Month: October 2010

Compiling and Sharing Links

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The awesome blogs I follow and great people I follow on Twitter share some amazing resources. It’s amazing and overwhelming. It’s also impossible for me to organize and share these resources with the people who need them. Believe me, I’ve tried. Teachers don’t want several emails a day from me, even if what I put in them is AWESOME. Believe me, I can’t even get them all to read and follow through with the mandatory emails (but that’s a different tangent and I won’t go there today). So I’ve been needing to find a way to get organized (ha!) with the awesome tools that I keep finding. I’m also hoping (I think I’m hoping anyway) that the proposal I submitted for LaCUE will be accepted and I’ll be doing a presentation in December on the best free web tools.

I’m in the process of bringing my favorite teaching tools all into one place. The problem is, I can’t decide which place I like best. Here’s what I’ve got so far:

I first found out about Only2Clicks.com from Joyce Valenza’s blog Never Ending Search. Joyce is THE library goddess and my ultimate library idol. I met her (AND Gwyneth Jones, may I remind you) at ISTE this summer and was in complete and utter awe of her greatness. But I digress…

Only2Clicks is pretty awesome. I like it because everything is there in one place. I like the tabs. I like the visual appeal of actually seeing the sites. It’s not all fancy looking, but it’s very simple and organized. So check it out and tell me what you think.

So the other site I’m thinking of using is a combo of Symbaloo and Weblist. I learned about these two tools from Kelly Tenkely’s awesome blog, iLearn Technology. Her blog is pretty freakin’ awesome. She shares the best tech resources and gives great descriptions of them. If you don’t follow it, you need to.

I think that Symbaloo is eye-catching and fun, even if it doesn’t look organized. I linked my Symbaloo squares to separate Weblists for each category. I like the look of this, but don’t like that I’m using two separate sites to make one organizational resource compilation. Decide for yourself.

So this weekend I’m going to try to lay out firm categories and links for each, and I’ll be sharing that soon. In the meantime, I would LOVE some feedback on these two choices. Neither of my projects are complete, but check them out and let me know what you think. I’m trying to decide if one would be more teacher friendly (and one more student friendly) than the other. I really like them both but I need to pick one and go with it! So help me decide…PLEASE!

Tech Tuesday with Tiff

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This year I’ve started doing Tech Tuesday with Tiff. Every couple of Tuesdays I do a quick, 30 minute session on a tech tool. This week, I shared blabberize.com, a fun tool for digital storytelling. Of course, technology doesn’t always work as planned, and it didn’t today. We had some issues with the external microphones that were to be used to record their blabbers. Booo. But they still had a chance to learn about and play around with a new tool, so we’ll call it a success anyway. Click the link below to see the handout I created for it using Comic Life. I cannot figure out how to embed the image, so there ya go.

Blabberize

Busy days and awesome reads

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I’ve spent the last week writing my last big paper for the curriculum class I’m taking this semester, which I submitted yesterday afternoon. So, YAY! I cannot believe how quickly time is flying this year. It seems like every time I blink it’s Sunday night and I’m getting ready for a new week. It’s pretty scary!

Let me give you the run down on what went on at the library last week.

With my third graders, I read “Molly the Pony” by Pam Kaster. This was the third Louisiana Young Readers Choice book that we’ve read together. I think this is their favorite so far, even though I so so so love “Two Bobbies.” It’s a great story, though, and we even have a teacher at our school who has met Molly, so I think that won bonus points with the kids. I also showed this video, which had some really great footage of Molly walking in her cast after surgery and having her prosthetic leg being put on.

With second graders, I was planning on doing a Reader’s Theatre on “Book, Book, Book.” I did the activity with my Monday classes and it was painful. They were not yet ready for that activity. So for the rest of the week we read “The Fierce Yellow Pumpkin” and some really fun discussions about the word “FIERCE!”

We had a special guest performer on Friday afternoon, and he was AMAZING! Rick Kelly did an awesome job with his performance, “Don’t Just Sit There, READ!” We were able to have him visit through a program by the State Library of Louisiana.  He really knows what he’s doing and was entertaining (and hilarious) to both students and teachers (which says a lot). He also knows how to interact with the students well — getting them pumped up but not out of control. I can’t say enough good things about him and his program.

I’ve also been reading some great books. In my last update, I shared that I was loving Meg Cabot’s Mediator series. Well, I still am! I read the second book, “Ninth Key,” and it was great. Definitely a series that I’ll keep reading.

After reading two in a row, I needed a little variety. Plus I had an awesome stack of books I’d just picked up from the library. The first one I grabbed was “Mockingbird” by Kathryn Erskine and OMG it was awesome. Like REALLY awesome. It’s about a 10 year old girl with Aspergers who is dealing with the recent death of her brother. I sobbed for the entire second half of the book. Now, I may not exactly be emotionally stable right now, but it really was heartbreaking and eye opening at the same time. This was the first book I’ve read from the perspective with someone on the spectrum of autism. If you haven’t read this book — especially if you work with children — then put it on your list (near the top).

The next book I grabbed from the stack was “Th1rteen R3asons Why” by Jay Asher. I picked this book up after I finished writing my paper yesterday afternoon and read the entire thing in one sitting. Like Clay, the main character, I was COMPLETELY absorbed in following Hannah’s journey. The premise sounds awful — Clay receives a box of tapes that were recorded by Hannah, his crush who recently committed suicide — but the book is sooo good. This is an amazingly well written book and I highly recommend it.

So it’s a busy week ahead. Monday and Thursday classes will get my usual Halloween Week lessons (Legend of Sleepy Hallow for 3rd, Stellaluna for 2nd). Tuesday and Friday will be watching the Book Fair sneak peak video to pump them up since I won’t see them again before the fair begins on the 5th. Wednesday is a half day for kids since we have staff development, so I’ll only see them for long enough to exchange library books. More busy days ahead, and I wouldn’t have it any other way!

