Laptops, Day 4: so kids, what do you think?

Before the end of term on Friday this week, the school has decided to survey the students to see how they're going with their laptops at this early stage.  A couple of classes did this as a group talkytalky exercise in class this morning; on the basis of that, I refined the survey to fine-tune some questions, and every year 9 student has been given the opportunity to participate via email.

Here are the questions we've asked - they are open-ended by design, to give room for a variety of answers (although I know it's more time-consuming to collate):

• These are things I like about my laptop:
• These are things I don’t like about my laptop:
• These are things that haven’t worked:
• Please note any of these that have been fixed, and if so how (eg. teacher advice, TSO assistance, a friend helped me, it worked the next time I tried it):
• These are sites/software I would like to have unblocked:
• Schoolwork related:
• Personal interest (eg. MySpace, MSN):
• The school guidelines (outlined on Friday) were clear? Yes / No / Mostly
• If you chose No or Mostly, please add what could be done to improve them:
• Is there anything else that you think should be added to the school guidelines?
• I have used my laptop in class in the following subjects:
• With my laptop, I hope that I can: (if you mention replacing books, please be specific –eg. workbooks, textbooks)
• If I was in charge of the laptop program for the Department of Education, I would:

 As we speak, replies are rolling into my inbox.  I kinda sorta hope all 200+ of them don't feel compelled to reply...

From the talkytalky this morning, the most popular answer to the final question after "unblock sites like MSN and My Space" was, interestingly, let people have them in any colour they want: which is a marked lack of enthusiasm for a perfectly pleasant metallic red and faintly bewildering in that they are free to personalise their laptops with stickers etc, so they can cover up the offending red.  (Kids.  Some days they're shallow enough to paddle in, aren't they??!!).

Cheers

Ruth

PS If you use or base a survey on the list above, can you please credit its source?  Thank you.

Laptops Day 3: some days are diamonds

Already the day 1 lunchtime library laptop mayhem has settled down.  As you would expect, the kids who want to run around at lunchtime and play ball are back at that.  Those who have come into the library have learned that I am a regularly-patrolling, interested observer (so if they're planning mischief, the library maybe ain't the best place to be laptopping).  I've had discussions with some kids about copyright (I'm sure this movie on my USB is legal Miss....No kiddo, I'm sure it's not!) and so forth.

Period 2, a teacher booked in to do a lesson we had jointly planned.  It was based on a website - we'd had the website unblocked by the DET a month or two ago, so it was fine.  The teacher had already had the students set up a notebook in One Note for this subject, and a page with the correct URL of the site.

The best laid plans...

Problem 1: about 1/3 of the laptops wouldn't connect to the internet.  I checked the wireless bars on them - most were showing four white bars, which is dandy-fine.  A couple had these red-x-ed out (hmmm, dunno what that means apart from it oughta find the wireless and it isn't).  The class was the only one in the library using wireless, so there were plenty of access spots available (given that we have 60).

Problem 2: any of the laptops which could get onto the internet could not load the site properly due to a Java problem.  All-righty then.  Bit of a problem, this, since the whole point of the lesson was the Java-based application on the page.  I've been loaned a pool laptop (ie. the same one, same configuration as the kids have, not a teacher laptop) and when I logged in to that, it connected to the internet with no problems and loaded the site fully.  The teacher logged in on her teacher laptop and again the site worked, no hassles.  Hmmmm.  A tad irritating.

We called the TSO (Technical Support Officer) who was free and came down and spent the rest of the lesson tweaking individual machines re the internet problem.  The Java problem is apparently one with Internet Explorer and we asked if this could be addressed as soon as possible.  Which means that, for now, the lesson as planned is impossible to do.

[insert naughty word, said in the mind not with the mouth]

It took a little while to establish the widespread nature of the problem - checking the URL entered and so forth.  Other parts of the site are still blocked, and google searches to get to the site (students tried this when the given URL didn't load properly) came up as blocked too.  By the time we had worked out how badly things had gone awry, a number of students had switched their attention to other entrancing possibilities of their new red babies.

Plan B lesson - one always needs a plan B.  We got the students to look up the artist we were focusing on, using Google images, to see his work.  My laptop travelled around the class so they could see what they should have been doing and how it worked.  Salvage work in progress...

But we really had done our homework before the lesson, and couldn't, as far as I'm aware, have anticipated a multiple failure of this kind.  It was, as you can imagine, on the frustrating end of frustrating for the teacher, for the class, and for me.

So we'll have to pick ourselves up, dust ourselves off and start all over again.  And make sure we always have a Plan B lesson (or two) up our sleeves.

Cheers

Ruth

The happy life of teacher librarians: love your work

I know I bang on with the phrase, 'the happy life of teacher librarians'. I have of course all sorts of agendas for this, but one is to say, look, it can be HEAPS of fun to be a teacher librarian. An article by Charles Waterstreet in the Sydney Morning Herald on the weekend had an apt section quoting Kahlil Gibran:

...when pursuing a career, one should always choose one that coincides with passions, and not just with convenience, the wishes of parents or perhaps even financial security. If you have a job, then love the one you have.


The great Lebanese-born philosopher and poet Kahlil Gibran said it best:

Work is love made visible.


And if you cannot work with love but only with distaste, it is better that you should leave your work and sit at the gate of the temple and take alms of those who work with joy.


If you bake bread with indifference, you bake a bitter bread that feeds but half man's hunger.


And if you grudge the crushing of the grapes, your grudge distils a poison in the wine.


And if you sing though as angels, and love not the singing, you muffle man's ears to the voices of the day and the voices of the night.

