Three Great Books

I read three great young adult/children's books over the Christmas holiday.  All three were review copies or were received free at the AASL conference this fall.

The first was A Season of Gifts by Richard Peck (2009). This book features the irrepressible Mrs. Dowdel who first appeared in Peck's A Long Way from Chicago. This story finds her helping out the Barnhardts, a Methodist minister and his family. Bob, our narrator, recounts the adventures and mishaps of the family and their colorful neighbor in this delightful book.


I loved this book. It made me laugh aloud, and I found myself constantly reading passages to my poor husband. These characters will stay with you long after you've read the book.

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Richard Peck autographed the book for me at AASL!

The second book was The Magician's Elephant by Kate DeCamillo (2009). This is a magical book about the power of belief. Set in a fictional country plagued by a cold and gray winter, Peter encounters a fortune teller who says that his sister, long believed dead, is alive and that an elephant will lead him to her. This preposterous prediction seems unlikely until a magician accidentally conjures an elephant that falls through the roof and into the lap of a noblewoman. Peter's quest to find and then free the elephant so that he can be reunited with his sister brings him into contact with an odd assortment of characters. Each is memorable, and each is, in his or her own way, seeking an "elephant".

 

Finally, I read Laurie Halse Anderson's powerful Wintergirls.  This young adult novel deals with the oft-covered subject eating disorders,  but Anderson's storytelling, lyrical language, and character development make this a an important work of young adult fiction.  Lia, a high school senior, is struggling with anorexia and sometimes cuts herself to feel the pain of being alive.  Her father and mother are both too immersed in their own careers to pay any attention to her.  Her stepsister and stepmother aren't able to offer her the support she needs.  When her oldest friend Cassie dies alone in a motel room after leaving 33 voice mails for her, Lia begins to spiral out of control.  Haunted by Cassie's ghost and her own demons, Lia struggles to find a reason to stay alive.

Laurie Halse Anderson autographing my

book at AASL.

Wonderful Web Sites

Going through my RSS feeds today I rediscovered a couple of great web sites and found some new ones.  Check these out!

LoudLit is a site that offers free mps downloads of classic works of literacture, along with a read and listen feature.  The selections are limited since the site relies on donations to pay for production of the recordings.  They offer the Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Heart of Darkness, The Scarlet Letter, The Secret Sharer, Tale of Two Cities, and Typee.  They have Great Expectations now available as a read and listen selection, but not for audio donwload.  They also feature several poems and short stories.  Thsi would be a great resource for your students with reading disabilities!

Another great site that I had forgotten about is eHow.  eHow gives written or video directions about how to do almost anything you can imagine.  Want to learn PowerPoint, knitting, cooking, plumbing...?  It's all here.  Most articles and videos are submitted by users, although some feature professionals.  Users can rate the how to guides, so you can see whether others have found the instructions useful.  It's a great resource for students or adults.

Another great resource for adults is one I discovered today.  Called Academic Earth, this site aggregates college and university lectures from across the country.  You can "audit" courses from Harvard, Yale, or many other universities.  Expand your mind in the new year!

Another aggregator that I find very interesting is Popurls (pronounced like popular).  This site aggregates conventional news outlets like the New York Times, but it also aggregates Twitter, Delicious, Digg, Reddit, Flickr, YouTube, Google blogs, and many other sites.  It's a one stop shop for what's happening on the Internet.

Another site that is new to me is a free email provider specifically for kids called Zilladog.  This site provides children a free email account.  The site is filtered, and parents can create the account with a login password that gives them access to their child's email.  It's a great way to let younger children learn about email and how to use it appropriately and responsibly.

Great New Image Resource

Sprixi is a fabulous new resource for finding photos and graphics that you or your students can use for projects, Web pages, blogs, etc.  Sprixi not only catalogs a wide collection, but also provides the proper attribution for any image you download or link to.  This ensures that neither you nor your students will be violating copyright.  What a great idea!

http://www.sprixi.com/

Hope for Oklahoma

A recent study from Central Connecticutt State University lists the top 50 most literate cities in the U.S. based on such things as education level, libraries, bookstores, number of online book orders, etc.  Both Tulsa and Oklahoma City made the list with Tulsa tied for 20th and Oklahoma City at 38th.  When the two major cities in a state make a list such as this it has to be good news.  We may be broke, but at least we're literate!

