20th Century Technology/21st Century Kids

Define:dinosaur technology.

According to one of my 7th graders (born in 2000) he didn't know the names of all of them, but dinosaur technology to him was "the stuff on the tables": a rotary phone, an 8-track tape deck, a movie projector,  a record player, a filmstrip projector, a radio/cassette/CD player, and a typewriter.

Every day we encourage children to think about the future: where will they go to college, what do they want to be when they grow up, etc. As the media specialist formerly known as history teacher, I felt that in order to encourage my students to look forward, I needed them to see what was in the rear view mirror. Thus a lesson on "old" technology was born. Creating a Keynote or Prezi showing students a bunch of photographs of past technology didn't make me excited to share, so for the past year I've been collecting or finding someone to loan me items in order to create a hands-on experience.

The language arts teacher coming for the lesson divided her students into groups. After a brief discussion of the definition of technology we told our students to use their 21st century skills to answer questions about the 20th century technology at their station. The students were super excited to (in their words) "mess with" the technology and they did a fantastic job answering the questions posed about how their item operated, determining what was its 2012 counterpart, and contemplating why the technology evolved.

Some of my favorite moments?

• Four girls sitting at the rotary phone, determined to figure out how to text with it because it had letters
• The group of boys wondering aloud if they could play games on the movie projector.
• The clicking sound of multiple typewriters
• Seeing 12-year-olds absolutely hysterical while playing an LP at 78 RPMs to make Journey sound like the Chipmunks
• The confusion over how exactly one dials a rotary phone (see video)
• All the teachers who came in and marveled at the trip down memory lane

How do we excite children about technology? Make them visionaries. This year as we use computers and iPads and flip cameras I have charged my students with forming ideas about where these technologies will go next. They seem excited with the prospect.

Summer Throwdown!

My librarian friend Dedra tweeted a link to the #summerthrowdown back in June and I immediately signed up to participate in the League of Librarians, hoping it would keep me motivated to accomplish my goal of reading one book a day over summer vacation. I didn't quite reach my goal, but the participating in the Summer Throwdown was a lot of fun and it was great be part of a community of readers as well as get some excellent book recommendations. In that spirit of passing it on, here are a few of the most memorable books from my summer reading list:

1. Wonder by R.J. Palacio - Auggie Pullman, after being homeschooled his entire life, is starting his public school as a middle school student. Why is this memorable? Auggie was born with facial deformities so severe that he won't even describe himself.

Goodreads info

2. In a Glass Grimmly by Adam Gidwitz - Jack and Jill went up the hill. Did you ever wonder what else happened to them? This venture through the dark side of fairy tales is exciting, gruesome and leaves you hanging on the edge of the page. (Not a good bedtime read!)

Goodreads info

3. Chomp by Carl Hiaasen - Filled with fabulously named characters (Wahoo, Tuna and Derek Badger),  a surly dad and surlier alligator, and a reality show with a not-so-real star, this novel is a comedy, an adventure and a mystery all wrapped up in one great story.

Goodreads info

4. The Grimm Legacy by Polly Shulman - Continuing in a fairy tale vein, this is the story of Elizabeth, who gets a job working in a most extraordinary lending library. This library contains magical objects found in fairy tales - and they work! However, as in fairy tales, magical objects must be treated with great care as they can work for or against you.

Goodreads info

5. Legend by Marie Lu - June, a prodigy of the Government, sets out to avenge her brother's death by capturing the elusive rebel and master criminal Day. While undercover in out west, now known as the Republic, she is rescued by Day and befriends him as she unaware of his identity. What defines right and wrong is as slippery as capturing Day. This story twists and turns, keeping your fingers ready to turn the page.

Goodreads info

6. Vanished by Sheela Chari - What is a veena? Why would a kid want to play one? Why would someone else want to steal it? Why would it be cursed? Why are Neela's parents so secretive about the veena? What do dragons have to do with everything she seems to find? Read and find out!

Goodreads info

7.  And last but not least, one YA selection: I Can't Keep My Own Secrets by Larry Smith and Rachel Fershleiser - This book is a compilation of six-word memoirs written by teens. It is sad, funny, and brutally honest. Wow.

Goodreads info

Sharing Your Web Presence with Students

How am I sharing my web presence with our school community this year?  

Business cards!

For $20 I was able to have 1,000 cards printed with the web addresses for our media center's web site, blog and Pinterest page. I'll be distributing these cards to parents at our annual Back-to-School night and to my students during their initial media center visits. In one small 2x3.5" gesture, we're promoting the school, furthering the image that teachers are professionals and saving trees. (Last year the language arts teachers and I sent home a newsletter, waaay too much paper.)

There are several sites where you can find easily customized templates and create business cards for your media center or classroom. I chose this one from Vistaprint as it incorporates our school colors of orange and black. My principal was impressed when I presented her with one and I'm excited to get feedback from students and parents, though the true test will be the amount of traffic on the pages listed. 

How do you share your web presence?

Pinterest in the Media Center

It started so innocently. My sister-in-law was expecting and I was looking for a pattern to make a baby blanket. A fellow librarian told me to check out Pinterest and I would surely find one. I did. I also found all sorts of wonderful recipes, classroom ideas, cute shoes, oh-so-clever cartoons, decorating ideas, and photos of just about everything. The assortment of ideas was mind-boggling and I quickly lost all sense of time whenever I logged in. I felt a little guilty, spending so much time online pinning links to sites I may or may not ever have the time to peruse. This is when School Library Journal rode in to assuage my guilt and give direction to my Pinterest fascination.

The July issue of SLJ had a wonderful article by Kate Messner on how libraries and librarians are using Pinterest to promote books, reading and resources (Very Pinteresting! The hot social network is taking educators by storm). In the article, Messner discusses various ways in which librarians are using Pinterest to connect with their students. The article includes links to Pinterest pages set up by both public and school librarians, several other articles offering helpful tips on navigating Pinterest and ideas for using Pinterest in the library.

Thus inspired, I have begun compiling a Pinterest page for my media center. I found a workaround for pinning content with no suitable graphic - find the appropriate graphic, pin it, then go to the edit feature and paste in the URL you would like to link to - and I have a basic page ready for the first week of school. I'll be adding content regularly and found out that I could allow teachers with Pinterest accounts the ability to pin on the boards for their content area, a more immediate way to update information links than having them send me the links to add.

Feel free to check out the beginnings of our page - Lockerman Library .
 Happy Pinning!

Deserted Island Book Bag

What should I tell my 6^th- 8^th grade students to read over summer vacation? What books would I want them to have if they were stranded on a deserted island? If I was to create a “Librarian’s Emergency Backpack” with books that I felt my students should read, what would be in it? Books that would teach them about life and also foster a love of reading, books they could read over and over again and hopefully encounter something new each time. There are so many books to consider and I know that I will want to amend this list as soon as I post it, but for now here is what would be in my backpack:

Charlotte’s Web

Where the Sidewalk Ends

Dune

All Creatures Great and Small

The Killer Angels

The Greatest Generation Speaks

For girls I would add: Are You There God It’s Me Margaret, Harriet the Spy, Anne of Green Gables, and Pride and Prejudice

For boys I would add: Phineas Gage: a gruesome but True Story, Hatchet, Brian’s Song and Chasing Lincoln’s Killer

What would you put in your backpack?