Great SLJ article

This month's edition of School Library Journal has a great cover article entitled Why Read?  The author has done a fabulous job of showing the importance of reading in terms of child development.  He addresses the link between literacy and imagination. 

I wish I could say I had written this paragraph because it is exactly the way I feel too.

                      My greatest joy, then, as now, was to find a place away from others, to be alone and have it happen again, the renewable miracle: to feel the world I live in start to slowly recede while at the same time another, different world builds itself more and more distinctly around me.

I don't think too many kids are feeling this way about reading any more and that saddens me. Every time a student announces, "I don't read books" I just look at them and say, "I'm sorry."  They think I'm being snarky but I'm truly sorry they are missing out on a life changing experience. They are also missing out on developing the depth of learning in favor of skimming the surface of information.

The article also talks about the sleep disorders prevelant these days because of the lack of "down time" and disengagement from wireless devices.  Kids are using their phones all day long and all through the night because "OMG I might miss a text!"  or some other equally "important" communication.  We're losing the idea of unstructured time--time to develop deep thinking skills. 

Another great line from the article--"What Wordsworth called the “shades of the prison-house” have not yet closed around us; there’s still time available for letting the mind go investigating."  Reading will let us do this investigating giving the focus and time to concentrate--let our brain work through ideas.  Let's hope we never lose this concept of time.  For if we do, what sort of people will we have become?

Flipped classrooms

Here's a nice infographic concerning flipped classrooms. I'm still on the fence on this issue.  I see the benefits for students and this infographic has some very convincing statistics.  However, I also work with many students whose Internet access is sketchy at best.  If they didn't have access to our school library, they wouldn't have Internet access at all.  How does this idea then really benefit them?  What about the kids who aren't doing homework now--what would be the incentive for them to watch a video before class?

And I work with enough teachers who don't have the technology skills to put together videos 3-5 times a week.  I know they need to learn this skill but I also know of many who won't, can't or just don't want to give up the time.  I guess until teachers shift their mindset to seeing the benefits of this typ of instruction, changes will not happen. 

But take a look at this infographic.  It's got some very compelling statistics--makes one pause to think.

Created by Knewton and Column Five Media

Riding Shotgun

A great book for professional reading--here's my review!

The book Riding Shotgun addresses the topic of student-led change within a school.  The authors, Christine Simpson and Sarah Ambrus, provide anecdotal experiences as well as tools to facilitate implementation of change. 

 “Students are the drivers of change, but there has to be a passenger riding shotgun: you, the educator.” (page 5) . Students can be empowered to provide real world solutions to the problems, resulting in changes that go far beyond the typical “band aid” approach taken by most schools.    But school officials can’t just expect students to know how to move from the “Brain Hurricane” of initial ideas to a focused workable solution without a good deal of guidance.

Each chapter is designed to help administrators navigate the fine line between providing guidance for students and dominating the entire process, providing the framework needed to guide students from the initial steps to forming solutions, acting on those ideas and then studying the results to see where further improvements can be made.  Each step is illustrated by examples of the process in action at a pilot school where the students focused on the problem of bullying. 

Additional chapters discuss the long term effects of the student driven changes, the positive impacts on the learning environment of the school and the leadership opportunities offered to the students involved in the change process.  Again, anecdotal evidence, combined with specific tools used, offers guidance for administrators who wish to involve students in a similar process.

Student comments are included at the end of every chapter in the book.  These insights, from the very people affected by the program, show the true power of student-led change. 

We hear so many negative stories these days about teens in our society.  This book, however, leaves the reader filled with a profound sense of optimism and faith in our students.  As one student said, “There are so many ideas out there waiting to be heard, just waiting to be given a voice.” (pg. 46) This book provides the adults in a school the means to give students that voice.

Overdrive?

I know there are passionate feelings in the library world regarding Overdrive these days.  I think libraries are trying to figure out the best way  to work in the digital world and I don't know that Overdrive is the best way.  But right now, I think it's the best way to start. 

