Tech Tips & Timely Tidbits

Another school year is up and running.  I’ve been very busy with training teachers in Moodle and the gradebook system.  I’ve also assisted with almost all of the English classes in taking the STAR (reading comprehension) and TRAILS (information literacy/research skills) testing and will finish up the last class tomorrow!    Now that I’ve got a few minutes to myself, I’ve been trying to clean out my RSS feeds (again).  Here are some odds & ends I wanted to share:

A Plethora of Technology: Trick My Truck - by Barry Bachenheimer - interesting ways to “trick out” your learning activities.

Blogging on the Bay: The Heart of a Teacher - by Bill Gaskins - All teachers should watch this video of a student giving a keynote address to his school district’s teachers.  It’s an embedded YouTube video, so you may not be able to view from work, but PLEASE take the time to watch from home.  You wont be disappointed.

Self Check #260 - by Emily Lloyd - Toung in cheek, “muliticultural” books.  I really love these doses of humor.  I think it would be a hoot to work with this lady!

CNN.com: “Monster mom’ - how to avoid being one” - 7 tips on how not to alienate your son/daughter’s teachers.

Both BBC News and The New York Times have articles about the Harold, TX school board allowing teachers to carry concealed weapons (guns) on campus.  How scary is that!?

Reader’s Digest: “13 Things Your Computer Person Won’t Tell You” - My personal favorite is #10 - get a MAC!  Hehehe! Told ya so!

Summer break is a time to sit back, relax and read a book! For those of you who teach in South Carolina, I recommend you check out the SC Book Award Nominees. (And even if you aren’t in SC, I still recommend them!) You can find a list for your level (picture book, children, junior, or young adult) at www.scasl.net. Since I was on the young adult committee, my drama students recorded podcasts for the SC Young Adult Book Award Nominees. You can find them on our school’s podcast page. You can find podcasts for the other levels at the SCASL website, too!

My summer reading list includes:

Here Comes Everybody: The Power of Organizing Without Organizations by Clay Shirky

Gifted Hands: The Ben Carson Story by Ben Carson, M.D. (Dr. Carson will be speaking at our first District Inservice in August!)

What Great Teachers Do Differently: 14 Things That Matter Most by Todd Whitaker

A Whole New Mind: Why Right-Brainers Will Rule The Future by Daniel L. Pink

The Power of the Media Specialist to Improve Academic Achievement and Strengthen At-Risk Students by Jami Biles Jones and Alana M. Zambone

From Dead to Worse by Charlaine Harris

The Host by Stephenie Meyer

City of Bones and City of Ashes by Cassandra Clare

Night Road by A.M. Jenkins

Odd Hours by Dean Koontz

Whirlwind, The Caretaker Trilogy: Book 2 by David Klass

So, what’s on your summer reading list?

A couple of things have happened recently that have got me thinking about books, readers, snap judgments, and personal preferences, and I needed to vent my spleen. First, I posted a comment over at Dear Author regarding a review of Melissa Marr’s new book, Ink Exchange. Secondly, there has been a HUGE debate over Stephenie Meyer’s Twilight on the YALSA listserv between those who “love” it and those who “hate” it and everyone in between. [I'm an in between.] I’m not going to rehash or try to summarize the debate or the back and forth responses, but you can read the blog that sparked the debate here.

What I would like to do is share what I’ve taken away from this “lively discussion:” that everyone has their own likes, dislikes, preference, etc. A couple of people have commented that a reader will take what they need from a book. TRUE! That every book has a reader. TRUE! Therefore, what I may enjoy reading others may not. What I may “read into” a book could just be my own imagining, history, or personal baggage and not what the author intended. That I may totally not “get” the author’s message at all - if there was even an intended message to begin with! That as an adult, I tend to over think a book where a teen probably won’t.

The other item I took away from this is a greater appreciation for the power of books and of words. That authors (& books) get people talking, debating, discussing, and just plain READING! No matter what the author’s intentions were with their story, the fact that people enjoy them (or hate them) means that people are READING! And in my case, the TEENS are READING! Both the girls AND the guys! Isn’t that what I, as a librarian, want? Heck, YES! Do I have concerns with these books, yes, but that is an opportunity to open discussion, not a time to shoot down the books and/or author.

While everyone is entitled to their opinion, myself included, we shouldn’t be telling anyone (adult or teen) what they should/shouldn’t read. Leave it up to the reader to form their own opinion! If one of my patrons checks out a book I didn’t like, I don’t tell them “That’s a horrible book, don’t waste your time!” I usually ask them to tell me what they think of the book after they’ve read it. I’d love to have their opinion, whether or not it matches my own. Okay, ‘nough said, stepping down from my soapbox.

The Unquiet Librarian (Buffy Hamilton) recently posted a heads up about the upcoming Teen Read Week (October 12-18, 2008) theme “Books With Bite.” I’m grateful for this reminder because if I don’t plan ahead, I’d never get anything done. Her post and the TRW Wiki got me thinking about how I want to proceed next year…and I need some help/input.

I team up each year with the media specialist from Midland Valley High for our book club program (we share books to reduce costs) and she mentioned how her school will post a “genre’ of the month” in their student agendas next year. What a wonderful concept! Well, not to be outdone, I was thinking of taking the TRW theme and spreading it out over the school year. The TRW Wiki gave me some suggestions and I’ve added to them.

August 2008: Vampires

• To correspond with the release of Breaking Dawn by Stephenie Meyer and her Twilight series. I’m focusing only on vampires and not monsters as a whole due to the popularity of vampire books.

September 2008: Edgy Titles/Banned Books

• To tie in with Banned Book Week, I’d like to focus on edgy titles and challenged books.

October 2008: Monsters & Mythical Creatures

• Included here would be werewolves, dragons, faeries, etc. Some authors I’m considering are: Holly Black, Melissa Marr, Scott Westerfeld, Tolkin, Christopher Golden, Anne McCaffrey, and Neal Shusterman.

November 2008: Cooking

• I’d like to include fiction as well as non-fiction titles here. I’ve no problem pulling non-fiction titles, but will need help coming up with a fiction booklist.

That is as far as I’ve gotten on specific monthly themes. Here are some additional themes, but I’m not sure if I’ll use them and/or which month to promote them, plus I need at least two more to have a full school year (10 months) of themes:

• bites as in pests/insects
• bytes as in computer and computer gaming
• bites as in predatory animals
• bites as in “that bites” - the “I’d hate to be you” or troubling/misfortune books
• ?
• ?

What I’m hoping my readers will do is add to my related Books With Bite themes to give me more choices. I’d also like book suggestions for titles that are popular with your students/readers as they relate to each theme. AND if possible, I’d like to have corresponding logos/icons/avatars to go with each category to use on promotional materials. SO if you have any suggestions or ideas, please post a comment. THANKS!