Day 5... The end is near

 The longer I am in Philadelphia, the harder it is for me to get up in the morning.  Diane is getting up bright and early each morning while I am struggling to get up by 7:30 am.  With first sessions starting at 8:15 am, I am kind of cutting it close.  I can only imagine how the people who are coming from Seattle or even Alaska are handling the early morning sessions.  Indiana is in the same time zone as Philadelphia and I am struggling!
     Anyways, back to business.  The first session I went to today was all about the importance of the word.  The  information presented in this program was very poignant.  I think the one thing that really stuck out for me was the amount of television and imputed a child should have before they are two years old.  I am sure you will be just as surprised as I was to hear that the answer is NONE.  That's right, a child should not be allowed to sit in front of a television or computer screen before they are two years old because it suppresses their language development skills.

     The other interesting factoid I took from this session is how important "play talk" is.  For those of you who attend my story times, you know that at the end of each class, I pull out a large box of toys and let the kids play.  For a while, I have been wondering how much the kids are really getting out of this.  However, this session today reaffirmed the fact that it is an essential part of literacy because it no longer becomes organized teaching, it becomes daily learning and understanding.
     After a short break for breakfast, I attended a session about early literacy and school readiness.  My library just recently started looking at this in terms of what AREN'T we doing.  I have been doing story times for almost three years and yet it wasn't until last school year that I even read my  state's standards.  What?  How am I supposed to prepare these young minds for school if I don't even know even know what my district expects from them?  I did take away a few great ideas from this session and I hope to be able to enact a couple when I return.  I'm not going to tell you what they are though... It's a surprise. 

     Next session was probably one I was most excited for which would also make sense as to why I was so disappointed by how it turned out.  The session was all about programs that would pack the library.  Although the information provided by the four speakers was amazing, the types of ideas they presented were something our library could never do.  These libraries built extra buildings, they held six week long festivities, and even created mobile exhibits.  I thought I would be getting lots of ideas on how to bring people into the library, however, the presenters focused on one or two events they had in which a lot of people attended and they had lots of community help.  The only thing that we have at the moment that is similar would be the Summer Reading Kickoff Carnival.  Although disappointed, I still learned about some grant opportunities that our library will definitely be looking in to.

This poster is from our Summer Reading Carnival in 2011.

     To say that I am glad I got to my last session early is an understatement.  Boy was this session FULL.  I guess everyone wants to know how to introduce story times for children that are on the Autism Spectrum.  This is an area that I believe our library should begin to focus on.  The special needs community definitely needs to have a place in the library.  With that said, I am all for integrating special needs children into "regular" story time.  However from what I learned today, sometimes the parents don't want this.  I got a lot of great ideas from this session that I can incorporate into my weekly story times.  I am also toying with the idea of starting a once a month special needs story time in the fall.  Depending on the interest, it's possible this program could become      bi-weekly or even weekly.  However, I will never know if a program like this is needed unless I put it out there.  Stay tuned to see how I work this needed program into our already busy schedule.  If there's a will (which there is), there's a way.

     Well, that's it for for day 5.  Guess what?  Tomorrow is the last day of PLA.  I can't believe it's almost over.  I feel like this week has flown by.  Tomorrow I will be attending two sessions.  One is about how to program for pregnant and parenting teens while the second is a session called "Teen Speak.". Although I work with little children,  our library has a large teen population and if there is any way I can figure out how to effectively communicate with the teens without ostracizing them, I am going to take it.  And the best part of tomorrow...  Listening to BETTY WHITE.  That's right... I will be listening to the Golden Girl herself.  I have no idea what she is going to be talking about, but who cares!  It's bound to be hilarious!    Tune in tomorrow to see what I learn and what Betty White has to say!

* *  I should note that none of these pictures are mine.  They are images that I have taken from Google images.  :)

Day 1 and 2 in Philadelphia... That's right... Philadelphia!

     Welcome everyone from the land of brotherly love and sisterly affection! That's right, for the next week I will be blogging from the beautiful city of Philadelphia.  Diane, the director of the library, and I are in Philadelphia for the PLA conference.  My goal is to blog every day so that you can keep with us as we "Explore to Learn" in this new and exciting city.
     In saying that, however, I have a couple of admissions to make.  The first being that Philadelphia is not a new city to me, though it still is very exciting.  You see, I lived in Philadelphia for a short time in college.  The other admission, get used to seeing lots of pictures because I plan on uploading a few.
     So what did we do on our first and second day in the city?  Since the actual conference doesn't start until tomorrow, Diane and I have done a TON sightseeing.




DAY 1


After quickly unpacking, Diane and I took the city by storm.  First on the list, was accidentally stumbling upon the LOVE statue designed by Robert Indiana, a Mooresville native.  It is this statue that helped give Philly its nickname.

Next came a quick stop at the Liberty Bell as we were on our way to the Visitor Center.

From here, I highly encouraged Diane to make a trip to the Shane Confectionary with me.  I remembered this very quaint and authentic candy shop from my previous stay in the city and thought she might enjoy it.

And last on the list was a nice stroll down Elfreth's Alley, which is the oldest continually inhabitated road in America.  To say that this road is beautiful sounds a bit funny, but it truly is.  I love this street so much that I have had my picture taken here twice.

In 2008.

In 2012.

DAY 2


We slept in a little bit on Tuesday.  After a long day of traveling and sightseeing, it was nice to get a bit of a rest.  Diane and I started our morning with a quick bite at the Reading Terminal Market.  This placed is filled to the brim with food vendors as well as other novelty shops.  It's a fun atmosphere to get a true sense of Philly while also having the added bonus of people watching.


After grabbing a quick bite, we headed off to get our tickets for Independence Hall, a Philadelphia must-see.  If you miss Independence Hall, then you miss Philadelphia.  This is the place where our country began.  The place where the likes of Benjamin Franklin, George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, and John Adams met with many other men to discuss the trials and tribulations of forming a country and lasting government.  Can you tell I love this place?

Last on list of places to see was Eastern State Penitentiary.  This was actually my third trip to this historical landmark, however it was just as amazing as the first two trips. ESP was the first penitentiary  created.  When it opened its doors,  it's main focus was on reformation of the inmate.  Through solitary confinement, an inmate was supposed to be able to learn a trade during their 2-6 years in prison, while repenting their misdeeds in hopes of becoming a contributing member of society once released.  There were obvious flaws in the system and in 1971, ESP was forced to close its prison doors.  You are now able to tour the stable ruin and experience what it might have been like to be in prison in the early 1800s.

After leaving ESP, we made a quick stop at the Free Public Library of Philadelphia.  We are librarians after all.  To be perfectly honest, the building is amazing, however there seems to be a large area of wasted space.  The children's department, while staffed with wonderful and helpful people, was in the basement.  It was a bit small as well.  However, with 54 branches, I guess a large space isn't needed. 

Diane and I decided to bus back after the library because we were EXHAUSTED.  We rested for a bit, ate dinner at an overly crowded Maggiano's, an Italian restaurant filled to the brim with visiting librarians.  On a full stomach, we hit the sheets to get prepared for the First Day of PLA.  Stay tuned for more of our adventures.