A useful page with videos showing book covering techniques...
http://www.raeco.com.au/custompage.aspx?custompage=Keeping%20books%20alive
Sunday, March 4, 2012
Little Free Libraries
I am inspired by this piece about Little Free Libraries, springing up in communities to share books...
http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/story/2012-02-21/little-libraries-lawn-boxes-books/53260328/1
" Todd Bol wanted to honor his mother, a former teacher and book lover who died a decade ago. So two years ago, Bol built a miniature model of a library, filled it with books for anyone to take, and placed it outside his home in Hudson, Wis. He says people loved it. "People just kept coming up to it, looking at it, patting it, saying 'oh, it's cute,' " Bol recalls.
http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/story/2012-02-21/little-libraries-lawn-boxes-books/53260328/1
" Todd Bol wanted to honor his mother, a former teacher and book lover who died a decade ago. So two years ago, Bol built a miniature model of a library, filled it with books for anyone to take, and placed it outside his home in Hudson, Wis. He says people loved it. "People just kept coming up to it, looking at it, patting it, saying 'oh, it's cute,' " Bol recalls.
From that idea, hundreds of similar Little Free Libraries are popping up on lawns across the country. They're tiny — no bigger than a dollhouse. Some look like miniature homes or barns. Others just look like a box on a post. But they all hold books.
"Take a book, leave a book," says Bol, explaining in a nutshell, the basic concept of these tiny libraries.
After building the first library, Bol thought the idea had potential to spread. He contacted his friend Rick Brooks, who is an outreach program manager for the Division of Continuing Studies at the University of Wisconsin.
Together, they have helped launch a small, but growing movement.
The men provide logistical assistance and support to people who want to become mini-librarians.
They have a Website, littlefreelibrary.org, that provides drawings people can use to construct the boxes. It also has a map that tracks the location of Little Libraries....
Monday, February 13, 2012
Bio poems - a Laura Candler resource
Here is a link to an appealing poetry resource from Laura Candler
http://www.lauracandler.com/filecabinet/literacy/PDFWriting/BioPoemsMadeEasy.pdf
which she suggests could be used to start writing about book characters, amongst other things (biography, autobiography, famous people...) and with the added feature of using Wordle too.
http://www.lauracandler.com/filecabinet/literacy/PDFWriting/BioPoemsMadeEasy.pdf
which she suggests could be used to start writing about book characters, amongst other things (biography, autobiography, famous people...) and with the added feature of using Wordle too.
40 developmental assets for adolescents
This list might be of interest to those working with teens...
Search Institute has identified the following building blocks of healthy development—known as Developmental Assets—that help young children grow up healthy, caring, and responsible.
This particular list is intended for adolescents (age 12-18). If you'd like to see the lists for other age groups, you can find them on the Developmental Assets Lists lists page.
For more information on the assets and the research behind them, see the Developmental Assets or Developmental Assets Research page.
For a printer-friendly version of this page, download this list.
About the Search Institute : Discovering What Kids Need to Succeed
For more than 50 years, Search Institute® has been a leader and partner for organizations around the world in discovering what kids need to succeed. Our knowledge and resources help motivate and equip caring adults to create schools, communities, and families where young people thrive. Based on surveys of more than three million kids, the 150 plus books we’ve published, and the work we’ve done with schools and youth-serving organizations in more than 60 countries, Search Institute can help you solve critical challenges in the lives of young people. Our 40 Developmental Assets® are the most widely recognized and most frequently cited approach to positive youth development in North America, and serve as the foundation of our work.
Tuesday, February 7, 2012
Happy Charles Dickens' birthday
Maria, a teacher librarian colleague just sent an email wishing me Happy Charles Dickens' birthday! today...
I sent her back a link to the great website A word a day by Anu Garg, which last week celebrated Dickensian characters that became words in anticipation of Dickens' upcoming birthday...
I sent her back a link to the great website A word a day by Anu Garg, which last week celebrated Dickensian characters that became words in anticipation of Dickens' upcoming birthday...
Weeding, or "I can't believe you are throwing out books!"
A great blog post from Julie Goldberg from her blog Perfect Whole about weeding.
I can't believe you're throwing out books! May 2011.
She begins by saying "I am a librarian but no longer a bibliophile" and then goes on to talk about the process of weeding, the emotional hurdles we librarians - and our patrons - have to go through, dealing with donations, and an exploration of what a book really is and what makes it deserve shelf space...
The indignant bibliophiles value books not too much, but too little. By lumping all books together as sacred objects that can never outlive their usefulness, no matter how useless, they denigrate the power of books that can ignite a firestorm in a reader’s intellect, or tear a reader’s soul with pathos or romance.