If we show by our actions and words and the atmosphere we create in our libraries every day that we are happy to be there, it cannot but make our libraries better places to work, better places to visit, more effective in our schools (and it kills off the disappointingly persistent cliche of the cranky librarian).  One of the most important things any teacher brings to a classroom is their enthusiasm for being there.  I know I'm not perfect on this - it's something I have to remember every day.

And thus one can continue working on the happy life of teacher librarians.

(Here endeth...)

Cheers

Ruth

Laptops, day two (+ 7 things to try)

Day two: not as frenetic as day 1, thanks be to all the gods and little fishes.

In the library, we were busy, but not overwhelmed with laptoppers during breaks.  As there are 60 wireless access points in the library, and some of these may be accessible/within range from outside the library, it's not always possible to tell if an internet connection fails because the 60 spots are gone, or if it's a computer problem.

I showed a number of students how to auto-hide their taskbar; on the small acreage of a netbook screen, even half an inch is valuable.

Several students I know to have A Record of Evil tried to hide in the senior study.  I am of course loath to think ill of anyone who would try to hide in the most hideable corner of the library (and Year 9 students who don't have senior study access until they are in Year 11).  They and a number of other students were doing a bunch of Bluetoothing of files between themselves.  One of those laptop things which can be used for Good or Evil.  Unhelpfully for them I was doing the library rounds very actively, and seemed to be popping by to look over their shoulders at their screens in a way that must have seemed quite inconveniently frequent (if it was Evil they had in mind).  Now why would you think their shifty body language might have prompted my interest?

The majority of the laptoppers were engaged in innocent amusement, in changing the colour of their displays in the control panel (yay!  I'm an emo!  I can make lots of stuff black!), playing quiet games, accessing the internet.  Lots of footy images as desktop backgrounds on boys' computers.  One boy looking up pictures of cute kittens (which is a tad unusual, 'cute kittens' and 'cute puppies' more often being popular image searches among Year 7 girls - but hey, to each their own). 

The gender balance on our desktop computers in the library is reasonably even; our laptoppers at lunch today were nearly all boys.  Despite the accounts I've heard from some other schools, lunchtime in the library was nothing like an invasion of the Visigoths, thanks be.  The structure we have in place, the guidelines outlined to them on Friday, must help in clarifying the many things that are OK and the few things that are not.

One thing I had done last week for the staff meeting was prepare a list of seven things any Year 9 teacher could try with their Year 9 class, madly hungry to do stuff on their new red babies.  This is designed to be general, and simple.  There is certainly specific subject-related software that could be used as well by particular faculties, but I wanted to focus on existing technology, general computer knowledge and suggest activities that could be done whether or not the teacher themselves had a DER laptop (we got 27 teacher laptops in the T1 rollout, for 70 staff.)

If you'd like to read 7 THINGS TO TRY WITH THE LAPTOPS, WEEK ONE, then you'll be charmed to know I've put a copy in Google Docs.  Click on the link above to read it.  I've had a number of requests for it - if you use it in your school, please leave my name on it. (It is a copyright document:  I am happy for it to be used for non-profit educational purposes by schools/education systems.  Any other use, please contact me first.)

One of the Geography teachers used this as a template/prompt, and her class was very happy to be using their laptops in class straightaway.  For some other teachers, the list was a springboard to thinking of what they could/might do in connection with our laptopped-up Year 9 students.

So we got through day two, and it's onwards to day three.  Some stuff came up in class time today to which I had immediate answers, others were things referred on to the TSO (Technical Support Officer).

Cheers

Ruth

Oh brave new world: laptops, day one

It was announced on assembly on Thursday last week that the Year 9 laptops would be distributed on Friday.  These are the netbooks being issued as part of the Digital Education Revolution, a federally funded program.  I thought I"d document here what day one was like; this is such a change we're ushering in,

Friday morning you would have thought Santa Claus was coming multiplied to the power of ten.  The buzz around the school was palpable - not just year nine students.  Before school in the library, the noise level/fizz was significantly higher than usual, fuelled anticipation boiling over.

Up to the period after lunch, the library was a zoo (ie. madly busy).  Booked classes were coming in as per bookings, plus every period brought a new wave of Year 9 students to receive their laptops.  Each handout procedure involved a bit of logging in/checking.  Our computer co-ordinator had raided many Coles supermarkets for 99c recyclable bags (some Simpsons, some Harry Potter, some High School Musical) and so each student got a bag containing the laptop, charger, handbook etc. (good idea).  The laptops and so forth had been stored in our library security lockup, and so there was mad buzzing in and out of there all day, bags and boxes and students coming to ask questions.  One of my assistants stayed at the borrowing desk by the security room door all day to control traffic there.

By lunchtime they all had their laptops, and the library (where there are 60 wireless access points) was full of kids.  I was grateful that the computer co-ordinator stayed around all lunchtime, so was available for questions/assistance.

It's a learning curve for us all.  Lunchtime was crazy-busy, loud, fizzing with excitement.  I figure you go with it, day one, and just delineate the lines as is necessary without stomping on the joy (a rude little twerp is a rude little twerp regardless, as I had cause to point out to one impertinent boy).  One thing I did decide pretty quickly was that our reading retreat area - which only seats about 18 - is going to remain for (book) reading - laptoppers have plenty of desks/tables to use and I am keen to keep this area for comfy silent individual reading, to serve those students who love it for this.

Some students couldn't log on to the internet.  Judging by the number of students in the library, it was almost certainly because we had well over 60 laptoppers in.  So memo for self and students: log in early if you want to be in the 60.  The range of the wireless units is such that they are likely to find that outside the library they'll find 'hot spots', so it won't need 60 inside the library to mean those 60 access options are used up.  Not all the school is wireless yet, but it won't take them long to work out where in the playground they can find other hot spots.

