Options for Projects

To go along with the 'Reading for Choice' program, at least one of the teachers is giving a lot of choices in what they can do as their assignments. Here are some of the options:

1. Live tweeting. Twitter is a 140 character-at-a-time way to share your thoughts with the world. I did a live twitter feed of 'The Hunger Games', which you can find here. Shows you know the book, the characters and how to answer a question without retelling the story.
What do you need? Internet connection, a twitter account specific to this project. Free.

2. Popplet. Popplet is a webbing and organizational website. It allows you to post topics, pictures, video and web them all together. It allows you to present a topic, show similarities and differences and illustrate it with appropriate images.You can also save it and put it on a website.
What do you need? Internet connection or downloaded app, free account (free for the first five popplets).

3. Book Trailers. Much like a movie, a book can be promoted with a trailer. There are lots of video programs to build this, but I like the app iMovie. It has trailer templates which walk you through the storyboard and allow you to pick different themes to suit your particular novel. You can take the pictures and video with the iPad or iPhone, so you don't need any other technologies.
What do you need? Any video equipment, but if you're a beginner and have access to a iProduct, iMovie is fantastic. $4.99 from the app store. Students at school can work with their teacher and me to borrow the LRC iPads.

4. Dipity. Dipity is a timeline maker. It's a little buggy - had issues making one - but when it's working is a great way to show how a novel progressed and highlight the important events in the novel.
What do you need? Internet and free account.

5. Prezi. I love prezi. It's all zoom-y and fun. Great way to do a presentation, save it to the website, and work on it again. It zooms and swoops and makes me happy.
What do you need? As per so many of these, an internet connection and a free account.

6. Stixy Stixy allows you to create a message board style page, with pictures, documents and notes. You can work with others or by yourself. This would be a great way to create character profiles.
What do you need? Internet and a free account.

7. Photo Essay. Putting together a photo essay is a great way to use photography skills and display your knowledge. There are websites like Flickr, which allow you to upload pictures, apps that allow you to build photo collages and places all around that will print out pictures. Plus, with some apps, you can make the pictures look different - manga style or what not. Great visuals will tell a story.
What do you need? A camera or camera device, editing programs or apps, ability to print out pictures and some creativity.

8. Tagxedo. The tagxedo site allows you to make word clouds that can be made lto look like a particular image. Great way to show the main ideas and that you understand the visuals the author is presenting.
What do you need? Internet and free account.

Beth Maddigan (the awesome) has some more web 2.0 links on her jux account. Really - if you can dream it, you can do it!

Exciting Times at the Library

Of course, aren't they all exciting times?

It was fantastic to get caught up in the excitement of the awards earlier this week. I didn't agree with all of the choices (Seraphina and I will have to agree to disagree) but I did agree with the love and excitement shown as they were awarded. Full list of winners can be found here. I've since ordered a few of the ones I'd not read - very excited.


I begin book talks today with students. This is such a vital and important part of my job and I love it so much. I'm busy cataloging books that I bought at Chapters recently and planning out what to say with each of them ("it's about the Titanic. And werewolves. Yes. Werewolves on the Titanic..."). I love it when kids talk back - respond - with their opinions on books as well. If you look at my Goodreads profile, you'll see that the ones on the 'Non-Word Reads' shelf are languishing as I try to get through ones for the booktalks. Ah well. I'm currently reading 'Dash and Lily's Book of Dares' and have fallen in love with it. Why are all of these teens so much cooler than I'll ever be? Ah well....


I recently got an ipad for the library - and have since ordered an ipad mini. On each I put quotes from books. This one has 'I am Selfish. I am brave'. The mini will have (I hope!) 'Maybe okay will be our always'. I'm hoping that putting these quotes will mean that it makes it that much more obvious that the connection between technology and books is there! I spent yesterday downloading apps - now I need to explore more and see what I need to do to make it the ultimate library tool. I did just download the YALSA book finder, so that might help! I spent about 20 minutes the other day making a video about the library - no plot, no focus - just to see how to do it in iMovie. It's an app I'll be recommending to teachers to use for book trailers or even general presentations. 20 minutes, no fuss, no muss - just a not great but looked fantastic horror movie trailer about the library.

