If you've been to Google at all this week, you've probably noticed their doodles have featured various Sesame Street Characters. That's because it's the 40th anniversary of Sesame Street this week. Google posted this video on their blog and it just brings a smile to your face...not to mention the video is from 1982 and Google the company didn't exist until 1998...
Friday, November 6, 2009
Thursday, November 5, 2009
A bustling and vibrant library
I love days when every period has classes come into the library...the place is bustling and there's an energy that's different. Today was one of those days. Every period saw a different group of students there to work on projects for English, World History and Sociology. But something was missing...why did they come here? For the space to spread out, for access to the computers, but what role did I play? This was one of those days that was busy, but my role was limited. No one needed help except on the computer they couldn't get signed onto. No one asked for my expertise in helping find good information for their research--google and wikipedia were the sources of choice. The teacher's don't include me in their plans. As much as I've tried with one of them, she rebuffs my overtures of guidance. I felt like the clerk not the expert in the room. How do I change the perception?
This year is my third at this school. More classes are using the library this year. More teachers are open to collaborating and finding the best ways to provide their students with information. But still the students don't ask and if they're teacher hasn't allowed me the opportunity to teach in even a small way, how do I make the student's realize what a resource they have in me?
Pondering...just pondering?
This year is my third at this school. More classes are using the library this year. More teachers are open to collaborating and finding the best ways to provide their students with information. But still the students don't ask and if they're teacher hasn't allowed me the opportunity to teach in even a small way, how do I make the student's realize what a resource they have in me?
Pondering...just pondering?
Wednesday, October 14, 2009
Musings...
I don't post here often and I wonder if I should just discontinue this blog. Still sometimes it's nice to have a place to ponder the work that I do and what's happening in my library world. Where else can I vent frustration over 5 days in the last two weeks that closed the library due to testing? Where else do I get to ponder if the little steps I take to help staff or students really make a difference? As I sit and wait for school site council meeting to start I wonder where education in this state is going? Money is now "flex" money so SSC has no real say in how it's spent. Luckily, I was able to advocate for only a 20% cut to my library budget when I met with my administrator and showed him how I would spend the remaining 80% to serve the whole school.
Monday, September 21, 2009
Summer Reading Final Analysis
It's a good thing I wasn't being graded or quizzed on my summer reading list because I didn't accomplish much. The idea was to read 10 books before today. My list was supposed to help me on my job as well as expand my own horizons.
I'll start with the good. I did read:
Gentlemen--A bizarre, scary book about teenage boys and the teacher that freaks them out into jumping to conclusions.
13 Reasons Why--I can see why the teens are attracted to this book. You want to keep reading to find out why...
Year of Wonders--Not as good as People of the Book or March, but I still enjoyed this story of the plague and the village that isolated itself.
Dog On It--Probably, my favorite on the list. Recommended by a fellow colleague I wasn't sure I would enjoy this mystery. But it was a fun read with the dog's voice narrating this mystery.
I didn't read:
Guns, Germs and Steel--I don't know if it's size of the book or the topic, but it was just too much for a "summer read".
Tale of Two Cities--I tell students that I'm not a "literary" librarian because I don't read a lot of literature. While I remember liking this book in high school, I couldn't force myself to slog through Dickens' language.
A Classic I'd never read--I started Walden Pond by Thoreau but again, it was too much "work" for my summer vacation.
Did I read more? Sure I did and enjoyed many of them...Jessica's Guide to Dating on the Darkside, My Life in France, Summer Kitchen, No Reservations...and many more I can't recall at the moment.
I'll start with the good. I did read:
Gentlemen--A bizarre, scary book about teenage boys and the teacher that freaks them out into jumping to conclusions.
13 Reasons Why--I can see why the teens are attracted to this book. You want to keep reading to find out why...
Year of Wonders--Not as good as People of the Book or March, but I still enjoyed this story of the plague and the village that isolated itself.
Dog On It--Probably, my favorite on the list. Recommended by a fellow colleague I wasn't sure I would enjoy this mystery. But it was a fun read with the dog's voice narrating this mystery.
I didn't read:
Guns, Germs and Steel--I don't know if it's size of the book or the topic, but it was just too much for a "summer read".
Tale of Two Cities--I tell students that I'm not a "literary" librarian because I don't read a lot of literature. While I remember liking this book in high school, I couldn't force myself to slog through Dickens' language.
A Classic I'd never read--I started Walden Pond by Thoreau but again, it was too much "work" for my summer vacation.
Did I read more? Sure I did and enjoyed many of them...Jessica's Guide to Dating on the Darkside, My Life in France, Summer Kitchen, No Reservations...and many more I can't recall at the moment.
Wednesday, September 2, 2009
School's Back in Session
The second week of school is well underway and I am back in the library! It was an interesting spring as I prepared to teach social studies this fall, but the middle school librarian that was bumping me is teaching 4th grade instead. While it's sad that our middle schools have no credentialed librarian, I am grateful to have my job. I know I will feel the impact next year when our 9th graders enter with little or no prior library instruction.
The new year has started with some exciting initiatives. We have had a schoolwide SSR program that was being implemented in a haphazard fashion. This year, we are trying to reinvigorate the program as we take on literacy as a schoolwide focus area (formative assessment and differentiation are our other areas of focus). To that end, our English department lead and I met over the summer to put together a structured component one day a week. 56 teachers out of 120 volunteered to participate in this structured reading. Each week they receive a different reading activity to do with their students. The first two weeks were read-alouds from Gary Soto and Funny in Farzi. Next week is a cloze activity created from a Chicken Soup for the Teenage Soul book. So far feedback has been positive and I had a senior checking out a library book tell me "they're taking SSR seriously". I've booked multiple classes in for Book Talks and checked out 282 books in the first week of school.