As I have had a major role in drafting the school's laptop policy, I was detailed, in the period after lunch, to talk about this to all of Year 9 together.   I went through the guidelines we had established (these had been discussed at executive and staff meetings) and aimed to do this in a positive way.

To start, I asked them all, "Who here knows how to drive a car?" (Bear in mind none of these students are old enough for a learner's permit, but many would have access, on their own property/acreage or others', in our semi-rural location, to try driving on private land).  As I expected, lots of hands. 

"Leave your hand up if you have driven a car."  Still plenty.

"Leave your hand up if you have driven a car on a public road."  All hands vanish.  "OK, so that's what we're looking at here.  There's what is possible, and what is acceptable and appropriate."

And on I went; but this analogy did seem to be a useful one to make.  The guidelines/responsibilities are based on the NSW Department of Education and Training documents and school policies.  We will be revisiting our draft document about a month into next term, to see if it's serving our purposes or if there is anything else we need to clarifyadd/revise. 

Tough audience, I must admit, over 200 students crammed into the library so they could see our screen (I had prepared a PowerPoint, so there was something for their eyes to see, rather than just having them listen to me) - they were BUSTING to be on their laptops.  On the other hand, it's useful to have clarified the guidelines/boundaries right at the start, so we all know where we are.  And I appreciated the round of applause the students gave me at the end (however much of it was fuelled by relief that I had finished!!).

Based on info from other schools where the laptops have already been rolled out, there are challenges ahead for the library, during break times for example.  The way things are this week is likely to still reflect the initial excitement.  I'm sure some students will test the boundaries.  We could see, amid Friday's zoo, that the seminar-style layout of tables in nonfiction was working well.  Likewise some students just settled into a corner with their laptop.  My current thinking is that general library rules still apply, so a bunch of noisy gamesters can hie themselves out the door, but if a kid is being quiet and not disturbing others, then they can carry on.  As I spoke with them all on Friday, I made the distinction between the playground (out there) and the library as a learning space (in here, where I was going through the rules/responsibilities).  The Principal has reiterated that the library is my domain where I am delegated to set the rules/standards of behaviour. 

We have clarified with our students that they are to respect copyright, so pirated games/video are unacceptable anywhere.  I am sure in this first week (it's our last week of term) there will be further clarification/reminding happening.  I'll wait to see how big the crowd gets at lunchtime- I don't want to restrict numbers, but at the same time I do want to preserve an acceptable.manageable environment (for reasons of safety/doable supervision, for starters).  This week, I might have both my school assistants (I have 1.5 each day) on duty at lunchtime, so we are all three on deck (normally it's one plus me).  I'm not sure what extra teacher support I may get at lunchtime, if any.

It's a learning curve.  We'll see how we go, and look for a path forward that serves us all.  Right now, that student excitement is a great opportunity in our classrooms, the challenge being to build on it and harness it to enhance their learning and thus their opportunities in life.

It's an adventure! 

Cheers

Ruth

The happy life of teacher librarians: unavailable for spooks and spirits

A troop of five or so boys, from Year 7 or maybe, but less likely, Year 8, accosted me at lunchtime.

Miss...

Yup?

Can we borrow a paper cup?

And why would you be wanting that?

(He brandishes a piece of paper, somewhat folded/squished, with some sort of boxes/writing sketched rather roughly on it)

We've made a ouija board.

Really.

Yes.  (The spokesboy looks a tad embarrassed by this, but the rest look hopeful)

I'm so sorry boys, but the library's been [my brain scrabbles for the correct term, which is eluding me.  I settle for a substitute, meanwhile pasting an appropriately regretful expression on my face] sanitised, I'm afraid, so ouija boards won't work in here.

Oh.  Oh well.  (He scrunches up the piece of paper, tosses it in a bin, and accepting my words at face value they head out of the library cheerfully enough in search of alternative entertainment to fill in the rest of the lunch break).

The happy life of teacher librarians - minus the spirit world!

Cheers

Ruth

Twilight - chuckle and think

The chuckle: inspired by this new (and let's face it, pretty much shameless! cover for a US edition of Wuthering Heights:

...the same blog which featured the above cover snark then ran a contest for Twilight-ized covers of whatever you fancied... and the winner was this:

Excellently amusing.  You can view all the entries here, (but might find a couple unworksafe).  Hmmm.  Does this contest have school library potential?  Maybe so... (and elsewhere on this blog, in what is, sometimes to my chagrin, the most popular single entry EVAH, you'll find info on Twilight fonts).

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While you may intially blench at a blog called SmartBitchesTrashyBooks (the one which ran the above contest), don't sniff too fast.  Among the romance reviews, there's some well-thought-out commentary on teenage fiction, among other things, and reviews of e-book readers (more than I've found in any one other place).  They're also quite often very quick to raise/alert one to book/publishing related issues.  OK, and I'm usually very amused when they snark romance novel covers (which as you might expect are oh-so-snarkable, billowing shirts and mullets and so forth). 

The think: Laura Miller's article on Salon.com, Touched by a vampire, written around the time when Breaking Dawn was published, is a really well-thought out analysis of the appeal of Twilight - Bella's blandness (leaving room for the reader to insert herself), Edward's perfection:  Even to a reader not especially susceptible to its particular scenario, Twilight succeeds at communicating the obsessive, narcotic interiority of all intense fantasy lives.

Worth reading.

