Blind Date with a Book

Posted on by

On February 1st, Wagener-Salley students were greeted with a new display – Blind Date with a Book.

How it works: Students are asked to use the “dating” profile on the heart to decide if they want to take a shot at a date with the mystery book.  They were warned that by choosing to date one of these books they were agreeing to write a review of their date.  They have to read at least 2-3 chapters before they give up – and must still provide a review for why they didn’t like their date (hence why they gave up on it.)

I finished creating the display before going home Thursday, and Friday morning after only 2 hours the display was practically empty.  It was completely empty by 2:00 pm Friday!  Now, I just have to wait for the dates to be over and the students’ dating reviews!

I first heard of this display/program on the YALSA (Young Adult Library Services Association) listserv.  Then saw this awesome post by librarian Rachel Montgomery, Teen Librarian at the Mooresville Public Library (Indiana) and was truly inspired by (and borrowed) her display’s dating profiles.  Since I didn’t have very many of the same titles, I put out a plea to some of my colleagues and Cathy Nelson came through with enough fill in profiles from previous SC Young Adult Book Award Nominee titles that I was able to create the above display.  If you want to see more photos of the display, including a close-up of one of the mystery books, you can find them on my Flickr site: http://www.flickr.com/photos/hloy22/

SC Midlands Summit day 2

Posted on by

For those who couldn’t make it to the summit, here is a Google doc for links.

The second day started with a keynote from Dr. Helen Barrett on ePortfolios.  Here website is http://electronicportfolios.org/.

Next I attended Wednesday’s keynote speaker, Jamie Casup’s session titled “Chromebook Classrooms.”  While I didn’t take many notes, I was once again very impressed with his presentation.  A lot was similar to the keynote, but focused on why the Chromebook and not just here is what it can do.  I am intrigued and inclined to recommend our school investigate these as our next cart purchase.  I think they will fit in much better with the direction we are planning to take (if we also go to Google Apps for Ed) than traditional laptop/netbook or even iPad carts.

The last session I attended, as I didn’t stick around for the demo slam or lunch, was titled “Visual Storytelling” and given by Ken Shelton.  This wasn’t the session I had originally planned to attend, but my friend Chris Craft introduced me to Mr. Shelton as a fellow photographer and Mr. Shelton “sold” his session to me!  I decided to make sure I caught it on the second day.  As a budding photographer, I’m looking for ways to incorporate my photography with the classroom.  Now this session I did take notes.  Here is my “outline” on his session on Photo 5 – tell a story with five images and NO text.  Can be:

  • Journalistic (ex: use one image and crop into five separate images focusing on different elements that tells the whole story)
  • Sequential – five images that shown in sequence tell a story (example shown was from a bike race)
  • Photographic Poetry – think about an image abstractly (not literally) and tell the story of what you “see.”
  • Narrative – images tell a story with a beginning, middle, & end
  • Template for a Photo 5 is to establish:
    • Setting/Location
    • Situation “What might happen?”
    • Character(s) involvement
    • Probable Outcome(s)
    • Logical or Surprise ending
He also shared the concept of using an image and create Six Word Stories - inspired by the legend that Hemingway once won a bet that challenged him to tell a complete story in only six words.  His story:  ”Baby shoes. For Sale. Never worn.”  There is a group on Flickr that has a bunch of examples.  Here is one of mine – yeah, not the best, but okay for quick publishing here!  Photo credit: me!

Head itches. Bend, flick - ahhh, relief!

Another note I have is he encourages teachers to take photos, not just to use for classroom projects and kids, but to use in your own professional presentations (so you don’t have to borrow all the time from others!)  Remember, Google Images aren’t all copyright free.  Using your own keeps you from running into trouble later!  And of course there are places like Creative Commons and StreamlineSC where you know what you can/can’t use in your works.   He ran out of time and I really wish I’d gotten to learn some more from him.  I loved his session and highly recommend you attend if you get the chance.

Calling Invisible Women (a novel) by Jeanne Ray

Posted on by

Calling Invisible Women (a novel)No, this isn’t going to be a “true” book review (as I just don’t have the energy right now), but I did HAVE to write about the book I finished called Calling Invisible Women (a novel) by Jeanne Ray.

I read about this one on the Dear Author blog and as someone getting up there in age, I found the premis of women of certain age becoming invisible (due to their age and not being the “ideal” anymore) was interesting.  Of course in the book, these women were literally turning invisible.

Now I read the book and it was entertaining and well worth the cost (free as I checked it out of my local public library), but the reason I HAD to write about it was a paasage that I take umbrage with:

The two characters are talking about taking a trip and the one speaking refers to the fact that she wasn’t fired from her job like the rest of the women in the invisible woman support group so she can’t take the time off.  In case the image doesn’t come thru your reader or browser, here is the passage: “… I’m a librarian.  I have good research skills.  I didn’t lose my job because nobody cares whether or not librarians are invisible.”

:)

Then again, it shows librarians aren’t expendable!  Even invisible we provide a much needed service!  Rock on invisible librarians!

As for a quick review, I’d give the book 3.5 out of 5 stars!  Like I said, it was entertaining.  Not my normal type of book at all, but I’d probably read more books by this author.