SLJ Leadership Summit - Day 2

Saturday dawned cloudy and warm and rain was in the forecast; but the weather didn't matter because a long, full day was on tap.

Breakfast was self-serve and healthy - fruit, yogurts, I skipped the danish and grabbed a bran muffin. 

John Green was the keynote speaker. He has a new book, Turtles All the Way Down coming out next Tuesday and I sort of hoped that we'd get a copy; but there's an embargo on it so we all got a signed copy of Looking for Alaska, which turns ten this year! Yay! I will have to wait until Tuesday along with the rest of the world to read Turtles. His speech was funny, incisive and surprisingly emotional. I jotted a couple of quotes that resonated with me: I don't think the internet can fix the internet." 'Algorithms value clicks over nuance." And, "online tools jumpstart discussion, don't replace it."  

There was a panel called World Tour of Administrators: The literacy challenge and beyond. I didn't take any notes and am having trouble dredging up talking points. The only thing I wrote was, "Digital citizenship is not a lesson but a way of thinking and behaving and should be ongoing." A point I happen to agree with.

I chose Trust Me: media literacy for research as my first breakout session. This was pretty dynamic and very useful. I took tons of notes and both got some new ideas and feel that I'm on the right track with what I'm teaching this year.

The lunch buffet was grand as was the lunch keynote. Alan Miller spoke about The News Literacy Project. Lots of notes to follow up on there. 

The first afternoon panel was, Using Graphic Novels to Develop Racial Literacy. A high school librarian and language arts teacher brought four students to discuss how Gene Luen Yang's Printz Award winning book influenced them. Each student was incredibly articulate and thoughtful. I kept throwing quotes up on my FB feed. Totally bowled over, as was Gene. He kept saying that he couldn't add to what they said. One student, who identified as "not straight" and used or coined the term, overcompenstraight, was particularly thought-provoking. He asked for help "to completely be me." And used interesting similes and metaphors like the experience was like "reaching into a bucket of eels." He dislikes the term, micro-aggression, preferring instead, the term, macro-oppression. He claims this removes the dichotomy of aggressor and victim. Instead, he chooses to find a way to love the aggressor. Wow. 

The next panel was entitled: Visual Literacy; extending meaning through art and featured Cece Bell, Gareth Hinds and Javaka Steptoe. 

Panel moderator, Daryl Grabarek asked some interesting questions and each artist presented fascinating slides showing their process.

Authors were available to autograph their books following the conference. A cocktail reception followed featuring local authors signing their books and a strolling fiddler.

I piggybacked onto an invitation by Abdo books to dinner at Southern. The conversation was rambling and hilarious and the food was A-Mazing!

Several "pumpkin coaches" trotted by.

After dinner, we walked across the pedestrian bridge to burn some calories and take in the view.

All-in-all, a stupendous day.