Cheers

Ruth

The happy life of teacher librarians: in which I think I am put in my place

Helpful email from teacher librarian:

Dear Year 7 Students,
As you know, you have a Music assignment coming up, on Musical Instruments. As part of this assignment you need to prepare a bibliography.
To help you with this, you will find in the attached file the library information sheet on how to prepare a bibliography. It tells you how do this for all sorts of resources, including websites as well as books.
You can use the format in this information sheet to make a bibliography for any school subject, not just Music.
If you have any questions, check with your Music teacher or Ms Buchanan in the library.
We also have some musical instrument books set aside in the library to help you - these are being kept behind the desk for library use only, so they are available for everyone.
All the best with your assignment!
Cheers
Ms Buchanan

Prompt reply from a Year 7 student:

thanks miss and guess what i know how to already

She's a sweet girl, and I like her confidence.  And am chuckling at being put in my place!!!

The happy life of teacher librarians: remember that if you email them, they may email back!

Cheers

Ruth

The happy life of teacher librarians: a dusty day

Like many of us today, home and the journey to school and school itself were brown experiences, dust in the air, the sky brown too, the wind whirling dust and visibility reduced; the colour of the day oddly orange as the sun struggled through.  Dust from the inland brought by gale force winds has changed the look of the day and the world around us in an unusual way.  Even in my office you can (barely) smell/taste it. 


Before school conversation:

Miss?

Yup?

The dust is scary...

Nope, it's dust. Brown stuff.  Flying dirt.

I guess...We'll be allowed to go home if it gets too dusty, won't we?

And that would be why?

Because it's dusty.

Right. Because it's dusty, we'll send you out INTO the dust to walk home instead of keeping you at school where we have buildings that you can be in, protected from the dust.

Oh. It wouldn't be sensible to send us home then, would it?

No.

I guess not. There isn't a rule about sending us home if it gets too dusty, like the one about when it's too hot?

Not to my knowledge.

Oh well.

You can always hose your lawn after school and see if you get a rates notice from Dubbo, as a man said on the radio this morning...

(they take a moment to digest this, then chuckle).



Cheers

Ruth

PS If you'd like to see a gallery of pictures like the one below, the Sydney Morning Herald has one, including this unusual view of the Sydney Opera House - click here.

Anticipated reading/book covers

There are a couple of books I have on order for myself (not the library) and am eagerly looking forward to reading when they're published.  Or rather, when they're published and I have a copy in my hands.  Likely to be the upcoming holidays, VERY nice timing.

The covers form an interesting insight into how one book can look quite different in different markets.

UK covers (the usual ones in Australia, unless you order other editions specially, either at a bookshop or online):

US covers for the same two books:

Would you think them the same books?

And why is it that I find myself preferring one over another, when the INSIDES are the same (bar American English spelling vs English English spelling)???  I'm also amused that one set is blue and black, sorta kinda, while the other set is black and blue, sorta kinda.

I've read the rest of the Gabaldon Outlander series, and have been looking forward to book seven (the first book is Cross Stitch if you want the UK edition, or Outlander for the US one) so this one I'm not likely to dislike - it's a pretty safe bet for me.

The Time Traveler's Wife is one of my favourite books, but Niffenegger has such an original imagination that while I wouldn't not read Her Fearful Symmetry, I'm not sure what to expect.  And I do hope I enjoy it too.

Both are due out in Australia in early October, just in time for the NSW school holidays, hurrah hurray!

i LOVE reading! too. (as per yesterday's blog entry).  And the other books by these authors have taken me great places, intriguing story-journeys.

Cheers

Ruth

Images from bookdepository.com and amazon.com

i LOVE reading

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i LOVE reading!! I love where the book takes u...so beautiful :)
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She's in Year 9, and she's not alone.  Who says teenagers don't read books?

Cheers

Ruth

PS.  Maybe this has bookmark potential...I've been mulling on a series based on student comments...

GIFSL* 44: : Duchamp seating for the masses...

Did you know that the artist Marcel Duchamp spent some of his working life as a librarian?  And that his 'readymade' work of art, Fountain, has (as more than one art teacher commented) a counterpart (homage? echo?) in my office?

No, not an exact replica.  Sheesh.  But this:

...is part of my office furniture that gets regular use.  I own these - bought them over time from op shops, junk shops, garage sales, wherever.  While I have a chair in my office for visitors, I quickly learned that you only need three or five kids telling you things and wanting to talk about cabbages and kings, or schoolwork, or the outrage of Disney buying Marvel, or whatever, to know that standard size chairs aren't the answer.  With these, my small office can seat five extra kids - and when they're not in use, the stools are Duchamped from the overhead beam.  Practical Art! (I'm happy to acknowledge that it was one of my school assistants who had the inspiration of hanging these up).

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I know not every teacher librarian has an office - but I do know that my glass box at the library entrance has become part of how I teach and work.  Can't count the number of times every day, every week, throughout the year, that I have conversations here, hunt things on the computer here, think through projects, advise, listen, offer tissues, dispense advice, dispense discipline, solve problems, encourage, mentor.... door open, door closed (sometimes it's so valuable to be able to close the door).  

I have a few oddities hung on the wall, too, personalising the space and providing conversation starters with kids and staff.  Sadly, I'm given to lying about them (yup, that old photo is Great Aunt Grace...).  Maybe one day I'll tell you about the photo that's part of the biggest lie - I've had a LOT of fun with that (and so have the kids who've worked it out and then participated in its perpetuation...!!)

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It's part of our work, though, isn't it?  The daily meeting and greeting and listening and engaging in lots of small ways, sometimes educational, sometimes welfare, often both.  Those mismatched stools earn their keep.

