Blogging Plan

My blogging plan for September and October will deal with the students in the Academically Talented Program (ATP) which consists of approximately 50 students. Students will each create their own blog using a platform agreed upon by the ATP teacher, though I will suggest edublogs.

The types of posts will actually be the same each time because this will all be based on a new program at our school, Reader’s Workshop. Each teacher is allowed to run Reader’s Workshop the way they would like and ATP will be using blogging. Each student will have their own blog which they will post on one day each week, during the same class period as well as being responsible for following 4 other students throughout the remainder of the week.

Student posts will be an update of what they have been reading. They are not allowed to give away the endings to any books they are reading but rather are writing about how their reading is going and can write based on prompts such as “what has surprised you about the story?” or “what do you think is going to happen next?” or they can simply write how they are feeling about the story or their favorite part.

In order to comment on others, students will be put into groups of 5 and will be responsible for commenting on the other 4 students in their group at least one day per week. Student groups will change every semester so that students will get the chance to comment on 16 other students throughout the year. Aside from improving their reading and writing skills they will be reading about various books that other students are reading which will perhaps give them ideas for what they might like to read in the future.

Students will also create Feedly accounts to make it easier for them to see when the other students in their group have added comments to their blogs.

Students will have class time to create their own posts but not necessarily to comment on other students’ blogs, but they can access their blogs from home and work throughout the week.

Reader's Workshop

I am a middle school librarian about to begin my fourth year in my current district. For the first three years we used a program called Accelerated Reader which was a program built around student quizzes. Students would read a book and then take a 5, 10 or 20 question quiz based on that book. The books had reading levels indicated and based on that level and the number of words in the book, the book was given a point value. Students were to earn a certain number of points per semester as a part of their English grade. 

I am very happy that this year, AR will be gone. Not every book in the library had an AR test and students would want to read something but it wouldn't be AR or wouldn't be enough points or they wouldn't be able to finish it by the deadline. It caused a lot of grief in students because they would actually find a book interesting, but feel that they couldn't read it. Sometimes these were reluctant readers and I feel they are missing the opportunity to become very confident readers. 

I understood the reason teachers loved AR. They literally had to check quiz grades and add them into their averages for the rest of the course work. But I also know that kids cheat on AR tests or just read little dinky books that are well below their level just to get the points. They look at reading as a chore because there is little choice involved. Some teachers took it a step further and required certain genres or authors, giving even less choice. 

This year we are beginning Reader's Workshop in lieu of AR and I am so excited. Students will be given time to read in class several times a week and will be allowed to read whatever they choose. Teacher's will be responsible for talking to several students each day about what they are reading, and are even able to tell students to stop reading a book if it isn't to their liking. There is no pressure to finish as long as you are reading. Teachers may choose to have students write in a journal about their reading, or perhaps blog about it, but this will not be a requirement. .The only requirement is to read something. 

I believe that Reader's Workshop is going to change the way all the students in my school read. There will still be reluctance, of course, but to have such low pressure is going to make it easier for a student to find something they enjoy reading, even if it's a magazine. Once students find that they are getting something out of their reading, it will only cause them to want to read more and more! I cannot wait for this year to start!

How are you using your library?

When I tell people I am a librarian, they often ask me if I think I will still have a job for very much longer. I am in a district that really appreciates libraries and I doubt we will be going anywhere. I also know librarians who now have to serve all 5 schools in their district rather than having one per school. I am in a middle school where the students use the library at their leisure, there is no "library class" but I teach classes and projects and research as needed by teachers.

So my question is this: How are you using your school library?

online poll by Opinion Stage

A talk worth listening to

This is a talk by former educator Rita Pierson who is discussing the fact that every student needs a champion. We all need someone to be on our side and Pierson made her students feel like they were the best students in the schools. I cannot imagine how much confidence she instilled in her students by being positive. It's definitely worth listening to!
Find this talk here and explore http://www.ted.com/ for many more wonderful talks.

My Favorite Books

I was never a reader as a kid, or even as a high schooler...and now I am a librarian! The Harry Potter Series by J.K. Rowling is credited with turning a ton of kids into readers, and I have to credit her with turning me into one as well. I was in college when I had to take a young adult literature class. I had to read 35 books and one of them was the first Harry Potter book and I have never looked back.

