Thursday 28 October 2010
Teen Read Week
We have just had our final activity - an assembly to show case student work - of our first Teen Read Week. Wow! What a success! Last year was my first year back in a library for a very long time and it took me a while to realize that though the grade 6 through 8 students read for pleasure, the students higher up in the school rarely came in the library to select a book. Casting around for a way to encourage 'teen' reading, I cam across the ALA's Teen Read Week and the 26 books nominated as the best of 2010.
Working with the English and Arts departments, I ordered multiple copies of the books while the teachers created activities within their subject areas relating to the selection. In music, students composed original music for the score of a movie, or put together a playlist of songs which would best reflect the themes of the book as a film. In drama, students hot seated characters from the books and worked on a series of tableaux which would tell something of the plot or theme of the book. In art, they designed book covers and posters.
At the moment I am mounting the book covers for a display in the library and around the school, after which I will have to make a decision on the winner of a book prize for the best poster!
Pictures to follow!
Working with the English and Arts departments, I ordered multiple copies of the books while the teachers created activities within their subject areas relating to the selection. In music, students composed original music for the score of a movie, or put together a playlist of songs which would best reflect the themes of the book as a film. In drama, students hot seated characters from the books and worked on a series of tableaux which would tell something of the plot or theme of the book. In art, they designed book covers and posters.
At the moment I am mounting the book covers for a display in the library and around the school, after which I will have to make a decision on the winner of a book prize for the best poster!
Pictures to follow!
Tuesday 26 October 2010
Alright, I admit it! I am a coward!
Alright, I admit it! I am a coward! Or perhaps I just want the easy life at the moment. When confronted by an administrator today about a certain book, I decided that I would re-classify it into non-fiction with books on the Holocaust. It's not the same as banning the book but I do feel that I have cheated! It is still in the library but probably only the grade 10s who are studying that time period will ever see it. Does anyone have any better ideas? I know that if I had put my foot down about the book, and made an issue of it, it would have been removed by force. (An interesting image appears in my mind!)
Sunday 24 October 2010
Helping Teachers with Web 2.0 and beyond
I hadn't realized when I returned to librarianship that the most difficult part of my job would be helping teachers use Web 2.0 tools and teach research skills. I have spent the last 12 years in the classroom so I have a good understanding of what is involved in being a classroom teacher. I know how busy teachers are, I was one! I know that sometimes it is easier to continue the way you always have, even though it might not be the most effective way to do something. There never seems to be enough time to look to see if there is a more effective tool, or to learn something new, and introduce it to your classroom. I see part of that as my job. I have the time (well usually!) to look for new tools and experiment with them. I had hoped that I would then be able to pass them on to my colleagues and thus, make their teaching more effective and their lives a little easier.
How naive! But I am learning! I have discovered that I am unlikely to get the information to them through my useful emails. Why wouldn't I have realized that? I was very good at deleting emails when I was in the classroom too. I have tried offering brief workshops after school. 15 minutes, no longer, I promise them. I even dangle cake as an inducement. I now recognize that unless I can find a way to coral a teacher (more then one if possible) they won't come of their own accord. Not that they don't want to find out about what I have to share with them, but that I am on the bottom of their priority list. And I do understand this.
I thought that I would try all school meetings. This doesn't work either. The room is too large and there are too many distractions. I would like to present at divisional meetings but in the past they have put me at the end of a packed agenda and time usually runs out. Now I am going to approach department heads and see if they will put me on the agenda. I think I can sell it to them if I ask for 10 minutes only and choose only one thing to present. One very useful thing that will have them begging me to come back.
Sometime last year I put together a wallwisher page with some of the Web 2.0 applications I had found to be useful. You may find them useful as well:
http://www.wallwisher.com/wall/webtoolsforteachers
How naive! But I am learning! I have discovered that I am unlikely to get the information to them through my useful emails. Why wouldn't I have realized that? I was very good at deleting emails when I was in the classroom too. I have tried offering brief workshops after school. 15 minutes, no longer, I promise them. I even dangle cake as an inducement. I now recognize that unless I can find a way to coral a teacher (more then one if possible) they won't come of their own accord. Not that they don't want to find out about what I have to share with them, but that I am on the bottom of their priority list. And I do understand this.
I thought that I would try all school meetings. This doesn't work either. The room is too large and there are too many distractions. I would like to present at divisional meetings but in the past they have put me at the end of a packed agenda and time usually runs out. Now I am going to approach department heads and see if they will put me on the agenda. I think I can sell it to them if I ask for 10 minutes only and choose only one thing to present. One very useful thing that will have them begging me to come back.
