Practically Paradise   

How do these things keep happening? We had too many students who wanted to be part of the library club during advisory period so we divided into several groups including boys' lunch on Thursdays, girls' lunch on Tuesdays, and the regular advisory period. That 154 student group kept growing somehow and seems to be over 180 with a student population around 900. 

I began the girls lunch group with 37 girls planning to come at lunch the first day, then as they realized it was a staggered schedule and actually it meant 3 separate groups of students were coming, more students appeared. Some of the lunch groups are smaller with 8-9 girls around a table in the Kennedy room. 

But then along comes the group of 6th grade girls who brought their friends who desperately wanted to be in the library club and part of something that was actually d...Read More

I would like to challenge you to donate $10, $6.50, $5, or even $1 to the Spectrum Scholarship program.  You talk about helping bring others to our profession. What are you doing? Are you personally sending anyone to graduate school for Library & Information Science? You could be. You could also be strengthening our profession by supporting efforts to bring more diversity into our profession. Do you have $6500 to spare to support a Spectrum scholarship? I don't either, but I did have $10 to donate. 

During the AASL National Conference, if you see me (and the ALA folks there) and donate towards the Spectrum  program, I will match up to the first $100 total and you'll get a ribbon to wear. It's a small step, but it shows my commitment. That's money coming out of my food, gas, cl...Read More

I hope to see all of you at the AASL National Conference in Charlotte, NC. (Tell me that you read this blog please because I get insecure and think I'm talking to myself). If you cannot make it for whatever reason, there is still a way to participate .... VIRTUALLY through the b There program.

b There Your Virtual Track Pass is the virtual component of the AASL 14th National Conference & Exhibition. I am just one of many geeks who will be there adding content to the b There portion for...Read More

I don't blog about many contests, but this one did appeal to me while I was wishing I had the freedom to just stay home and write. (Don't you have fantasies like that periodically?) National Novel Writing Month began today. It's usually written NaNoWriMo, but I keep forgetting for what that stands. During NaNoWriMo.org's National Novel Writing Month you are challenged to begin writing November 1and finish by midnight, November 30th with a 175-page (50,000-word) novel.

If one of you have a YA novel or a YA novel idea, you can submit "the FIRST 250 words for a chance to have the idea seen by top editors at Random House, HarperCollins, Penguin, Harlequin and Sourcebooks—and even get a one-on-one pitch session with one of New York’s top YA literary agents... the winning submission will also ge...Read More

Sometimes what a good story time needs is a good picture. I'm not talking about the concept of storytime as a cute little story the librarian reads to children without doing any planning, hooks, collaboration, or interactivity. Don't misunderstand me. I absolutely love story time and think we are doing the youth of America an injustice not to read aloud to them any longer in storytime. 

Don't try to confuse the issue with lessons. I believe we should have lessons, too. We have just gotten too busy to enjoy a good story with students. Librarians feel put down or looked down upon if they're caught just reading a story to students. 

A good librarian interweaves lots of skills/standards into any story and manages to do it in a way that does not interfere with the enjoyment of the book as the author and illustrator originally planned it. Some li...Read More