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/