Coffee Table Books

Do you love coffee table books? I do! Guess why? I love the pictures. When one teaches elementary school too long, their vocabulary goes to pot so maybe that's why I love the pictures so much. Honestly, not all my books on the coffee table, hearth, floor, and end tables are just pictures, but very close! I have three new ones, perhaps you are interested. The first one is Ruin Photographs of a Vanishing America by Brian Vandren Brink. Brink is a much sought after architectual photographer. This book contains pictures of abandoned structures in America. Their beauty is ehanced by Brinks' amazing photography. The beautiful photos, in both black and white and full color photography highlight Brinks' PURE talent in this field. The book is quite large and has some real weight to it, imagine a small atlas and is a historical comment on buildings once so useful and stunning, now lost amongst grass and apathy. On a lighter note, I purchased, at VLA, Golden Legacy by Leonard S. Marcus. This book is the how, when, why anniversary book about Golden Books! I have been collecting old Golden Books for years so this book was an instant purchase! Two hundred forty four pages chock full of history and information about the pheno called Golden Books. It was 1942 and these little books cost 25 cents. I wonder if your favorite one is pictured inside?? Last one for tonight's post is compiled by Anita Silvey who will be one our keynote speakers at VEMA next year. I have been a fan of hers for quite some time and then when I read the title, I knew this book had to be in my personal collection as well. Everything I Need to Know I Learned from a Children's Book. She has interviewed many people, written about them, and used quotes from the interviews to hightlight their favorite children's book. This is lots of fun and I would have shared this with all my teachers when I was an LMS. Anita Silvey is on fb and has a website, www.anitasilvey.com, in case you are interested. Think Christmas gifts today as you finish this post or perhaps your personal Christmas list would be more appropriate. Lots more thoughts to share with your before the holidays kick off. See ya, Roxanne

Latest reads

Hi,
I have some new titles to share with you. I wonder if you have already read them as sometimes I am a bit behind some of you and then again some of you are behind me. Funny, how reading books works out that way. The Letter Writer by Ann Rinaldi was very engaging. It put a human face on the Nat Turner uprising. Told from the perspective of a young lady who was living on a plantation with her dad's ex-wife ( not her mother) she befriends Nat Turner and unwittingly gives him critical information. Rinaldi is an excellent writer and I think this book shows off her talents very well. I also finished Return to Sender. This book also brings a human face to the story, but this story is current realistic fiction. Return to Sender is about illegal migrant workers from Mexico. Several different sides to this story are presented through the eyes of the youngsters who are living this story. Using alternate chapters, the author uses a young farm boy and a young Mexican girl whose family is working his family's farm. His father has suffered a heart attack and is in danger of losing the farm without workers wiling to work the fields. Numerous events occur in this book which strength the relationships between the white family and the migrant workers. This is such a hot topic in the news right now so this book could spark some excellent pro/con discussions. Both these books are from my readings for my multicultural grant work. Both will be part of our workshop at ODU next month. I hope some of you will come over and check out our extensive book collection. ODU is the Southeastern Regional Examination Center so publishers send wonderful books to the Learning Resource Center. I have been very busy reading as many as I can. Next I will share some of the picture book titles with you.

New book

Just a quick post before I leave today , my hair is wet and I have not eaten, but I was convinced I had to create a post. Sharon Creech was in a recent post so when I got my new Booklist magazine, I had to tell you this. There is a full page color ad for The Unfinished Angel written by Sharon Creech. The reading guide is available at the HarperCollins website. Let me know if you read it before I can!

Grab them at the door!

I am a firm believer in great signage, but I believe even more strongly our libraries need awesome displays! Grab their attention right at the front door. Use some basic marketing skills! Every LMS knows if they put it on display it will disappear so let's use what we already know. On Thursday my grandaughter and I walked over to the library near her house. I checked out a book called, A Thousand Days of Magic Dressing Jacqueline Kennedy for the White House by Oleg Cassini. I would never have searched the catalog for that book. I would never have browsed the stacks for that book. I am not sure how I would have even known the book existed, had it not been for a cool display on FASHION. It caught my eye and led me right to this book. As many of us I was fascinated by Jackie since I was a little girl. The book provided several hours of intriguing entertainment for me at a much cheaper price than the local movie! So get out there and create some displays! Make them interesting, colorful and fill them with books (head out to a bookstore if you need some inspiration!).

LOVE THAT BOOK

Did you all read Love That Dog? I know a couple of you did cause Ann T. introduced it to me. I read it to every group I could find. There was one group, eighth graders, I was supposed to read for 15 minutes. Well, they were into the story, you can tell by their faces, right?. Well, the teacher gave me the nod and I read this book and read it till we were done! Had one gal in the back with tears in her eyes. Now that is a good book for you. Later a couple of my teacher friends used it with their students. Well, I just got a hold of Hate That Cat, same author, Sharon Creech. I liked it alot, not AS much as the other one but I enjoyed it. Try it and see if you like it. This book will be in one of the goody baskets I mentioned to you in the last post. Yeah, VEMA. I also finished the audio book, The Lost Memoirs of Jane Austin. It seeks to explain how Jane could develve so well into love when she had never married. Very nice English sounding lady read to me for 8 disks! I couldn't wait to get back into the car! Those of you who know me, know I live way out and so I usually do NOT want to get back in the car. I thought the period details were well done, though I admit I am not an expert at all! Since I liked that one so much, I selected another English book. Will keep you posted!

