I'll Fight You For the Library

As most of us know, April is Poetry Month. Welcome to my new favorite poem to share for Poetry Month. I love my PLN (Personal or Professional Learning Network) on Plurk. I discover the most wonderful things when my Plurk buddies share. This YouTube video was shared by my Friend Scottie Miller from Oriental, North Carolina. Like me she is an elementary school librarian. Hope you enjoy this and realize that teachers care about the education of their students!

My 2 Cents on Library Standards.

In my opinion the State of Pennsylvania is not doing school librarians any favors with its new Standards Aligned System (SAS). If the truth be told there is not much that can be done to make sure Pennsylvania students get a good information literacy education and it is not because school librarians are not doing their jobs. It is because the state does not have library standards. Back in 2005 Commonwealth Libraries put forth Pennsylvania Guidelines for School Library Programs and the document is awesome. However these are guidelines and not state standards so they do not get enforced and therefore do not appear in the SAS. I want to use SAS. I believe in it but I want the state to realize that we need to get our students ready for this century and not the last. I want the state to adopt authorized, clear library standards that can be measured with benchmarks and fair assessments and can be part of SAS. Only then will materials and resources be allocated to school libraries (yes, the state has cut library funding again this year). Anything less will mean Pennsylvania students will fall behind the states that are teaching media and information literacy with concrete measurable goals and prescribed instruction and interventions.

Circulate This! Stories from the School Library

This is great! The California School Library Association (CSLA) is always on the cutting edge of learning and promoting the good things in the library profession. Now they have put together, Circulate This! Stories from the School Library, a digital journal promoting school libraries. Click on the link to listen to the audio journal.

According to the CSLA website the stories in the audio journal were collected by Joe McHugh and Connie Williams. Connie Williams is the audio journal’s narrator and Joe McHugh did the audio production. The production sounds as slick as a National Public Radio program complete with music transitions and interludes performed by Martin Simpson and Joe Weed of Gourd Music. Based on the premiss “Strong school libraries build strong students and lifelong learner,” the audio journal seeks to highlight the value of of school libraries. Hopefully it will be the first in a series of looks into the school library. To that end I ask you to take this audio file on a little web journey! Lets see if, as Joyce Valenza has asked, we can make this production, this audio journal of library stories, go viral on the web. I am doing my part by promoting this 27.4mb audio file. Won’t you do the same? Tweet it, share it on Facebook, e-mail it to your teachers, staff, and administration, blog about it, and have your students listen to it in library class. Let’s see if a simple audio file promoting school libraries can make a difference in libraries and library funding. The dividends will be a informed electorate, lifelong learners who will grow into active, knowledgeable, ethical, and empathetic citizens. And it is school librarians that make the difference. At this time when so many in education and in school libraries are loosing their jobs, lets do something that can make a difference. If you do nothing but listen to the audio journal you will make a difference. It will change the way you look at your school librarian and together you can be the change you want to see in your school. I just finished listening and it inspired me to write this blog post. What will it inspire in you? Listen and find out and feel free to share what you learn by adding a comment below.

Be a Change Agent

BE the Change Agent! This was the topic in the TL Virtual Cafe FREE Webinar Tonight! I for one did not go in and add to the slideshare that was created but I think this is very cool and wanted to share.

Field Guide For Change Agents

View more presentations from Rodd Lucier.

So now I am wondering how I can be the change agent in my little corner of the world. All suggestions are welcome.

Students Can Write Dynamic Content Too...

