Teacherninja

Posts of the Past

2009-07-12T16:44:00.000-04:00

Who is this "Jim Randolph" character recently tagged by Doug Johnson with this new meme created by Joyce Valenza? Is it the guy mentioned in this blog post and in this photo? Or is he this good looking guy? Or maybe this real estate agent? Or he could be, you know, all of them!?! Well, whoever the hell he is he asked me to answer this meme, so here goes...

" Meme rules:

1. Scan your posts for your own personal favorites.
2. Choose one post in any/each of the four categories:

Rants
Resources
Reflections
Revelations

I leave it to you folks to define these terms, but my instinct is that we could treat these loosely. You are welcome to suggest new categories if these don't fit.

3. In a blog post, list those posts and very briefly describe

why it was important,
why it had lasting value or impact,
how you would update it for today.

4. Select five (or so) other bloggers to tap with this meme.

5. Tag all of your post with #postsofthepast"

Rant: Interestingly, I've been mulling whether or not to remain an anonymous blogger. One of the reasons I went anonymous was the crazy-assed parents we sometimes have to deal with, like Laura Mallory. She was the loon who wanted to ban the Harry Potter books here in Georgia. I ranted about that here and here. I was kind getting over the whole "anonymous" thing but thought I might as well keep a low profile until after I had my future media specialist job. Not that there's much here that would keep me from getting hired, but I just like being able to say whatever I like without worry of it'll ending up in a Google search. So I'll open up a bit after I land that future job...

Resource: We all need a laugh and the amazing journalistic resource I linked to in this post helps keep me sane when the news gets nutty (which is always).

Reflection: For all teachers the first day of school is always ripe for reflection, and I'm no different. This post was well-received and I referred back to it here when my daughter went for her first day.

Revelation: I think the biggest revelation I've had is that every time I think about hanging up the blog, I find reasons to keep going. Like doing the research for this post. I found most of what I've done here less than stellar, but a handful of nuggets made me smile and while I know that the quality won't be what I want until I graduate from this time-consuming program, I can't seem to give it up and hope others find it interesting as well.

Thanks.

Oh, and I dutifully pass this meme onto Tricia, C.B. James, ms-teacher, MotherReader, and Kami Garcia.

"Paperless" Does Not Equal Green

2009-07-12T14:49:00.003-04:00

Watch this multimedia documentary from photojournalist Chien-Min Chung about e-waste in Guiyu, China if you don't buy it.

In Guiyu, China the lead levels in the water are "190 times higher than the level considered safe for drinking by the World Health Organization."

Nice.

Reading, Reading, Reading

2009-07-10T08:48:00.006-04:00

Last month I posted my response to Wait Till Helen Comes--the same response I posted to my professor. I won't keep torturing you with my extended thoughts on older children's literature. I'll just tell you what I've been reading (other than the piles of research studies for my own research) for the past couple of weeks and give you some thumbnail responses.

First up is Susan Cooper's The Dark Is Rising. This is a coming-of-age fantasy. Actually, it's more about the loss of innocence. This really got to me:

"This time, his fear was adult, made of experience and imagination and care for others, and it was the worst of all. In the moment that he knew this, he knew too that he, Will, was the only means by which his own fear could be overcome..." (p. 145).

Next was Jill Paton Walsh's The Green Book. It was ok. It certainly had some interesting elements and striking imagery, but felt unfinished and thin to me. Like the first chapter of a more interesting story. It's a nice introduction to science fiction, though. There's not much true SF for the younger set--more fantasy than anything else. The kids that read this and like it will grow up to read Frank Herbert, and Connie Willis, and Kim Stanley Robinson, and Dan Simmons and live happily ever after.

Then there was Shiloh. Spoiler: The doggie doesn't die at the end! So I was happy with that. A great sense of place in this one and the voice is pitch perfect. The graceful and compassionate ending is what must have won her the Newbery, though. Good work.

Changes to Library Hours and Services

2009-07-09T08:18:00.003-04:00

I love my local library system. They just posted a sad letter on their website. It says, in part:

"The Library has made a number of significant cuts over the last six months, and we anticipate further cuts in 2010. Unfortunately, due to the difficult financial times, the library administration has been forced to make some drastic decisions that impact library hours, services, and programs. We have already implemented a hiring freeze and have now reached the tipping point where we can no longer provide full service with our reduced staff.

