Big Plans, I Say!

A quick search of the blog reveals that I have not posted about this wonderfulness before.  I should probably post about bedtime reading as well, and this was a library favorite of my daughter's some time ago and I love it for the beginning of the year read aloud.  Until the other day, though, I didn't own my own copy.  But what with freaking out about starting the new library job, I'm not afraid to buy those necessary items!

This is a great read aloud because it's BIG and most of the text is BIG so you just can't help shouting out "Big Plans!  BIG PLANS, I SAY!" which is sure to get the kids more fired up than if I started with Thomas and the Library Lady again.  (Not to say anything bad about Thomas, I love it, but it's just not the same).

As for the new job: Monday was Mimio board training which was mostly good for meeting more staff members.  Tuesday was Instructional Leadership Team and while we were all reminded that, like Vegas and Fight Club, what gets said there stays there I think it's okay to share that I found it to be a pretty great group of people and it seemed like a good start to me!

Wednesday was just setting up, straightening up (lots to do there!) and then two wonderful ladies from the district office came to spend hours with me getting me all checked out on the morning announcement broadcast and the closed-circuit system.  We're all set up for the 21st century with green screen technology, stock footage video clips for the pledge and the moment of silence and fancy editing equipment.  (Which reminds me, I need to practice that part because those Teacher of the Year videos come up quick).

I'm going to start from scratch on the announcement slide show because, well, I'm not a fan of the clip art.  I'd rather use more images and book covers.  For example, August 9th is the first day of school and I see that it's Seymour Simon's birthday.  It's also the day Jesse Owens won gold in 1936.  I can add images of book covers we actually carry in the library to pique interest and I don't think it takes any longer than finding generic clip art.

I got BIG PLANS!  BIG PLANS, I SAY!

Recent Reads and Getting Official for the Library

The Maltese Falcon by Dashiell Hammett

I've seen the movie of course but never read the novel.  It was one of the few books that was unanimously enjoyed by every book club member.  No, Sam Spade doesn't look like Humphrey Bogart, but it's still impossible not to imagine his voice and those wonderful black and white images from the film.  It's not a long book, but it's interesting that he and Hammett never seem to be in a hurry.  Yet this never seems to flag the reader's interest.  No wonder it's a classic of the genre, endlessly tapped for inspiration.

When You Reach Me by Rebecca Stead

An odd little book, but a winning one.  Having read plenty of science fiction, the time-travel elements were less than surprising to me.  It's good to know, though, that the kids reading this will grow up to enjoy the best episode of the original Star Trek, "City On the Edge of Forever."  You remember that one?  The one where Kirk has to let Joan Collins die to save the world?  It packs quite a wallop.  These same readers will also grow up to enjoy The Time Traveller's Wife too, I'm sure.  The message of our shared humanity and the importance of communication, being nice and just plain old watching out for each other was welcome without being overly didactic.

As for the library:

Now I feel official!  I went by the building yesterday and I have my own mailbox at my new school.  It was stuffed with Booklists and School Library Journals and all kinds of goodies.  Of course, it's all still in my predecessor's name but that's fine.  I also switched of the vendor accounts to my name so I can pretend to shop even though I have no budget as yet.  Looks like the focus will be on building up the Dewey 300s, 800s and Fiction while starting the weeding with the 500s, Reference and the Professional sections.

Monday through Wednesday I and eleven other new media specialists (that's what they call us here) went through New Media Specialist Training at the county office.  Calling it the county office doesn't do it justice.  It's a vast mothership with jillions of identical-looking corridors, a cafe, a bank and much more.  At one point they took us into this room that was set up like a high school classroom but this one was a techies dream.  Multiple interactive white boards of all sizes, projectors, and other doodads.  There was even a cube-like thing with a table top that looked like one of those tabletop Pacman games you and a friend could sit at back in the day but this was a four person interactive table put out by the SMART board folks.  It was fun but I couldn't see paying the six grand for it.  I'd rather have more media specialists and books.

It was kind of a mixed message because there were definite signs of cutbacks.  All the high schools used to have two full-time media specialists but a new initiative principals have more discretion with staffing and a growing number of them are cutting those second media people which it nuts when you consider the size of these schools.

It was a great training, though.  It's nice to know that there is this dedicated and thoughtful team ready to back you up on anything you might need.  I even have a guy coming out to my school next week to run me through my broadcast equipment one more time before school starts.

And speaking of school starting, it basically has!  I have the broadcast guy Monday, two days of leadership/curriculum meetings after that, then the new teacher day.  The week after that is pre-planning (with furlough days, of course) and then the first day of school is the 9th!  Yikes!

