Tuesday, June 19, 2007
Boys and Girls and Reading, Oh My!
I've been working on my annotated bibliography about books Boys and Girls would like but it seems to be turning more into a Connecting with Boys type of thing. If I do library programming for boys, will girls come too? It doesn't work the other way around. Will girls enjoy programming geared towards guys? Specifically, teenagers? I'm thinking along the young adult 11-14 sort. I don't know if middle school boys and high school boys enjoy the same type of reading. I am going to check Novelist to see what sort of suggestions they have. I have a 15 book list but I'm worried that a couple of them will appeal to guys only or girls only.
Friday, June 8, 2007
Summer Reading and Beyond!
LII had a great link to summer reading. I found two sights called BookHive.org and Bookadventure.org. At BookHive Children from K-6 can find books, listen to a story, discover fun activities. At BookAdventure teachers can set up their classrooms and offer quizzes and incentives to students.
BookHive is produced by The Public Library of Charlotte and Mecklenburg Counties out of North Carolina. At this site, students can find books by author/illustrator or title. They can also do an advanced search and find a book by reviewer. Students can enter reviews for books and read what other students have written about a book. All of the books can then be reserved at the library because this site is linked into the online catalog. Storytellers have posted short videos that students can listen to and watch using realplayer. They can also find books that are similar to the stories they heard. The fun activities are discussion questions, trivia questions on popular books, coloring pages and book lists. You can even create your own booklist. The bookhive even has a spot for parents. Parents can get additional information about the books to help when working with children. The only thing I did not like about the site was it only goes up to 6th grade!
Then I found out that the library also produces a site for students from 6th - 12th grade at www.libraryloft.org. This site is way cool. It has a poll, pictures from flickr, a second life project, youtube videos produced by patrons, a reading guide link, and a link to their summer reading club. The summer reading club is easy to use and students can get $10 worth of fines waived just for registering! The record keeping can be done online and printed out to bring in. You do have to be a library card holder if you want to win prizes. The library even offers a Guys Read bookclub for middle school boys. This is hosted by local professionals. How awesomely fantastic!
Bookadventure is a cool site if you want an alternative to AR. They offer quizzes on many books and simple prizes. The prizes are books, bookmarks, highlight magazine, and a candy bar. Teachers can even design their own prize levels and certificates. You sign up, a lengthy process, and enter your students. The easiest way is to enter an empty class. Students then sign in, using their first name and last initial. They must know the class name and the teacher's last name. YOu can then view what tests they take and how they score. Students can also see how many points they have earned. The site also links teachers to booklists, articles and helpful websites. This would be a cool way to to encourage students to read over summer. Offer prizes for how many points they bring in during the first week back to school. I hope I remember this next year!!!!
Oh what fun!
BookHive is produced by The Public Library of Charlotte and Mecklenburg Counties out of North Carolina. At this site, students can find books by author/illustrator or title. They can also do an advanced search and find a book by reviewer. Students can enter reviews for books and read what other students have written about a book. All of the books can then be reserved at the library because this site is linked into the online catalog. Storytellers have posted short videos that students can listen to and watch using realplayer. They can also find books that are similar to the stories they heard. The fun activities are discussion questions, trivia questions on popular books, coloring pages and book lists. You can even create your own booklist. The bookhive even has a spot for parents. Parents can get additional information about the books to help when working with children. The only thing I did not like about the site was it only goes up to 6th grade!
Then I found out that the library also produces a site for students from 6th - 12th grade at www.libraryloft.org. This site is way cool. It has a poll, pictures from flickr, a second life project, youtube videos produced by patrons, a reading guide link, and a link to their summer reading club. The summer reading club is easy to use and students can get $10 worth of fines waived just for registering! The record keeping can be done online and printed out to bring in. You do have to be a library card holder if you want to win prizes. The library even offers a Guys Read bookclub for middle school boys. This is hosted by local professionals. How awesomely fantastic!