Regretfully, our customers will be impacted by these changes. Branches will be open fewer days and hours, and when they are open, they will be operating with reduced staff. There will be less programming, fewer titles from which to choose, and materials will not be shelved or placed on hold as quickly as customers expect."

Closed all day Sunday and Monday. No security. Less programming. Less materials. The Reading Festival has been canceled. Hard times, people. Just when public library use has been going up. Sigh.

Steve Jenkins Books at Kohls

2009-07-07T15:50:00.001-04:00

This is cool. For a limited time you can get some Steve Jenkins and/or plush toys for $5 at Kohls and some of the money goes to charity. These are some of my favorite picture books, so they would be perfect gifts for kids, teachers, parents, librarians or bloggers you know!

After a Car Wreck and Some Dental Work, the Day Can Only Get Better, Right?

2009-07-07T13:13:00.004-04:00

Lady ran a red light and messed up my new (to me, anyways) red Honda Element. I'm mostly OK except for the burns on my right wrist and hand from the air bag deploying.

This kind of thing usually pisses people off, but it just makes me appreciate everyone so much more. Everyone I dealt with today was great (except the lady who drove right through the red light and into my car, of course). A guy stopped and helped me out of my car and left me his business card. The EMT/Fire/Police were all awesome.

I got hit by a couple of tons of metal going quite fast and I'm fine. Who do I have to thank for that? People. The car designers and engineers, for one. And I'm thankful for the emergency and insurance services we've created. I'm thankful for cell phones and 911. I'm thankful to the helpful guy I mentioned (need to send him something).

People can suck every once in a while and they make a lot of mistakes, but generally I think they are good and helpful.

So thanks, People. I'm a little shaken, but I'm OK.

(image cc flickr)

Linkage

2009-07-06T14:47:00.003-04:00

Roger Ebert's Journal: I'm a Proud Braniac

"What I believe is that all clear-minded people should remain two things throughout their lifetimes: Curious and teachable."

AC Grayling: This Much I Know (via Norm)

"I have enough faith in statistics to know there must be conscious life on other planets.
Initials can be useful to hide behind. I once heard Jonathan Ross on the radio asking Kirsty Young who she had coming up on Desert Island Discs. When she mentioned "AC Grayling" Ross replied: "Oh, I know her."
Science is the outcome of being prepared to live without certainty and therefore a mark of maturity. It embraces doubt and loose ends."

Book Aunt: Ten Books at a Time (via Diane)

"One thing I hear a lot from well-to-do suburban parents is that they have plenty of books at home. I remember doing a school visit at a private school a few years back and getting a sense of what was going on. After I made a big pitch for going to the library, some of the students' comments made me realize that their wealthy parents didn't ever take them to the library. Instead, they were proud of their supposedly extensive home libraries.

Sorry, but those libraries are just not good enough. "

...and finally, C.B. James: Dakota Eats Hunger Games - Book Giveaway because I'd like to read the ironically chewed on book. Dakota, as you may or may not know, has excellent taste.

Pay for Performance Backfires

2009-07-04T14:31:00.003-04:00

I know: you're thinking "No, Duh." But you can't say it too many times.

"We find that financial incentives may indeed reduce intrinsic motivation and diminish ethical or other reasons for complying with workplace social norms such as fairness. As a consequence, the provision of incentives can result in a negative impact on overall performance," said Dr Bernd Irlenbusch of the London School of Economics.

Full report here.

(via http://twitter.com/alfiekohn)
(photo via flickr)

Paul Muldoon: Cuz I'm A Big Fat Lit. Nerd

2009-07-03T14:55:00.002-04:00

The Colbert Report

Mon - Thurs 11:30pm / 10:30c

Paul Muldoon

www.colbertnation.com

Colbert Report Full Episodes

Political Humor

Jeff Goldblum

Go Colbert! (via Norm)

Oh, and buy it here to make it the number one poem in America.