Sometime last year I put together a wallwisher page with some of the Web 2.0 applications I had found to be useful. You may find them useful as well:
http://www.wallwisher.com/wall/webtoolsforteachers
Saturday 23 October 2010
Banned Books Week leads on to a book banning!
What irony!
For the week of and the week following Banned Books Week my library was bedecked with bulletin boards and displays to raise student and faculty awareness of the implications for freedom of thought through the banning books. Various groups from grade 6 to grade 12 came in to discuss the reasons why certain books have been banned in the past and why people still try to prevent books from being published, or placed in public and school libraries, and classrooms.
Students were fascinated by one of our displays, where a number of books covered in brown paper had the reason why the book had been banned written on the front of the paper cover. They were particularly interested in the book which was banned because it had 173 swear words in it. Who would have bothered to count them, one student asked. A rather enthusiastic grade 6 student, on hearing about Salman Rushdie and the threats against his life, decided that she would read his book out loud from cover to cover. She had just started when the bell rang!
Our English department joined in with a simulated banning of their own. They gathered all the grade 9s together and told them that they would have to hand in their copies of To Kill A Mockingbird, as it had been banned by the management committee of the school. They even penned a supposed letter from the committee and read it to the students. Though some caught on to what was going on since they had seen the displays in the library, there was a very lively discussion about book banning and why some might think that To Kill a Mockingbird might not be appropriate for them.
At the end of 10 days, I really felt that we had had our most successful event ever in the library. Then I received an email. One of our administrators wanted a graphic novel, Auschwitz, removed from the library because it was thought to be inappropriate for grade 6s and 7s. Because the library is for students in grades 6 to 12 and I do not have a restricted section, it would have to go. I wonder if the irony of the situation was ever recognized!
What will be the final outcome? I will keep you posted. However, I often wear Unshelved's Intellectual Freedom Fighter T-shirt to work so...
For the week of and the week following Banned Books Week my library was bedecked with bulletin boards and displays to raise student and faculty awareness of the implications for freedom of thought through the banning books. Various groups from grade 6 to grade 12 came in to discuss the reasons why certain books have been banned in the past and why people still try to prevent books from being published, or placed in public and school libraries, and classrooms.
Students were fascinated by one of our displays, where a number of books covered in brown paper had the reason why the book had been banned written on the front of the paper cover. They were particularly interested in the book which was banned because it had 173 swear words in it. Who would have bothered to count them, one student asked. A rather enthusiastic grade 6 student, on hearing about Salman Rushdie and the threats against his life, decided that she would read his book out loud from cover to cover. She had just started when the bell rang!
Our English department joined in with a simulated banning of their own. They gathered all the grade 9s together and told them that they would have to hand in their copies of To Kill A Mockingbird, as it had been banned by the management committee of the school. They even penned a supposed letter from the committee and read it to the students. Though some caught on to what was going on since they had seen the displays in the library, there was a very lively discussion about book banning and why some might think that To Kill a Mockingbird might not be appropriate for them.
At the end of 10 days, I really felt that we had had our most successful event ever in the library. Then I received an email. One of our administrators wanted a graphic novel, Auschwitz, removed from the library because it was thought to be inappropriate for grade 6s and 7s. Because the library is for students in grades 6 to 12 and I do not have a restricted section, it would have to go. I wonder if the irony of the situation was ever recognized!
What will be the final outcome? I will keep you posted. However, I often wear Unshelved's Intellectual Freedom Fighter T-shirt to work so...
Friday 22 October 2010
A Beginning
I started my teaching career as a secondary school teacher-librarian in 1978. Since then I have taught English, grade 3, French, drama, and film studies. After two years as the head of modern languages at an international school I have finally made it back to my first love - the library. I've been away for 11 years and my, how the world of libraries has changed in that time!
I have been writing two blogs for a number of years now. One was started after I was diagnosed with cancer, in part to keep friends and family up to date with what was happening with me; the other is a food/cooking blog, which also explores living life more simply . A year after my return to libraries I think that I am now ready to start blogging about that experience.
I have been writing two blogs for a number of years now. One was started after I was diagnosed with cancer, in part to keep friends and family up to date with what was happening with me; the other is a food/cooking blog, which also explores living life more simply . A year after my return to libraries I think that I am now ready to start blogging about that experience.
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