Conference Time!

I like to be on time! I think other people like me to be on time, too, especially when I am leading a meeting, but I am really wondering whether I can be on time for all my conference responsibilities. It doesn't help that VLA is this month and next month we have VEMA AND AASL. I also think of my workshops as a mini-conference opportunities and I have two of those this fall. Whew, I am beginning to count on my fingers and toes how many gift baskets, free books, give aways, etc. I need. And ppts, I best count those as well. VLA is October 29 and 30th. It will be my first so I hope I can get out of the vendor area and check it out. AASL is the queen of conferences, not to say anything bad about VEMA, VEMA is awesome, but AASL is just huge! Therefore, it is amazing. The vendors bring their very BEST displays, the giveaways are mostly top of the line ( lots of free books, too). Best of all, no plane flight for me this time! AASL is in Charlotte, NC this year. This is a rare bonus for all of us in the mid-Atlantic area! Come join us? Too far you say well then---Who is going to VEMA? I know, I know, it is in Roanoke and money is tight and time off is impossible but I think you really have to work at it. And if this is your only chance at a conference, you really need to go. Our current conference chair has worked hard to be sure Saturday is awesome so how about if you just come for Saturday??? You need to bring back those new, fresh ideas- you can't do it all by yourself- you need staff development. So how about it????? All for now. My next post is about a wonderful audio book I am almost finished with, see you soon.

Recent historical fiction

I really enjoy historical fiction. For me, it makes me really think. I think about the reality of then and the aspects of what we should have learned or even what we thought we learned, but perhaps it was erroneous! I also get caught up with the writer's choices while writing. The line in the sand between fact and fiction and the research, it is so interesting and makes the book so much more enjoyable for me. I just completed a very light audio book called, THANKS FOR THE MEMORIES. ( The author's last book had been popular, P.S. I LOVE YOU. ) I just couldn't get excited about it. However, I am in the midst of THE HOTEL AT THE CORNER OF BITTER AND SWEET and I can't wait to get into the car again so I can listen to it. The history is very appropriate to today and yet filled with information about a time I have no comprehension of. I spent 4 hours on Tuesday in the car and the time just flew by while I was listening to it. Anyway, the book begins in 1986 on the West Coast with a discovery of many artifacts from the Japanese people who were evacuated to internment camps right after the bombing of Pearl Harbor. Then we get alternating flashbacks to when the main character was a young boy in this same town. I haven't finished it yet so I can't say for certain I will be satisfied at the end but the reviews have been great. The author is Jamie Ford and I believe this is his first novel. Will do a followup post as soon as I finish.

New Job New Research

Sat in on an interview last week, and the gal told us she loves research. So what you say? Well, she wasn't a librarian, she wasn't a librarian wannebe, she wasn't even an education major. She was however, a doctoral student. I know loving research really helped her get as far as she has. Hopefully, I will be working with this young woman in my new job. Well, just a part time temp job, but really cool. In this job I will be managing a grant to promote multicultural literature. Through my own recent research I am learning a lot. For instance, I have learned that several learned folks do not agree on a definition for multicultural literature. And get this, it is not in wikipedia!!! In fact, I have challenged some of my grad students to add it. I hope by the time you read this post, there will be an entry!!!! Feel free to check it out and add to it. Along we researching what others think is the definition, I have been trying to read some of the latest and greatest books by and for other cultures. We are doing a much better job but we still have a ways to go. One of the aspects of this new job will be to look at the new stuff and provide training on and off line for LMS, private, public, and school, to help them improve their collections. I think this is going to be fascinating research. If you have anything I should read, please post those titles! I hope to be able to share some really good titles with you, but you may have the best ones right on your shelves.

Books!

As I sit here listening to the terrible rain storm, my thoughts are with all my friends who have to start school today. I can hear the wet tennis shoes rub on the slick floor, see the puddles from coats and umbrellas, but what I am really thinking about is where they will read to their kids today. There is something special about reading to kids and gets even more magical when you are in a room full of students. I just love it. I have been really hurrying to read my VRC books, the meeting is, yikes, next month.
Have you read any of these?
Skunkdog by Emily Jenkins
Wild Boars Cook By Rosoff and Blackall
Mrs. Crump's Cat by LInda Smith
My Father the Dog by Elizabeth Bluemle or
Boris and the Snoozebox by Leigh Hodgkinson
These books are very creative and they really are unique, not just a twist on an old theme.
Have a great day today, teachers and librarians! You have the best job in the world.