Awesome SOUR Video

2009-07-03T13:14:00.002-04:00

Wow. How did they DO that? Cool cool stuff. (via PodBlack Cat)

14 Cows for America

2009-06-29T13:00:00.000-04:00

Oh, sure, this cover looks innocuous enough, but this book will slowly and gently pull out your heart and make you weep like, well, me after I read it.

This isn't out yet but will be out in August. I saw a copy at the conference I just attended and man did it get to me.

It's the true story of a man from a Masai tribe in Africa returning from being in New York after the events of 11 September 2001. I won't say much more except that it's awesome. It's one of those books like Pink & Say that'll make me cry in front of my students no matter how many times I read it but it makes you proud to be a human being. Which is saying something.

Amazon link.
Carmen Deedy's site.

Glasses For All!

2009-06-29T12:47:00.002-04:00

How awesome is this? A physicist has invented glasses that are self-adjustable and has created an organization trying to get these out to anyone who needs them. They have lenses that are adjustable, so there would be no need to fill a bazillion prescriptions for everyone in the world who can't afford a visit to an eye doctor. My poor kids who can't get glasses would have an instant fix! They're ugly-ish right now, but I'm sure it won't be long until they can get it a bit more fashionable. Of course, maybe fashion is catching up with these glasses! I first read about these in my new National Geographic, but here's an article SciAm did back in February. It's an amazing idea that could actually help millions of people. Here's how you can help if you wish.

Yay, science!

Yay, people!

Real Change for Math Education

2009-06-29T11:17:00.002-04:00

I couldn't agree more. How do we do this?

The Unquiet Librarian!

2009-06-27T15:24:00.003-04:00

You've seen the The Unquiet Librarian blog, right? It, among many other things, is run by Buffy Hamilton, high school librarian/information goddess.

Finally got to meet her in person! She was scheduled to present at that conference I went to this week, but it was an online presentation (that's a photo of her while she was doing it) so we didn't see her, just a screen image of her desktop and her voice coming through the speakers. I felt jipped since that's one of the reasons I went to the conference in the first place!

But then, surprise surprise, our professor invited her to our class today to go over some real-world cataloging issues! So not only did I meet her, but it turns out she and my wife had a class together a few years back. Crazy.

Now if you know anything about Buffy you know that she is Ms. Intertwebs. She has the aforementioned blog. She has more than one wiki and pageflakes, and netvibes, and twitter, and facebook and and and...

So it was kinda cool when we were geeking out after her talk to get to bring up a few online tools she was unfamiliar with. I know that's not that impressive--there's too many online tools for anyone to know everything. Still. It was good talking to her. She couldn't be sweeter or more willing to share every scrap of knowledge she's ever come across.

Check out her stuff.

Oh and those sites? Buzzword, Instructify, and Google Moderator. You can check out those too if you have so much time on your hands. Now get back to work, slacker! Buffy has already created whole new web worlds in the time you've taken to read this!

(photo via flickr)

Harris and Me

2009-06-25T13:50:00.003-04:00

This weeks Booking Through Thursday question asks what book evokes the idea of "summer" for you the most and for me it's undoubtedly Gary Paulsen's hysterical and touching romp, Harris and Me. There's a newer cover but I like this Wendell Minor version myself.

An 11-year-old boy, an obvious stand-in for a young Paulsen if you've read any of his vivid and compelling (and horror-filled) autobiography, spends the summer with some rural relatives and in particular the 9-year-old Harris who opens the relationship with the question, "We heard your parents was puke drunks, is that right?" Well, yes, but the rest of the summer is too much fun for anyone to worry much about "real life."

It's an episodic book, in the style of Twain and recounts the narrator's and Harris's encounters with the wildlife (animal and human) in the country. It's funny but definitely for those around twelve and up due to some language. It's unfortunate that Paulsen is only known as a children's book writer, because this should have crossover appeal with adults in the same way Richard Peck's Grandma Dowdel books do (A Long Way to Chicago, A Year Down Yonder, A Season of Gifts). My own daddy grew up on a farm in Tennessee and just about peed his pants reading this, so that's high praise indeed.

