Booked Inn

NSW schools are almost ready to break for a well-earned two-week vacation, but there is already activity over on the “Bear & Chook” books rap blog site. This book rap, based on two picture books, “Bear & Chook”, and the newly-released “Bear & Chook by the sea”, is aimed at students in Early Stage 1 (Kinder) and Stage 1 (Years 1 & 2). It officially commences Term 4 Week 2 (26 October, 2009). But please, by all means, drop by rapblog6.edublogs.org/ and have a look around any time.

Several schools have already introduced themselves, there are some great comments turning up on the Teachers‘ section, and there are already things to look at in the Gallery. This book rap will also feature participation by the author, Lisa Shanahan, and illustrator, Emma Quay. An online video, of Lisa and Emma reading “Bear & Chook by the sea” at Caddies Creek PS, and answering students’ questions, will be an exciting addition to the usual teaching resources. The rap is being coordinated by Jenny Scheffers (TL at Caddies Creek), “Scan” editor Cath Keane, and yours truly. Interstate and international schools are welcome, and there is no cost involved in book rapping.

Please join us, and spread the word! Don’t forget to bring your warm honey toast!

Happy holidays!

Over the weekend the library suffered a disaster. Literally! Check out the Dewey label: 363.3 Disasters. This is the second time this set of shelves has collapsed! The BER library can’t come quick enough! (And the inspectors were out yesterday, doing the site inspection!)

This term, groups of Stage 2 students at my school have worked with me, during our PSP literacy sessions, to create and upload Powerpoint presentations of the “Bear & Chook” adventures, explanations and procedures they wrote up as storyboards.

For example:

Looking in rock pools

Skipping stones

How to make a hanky hat

Rowing a boat.

We hope that other schools enjoy their work as much as we enjoyed creating them.

Using the many clever functions of PowerPoint this term has been my own steep learning curve! Today, with only five minutes left of the lesson, and as a Stage 3 class descended upon us from across the playground (library bags at the ready), one group of eager Year 3 students was guessing how to add a series of pale, white, special-effect curved lines to one of their sequences of photos. And we did it! Exhilarating!

In preparation for next term’s “Bear and Chook” book rap, our library’s own Bear and Chook travelled by taxi to Caddies Creek Public School to meet author Lisa Shanahan and illustrator Emma Quay.

But they also were able to meet Caddies Creek’s infamous Mr Barden (a new resident to the nursing home next door to “Wilfrid Gordon McDonald Partridge”, created during a book rap last year), and a sleuth (or sloth or pack) of friendly bears.

What a great day!

“When will that taxi ever arrive?”

Bear and Chook meet Mr Barden

There’s a Chook in there – and bears as well!

“Scatterbrain” (2003) is the third general collection of science fiction writer Larry Niven’s works, much like “N-Space” and “Playgrounds of the Mind”. This volume contains 26 works of various kinds, from speculative articles and humorous essays to science fiction short stories and extracts from his novels, all previously published in previous works, except for the introduction and epilogue.

The Introduction is an interesting discussion of how the author comes up with his crazy ideas. It seems that he is “scatterbrained” (hence the title of the omnibus): notions just pop up in his mind and stick to each other. (Sounds like many teacher-librarians I know.) More than that, he has a tendency to daydream almost anywhere as these ideas pop up and breed. (Still sounds like many teacher-librarians I know.)

The Epilogue is also about the way the author thinks, but specifically “What I tell librarians”. As Niven summed up a talk he once made to a convention of librarians: “If there were only one thing you could teach a child, it ought to be this: to play with his [or her] mind“.

He then further elaborated that we should encourage students “… to make up his [or her] own homework”.

Niven reckons he has spent most of his life designing toys for imaginary playgrounds.

Yesterday I found the perfect stuffed polar bear I need for a school project (for the book rap on the children’s picture book “Bear and Chook”) at a local Salvation Army “Salvo’s” charity store. I’ve been pricing toy polar bears all week, and this one was just $2. He was actually dressed for Christmas (in July?), but even his garments are worth way more than $2! (Boy, am I glad I didn’t buy the one I saw for $130 during the week!)

Even better, Bear’s the perfect scale for my battery-operated “Choke-a-Chicken” (below), who’ll be standing in for the character of Chook. (Remember “Choke-a-Chicken”? A real novelty hit several Christmases ago. He does the Chicken Dance, and squawks in agony when you pick him up by the neck!)

It was the most amazing day. I was dropped off at the station, to head into Darling Harbour and have lunch with friends at the Meat and Wine Co. I had just missed a train, so I headed off to the shops for a while, and then decided to check out the stuffed toy section of the “Salvo’s” charity store on High Street. Sure enough, there was Bear, waiting on a couch and looking resplendent in his Christmas outfit. You could have knocked me over with a feather when the woman serving me said, “$2 please”!

Of course, I then had to take Bear into the city with me – and pay an extra 95 cents for a recyclable carry-bag – but who cares when I’d just saved $128! I also managed to miss the next fast train into the city, which was also frustrating, but again – who cares when I’d just saved $127.05!

Introducing “Bear and Chook by the sea”: Emma Quay, illustrator, and Lisa Shanahan, author.