I came across this blog post by accident while following another Twitter post. It is from Ralph Jean-Paul a marketing blogger who is trying to get more visitors and subscribers to his site so he can turn them into customers, but I think the message can be translated to the classroom no matter what subject we are teaching. Jean-Paul calls for dynamic content and really isn’t that what we want from our students when we ask them to write? Check out Jean-Paul’s blog for his explanations of the following, here’s my take on what he says:
Be Unique- Jean-Paul says not to just share common information but to personalize your writing. In this day and age when teachers worry about plagiarism this is good information. We should ask our students to share their stories, not just spit back the information they have gathered from other sources.
Write for Humans- I know you are going to say... well duh... and Jean-Paul’s reasoning here is blog specific... he says write for humans and not Google. Write so you get human attention and not so the aggregators at Google will pick up your blog and make it a top hit. But in educational terms this is where we can tell students not to use the same words over and over again. Librarians can teach about key words and how if I wanted to learn more about the topic you are writing about why would I want to read or listen to what you have to say!
Be Interesting- Jean-Paul says: “Using captivating and exciting descriptive language will help your readers stay interested in your writing.” And really isn’t that what we are trying to teach our young charges? He suggests using stories, examples, and humor to keep readers engaged. How can we do this in the classroom? How about instead of an audience of one (the teacher), your students had an audience of thousands or millions? How would that change their writing? Even if it is not through technology your students can write well for a real audience. Why not add a comments and compliments page to their next written assignment, or when students are giving a presentation have the other students write comments and compliments as they are listening?
Commit to Quality- Jean-Paul suggests that readers will know and forget your blog if your topic is not “well researched and organized,” if there are too many grammar and spelling mistakes. Here is our library lesson in a nutshell! Research, Research, Research! But after students research they need to read the volumes that they find. If students do not know enough about their topics they will plagiarize. You can not write from your own knowledge unless you first gain that knowledge.
Have a Call to Action- Jean-Paul asks “What do you want your visitors to do once they have read your post?” He says to emphasize the desired action “somewhere in the beginning, middle, and conclusion of your post.” Here is the perfect opening for an inquiry based project. We do not want our students to simply spit back researched information. We want them to ask why and to expect a reply. We want them to make their readers want to do something after reading or listening to their report. For this reasons teachers need to start our projects with the end in mind. What is the action we want to come out of the project? Why are we having our students do a project in the first place? If we ask for a state or country report should the report not reflect a desire to visit that state or country? A call to action on the part of the reader will do away with those dull facts and figure reports. Ralph Jean-Paul has several blogs, none that I have read have dull facts and figures, most are dynamic in content. That's how I want my students to write!

How do you get your students to write dynamic content? Let us know by leaving a comment.

Wordle of Obama's Speech to School Children

President Obama is speaking to school children on what is the first day of school for many tomorrow. His remarks have been posted and while they seem quite genuine, he will not be speaking to the children in my school district. Not live anyway. Our assistant superintendent sent an e-mail to staff last week insisting that the speech be previewed before it is shared with students. My principal went one step further and said it should not be shared with elementary students in our building. Why is this so controversial? I offered to have the speech on in the library for whoever wanted to watch it but that is not going to happen now. Some high school students in the mid west are quietly protesting their school district’s decision to keep them from watching the president. They are simply taking their laptops outside at noon and will return to class when the speech is over. I am proud of them for exercising their rights. This is America and with Constitution Day coming up next week we should be celebrating Free Speech, not squelching it. Of course this is a militant radical librarian talking and not a classroom teacher. Maybe it would be considered political posturing if a teacher forced his/her class to listen to a speech. But in the library it is free speech for all and all opinions are welcome. Here is a Wordle of the president’s speech that someone in my PLN on Plurk created. Enjoy!

Arrowhead Library Orientation Video 2009

It is finally finished. I have been working on this video for more than three days and yesterday I spent most of the day on it. Three days for such a short video seems like a lot of time. Not only that but it is not professional in any way and husband says it is boring. But I ask you when was the Dewey Decimal System not boring? It is only exciting to us librarians. This is my second attempt using iMovie. The first attempt was a baby shower video and I never uploaded that anywhere. Just gave a copy to the mom to be. We use Movie Maker at school and let me tell you the two are not alike at all. I actually uploaded this library orientation video to blip.tv so I could embed it here. I had forgotten that I even had an account and blip.tv seems to take larger videos than YouTube (which is blocked in my district). Hopefully it will embed easily and I will be able to show it to my students as we begin school this week. I sure hope they appreciate all my hard work! Hope everyone has a good school year!

Let me know what you think.

Librarians Are Vital to Education

I have been following this link to Kelly's Curriculum Corner and I am getting angry at administrators who think they can get away with an aide in the library 3 days a week and sharing librarians among several schools. Kelly's Curriculum Corner: Libraries as the Hub of School Improvement.
Librarians are vital to education. I agree that librarians share unique perspectives about the curriculum. Why won't anyone listen? It is getting frustrating too that some librarians refuse to change. Refuse to acknowledge that our jobs are changing. If librarians are not into technology then they may loose their jobs. But, our students need us to help them wade through the jungle that is the Internet. If librarians are willing to use technology tools they are vital to the development of the 21st Century learners they teach. Information and Media literacy are important things for students to learn and if they are not learning them in the library where are they learning them?

Happy 40th Birthday "The Very Hungry Caterpillar"

How fitting that even Google is getting into the birthday celebration.

It's hard to believe that Eric Carle's "The Very Hungry Caterpillar" is 40 years old. Watch this wonderful video from Scholastic of Eric Carle showing how he creates his beautiful artwork.

