Where the wild things are - do the kids like it?

Bruce Handy, in an essay in the New York Times, Where the Wild Things Aren't, says, in his experience, no. 
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David Barnett, in a blog entry at the Guardian, has a different story - his son wanted a wolf suit like Max's, to wear to a school book event, and many pricked fingers later, his dad had sewn something that charmed his son (and, so he was told, Maurice Sendak). (Found this one via Alien Onion).
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I've read it to small children many times, and almost invariably it has caught them - you can feel their attention, and when you finish, they often as not say, AGAIN!  High school kids are happy to read it, very often again, and even if they don't remember it at first, they generally then do, and seem happy to revisit it.
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They're very personal things at times, aren't they, books?
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I have at home a copy of Daniel Eggers' novelisation of the script of the film of the picture book; and also the illustrated (abridged) movie storybook.  And I don't want to open either.  The film has opened in the US, but it's not opening here till early December, and I would prefer to come to its version fresh.
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Cheers

Ruth

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image source: www.bookdepository.com

Laptops: 40TB and rising

ITnews has an interesting article on the NSW DET netbooks/laptops, including discussion on how the internet access and filtering works, and how the current 40TB/month of use is likely to rise...

Read more here.

Found via this blog.

Cheers

Ruth

PS. I remember once chuckling at someone who had rashly gone out and invested in a 10GB hard drive.  Madness, utter madness...what on earth would one do with so much storage?  Hmmmm.  This shows either my lack of vision, or my age.  Or possibly both.  I do apologise, now gifted with 20/20 hindsight.
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Halloween cupcakes I

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Sorry, should I have warned you about that?!

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The writer of food blog Not Quite Nigella has a mad imagination.  Find the recipe for these here.

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We're busy making bats (not food ones) - will show you the results soon.  We don't go gruesome like these cupcakes for the rest of our Halloween decorating, but I did find them hilariously horrid....

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Cheers

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Ruth

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GIFSL: rearrange the furniture (encore edition) and Skerricks Live (well, sorta)

Hey, does that photo look vaguely familar?  You might have seen it here (GIFSL 11) - it's currently having an encore in issue 71 of the excellent Curriculum Corporation journal, Connections. 

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And if you don't go and follow that link and read issue 71, you are a great gaby (I've been rereading Georgette Heyer in the holidays and being reminded of some excellent historical colloquialisms) because there is some fine and brilliant reading there.

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Welcome back!  I hope you had a great holiday too.  Every holiday's a good holiday!

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Cheers

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Ruth

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PS if you're interested in a Live Version of GIFSL and other treats from here, I'm speaking about such things and more at an ASLA NSW one-day conference Planning for 2010, in very fine company (June Wall, Ian McLean, Terry Bruce and Sharon McGuinness).  Click on the link to find out more - the location is in Sydney, less than an hour from the CBD.

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Dear Australian reader, Mr Bezos would like to sell you an Amazon Kindle

He would.  Cost (for Kindle and a leather cover) including shipping is just under $400 Australian (note: the exchange rate's in our favour at present at around 90c to the $1US).   Toddle over to http://www.amazon.com/ and see...

They've sorted international wireless, so if you're in area (check them thar coverage maps...) download time is likely to be under a minute, but books are $2 more than US Kindle owners pay. 
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What isn't immediately clear is whether publishing territory will come into play - ie. if the rights aren't available 'for this geographic area' - the trouble I've run into with Audible.com - is the book available to Australian Kindle owners?  Are we shopping from the same range as US Kindle owners?  There is a link to a country-specific page to address country-specific issues including content availability, but it doesn't outline content limitations beyond saying it offers over 280,000 books to Australia (and the main Kindle page offers US buyers over 350,000 books).  Me, I'd want to know which are the 70,000 unavailable to me here in Oz....
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But even so, it's a verrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrry interesting change to the e-book landscape here.  By far the cheapest specific e-book device I'm aware of here (the Dymocks Iliad at around $1000 looks very naff by comparison), and the largest range of books (caveat: still depends on which books...).
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And of course there are all the general limitations/differences in relation to a Kindle edition.  Can't be lent (unless you lend the device), sold/donated, for instance.  I'd rather lend out a $30 book than a $400 device in the library (even assuming there is a Kindle setup accommodating school library ownership/use).
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Ah, but is there a lazy $400 lying around Chez Skerricks, the modest palais this blog calls Emoh Ruo?  Hmmmmm. 
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Cheers
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Ruth
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PS Anyone want me to evaluate one?????  I'll write you a lovely report...
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October is Breast Cancer Month