Scheduling

What a hot topic! Library scheduling seems like a short and sweet topic! Some folks think all school libraries are like public libraries, open access to all as long as the doors are open. Others think it is like the high school they went to, open access to all as long as the doors are open. Then one thinks of the elementary schools of the 1950's, you can't go to the library unless it is the scheduled time( which was probably a random time selected by an administrator who just has to get the job done). Elementary school librarians learned about open library schedules way back in the late 80's to early 90's. Open those doors, let teachers bring in students at their point of need. Schedule multiple time periods depending on the length of research time needed. Teachers and LMS were creating meaningful products which were utilizing Bloom's upper level thinking skills! We had it 'going on'! There were a couple of bumps in the road, Balanced Literacy with their huge book rooms, Standards of Learning skills which left out research components at several grade levels, but our creative and dedicated librarians worked hard to show teachers and students the right path. But alas, a new tiger is blocking the road. Did I say new? This tiger is an old tiger, he used to have a sheep overcoat! His name is Teacher Break Time. I see you smiling from here. Some teachers felt instinctly libraries were their break. They signed up for a library time and might even have discussed it with you, but it was cut and run at the door when it was their time slot. Others begged for a break time just to got to the bathroom (what is up with that anyway, shouldn't it be a right to use the restroom?). The tiger has a new promoter, well, not exactly. I see you nodding. Some nice folks in the big house in Virginia said, Elementary teachers should have 150 minutes of PLANNING TIME per week ( read break time). Oh, the teachers were so happy. Don't get me wrong, I was an elementary teacher for 20 years before I returned to school to complete my library coursework, I know it is hard to be locked in a small room for 6 hours with small children. My point here is bigger than that. The library is not part of that break time! To utilize one of the best and most expensive resources the school has, in the most MINIMAL way is not a sound instructional decision. I have seen scheduled library classes over and over again fail. Fail? Yes, fail. Fail to provide the utmost in strong library lessons. Lessons without the collaboration. Lessons without the appropriate time frame attached. Lessons without team interaction with the LMS and the teacher both teaching in the same space at the same time. Lessons where the content and the informational skills are not totally integrated. I would love to ask for your help, but the problem is you are way to busy making inappropriate schedules work the best you can for the students!

Fall Semester begins today!

Hi, hope your summer was awesome. Mine was and I am very appreciative of the beautiful sunshine popping through the clouds right this minute! Since the new semester begins today, it is appropriate to update the blog. I hope you read alot this summer. Books are my passion, but I do feel guilty reading when I have other things on my to do list. The problem is I ALWAYS have stuff on my to do list. It makes me tired to look at my list. LOL Please post what you have read this summer, I will do that tomorrow, but for now I have a new concept to throw out to you. Since we are licensed professionals I believe the license sets you apart from our careers. It is my belief as well that some of us do not take teaching/ librarianship seriously enough. This is evidenced by some lack of professional dress, attitude, and sometimes committment to the profession. Last month I had lunch with a gal who was my counterpart when I worked. Mary had recently heard a speaker who made this statement, " Professionals, like licensed teachers, should count on spending 3 per cent of their salary on work related items.". This has really rolled around my brain this summer. Mary and I talked about it, my family has heard me talk about it and now you get to hear me "talk" about it. Since I did not hear the speaker, I cannot speak to the specifics or ask questions about the philosophy, but I have a couple of questions to throw out. Is this figure a bit high for underpaid licensed professionals like educators? Does this 3 per cent include EVERYTHING? We buy a lot of food for children, staff, and community folks. Well, if it includes everything, then ok, 3 per cent it is. Personally, I would rather not have a total of what I spend, I might be able to buy a piece of furniture! LOL The concept is very strong though and I totally believe in it. Think about your professional dues! Ya gotta belong to your local, state, and national groups. Ooops, you have already heard me on this bandstand or is it some other kind of stand???? At any rate, write me and let me know what you think and post your book titles you read this summer!

New book

I have been a bit quiet on my facebook, twitter and blog lately. The beautiful outdoors keeps calling me. I am one of those people who just feel better when I am outside. However, I am pretty particular about the weather I want to be out in, no rain, hail, heat, cold, or anything else resembling those things. That translates to spring and fall is about it! Laying poolside in my yard ( if I can stay away from the weeds and pruning) means lots of reading time! Last month I enjoyed a first novel. The book is called Oxygen. It was written by a anesthesiologist and it is about..... a anethesiologist who does the right things but her patient dies anyway. I have been a doctor show fan since Dr. Kildare ( sorry young folks) and right up to Grey's Anatomy so this was a great fit for me. The main character is very likeable both medically and personally and as the reader you can really root for her! And best of all she discovers a mystery within the walls of her hospital. The author is Carol Cassella and Amazon has the book for $10.00. Amazon's review ties this book to Jodi Piccoult's work which I love as well. Please let me know if you grab this one as part of your summer reading! Actually, please post a comment for what you plan to read this summer. I have a stack all lined up but can always make room for one more. :>)

Twittering @ your library

I love talking to you all through this blog! I read or watch some cool thing and then I get to discuss it with all of you at the same time! Love technology. Ok, here's what I heard today. This tv star said her child's kindergarten teacher twitters all the parents! She tells them what the kids did that day so the parents can have these great conversations with their kids. I am so impressed with this concept, I can hardly stand it, partly as a parent and of course, partly because I see the library application screaming out at me! When my kids were small I did not want to have these really dumb exchanges with them. Here's an example. Hey, Bud, did you have a good day? Yep. What did you do? Nothin. And so on and so forth. So as we were driving home from the sitter's house, both my kids had to be ready to tell me one great thing and one not so great thing that happened at school. It was our routine. I promise you we had great conversations! But oh, if I had had a twitter starter for those conversations!!!! Very cool. So here's my question for you, do you twitter the happenings in your library???? Do you twitter what you are reading aloud to kids??? You get 140 characters in one twitter. That is enough to get a great book summary across. Speaking of book summaries, what about getting the kids to write potential twitters about books they have read????? Cute ppt idea. Oh, my, I am getting too excited now. I did twitter my book title today based on my blog topic here. Write me back and tell me a twitter story!