They are just beautifully written and they aren't just books about magic. They are about friendship, doing what is right, love and family. I literally read all seven books at least once a year and when I am done, I want to read them all again. If I watch one of the movies, it makes me want to go read the book because they have left so much of the beauty out of it.

I love to read many types of books nowadays, but I will never pass over a good fantasy novel thanks to Ms. Rowling. I really do credit her for turning me into a librarian, and I love my job. I love my job so much that the saying "find a job you love and you'll never work a day in your life" was practically written for me.

Below is me reading a bit of my favorite part of book 4, The Goblet of Fire. It definitely has some spoilers, so if you haven't read the books, but plan on it, you might not want to listen. It is just something that makes me tear up every time I read it because it shows the importance of family and how Harry growing up without one is being reprieved a bit in the form of the Weasley family.

Check this out on Chirbit

The Joy of Travel

I never really thought of myself as a traveler, until I talk to people who haven't gone on a vacation in years...YEARS! I think that is so crazy. My husband and I have made it a tradition to travel somewhere new at least once a year (MLK weekend) and we tend to travel aside from that. Here are a few cool places we've been:

It started with Boston. What a cool city! There is really cool history there as well as lots of great bars. We know this especially because it happened to be the coldest January in the history of the world (or so it seemed to us) so walking outside became stopping into various shops and bars to warm up. It was crazy cold! I am a huge fan of taking pictures, but I couldn't even hold my camera in Boston!

So the next year we decided to go south to Florida. What a great idea. Both of us being obsessed with Harry Potter made the decision to go to Harry Potter World in Universal Studios an easy one. It was literally my chance to walk around in my favorite book and I loved every single second of it. Even waiting in line wasn't bad because of all the details in the shop windows and the buildings themselves. 

                              This is me holding Severus Snape's wand. He is one of my favorite characters, whom I named my dog after (Sevy for short)

Later that year, we had a family wedding in Jackson Hole, Wyoming. I could unfortunately only go for a long weekend due to my school year starting, but my husband and his family were able to go to Yellowstone and the Grand Tetons for about 4 days before I arrived. Jackson Hole is an awesome little town with a major country feel to it and the people are so nice. 

                                          This picture is at the house where the wedding was held...what a view!

The next year, it was Nashville...music city. They are not kidding! There is literally music playing from boxes in the streets. There are also bands playing in bars all day long. They start at 10 AM and go well past midnight. We saw so many great acts and being music lovers, we loved every minute of this vacation. I would highly recommend Nashville, TN to anyone who wants a long weekend somewhere. A weekend was enough time to see everything and be completely entertained. 

           This is the recording book in Jack White's Third Man record shop. My husband loves Jack White and records, so this was quite a treat for him!

The last trip we took was our honeymoon on Maui, HI. Nothing can describe how beautiful Hawaii is. It's green on land and blue in the water and the weather is wonderful and even though it tends to be crowded, it's tough to be rude or unfriendly when you're in paradise. Every meal we ate was served up with a view to die for and I would go back in a second, if it weren't so very far away. 

                                             This is Lanii, a small island off Maui where we beached, hiked and ate!

Generational Gaps

In response to this question based on readings about generational gaps I can both agree and disagree that there is a difference in the way things are taught and learned today. But I feel that this is true not because kids today process information differently as was suggested by Prensky (pg. 1) but because they are given and must present information differently. Students can find information very quickly if they are given the correct tools and the know how to find that information but so can so-called digital immigrants. I think Prensky is really making large generalizations about the difference in generations. McKenzie (pg. 4) discusses the ways in which people will feel part of a generation and that it cannot simply be based on age alone. I think this is so important because there are definitely teachers who know more about technology than their students and prove it with their lessons.