It rang bells for me, and probably will for fellow librarians - and hoarders of weeded books !
I can't believe you're throwing out books! May 2011.
She begins by saying "I am a librarian but no longer a bibliophile" and then goes on to talk about the process of weeding, the emotional hurdles we librarians - and our patrons - have to go through, dealing with donations, and an exploration of what a book really is and what makes it deserve shelf space...
The indignant bibliophiles value books not too much, but too little. By lumping all books together as sacred objects that can never outlive their usefulness, no matter how useless, they denigrate the power of books that can ignite a firestorm in a reader’s intellect, or tear a reader’s soul with pathos or romance.
It rang bells for me, and probably will for fellow librarians - and hoarders of weeded books !
ESOL strategies
An Immigrant Student's Story: I Was a Dictionary Girl
by Helen Janc Malone
From : Education Week, Feb 6 2012
Here is a piece about working with ESOL students in a classroom - the author speaks from her own experience and suggests 10 strategies for supporting English-language learners.
by Helen Janc Malone
From : Education Week, Feb 6 2012
Here is a piece about working with ESOL students in a classroom - the author speaks from her own experience and suggests 10 strategies for supporting English-language learners.
Friday, December 2, 2011
Small change for Stuart
Magic, mystery - and a very strange adventure, says the banner on the cover of this fabulous novel by Lissa Evans, and it lives up to this description being full of clues and puzzles, tricks and inventions, with an endearing character in Stuart Horton who is 10 years old, short for his age, and intrepid, clever and brave.
I think it would make a great read-aloud for upper primary, funny and suspenseful with end-of-chapter cliffhangers, a rollicking pace and a wonderfully engaging tone. Here is a link to the first couple of chapters in The Guardian so you can start it and judge for yourself.
But perhaps to get a real feel for the book, listen to Lissa Evans herself describe why you should read and review it - 3 compelling reasons - and 2 of them are true ! http://www.theguardian.com/childrens-books-site/video/2011/jul/08/lissa-evans-small-change-for-stuart-video
This shows Lissa sitting on the sofa with her big dog next to her, its head on her knee, as she gave reasons about reading and enjoying the book and sharing it etc, plus the bonus, as attested eagerly by her canine companion, that on page 42 there is a wonderful aroma of salami, and on page 97... the dog just couldn't get its nose out of the book !
Check out this review on The Bookbag blog.
It is also a beautifully produced book - the edition I have is from Doubleday, an imprint of Random House - in hardback, with elegant font and design, and cover and chapter heading illustrations by Temujin Doran which have a hint of Edward Gorey about them - detailed, black and white, and slightly gothic. Here is a post on Frances McKay's Illustration blog about how he drew them : "Most of the drawings I did whilst I was working at my part-time job; sat on the roof of the cinema I work at. Or if not there, then it was in the café of the Barbican Centre, where I would make one apple juice seemingly last 6 hours...." Shades of JK Rowling!
This is one of my favourite young reads of 2011 - highly recommended!
I think it would make a great read-aloud for upper primary, funny and suspenseful with end-of-chapter cliffhangers, a rollicking pace and a wonderfully engaging tone. Here is a link to the first couple of chapters in The Guardian so you can start it and judge for yourself.
But perhaps to get a real feel for the book, listen to Lissa Evans herself describe why you should read and review it - 3 compelling reasons - and 2 of them are true ! http://www.theguardian.com/childrens-books-site/video/2011/jul/08/lissa-evans-small-change-for-stuart-video
This shows Lissa sitting on the sofa with her big dog next to her, its head on her knee, as she gave reasons about reading and enjoying the book and sharing it etc, plus the bonus, as attested eagerly by her canine companion, that on page 42 there is a wonderful aroma of salami, and on page 97... the dog just couldn't get its nose out of the book !
Check out this review on The Bookbag blog.
It is also a beautifully produced book - the edition I have is from Doubleday, an imprint of Random House - in hardback, with elegant font and design, and cover and chapter heading illustrations by Temujin Doran which have a hint of Edward Gorey about them - detailed, black and white, and slightly gothic. Here is a post on Frances McKay's Illustration blog about how he drew them : "Most of the drawings I did whilst I was working at my part-time job; sat on the roof of the cinema I work at. Or if not there, then it was in the café of the Barbican Centre, where I would make one apple juice seemingly last 6 hours...." Shades of JK Rowling!
This is one of my favourite young reads of 2011 - highly recommended!
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