A Short Library Sermon

Yesterday we had a handout to help us take notes at church. Unfortunately for my spiritual life, my mind wandered a bit ( sorry, God). It wandered right over to libraries. My pastor's key points were entitled, Six Phases in the Growth of the New Testament Church. It was very interesting and he had scripture verses to illustrate all six, as any good preacher would. Here are the six phases he mentioned: Praising, Pure, Prepared, Powerful, Persecuted and Practical. I do not want to seem unspiritual at all, but do you not see as I did, how these points match our library programs??? Audrey Church was the first person to expose me to the concept of advocacy. She was the president or vice, can't remember, which in VEMA. As an organization I feel we made great strides because of her. These 6 P's from my church sermon fall under the heading of advocacy.
First P, you need to yell out to everyone how great your library is. Praise.
Second P, you need to keep your library pure. Your library, should be a very ethical and legal arena so everyone can count on you to spread the word about intellectual freedom and other key issues related to libraries.
Third P, your library should be organized. You should be following accepted cataloging rules and shelving conventions. Do not be so creative you patrons cannot find books in your library or worse they cannot find a book in the public libary.
Fourth P, you and your library should be powerful in so many ways. Remember the poster, " Your librarian the Original Search Engine"? You should be a powerhouse researcher and helper. You should also have developed a base of leadership in your school!! More on that in another blog post.
Fifth P is persecuted. This P is much more difficult to take from the New Testament church. I see it as there will be some folks on staff who do not want to embrace change so they will might say inappropriate things about your program. Don't worry, others will love what you are doing with the program.
Sixth P is pratical. Please by all means make sure your library program remains practical for all your patrons!
Debbie, you and I might be doing this as a presentation for VEMA in the fall!!
Happy Monday you all, I have to get ready for work.

Borrowing books

There is one LARGE problem with borrowing books from friends. You must return the book ( and in a timely fashion). I have read two borrowed books this week. Debbie lent me Sunday's at Tiffany's. It was fine. Very light reading and it had a very unique, imaginary character which was fun. I ponied it back to her and moved on. However, my friend Mary, an advid reader, lent me a tiny little book called, The Uncommon Reader by Alan Bennett. " Roxanne, you MUST read this book. I just love it," she said to me on Monday. It was a quick read which I finished this morning during nap time. Oh, what a powerful story about how reading changes ones' life. Not changes ones' life like in The Reader, where the basics change everything. In this book it is is the LOVE OF READING that changes everything. Since it is a very short book, I can't say any more about it without ruining it for you but I did love it. When I love a book, it is my friend and I need to be able to keep it close to me. Oh, but I must return this book to Mary. Mary loved it way before I loved it. How sad! So I close my musings today, but know I will be leaving this blog to visit Amazon.com!!

Reading Just for the Fun of It

If you love reading and you are an educator, you have probably read some works by Stephen Krashen. His research is right up my alley in that he has shown, as others have, students need access to books and they need time to read. I can clearly remember sneaking a book under my desk and reading while the teacher taught. Oddly, I do not remember getting reprimanded for that practice. Was it because my grades were fine? Was it because my mouth was finally shut??? Yes, I was talkative in school, once receiving the lowest conduct grade possible in self-control! I feel certain I was not as secretive as I thought I was. Now here's what I'm wondering. Perhaps if I had an SSR time to look forward to, maybe I would not have been sneaking a peek at my book, or maybe not! I have worked in several schools which incorporated a free reading time daily and it was awesome. In one school nobody moved during our reading time. No one. The secretaries would not even look up because everyone was supposed to be reading. It was awesome and this behavior really underlined the culture of the school. A culture of readers! Having said all that, I have some good books for you to read, hopefully during your voluntary free reading time! The first title is just for fun. It is called THE Tushy Book by Fran Manushkin. I would not add it to my school library but I would buy it as a parent for potty training reading, the rhymes are quite cute. As a librarian through and through, I really enjoyed Read It, Don't Eat It! by Ian Schoenherr. Big pictures of all kinds of cute, big eyed animals and low vocubulary punctuate about 16 rules for library books. You read it here, I predict you will hear alot more about Wombat Walkabout by Carol Diggery Shields. This is a very sweet read aloud for young children about wombats who outsmart a dingo while they are out for a walk. The last primary book is Drummer Boy by Loren Long. This modern day story of a little toy soldier who was accidentally thrown into the garbage but finds his way back home one snowy night through a series of interesting events. Not your old fashioned singing for the king story but beautifully written and the illustrations are Kincade- like so they are very eye-catching. My last title to share is for middle schools at the very least. I read this book for one reason. It is written by Walter Dean Myers. If you read the last blog, you know I am a fan of VEMA. I met Mr. Walter Dean Myers while at a meal function for VEMA. In fact, I sat NEXT TO HIM. He was so down to earth and real life not at all like a celebrity. But of course, that is because he is a reader and writer!! Anywy, Amiri and Odette was inspired by Swan Lake. It is a love story, it is poetry, it is inner city kids. It is amazing! The paintings were created on asphalt and then photographed for the book. Each one underlines the passion of the story so well. Please if you read this book, add a comment to this post. I want to know what you think. Lastly, read up on SSR time and be an advocate for the students in your school.
I want to leave you with a quote today.
Good children's literature appeals not only to the child in the adult, but to the adult in the child. Listed by author anonymous. Found on the website by Richmond city schools, reading quotes.