Cheers

Ruth

*GIFSL = Good Ideas for School Libraries

GIFSL* 43: : The Twilight cabinet

One of the faculties around school took a cabinet off a wall they wanted for something else - and did I want the cabinet, because they didn't?  oooo yes please.
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Hmmm, and where will I put it in a library that doesn't have a lot of spare walls? (oh, and also has brick walls, with bricks which don't like being drilled into At All).  After some cheerful negotiation with Eeyore the general assistant (a lovely man with a sadly lugubrious nature) and his partner in crime, Tigger, I manage to persuade them that the wall by the stairs would be dandy.  And no, we won't have to move the existing (adjacent) noticeboard. And yes, I know some of it will be behind the wire of the staircase side, but this also means it will be easy to look at things in it.  Pretty please?
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They fixed it up over the last holidays.  It's a bog-standard DET pinboard-backed wall cabinet from school furniture.  Two tiny problems: the key to um, open it appears to be missing....
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...Eeyore, bless him, finds one and one only that we dare not lose...
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...and it won't open.  Tigger fixes that one with a bit of brute strength and soap on the runners. (He's less afraid of breaking glass than I am).
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Yay!  We have a cabinet.
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Now what to put in it?
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Well, I could use it for all sorts of worthy educational displays.  Yup.  May well do that, on occasion.
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But for now, it is devoted to material considered Extremely Worthy by the kids: Twilightery.
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And do the kids love it, and pore over it?  Oh my giddy aunt, yes!  It is selected material - I aim to avoid gossip mag stuff about private lives, and put in things about the film and its making.  Thus, sometimes, I'll just use a picture I come across, and skip the article altogether.  The Twilight fans love it and the Twilight haters are able to vent in a very healthy way, while I chuckle at both.

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It feels, amusingly, like I'm papering a teenage bedroom wall, or something like.  But it makes the library kid-friendlier, addresses something that really interests them, and turns a dead spot (the brick wall sans wall cupboard) into a feature.  And the locked cabinet lets the pieces survive...

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I know I'm not the only TL with a Twilight display (but I won't name names!).  Even if you don't have a cabinet.  A window? Somewhere?

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btw, the current issue of Dolly magazine has an extra mag with it - a Twilight special 'fanpire magazine' devoted entirely to Twilightery (and drooling over the film's stars).  The kids are enjoying that too (our Dolly magazines get literally read to pieces anyway).

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Cheers

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Ruth

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PS I was of course astonished to find that my picnic accoutrements are so like those of Edward and Bella, as per one of the pictures there - I just will not stir from the house without a zebra skin rug, Persian carpet and assorted lavish cushions.  I mean, would you??????  !!!!! 

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Libraries, information and the future (starting now?)

Helene Blowers links to a recent CNN article on the future of libraries.

While thanks to the King's High School's excellent library blog
I watched this YouTube video, Information R/evolution.



maybe an option for a quick think-moment at a staff meeting?

YouTube URL http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-4CV05HyAbM

Cheers

Ruth

Last book in Garth Nix series/ latest Cherub/Ranger's Apprentice 9

The other day a student asked when the last book would be out in the Garth Nix series that begins with Mister Monday.  According to my brilliant local bookshop, February 2010.  So the kidlets will have to hold their breath for a wee while longer.
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Interesting to see that the latest book in the Cherub series (by Robert Muchamore) has been issued in hardback first.  OK for libraries, in terms of durability (if they've made it that far in the series, the readers aren't going to be put off by a hardback) but disappointing in terms of limiting its availability/affordability to kids.  
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Another book on my reservations/prepublication list is the ninth book in the Ranger's Apprentice series - bunch of keen readers waiting for that one, called Halt's Peril.  Out in early November, much to their delight.
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Cheers
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Ruth

I'm a happy camper!... (Year 12 present)

Can't say any more yet, and I will show you a photo when the secret's out...but the Year 12 present to our school this year is coming to the library to live.  I was in conversation with the Year 12 year adviser, and happened to mention something I'd like for here (but couldn't afford), and thought she might like, and the students too, and had any decision on the year group's present been made? (Always a useful conversation to have in Term 3, if your year 12 group commonly gives a present to the school...and you have something appropriate in mind.  Sometimes you win, sometimes you don't, but if you say nuffin, nuffin happens).
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And it hadn't.  But it was.  She liked the idea VERY much.  It's something that can be a part of the school for all the kids, long-term.  It has the approval of the year group too, and the main element of it arrived in the post yesterday.
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WOOHOOO!
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Now what she doesn't know is the present the Year 12 students are planning for her, and which I'm facilitating with space/assistance next week...
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Plots and plans!  The happy life of teacher librarians...
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Cheers
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Ruth
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PS vague clues in the tags on this entry...but the reveal has to wait till it's finished and formally presented at the end of term.

The happy life of teacher librarians visits New Zealand

At the King's High School in New Zealand, Mrs Schaumann is certainly enjoying the happy life of teacher librarians - I chuckled at the delightful entries in her blog about the Tuesday lunchtime tradition in her library, and what happens when a teacher gets hold of a useful website (with printables) and a pair of scissors...
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Her blog's over there in my bloglist, if you would like to keep an ongoing eye on it (as I do!).
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Yay for the happy life of teacher librarians everywhere!
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Cheers
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Ruth
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Twilight New Moon: third trailer

The third trailer for Twilight: New Moon has just been released - more Volturi/Italy (with Alice channelling sixties headscarf style) and so forth and so on.  The fans will be happy!





TrailerSpy URL: http://www.trailerspy.com/trailer/5348/The-Twilight-Saga-New-Moon-Trailer

Cheers

Ruth

GIFSL* 41: bins

To borrow a line from Paul Kelly, From little things, big things grow...
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One of the first things I noticed in this library when I tottered through the door nearly ten years ago (and I do mean tottered, it was one of the worst looking libraries I'd ever seen, and little used) was the bins.