Bookadventure is a cool site if you want an alternative to AR. They offer quizzes on many books and simple prizes. The prizes are books, bookmarks, highlight magazine, and a candy bar. Teachers can even design their own prize levels and certificates. You sign up, a lengthy process, and enter your students. The easiest way is to enter an empty class. Students then sign in, using their first name and last initial. They must know the class name and the teacher's last name. YOu can then view what tests they take and how they score. Students can also see how many points they have earned. The site also links teachers to booklists, articles and helpful websites. This would be a cool way to to encourage students to read over summer. Offer prizes for how many points they bring in during the first week back to school. I hope I remember this next year!!!!
Oh what fun!
Tuesday, June 5, 2007
Library Videos???!!! Cool!
Good reads on LISNews yesterday. Librarians of the future and Thomson Gale put up five library promotion videos for the public to vote on. The winners and the library each get $5,000!
Brian S. Matthews article, The Inevitable Gen X Coup was interesting... He talked about ways the role of the librarian should be changing. Not just because the world and how we interact with it is changing, but also because librarians are changing. It's not just about promoting reading and cataloguing books. Matthews says he "much more interested in what a person can DO at the library..." I think we should all be interested in that. In a school system it becomes even more critical. We have computers that are overly filtered. We want students to be safe but you can't do that by blocking all sites. We need to teach them how to evaluate, not only web sites, but all media. They need to look at what the Center for Media Literacy calls "the five key questions".
1. Who created the message?
2. What techniques are used to attract my attention?
3. How might different people understand this message differently from me?
4. What lifestyles, values, and points of view are represented in, or omitted from, this message? 5. Why was this message sent?
As students look at technology and media with critical eyes, they will learn to use these resources wisely, as tools, not as an end within themselves. We librarians will also be able to embrace the 2.0 technologies (hopefully before they become 3.0) and reach students where they are as we help them open doors to where they can go.
Check out the Library Videos at www.gale.com/librareo and get your vote in!
Brian S. Matthews article, The Inevitable Gen X Coup was interesting... He talked about ways the role of the librarian should be changing. Not just because the world and how we interact with it is changing, but also because librarians are changing. It's not just about promoting reading and cataloguing books. Matthews says he "much more interested in what a person can DO at the library..." I think we should all be interested in that. In a school system it becomes even more critical. We have computers that are overly filtered. We want students to be safe but you can't do that by blocking all sites. We need to teach them how to evaluate, not only web sites, but all media. They need to look at what the Center for Media Literacy calls "the five key questions".
1. Who created the message?
2. What techniques are used to attract my attention?
3. How might different people understand this message differently from me?
4. What lifestyles, values, and points of view are represented in, or omitted from, this message? 5. Why was this message sent?
As students look at technology and media with critical eyes, they will learn to use these resources wisely, as tools, not as an end within themselves. We librarians will also be able to embrace the 2.0 technologies (hopefully before they become 3.0) and reach students where they are as we help them open doors to where they can go.
Check out the Library Videos at www.gale.com/librareo and get your vote in!
Sunday, June 3, 2007
Miss Understanding
Much better day on the Bloglines front. I was able to add a two feeds with a minimum of effort! I read the feeds from LisNews, LII, and LisCareer. I found two great articles on paying for Grad School on LisCareer. The LII site had a great link to Kidnetic.com. On LisNews there was a link to a talk with Beverly Cleary on ibookwatch.com.
Paying for Grad School by Chrissie Peters was written for the Feb. 2007 issue. Christie talked about various funding sources such as current employers, professional associations and public library initiatives. My employer does not offer any help on the education front, that I know of. I will be checking with them when I return to school. I know that you receive a step in pay when you complete your Master's, which will be helpful if you have to get any student loans. I am a personal member of ALA and ILF. I will be looking into scholarships from both associations but I've already missed any deadlines for this upcoming school year. Since I am going into school media, the local library can't help me although I know they do have a program for their current employees. Getting to Your Lis Degree without Breaking the Bank by Sarah E Morris and Patrice Johnson was very similar to the Peters article. Morris and Johnson added making sure you enrolled in a great program first. They also talked about getting an assistantship or fellowship. Since I am already working and can't get to IUPUI on a regular basis, those two things are out for me. They did give links to ALA, SLA, FAFSA and a few other good organizations.
The ibookwatch.com site from LISnews was interesting. It was kind of strange to see Beverly Cleary. I'd forgotten that authors age just like we do! It was a little long and there weren't any other good videos on the website.