LIbraryAssociations

Our local spring library media regional conference was this month and I was not able to attend. I believe this is my first missed conference in years! However, my wonderful face to face students got to attend and they wrote some super reflections on their experiences. I would say over 90 per cent of them talked about how much they learned during this one day conference. Now I will tell you, Virginia Educational Media Association puts on some awesome conferences. It is pure science! After reading their reflections, I began to think about the folks in the school libraries who do not join their state association. First thought- I just felt sorry for them! I love our VEMA, always have. I joined as a library student. Attended my first conference with my librarian friend, Debbie and was overwhelmed. I was overwhelmed by the comraderie, the vastness of the conference, the awesome think tank of presenters, the friendliness of everyone and lastly, a welcome to VEMA mug ( still have that). And so I keep sending in my membership money and I keep going to back to conferences and I keep reading my newsletters! I want to learn everything I can about being a better librarian. In addition, I still have VEMA friends whom I met during that conference. I have VEMA friends from serving on committees. I have VEMA friends all over the state. I have VEMA friends who have taught me how to be a better librarian! So who can beat all that for one misly little membership fee! Now do you see why my first thought was, I feel sorry for them? What about you? Why do join or not join your state association? If you think it doesn't provide what you need, then get in there and pitch in to make it better. Do you think it is too much money, then divide it up by the number of days you teach and see if it isn't worth every penny? Write to me and tell me what you think!

Overdues

You might think I have overdues on my mind because of the time of year. Almost time to gather up those books and make your shelves look perfect( like patrons have never touched them). But no, that is not the inspiration for this blog topic. I got my email update from American Libraries and the lead story was about a book returned to the library after 145 years. This is the title of the article. Book Pilfered in Civil War Returns to Washington and Lee Now I have some overdue stories, as we all do, but 145 years!!! The story of the book's travels is enough for any good children's author to write a book. Maybe I could write that story!!!!! Anyway, the story caught my eye because of a dear friend who is working for that university right now. She said it was big news there in Lexington and of course, it also made the Washington Post. Most of our overdue stories don't make the papers, but I do think it is important we consider how we treat our patrons with known overdues!It is frustrating when our students keep books long passed their appropriate return time, however, with our young ones, k-12, we can certainly help them remember, give them tips to keep their books safe and offer to renew if they just haven't finished reading it yet. We are in the teaching business afterall so we let's teach each one the proper library manners and do it with great warm fuzzies. These memories can last a lifetime, just ask any adult about overdue books. I have a million of those stories, tool

Hats Off to Henrico Library Students

I know and you know, sometimes things are happening in our districts which we know nothing about. That could certainly be true of someone who is retired like me, I am out of the loop for sure! So I am sharing cool stuff today from another district simply because I can! I want to brag on my students from Henrico in today's blog. These library students submitted staff development videos for me last week. I was soooo impressed. Not just the quality of their work, the amount of effort they put forth, but also the cool content. Before I go any further, let me briefly describe the assignment. Each student chose a topic to present to their schoolmates in order to practice the staff development aspect of librarianship. Well, the topics were awesome and their presentations were extremely professional. Most of the teachers looked like paid pros. I learned something new from each presentation. One student taught her grade level how to incorporate blogging into their English lessons. The instructional aspects were right on target. Another topic was a software program where students could put their pictures with cartoon speech bubbles and create posters or stories. Years ago we taught students to use technology, but now we incorporate the technology right into the lessons. How smart and creative will students become who have librarians like this???