As a librarian, I am constantly trying to get my students to use databases rather than Google to find information, but it isn't easy. I think I would have fewer problems with their wanting to Google everything if they knew how to do it properly. If they could use key words to search and know use the lessons on website evaluation that they are taught correctly, it would be an effective method of searching. But they do not search properly for the most part. I don't think it is because they process information differently, but because they do not have the patience to actually read what they are seeing and take it in. The main problem I see with all the new technologies students have is that the technology is there, with them, at all times. They never have to wait for an answer, so when it comes to a paper that needs 5 sources, they just pick the first 5 rather than finding what they really need.

However, if a colleague were to talk to me about how they cannot connect with their students because of the generation gap, I might suggest that they are the ones who need to learn a new style of teaching rather than convincing the students that they are not able to learn if they use the methods they grew up with. There is no way that a teacher would look back at how things were taught a hundred years ago or even twenty years ago and think that nothing needed to change. There are so many different teaching methods out there to choose from that we couldn't possibly all agree on one way to teach, with or without technology.

If we think about something like times tables in math, why wouldn't we make it as easy as possible if a new method is better and students learn better from it. Even a little trick like the 9 times tables:

1 x 9 =  9
2 x 9= 18
3 x 9 =27
4 x 9 =36
5 x 9 =45
6 x 9= 54
7 x 9 =63
8 x 9 =72
9 x 9 =81
10 x 9=90

The numbers in the ones column go from 9 down to zero and the tens column goes from zero up to 9. This is a very simple way to show students a shortcut (and I know people who ask why no one taught them this as a student, even now). This has nothing to do with technology, but it's the same principal; if there is a faster, easier way, learn how to teach it. And that's the bottom line.

A guest post from author K.M. Walton

This week I was lucky enough to have K.M. Walton guest post for me. Mrs. Walton is the YA author of two books, Cracked and Empty (both Simon Pulse). She is currently working on a YA horror novel as well. Mrs. Walton was a teacher for twelve years and kindness and anti-bullying are two things that have always been a huge part of her life.

Check out her website here or follow her blog here.

Want to End Bullying? It's All About the Adults in Schools.
By K.M. Walton

The only way change-for-the-better happens in schools, is if the adults in the building-administration, teachers, support staff-step out of what's expected and shake things up a little (or a lot). Bullying in schools will never stop unless two crucial things happen:

1) Bullies must be engaged in open, emotional, and purposeful conversations-what I call Explicit Conversations-with an adult in the building-discussing the real effects of their behavior. The bully must be brought to a solid understanding of the pain they have caused. It was the only way I made the bullying stop during my time in the classroom.

2) Adults in the school must be 100% invested in stopping bullying in its tracks and subsequently trained on what that looks and sounds like. If you're an educator and this isn't the case in your building, don't let it discourage you. YOU be the adult who is 100% invested in stopping bullying. YOU be the leader. Bottom line, administrators and teachers cannot turn a blind eye. They need to effectively address bullying each and every time it rears its hideous head.

The bullies I've encountered had one thing in common: a lack of empathy. Bullies had not been taught to put themselves in others' shoes, hence the ease with which they tortured their fellow students. Many students need to be explicitly taught how to think of others, to be kind and compassionate. Educators must take the time to seize the teachable moments. How? Have purposeful and crafted conversations. Acknowledge and discuss injustice, racism, hatred, and intolerance-jerk behavior. Show students what compassion looks and sounds like every chance you get. Praise them when they give it a go.

The bottom line: if students are taught to think of other people-to think how other people feel first-before acting or reacting, well, then, those students will forever be empowered to think on their feet. And most importantly to think with their heart and their head, which is the polar opposite of bully behavior.

Anti-bullying was always the core principal of my twelve year teaching career. I never shied away from facing or addressing bullying-I believed it was my job, as the adult, to discuss and address bullying/intolerance/hatred-every single time it reared its hideous head. My entire purpose was that I wanted kids to see each other for the human beings they were, not the labels or assumptions they attached to each other. My young adult novels CRACKED and EMPTY were natural writes for me because of my passion for the subject.

I wrote CRACKED so that my readers could see the devastating impact of bullying, from the perspective of the victim and the bully. I felt there was tremendous power in that.