Not a major issue, you might think.  But the bins, then, were old, thumped and battered ribbed metal wastepaper baskets - that was the few better ones - or cut-down plastic chemical containers, recycled to this purpose.  Recycling has of course its important place, but the bins really bothered me.  Symptomatic of 'it'll do' and 'it doesn't matter' and a whole lot of things that were wrong with the place.  Not the biggest place to begin, but I scouted out a replacement - cheerful plastic wastepaper bins such as you can buy at Ikea or Bunnings for well under $5 each - and every darn one of those shabby bins left the building.  I've since had to add a few more, here and there, and so we have a mix of blue, red and white ones (depending on the colour/s available at time of buying).  It's an easy and cheap fix to try.

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There ended up being more bins in the library than there had been before - only a few more for our lovely cleaner to have to empty each day, but carefully located so it's easy to find one and put rubbish in there rather than not in a bin.  Which also enhances the library environment.

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I've never had a kid comment on the nice bins, but even such a little detail is part of the library's message.  Nice things here.  Setting a standard to make it pleasant and spick.  We care about this place, and how it is for you.  Right down to details such as nice bins.  Welcome.
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How are the bins at your place? 
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Cheers
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Ruth
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*GIFSL: Good ideas for school libraries
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Discussing DRM (and e-books)

Even the slightest acquaintance with discussion swirling around e-books will likely trip you over the idea of DRM, or Digital Rights Management.  Publishers like it because it means recompense for work.  Readers range from acceptance to active hostility, when DRM encoding means an e-book usefulness/ability to be read may be severely limited (eg. to few file types, or a single e-reader device etc).  Naomi Novik, author of the Temeraire series, participated in an interesting discussion on DRM: Will E-book Anti-Piracy Technology Hurt Readers on NPR.  Read a summary of the discussion, or listen to it in full, here.
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Cheers,
Ruth
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Where the Wild Things Are: Spike and Maurice

Trailerspy labels this as the 'international trailer', but it's more like a mini-featurette, mostly with author Maurice Sendak and director Spike Jonze talking about the making of the film.





Link: http://www.trailerspy.com/trailer/5223/Where-the-Wild-Things-Are-International-Trailer
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If you want more on the film, there's also a long, detailed article by Saki Knafo in the NY Times about bringing this book to the screen - read it here.

Cheers

Ruth
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Twilight in 30 seconds (by bunnies)

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It's a little while since I dropped in on this site, and golly gee, I hadn't caught up with their version of Twilight. My goodness, it's efficient - barely misses a major plot point, and does it with fabulous style (and bunnies).  The image above has Edward arriving at the canteen.  Below, the prom.

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AWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWW.

Hard to tell the difference, isn't it?

image source

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If you haven't checked out their other 30-seconds-with-bunnies films, well, you should.  Your English teachers might like them too.  And maybe these could be added to a trailerfest?

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Cheers,

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Ruth

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The happy life of teacher librarians: burgled

Being burgled?  Not fun.
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Cleaning up the mess/broken glass? Not fun either.
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Thinking how much worse it might have been? Most important.
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Having, quite inadvertently, acquired the world's 'coolest' crime scene tape*?
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PRICELESS!

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*I was given the roll of it a while ago, when the bookshop didn't need it any more after the promotion of the DVD of the Underbelly crime series.  Thought I might use it for a 'crime books' display - didn't think I'd end up using it to keep areas secure until the police and fingerprint people and so forth had done their work.  It certainly got noticed (even the police were amused!).
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The happy life of teacher librarians...
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Cheers
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Ruth
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PS. You clean up fingerprint powder with an ammonia-based cleaner, such as Spray'n'Wipe, in case you didn't know (I didn't).  They get you to sign something before they start (because of the anticipated/inevitable mess), and give you a helpful cleanup info card once they're done.
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Think like a designer

In re-imagining our library over the last while, we've changed a bunch of things, and tried new things, and looked at what's been working, and tweaked, and....  I guess we've been designing - experiences, spaces, signage, all sorts of aspects of our school library.
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Helene Blowers has a brilliant entry on her blog, LibraryBytes about 'thinking like a designer'.  And I quote:
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In reading these tips, I think it’s important to recognize that these tips aren’t really related to the craft of “designing” stuff. Instead they’re related to the craft of “thinking about design” and as Garr* also notes most can be applied to any profession.

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1) Embrace constraints. Constraints and limitations are wonderful allies and lead to enhanced creativity and ingenious solutions that without constraints never would have been discovered or created.
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2) Practice restraint. Any fool can be complicated and add more, it takes discipline of mind and strength of will to make the hard choices about what to include and what to exclude.
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3) Adopt the beginner's mind. As the old saying goes, in the expert's mind there are few possibilities, but for one with the beginner's mind, the world is wide open.
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4) Check your ego at the door. This is not about you, it's about them (your audience, customer, patient, student, etc.). Look at the problem from their point of view -- put yourself in their shoes.
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5) Focus on the experience of the design. It's not the thing, it's the experience of the thing.
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6) Become a master storyteller. Often it's not only the design — i.e., the solution to a problem — that is important, but the story of it.
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7) Think communication not decoration. Design — even graphic design — is not about beautification. Design is not just about aesthetics, though aesthetics are important. More than anything, design is about solving problems or making the current situation a little better than before.
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8) Obsess about ideas not tools. Tools are important and necessary, but they come and go as better tools come along. Obsess instead about ideas. Good advice is to go analog in the beginning with the simplest tools possible.
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9) Clarify your intention. Design is about choices and intentions, it is not accidental.
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10) Sharpen your vision & curiosity and learn from the lessons around you. Good designers are skilled at noticing and observing. They are able to see both the big picture and the details of the world around them.
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Bonus:
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(11) Learn all the "rules" and know when and why to break them.
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Read the full post to get more of Garr’s insights to each of the tips above. There’s some great thoughts that I think can be applied to many areas of library services. You don’t have to be a designer to think like one. You just have to be willing to embrace some new approaches.
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*This is based on work by Garr Reynolds: 10 tips on how to think like a designer, from his blog Presentation Zen.  He expands on each of these points - it is worth reading his thoughts.
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Now what else can we design and change and improve....?
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Cheers
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Ruth
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Temeraire film news (August 2009)

 This Comic-Con 2009 interview with Peter Jackson has a little info on his plans for Temeraire on screen (film? miniseries?) but it still sounds a fair way off. He also discusses some other literary adaptations with which he is associated: you may perhaps have heard of The Hobbit? and/or Tintin? Thought so.