Batgirl Was A Librarian

2009-06-24T11:04:00.006-04:00

The title of this post comes from the front plate of a car I saw in the parking lot of Macon State College as I attended the GLMA Summer Institute. It wasn't the best conference I've ever been to, but it was a good one for getting the feel of my new career path.

They're librarians, so of course there's a wiki of resources, which is certainly worth checking out. I was dismayed to hear that it's a yearly struggle to get the funding for GALILEO (click here if that link doesn't work), Georgia's online research library and databases. It's an amazing resource and especially great that every school in Georgia has access to it. Much better than Google for the kiddies and you could get the equivalent of multiple Ph.Ds using nothing but this without any books in your media center. How much does this treasure set the 9.4 million citizens of our state back for use in our public schools? Less than .02 cents each. A veritable drop in the bucket.

The best presenter by far was a fellow named Tommy Johns. I have no idea if that is his real name. He has many of great tips and the theme of his talk was perfect. To be a great media specialist he says, you need to have:

Now there's a philosophy I can promote!

Iran

2009-06-22T13:44:00.000-04:00

Wow.

John Hodgeman On Nerds vs Jocks and Obama

2009-06-20T13:05:00.000-04:00

Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy

Bradbury Fights for Libraries

2009-06-20T09:55:00.004-04:00

I've mentioned Mr. Bradbury before and linked to those amazing videos he did recently to promote libraries.

Today in the New York Times there's a wonderful article about his continuing fight for public libraries. "I don't believe in colleges and universities," hes says, "I believe in libraries."

Dude is pushing 90 and he's still going strong!

Wait Till Helen Comes

2009-06-19T15:42:00.003-04:00

Questions are from my Survey of Children's Lit. assignment:

What did you feel?

I felt like these were the worst parents I've read about in a long time and that Molly was one of the more whiny twelve-year-olds. She's also not one of the brightest girls I've met in fiction either. If she can be so manipulated by her five-year-old step-sister, then it's almost surprising that the book ended as well as it did for her.

The parents are a couple of head-in-clouds artists that should seriously be prosecuted for neglect. I'm all for free-range children but when your obviously traumatized five-year-old clearly hates her step-siblings or you're dumb enough to believe that the older step-siblings are harassing her, then why would you leave them all alone together? It didn't make much sense. First of all, they needed better communication; barring that, they could have at least gotten some therapy.

Molly was so naive it was getting ridiculous. She made it seem like she'd never had a problem in the world with her brother and she fell for every generic "gotcha" sibling trick Heather pulled on her. When it got to the point where Heather snuck out of the house the first time, she could have gotten a lot more mileage from yelling to her parents than following the kid. Maybe then they would have realized Heather needed adult supervision at the very least. She also had the problem of not understanding how whiny and crazy she was sounding to her family. Whether there's really a ghost or not, they clearly didn't believe it so she should have given up trying to convince them of that and just worked on getting them to pay attention to what was going on with the little one.

I know this is a children's book and I'm responding to it as an adult reader, so let me be fair. I can see why this is such a popular and beloved book for kids. My students would eat it up. The fourth and fifth graders are always looking for scary stories beyond the goosebumps level, but are not yet ready for Clive Barker. I recall seeing that silly Titanic movie from the last decade and overhearing some teenage girls go on about how it was the best movie they'd ever seen. They were young, so maybe it was indeed the best movie they'd ever seen. To me this book is full of stereotypical and generic gothic tropes, but to an 8-12 year old who was encountering this kind of tale for the first time it would be good and frightening. Hahn certainly has the pacing down and knows all the ingredients to throw in.

What did you notice?

I guess I noticed all the things a younger reader wouldn't. I noticed what terrible parents the adults were. I noticed how shoddy the police work was. I noted the near impossibility of Helen's parent's skeleton's to still be intact a hundred and fifty some years later. I noticed I started to wonder how no one, not even a half-corporeal spirit, had not found these two skeletons before. I know all this sounds picky, and I'm sure this kind of thing would slip by younger readers, so I don't want to dwell on that stuff.