Don't forget to click on the Pink Ribbon Day icon on the right and order pink ribbon products (eg. pink silicon wristbands) as fundraisers in the fight against breast cancer. When I ordered mine, they asked who had inspired me - it's scary to know so many people who have been affected by breast cancer. Some are survivors. Some are not. I'll have the wristbands to sell in the library when we get back from holidays. I hope you can do something too.
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For those outside Australia, the McGrath Foundation is a significant charity putting Breast Care Nurses into the front line around the country, to support those affected by breast cancer.  They have items for sale too, or you can make a donation (icon on the right takes you to their site).
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Cheers,
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Ruth.

Mea culpa...

A while ago I was culling, and came across a book in the fiction section which I never remember seeing before.

That would explain how it lasted so long.  It's very thin, too... (she says, making excuses).

I give you the last few paragraphs...

Julian looked down at her and there was an ardor that was close to worship in his eyes...

[hero's sister - why does she have to be part of the final scene??? - says] "As long as you make Julian happy, Robin, you are my friend.  That's all I want. [isn't it romantic, to be being Told by the hero's sister?  and excuse I, but why can't Robin be happy too???  Doesn't Julian have ANY responsibility for that??]

Robin said, her voice not quite steady, "It's all I want too, Steve."


Julian looked contentedly at his two women folk. [womenfolk?]

He dropped an arm about each of them and said tenderly, "And now let's go home, shall we?"


"Home!" Robin repeated in a tone that wrapped in the single word all the yearning and hope and eagerness with which she faced her new life as Mrs Julian Gilbert, of Hibiscus Cay in the Caribbean.

[MRS JULIAN GILBERT???]


Ye gods and little fishes.  It's culled.  Decidedly.  Last borrowed in 1987.  Oh, and published in 1962, in case you wondered.  And it was, originally, a donation (as one devoutly hopes, although one also devoutly wondered why it was accessioned At All).
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And while you're snorting at that one, it's a chance to slip in this gem to amuse you.  We don't have this one in the library (or at least, I haven't found it and severely doubt it is in the library collection.  I could always check the catalogue) but thanks to the blessings of the internet and blogs like Judge a Book by its Cover, (source of image below) all you need is a screen, and the ability to count, to enjoy this:

Hint: count the heroine's hands..... (The additionally amusing thing to know is that this book sold Extremely Well because of its notorious cover...!).

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Clearly, things are getting nutty around here.  Time for a holiday!  See you in a fortnight!

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Cheers

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Ruth

The happy life of teacher librarians: you know it's time for a holiday when...

Miss, have you got any Matty Evil books?


Not sure.  Is that MaTTy Evil, or MaDDy Evil [thinks: there's always a new series I haven't heard of...]


Just Mattyevil, Miss.

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[Aha! moment]  Medieval?  Middle Ages?

Yes, Miss

I establish that he's after stories, not nonfiction, and he totters happily off for the holidays with a pile of good looking prospects.

I sit down again at my desk, laugh at myself and KNOW it's time for a holiday!!!

Cheers

Ruth

Laptop Policy - another view

Our school's laptop policy is still being tweaked and revised, evolving in light of experience.

I was interested to read Will Richardson's take on school computer policies on Weblogg-ed.  Make sure you read the comments, too.

As a significant architect of our school's policy - not its final arbiter, but a carpenter creating a structure - one focus was to put things in positive terms, wherever possible.  One does not of course want to discourage students from using their laptops - instead, fuelling and directing their enthusiasm is a great educational opportunity.  On the other hand, the reality of life in schools is that it's important that students are aware of the necessary boundaries, such as respecting copyright, and treating other people respectfully.

So ours is still a work in progress.  Feedback from the students has been positive - they appreciate clarity, because it's calmed some fears they had, from gossip/chat, about what might happen if...

Cheers

Ruth

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...