Publishing Your Distance Learning Experience

Distance Learning Search Results at Medium.Com

School Library Journal: Mental Health and Distance Learning

NAIS Tips for Setting Up Distance Learning

AASL SmartBrief March 17, 2020

Edutopia Distance Learning

Content, content, content.

As we embark on Distance Learning, Remote Learning, At-Home Learning, school librarians stand poised to support students, parents, faculty, administration, and additional learning community members in this massive undertaking. Most of us are in traditional day or boarding settings where the routine largely involves socially interacting on a schedule, operating together in the comforting physical environment of a school and learning both using digital tools and physical ones in the classroom and library.

Fast forward to right now: all of us are either already or about to embark on distance learning. Every one of us — no matter where we are on the remote services contiuum — is having to practice and learn new technology skills in order to serve our learning communities. We are supporting our faculties, we are loading resources, we are obtaining free content and deploying it to relevant audiences, we are curating our collections! We are doing what we do best, but with truly brand new flair.

This means content. You are working widely and diligently on what you love — and there is an audience for your experience and expertise.

Consider keeping a journal, watch how you post to social media, categorize how you find your skillsets largely utilized during this time. There is valuable material in there which could find its way onto a public platform!

Submissions instructions for a few publications that may have a home for this kind of work:

Voya

AASL Knowledge Quest

Edutopia

School Library Journal

We Are Teachers

Book Links

School LIbrary Connection

Your AISL Publication Group is here to support your publication goals! We are happy to sound-board your ideas, review a draft, or assist with finding a great home for your writing.

The Publication Group

Debbie Abilock: dabilock@gmail.com

Tasha Bergson-Michelson: tbergsonmichelson@castilleja.org

Christina Karvounis: KarvounisC@Bolles.org

Sara Kelley-Mudie: sara.kelleymudie@gmail.com

Cathy Leverkus: cathyl@thewillows.org

Alyssa Mandel: amandel@oda.edu

Nora Murphy: NMurphy@fsha.org

Writing Articles for the Other Areas of Expertise We Love

As librarians, we wear many hats including reading specialist, makerspace instructor, technology teacher, information specialist and social justice adviser. Share your lessons and expertise in journals targeted  for educators, collaborators, makerspace mavens,  technology teachers, humanities instructors, or any other fields you enjoy teaching, or researching.  

Always read one or more issues before you start the application process. When you write for an audience other than school librarians, recognize that the more you can “speak” their language and reflect their goals, the better your communication will be. Don’t forget to list your AISL membership in your biographical information.

 If your favorite journals aren’t in this list, you can look on their websites. A link to the writing submission instructions can often be found on the homepage. 

Are you attending AISL Houston? Come visit the The Publication Group Table Talk.  Wednesday April 1, 2020 1:00pm – 2:45pm Herman Park & Houston Zoo. We will be available to help you with articles and conference applications. 

Open your favorite journal link below and read the guidelines for writers. Periodicals like Educational Leadership list upcoming themes. Others, like Literacy Today, want you to submit a proposal before you write.

Instructions for Submitting Articles

ACCESSPOINTS (ATLIS – Association of Technology Leaders in Independent Schools)

Educational Leadership  (ASCD – Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development)

Independent School (NAIS – National Association of Independent Schools)

Independent Ideas Blog (NAIS Blog)

ISTE Publications (International Society for Teaching Technology in Education)

Kappan Magazine (Journal for Educators, members of Phi Delta Kappa)

Literacy Today (International Literacy Association membership magazine)

Teaching Tolerance (social justice teaching and anti-bias topics)

The Publication Group members are available to help you write proposals, refine topics, observe, brainstorm, organize, synthesize, and edit your writing. We look forward to hearing from you.

Debbie Abilock: dabilock@gmail.com

Tasha Bergson-Michelson: tbergsonmichelson@castilleja.org

Christina Karvounis: KarvounisC@Bolles.org

Sara Kelley-Mudie: sara.kelleymudie@gmail.com

Cathy Leverkus: cathyl@thewillows.org

Alyssa Mandel: amandel@oda.edu

Nora Murphy: NMurphy@fsha.org

Presenting: Librarians!

May is likely the last month in which you’ll be thinking about presenting at a conference. Inventory! Summer Reading! Eking out last bit of library energy! But it is a great time to begin your research for a professional opportunity to share your expertise.

Questions to ask yourself:

  1. What size conference am I most comfortable right now in my career?
  2. Geographically, what makes best sense?
  3. Is this a good year for me to consider presenting? Why or why not?
  4. Do I need a partner for some or all of this endeavor?