It always amazes me how many things can happen in a library. The set for our school musical is over in the corner, a college is presenting here third period, a social justice class is scheduled for fourth period and I'm book talking during fifth period. My homeroom has been here, the PASS teacher has students scheduled all through the day. Our PD day will be here, the set will be gone! and prom decorations will be created. It's a cozy place.

Now... if the books would catalogue themselves.....

Choice

All year, every year I read and read and read books. I pick up books to read and donate to my little library. I read books that I like, books I don't like and books that are just plain weird (werewolves on the titanic anyone?). I read so I can talk to kids about books and know what I'm saying. Simple librarian math: books + reading = knowing what you're saying.

Due to the fact that my English department is full of rock stars who agree with me that choice is everything, approximately 2/3 of my 700+ student school get to choose one of the books they get credit for in the English curriculum. That's a lot of kids and a lot of book talks - but a lot of kids reading books they want to read, not just books we've told them are good for them. Reading the recent YALSA Blog A Defense of Weak YA Fiction reminded me of the importance of this program. There are people who question this - if they're not reading the classics, is it worth it? YES. YES. YES.

For some kids, having the right to choose gives them a connection to their curriculum. They feel as if they are part of what's happening around them and in their school. They have a sense of participation in their academic destiny and feel that they are willingly participating simply because they can read a book they want to read instead of a book that they have been told to read. And you know what they do? They read it. They participate in the curriculum successfully.

For other kids, having the right to choose means that they get to read something in which they are interested. It means that for once, quite often, they get to read something in their sphere of interest and often, at their reading level. One student could be reading 'The Night Circus', which another is reading 'Cirque du Freak'. One could read 'Twilight' while another could read 'Interview with the Vampire'. It's at their level and it's their choice. Students are, in my opinion, more likely to participate by reading the works if they had a part in choosing the works they're reading.

Doing this program at a high school level presents some difficulties - our Grade Twelve students can't participate because they need to read the same books as the rest of the province. Past that, having enough good books sometimes was hard - I did have to run out and pick up more part way through. The biggest worry was evaluation - how do you run an evaluation when everyone is reading something different? However, the rock stars found a way and the kids did the assignments - some for the first time that year. The assignments received were strong - as we weren't doing the standard curriculum, the kids had to rely on themselves and not spark notes. But they did it! And they prospered. This program was true, student centered 21st century learning and it showed.

This program and giving kids choice had two other benefits - kids fostered a relationship with the library and general circulation went up. They also fostered a relationship with the teachers involved; if they can trust that the teachers are looking out for them and are interested in their interests, they will form a relationship with them when it comes to other curricular issues.

So, choice in literature? Letting "weak" YA lit flourish? It works. The right of choice is one that has so many other benefits that it outweighs any of the detriments someone might suggest. So, next time someone says 'it's only YA lit - when are you going to read something good?', stare them down. Or realize that they obviously don't know what they're talking about and give them your favourite book to read. Reading+books=knowing what you're saying. Those who have read know this.

Presentations

I've been working at presentations and neglecting my blogging - so often the out of site is out of mind when you're rushing around to do 15 different things at once! I will admit, in the beginning of the year I swore I would do a blog post at least once a week. However, that has not happened. Must reformat my ideas of what to blog....

However, what have I been doing? Presenting to students on how to focus with research:

Researching Tips on Prezi

I've been talking about restorative justice to teachers - a part of 21st century learning, I believe.

Copy of Restorative Justice on Prezi

I'm on the BYOD committee at my school and using popplet to show issues and solutions for adopting a policy such as that:

Plus, there was the presentation using the popplet I made on YA lit I linked in my last entry. Kids love that and it makes me feel organized!

Plus reading piles and piles of YA lit - I'm currently in the middle of the Chronicles of Nick series. Soon - book reviews!

