Practically Paradise

November 3, 2009 | Link This | Email this | Comments (0)

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

November 3, 2009 | Link This | Email this | Comments (1)

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

November 2, 2009 | Link This | Email this | Comments (2)

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

November 1, 2009 | Link This | Email this | Comments (0)

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

October 30, 2009 | Link This | Email this | Comments (2)

I need someone to invent/create/organize this - BookTalkApedia. I would have said bookapedia but I think it may already be taken. I need a database of books that we librarians and educators create that includes ideas for booktalks, links to lessons, link to enrichment activities, author links and more. 

Just as we go to wikipedia for popular culture, I need a wiki that we can all contribute to that can easily be turned into printable pages. On this wiki I need the one-minute booktalk, the 5 minute booktalk, the booktalk targeting girls, the booktalk targeting guys, and the booktalk targeting teachers & parents. 

ReadKiddoRead contains review information and my favorite feature "If you love this book, then try:  " but that is a site owned by James Patterson and w...Read More