INDEPENDENT SCHOOL ORGANIZATION LEVEL

Independent school organizations around the country sponsor conferences where our expertise would be greatly valued. A few examples shared from AISL members:

Maryland and DC Independent Schools AIMS

Hawaii Association of Independent Schools, HAIS

Independent Schools of the Central States, ISACS

STATE LEVEL

A great place to start for a wider audience is at your STATE SCHOOL LIBRARY ASSOCIATION. State conferences are to home and also offer several types of presentation opportunities. Two examples AISL members shared with me are:

TEXAS LIBRARY ASSOCIATION 2020 CONFERENCE

NEW YORK LIBRARY ASSOCIATION CONFERENCE INFO

NATIONAL LEVEL

Perhaps you’ve developed some cool reading programming, or revamped your school’s One Book, One School program, or collaborated on a science research unit? Here are two examples of places to share collaborative library experiences:

NCTE National Council of Teachers of English

NSTA National Science Teachers Association

OTHER OPPORTUNITIES

Perhaps a webinar is more your style. You can create a proposal to offer an online learning session or recorded webinar:

Library Juice

EdWeb website EdWeb submission form

School Library Connection Webinars

Is technology your specialty? Perhaps you’ve developed programming, or taken your library to the next level. Share your expertise at a similar organization to AISL called ATLIS:

ATLIS, Association of Technology Leaders in Independent Schools

ISTE, International Society of Technology in Education

And here are a handful of other great venues for presenting that AISL members shared with me:

Lausanne Movement

Schools of the Future Conference

Library 2.0 Webinar Series

Library 2.0 Mini Conferences

AISL has many resources to support your endeavors from helping narrow down a conference possibility to working with you to edit your proposal.

We know it, let’s share it!

Please leave any other suggestions in the comment area.

PRESENTING: LIBRARIANS!

The Publication Group
Debbie Abilock: dabilock@gmail.com
Tasha Bergson-Michelson: tbergsonmichelson@castilleja.org
Dorcas Hand: handd51@tekkmail.com
Christina Karvounis: KarvounisC@Bolles.org
Sara Kelley-Mudie: sara.kelleymudie@gmail.com
Cathy Leverkus: cathyl@thewillows.org
Darla Magana: Darla.Magana@smes.org
Nora Murphy: NMurphy@fsha.org

Professional Journals Need You!

Professional Journals can not operate without authors writing articles. Share your talents. Each AISL conference, webinar, and institute introduces us to creative ideas from our members about social justice, information literacy, scope & sequence, collaboration, source literacy, project-based research, and myriad other unique topics. All of this useful information can be shared with other librarians, administrators, and faculty through journal articles. It is time to write about what you present. Share your knowledge with a wider audience.

Last spring the Publications Group wrote the blog Write for Your Favorite Professional Journal, which listed 14 different journals with hyperlinks to author guidelines. We would like to focus on a few publications listed in that blog and provide information about these periodicals and their writing guidelines. Journals are always looking for new material and are excited to hear from professionals that have not written articles previously.

Look at the publications and check their topic calendars for any subjects that you are interested in writing about. Check for submission deadlines. Deadlines for submitting articles are set long before the publication date.

Right now, NAIS is advertising for articles to be published in the Spring issue of Independent School. Information about submitting an article for this issue can be found at Reimagining Schools: From the Physical to the Philosophical. The application deadline is October 1, 2018. Have any of you recently renovated your library, or changed from a library to a learning common, learning research center, library makerspace, etc.? You should write about the experience for Independent School.  The Manuscript Submission Guidelines  list the rest of the themes for the year and author guidelines.

Teacher Librarian does not publish a list of topics for each publication. They do list the most popular subjects published by the journal: “learning commons, digital and multiple literacies, reading, professional collaboration, professional development, teaching and curriculum ideas, and makerspaces.” This is not an exclusive list. Teacher Librarian Submission Guidelines mention that the articles submitted for publication are, “more in-depth articles supported by research, personal practice and experience.”

School Library Connection Article Submission Guidelines is a thorough 9-page document, which does cover: illustration permission, writing style, grammar rules, etc.  The publishing Calendar lists themes for every issue. Some examples of themes from the publishing calendar are October 2018 “For Art’s Sake: Your New Best Collaborators,” November/December 2018 “We ♥Lit.”

Teaching Tolerance publishes three magazines a year and also publishes short articles on its website weekly. Librarians have presented at AISL conferences and Institutes on social justice, diversity, integration, and inclusion. These topics could be articles for the Teaching Tolerance website or magazine. Author guidelines are listed at Writing for Teaching Tolerance.

International Literacy association publishes The Reading Teacher, Reading Research Quarterly and Literacy Magazine. Each publication has a different focus. Literacy Magazine is a bi-monthly magazine that describes members accomplishments, instructional ideas, and reports on current topics, while focusing on personal teacher experiences. The Reading Teacher publishes evidence-based teaching tips and lessons. Reading Research Quarterly prints the latest research studies on reading. The International Literacy Journal Author Guidelines provide directions for  authors interested in writing articles for any of these three publications.

AISL has a cadre of gifted and talented librarians. Write for these publications, so that the world of education can benefit from your expertise. The publication group is available to  help you with the writing process.

The Publication Group
Debbie Abilock: dabilock@gmail.com
Tasha Bergson-Michelson: tbergsonmichelson@castilleja.org
Dorcas Hand: handd51@tekkmail.com
Christina Karvounis: KarvounisC@Bolles.org
Sara Kelley-Mudie: sara.kelleymudie@gmail.com
Cathy Leverkus: cathyl@thewillows.org
Darla Magana: Darla.Magana@smes.org
Nora Murphy: NMurphy@fsha.org