Safer Internet Day 2010: 9 February

Logo source, which has more information

This is an international cybersafety event, with the theme of 'think before you post'.  It's organised by InSafe, and international organisation for internet safety, and supported in Australia by ACMA.

The link above has more info, including a poster to print, tips for kids and teens, and this YouTube video:

Why not compile a quick email to send out to students/parents/staff?

Cheers

Ruth

The 3 settings every Facebook user should check now

From the New York Times, The 3 Settings Every Facebook User Should Check Now - based on recent changes to Facebook and their impact on privacy/personal information.

Read all about them here.

It's one of the challenges of the internet, the balance in social networking between sharing and privacy, and many students, I find, are less careful than they ought to be about personal information.  I'll be sharing this link with our staff and our students.

Cheers

Ruth

When I'm reading, I do one thing...

The blog Smart Bitches, Trashy Books is a most useful source for information and discussion about e-books and e-reading devices.  In a January entry, Sarah said this:

But when I'm reading, I do one thing and one thing only...

...and while that may seem bleeding obvious, it's also pertinent, relevant and insightful.  When the kids we teach are accustomed to - expect to? - do multiple things at once, enabled by computers and technology and the internet and so forth, reading remains something that requires focus and attention.  Strikes me that this has usefulness beyond the fun/pleasure of reading: it gives kids a different experience, an opportunity to learn a different skill.  Another skill, along with multitasking.  Getting lost in a book - always excellent.  Being able to focus, also useful.

Here's an extract from the entry, Reading, Writing and Technology: Changing Readers and Reading:

If Cashmore is correct in his predictions for multifunction devices, and if, as Pierre Teilhard de Chardin - and Flannery O’Connor - insist, everything that rises must converge, the possibility of more functional programs targeted at diverse activities meant for a single device means that readers will have a lot to choose from when they actually sit down to read. As new multi-function devices are appearing in the realm of nearly possible and almost on sale like ships on the horizon line, I find myself looking again and again at how I read, what I read, and whether it’s changed at all.

The following aspect of my reading habits has not changed: reading is one of the very few times I do Only One Thing. Anyone with a uterus knows what I’m talking about: I multitask. Most of the time, I’m researching, writing, using Twitter, writing email, and listening to music. Or, I’m washing bottles and plates, making lunches, serving and preparing dinner, talking to Hubby, refereeing fights over Lego Sir Topham Hat, and possibly also snacking. I never do just one thing at a time... 


But when I’m reading, I do one thing and one thing only because I can’t read and focus on anything else.

For that reason, I adore the comfort and simplicity of a dedicated electronic reading device. I don’t want to have things beeping and alerting me and tempting me to Google whether the price has dropped on that giant thing I wanted. I want to do the one thing that restores my mental batteries and gives me the utter mental isolation and thoughtful peace I crave when I’m exhausted: just reading, nothing but reading, and only, exceptionally reading.

One thing we've been working on in relation to this in our library is the creation of our reading lounge areas, so kids can relax, be comfortable and get lost in reading.  We now have enough comfortable, soft seats for every student in a class of thirty to be sitting in one.  A few still prefer the floor, and we still have the floor cushions; but with every student seated comfortably, they settle down, relax and read far more effectively.  See? It's not just 'decorating'.   Comfort is a tool and a strategy.

At break times, I'm a bit of a mean cow: the reading lounge areas are for [book] reading - the laptoppers are welcome to settle at the tables/desks, but I move them on from the reading lounges, so the screens and moving images and (often) discussions are not a distraction.  (It's also ergonomically a bit smarter for the laptoppers, too).

Cheers

Ruth

The happy life of teacher librarians: spaghetti and meatball cupcakes

A while ago I told one of my Visual Arts colleagues, a cupcake enthusiast, about the blog Not Quite Nigella.  Apart from pretty/elegant cupcake recipes (yup, they're all edible), the blog also includes Halloween ideas (Blood Clot and Brain Cupcakes, anyone?). (Yup, there are links at the end of this blog entry).

For morning tea today, my colleague brought in Spaghetti and Meatball Cupcakes.

What's not to like?  Apart from the fact that your mind and eyes are trying to co-ordinate the apparently impossible/odd....

