knitting librarian

SLJ chats with Diane Penrod about Using Blogs to Enhance Literacy – 10/9/2007 2:15:00 PM - School Library Journal

“Blogs are a “killer app.” I compare blogs to email. It’s a revolutionary breakthrough in communicating with others. It’s also a fundamental genre for Web 2.0 environments like those you mention. If you can blog, you can move to these other genres.”

Diane Penrod’s book sounds like something we need for our professional collection. I tried to get my teachers on-board with blogging two years ago, but there just didn’t seem to be time. Largely, the students writing product was mediocre. There wasn’t any pre-writing or editing happening and it shows.

I still think there’s value there, but I’m trying to figure out the best way to position myself and encourage students to use the tool. I would love for them to use my Read Write Think Repeat blog to share about the books they’re reading. Maybe I can start to offer C-Notes (school reward system) to students who want to share about the books they’re reading. I think I could justify it under Community as it builds a culture of readers and encourages discussion and shared experiences. Something to think about more.

[Added October 30] I was in the computer lab today with a colleague doing an information literacy assessment with her students. She was telling me she wanted to get her kids blogging about books. She doesn’t like my current book blog title. I told her we’ll change it. I’m thinking though instead of one of us choosing the title, we need to get student suggestions and let them vote on a title. Easy to do! I’m excited to have someone who wants to try this with me again!

ALAN Review: Young Adult Literature in the English Curriculum Today: Classroom Teachers Speak Out

I shared this article with my language arts teachers today. Of all places, I got a reference to it from an advertisement from PermaBound. (Of course, they were trying to sell their wares!) I sent the link to the article along with a note that we’ve got a copy of From Hinton to Hamlet

Hopefully it will be helpful to them. I know I’ll be looking at the recommended titles at the end of the article.

eSchool News online – School library research makes the case for more targeted support

“The average school library today is a well-connected facility with significant numbers of computers for students and staff to do research, according to a major survey of school library media centers. But the survey also suggests that school district leaders need to pay more attention to their elementary school libraries and that larger schools should be spending more per pupil on their libraries than they do now.”

Our district is one of those that has one certified librarian serving six elementary schools. It’s sad. She can’t possibly be doing all that needs to be done to prepare these students to become information literate. I bet they don’t have “significant numbers of computers for research” either. I’ve only got 8 computers and on any given day chances are that 2 of them won’t be working properly. Three of them are ancient iMacs (blueberry!) that are slower than molasses. The kids only use them because I can’t use my Remote Desktop program to spy on what they’re doing so they can potentially get away with more goofing off.

I believe our district’s per pupil expenditure for books is about $7. With the average cost of a book being in the neighborhood of $20 (plus processing) that’s a dismal 1 book per 3 students a year.

I’ve contacted my representative and senators about the SKILLs Act in hopes of improving the librarian to school statistic in libraries in PA. We should be highly qualified in order to prepare our students for the world of work that they’ll be entering. I wonder what the outcome of the vote will be.

NYPL Pays Students $50 to Sign Up for a Library Card – 9/18/2007 2:05:00 PM - School Library Journal
Wow! I know my students would love this opportunity. I can just hear them spending their $50 in their heads.

What an idea—and paid for by a private grant given to the city government. Bloomberg is also offering students in grades 4-7 to earn cash rewards for achievement on standardized tests. That’s one way to ensure that some students don’t “make a pattern with the bubble sheet” or figure that since it isn’t for a grade on their report card they don’t have to do well! It will be interesting to see how it works out for them long-term and how much they have to pay out.

Nancy from Center for Teaching and Learning has created a list of books her students recommend. I need to use this for collection development so this is just basically a placemarker for it. The page also talks about their reading program and how students average 40 books a year at the middle school level. She attributes it to the availability of a wide range of reading materials that appeal to all students. Interesting reading! It would be a good thing to share with my school’s Literacy Committee.