I'm also doing a library orientation with my freshman English teachers. Last year, two teachers asked for the activity. So far this year six teachers are bringing their students. I do a "scavenger hunt" type activity, but each component involves a resource that they will need to use during their time at the school. For example, our seniors have a word etymology project that requires the Oxford English Dictionary. On the scavenger hunt, students have to locate the book and find a word as a preview of what's to come down the line. They use the library database to look up some simple country data so they see it before they come in for formal research with their history classes. The students have been engaged.
Ok, enough bragging for now. It's only the second week...there may be more to come.
The new year has started with some exciting initiatives. We have had a schoolwide SSR program that was being implemented in a haphazard fashion. This year, we are trying to reinvigorate the program as we take on literacy as a schoolwide focus area (formative assessment and differentiation are our other areas of focus). To that end, our English department lead and I met over the summer to put together a structured component one day a week. 56 teachers out of 120 volunteered to participate in this structured reading. Each week they receive a different reading activity to do with their students. The first two weeks were read-alouds from Gary Soto and Funny in Farzi. Next week is a cloze activity created from a Chicken Soup for the Teenage Soul book. So far feedback has been positive and I had a senior checking out a library book tell me "they're taking SSR seriously". I've booked multiple classes in for Book Talks and checked out 282 books in the first week of school.
I'm also doing a library orientation with my freshman English teachers. Last year, two teachers asked for the activity. So far this year six teachers are bringing their students. I do a "scavenger hunt" type activity, but each component involves a resource that they will need to use during their time at the school. For example, our seniors have a word etymology project that requires the Oxford English Dictionary. On the scavenger hunt, students have to locate the book and find a word as a preview of what's to come down the line. They use the library database to look up some simple country data so they see it before they come in for formal research with their history classes. The students have been engaged.
Ok, enough bragging for now. It's only the second week...there may be more to come.
Wednesday, July 29, 2009
Summer Reading Update
I may not make this deadline but thought I'd comment on what I have read...
Year of Wonders was interesting and intriguing. I like this author's historical fiction and her storytelling makes you feel like you are there.
Dog On It was a great recommendation even outside my genre. It was fun to read from the dog's perspective even though I figured out the "mystery" realitively early in the book.
I'm still working towards some of the others. Currently, I'm reading Olive Kitteridge which has been on the best seller list and since she was a math teacher I thought I'd try it out. Sometimes I just don't think I'm "deep enough" or "intellectual enough" for certain books. I never seem to "get" books that are Oprah's suggestions.
Year of Wonders was interesting and intriguing. I like this author's historical fiction and her storytelling makes you feel like you are there.
Dog On It was a great recommendation even outside my genre. It was fun to read from the dog's perspective even though I figured out the "mystery" realitively early in the book.
I'm still working towards some of the others. Currently, I'm reading Olive Kitteridge which has been on the best seller list and since she was a math teacher I thought I'd try it out. Sometimes I just don't think I'm "deep enough" or "intellectual enough" for certain books. I never seem to "get" books that are Oprah's suggestions.
Saturday, June 27, 2009
Summer Reading?
I ran across this summer reading challenge and found it interesting.
Read 10 books by September 21.
1 classic you've never read but always meant to
1book you've read and always wanted to reread but haven't yet
at least one book featured on AuthorsNow!
1 book outside of genres you usually read
1 "impulse" book that chatches your eye during the summer
5 others of your choosing
My choices so far:
Classic: Hmmm...I don't know which one to choose there are so many I never read I have to ponder this one
Reread: A Tale of Two Cities
Authors Now!: The Forests of Hands and Teeth by Carrie Ryan (I brought this one home from school for my summer read)
Outside my genre: Dog on It (mystery recommended twice by a teacher at school and I'm not a mystery reader at all)
Impulse book: Many of my bookstore buys are impulses, so I don't know what I'll count
Others:
The Mad Ones (saw it on Jon Stewart decided I must have)
Gentlemen--came in the new books at school, so I brought it home for the summer
Guns Germs & Steel--I started this when I thought I'd be teaching world history next year now I need to finish it
Thirteen Reasons Why--the kids at school love this one and my niece read it in one night.
Year of Wonders--I've read other books by this author and liked them. I've already started this one.
Read 10 books by September 21.
1 classic you've never read but always meant to
1book you've read and always wanted to reread but haven't yet
at least one book featured on AuthorsNow!
1 book outside of genres you usually read
1 "impulse" book that chatches your eye during the summer
5 others of your choosing
My choices so far:
Classic: Hmmm...I don't know which one to choose there are so many I never read I have to ponder this one
Reread: A Tale of Two Cities
Authors Now!: The Forests of Hands and Teeth by Carrie Ryan (I brought this one home from school for my summer read)
Outside my genre: Dog on It (mystery recommended twice by a teacher at school and I'm not a mystery reader at all)
Impulse book: Many of my bookstore buys are impulses, so I don't know what I'll count
Others:
The Mad Ones (saw it on Jon Stewart decided I must have)
Gentlemen--came in the new books at school, so I brought it home for the summer
Guns Germs & Steel--I started this when I thought I'd be teaching world history next year now I need to finish it
Thirteen Reasons Why--the kids at school love this one and my niece read it in one night.
Year of Wonders--I've read other books by this author and liked them. I've already started this one.
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