I wrote EMPTY so that my readers (teen readers especially) could get inside the head of a tortured person and feel her pain. My main character Dell silently suffers throughout the novel. No one around her notices and they all fail her. I want readers to understand that what they say and do to other people in their lives holds power, the power to lift someone from the depths of darkness, or rip them to shreds.

Kindness matters.

There are countless opportunities to revolutionize students' minds. Seize those opportunities.

Not Bullying in Schools

Bullying is a huge issue in schools these days, and since my guest blogger will be discussing adults in schools and bullying, I thought I would comment on the kids in schools who do not bully.

I work in a middle school and that is a time in life where kids are trying to find their place and want to fit in so very badly. Bullying can be a huge problem not only because kids believe that they are better than those they bully or anything like that, but because they see a certain kid or type of kid being bullied and they figure that if they don't join in, they will become a victim.

In my school, we are lucky that bullying has not led to any major issues like kids hurting themselves or others in a major way. Yet. I don't see a lot of bullying in the library but I know it exists. However, I also see a lot of really great kids.

I think as a teacher it is really easy to focus on the students who cause problems. These students are after attention in any way they can get it and so it is no surprise that they get it and drive teachers insane at times. There are also kids who do their work and help others and they don't always get as much credit for being good.

I see these kids in the library very often. I see kids who help other kids look for a book or help them with a project. I also see a lot of kids who make a point to say hello to students with special needs and I see it make their day. It doesn't take much to be a good person, especially in middle school, but that doesn't mean it is easy.

I also know some of the parents who volunteer their time in my library. I know a woman whose daughter comes home and talks to her about how she can let her friend know that she doesn't want to be his girlfriend, but really wants to be his friend. She talks to her mom about her friends talking about one another and how it is not the kind of person she wants to be. This girl also looks like your typical "popular" girl. She is pretty and does well in classes and is a great cheerleader...she just chooses not to be a "Mean Girl" stereotype but instead be good and kind.

I also see students who help teachers and their classmates with such big smiles on their faces that I know they are just good kids who are making the most of every day. .

I know that bullying is a problem, but I think one method of fixing it is to give these students I have mentioned a chance to be looked up to and admired so that everyone else can see that being good is easier than they think.

And Tango Makes Three

My previous post was about censorship and challenged books. I work in a middle school so there are certain books that I just don't have, even though I know they would circulate well. For example, in my post about the top ten books, I know that John Green's The Fault in our Stars would have made the top ten.

But I don't have that book in my library. There are teenagers who have sex and there is explicit language and some of my students are eleven years old. That being said, if a students asks me if it's good, I tell them it is wonderful and they should read it if it's alright with their parents. Am I right in this situation? Or should I purchase this book for my library?

In my censorship post, I discuss the book And Tango Makes Three. This is based on the true story of zoo workers who notice that two male penguins, Roy and Silo, seem to only want to spend their time with one another. Perfect circumstances arise when another penguin couple hatches two eggs and can only care for one, so the zoo workers give Roy and Silo the extra egg. They take turns caring for it and give it the same love and care as all the other penguins in the zoo. And then Tango is born and they are a family.

This book was on the challenged list 6 times due to homosexual themes. I understand that some people do not like homosexuals (I don't understand why but I know it's a thing). But by challenging this book, what are you saying to the student who grew up with two moms or two dads and finally gets to read a story about a beautiful couple who basically raised a baby that would have died without them?

As I taught this lesson to a class it came to my attention that one of my students was raised by two moms. I only knew because someone I worked with knows these women, not because there was anything different about their son, not because he was teased or asked questions about how his life was so different. Because it wasn't different. Every student I have shown this book to basically thinks it is adorable and wonderful. Not once has a student brought up the fact that a baby penguin was raised by two male penguins.

The real discussion I want to generate from this post is that I don't actually have the book And Tango Makes Three in my library because I don't really do pictures books as I teach in a middle school. When I teach this lesson, I borrow it from our elementary school library. I noticed, though, that the book is not on the shelves for students to check out, but rather is stacked in "professional reading" so that only teachers can check it out. This school is grades k-2, so I want to know what you think of the book being labeled as "professional" rather than being available to all students.