Twitter and PA House Bill 363

I read a blogpost on edublogs the other day from Jen e-Blogger got me thinking. Are any students that you know using Twitter? I have been in a conversation on Twitter about this very subject with lthumann an educator from New Jersey. I use Twitter as part of my Personal Learning Network (PLN) (this post comes from another one of the people I follow on Twitter), and though I have not experienced anything like Jen with a 13 year-old, I am wondering now if students use Twitter? My initial gut feeling is that in Pennsylvania and New Jersey more affluent students are using cell phone texts and instant messaging since Twitter is often blocked in schools. In fact, lthumann (or Lisa Thumann) posted a very interesting article on her blog: Thumann Resources.

In fact in Pennsylvania, the picture on Lisa’s blog may become a reality if Pennsylvania House Bill 363 passes.
Here is the heart of the legislation and what will take the heart out of students and librarians: “The possession by students of telephone paging devices, commonly referred to as beepers, cellular telephones and portable electronic devices that record or play audio or video material shall be prohibited on school grounds, at school sponsored activities and on buses or other vehicles provided by the school district.”

As an elementary librarian I loan out such audio playing devices to students preloaded with audio books. This new legislation would make me a criminal. What is the Pennsylvania Legislature thinking? Why are we going backwards instead of teaching students how to use the devices safely and appropriately? Students live in the 21st Century where such devices are common place, but if this bill passes, the minute they walk onto the school bus and into the school building they will be transported back to the 19th Century.

Lost Library Book

You might think he would have more on his mind.  You might think going to the inauguration, or walking on the pre-game Super Bowl field would have gone to his head.  But no, do you know what was on the mind of the hero pilot who brought his jetliner down into the Hudson River?  A lost library book that also found its way to the Hudson in the cargo-hold of the plane.  That’s right, US Airways pilot Chesley “Sully” Sullenberger got in touch with his local library because the library book he borrowed via Inter-Library Loan (ILL) went down with the ship.  He asked for the overdue fines to be waved and for an extension but library officials went a step further.  Not only did the library forgive his overdue fines, they dropped the lost book fine and are now dedicating the replacement book to him.  Check out the article from the Philadelphia Inquirer.  As a librarian I plan to tell this story to my students because I am as impressed as the librarians where he borrowed the book at his sense of responsibility and hope my students are impressed too.   Oh by the way, the subject of the book borrowed was professional ethics.  Nice.

The Cellist of the Library

http://coolcatteacher.blogspot.com/2009/01/cellist-of-schoolyard.html

If you are like me some of the stresses of teaching every day, budget freezes, preparing a budget and book order for a new library, and being on 2 strategic planning committees for which you must actually produce something, and learning about RtI so you can support teachers with data and more, can take a toll on what you are doing in the classroom or library. Of maybe it is just your perception of what you are doing in the classroom. For 3 years I had fun, fun, fun! I hated snow-days that took me away from my library and my kids. This year with all the extras on my plate I was loosing my fun, I was loosing my joy; then I read Coolcatteacher Vicki Davis’s blog post about “The Cellist of the Sarajevo.” (Please follow the link to the left and go read it now; it will inspire you as it did me). Vicki dubbed her post “The Cellist of the Schoolyard.” And, it makes a lot of sense. The classroom/library is my first priority, I am in this for the kids, my library may be the last place they can find fun (read hope) in school. Nothing against wonderful teachers but with all the stress of testing on them the library needs to be fun. As I commented on Vicki’s blog, the greatest among us is the servant of all, the one who brings joy, hope, and fulfillment to others. I had almost forgotten why I became a librarian. I needed this reminder to live above the noise and be the music. I need to be the cellist of the library (not literally because they would run away screaming). In order to create lifelong learners, I need to give hope, make learning fun, and be a servant with a smile again. After all, librarians are the ultimate search-engine!

How to Use Destiny

I wanted to try out Jing again to see if I could make a video on how to use my library management software to embed it on the blog here and possible use it for my graduate class presentation next week. It is actually my first time uploading anything to You Tube. So, here is the video. Hope this works.




http://screencast.com/t/seDgKEN0ywi

Star Spangled Poem Project...

I have been working on poetry with my students in the library this year. I have been trying to show them the joy of found poetry. In computer terms I guess found poetry could be compared to a mash-up. I want them to write a poem from their research projects now. I want them to take their research and put some of the words together to make a poem. I guess it is a little bit of a stretch for elementary school students but I know they can do it.
I tried this activity with marginal success when the music teacher was working on “The Star Spangled Banner.” Each year as part of The Star Spangled Banner Project she teaches the history behind our national anthem. I read a book to the students as part of that unit and then I have students write a found poem from all the stanzas of the original poem. Most times the students have never heard the entire poem written in 1814 by Francis Scott Key. Below is the example I wrote to give them an idea of what I want. I wrote it to add to the project for next year because they are not getting the idea of what I want and they tend to stay with the part of the poem that they know.