They tasted great.  In case you wonder, the meatballs are chocolate/coconut confections, the sauce is based on berry jam and the spaghetti is a kind of candy 'string' you can find at Ikea (and it now comes in red/strawberry as well as brown/caramel).  The base cupcakes are vanilla.

And in case you think this is all foolish diversion, it also has relevance to Visual Arts and Home Ec, in relation to perception.  But in the happy life of teacher librarians, it was also rather good fun!

Cheers

Ruth

I've blogged about NQN's fine work before, especially her Halloween cupcakes.

Not Quite Nigella home page
Spaghetti and Meatball Cupcakes
Blood Clot and Brain Cupcakes
NQN also has a bunch of other cupcake recipes, recipes for a wondrous variety of other things, restaurant/cafe reviews and more.

50% off e-books (less than an hour more today)

SmartBitchesTrashyBooks has an e-book discount coupon that's valid still for just under another hour.  50% off at AllRomanceebooks.com and Omnilit.com. 

The rules: You will receive 50% off on all titles purchased on AllRomanceeBooks.com and OmniLit.com through this weekend if they use the code SBTBARe1.


The discount will only appear once the code is entered in the shopping cart and the “Calculate Discount” button is selected. This offer expires at midnight 31 January 2010, 11:59 PM Mountain Standard Time.


Before you start sniffing, (if you do start sniffing), think on this:

Evernight by Claudia Gray $6.99 -50%
1000 Art Journal Pages $29.99 -50%

1000 Artist Trading Cards $29.99 -50%
A bunch of graphic/comic novels

There's fiction, bodice-ripping if you want that, but plenty else if you don't, and nonfiction too.  Haven't yet read Charlaine Harris' Southern Vampire series (on which the TV series True Blood is based?).  Buy one or more.  Dead Until Dark is the first in the series ($6.99- 50%).

All prices in $US, but the exchange rate is pretty good for the AUD right now, it's hovering around 90c.

There are various formats available for various titles, but most I've looked at seem to include a secure Adobe format which should be readable through Acrobat Reader (check the site FAQs for answers to your own particular questions on this), so you don't need an e-reader or iPhone, a computer will do - desktop, laptop, netbook, whatever.

If you haven't tried an e-book at all, or only a plain vanilla free download from somewhere like Project Gutenberg, why not try one from here?  You can try a novel for under $5.  What about being an art teacher and being able to fling open a page of the artist trading cards book (which weighs a bit in the real world, with its quality paper to reproduce the images)?

Cheers

Ruth

Film: The Eagle of the Ninth

Rosemary Sutcliff's wonderful historical novels got spiffing new covers a while ago (and have certainly been borrowed LOTS more than the old editions), and although there was a TV series of The Eagle of the Ninth some years ago (1977), it's now being filmed for cinematic release some time in 2010.

No release date as yet on the IMDB entry, but check back in a while...  The image above is from here, where you'll find more pictures.

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Hmmm.  Think I'll use these for my next Trailer Time, until I have a trailer to show... It's a film/movie I'll look forward to.

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There's a really extensive article about Rosemary Sutcliff here - life, working methods, books, bibliography.

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Cheers

Ruth

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The Visible Teacher Librarian

As I'm preparing for this morning's assembly - the first one this year with all students present, since we only had Years 7, 11 and 12 yesterday - I'm also thinking about Visibility.

I am the Assembly Co-ordinator at my high school, running the weekly whole-school assemblies.  While SRC students do the individual speaker introductions, I top and tail and have responsibility.  I've done this job for most of my years at this school.  The opportunity arose early in my time there, and I happily took it on, for a number of reasons.

One of the chief ones was visibility.  On the one hand, as a teacher librarian, you're easily findable in the library; on the other, the kids that don't come to the library may have only the foggiest idea of who you are.  With the library having several staff - one TL, job-sharing school clerical assistants - it also puts me in a public role where my status as a teacher is confirmed in the minds of the kids.  And while assemblies are a formal occasion, at times there are opportunities to add a dash of humour/personality too.  I also rewrote the assembly policy, revamped the assembly record book and did other organisational improvements.  Always good to have something better for your input...