Censorship

Each year in September, the American Library Association celebrates Banned Books Week. During this week, I also discuss censorship with some of my students. We discuss mostly censorship in books and libraries unless the conversation takes a turn (which is always fun) butt he biggest impact is always the last book I show them. First let me start with some information.

Intellectual freedom is basically the right to access information and express ideas, despite the fact that others may not like what you are saying or researching.

Banned Books Week exists to let people know that they ought to be free to read whatever they would like to read.

To start, here is some information about Banned Books Week

A huge fan of book burning was Adolf Hitler. He wanted all books burned that were "un-German" and went against the volk or German way of thinking. This link explains what books he thought should be burned as well as a list of reasons that books should be burned.

There are always going to be people who think that certain books are wrong. A very popular book that we discuss in my class is the Harry Potter series by J.K. Rowling. One question I ask my students is "how do you think authors feel about their book being challenged, or even burned?". They always come up with the same answers.

1. You must buy the book to burn it, so you are giving the author sales
2. You are making other people take notice of a book by publicizing a burning or challenge.

Here are some links to Harry Potter challenges and information.

American Library Association-Harry Potter was on the challenged list starting in 1999 until 2003

Harry Potter Book Burning-This took place in New Mexico in 2001 claiming Potter to be satanic.

Harry Potter and the Koran-This article discusses the New Mexico incident as well as a Pastor with plans to burn the Koran

The above begins a discussion about Pastor Terry Jones, who wanted to burn 2,998 copies of the Koran, on e for each victim of the 9/11 attack on its 10th anniversary. Below are two more links about what Jones was planning and the reaction in 2011 as well as another attempt in 2013.

2011 Burning- His first attempt

2013-Found with kerosene soaked copies of the Koran

I always end my lesson by showing students a list of frequently challenged picture books, found here.

Most of them seem silly to my middle school students, but we discuss how The Rabbit's Wedding was challenged in the Civil Rights era which is why a white bunny and a black bunny should not be getting married.

However, the last book I show them is And Tango Makes Three. This is the true story of 2 male penguins who hatch an egg and raise the baby together. It was on the challenged list in 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010 and 2012 for homosexuality.

Please also read my discussion page to talk about censorship more openly. Particularly the topic covered in And Tango Makes Three.

Top Books 2013-2014

I am a librarian in a middle school and though I wish there was more diversity in the books my students read, they really tend to like the same authors. On the other hand, as long as they are reading, then I am happy.

I wanted to look at the top books for the whole year as well as the top books for the second half of the year due to the fact that new books come in and the students get very excited about series books coming out. So much that I often take time to run to the local book store and buy them rather than ordering them and making the kids wait an extra day!

The Top Ten Books of the 2013-2014 School Year.

10. Insurgent (Roth)
9. Prodigy (Lu)
8. The Lightning Thief (Riordan)
7. Divergent (Roth)
6. Diary of a Wimpy Kid: The Third Wheel (Kinney)
5. Catching Fire (Collins)
4. Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Cabin Fever (Kinney)
3. Legend (Lu)
2. Hunger Games (Collins)
1. The Boy Who Dared (Bartoletti)

As you may or may not know, 6 out of the ten books above are from the dystopian genre which was huge this year. I personally read all 6 of those books as well and I see the draw for kids. They always want the next book in the series and they tend to have multiple holds, which I love. The number 1 book was written by Susan Campbell Bartoletti, who visited our school in February. I must add that her book was not number 1 because she visited, but rather I wanted her to visit because her book was so very popular among my students.

The Top Ten Books of 2014 (January-June)

10. Catching Fire (Collins)
9. Insurgent (Roth)
8. Allegiant (Roth)
7. The Lightning Thief (Riordan)
6. Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Cabin Fever (Kinney)
5. Diary of a Wimpy Kid: The Third Wheel (Kinney)
4. Hunger Games (Collins)
3. Divergent (Roth)
2. Legend (Lu)
1. The Boy Who Dared (Bartoletti)

Not as much difference as I thought there might be, but Allegiant (the third book in the Divergent series) jumped in and I believe that the final book in the series caused book 1, Divergent, to move up from 7 to 3 because now everyone wants to know how it ends. I loved it!