Our district is trying to get an Overdrive account set up for our students.  It fits into our movement to a BYOD format since Overdrive covers multiple formats.  Also, they seem to have the most options of books available--although with Penguin's pull out, that might have changed.  I know some of the issues people have with Overdrive concern the publishers and there's nothing we can do about that right now.

I think, too, this move is something public and a highly visible way to show our district's libraries are cutting edge.  Not too many school districts are able to get into the program due to cost, but we might be able to pull it together right now.  The PR value alone is worth it in my mind.  I'm tired of feeling like people think we are an old antiquated institution.  Having an ebook subscription and promoting it relentlessly would go a long way to polish our image.

So if anyone out there in cyberspace has experience with Overdrive, I would love to hear what you think.  Any pros? cons?  What should my district consider before signing on the dotted line?  Please leave me some comments with your opinion.

Library Lady sings Lady Gaga

Found this cute video from another Texas librarian. Really cute and quite appropriate for this time of year when we are trying desperately to get materials returned to us before the end of the school year! Enjoy!

Open Culture

Have I ever talked about the site called Open Culture? It's an amazing treasure trove of freebies available on the web. Everything from movies to university classes to books--it's all here! Any time I need to look for a book available online, I go here.  I probably should access more of their free movies since I'm an old movie buff.  And every time my hubby talks about wanting to improve his foreign language skills, I send him this link. 

I follow Open Culture on Twitter to keep a running feed of new things available on their site.  I just discovered a download of all the organ pieces by Bach.  Might take me a while to download them all but think how cool that is! 

Here's an example of the type of content on the site.  This is a video about Michael Pollan's books--In Defense of Food and The Omnivore's Dilemna--both excellent books even though they don't really go along with the educational theme of my blog. 

Check out the site next time you have loads of time to explore!

Michael Pollan's Food Rules from Marija Jacimovic on Vimeo.

New review in SLJ

I don't know why I get so excited when I see my reviews posted in School Library Journal, but I do!  I mean, the whole point of writing them is to see them published, right??  Yet still, every time I run across one in the print version of the magazine, I get a little heart flutter of excitement!  Sort of a Sally Field's reaction--"they really liked it!"

And the latest review published in the Journal was actually a pretty negative.  I wasn't anticipating publication of this one at all.  The book was good but really, in my humble opinion, more appropriate for older, mature readers.  But hey, my words are in print and I'm excited for that!

I may have posted this one before, but just in case I didn't......here it is again....straight from SLJ.

	Pieces Of Us GELBWASSER, Margie. Pieces Of Us. Flux. ISBN 9780738721644. Gr 10 Up. Magazine Section: Grades 5-up
Gr 10 Up—For a few weeks every summer, Julie, Katie, Alex, and Kyle are free of the demands of school and their lives back home when they meet at their grandparents' homes in the Catskills. But this year, events at home begin to interfere with their peaceful lives in the mountains. Alex is angry at his father for abandoning the family and his mother for ignoring him and Kyle. He acts out by having meaningless sex with a succession of girls and leaving them behind. Kyle stays quietly out of sight as much as he can. Katie is a popular cheerleader whose mother dotes on her while her sister, Julie, can do nothing right. But when a violent date rape is caught on tape and goes viral throughout the school, the grief and humiliation is more than Katie can handle. And when Alex finds out about the incident, his anger boils over into his relationship with her, and their idyllic summers are over. This bitterly dark, depressing drama has multiple interlocking story lines that all end unhappily, and the characters, especially Alex, don't change much by the end of the book. The narrative alternates among the four teens, which gives interesting perspectives to the story, but can be confusing. The plotline of too much alcohol mixed into a party atmosphere results in a great cautionary tale but the extremely descriptive sexual violence and repetitious use of raw language make this one suitable for only the most mature readers.—Diana Pierce, Leander High School, TX School Library Journal, March 1, 2012