As a side issue I hadn't considered was the reaction of new staff members in particular.  Assemblies are run by the TEACHER LIBRARIAN?  A tone of surprise.  In analysing this, there seem to be a couple of components.  One is that this role is being done by a classroom teacher, rather than a member of the executive.  Well, my school's assemblies have always been run by a classroom teacher.  Another is that it's the TL (am I supposed to be invisible/lesser/timid?).  I give that comment, when it arises, a wide-eyed look as though it's surprising they are surprised...  When, after a couple of weeks, they see that I do it well, their surprise evaporates.  Yup, it's PR to the staff as much as the kids.

When I did my TARS (annual teacher assessment) last year, my other school involvements ran to a page on their own - while keeping busy in the library I deliberately choose to be involved in other school curricular and extra-curricular activities outside the library, for all sorts of useful reasons.  I know lots of other TLs do the same, and it's a most valuable way to enhance your role/status in the school, to alter perceptions of TL from (sadly persistent) stereotypes (eg. 'hiding' in the library, being somehow 'lesser' etc) to a fresh, accurate view that can then be deployed in useful ways to promote the library and the ways in which the library and teacher librarian can support the school's teaching programs.

So it's worth thinking about the ways in which you are a Visible Teacher Librarian in your school.  Hurrah for all the great things we do!  If you want to post a comment about what you do, so others can be inspired, go right ahead.

Cheers

Ruth

GIFSL* 46: Staple-gun upholstery (with a WOW factor)

If you work in a NSW government school, there's nothing more certain than that you've seen, and sat, in one of these standard-issue low lounge chairs.  They're in staffrooms, hopefully a few in the library, in the common room and so on.

Depending on the age of your school, they may have been supplied to the school when beige, 'sunshine' yellow or a somewhat bilious green was considered just right (the one above, and its beige or yellow cousins at my school are shading thirty years old).  More recent colours are muted greens, blues and ochre-pinks.

The vinyl is, let's face it, practical.  But over time they get marked, and maybe the vinyl has splits here or there.

I was up at Katoomba High late last year, speaking at a conference (about sprucing your library, surprise surprise!) (it went well and I had fun - happy to be a presenter at other TL conferences/inservices...) and saw some of these chairs which had been spruced by the library staff there.

Katoomba High (not us, but our inspiration)

The idea took hold.  While the muted green and blue chairs in our mezzanine reading lounge don't need recovering, I knew of four grotty beige vinyl chairs I could take for the library from where they were languishing elsewhere in the school, too unappealing for anyone to be interested.  As well as hiding the grot, cloth is nicer to sit on.  And we were going to be able to set up another reading lounge, this time upstairs in the fiction section; I didn't seem likely to be able to get more comfy chairs for it in the near future, so needed to be ingenious instead.

Off to Ikea for some furnishing-weight 150cm wide fabric...

This is from a range called Saralisa.  The fabric I chose is the second bottom one (multicolour/orange):

Yup, as seen in sneak peek #1.  Images here from the Ikea Australia website.

A couple of useful hints and tips: I deliberately chose a pattern that didn't need matching.  Much easier.  Colours: these went with the blue wall, green carpet and newer blue chairs, and are dark enough to not show the dirt in five minutes.  We may spray them with a fabric protector such as Scotchgard, but realistically, if we don't, it takes just over a metre of fabric (this fabric is $9.99/m) to do a chair, so about $12 later we can recover them in a year or two anyway, if they need it.

More than practicality, though, this is a mad, wonderful, funky fabric, and the transformation is remarkable. 

Don't you think so? The kids do. And pretty much everyone else who's seen them - WOW! is a common reaction. We recovered several chairs before the end of last term, and a sort-out elsewhere in the school (or previously untapped chair-whispering skills on my part) brought us four more bright yellow ones just as term ended.

What do you need?  A bit over a metre of 150cm wide decent-weight fabric per chair.  A staple gun or trigger tacker, sharp scissors for cutting fabric (paper/cardboard blunts scissors, so your usual library scissors may struggle).  A cordless drill/screwdriver for getting the screws out and back in.  Some of that wide tough book repair tape, if your chairs have any splits needing repair.

Another tip: pay attention to which screws come from where, so you put them back in the same place, as they aren't necessarily interchangeable.  Maybe do one seat at a time.

