital library for teachers and students, and integrate all your favorite Google and design tools to improve productivity and collaboration, while showcasing good digital citizenship.

Does the idea of hosting a Makefair excite you, but you just don't know where to start? This session will take you through the step-by-step process of hosting a Makefair as well as what pitfalls to avoid. Lake Orion High School has utilized high school students as well as teachers and media specialists from across the district to host stations intended to ignite passions for STEAM in students grades 3-8.

You really can do it - this session will show you how.

The great debate: Curriculum-connected makerspaces or pure open-ended makerspaces? Come to this session to hear two secondary librarians duel as they present & defend these two types of makerspaces common to the educational environment.

Want to share ideas you are passionate about with fellow school librarians, but don’t know how to start? We all have something to contribute and are #BetterTogether. Join two librarians who will reveal how they use podcasts and webinars to create, collaborate, and curate relevant content, giving voice to ideas and concepts that should be shared. We showcase the best our profession has to offer and integrate it into our own school library programming.  You can, too!