Remember, the district has provided you with your own gMail account. Your address is your gradebook user name @pvlearners.net. PVLearners is the best place to save your work that you will need to work on later. It's also a terrific tool to use when your teacher gives you a group assignment. All of you can be working on it together in real time. This video is a good demonstration.
In "Angela's Ashes", Frank McCourt says, "I don't know what it means and I don't care because it's Shakespeare and it's like having jewels in my mouth when I say the words." There are some writers that I love to read because their words seem like jewels. Maya Angelou is an example. Here, she reads one of her poems: "And Still I Rise" Oscar Wilde is another. How can you choose just one of his quotes? How about this one? "My own business always bores me to death; I prefer other people's." Here are a few more: Oscar Wilde Quotes Who are the authors whose words seem like jewels in the mouth to you?
But then, there are books where I get so wrapped up in the story, I don't pause to decide whether it's good writing or not (although it frequently is). I read different types of stories for different reasons, but in the interest of keeping this post from rambling on and on, I'll just mention a couple.
As a child, I loved the Wizard of Oz books, and read every one in the Safford Public Library. They were my first experience with what I call road trip books. There are road trip movies, and then there are road trip books. The scene is constantly changing and fascinating characters come and go. The most recent road trip book I read and thoroughly enjoyed was "Going Bovine" by Libba Bray. Although I haven't read "The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy" in many, many years, that's what it made me think of. Plus, I've always been a fan of snarky humor. Tell me about your favorite road trip book.
As an adolescent, I loved Judy Blume books. She may have been from New Jersey, and I was raised in Arizona, but I could relate. She KNEW what it was like. Reading Sarah Dessen books remind of that. She just gets it. What author really speaks to you and why?
And, don't even get me started on fantasy/paranormal/science fiction, or that whole set of genres. We can leave that for the next post.
I've become an addict of authors' tweets because they can be funny and interesting in 140 characters or less. A feat I am unable to accomplish. It's easy to get sucked into spending mega time reading them on the nchslibrary Twitter, so I can favorite them, so you can see them on the Twitter feed on my blog. I found this very cool article, can't figure out how to make it a post on my blog, but I did make the title of the post the link. Is all this interconnectedness a good thing or a little scary? NCHS students - have you read 1984 yet? What do you think?
So I have this little story. Last fall, in the doldrums because our budget had been frozen, and my kiddos made such sad faces when I told them I couldn't get them the book they wanted, I decided I would start creating book trailers. I figured, it's free, and maybe I'll generate some interest in the books we already own. We owned several copies of "If I Die in Juarez" by Stella Pope Duarte, because the year before we had read it in a book club.
It was a fun project. I found pictures and music on Creative Commons and started putting it together in iMovie. Although Stella is a best-selling, nationally known author, she is totally accessible. She answers her own e-mail, so when I wrote her and asked for permission to use the cover of the book, she wrote back and said yes. I was pretty happy with my finished product. Finally got brave and uploaded it to YouTube
Here comes one of the best parts. Once Stella saw it, she really, really liked it. She felt as though I had captured the essence of her story. That was so gratifying to me - that the author approved of what I had done.
It gets better! Stella came and talked to our social studies classes a few weeks ago, and is coming back again soon. Our students were enthralled with her message of perseverance and hard work. Unfortunately, I missed it because I was working in the technology department that week.
But wait! There's more! Stella has a new book just out "Women Who Live in Coffee Shops, and other stories". It's a collection of 13 short stories, centered around the people who live in the area of 7th Street and Van Buren in Phoenix, with children as narrators. I went out to Changing Hands bookstore in Tempe tonight to hear Stella speak. She is indeed funny and interesting. I finally got a chance to buy a copy so I can start reading it. But this is MY copy because it's signed. We'll have to figure out how to get some money for more copies for the library. So, I'm waiting in line with my copy. Stella is signing books and having a little conversation with each person. I walk up and say my name is JJ. She starts to write it, and jumps up and hugs me. She then tells everyone in line about the video, and everyone's smiling and nodding. Here's the picture of your local librarian and a famous author. I'm the one who's grinning from ear to ear.
Stella will present a "gathering of Phoenix Street Society," as she presents from her new book, WOMEN WHO LIVE IN COFFEE SHOPS AND OTHER STORIES. First Prize Winner of the 2008 Chicano/Latino Literary Prize from the University of California, Irvine, this collection of short
stories will enchant you as characters romp through Phoenix streets uncovering secrets, confronting demons, telling heart-warming tales, and causing hilarious havoc as they reinvent themselves on "Phoenix's meanest streets."
Changing Hands: 6428 S. McClintock Drive, Tempe, AZ 85283 (480) 730-0205. or contact:
pinna.joseph@changinghands.com
Tuesday, April 6, 2010
7:00 p.m.-8:30 p.m.