I'm not going to give detailed instructions: basically, you're unscrewing the two cushions from the metal frame, covering two rectangles (we went right over the top of the vinyl), aiming to turn under/staple down any raw edges, then reassembling the chair.  It isn't grand upholstery, but it's do-able and has fabulous results.  As you can see! 

We didn't refinish the dark brown metal framework of the chairs in any way - just the revamp was enough to make the chairs special.

Before term ended, one faculty had already recovered their yellow vinyl lounge chairs in another Saralisa fabric (we have green carpet, they have green vinyl...:

...and during the holidays, another faculty went from yellow chairs to these (they have blue carpet):

...which also uses Ikea fabric, from a range called Inger.  I wouldn't be surprised if more around the school got this treatment - at about $12 a chair, with equipment to hand in schools, what's not to like? Although I think I've sabotaged any possibility of acquiring any more chairs from within the school, now people have seen what's possible.

The blue/black/white Inger chairs are in the Visual Arts faculty, which also now has a word wall, after seeing our library word walls.  They went with the wonderful vocabulary of colour names.

It's lovely to have the library inspiring renovation elsewhere in the school again (chairs, word walls... and other areas have been painted after seeing what we've done inside and out).  I have great colleagues, and we all work hard for our kids.

Many many many thanks to the Katoomba High school library staff for inspiring this Good Idea!

Cheers

Ruth

PS these chairs are for a new (changed) area in the library - I'll show you soon...

PPS. Snaffle every chair you can from around your school BEFORE renovating, because it's harder to get 'em after everyone else sees what's possible...!!

PPPS. We'd love to read your comments....

*GIFSL = Good ideas for school libraries

Skulduggery Pleasant book 4: Dark Days (+film news)

Here's the answer to a question I know I'll be asked week one: it's called Dark Days, it's out on 1 April 2010 and it's got a purple cover (as opposed to orange, lime and aqua).  It's Skulduggery Pleasant book 4.  And I've had a waiting list for this since April 2009, when Skulduggery Pleasant book 3 came out.  I will be requiring several copies (and have been advised so by young persons at school.  Repeatedly.)

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Here is the blurb from the publisher's Australian site (which seems to have the wrong release date on it, methinks):

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What can we say, without giving too much away?

Not much, is the answer.

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But what we CAN say is that this book is hilarious, it′s tense, and it′s packed with all the eye-popping action, crackling one liners and imaginative set pieces you′ve come to expect. There′s a new threat to our plucky heroine, of course. But that′s not all. There′s also the little fact of the Big Bad, the uber-baddy who′s going to come along and really, really destroy the world. (Really.) And what we learn about that villain in this book will literally make your jaw fall off and your hair go white with shock. (Not really.)

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Will Skulduggery make it out of the Faceless Ones′ dimension? Who knows. The problem is, he may not have much to come back to...

Ah, there's a useful bit of information with which to start the new school year in 2010!

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Cheers

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Ruth

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PS If you've not heard the audio book versions by Rupert Degas, you've missed a treat.  And not just for the lovely Irish accents. Download from audible.com or buy on CD from bookdepository.com.

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PPS. According to IMDB, there is a film of Skulduggery Pleasant in the works.  Current listed release date is 2010, but I wouldn't hold my breath - seems like there isn't much info yet.
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PPPS. There are several interviews with Derek Landy on YouTube, like this:


PPPPS, or however many P's are right... Hey, welcome to a new school year!  I was at the Australia Day celebrations at Katoomba yesterday and saw the Bushwackers play - great stuff!

Popping in during the summer holidays

Near the end of an excellent summer break (they're all excellent; it's only the young who find them long and boring... miss, I was bored and was glad the holidays were over.  Crazy kids!  Us old folk revel in the time!!) I've popped into school for a few hours several days this week.  I won't get everything done that I would like to, but a few things are sorted.

Would you like some sneak peeks at some of the changes from the end of last term and finds from the holidays? There's been some working and some renovating and some excellent discoveries...

Peek #1 (where's that been used?)

Peek #2 (what's the keyboard on?) (and do you appreciate the holiday key choice/allusion??)

Peek #3 (four shelf units in fiction, not three? but only three fit in, before...)

Peek #4 (a desk with a creative twist...)