The Kidnetics.com site from LII was by far my favorite. My daughter and I had fun doing the Kore challenge. There were 10 fitness challenges you had to do. You were to sit a time to beat and then try to beat your previous goal! We also did the move mixer and the scavenger hunt. The scavenger hunt had us running around the house to find things and then trying to get back to the computer to click before as fast as we could. The move mixer had you picking dance steps and a song and following the robot actually performing your dance. You could even pick from one of ten preformatted dances. What a great way to add fun fitness to your day.
Paying for Grad School by Chrissie Peters was written for the Feb. 2007 issue. Christie talked about various funding sources such as current employers, professional associations and public library initiatives. My employer does not offer any help on the education front, that I know of. I will be checking with them when I return to school. I know that you receive a step in pay when you complete your Master's, which will be helpful if you have to get any student loans. I am a personal member of ALA and ILF. I will be looking into scholarships from both associations but I've already missed any deadlines for this upcoming school year. Since I am going into school media, the local library can't help me although I know they do have a program for their current employees. Getting to Your Lis Degree without Breaking the Bank by Sarah E Morris and Patrice Johnson was very similar to the Peters article. Morris and Johnson added making sure you enrolled in a great program first. They also talked about getting an assistantship or fellowship. Since I am already working and can't get to IUPUI on a regular basis, those two things are out for me. They did give links to ALA, SLA, FAFSA and a few other good organizations.
The ibookwatch.com site from LISnews was interesting. It was kind of strange to see Beverly Cleary. I'd forgotten that authors age just like we do! It was a little long and there weren't any other good videos on the website.
The Kidnetics.com site from LII was by far my favorite. My daughter and I had fun doing the Kore challenge. There were 10 fitness challenges you had to do. You were to sit a time to beat and then try to beat your previous goal! We also did the move mixer and the scavenger hunt. The scavenger hunt had us running around the house to find things and then trying to get back to the computer to click before as fast as we could. The move mixer had you picking dance steps and a song and following the robot actually performing your dance. You could even pick from one of ten preformatted dances. What a great way to add fun fitness to your day.
Saturday, June 2, 2007
Bloglines
I do NOT like Bloglines!
I do not like them with a feed,
I do not like them when I need to read,
I do not like bloglines I say,
I will not read them everyday!
I like my Google reader and my Yahoo reader. They catch my feeds just fine and are easy to use. I had a hard time finding feeds to add to bloglines. When I did find feeds, I found them hard to add. Not for the timid...like me!
I do not like them with a feed,
I do not like them when I need to read,
I do not like bloglines I say,
I will not read them everyday!
I like my Google reader and my Yahoo reader. They catch my feeds just fine and are easy to use. I had a hard time finding feeds to add to bloglines. When I did find feeds, I found them hard to add. Not for the timid...like me!
Thursday, May 31, 2007
Accio Books!
I have one of those I Google sites where I collect feeds and read them. I read The Shifted Librarian, Tame The Web, The Annoyed Librarian, The Blue Skunk Blog, Not Your Mother's Bookclub, Bookburger, and John Green's Weblog. For this class I am adding the Laughing Librarian, The Library Avengers and the St. Joe County Public Library. I love watching St. Joe and seeing what they are going to come up with next. They seem to be on the forefront of technology.
I also love I Google. I have my little Google Gadgets page so I can keep up with Unshelved and HomeStar Runner. I also like playing Ms. Pacman. They have those new themes that change as the area you live in changes. Soooo cool! Oh yea, on my Yahoo page I like to read Shelftalker from Publisher's Weekly and I, almost religiously, follow Brotherhood 2.0. One of the brothers wrote Looking for Alaska and An Abundance of Katherines (John Green) two must reads if you work in Middle/High School or serve Young Adults.
I also love I Google. I have my little Google Gadgets page so I can keep up with Unshelved and HomeStar Runner. I also like playing Ms. Pacman. They have those new themes that change as the area you live in changes. Soooo cool! Oh yea, on my Yahoo page I like to read Shelftalker from Publisher's Weekly and I, almost religiously, follow Brotherhood 2.0. One of the brothers wrote Looking for Alaska and An Abundance of Katherines (John Green) two must reads if you work in Middle/High School or serve Young Adults.
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