By the dawn’s early light can you see the land of the free?
In full glory reflected the home of the brave?
Blest with victory and peace, a home and a country?
Does that star spangled banner yet wave?
Thus be it ever where freemen shall stand.
Praise the power that hath made and preserved us a nation.

YEAH! Mo Willems...

The New Pigeon books comes out tomorrow... April 1st just in time for April Fools Day. And Mo is no fool, he's had kids guessing what the pigeon wants for months! Who has won Mo's contest and an author visit from him may still be a mystery but I found out this afternoon the new book is called, "The Pigeon Wants a Puppy!" I can't wait to tell my students tomorrow. I am so excited! :-)

Awesome Day for Mo Willems...

The American Library Association announced their 2008 award winners today and as he says on his blog it was an Awesome Day for Mo Willems. He walked away with a Caldecott Honor for his book "Knuffle Bunny Too: A Case of Mistaken Identity." Mo both illustrated and wrote the book and it is a favorite of my students along with the first “Knuffle Bunny” book. But the big news was his walking away with the Theodore Seuss Geisel (Dr. Seuss) Award for the most distinguished book for beginning readers. He both wrote and illustrated the award winning book entitled “There’s a Bird on Your Head!” I cannot believe that I do not have this book in my library. I have been searching for a series for emergent readers and here is a Mo Willems book that is perfect for my students and I don’t have the book. It is part of the Elephant and Piggie series. I do have “Knuffle Bunny Too” but for some reason I did not hear about this series. Good thing there are awards like this to publicize good books. I am not sure about the Newbery Medal winners either, I have not heard of any of the books so I will have to check them out as well.
Tomorrow... MacWorld's Keynote! It's in the Air!

New Scholastic Venture with Rick Riordan

Wow…multi genre has nothing on Scholastic’s newest venture with author Rick Riordan. Riordan is the author of the Percy Jackson series, the normal New York kid who finds out that he is really a half-blood and his father is Poseidon. Percy goes on hero quests much like a modern day Hercules. But in this new venture with Scholastic, Riordan will pen a mystery book called, The Maze of Bones, that will have a collectable card component as well as a web component. There is even a contest with 39 clues. If teachers are not motivated to add technology to their curriculum, Scholastic will do it for them. This is really a multi media endeavor and if successful, it could lead to an entire new way to market books. My only problem is that Scholastic seems to be forgetting about the library. I hope they will reconsider and maybe offer some of the cards exclusively at libraries. I know they want to sell books but libraries buy books too!

Apple Tip I just Love...

I am trying to update the Arrowhead Library website and wiki and add pictures. Usually it takes me a long time to open the pictures in PhotoShop or some other program, not to edit the pictures but just to make them smaller for the web and save them on my flash drive to transport to school. A recent Apple Quick Tip of the Week is now saving me a lot of time. All I have to do now is open the picture in Preview and drag the little icon at the top of the Preview bar into an e-mail. The Apple e-mail application then gives me the choice to resize the picture in the e-mail. It does not change the size of the original picture on your hard drive. I can then e-mail the pictures to myself. And, when I am sitting at my school computer updating my website, I can open my e-mail and ta-da… the pictures are there! I can then upload them to the school website. Of course my school district could make it easier for me if they allowed me to update my website from an Apple but that is another story! The pictures in this post are some of the pictures I e-mailed to myself using this tip.

The Ning I love...

Hollywood Librarian

The image of librarians has not often been kind, flattering, or pretty. One person, Ann Seidl, is trying to change that… she wrote and directed "Hollywood Librarian," a look at librarians through film.



"Hollywood Librarian" made it's debut in front of 5,000 librarians at the American Library Association's meeting in Washington, DC this week. Check out this article from the Washington Post: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wpdyn/content/article/2007/06/23/AR2007062301378.html.

I must admit that one of my favorite movies is mentioned in the article. But in the movie, "Desk Set," I guess I never thought of Katharine Hepburn as a librarian. Of course she and the other women in the department, including a young Joan Blondell, were gathers of information, they were the researchers with the background information. But librarians? There was no “shushing” in “Desk Set,” no one going around telling others to be quiet. It was a new look for librarians, a Hollywood glamorization!

Either they knew the answer when someone called for information or they could find the information, using books, in a jiffy. They were heroes! Yet, the women feared they were going to become obsolete because of the new computer system being installed in the department. Hey, that sounds familiar. How long have librarians been concerned that they were becoming obsolete? Well, since “Desk Set” came out in 1957, it looks like librarians have been becoming a thing of the past for about 50 years. Since I just became a librarian 2 years ago, after working as a journalist and then raising a family, here's hoping that I can continue to teach children the joys of the library both physically and virtually for a long time to come.
:-)