Testing out popplet and the web

Through twitter I was given a link to Popplet, a webbing software where you can create presentations. As I'm getting ready to present about YA lit, I thought I'd give it a whirl and see if it worked out for me. Unfortunately, you can't see it in presentation mode but here's what I created:

Thanks Ian for the link!

Live tweeting 'The Hunger Games'

As a lark this summer, I decided to 'live tweet' the hunger games. I created an account separate from my personal and professional ones and wrote timed tweets through novel, tweeting as the characters would during the story. It's not very good - but it's an example at least! The URL for the twitter feed is:

https://twitter.com/announcingthe74
 
You need to scroll down to the very bottom and load all the tweets - twitter shows your latest tweet first.
I used a program that allowed me to write tweets and store them to post at later dates. That way I could write timed tweets for days into the future. The goal was to have a site that teachers could show students as an example if they wanted this as an assignment option.

Benefits:

1. I really got to know the story and the characters. I knew the Hunger Games but now I really know it. Not sure when I'll ever want to read it again. 
2. I was able to learn more about the characters and their development as I tried to speak as they would in situations presented.

Challenges:

1. Writing as a character and nailing their voice can be difficult when you're trying to speak as they would but not as they did (due to copyright issues). Not happy with the voice of a number of characters as I presented them. As well, at times all grammar went out the window. Combo of the format and my laptop being cranky.
2. Not all novels are compact in timeline as 'The Hunger Games'. Would work for something like 'Lord of the Flies', less for something like 'Night'.
3. A number of the tributes do not have official names. Found those that I could, had to refer to them by district if I couldn't.

 The Process:

1. Created an account. 
2. Read and reread the book. Decided on what was important to tweet. Five pages of her discussing how hard it is to live in a cave might merit one tweet, one page of battle might merit 10 tweets from several characters.
3. Wrote with #character at the start but did add some hashtags as they are generally used at the end (eg. #cato That boy from 12 was playing us!!! he's with the girl!! #killpeeta #CATOROCKS). For those unfamiliar, hashtags are used to either link to other tweets on a topic or to express a quick thought on a topic, minus spaces. (sample tweet : "Allowed the child to eat staples #theregoesparentoftheyear). Many of the tweets from Cato ended with #CATOROCKS. Many from Haymitch ended with #ineedadrink or #stayalive.
4. Tried to ensure that characters were represented in the feed, even if they didn't have dialog in the book at that section. One example would be near the end when Katniss is waking in her room and hears yelling. That yelling is quite possibly Haymitch talking about how she's not to get cosmetic surgery. Included a tweet from him in that instance. 
5. Used twuffer (another website) to write tweets to post at certain times. I could write days and days and days of tweets in one sitting, making sure to chose what time they posted. 
6. Started to hate the process 
7. Continued through the story, breaking character at the end to put any references and thanks I needed to put there.

What I like about what I've done is that I have a definite example of how to use twitter for a project such as this. Now, instead of just stating 'you can use twitter' blah, blah, blah, I can show them how I did it. Always useful!

21st Century Learning

Lately there has been lots of buzz around the term '21st Century Learning'. What is it, how does it apply and what does it mean to our schools and specifically, to our jobs? I feel as though I've joined a bandwagon late, but the more I read the more I go, gosh, what a great idea.
However, I don't think I'm joining late. I think I've been there all along without knowing it. Technology integration,  understanding of modern communication tools and working with students to develop learning plans sounds like what we've been saying - or at least what we've been saying in the conversations I've been having!
But what does it mean for me specifically as a teacher librarian? Talking with someone who is working with the topic, there are places that call the librarians 'Teacher-Cybrarians'. They put a focus on having current, hot topic teen literature and reading areas to enjoy it as well as technology capabilities and integrations, lead by the Teacher-Cybrarian in all subject areas. Looking at the web, specifically, bringing twitter, facebook, youtube, edmodo and all other such web 2.0 applications into teaching as well as getting kids to read - that's what they're doing. That works so much for my skill set that the idea that's where things going is exciting!
So, for me, what is the future is 21st Century learning? It's just like the past really. We are helping kids use the world around them to make sense of their world. Sounds about right.