And somehow Scholastic decided my first Book Fair ever should start August 20th!  No pressure or anything!

Never Did Get "The Giving Tree"

But it would indeed be better if said giving tree had a gay sassy friend.  And I need one of those T-Shirts!

See bookshelves of doom for the goods!




















(image via lookatthisfrakkinggeekster)

Vacation Reading Report

Ok, so these couldn't be more different!  I listened to Stephen Fry reading his novel as I drove down to Florida and I listened to Kathi Appelt's book on the way back.

Stephen Fry is an author (I previously read his book The Liar), actor, thinker and one of my favorite people.   This book is not politically correct in any way but I was crying laughing.  My favorite bits were  the main character's rants on modern life and anything to do with the swishy character Oliver, nicknamed "Mother."  The dialog is sheer brilliance.  There's a bit of incest and bestiality of course, but don't let that keep you away.  Can't wait to hear what the other blokes in my book club think of it.  (But that's in a few months.  We're doing The Maltese Falcon this week and The Hunger Games in August).

I finished off a professional book while on vacation.  New Steps to Service by Ann Wasman.  It was a solid and accessible, if dated, overview for new librarians.  I hope it gets an update soon. (And the cover is too plain to bother posting.)

"The secret of happiness is to face the fact that the world is horrible, horrible, horrible."

-Bertrand Russell

If you understand and agree with this Russell quote then you'll love The Underneath as well.  If not, then it's probably too dark for you.

It starts out as an Incredible Journey/Watership Down kind of story about the unlikely but touching friendship of a cat, her kittens and an old hound.  But there are two other stories intertwined with this one.  There is the villain who could as easily made an appearance in a Thomas Harris novel along with a mystical story of an ancient being.  So now we have more of a Charlotte's Web/Tuck Everlasting/Neil Gaiman sort of thing.

It's good.  Very good.  And it's meant to be read aloud.  If your kids can handle The Giver they'll dig this.  Appelt has some serious poetic chops and while some of the repetition can seem to make this short tale longer than it needs ti be, she's channeling Homer who, when one of his warriors fell, took down the histories of all all his ancestors down with him.  This ties into the rich Southern Gothic vein  as well in which the past influences the present always and in ways we can't always fathom.

And while life if horrible, it is happy.  And love is important.  he love in this tale is as moving and important as can be imagined.  While this book may not be for everyone, it is a dark treasure for those it is meant for.

The Underneath

The Hippopotamus

New Steps to Service: Common-Sense Advice for the School Library Media Specialist

Critical Thinking Sunday: Realism

Blog Reader's Meme

A stolen meme!  I like this one because it'll give me a sense of where I've been and where I want to go as I transition to my librarian job.

In the comments below, tell me who you are, what your background is and what you do. What’s your interest in science books and critical thinking and your involvement with it? How did you come to this blog, how long have you been reading, what do you think about it, and how could it be improved?

But really, these questions are a rough guide. I’m working on the basis that what you have to say will be far more interesting than what I think you might say.

(via The Loom)

(image from KnowYourMeme)

Summer. Flying By.

Haven't been posting, but I'm trying to not do too much and simultaneously get stuff done.  I know.  I'm forcing myself to read something fun so I don't spend all of my time obsessing about the new job.  I'm also playing with the seven-year old, swimming lots and saying yes to nearly every treat request.  Ah, summer.

But I'm still staying in contact with my library predecessor and she's answering lots of questions.  I need to remember to be that incredibly cool if I ever transition to another position.  We spent a day earlier this week going over stuff and she had to teach me how to tackle the damnable laminating machine.  Someone had tangled it up nicely and I now have an intimate knowledge of how to dismantle, untangle, and generally keep up that thing.  I also learned where most everything is and have even begun straightening (and a slight bit of weeding) just do I can kinda get a feel for what all is there.

She made me a great two-page school library opening checklist document.  That thing is the bomb.  I just hope I can juggle it all and look like I know what I'm doing, even though I really don't.

Still haven't met the new principal (but I've heard good things).  I also haven't met more than two or three teachers.  But I've gotten to know the custodial staff and they've been great.  I think they like me because  they know I was an ESOL teacher and they're all English Language Learners.  Dimitri is in charge and he's like this wise Yoda character for me.  I was talking to my predecessor about something and mentioned what they had said about it in my graduate program.  "There is college and it is good," he said.  "Then there is the real world and it is also good."  He squinted.  "They are not the same."