I'm not sure how to repost, if that's the term, this posting in Kami Garcia's blog. She is the author of "Beautiful Creatures". So, I'm doing the old-fashioned copy/paste here:
It's a question politicians are asking, and their answer is clear with every library closure and pink slip. Last week, the LA Unified School District was giving librarians pink slips -- this is after a decision to cut the library acquisitions budget to 0% this year. The frightening thing is LAUSD is not alone. Libraries are being closed around the country. If libraries are lucky enough to remain open, acquisition budgets are slashed, and the double doors are only open long enough to kick a few librarians out. Librarians all over the country are finding themselves homeless, in both the literal and metaphoric sense. Because any librarian can tell you: A librarian without a library truly has no home.
Which leads me to the question: Do libraries really matter?
YES!! As a teacher, not a writer, let me tell you why.
1) ACCESS
Libraries provide every child (and person) with an equal playing field. There are children & teens, all over this country, who live in homes without a single book. Their families may be too poor to buy them, their parents are often illiterate or foreign speakers, or they may not value books at all. The only way kids from those environments can access books is through their school or public library. Denying them that access is equivalent to racial, ethnic, and socioeconomic segregation. As a country, we complain about the level of illiteracy, unemployment, and crime -- yet we are denying people the one thing that will allow them to rise above these conditions -- education. To pursue or further one's own education, you need books.
2) OPPORTUNITY
Without access and education, there is no opportunity in the most basic sense. Books allow you to expand your understanding of the world, and with that understanding comes choice and opportunity. That's the way a kid who grows up with nothing becomes a doctor, an astronaut, a member of Congress, maybe even a writer. When I taught in the inner city in DC, most of my students had never been to a bookstore. Libraries were the only place they could find the books that showed them a bigger world than the one they experienced every day. A world filled with possibilities beyond their imagination. In many ways, the books they read gave them the tools to imagine. When we take away the books, we take away take away opportunity.
3) IDENTITY
The person you are -- your identity -- is shaped by thousands of variables. I believe one of those variables is books. Even with the most impressive libraries, are nothing without librarians. Librarians are the ones who find the right book for every kid. You know, the book about game design for the gamer. Graphic novels and sketchbooks of famous artists, for the kid who loves to draw. Ray Bradbury for the sci-fi lover and Stephen King for the kid who loves horror movies. The possibilities are endless. And no one can navigate the complicated labyrinth of shelves like a librarian. They give us the books.
The right book, at the right time, can save your life -- or change it.
Maybe the world, one book at a time.
* If you want to help save libraries & librarians, write your local legislature and public school system. If you're on Twitter or Facebook, add this banner to your profile picture. Support Save Libraries, add a #twibbon to your avatar now!
Saturday, March 27th @ 3:00pm – Will Weaver. Award winning writer and author of both adult and the very popular teen “motor novel” books. Along with the MOTOR series of novels, Weaver has formed a stock car racing team with a teenaged driver. Perfect for the reluctant reader, “Saturday Night Dirt”, “Super Stock Rookie” and “Defect” follow the adventures of a teenaged stock car driver.
Saturday, April 3rd @ 1pm – Taylor Joseph “The Crossing” and “Allison Investigates”. Sixteen-year-old Taylor Joseph will discuss her first two novels, The Crossing and Allison Investigates. Already a seasoned speaker, Taylor’s presentation is fun, informative and inspirational to any teens who hope to become published authors one day
Saturday, April 24th @ 7pm - Laurie Notaro “Spooky Little Girl”. The hysterically funny founder of the Idiot Girls Adventure Club and such favorites as We’d Thought You’d Be Prettier and I Love Everybody (and Other Atrocious Lies) is back with her newest book Spooky Little Girl. Laurie, a former Arizona native now resides in Oregon.
Tuesday, April 27th @ 7pm – Patrick Carman “Thirteen Days to Midnight”. Best-selling author of the Land of Elyon series and groundbreaking Skeleton Creek books, Patrick Carman has faced his biggest challenge yet…growing up!
Thanks to Patrick LeGrady, Lauren Johnson, Dylan Wall and Ryan McWilliams for their participation in MediaFest. Check out their video: Texting while driving. Use your gradebook user name and password.
My daughter told me about this one. Even though it's an elementary school teacher in the Midwest, I love what she has to say. So, I added it to my list of blogs on the side. Great stuff!
Trolling Twitter accounts, trying to find your favorite authors. Who are much more interesting than your local librarian.
Austin, you're so smart! There must be a million blog templates out there, and I'm going to try them all. I found one with a picture of books and a "smart girl" who looks like me, but it's orange and the color can't be changed. This one from Spain that looks like an old manuscript is kind of cool. The search continues!