Spring break and weeding

Oh, how lovely! Spring break is here. Our family enjoyed a great Easter together yesterday full of eggs, food, church, and even a bit of sunshine. The sunshine sure makes everything look pretty, but it also makes the weeds grow. I usually take an organic shortcut by sprinkling vinegar on them. Hubby doesn't think that method is fast enough so if I wait long enough, he will go out and weed with the little shovel. I believe this shows two types of weeders in our libraries. One who goes after it with a quick, sharp edge and one who takes takes their time. Personally, I have used both methods in different situations. I believe y0u should consider your current situation before you decide which is right for you. In 1995 ( I think) I started my first library job. The building was just completing a renovation which included a new wing with a new library. One look around told me exactly what I needed to know about the age of my books. Color was missing from the spines of several different sections of the library. Where color should have been, gray, brown, and dark green was evident. Yikes, I had work to do. In the teacher room, I found tons of filmstrips. Those filmstrips had some really OLD pictures. I did not hesitate to use my proverbial garden shovel and get after the weeding. Nothing slowed me down. Not whining, not mean looks, not worries about what would they use in place of those items, nothing. In hindsight, maybe some folks would think I was too zealous, but I was really shocked at all those really, old books. I didn't finish the whole job during my tenure there, but I sure made a huge dent- a good dent- mind you!!! Now the next time I had to weed, I was able to take my time. I pulled books onto carts and examined the circ records for each item. I took my time before actually boxing them up. I talked to staff members and resource folks, even the nurse gave me info on my health books. What was the difference? The major difference was one library had been weeded on a more regular basis than the other. My advice to you is if you won't make time to weed for your library or your kids or your staff or the health of your collection, then do it for the person who has to follow you!!! If you need some guidelines, I always enjoy the Lousianna State Department of Education charts.
http://www.louisianaschools.net/lde/curr/1811.html
Enjoy your spring weeding!
Roxanne

Plagarism- Teacher or Student Responsibility

If you look at one my earlier posts, you will see a dear friend of mine called me a library nerd. It is so true! I have been a library fan since I was in the 6th grade (that is a blog topic for another day). And since I am such a library nerd, libraries are a part of all my conversations. Last weekend I was invited to a wonderful breakfast and of course, I was busy talking about my library classes. The father at the table teaches college English so even though he was at the other end of the table, we began to talk about research and plagarism. His college has software available to him so he can scan student work and determine if they have plagarized. He told me a story of a current professional who said they were too busy to write the paper so they got one off the Internet. YIKES!!!!! From everything I have learned I think we need to think much more seriously about the type of assignments we give to our students. Are our classes so shallow that our assignments can be found just sitting out on the web? Why aren't we looking at the upper levels of Bloom's for our assignments (k-college). Folks sometimes say something like, "my students can't operate at those levels". Well, is that the students' fault or the professionals' fault? From my point of view, I say it is the teacher all the way. I believe when students come to the library for research, they should be looking for some facts to fill in a graphic organizer and then they must leave and put that information together in a unique way. One simple example is asking students to compare and contrast. WE know this can help them think more creatively as well as ensure they cannot just copy someone else's work. What are you finding in your schools? What is the answer? Is punishment or threat of punishment effective with our students?

Can the Internet Get Any Better?

Isn't it fascinating how information is shared at the speed of light right now? And it is everywhere. Yesterday I arrived early at a dear friend's house for a baby shower. Her house is beautiful so one must check it out as soon as possible. However, she refocused my attention when she said, have you seen this website? Someone mentioned it to her and she loved it. I signed up and now I am sharing it with all of you. It is called Pandora. You create your own radio station/s based on the type of music you like and the qualities those songs share. You are intrigued, aren't you? I went right on and proved the familiar phrase, user -friendly, to be very accurate. I created two radion stations within minutes and had forwarded the web address to several friends and family. How cool is that? Free!! TRY IT, YOU WILL LIKE IT. I have also been busy exploring Joyce Valenza's ning site. SOOOO much information, but a cool way to connect. After just a few visits I found one of our awesome VA librarians was responding to the same request I was. Fun.You can find her at teacherlibrarian.ning.com.
Now for a laugh, stop by youtube and do a search for laughing babies. Oh, my, gosh. Too cute. I watched baby quads laughing, twins laughing at each other, and a baby laughing hysterically as he tore paper in two!!! Enjoy!!!

When is a blog no good?

When is a blog no good? When there are no entries!!! I apologize for allowing you to visit the site and then disappointing you. It has been a crazy week. I do have a topic of interest, however.
A friend of mine sent out a listserv message about relationships with administrative types in your building. I asked her for permission to introduce her, electronically, to my old principal. She said yes and he shared with her via email. He was my principal for about 5 years and he was amazing (I am not the only staff member who will tell you that story either). I write all this just to say to you, be sure to develop an amazing relationship with your administration. Once you get hired, schedule a couple of meetings to discuss your goals for the library program and to find out what their goals are ( they might not have any, then your goals can be their goals). Discuss the research with your administrators, show them the statistics on great libraries and their influence on schools and on test scores. Then follow up with articles, ALA position papers, and further information. In other words, help to educate your administrators about great libraries and great library programs. School libraries have changed in more ways than I can count, however, in one great way they are exactly what they were in the 40's, 50's, and 60's. We check out books. So on the surface one could imagine we aren't any different and so we don't have any new issues. Oh, but we do!!! It is up to each of us to change perceptions and to get more admin on board. We have to stand up to the uneducated who say things like, "the library is a break for teachers". Or how about, "the LMS is not a real teacher". Or this one might strike a cord for you, "the library doesn't need any book money, we have the Internet"!!!!! Yikes, I can feel my blood boil. If you don't continue to advocate for your program, no one else will. You must develop a strong philosophy based on data and national information. You must reach out and collaborate with teachers so they see the value of the 21st century library. You must keep up with the technology and work it to your advantage. Speak up!!! Take the time to preserve our most wonderful school resource- the library. Twitter for your library. Make a Facebook group. Ning yourself. Make a library wiki or blog. Show kids how to research using subscription databases so they are not search engine dependent! Attend conferences( choose your workshops wisely) and tell everyone on your staff what you learned while you were there. And finally, work closely with your administrators. They can be your advocate when they are outside of your four walls ( namely at district meetings). My principal went on to a central office job as did I. We kept in touch and I find he is still an advocate for school libraries!
http://teacherlibrarian.ning.com/