New Year's Resolution

One of my new year's resolutions is to do a better job of blogging.  I manage to find the time to toss things out there on Twitter or Facebook, but finding the time to actually write seems to be a challenge.  It's a challenge I need to meet, however. 

The economy is in worse than any time in my life.  Schools are scrambling to keep their doors open.  They are looking for any way to cut corners, and, I fear, libraries may be one of the targets.  We have to keep getting out the word that school libraries do make a difference.  Certified library media specialists do make a difference.  We have to keep that message in front of the public!

So Much Information, So Little Time

Lat week I was training some teachers in Web 2.0 tools. We were creating blogs and talking about using social media like Facebook and Twitter as professional tools. One of the teachers predictably (since teacher are a sharp group) pointed out the elephant in the room - how do you find the time? My answer, was, in all truthfulness, I don't. I haven't posted to this blog in weeks. I haven't checked my RSS feeds in two weeks, and boy the rest of the world has been busy. I haven't checked Facebook in weeks. There's no telling what my friends have been up to in my absence! I've only been on Twitter as a lurker, except for a brief post last week. I am, in summary, doing Web 2.0 badly.

So, how do we do it well? Well, I think it takes discipline (something I've been known to lack). I also think it takes using the limited time in each day more effectively. I could, for example, be tweeting from my iPhone while commuting, but this might be unwise (unless my husband was driving). I could be online instead of reading or watching Mad Men or Dirty Jobs, but then it would be too much like a job.

No, I think the answer is balance in all things. You have to blog when you can, check up on your friends on Facebook when you have chance, Tweet when you've got something important to share. And, you have to accept the fact that you're not perfect. Isn't that the way with most of life? I think it is.

So Many Books, So Little Time

Okay, so I finished The Lost Symbol by Dan Brown last week and passed it on to my husband. Although it took a while to grab my interest, once it did it was as much of a page-turner as his other Robert Langdon books. I particularly liked the message of this one.

Then, I took the time to finish Neil Gaiman's the Graveyard Book (which I had dropped to read the new Dan Brown). It is really a marvelous book. No wonder it's won so many awards.

I'm now almost through another laugh-out-loud funny Dixie Cash book about those indomitable hair dresser/detectives from Salt Lick, Texas. I actually had to read this next since it was due back to the libary last week.

So, here's my conundrum. Next up could be Going Bovine, a young adult novel by Libba Bray that's been getting rave reviews, or Audrey Niffenegger's (author of the Time Traveller's Wife) new book Her Fearful Symmetry, also getting rave reviews. Such a decision! If only I could read all day every day!

The Simpsons and the 21st Century Classroom

On last night's episode of the Simpsons, Bart and his friends pulled a typical Bart prank which ended up getting his teacher, Mrs. Crabapple, fired. The replacement teacher was a newly-minted M.Ed. named Zac with lots of new ideas for teaching. He had the kids texting, using Twitter, and using Facebook. He was sending them self-created videos to teach them their multiplication facts. The kids thought he was awesome, but they wanted old, traditional Mrs. Crabapple back.

So, were they trying to say that the use of technology isn't important to kids in the classroom? Were they saying that the 21st century classroom we keep reading about will be a failure? I don't think so.

I believe that they were saying something we've known all along about education. Teaching and learning is an interpersonal process. It involves the personal interaction of the teacher with each and every one of his or her students. It is this "personal touch" that Bart and his friends wanted. They were not plotting to get Mrs. Crabapple back so that they could go back to worksheets and rote memorization; they were plotting to get back their teacher who cared about them.

For education to truly be successful teaching this new "digital" generation, we need teachers who are a mixture of Mrs. Crabapple and Zac. Technology can be a powerful tool for motivating and challenging today's students. But without that caring teacher, the technology will not have the impact we want.

Teachers are as important as ever, maybe even more important in the digital classroom. It's only the role of the teacher that is changing. The teacher has to learn to be that "guide on the side" instead of the "sage on the stage". And that "guide" has to possess all of the caring, compassion, and creativity that teachers have always had.

So, is that what the creators of the Simpsons were really trying to express? Probably not, but that's what it said to me. I hope that's the message many viewers got. Teachers are awesome!

