FTLComm - Saskatoon
May 2, 1999


Tisdale's own Brent Butt kicked off the annual Saskatchewan School Library Associations Conference this year in Saskatoon, Thursday night. For the past few years the teacher librarians have shared their conference with the Saskatchewan Council of Social Studies but this year included the Saskatchewan Teachers of English Language Arts. Brent set the relaxed tone for the conference which went on Friday and Saturday with
a wide variety of sessions as experts and practitioners alike shared their experience and insight in the various aspects of modern education. Sessions like that conducted by Barbara McNeil on Building Bridges through Biographical Resources on Saturday morning as seen on the left as she demonstrated her points with examples in both books and alternative media. Biographies can play an important role in solving historical problems and enhancing language arts and social studies curriculums. The scene below is a shot of Ms. McNeil's audience (Below right is Mrs. Jorgenson teacher librarian from Yorkton separate system)

As with most conferences there was a fair range of displays by commercial venders. The companies who publish books in Saskatchewan were represented by an author at the conference with a fine display of some of the outstanding home brew materials that are produced here each year.
   

   
   
But one of the main features of conferences like this and often more important then the formal sessions are the opportunities to exchange ideas and information with each other. Saskatchewan educators often feel isolated from one another and at a conference they can develop contacts.
   
Below is a QuickTime VR panorama of the display area after most people had gone off to the first session Saturday morning. This conference was held on the second floor of the Radisson Hotel in downtown Saskatoon.


Patricia Katz
(right) was the final speaker of the conference as she addressed the whole assembly on difference ways of considering time. Having just finished her masters degree and looking forward to a vacation she took everyone through some of the absurd ways we view what we do and how we struggle to deal with what seems to be an ever increasingly demanding world on our time and the speed with which we are expected to accomplish things. Though everyone could agree with the stress and demands of time it was Ms. Katz simple and clearly effective positive suggestions she proposed that would help a person sort out their priorities and help them establish the things that really matter and ways to develop the discipline to say "no".

Her clear and practical approach to the problem of time management comes from her background in business making this the final session of the conference something librarians and teachers alike could take home with them as direct methods to make themselves more effective in their lives and in their work.