Borrowing Ideas

This past week for class we read some articles about creating programs in libraries including storytimes.  We talked about borrowing ideas from other libraries and librarians.  Abby the Librarian is one of the blogs that I read fairly regularly.  She often will post, in great detail, the storytimes that she does at her library.  This week’s theme was construction and last week’s was about bugs.  She even had a page on her blog dedicated to storytime themes, which includes links to other webpages.   What an awesome way to get ideas when getting started or when you are stuck.  Thank you Abby!

The ALSC blog also posted about a Mad Libs Writing Workshop for 3rd and 4th graders.  Mad Libs = Mad Fun!

I shook the hand of an Olympian

This week Tyler McGill came to talk at our school.  He greeted about half the school as they entered the gym and the other half as they left.  Everyone had the opportunity to touch his gold medal.  He talked about setting goals and working hard to achieve them.  He also spoke about what is was like to be at the Olympics and winning a medal.

He let the kids ask question for about 20 minutes.  Most of the kids asked about swimming, training, the Olympic village, and the YouTube video the Olympic swim team made.  One student asked him what was his favorite book—how cool was that!!!  I thought I needed to remember this and think about what I would do with that information if I were a youth services librarian.

Well, I didn’t remember the book but luckily for me some of my students did when I asked the next day.  How cool is that—they paid attention to the answer of that question.  Tyler McGill’s favorite book is Into Thin Air by Jon Krakauer.  We had a nice discussion about the assembly and the book.

So what would I do with that information if I were a youth services librarian?  I could set up an Olympic book display.  Our librarian had one at the beginning of the year.   I decided that I would have local celebrity picks.  We are so fortunate in our area (Champaign-Urbana) to have many local celebrities who could provide a librarian with their favorite childhood book and why.  We have Olympians, pro sport athletes, college athletes, Big Ten Coaches, TV and movie personalities, a former Miss America, authors, and Nobel laureates to name a few.   I could have the books either on the shelf (cover facing) with the who and why or in a display area or both.

Thinking back to the boys and reading discussion earlier this semester, maybe some of the male celebrity picks would encourage some of the boys to pick up the books that were once their favorites.

What the boys were reading

This week was standardized testing week at my school.  I asked the kids to bring in homework or a book to read if they finished the section before time was up.  About mid-week I had finished with this week’s class reading and decided to see what the boys were reading.

Here is the list:

Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix by J.K. Rowling

The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins

Showcase Presents: Martian Manhunter, Vol. 1 by Janck Miller and Joe Certa

I had a couple of boys who put their head down after finishing a test.  I encouraged them to go to the bookshelf and pick out something to read.  They chose the following:

Do Not Open: An Encyclopedia of the World’s Best-kept Secrets by John Farndon

The White House: An Illustrated History by Catherine O. Grace

I feel like they were right inline with what the readings said the boys would read.  We had adventure, fantasy, history, a graphic novel, and a random fact book.  

McKechnie, Lynne (2006). Becoming a Reader: Childhood Years.  In Ross, Catherine Sheldrick, McKechnie, Lynne, and Rothbauer, Paulette M. (Eds). Reading Matters: What the Research Reveals About Reading, Libraries, and Community (p. 63-100) . Westport, CT: Libraries Unlimited.

Sullivan, M. (2004). Why Johnny Won't Read. School Library Journal, 50(8), 36-39.

Cyberbullying

I had been reading Totally Wired: What Teens and Tweens Are Really Doing Online by Anastasia Goodstein when I was sent an e-mail about a seminar that was going to be given by a police officer on cyberbullying.  I had been to a seminar given by this same officer a couple of years ago and had decided that I wasn’t going to go. 

After reading the chapter on cyberbullying in the book, I decided that I would go to hear what he had to say.  Things are different now then they were just a couple of years ago and it seems that teens and tweens have a lot more ways to access the digital world now then they did then.  He talked about how kids were using tweets and posting pictures to photo sharing sites in addition to the other social networking sites that were popular with them a couple of years ago. 

Both the book and the police officer gave examples of real world situations—some were about empowerment and some were very sad. 

The officer said that cyberbullying was not just a juvenile problem but also a community problem.   He talked about monitoring mobile devices, computers, and connected gaming consoles.  Since libraries are part of the community and often offer these devises for check out or use in the library, I looked at a few public library internet/computer use policies and found them to be similar library to library. 

I did an article search and found a couple of interesting articles in the Young Adult Library Services Journal.  “Stick, Stones, and Words Can Hurt You:  Antibullying Resources” by Madelene Barand offers a list of books, fiction and non-fiction, for teens and adults as well as a list of online resources.  The officer talked about using stories such as Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer as an example of bullying, a story well known to all kids.  “Cyberbullying and Teens What YA Librarians Can Do to Help” offers information about who the bullies are, who their victims and what YA librarians can do to help.  There is also a list of resources and information about reporting cyberbullying. 

I’m interested in it, I am sad about it, and soon I will be dancing about it.  Some of the schools in the area are bringing in a group to have an assembly for middle schoolers about bullying and cyberbullying.  My principal asked if I would be willing to be in one of the skits, a hip-hop style dance, and I agreed.  I apparently have a 75-minute rehearsal to attend that morning—I am part of the community.   We’ll see how it goes.  

Agosto, D. E., Forte, A., & Magee, R. (2012). Cyberbullying and Teens What YA Librarians Can Do to Help. Young Adult Library Services, 10(2), 38-43.

Barnard, M. (2009). Sticks, Stones, and Words Can Hurt You: Antibullying Resources. Young Adult Library Services, 8(1), 33-39.

Goodstein, Anastasia. (2007) Totally Wired: What Teens and Tweens Are Really Doing Online. New York, NY: Saint Martin's Griffin.

Life Learners

Two of the readings for class this week talked about fostering information literacy and creating life long learners.  The readings talked about the roles of public and school librarians as well as teachers in this process and that collaboration is key.  As a teacher and a student of LIS, I feel that this is very important and love the idea of promoting both information literacy and life learning.  I know that many of the teachers in my school work the technology coordinator and librarian to include information literacy into their curriculum.  We have scheduled library and computer lab times for classes as well as mobile labs.  I have even seen questions on information literacy on standardized assessments tests at the grade school level.