(Check out the episode on Hulu. It's called Bart Gets a Z. http://www.hulu.com/popular/episodes/today

Harnassing the Power of Web 2.0

The video and/or PowerPoint of Did You Know? has swept the Internet for several years now. Scott McLeod, Karl Fisch, Laura Bestler, XPLANE, and The Economist have just released an updated version called Did You Know? 4.0. Check it out at Scott McLeod's blog. You'll learn some amazing things. For example, in the past two months, more video was uploaded to YouTube than all of the original programming aired by the three major networks since 1948. The average American teen sends 2,272 text messages a month.

Despite all of this, in most schools we are still trying to teach without utilizing the power of web 2.0 tools. In defense of educators, many do not know what these tools are or how they might effectively be used to support instruction.

The Oklahoma State Department of Education (SDE) hopes to help remedy this problem this fall by offering Web 2.0 professional development. This training is designed to mostly be done online at the time and pace appropriate for each individual. Two of the sessions, one on blogging and copyright, and one on podcasting, will be offered as on-site training at the SDE. The first session will be offered September 24 and October 15. Podcasting will be offered October 8 and 22.

To register, simply go to the Oklahoma State Department of Education website . There is a calendar on the bottom right corner of the page. If you click on the date, the activities for that day will appear below the calendar. Click on the session and a popup window will give you a description along with a link for registration. Come learn how to harness the power of Web 2.0 for your classroom.

I was checking out Scott McLeod's wonderful blog today, and I loved the graphic he had which stated "We trust you with the kids, but not the Internet." Working with teachers across the state for the past five years, the number one complaint I heard about technology is "We can't access the things we need because of the district's filtering software." There are some forward- thinking districts in Oklahoma that allow teachers the ability to access anything but block student use. The vast majority, however, have their networks so locked down that teachers cannot use the Internet as an effective teaching tool.

Districts need to be aware that too much Internet filtering can cause them as much trouble as not enough. A lawsuit brought by the American Civil Liberties Union against Metropolitan Nashville Public Schools and Knox County Schools this year resulted in the districts agreeing to unblock contested sites.

In July's School Library Journal, Pat Scales writes that schools should ensure that their Internet policy has a provision for unblocking Web sites upon student request if the sites are deemed educational. Otherwise, she says, they may find themselves in court.

I have had numerous conversations with technology directors who tell me if a child gets on an inappropriate site they will lose their jobs. I always remind them that the Child Internet Protection Act (CIPA) only requires blocking of pictures that (a) are obscene, (b) child pornography, or (c) harmful to minors (for computers that are accessed by minors). CIPA also states, "An authorized person may disable the blocking or filtering measure during any use by an adult to enable access for bona fide research or other lawful purposes. "

It's time to practice a little sanity where the Internet is concerned in our public schools. The Internet is a powerful tool if it is used appropriately, but it cannot be used when teachers can't get to the Web sites they need!

Catching Fire Is On Fire

Suzanne Collin's Catching Fire is the number one best-seller in the nation according to USA Today. This sequel to the hugely popular Hunger Games is bound to be eclipsed next week by the release of Dan Brown's latest, The Lost Symbol. It's really a shame, since these young adult novels are wonderful and have as many fans among adults as teens. If you read Hunger Games, you have to read this one. If you haven't, check it out! [Cover picture from Sarah Miller]

Reading the Fine Print

The Associated Press broke a story this week that software designed to allow parents to monitor their child's online activities is actually selling what the child chats as marketing data. This software, marketed under the name Sentry or Family Safe, is monitoring online activties for parents, but they are also selling information from what the user says in chat.

This is another example that supports the importance of training not just students but their parents too about safe and ethical behavior in an electronic world.

The Death of Dewey

Christopher Harris' article in the September edition of School Library Journal discusses changes on the horizon for school libraries. He says libraries will become places that manage digital information, not books. He also says libraries will ditch the Dewey Decimal System and Sears Subject Headings for more user-friendly systems such as BISAC or Library Thing's Open Shelves' Classification System.

The typical school librarian has just gone into shock after reading these predictions. Harris makes the point, however, that we must accept this new reality and determine how we can lead our libraries into the future. Are we ready for the future? It's going to arrive whether we are or not, so we may as well begin thinking outside the library walls.