Peek #5 (improving the view)

Peek #6 (now where will you find this, six times?)

Peek #7 (love the post-Christmas sale at Ikea!)

Peek #8 (maybe these will, or maybe not, but the kids will enjoy them)

Peek #9 (what's this for?)

Peek #10 (what's the plan for this?)

Peek #11 (today's find)

But what does it all MEAN?  (Do comment if you wish to! - hmmm, if anyone gets most or all right, I might even find a prize of some sort).  Stay tuned to Skerricks in 2010 to find out more.  I've already started on entries which will roll out after school goes back, the day after Australia Day (OK, Australia Day is 26 January, for those outside Oz).

In the strange but true department, I took a batch of chocolate brownies to share with the cleaners/general assistants at school, and just look at the shape left after they'd been (first) attacked:

...squint and it's sorta kinda a map of the US.  It didn't stay that way for long... Now it's maybe a map of Vatican City; or possibly an uninhabited section of the Pacific - ie a clean plate.

Enjoy the end of the hols (if you're on hols like we are still, woohoo!), see you next week...

Cheers

Ruth

Happy Holidays, see you in 2010!

Thank you

Thank you.

Thank you to every reader of this blog, whether you're a fabulous teacher librarian looking for ideas or a frantic fan hunting Twilight fonts (guess what is still the most popular blog entry here at Skerricks...!!).

Thanks for reading this year.

Thanks, most especially, for comments and links and your ideas/contributions.  Comments are so appreciated (special mention of Fiona, a most regular commenter! - her useful blog is A Reader's Random Ramblings).

Thank you to all the online sources I've been able to draw upon.  I love what the internet makes possible.

Thank you to the many teacher librarians who inspire me with their brilliant ideas and enthusiasm.

Thank you to the readers of the articles I've written this year, and the audiences at the presentations I've done for ASLA and the Met West teacher librarians.  It's been fun to share ideas with you.

In our library, the loan rates are up, the library looks better now than it did at the start of the year, with more to engage kids, make them comfortable, encourage them to read and learn and be happy in the library, and we've had fun.  Stocktake is done, plans are being made for the new school year in 2010 when the happy life of teacher librarians will continue.  Thank you to my wonderful staff, without whose enthusiasm and willingness to listen (when I utter the dreaded phrase, I've had an idle thought...) have made so many things possible.

I was able, this year, to contact the teacher librarianship lecturer whose presentation to my English teaching method class over two decades ago persuaded/inspired me to change my other teaching method to teacher librarianship - without her, I wouldn't be a teacher librarian, and this blog wouldn't exist.  Being able to thank her was a highlight of 2009.

Cheers

Ruth

Noteworthy Notions

The New York Times has a most engaging list of the best ideas of 2009, from Advertisement That Watches You, The to Zombie Attack Science. 

Once again, The Times Magazine looks back on the past year from our favored perch: ideas. Like a magpie building its nest, we have hunted eclectically, though not without discrimination, for noteworthy notions of 2009 — the twigs and sticks and shiny paper scraps of human ingenuity, which, when collected and woven together, form a sort of cognitive shelter, in which the curious mind can incubate, hatch and feather.

If you float your cursor over the letter list at the top of the page, you can see the entries under each letter.

Cheers

Ruth

E-books and e-book readers in Australia; and the last week of term

If you're interested in this topic, read Kathryn Greenhill's blog for lots of useful information, links and more.  Especially useful because it's from an Australian, relating to what's available here.

In answer to a recent question, no, nobody has sent me a Kindle to review (sigh!).

The Sydney Morning Herald reports that Apple's e-reader tablet computer seems likely to become available in 2010 (read the article here).  Pricey at $1000US, though.

It's been crazy-busy around here with the end of the term and the school year (Australia's school year follows the calendar year) fast approaching (just this week to go), stocktake, chasing overdues and supervising some renovations we've been undertaking too (imagination, paint, fabric and people saying "WOW" quite spontaneously!) (I'll hold the pictures and info on those till next term, because we ain't quite finished...).  So blog entries have been not quite daily as per usual.  But I'm sure you understand, dear reader.  Don't you?

