Banned Book Week 2021

 Happy Banned Book Week 2021. My library is decorated this year unlike last year when our school was shut down for the pandemic. I did not decorate because no one was allowed in the library to take out books! Yet, despite COVID the American Library Association reported 156 challenges of 273 books this past year. Most of the challenged books dealt with racism and racial justice, or were biographies about Black, Indigenous, or people of color.

Jason Reynolds is the honorary chairman for Banned Book Week 2021 and his book, All American Boys, is the third most challenged book this year. The top 5 are rounded out by: George for LGBTQIA+ content, Stamped: Racism, Antiracism, and You, Speak by Lauri Halse Anderson, and The Absolutely True Diary of a Part Time Indian. The latter two are challenged almost every year.

It is only fitting that we celebrate these and other banned books in the library in September since it is the same month we celebrate Constitution Day. The First Amendment is what Banned Book Week is all about, our Freedom to Read!

In November of 2020 the freedom to read was taken away from students in Central York School District in Pennsylvania. Some 100 books were banned, taken off the school library shelves, and out of the classrooms for the school board to “review.” At the start of this month, September 2021, none of the books had been returned to the libraries or classrooms. Some brave students drew national attention to the situation when they rallied and spoke in front of the school board to get the books reinstated. Most of the books banned were by or about people of color and many were picture books like I am Enough, Hair Love and, Jabari Jumps. Others were biographies like: I am Martin Luther King, Jr., and I am Malala.  After weeks of protest, the school board decided to reverse their ban, the students and everyone in the community won a victory for equality, diversity, and inclusion but more than that, they won a victory for the First Amendment. Now the bravery of the students is being rewarded via the donations of hundreds and hundreds of books by people from all over the world.

#WakeletWave GIF

I am trying to create a gif using GIF Maker but when I try to download it it downloads as separate pictures. So, I am trying the non-downloaded version here because remember... this blog is for me to try out things before I suggest them to students. So, I am now attempting to embed into this blogpost a GIF I just made using my bitmoji on a wave and some of the Wakelet Ambassador Program badges I have collected. First here is the image link in case I can't embed it here: https://imgflip.com/gif/5gh77x.

Here goes...

via Imgflip

Virtual MakerSpace

 Since we were forced to shut down schools in March of 2020 due to COVID-19, I have been looking for ways to make the school MakerSpace work virtually. 

I attended an ISTE Class on Artificial Intelligence and realized that many of the AI websites we learned about during the class would work for a virtual makerspace. I started to put some of the links I found and other ideas in a Wakelet. And then this week during #WakeletCommunityWeek some people listening to Matt Miller, of Ditch That Textbook fame, asked me to share the Virtual MakerSpace Ideas I was collecting. I sent them out in a Tweet and in the chat during Matt's Keynote.  The Wakelet link is here: https://wke.lt/w/s/61wfn8. It is also embedded below. Enjoy!

Sugar House in Spring

It wasn’t a great winter for those that make Maple Syrup in northern New York. The winter was not cold enough for the trees to produce enough sap to make the twenty or more gallons of syrup my husband’s cousins usually produce to share with family members. So, I will be buying my maple syrup this year and I am expecting the price to go up considerably. For as much work and time it takes to make maple syrup the 20 gallons are usually worth it. However, this year’s sap only made 3 gallons of syrup. My husband, father-in-law and I took a walk in the woods to the sugar house yesterday. Some things have changed in the last 60 years but making maple syrup is pretty much the same as my husband remembers  making it with his father, grandfather and great grandfather. 

MinecraftEDU

 We are finally getting to the 3rd marking period and for me, that means using MinecraftEDU with our gifted students to create Rube Goldberg Machines. As a middle school librarian, I do not have regularly scheduled classes but I do get to push into classes when I have some library skills to train or something unique to offer. During COVID that can mean anything. This year it has mostly meant teaching students how to virtually request books from the library and have them magically delivered to your homeroom or ELA class. I have also taught students how to find and use e-books and audiobooks from our online MackinVIA service. It has been rewarding watching the percentage of virtual book checkouts soar and also sad to see physical book checkouts plummet. Students are not allowed to browse shelves right now, that was the best way to do book selection but now they must rely only on the 

But, I have spent the past 4 plus months working on becoming a Minecraft Certified Teacher so that I could lead the class into the Minecraft World and ultimately create a Rube Goldberg Machine in that virtual space.

We have a maker space in our library and usually, the gifted classes create Rube Goldberg Machines out of cardboard and other maker space materials. This year we are not allowed to share materials in the maker space due to COVID. You may say the maker space is in quarantine. So, to keep the project going, I looked into ways we could create the machines virtually. Thanks to #MinecraftMentor Mrs. Steve Issacs for answering my questions and to Mr. Steve Issacs for his inspiration, video tutorials, and youtube videos of his student work. I am making an all flat word so everyone has a level playing field but I am not sure if I am going to allow mods or not, I have seen them work as part of a Minecraft Rube Goldberg Machine but I don't want the students to get caught up in mobs and lose sight of what they are creating. I'll post again when we have something to show.