QR codes

Here is a cute Common Craft video that explains QR codes and what they can be used for..

QR Codes by Common Craft videos

QR codes are more familiar to students than teachers.  I've used them to post summer reading lists, direct students to LibGuides over certain projects or showcase orientation information for new students.  You could write book reviews, post them to your online catalogue and then add a QR code to the spine of the book to help students know more about a title.

What other uses for QR codes can you suggest?

New teen writing site

I just found this site Figment.  Looks really cute and a safe place for kids to share their writing.  I'm going to suggest it at school to our creative writing class and see what they think about it. 

Shiny pennies....

In the midst of the craziness of the past few days.....I need to concentrate on why I do this job....

1.  I helped a young man change his thesis statement from "I hate wars" to "The country of Isreal should be free to self govern without the interference of aggressive nations."

2.  I helped a young lady find a fifty year old short story--too old for current collections but too new for public domain!

3.  I helped an IB student find a journal entitled "Journal of Ethnic and Cultural Bias in Social Work", which by coincidence was also the topic of her EE.

The rest of the day pales by comparison.......

May the odds be ever in your favor

MTV recently premiered a trailer for the movie The Hunger Games, long awaited video version of the wildly popular book series. 

We see Katniss running through the forest with Peeta’s voice over the action.  Not a lot to see in terms of the movie but enough to get fans talking.  As with Harry Potter, this series is one fans want to see done “right”—so the movie looks like what they imagined as they read the book without leaving out any important details or events.  And similar to the Lord of the Rings series, filming has already begun on the next book in the series, Catching Fire.  So the movie will be either wildly successful and a great trilogy or a bust from the get-go if the first one doesn’t generate the buzz the studio is hoping for.

All I know is since school has started, I’ve had numerous requests for the three books in the series and our multiple copies are all checked out with a long waiting list.  I would like to think the excitement was due to the great story line but I suspect the VMA’s broadcasting on tv right as school started may have played a large part in generating the buzz. But whatever works to get kids talking about books, I’ll take it!

I do know kids talk about this series just like they used to talk about the Harry Potter series.  They discuss the action in the plot-“Should Katniss have taken her sisters’ place in the Games?  Why isn’t Haymitch more helpful?”  To hear this kind of a discussion without a teacher prompt warms my heart!

 And the three main characters provoke strong reactions - you hear the about the Katniss, Gale and Peeta triangle just like we were hearing about Bella, Edward and Jacob.  I’m waiting for the Team Gale/ Team Peeta shirts to come out with the movie!  Only these shirts won’t have sparkles—they’ll glow with fire!

I love it when a series makes kids talk among themselves—that’s literacy education in action!  No choreographed reading groups, no writing assignments, no questions to answer about each chapter-just students sharing their love of a story.  Kudos to Suzanne Collins for a well written, engaging series.  Now let’s hope the movie lives up the book and all the marketing “sneak peaks.” 

The movie is scheduled for a March 2012 premier.   How many kids can you get to read the series before then?  May the odds be ever in your favor.

Texas Book Festival

I just got my volunteer request today for the Texas Book Festival.  If you've never volunteered for it, consider doing so.  It takes tons of people to put on an event the size of this one!


Here's the link to the volunteer sign up:
Tx Book Festival volunteer signup

Time's list of the top 100

Time magazine has published a list of their top 100 non fiction books--not sure I agree with all their choices but that's the beauty of the blogosphere.....I can have my opinion too!

Time's top 100 non fiction books

"You is kind, you is smart, you is important..."

Spent a lovely afternoon chilling in the movie theater trying to avoid this dreadful record heat.  And I got to watch a lovely movie--The Help.  I don't very often recommend the movie over the original novel but this one was done very well.  Even if you haven't read the novel, go see the movie.  It's a great story of a time period in our American history we aren't especially proud of, and it's a great story of friendship and helping each other.  This blog title is a quote from the movie;  honestly I didn't remember it being such a big line in the novel, but the line was a central theme of the movie.
So congrats Hollywood--you got this one right.