Jenny Umbarger

NCSLMA President

2022-2023

President’s Corner November 2022

In addition to the Thanksgiving holiday, November is National Gratitude Month and an opportunity for us to show gratitude through our words and actions. In years past, I’ve tried to follow a “30 days of gratitude” calendar or post daily something for which I am grateful, but it never fails that I fail. So this year I will take a moment here at the beginning of the month to express my appreciation to the people who have helped me throughout these past couple of years serving as NCSLMA President-Elect/Conference Chair and my term as President.

First, thanks to Jennifer Abel and all the behind the scenes workers for a great conference! There was so much excitement in the air at our first in-person conference in three years, and we were reminded that “We Are Not Alone in the Library.” It was fabulous and I know you are going to be a great NCSLMA President in 2023.

I am grateful that Kristy Sartain stepped up to run for President-Elect and 2023 Conference Chair. I know you share in my thankfulness that Heath Radford has accepted the new role of Conference Director, too! I am already excited for the “Magic Happens Here” Conference Oct. 5-7, 2023.

Thank you to all of our current and incoming NCSLMA Board Members - Directors, Coordinators, Chairs, and Committee Members. This organization runs completely on the work of volunteers, and I am grateful for the many hours you all put in to get the job done! 

I have much gratitude for Cindy Sturdivant and Bitsy Griffin for paving the way to my term as President and for your continued commitment to NCSLMA. I am thankful for all you have done and do both for me and our organization.

I am grateful for our Newsletter Coordinator, Kenisha Smith, not just for getting this newsletter out each month, but especially for allowing me to submit my article on my timeline (which doesn’t always line up with the newsletter submission deadline…in fact, I don’t know that I got any of them in on time this year!). I appreciate you!!!

I hope you all will take time this month to express gratitude through your words and actions to the people who help you get through your days and your work.

With gratitude,

Jenny Umbarger, NCSLMA President

Special Shout Out to Kristi Allred for all her AMAZING work on the NCSLMA Twitter account. I tried to help out during conference with tweeting and retweeting and I could not keep up. Our NCSLMA Twitter is chock full of retweets from librarians and libraries all over the world and I cannot thank Kristi enough for her dedication to librarianship and NCSLMA. Thank you, Kristi! You are awesome!

-----Kristy Sartain

Reading? Outside? With Movement? Let’s go on a StoryWalk®…

Christie Bolton, Media Coordinator at Anderson Creek Primary School in Harnett County, was inspired several years ago by a session that she attended at the NCSLMA conference. Since then, she has been doing StoryWalks® at her school every chance she gets, and she collaborates with other teachers to design cross-curricular activities.  Ms. Bolton has hosted several temporary StoryWalks® at her school. Still, she wanted to install permanent weatherproof stands so that the StoryWalk® could be enjoyed by children, parents, and community members throughout the year. She planned to write a grant to have this dream become a reality. Last fall, tragedy struck their school. They lost one of their treasured teachers to COVID. The family wanted to donate the money raised by her memorial fund to the school, but they wanted to make sure that the chosen project would honor their loved one’s memory in a unique and special way. Ms. Bolton submitted her idea for the StoryWalk®, and it was chosen. Right away, she began taking action. The first permanent stand was installed on September 29th. On October 21st, Anderson Creek Primary School held a ribbon-cutting ceremony, and the first group of participants was able to go on a StoryWalk®. It is so exciting to have such a wonderful resource for students, staff, parents, and community members to enjoy. Ms. Bolton’s passion for StoryWalks® inspires others. She inspired me to begin my own community StoryWalk® project and to share this amazing idea with others. Together we were able to share this idea with others at NCSLMA. We have submitted our proposal to present at NCTIES and are hopeful that we will be chosen. We would love to share what we have learned with others so that they can bring this fun educational activity to their school and community. If you are interested in learning more, please go to bit.ly/StoryWalkInfo and complete a short form. 

Jane Sasser, Media Coordinator of Brogden Middle School, may look like a quiet, unassuming librarian, but she’s a powerhouse in disguise! Mrs. Sasser runs her library with no assistance, plus helps with overflowing classes (they are currently short SEVEN classroom teachers), gets pulled to sub when people are out, and she’s her school “tech mentor” so she has the additional responsibility of supporting innovation and learning recovery efforts at her school. As if that already isn’t exhausting, when a teacher was injured and went out on FMLA right before school started, Mrs. Sasser was the one person the District knew could step in and teach the online math courses for the county. We all wear a lot of hats these days, but Mrs. Sasser wears more than most and always has nothing but smiles and excitement for her students and staff.

Jane Sasser serves her school of diverse learners with love, enthusiasm, and a creative flair that keeps the students excited about learning. This year, Mrs. Sasser has been learning about Blended Learning through NC Rethink Ed and will soon be a Badged Facilitator. She has been applying what she learns, creating fun activities for the students, and using her collaborative lessons to demonstrate to her staff how to implement these models in meaningful, effective ways that will reinvigorate her entire school community.

She recently worked with 5th grade teachers to plan and implement “Hispanic Heritage Station Rotations” that included such activities as a digital breakout room, a SeeSaw activity about Hispanic musicians, an Internet scavenger hunt, and even salsa dancing! The kids had a great time and learned a lot about many Spanish speaking cultures in the process.

     

She worked with science teachers to do Water Cycle Stations in the library. Activities included such things as labeling diagrams, vocabulary, making water bags, Quizzizz competitions, and making water cycle cooties. The kids had a blast, and were excited to create their own water cycles in bags.

     

She’s even done Math Fact Fluency Stations with math menus, math war, jamboard activities, word problems, math cartoon creations, and anchor charts. Mrs. Sasser is finding fun, meaningful ways to build strong foundations across the curriculum!

      

The students always love doing STEM challenges in the library. Mrs. Sasser likes the bonus of working with them on their soft skills – how they talk to one another and function as part of a team. She can also see what kinds of challenges spark their interests and finds it helpful in directing them to different career path choices.

   

Even AR is fun when the kids are given a Choice Board to choose from! During this lesson, they could create board games, design book covers, create comic strips or collages in Google Slides or wrote letters/diaries in Google Docs.

   

Wayne County has fully embraced Blended Learning, and to see Mrs. Sasser help us reach more teachers by modeling blended lessons helps ease even more teachers into trying something new. She’s found that she is able to remove barriers and scaffold learning for the teachers, too, by drawing them into the library.

Learning is always a fun and exciting adventure in the Brogden Middle School Library. As a lifelong learner, Mrs. Sasser is constantly looking for ways to make meaningful connections and engage her students, while encouraging their own love of learning. And as a result, the kids are excited about learning! Mrs. Sasser enjoys giving them options and opportunities to experiment, collaborate, and try new things. Making learning and teaching fun again and bringing joy back into the classroom are her Librarian superpowers!

Colleen Graham @BiblioTechGal

Jane Sasser @ECULibeary

Advancement
Director: Faith Huff

Advocacy
Director: Susan Sawin

Awards, Grants, Scholarships
Director: Sarah Justice

AASL Delegates

Laura Aldridge & Jenny Umbarger

Book Programs
Director: Stacy Hersey

G-Suites
Director: Cindy Sturdivant

Membership
Director: Shelly Cloninger

Diversity, Equity, & Inclusion

Michelle Burton & Ness Shortly

Regional Directors:
Lead: Robin Rhodes

Social Media
Director: Alicia Luke

Website
Director: Kristy Sartain

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