Free Online Training for Teachers on Web 2.0

Teacher Training Videos is a wonderful Web site that offers videos to help teachers learn to use all types of Web 2.0 tools. There are videos on creating podcasts and blogs, on using Twitter and Moodle, and on screencasting and Delicious, plus lots more. These videos are completely free and are available even to those of you who can't access the dreaded YouTube.

No More Books?

Several articles recently, have strongly suggested that libraries should forget about books and focus on digital resources. I say keep the books and the digital resources. Ebooks are awesome. You'd have to pry my Kindle out of my hands. I loved the digital review copies offered by some publishers this summer. If I need information about a topic, the Internet is my first stop. BUT...I also love books. I love to have a pile of them waiting to be read. I love to lay on the beach and read (the Kindle isn't going there!). During last winter's ice storms, I could read quite happily by firelight but I couldn't surf the web and the Kindle battery only lasts so long. So, why does it have to be an either/or situation. Why can't we have both?

The library has always been a repository of knowledge. Now it also has to be a gateway to knowledge. Libraries, particularly school libraries, have to not just offer access to digital materials, but also offer training on effective and ethical use of these materials.

This all goes back to why librarians have to be evolved. We have to be able to act as information specialists with both the print and the digital worlds. And the awesome thing is, we can!

Great Resource for Award-Winning Books

This article has links to a number of great lists of award-winning books. http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/books/2009490306_kidsbooks18.html

Apologies

Sorry I haven't been posting lately. I've been involved in three days of training for the Celebrate Oklahoma Voices (COV) project. What an awesome experience! Teachers from more than 15 districts who teach all grade levels and subject areas came together to learn about creating videos and sharing them on the COV website. They will return to their classrooms this fall and help their students create their own videos. Today was show and tell, and I must say some wonderful videos were created this week. Check out the COV website, and watch some of these great stories.
http://celebrateoklahoma.us/

Cool Web Site

Reading Radar is a great mashup site created by John Herren that features information from the New York Times and Amazon.com. You can check out the latest best sellers without wading through information you don't need. http://readingradar.com/

High-Speed Internet As Vital As Electricity, Gas, and Water

The Washington Post reported today that British Prime Minister Gordon Brown said Tuesday that high-speed Internet access has become as "indispensable as electricity, gas and water." Is high-speed that essential?

The New iPhone Is Coming

Alas, rumors of a keyboard were unfounded, but the new iPhone will reportedly have much greater speed, built in GPS, and voice recognition. http://www.slate.com/id/2220032/

Barriers to 21st Century Skills in Schools

How can we teach 21st century skills to students when we're not allowed to access most of the collaborative tools available online? See the following: http://bjansen.edublogs.org/2009/06/07/schools-sensessly-block-web-20-tools/

Is the U.S. missing the boat on this?
http://tinyurl.com/nsut95

Web 2.0

Check out this great word cloud on web 2.0 from Wikipedia
http://tiny.cc/1RPo7

Google Squared

Google, perhaps in an attempt to compete with Bing, has released Google Squared http://www.google.com/squared

It offers searchable results which expand your search. Pretty cool - check it out!

Preliminary Results Comapring Microsoft's New Search Engine to Google

An Irish programmer named Paul Savage has done some preliminary testing comparing Microsoft's new search engine, Bing, to Google. See the story from the Washington Post. http://tinyurl.com/ngqz2n

21st Century Classrooms

Fayetteville, Arkansas is beginning a program to convert their classrooms to "21st century classrooms". http://nwanews.com/nwat/News/77035/
This is great, but they don't mention training the teachers to use the new equipment or to facilitate the collaborative and independent learning they envision. Training is the key to the success of such programs.

Zimbio

Top Stories

A Great Idea

Kim Cofino shares a great idea on her blog (http://mscofino.edublogs.org). Once a month, she and two other educators at her school host a parents' technology coffee. They share information with and encourage discussions by parents concerning technology and their children. What a wonderful way to get parents on board as we begin to integrate 21st century skills.