Last week…

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I had such a busy weekend being a wonderful bridesmaid to my favorite cousin that I didn’t have the chance to blog about last week’s lessons. With my third graders, I read “Boys of Steel: The Creators of Superman” by Marc Tyler Nobleman.

This is another one of the LYRC award nominees. As I’ve said before, the kids love true stories and this is one. They liked this one pretty well, but I think it was a little beyond some of them. They look for funny, sweet, or exciting and neither of those really describe this book. We did like the illustrations and the comic-style of the book.

With second grade, we read “If You Give a Mouse a Cookie” by Laura Joffe Numeroff. This is one of those books that I can read over and over and over and never get tired of. We start by taking a picture walk and describing what we see in the pictures. After I read the story, we play the Mouse Memory Game in which the kids list all the things they can remember that the mouse asked for…a sparkly pencil for the winner! They love this lesson and will be asking me for weeks if we can do it again.

I’ve been doing some reading, too! Here are the books I’ve read and a quick comment/impression of each:

I absolutely adored this book! It’s one of the best multi-perspective stories that I’ve read. When I finished the first section, I had VERY strong feelings about the characters, but Mackler did an amazing job of really digging into the feelings of all the characters in ways that’s easy to relate to. This is a great book to recommend to kids who are having trouble relating to some of their peers — it could open up some great conversations on seeing things from a different perspective.

For some unknown reason, this is the first “Alice” book that I think I’ve ever read! The middle school librarian told me that she recommends this book frequently to girls that are reluctant readers. This story has lots of turbulent middle school relationship issues, which girls can definitely relate to. It also has enough sex talk to make a middle school reader feel like they’re getting away with something without being graphic. It’s a quick, easy read with lots going on to draw the reader in, so I can see why it’s a go-to rec for her!

This book by Meg Cabot was originally published under the pseudonym of Jenny Carroll. I was hesitant in picking up this book. Although I love my sci-fi, fantasy, and occasional vamp fiction I’m not generally into the paranormal genre. Namely because I’m extremely paranoid. But, hey, this is by Meg Cabot who was in the same fab Banned Books Week blog series by the Snoops with me (and don’t ask how many times I’ll bring that up, because the answer is as often as possible). I finished this book this morning and had to go to the library on my way home from work to get book two in the series. I loved it that much. Awesome characters and great storyline. I can’t wait to see what happens with Suze throughout the series!

At this point, that’s all I’ve got. Life is chaotic and I’ve got too much on my plate so my stress level is through the roof. Keeping up with things at the library ( & video announcements & yearbook & upcoming book fair). Grad school ( & endless homework). Car problems ( & my extreme disappointment with Audi). And life. It’s all very exhausting. It’s beyond me how people do everything AND have children. Yikes.

Free to Read

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As you (better) know, this week was Banned Books Week. Although it isn’t something I really celebrated with my 2nd and 3rd graders who are pretty young to get the concept, I celebrated this week personally and professionally. My interview with the AMAZING Story Snoops made this my favorite BBW eva! If for some absurd reason you did not read the interview, STOP reading this post and get over there to read it!!! While you’re over there, make sure to read their other interviews with Judy Blume, Abby the Librarian, Meg Cabot, Carol Rasco, Ellen Hopkins, and Karen Yingling. I also got a shout-out from my community’s local paper Central Speaks. And to top it all off I was psyched to see that article made the print version of the paper, which arrived in my mailbox yesterday afternoon! So as you can tell, this has been a week filled with excitement, pride, and joy for me! I love my job and being involved in events like this week completely affirm that I am doing EXACTLY what I am supposed to do. To say this was the highlight of my week is a major understatement!

A couple of weeks ago, I committed to reading three challenged/banned books for the “Ban This!” challenge. I finished my third book this morning so here are my thoughts on those three books:

The first book I read was My Heartbeat by Garret Freymann-Weyr. From the minute I picked this book up, I could not put it down. My husband says that I crave drama in what I read and watch because my life is so tame. This book proved that point! Ellen, who is extremely close to her brother and his best friend, James, whom she’s always had a crush on. When she starts high school, she begins to wonder if they are best friends or if there’s more to their relationship. Her brother refuses to consider the fact that he may be gay, and a rift forms between the trio, pushing Ellen and James closer together. This story does an incredible job of showing the turbulent emotions of teens as they explore their feelings and sexuality. The family dynamics in this book is also very real. This novel deals with many tough, controversial issues that many teens aren’t comfortable discussing in a way that they may be able to relate to. There is mature content in this book that would not be appropriate for most middle schoolers.

Whale Talk by Chris Crutcher is absolutely, positively amazing. This book has been challenged because of the issue of racism, but that is one of the issues addressed in this novel that makes it so moving. This is an incredible story of underdogs pushing forward, coming together, and finding victory in an unexpected way. It’s about overcoming hate and finding a way to live your life in a positive way despite tragedies. I don’t want to give too away much of this story, I just want you to read it. One of the best books I’ve read lately!

So Daughters of Eve by Lois Duncan is definitely out of my reading comfort zone. This story pushes the feminism to a whole new level. The Daughters of Eve is a club that finds itself moving more in the direction of a man-hating cult. I found this hard to follow because there are so many characters involved. Although this isn’t a book I’d rave about, I know there’s an audience out there for it since it’s been republished since it’s original publication in 1979.

So I’m counting all of these toward my self created challenge to read more YA…I need to go back through and see what number this makes. (Edit: These three additions make 14 out of 20)

It’s election day in my town, so I’m off to vote. Just like I make use of my freedom to read, I always exercise my freedom to vote. It’s a great country we live in, and I hope you do the same!