The October 2008 issue of Empire (Australian edition) also has this news:

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Cheers, Ruth
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Climate change games

Looking for some climate change games for a colleague doing climate change/greenhouse effect etc with Year 8, I came across a few likely looking prospects.  I haven't entirely played all these, but they looked promising.

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Electrocity

http://www.electrocity.co.nz/

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From New Zealand, this game of 150 turns (but you can take them FAST to grow your city) offers development options and choices - stay green? get big? and the players need to keep their choices supplied with electricity. Games can be saved, and there are viewable examples of other people's cities to see various possibilities. Lots of scope in this one - let kids loose, or maybe set some to grow a metropolis, others to set up an ecologically sustainable place (that is also still economically viable).  Students should pay attention to the hints tab...  I used this one with a class group, and it's now VERY popular at lunchtimes too - engaging/challenging enough for students to want to play it more to increase their scores and skill.

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Let's learn why the earth's climate is changing

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http://www.eschooltoday.com/climate_change_class.html

Although this one looks more aimed at primary school level audiences than secondary, it covers a bunch of issues visually and engagingly, and could be useful with younger/lower secondary classes.

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Stablization Wedges

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http://www.princeton.edu/wedges/Stabilization_Wedges_Game_w8_Oct07.pdf

This one is a board game rather than online, with a 16-page pdf giving you the playing pieces etc.  Having outlined a variety of strategies to level off global warming (eg. wind farms), players then need to select their choice of wedges.

There is a slideshow about the options here:

http://www.princeton.edu/~cmi/resources/CMI_Resources_new_files/CMI_Stab_Wedges_Movie.swf

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Climate Challenge

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http://www.bbc.co.uk/sn/hottopics/climatechange/climate_challenge/

From the BBC, this requires players over several turns to balance out politics and choices to see the impact of these on climate (and voters).  I'd recommend the tutorial on this one, so students understand what is required and how the game works.

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Among the sources from which I found these are a links page here and one here and the Wikipedia article on global warming games.  All of these offer a bunch more links and ideas on the greenhouse effect, climate change, global warming and so forth and so on.

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Cheers

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Ruth

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PS If you have any other recommendations along similar lines, do please add them in a comment, with the URL, so others can benefit.

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Post No. 401

Just thought I'd note that in less than two years this blog is up to 400 posts.  Not bad going!  Given that I only dip my toe in the many possibilities for school libraries and teacher librarians, it's mindboggling to think how much is out there to discover and deploy.
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It's also rather nice to think of all those ideas shared rather than hoarded - just  lovely to think of other schools trying some of the ideas from here, of the kids enjoying them and the TLs enjoying the kids' pleasure/success/progress and the changes in their libraries.  It can only be good.  Thank you to all who read, comment and share ideas.
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I'm guessing most of you have come to this blog over time.  I went back to look at my first entry, back in February 2008, and it's still apt:

Whaffor?

I keep tripping over useful stuff on the net that's worth a) having in one spot so *I* can find it again and b) having in one spot so others can find it if they wish to.

Being a teacher librarian is a great job. It's changed so much in twenty-coughcough years, but it's still a great job. Just not enough time to sit and drink Diet Coke and read the newspaper, like people seem to think you do, but hey, every job has its cliches.

(Dang, I'm working the bun and glasses thing today - only it's too hot to not have your hair out of the way, and the glasses are a genetic gift from Grandpa. Can't win 'em all...).

So welcome to my virtual office. Pull up a pew. Post a comment. Share useful things you've found that I can add here for other teacher librarians. But bring your own Diet Coke...! And if you were in my real office, you could dig into the jellybean jar. Jellybean diplomacy is damn fine stuff.
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I went to Ikea this evening, and there are SO MANY ideas there, lots of them inexpensive, that school libraries could use.  No, I'm not paid anything by Ikea: that's an unsponsored observation from a long-time fan of their design creativity and often ingenious solutions.  The latest catalogue is out and you can browse it here.  One of the 'co-workers' at Ikea told me that they had 25,000 people through the Rhodes/Homebush Bay [Sydney] store last Sunday - by gosh that's a lot! (glad I wasn't there then!).
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Cheers
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Ruth
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PS.  Yes, I did buy a couple of things for school this evening.  Surely you're not surprised?!

Advance look at Catching Fire (sequel to The Hunger Games)

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I've had a waiting list for this for months - lots of readers of The Hunger Games wanting to find out what happens next... (I did a blog entry about The Hunger Games here.)

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It's out soon, but if you want to read or listen to a chapter of Suzanne Collins' next book in the trilogy, in advance, NPR in the US has Chapter Two here. (which was also the source of the picture above).

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Cheers

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Ruth

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The happy life of teacher librarians: OMG, MISS, DISNEY BOUGHT MARVEL!