Book challenges are on the rise. This article discusses problems in one middle school http://tinyurl.com/lylzlq

Are you digitally challenged? Check out the following story http://tinyurl.com/lu52pp

Is the written word soon to be a thing of the past?
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/05/31/AR2009053102119.html?wpisrc=newsletter
What do you think?

A New Role for Information in Schools

Check out Clarence Fisher's comments on how schools should be handling information at http://remoteaccess.typepad.com/remote_access/2009/05/cluetrainplus10---controlling-knowledge.html

Another Perspective on Weeding

Perry Nodelman made an important comment on the YALSA listserv today. Some of the books that you will see on the Terrible Books blog, and some of those that we find with horror as we go through our shelves, may actually be valuable simply because they are so outdated or campy. Check online used and rare book dealers when you weed. Some items might be sold and make enough to buy some wonderful books to replace those terrible ones.

Create Your Own Avatar for Free

Phoebe Applegate (who greeted you on the right) is an avatar created with Voki (http://www.voki.com/). You can create all sorts of speaking avatars for free and post them to your blog, website, or an email. It's incredibly easy to use and fun too. Check it out!

A Great Motivator for Weeding (and Fun Too)

Check out http://awfullibrarybooks.wordpress.com/, a blog dedicated to the awful books that we all (if we're honest) have to admit are lurking on our shelves.

Fun Tools

I've been having fun with the "Warholizer" from BigHugeLabs.com. Phoebe Applegate never looked so cool!

Summer Reading Tools

Most of you have heard of the "summer slide," the decline in reading abilities that students experience during the summer vacation. Here are two free tools to help combat the slide. The Oklahoma State Department of Education is offering access to a free tool called "Find a Book." Find a Book is a program that allows parents to input their child’s reading level and interests to find appropriate books for summer reading. This program is available at the Department of Education website http://www.sde.state.ok.us/. Click on "Search" in the upper right corner, then look for Find a Book. Another great free resource is offered by Scholastic.com. The Scholastic Summer Challenge allows students to register for free, find books that will interest them, chat with other students about books, and be a part of the "world record challenge." Check this out at http://www.scholastic.com/summerreading.

New Search Tool

The hot topic on all of the library and technology blogs is WolframAlpha, a new search engine which calls itself a computational knowledge engine. It does some amazing things with math and science. It also is a great resource for data about places, nutrition, etc. Check out their explanatory video at http://www.wolframalpha.com/screencast/introducingwolframalpha.html.

Federal Funds May Be Available for School Libraries

According to School Library Journal, there will be funds available to school libraries for facilities upgrade if the 21st Century Green High-Performing Public School Facilities Act passes the U.S. Senate. This bill states that fund can be used to modernize or renovate school libraries. For more information, check out the article at http://www.schoollibraryjournal.com/article/CA6658594.html?rssid=190.

Wonderful Library Resources

I wanted to promote two wonderful web sites that offer free access to audio versions of classic works of literature. LibriVox (http://librivox.org) is a site through which volunteers read public domain works. You can download mp3 or ogg files from this site and listen on a computer or mp3 player. LoudLit (http://www.loudlit.org) offers the same sort of works and depends on donations. LoudLit, however, also has the text versions of books, so students can read and listen at the same time. These are both great resources for library media specialists scrambling to meet the needs of their students.

A Great Read

I am totally engrossed in The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins (2008). This is a great young adult novel. Again, I'm a little behind the times. She has a sequel, called Catching Fire, that came out in fall of 2009.

I may be behind the times, but I just learned about Google's new search options panel (Thanks to a post on School Library Journal's NeverEndingSearch blog). This has some awesome features to help students think about their searches, expand or limit them, and view different formats of information. This video from Google (on YouTube) gives an excellent demonstration.

Introduction

I recently bought a t-shirt that features "The Evolving Librarian". It begins with a primate wearing reading glasses, evolved to a monk in a scriptorium then to the stereotypial librarian with the bun shushing. The evolved librarian is carrying a book, a laptop, and wearing earbuds. That's what all successful librarians today, especially school library media specialists, must be. Gone are the days when all we had to know was books and other print materials. Today, school library media specialists have to be experts on books and other print materials, auid, video, electronic resources, information literacy, responsible online behavior, integration of technology in the classroom, etc., etc., etc.

I hope this blog will become a space for library media specialists who have evolved or are in the process of doing so.