The “Bear and Chook” series book rap commences in Term 4 for students in Early Stage 1 and Stage 1! Watch this space!

Book Week is fast approaching!

Over on the OZTL_Net listserv, a teacher-librarian asked for ideas for getting students more involved with the annual Children’s Book Council of Australia (CBCA) awards. While there are other, student-voted, literary awards out there (eg. KOALA – Kids’ Own Australian Literature Awards), the CBCA “books of the year” are selected by adult judges, so sometimes the students can feel left out of the judging procedure.

It’s not difficult to lead discussion with students as to what are valuable criteria for judging children’s literature. Some categories are easier for students to judge, because they are within the intended audience of certain books. With guidance, Year 6 students can still make incisive observations about what makes a good picture book for younger students. You can also deconstruct the actual rules used by the CBCA judges.

This is the third year I’ve organised CBCA voting with students this way:

* K-2 (Early Stage 1; Stage 1) are judging Picture Books and Early Childhood Books

* Years 3-4 (Stage 2) are judging Picture Books and Information Books

* Years 5-6 (Stage 3) are judging Picture Books and Novels for Younger Readers.

I supply two empty bar graph grids per student, with the titles written at the base of each column. As we read and appreciate the books, in any order, they give points out of ten and colour their graphs. When all six bars of the graph are filled in, the highest columns are declared the winners and the students record their predictions. They find it very tricky if they’ve voted “ten out of ten” for two or more titles in a category. When Book Week arrives we fill in the actual winners beside their own choices.

At my previous schools, we’ve usually done a show-of-hands voting on a class column graph, but individual voting seems to enthuse the students even more. There’s usually a lot of clapping and cheering when I announce the winners at the school assembly in Book Week.

I recall really impressing one principal, in my first year as a teacher-librarian. She said, “I’ve never heard these children cheer for a book before…!” – and a few days later there was lots more money in my library budget.

A selection of work by cartoonist, children’s book illustrator
and director, Greg Holfeld, whose graphic novel, “Captain Congo”
has been nominated for the Children’s Book Council Awards this
year!

I was thrilled to meet the talented and friendly Greg Holfeld this weekend, at Supanova Convention, at Olympic Park, Sydney, Australia. I was able to tell him how popular “Captain Congo and the crocodile king” is proving to be with the students at my school, and he autographed some copies of his previous picture book, “You must be joking!” (It was only later that I realised that the boy hero’s pet in that book is a super-powered Jack Russell terrier – not unlike mine!!)

We enjoyed a laugh together about the bizarre prevalence of giant purple gorillas in classic comic books (and at least two of his own works.)

Greg also threw into my package of purchases a copy of “Monkey, Bug, Rabbit & Goose have lunch and save the planet“, issue #1 of a unique reader, in comic book style, which he created for for fledgling “comicophiles” at his children’s school.

Thanks so much Greg.

The School Libraries & Information Literacy Unit at State Office, NSW DET, is asking for comments on the question, “Do we need a school library in 21st century schools?”. There is a School Libraries 21C blog and associated readings.

Today I added thusly:

I love those reports from country towns, where their tiny public library facility would be under threat of closure – and many of the people who turn up to the town meeting would be residents who’ve never actually stepped foot into the library. But they realise its importance, and they don’t wish to contemplate the possibility of life without a public library. Just in case…

Even for myself, I tend to buy most books I want/must have/need to read. My own ventures into libraries unknown (public, university and school) – as a then-class teacher, when a mature age student, and also when researching a commercial piece of freelance writing – are quite sporadic, but the thought of a 21st century that’s somehow “moved on” from the concept of a physical library space is quite abhorrent.

But I think I am ready for any future library to have a different size, shape, location (partly in holographic or even cyber space?) or collection. I stare at my amazing, new iPhone – which is so reminiscent of Dick Tracy’s funky little two-way wrist radio/computer in comic strips of the 50s – and am lost for words. I mean, I only just discovered that my iPhone has been diligently copying across all songs I’ve been downloading from iTunes to my Macbook Pro, ever since I bought it last September. I simply hadn’t thought to look in that bit up till now!

The other day, while doing a presentation about wikis and blogs, and relying on a live Internet connection, the link went down and we had to call for a replacement computer. Only later, I remembered that all of my extended notes, on another page of the wiki, were accessible via my iPhone’s internet connection. I had my palm cards, of course, but the PowerPoint material and much more were only a few button-presses away!

An off-the-cuff mention of Tasmania tigers yesterday, during Year 6’s library lesson (we were looking at a unique picture book, “How WEIRD is that?”, one of this year’s Crichton Award CBCA nominees), permitted the impromptu calling-up of 1930s b/w moving footage of Australia’s last captive Thylacine, and now we can display him on the IWB at point of need.

Library books aren’t going away – I’m especially reminded on those days when air-conditioner-overload causes yet another blackout in the library, but the power of us having so much instantaneous information is both exciting, and another whole can of worms (as to helping students to be able to sift their way through it all).

Today Emma Quay, illustrator, and Lisa Shanahan, author, launched their exciting, new children’s picture book, “Bear and Chook by the sea”, at our very successful teacher-librarians’ professional development day.

I can’t wait for Term 4, when Jenny Scheffers and I coordinate a book rap based on their two “Bear and Chook” titles.