This morning began with tragedy, "Miss, Marvel Comics has been BOUGHT BY DISNEY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"
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They are appalled by these prospects:

• Wolverine is not going to be drinking whiskey and smoking a cigar - he's going to have a candy cane and a glass of Mountainy Dew.  And he'll get his claws manicured or turned into backscratchers so he can be a helpful mutant!
• Hulk isn't going to be mad any more, he's going to be disgruntled and talk it through with his friends!
• Mickey Mouse is going to turn up in all the wrong places, and say in his squeaky voice, "Hello boys, need a hand?
• Deadpool won't be allowed to tell his [rather blue, I gather] jokes any more!  They'll replace his samurai swords and machine guns with a feathersword and bubble blowers!
• The Punisher isn't going to be The Punisher any more, he's going to be The Helper-Outer!
• They'll make Spiderman marry Aunt May to keep her safe (how has she not died, she's been in peril so many times????)
• Iron Man's not an alcoholic any more, he just likes a LOT of pink lemonade!
• Ghost Rider is the devil's bounty hunter - well, he's unlikely to survive in the new regime!
• Blade is a vampire who can walk around in the day and kills other vampires - well, he's gone!
• The revealing costumes are gone!
• Thing from the Fantastic Four won't have clobbering time any more, it will be talking time!
• The Silver Surfer won't be a naked guy on a surfboard, he'll probably feature in the next Lilo and Stitch film (wearing boardies - just a buff dude with a magical surfboard)!  And he'll probably turn up in the next Pirates of the Caribbean movie!
• All Electra used to do is killing, eating and sleeping - she'll just be eating and sleeping now!
• X-Men - it could go either way...
• Captain America should be OK...

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Once again, my teacher training at teachers' college and university has not prepared me for managing a crisis of this magnitude (or type).  We will do our best to work through this blow....the office-ful of students I had bemoaning this appalling prospect (and howling anew when I enquired whether this was worse than the news of Chewbacca's demise - it's the same crew of kids) was, I am of course ashamed to admit, very funny to listen to...
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The happy life of teacher librarians!
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Cheers
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Ruth
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PS They also liked it being blogged (I typed as they told me, to be sure not to miss the moment) and checked this for correctness...!!  So if you can leave a comment on their creativity, they would be very pleased! (and it might assuage their grief...)
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what is the world coming to?  my incredibly serious teacher librarianship blog hijacked by comic-obsessed fan boys!!!

Set texts vs student choice

In a New York Times article on the future of reading, Motoko Rich  describes US programs where instead of a set text, students choose their own reading matter.  Very interesting - do read Students Get New Assignment: Pick Books You Like.  Room for library involvement in this 'reading workshop' approach...
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I also noted with interest that comfort - something we've been working on this year in the library with, for example, the reading retreat and the floor cushions - is part of the approach, thirty minutes of reading each day in a beanbag or comfortable situation (not just at a school desk).

Author Meg Cabot commented on the NY Times story - read it here.
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Cheers
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Ruth
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A Year 7 book list (mostly fiction)

Recently I was asked for a short list of books to recommend to Year 7.  With the help of knowledgeable teacher librarian colleagues, the list got longer - and even more useful.  If you're looking for fiction for Year 7 students (age 11/12, first year of high school), then here are some ideas (in no particular order):

• Cynthia Voigt - Homecoming (series)
• Tim Bowler - River Boy
• Robert Cormier - Tunes for Bears to Dance To
• David Almond - Kit's Wilderness
• Tomorrow series by John Marsden
• Dragonkeeper series by Carole Wilkinson
• Keys to the Kingdom series by Garth Nix
• Miss McAllister's ghost
• It's not all about you, Calma
• Don't call me Ishmael  and sequel
• Ranger's Apprentice series by John Flanagan
• Jacqueline Wilson books
• I Sean Williams' excellent trilogy: The Changeling, Dust Devils and Scarecrow
• Andy Griffiths books
• Morris Gleitzman books
• Paul Jennings books
• the Specky Magee series by Felice Arena
• Beast Quest series by Emily Rodda
• Too Cool series
• the My Story books (historical faction) (yes, faction) (various authors)
• Uglies series by Scott Westerfeld
• Young James Bond - Silverfin etc by Charlie Higson
• SAS stuff - Chris Ryan
• Cherub series by Robert Muchamore
• Alex Rider series by Anthony Horowitz
• anything by Matthew Reilly
• Edge Chronicles
• Michael Panckridge for sports titles
• Shorts series by Margaret Clark
• Diego, Run! Deborah Ellis - and all her other titles
• The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas (John Boyne)
• Coraline (Neil Gaiman)
• Maximum Ride series (James Patterson)
• Mao's Last Dancer (Cunxin Li)
• Elsewhere (Gabrielle Zevin)
• Extreme Adventure series by Justin D'Ath
• Action Sports series (Macmillan) by Ron Thomas & Joe Herran
• The Dons by Archimede Fusillo
• Percy Jackson series by Rick Riordan
• The Extraordinary Adventure of Alfred Kropp by Yancey
• Black Dog Gang by Robert Newton (rat plague, Sydney, 1900)
• Horrible Histories (read for fun by many kids)
• Redwall series by Brian Jacques
• Raewyn Caisley's sport fiction books
• Temeraire series by Naomi Novik
• Meg Cabot books
• Artemis Fowl series by Eoin Colfer
• Skulduggery Pleasant series by Derek Landy
• John Larkin books
• Pendragon series by D.J. McHale
• Time stops for no mouse series by Michael Hoeye
• Wind Singer series by William Nicholson
• Rosemary Sutcliff books
• Mortal Engines series by Phillip Reeve
• Warriors series by Erin Hunter
• Dinosaur Knights by Michael Gerard Bauer
• Megs series (about soccer) [co-authored by Mark Schwarzer]

Cheers
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Ruth
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with many thanks to the colleagues who contributed to this list.
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