Pictures of the other school library Christmas trees will, however, go up this week (when I have ones that are in focus, my little camera doesn't always like lit Christmas trees).    Three days left with the kids at school, two days after that of staff development activities, and then it's the summer holiday break, hip hip hooray!  Still lots to do before the final bell...

Cheers

Ruth
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The happy life of teacher librarians: Tenpin

Yup, I do sport one afternoon a week.  Not all teacher librarians do, and it depends on your school.  It's not always fun, but there are ways to make the best of it.  Another teacher and I have teamed up, and with the sports we've had over the last year, we've set up draws and tournaments and score-keeping on the computer, not only to record the kids' progress, but also to work on the socialisation, so they don't just play against their friends.  We award them certificates at the end of the term too, something to add to their portfolios.  The kids appreciate the extra effort we put in, and we can see its impact on each term's group.

This term, we've had tenpin bowling.  A couple of times, one of us has played too, and the kids like seeing if they can beat us.  A couple of weeks ago, when I bowled, I told the kids I'd buy a cool drink for any of them who beat my score.  That week, it was 92, and I bought about five drinks.

This week, we needed one more body on a lane, so although I hadn't planned to bowl (it makes it harder to pay attention to the other lanes and see how others are going, encouraging the kids and so forth), I did.  Hmmm.  The bowling gods were with me (this little black duck not actually having done any tenpin bowling since my teenage years) and I got a couple of strikes and some decent tallies. 

I glanced over at the lane of the boy I knew to be the best bowler.  Hmmm again.  I was almost level pegging.  So I had my turns, and scooted up and down the lanes celebrating strikes and spares and nicely aimed bowls with the kids.  That boy's lane group finished faster than my lane group, and I saw his final score was 138.  I turned around to collect my third last ball, and saw him standing behind our lane, watching my score...

And I laughed aloud, and said, "Eddie, I feel like a winner already!"

He looked at me, puzzled.  "Why?"

"Buddy, if you have to watch the score of this old bat, then I've got you a little worried, and that's a great compliment!"

He grinned wryly.  And was back watching as I had my last two balls to go.  

I got a spare, and thus an extra ball too, and my final score was 144 - the highest of our school group, that day.  Eddie nodded in acknowledgement, and went off to join his friends. 

And I chuckled at the happy life of teacher librarians, sporting style!

Cheers

Ruth

(PS.  His name isn't Eddie, of course, but that doesn't change the story...)

GIFSL* 45: School Library Christmas Trees: 1

Who'd have one Christmas tree when more will do??

Reading the Christmas issues of Australian magazines such as Inside Out (their Christmas issue this year was brilliant!) and Home Beautiful, I came across this idea:

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...and I got to thinking.  It's got potential, but a I need a blank wall. 

In the library entrance.

Where we've painted a word wall, and I ain't stickin' anything on that...

but

I don't have to, do I?

Because if you turn around our ever-useful bookcase...

...you have a blank wall.  Yay!

And then if you buy a length of wide creamy white quilt wadding, and use a couple of bulldog clips, you have a background (if you're really indulgent, and squint, you might think, very vaguely, of snow.  Not that there's any of that around here, we've been having hot hot days over 30degC, a warm start to summer).

Christmas cards? Meh. What is one of the things ornamenting the library?

Our beautiful students, of course!  I took a bunch of photos of kids in the library, got them printed as 4in x 6in photos (less than 20c each) and just used white ball-head pins to attach them to the wadding.

Here's the result:

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We outlined it in a simple ball-garland, added a couple of decorations and some low-voltage fairy lights under the wadding at the base of the tree, and there you are.

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The kids love to see themselves and their friends; it's also a message to them that we value them (another bit of library PR - there are so many ways to welcome and encourage kids, and thus get them in the door and using the library, discovering the library, being happy in the library.  If you're happy somewhere, you're more likely to come back...).  Any of our 'decorating' is never just pretty-pretty - it's for educational reasons, and judging by the library usage, they're working as we intend.  I've had some commentary from a couple of presentations I've done recently where people have said they  'don't have time for this decorating stuff', which is why I make this point.  How many libraries do you know that are stale and old and boring (not to mention school blocks, school classrooms...); do you like walking into stale and old and boring places?  Do you want to?  Do you want to stay, or explore them?  Why would kids be any different?