Really Exciting News

I am so excited to tell you Nathan Smith, LMS at Jolliff, is the TOY for Secondary this year. Tomorrow night will be the official announcement at the TOY Reception, but the word is out amongst the librarians in the district now. Nathan has done a wonderful job on so many levels and he is very deserving of this honor but, he didn't win just for what he has done in the media center, he has won for all the LMS in our area. He has brought an incredible pride to our field and to borrow a phrase, in this economic time, this is huge! His expertise in the library is right out of the textbook. He colloborates with teachers, he is loved and respected by students, his admin depends on him and consults with him regularly. He is also involved in leadership roles at the state level. This is just wonderful news! I encourage all of you to keep collaborating, keep teaching and integrating library skills, keep encouraging the folks in your building to be up to date with information literacy and finally, keep spreading the love of libraries. It is sooooooo worth it!

Oh To Travel

Yesterday I mentioned the convention this weekend. Seriously, I could go to a conference/convention every season. There are so many things I am interested in and of course, I know there is a conference to match each one. They all have their own personalities even with the tweaks from year to year. VEMA is my top favorite but the National Geneology Conference I attended with my friend, Kathy, was amazing. It was filled with awesome speakers, tons of books and so many really friendly people. I even went to a postcard collecting session!. Awesome! And next month I will track down the speaker and look through the thousands of postcards in his shop in Florida! Having said all that, I have conferences on my mind because VEMA and AASL are in the same month this year. What a huge bummer! Now normally, this would not be so bad for me due to the distance involved in traveling to AASL. However, this year AASL, is in Charlotte, an easy drive. You can read more about it if you do a simple search for AASL conference 2009. There is a PDF file there with preliminar info all tied in to the racecar theme. If you find the file, be sure to scroll way down to the items covered under your registration fee. You can stay super busy without doing all the paid items. You will also see James Patterson is going to be there. He has a website for teachers and librarians called Read Kiddo Read, http://www.readkiddoread.com/home It looks like fun. In addition to awesome speakers and sessions, they always do special things. This year the One Book One Conference title is Born Digital. I have not read the book, but I will be searching for it on Amazon today. It is about our digital natives. I think I will find some awesome quotes to share with you on this blog. As you can guess, I am getting a bit excited about going to Charlotte. VEMA is in Roanoke this year which is also an easy drive. The hotel is beautiful, the sessions are held on the conference side which makes it very comfy. There will be fires in all the fireplaces and a cookie when you check in. The committee ( I'm on it) is hard at work getting great sessions and keynote speakers to wow you. I think I will have to apply to be a Walmart greeter though- might have to earn some extra cash for all these really cool library trips! Registration is open for AASL and before you know it, VEMA will be opening registration. Think about it, we would have an awesome conference experience and return with so many awesome ideas!!

Update

Oh, my gosh, I finished Frozen Fire. This was the YA book I mentioned last week. What a story! This was billed a psycho thriller and I do agree, but the book has a strong science fiction component. This was one weird story with lots of storylines! I do think upper high schoolers would read this book. What are your high school folks reading?
Debbie sent a comment about her author visit, check it out, but I did tell you I would check the spelling of the author's last name. It is Nyikos.
One of my followers emailed me today with good news. Her school system has changed the filter and is now allowing..... blogs and youtube! I am so excited. I know due to our public school status we are required to have filters for the feds, but I also know schools have punishments in place for students who break the rules. They can have their internet priviledges taken away from them. Let's punish them and teach them how to access appropriate content!!!
I have a new story for you. Several years ago I was the President Elect/Conference Chairperson for VEMA. My conference ( date and place selected years ago) was in Richmond at the same time as the Richmond sniper!!!!!!! Yikes. Here's the story part- I am currently President -Elect of my sorority and..... have you read about the murder at the Homestead? They haven't caught the murderer yet. Well, that is where 6 of us are headed this weekend. So okay, I won't agree to be President-Elect for any more organizations!!!!
Lastly, please forgive all errors, especially the typos- I hate my glasses.

Technology Thursday

When I was a librarian, I used to have Technology Tuesday in my library about once a month. Well, that was a long time ago, but it came back to me today for this entry so I changed it up a bit! Honestly, I just love technology and miss being a librarian because I got to teach folks about the latest and greatest. But since I am retired, I have a lot of technology freedom. I mean I can twitter whenever I want, I can facebook as often as I want, I 've got this cool blog and wait for it.... I can visit any website without getting doinked!!!!! So for Technology Thursday, I hope you can visit some of these websites. My friend, Charlie, told us about a cool website at a meeting on Saturday ( yes, I still have meetings to go to). It is surfaquarium.com. It is written by an IT guy she knows and it is very good. But I love http://www.makebeliefscomix.com/ This is a comic maker. I just had a ton of library research ideas for this one. You could make a storyboard foldable with http://www.pocketmod.com/ using research from the library and then make a comic! For my library student readers, I recommend http://www.internettutorials.net/. Need a list of search engines go to that website. Need a list of metasearch engines to really show the power of searching use that website to introduce the concept to your students! Lastly, I just love Doug Johnson, a past VEMA keynote speaker, he has a great website and a very interesting blog --http://doug-johnson.squarespace.com/ Check it out.

