ALA Session Highlight: Survival Skills for Teens

I recently returned from attending the ALA 2017 Annual Conference and I am bursting with staff training ideas, program outlines, and more!  Today I wanted to share one of the sessions I attended at the conference.  It was titled Life Hacks: Survival Skills for Teens.  The focus was on teaching teens some basic life skills with minimal cost or planning for libraries.  Some of my favorite suggestions for programs included: healthy eating ona budget, auto care, etiquette, money management, media literacy and safety, and apartment hunting.  Now most of these seem quite basic, but the fun comes in naming these basic life skills programs.  For example, an apartment hunting session could be titled: "Anywhere But Your Parent's Basement" or healthy eating becomes "Pizza Is Not a Food Group."  These types of programs offer teens a great way to learn basic life skills in a fun and safe environment.

The best part about this type of program is that the topics can be based on the strengths and knowledge your staff already has or on topics presented by various community/business/partnership members.  So, go forth and help your teens learn some basic "adulting" skills!

Early Math Educators Summit

Early Math Educators Summit: Developing Our Eyes and Ears for Mathematical Thinking in the Early Years
Presented by Mary Hynes-Berry and Laura Grandau, Erikson Institute in collaboration with the DPI Early Learning Advisory Group. 

This interactive session demonstrates the importance of seeing, hearing, and identifying math all around us.   Together we explore opportunities to do math, as adults ourselves, and with the children in our classrooms.  This session will support teachers' increasing attention to math in the early childhood curriculum, while highlighting components of developmentally appropriate practice.  Afternoon breakout sessions will further focus on mathematical ideas for birth-3 and PK-1 from both the national and Wisconsin perspectives.  Participants will also receive a book on the big ideas in early math that is published through the Erikson Institute. 

The registration link to the Pre-Conference EC Math event on May 3rd is live:

http://wismath.org/event-2462859 

Under "Grade Band" you can choose elementary (it doesn't really matter which one you click) but under "Strand" you can choose Early Education.