I also noticed that Hahn knew just where to draw the line, playing on a young person's fears of death and ghosts and such without giving these elements too much power. The ghost of Helen can only do so much and can be defeated easily enough. She can talk loners into drowning like some spiritual cult leader, but she can't force the unwilling or apparently even cross property lines so there are safe limits.

What were you reminded of?

I was reminded of the scary stuff I went for when I was younger. I skipped over this kind of book and went straight for Ray Bradbury, Shirley Jackson, Lovecraft and Poe. Now those were some scary stories! Well, maybe not the Lovecraft. Those were kind of funny, actually. But I remember having nightmares from Bradbury's "Mars Is Heaven." That was creepy.

I've heard that Hahn's new book, Closed for the Season, is a non-supernatural thriller invloving a creepy closed down theme park (a la Bradbury). I may check that out to see if I enjoy her work more without the supernatural elements.

I like what Roger Sutton, editor of The Horn Book, had to say in praise of the actual scariness of this ghost and the children who read about her: "The fact that Helen wins children's choice awards across the country give me hope for the future: kids who can handle it are exactly the kind I want around to take care of things when the lights go out" (Sutton, 2009).

Sutton, Roger. "Read Roger: Futures trading for writers." The Horn Book, Inc. / Publications about books for children and young adults. 9 Feb. 1924. 17 June 2009 .

Great Minds Discuss Ideas

2009-06-18T09:35:00.003-04:00

"Great minds discuss ideas; average minds discuss events; small minds discuss people."
--Eleanor Roosevelt

In honor of Sharon Lee's declaration that June 23rd be known as Science Fiction and Fantasy Writer's Day, Booking Through Thursday's question this week asks is you read fantasy and/or science fiction and why or why not.

Hell yeah I do. It's funny, because I haven't actually been reading that much of this kind of thing recently, but just last night got around to Joe Haldeman's The Forever War, considered a classic of the genre. It was tough, brutal and even funny. More of a tougher look at the absurdist worlds of Pynchon, Vonnegut and Heller. It's the polar opposite of Heinlein's goofy Starship Troopers, showing off war as the pointless exercise it usually is. I think it's the first big SF satire of the Vietnam War which is practically a sub-genre in the field.

Theodore Sturgeon once said that ninety percent of everything was crap. When it comes to genre fiction, I think the number hovers closer to ninety-nine percent. But that 1% gold can be some life-changing stuff, full of the wonder and terror of our place in the cosmos.

I'm enjoying going back and reading a lot of children's books for my current studies because I skipped over them myself as a kid. I read a few, but after fifth grade or so, I went straight to SF. I may have stuck around fiction written for my age group longer if there had been much in the way of harder science fiction, but it was either realistic fiction or light fantasy in those days. We didn't have Haddix and duPrau or even K. A. Applegate.

So I went for Asimov, and Clarke, a bit of Heinlein, and on to Bear, Brin, Gibson, Bradbury, Alan Moore, Frank Miller, Ellison, Dan Simons, Ted Sturgeon, a pinch of Scott Card, Lovecraft, King, Barker, Neal Stephenson, Connie Willis, Leiber, Octavia Butler, Gaiman, Finney, Orwell, Susanna Clarke, Huxley, Stokey, Shelley, Straub, Tolkien, Mathesen, Ballard, Herbert, Atwood, and even just Chrichton.

It's funny that I started off ignoring the more fantasy-driven stuff in favor of harder SF, but now read a little of both. Science fiction and fantasy, at their best, are about the same things any great literature is about: what Faulkner nailed as "the human heart in conflict with itself."

Free Harry Potter Books

2009-06-16T09:29:00.003-04:00

Ms. Yingling has the scoop.

Should be fun, kids!

Bumpy Library

2009-06-15T09:25:00.004-04:00

Holy crap! I just about had to whip out my ninja skills on a library patron!

Here I am in one of our lovely and award-winning local public libraries and it being first thing in the morning, it's nice and quiet. I see about eight or ten people on computers. There's an elderly gentleman reading a paper in a comfy chair. At two tables nearby women are tutoring young children. All you can hear are keyboards and soft voices.