Reading, Writing, and that's it!

Wow, the author visit at CRE was so worth the trip to town!! LOL Her name is Stacey Nygio ( I will double check that spelling for us) and she is from Oklahoma. She did a great job connecting reading and writing. Her presentation was fresh and she really held the attention of all the students. I had such a good time. Debbie and I are wondering how to get her to VEMA! Debbie did a great job organizing and making her feel welcome. There was a banner and a special lunch and CRE t-shirts! I had some great memories of when I was in the classroom and Debbie and I teamed up to have Elaine Marie Alphin ( author of Ghost Cadets) come to our school! Well, along with the great library fun, I spend some time with Ed, their computer guru. He was working on TimeLine with some second graders. I got to see some terrific social studies work and they were 7 and 8 years old! Ed is really terrific, a real kid magnet. Thanks Ed for all your help with my GK! I also read about Jerry Palotta's visit to another LMS friend of mine. How can you not love, love, love libraries and librarians??? Technology talk tomorrow!

School libraries - exciting, intriguing, always new

Today I am off to Debbie's school for an author visit. Earlier this month I got to eat green eggs and ham at my friend, Terri's school. And in January I was reading aloud to classes at Donna's school. I taught Donna in the 6th grade, then I had the honor of having her in my library studies grad classroom. Our lives continue to criss-cross. I digress, sorry! All of these ladies have vibrant libraries where children love to go, read books, listen to stories, and see the best of what LMS have to offer. I just love a school library!!!

Books for Little People

Years ago when I taught elementary school and before we had to teach by the standards, I did these very cool thematic units. Anyone remember those days? One of mine was on penguins. I fell in love with penguins and I made sure my students did as well. I had this great librarian, named Debbie (some of you guys know her) who helped my kids do lots of research. Those were the days! Well, all these years later, Debbie sends over this very cute book called......... If You Were a Penguin by Wendell and Florence Minor. This is a slightly larger picture book with up close and personal artwork of different kinds of penguins. I just loved it! She also sent over Duck Soup by Jackie Urbanovic. The illustrator really showed a sense of humor with these pics. I would love to read this aloud. The voices are so strong the personalities shine through. During the day I use one of the Suffolk libraries, they let non-residents checkout their books and the North Suffolk Library is really, really nice. I found Big Chickens Fly the Coop by Leslie Helakoski. This one is pretty funny as well. Lastly, one for those of you with little ones. How Do I Love You? by Marion Dane Bauer is just a very sweet board book ( guess who has already heard this one). "I love you as the bird loves a song to sing." From me to you, tell someone you love them tonight!

YA BOOKS

Last summer I read tons of YA books and had some great conversations with others who love young adult books. However, since I retired I wanted to read a adult books and then again, I have been very busy reading books for my primary book group ( our next meeting is this Saturday in C-ville). Consequently, the YA books were left behind for awhile. Now the book in my bookbag right now is Frozen Fire. Has anyone read it? This book was listed in "Booklist" magazine as a book for 9-12th graders. What an intriguing first chapter! Actually, the first line will grab those young adult readers right away with "I'm dying". I will let you know how it goes! I finished Marley last week. You are probably thinking, " Why is she just reading that now?" Just a bit slow on this particular bandwagon. Another quick read is a YA book about women in the Civil War. Talk about interesting! Lots of first person information, pictures, and great research. It was written by Anita Silvey, an author known for her reference books not for YA. Here is the website for ALA Best YA Books. http://www.ala.org/ala/mgrps/divs/yalsa/booklistsawards/bestbooksya/09bbya.cfm
Take time to read every day!!
Roxanne

Books, technology and libraries

What a great day! It was very rainy here. The kind of day folks say, I just want to lay around and read!! I did a little of that ( I needed to get my book titles ready for a meeting on Saturday) but I also got to see two really good videos showing library media students teaching others how to use a non-book resource. Both were great videos and I enjoyed them because they hit all the particulars of the class rubrics, but they really made me think once again of the awesome responsibility we have in the library. We need to promote good and great literature, we need to turn students onto books and we also want to encourage our staff members to venture into the world of social networking!! It is the future for our libraries. I also graded two virtual reference interviews. They were both totally online!! Hey, who out there is ready to do virtual reference in school libraries. The books being published right now are awesome, and the new technologies are really a big wow!!!

The Beginning

In the beginning I said to my friend, Debbie, maybe I should start a blog! Debbie listens to all my ideas, rants, and musings and she is always so supportive. Since I have retired from my actual office job, I miss talking about school libraries and the future of school libraries with my friends and colleagues. I hope this blog will be a way for me to connect with all of you out in cyberspace.