Hi Kristin,
Welcome to the world of library media specialists!! It's great that you want to come to the October Conference. While the sessions are still being determined, there are still things you can share with your admin about the conference and the benefit it will have for classroom teachers. I personally think the conference goes beyond any one discipline, grade level or subject. We are a community of teachers learning from each other.
Laura
1. Discover new Tech tools that can integrate into your classroom, such as AI. AI can be a great tool for students for brainstorming, editing and support.
2. Learn how to collaborate with your school LMS. Even if you have a great relationship, you'll learn other ways to utilize your and make student learning and teaching more impactful.
3. Meet authors and connect with them. Authors are amazing resources and the ones who come to our conferences LOVE meeting teachers. Since much of our writing is connected to reading, it's a win-win.
4. Strengthen student research. I'm sure your students need to write non-fiction pieces, so learning about resources in this are would be great for them and you. Many of our sponsors have information about that too.
5. Revamp your lesson plans. I know that every time I attend a conference I learn something new that I can bring directly to my students. I love keeping things new and engaging.
6. Professional Development. You can offer to bring back what you learn to your school. Not only would your fellow subject area teachers learn from you , but you could share at a school wide PD. For many of us, it's a part of our LMS job.
7. Network. The world of librarians is all about networking and we bring that to our conference. We not only want classroom teachers to attend, but we need them to attend. That makes all of us better because we have connections outside of our immediate colleagues.
8. Be inspired and rejuvenated. There's nothing more exciting about being around a group of educators that want to learn and are excited about the possibilities.