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(In case you wondered, most of the commentary after those presentations has been overwhelmingly positive, which is great! - it's been fun to share our journey and ideas with other teacher librarians.)

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The Christmas banners are made from Snoa fabric from Ikea's Christmas 2009 range ($9.99 per metre).  While the heart is a great graphic image, our two pillars are actually different heights.  Making each banner with a single heart and a co-ordinating fabric below means that you can't tell (as you could if we had used all the heart fabric and had a big half-heart on a banner - and who wants to be half-hearted?!).

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I've shown you a number of our banners on Skerricks this year - use that search box up on the left to find them (they're also under the library display tag).  The first blog entry about banners, which included sewing instructions, is here.  We've done a few, and will use them again through next year.

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At the end of term, we'll fold away these Christmas banners and wadding; next year, take more photos, and be able to put up banners and the new edition of the tree of kids (our only cost being the photos), easy-peasy!

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I'll take photos of our other trees and blog them before the end of term.

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We'd love to read your comments...

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Cheers

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Ruth

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* GIFSL = good ideas for school libraries

My Place (TV series) tonight on ABC3

My Place, the picture book, is brilliant.

(Image from www.bookdepository.co.uk. )

Fingers crossed for the TV version.  Series 1 starts tonight on ABC3, 13 parts covering half the book (success will likely translate to the second half being filmed, one gathers).

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Read more about the TV series here in an article by Greg Hassall from the Sydney Morning Herald (also the source of the image above).

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Cheers

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Ruth

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PS I won't mention that it clashes with Collectors on the ABC, because that's why we have DVD recorders and programs with repeats...

ADDED LATER: If you couldn't find ABC3 on your DVD player, you might need to run the setup program that finds channels again - since ABC3 is new, it wasn't there if you ran the setup months/longer ago when you acquired the DVD player.    You might even find other channels launched since you ran the setup.  Bonus! (And you can guess exactly why I mention this.  Yup, I'm going through the DVD player's channel guide and wondering where ABC3 might be found... - it's the set-top box/digital receiver, not the telly).

Where The Wild Things Are film...

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Yes, the film / movie version of Where the Wild Things Are finally opens in Australian cinemas today. 

After writing a bunch of blog entries anticipating it, and reading the reviews from other places where it opened, oh, nearly two months ago, it will be good to see if for myself.  And then I can read the Dave Eggers novelisation I've been pretending not to see for a while (because I want to see the film first).

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Nothing will ever be as good as Maurice Sendak's picture book, though.  Ever.

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Cheers

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Ruth

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Stocktake, and lemons from lemonade

...so much to do, so little time (the White Rabbit from Alice in Wonderland, if I'm not mistaken...).

In the lemons from lemonade department, on the first day of stocktake we had an invasion of workmen to fix roof leaks - scaffolding, bingety-bangety, oh me oh my and can you please move those three tall double-sided (full) fiction shelf units?

So we did.

And put them somewhere else, temporarily, you know.

Only we looked at where we'd put them, and said, AHA! (actually, I said I had an idle thought, and my school assistants, who know exactly what that means, looked at me with a mixture of suspicion and anticipation...)

If we put them there, we can put the comfy seats upstairs over here, and wouldn't it be great to have another reading retreat, if we can scrounge some more chairs, and look how the sightlines work, and yes we'll have to move all the fiction books, but that will freshen it up too, different things in different places, kids will find books they haven't found before....

Lemons from lemonade.  The roof leak is fixed and painted, I'm thinking out ways to scrounge more chairs, we've moved the fiction books into this new configuration, and heigh-ho, stocktake goes on.  (I'll take photos when it's set up properly).  My school assistants and I are happy with the prospects and opportunities of the new arrangement of furniture.

Tomorrow is the Year 6 into 7 orientation, and all of those kids come through the library so it's a chance to say hello, welcome them to the library, get their photos taken for their library cards, and get an initial peg on what that cohort is like.

The usual busy end-of-year!  Hope yours is going well too.

Cheers

Ruth

Free e-books from The Book Depository

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Read all about it here.

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Cheers

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Ruth

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PS. We've started Christmas decorating in the school  library, and I'll show you some photos soon, as a couple of things are still In Progress...

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