This was shattered a few minutes ago by a man who seemed to be quietly working at a table directly behind one being used by a tutor. Apparently his concentration was broken and he angrily stuffed his briefcase and began loudly remarking for all to hear that "this is a library, not a damn tutoring place" and as he walked toward the back of the library, apparently to find a quieter spot, he continued to rant.

I am quite fond of libraries and have a problem keeping my mouth shut.

After his third or so iteration of this not being a tutoring place, I perked up with, "I think it can be used for whatever we all decide to use it for."

Mistake.

He spun around and came right at me. No longer projecting the demeanor of a well-dressed library patron, he suddenly became a wide-eyed and out-of-control street thug. "You got anything else to say to me?" he shouted. "You wanna take it outside?" he threatened. "You wanna bump?!?"

By now he was in my face.

I remained calm and simply said, "No sir." I could see three staff members coming over. The closest one engaged him and he was no longer in danger of being slain by a ninja, but I ask you: Have you ever seen anything like this? It was new to me.

He didn't leave right away. I got a few more "You wanna bump" threats and he even told me to shut up and shoved one of my books at me. Lucky for him that he was asked to leave and complied. The poor kids were scared to death.

I guess he forgot that our libraries have quiet rooms set aside.

(image cc flickr)

Still Here!

2009-06-15T06:36:00.005-04:00

It's just that I'm taking three graduate classes this summer. They're basically the same amount of work as a regular semester-long graduate class, except without the semester-long part. Ouch. I was feeling all jaunty about it being off for the summer and all, but no. It's pretty much all grad work all the time for me now.

At least in one of the classes, Survey of Children's Literature, I get to read many kid's books. Of course the problem with that one is that the professor wants us to read books we've never read before and they have to be off of her list of books to choose from. So I'm ending up with a severely limited range of choices since I've read more than a few children's books.

Oh, hey! I'll be at the Georgia Library Media Association (GLMA) Summer Institute conference next week if there are any other peach state media specialists out there.

And finally, I blogged about the library without a media center for their blog as well and in the comments heard about another new school that isn't planning on a library for their students. Am I the only one disturbed by this trend?

(image cc flickr)

Help a Library Exist!

2009-06-10T08:56:00.004-04:00

Being a School Library Media student, I of course have my feelers out for any possible cool jobs that might be out there. One of the most interesting possibilities is a new charter school here in my district. It's a high school dedicated to science, math and technology! I'm swooning with the possibilities. Here's their website. And it turns out I know one of the APs! And I know the brother of the principal! Cool, no?

The other cool thing is that I'll be graduating (if all goes well) in 2010 and they'll have they're own new building in August 2010! That's right, at the moment they're housed within another high school without a place to call their own. So I was thinking if I play my cards right, I could be the brand new media specialist at a brand new high school dedicated to math, science and technology. In other words, Nerdvana!

But there is a serious hitch. I was chatting with our Director of Media Services & Technology Training the other day and she said the school is considering "re-purposing" their media center since "all the kids can look up whatever they need online anyway."

AHHHHHHHHHHHHH!

Now don't blame this wonderful Director of Media Services, she's against this idea as well. But now I have a mission, people! Even if they don't hire me, they need a media center and a fully qualified media specialist. They will need "to learn to think critically." They will want a place to help them "apply knowledge to new situations, and create new knowledge." They will need be taught to "participate ethically and productively as members of our democratic society" especially as networked citizens. And I certainly hope they want to "pursue personal and aesthetic growth" which means reading for fun and becoming life-long learners. These are the AASL guidelines and they are becoming more essential with the information explosion.

Heck, I'll be a freshly-minted information specialist when I graduate. Who wouldn't want someone like that in a school like this?

And even without the books, they still need a Media Center. A place to meet, gather, work alone and play around with ideas and ever changing groups. A place that has been likened to a learning kitchen or a kid's Kinkos with a specialist there to help guide and connect. A place where all of the digital media and equipment can be housed and kept track of to share among the staff.

And what about the staff? They don't want someone to collaborate with? Someone who can set up pathfinders and wikis and whatever else they need?

They aren't thinking this through, people!

For obvious reasons I don't want to tick them off, but I think this is very important. Any ideas on how to convince them?