Professional Learning Opportunities September 2023

Welcome to September. If you are in Australia, most of us have celebrated (and survived) the CBCA Book Week. It’s always a massive week, month and term and such a fantastic opportunity to celebrate children’s literature and school libraries. For those overseas heading into the start of the school year, we wish you luck for the start of the year. Looking to start the school year well? Looking to continue to promote literature and reading? I’ve have some webinars, podcasts, articles and more for you. Here is your list of professional learning for September, 2023. Happy learning. 

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Webinars and videos

Unleashing the Superpowers: Engaging Reluctant Readers with Comics and Graphic Novels – Bibliotheca, Raeco and Professor Stephen Krashen – 5 September, 2023 10:30am AEST – free.

The Written Application – ALIA – 5 September 2023, 1pm AEST – free.

Library and Information Qualification Grants for School Library Staff – LIANZA/SLANZA – 5 September 2023, 3:30pm – free.

Informit Explore: The new Australian database for High Schools – ASLA with Rick Susman – 6 September 2023, 7:30pm AEST – $20 members, $40 non-members.

Summer reading, weeding and annual reports – National Library New Zealand – 7 September, 2023, 3:30pm – free.

Using Mixed-Methods Evaluation to Demonstrate the Benefits of Library-Led Initiatives – EduWebinar with Dr Margaret Merga – 13 September 2023, 7pm AEST – $40 for non-members.

Sail into summer reading – National Library New Zealand – 13 September 2023, 3:30pm and and 14 September 9:30am – free.

Teacher Librarians Engaging with Numeracy – SLANSW – 19 September 2023, 7pm – $45 non-members, free for members.

Conferences

Missed the Boss Librarian Conference? Catch up on four days of professional learning. The recording of presentations and presenter resources are all freely available from KC Boyd’s website.

Courses

This one is a little older now, but might still have some relevant information. Encouraging book talk in the school library – open, free course via Open Learn

Podcasts

School Library Research Chats: Episode 3 Dr Margaret Merga. About building school reading cultures. 

School Librarians United – On Censorship, Social Media: Rewired for Good?, Redefining Research and VR and Building Empathy

Articles and Blog posts

SCIS Connections for Term 3, 2023 including articles Empowering school library staff to navigate the AI frontier by Dr Kay Oddone, an interview with Teacher Librarian Award winner Megan Daley and The Teacher Librarian and ChatGPT by Stephanie Strachan.

School Librarian Back-to-School Hacks for 2023-24 – School Library Journal

TikTok Announces ‘Global #BookTok Challenge’ to Encourage Literary Engagement – Andrew Hutchinson.

Setting up libraries to be the best space in school – Paige Tutt

Building Better Book Fairs: Librarians create new models – Maura Madigan 

Celebrating mathematics in your school library – Sara Neville.

Get kids excited about reading at the school library – Gillian Maugle and StoryBoxLibrary

How amazing is this site run by the Colorado State Library supporting school librarians. Here is the Welcome Back to School post with loads of resources and tips for supporting staff and students for the return to school. 

Awards

Applications for the SLJ School Librarian of the Year 2024 are now open. 

Want more professional learning?

Check out my professional learning series or have a look through last month’s professional learning list.