Diva Diary

My first trimester broadcasting class just finished it’s final project, a video segment for the eInstruction contest. We had so much fun putting it together!

The idea was to make a music video promoting the eInstruction tools for education. My 8th grade guys couldn’t pick just one song, so they decided to do a mix. They split up in pairs and small groups to work on doing the parody lyrics. I think that their senses of humor came out again in a major way. They filmed the making of the video and we ended up using some of the behind the scenes footage because it was so funny.

I brought in a very old Mac for the kids to see. They thought the graphics were hilarious and got a little distracted playing games. But it put some things in perspective for them (and me), since the computer was twice their age! Technology has been around for a while, but it becomes quickly outdated.

Given the nationwide school budget crisis, this is a wonderful thing that eInstruction is doing; giving students access to technology that wouldn’t ordinarily be exposed, given the current lack of funds. In order for students to become information literate, they must be technology literate as well. My dream would be to use the student response system by CPS to have a more interactive classroom and library. Combine that with the Mobi Interwrite System and I think it is a librarian’s dream come true. Students might actually enjoy learing how to do research. Plus it makes it possible to collaborate with classroom teachers in so many ways, which will make it even easier to integrate information literacy instruction into the curriculum. My goal would be to use the new technology, with the software packages like Inspiration to teach students the Big 6 information and technology literacy model in a more fun and interactive way.

Check out our final product at the eimakeover website and please vote for us! vote here

If we win, I look forward to sharing our experience with all of you out there. It would certainly give me something to present about next year at the Indiana Library Federation conference! It was a great experience just seeing the students have fun making a music video and learning at the same time. It seems like students all across the U.S. and Canada have had fun learning while making entries, so it is a win-win situation! There is some pretty stiff competition and I am amazed by what students today can do with even outdated technology.

For more information on Book Clubs for Boys, click here.

It is always fun to come back to school when you have been away for a couple of days. When going through my overflowing mailbox, I was greeted with an email from my substitute teacher about how some guys in my broadcasting class cracked the case of one of the video cameras.

One boy was apparently trying to keep another outside of the classroom by blocking the door, a joke gone too far. In retaliation, the one being kept out of the room thought it would be a good idea to throw a book at his obstructor, whom just happened to be holding a video camera. Given the recounting of the events in essay format, my best guess is the guy tossing the book just had really bad aim. I’m sure he was trying to hit his classmate in the head, not the camera although he only tossed it at his legs. The camera was never dropped and they don’t really know how it got cracked. Odd how guys have such selective memories.

Well it is easier to get angry and yell about something like this, but I was really just saddened by their behavior. I told the sub that she could trust my guys, and they let me down. After determining that not all of them should be punished for the immaturity of a few, we spent some time discussing my Guys Read presentation. I wanted them to know that I was so proud of them that I shared their video demonstrating typical boy behavior, along with their reading abilities and interests. We are now talking about their reading challenges, so maybe I will get some even better feedback to share with you!

Forgotten Story

During my presentation I said that I had a funny story to tell about risky behavior and then I got sidetracked, missing an important point. During the filming of the opening of our show, the guys were learning how to use the equipment while learning about different camera angles and movement. The guys were anxious to get a closeup shot of a remote control car, with the camera moving towards the car. We use a basic AV cart for our dolly.

I guess I forgot to mention that you don’t really need to ride the cart if you are the camera operator. I must have neglected to mention the purpose of a tripod being put on the cart, with the camera mounted to that with the camera operator pushing the cart. To get the shot, the camera operator laid down on his belly, on the bottom of the AV cart and had his classmate push him, very quickly headfirst into some lockers. With a head and shoulder injury, I decided that was a wrap for the day. That just happened to be the same day the boys got in trouble for shoving each other into trash cans, but that is another story.

No doubt boys are risk takers, but a good story can help boys take risks in a more healthy way. Stories help boys walk a mile in someone else’s shoes. Books help boys determine whether or not someone might be able to survive going over Niagra Falls in a barrel without having to try it themselves. Or at least that is the hope anyway.

Well I am exhausted from a busy day of networking with wonderful librarians. Sarah Weeks was so funny today at her presentation. I also loved hearing John Green speak. I thought he would have delivered a similar speech to the one he gave at CYPD in August, but it was quite a bit different (especially with the pop culture references). I’m definitely becoming a Nerd Fighters fan! His book Paper Towns was also voted the Top Teen Read of 2009 by teen voters (an online poll by YALSA), beating out Breaking Dawn and The Hunger Games. You go boy!

The craft handouts from CYPD are available on the wiki. I was hoping the instructions for the cool book purse would be on there, but I didn’t see them. I can’t believe that ILF is only in a few days!

http://www.cypd.pbworks.com

Book Cover for Keeping Score

Newbery Winning Author, Linda Sue Park, has done it again in this new book entitled, Keeping Score. From a family of baseball fans, Margaret Olivia was named to have the nickname Maggie-O, after Joe DiMaggio. Her father may be a Yankees fan, but she loves the Dodgers, afterall she is growing up in Brooklyn in the early 1950s. Maggie-O could quite possibly be the biggest Dodgers fan because of the scorebooks she learns to keep from a family friend, Jim. Unfortunately Jim ends up getting drafted to serve during the Korean War. Maggie writes letters mostly about baseball. It seems that baseball is the tie that binds family and friends together. Perhaps it can help heal war wounds too.

I loved this story and I am not a sports fan, but this book made me want to love baseball! Even though the main character is a girl, there are enough strong male character in the story to hold some boys interest. I’m sure our young guy readers would rather read this than Emma-Jean Lazarus Fell Out of a Tree. Plus the subjects, war and baseball might entice many boy readers. Not too sappy of a read, but I did get misty eyed at a part about the war. I should create a cry-ometer scale for rating books.

Wednesday night the grandparents came down so James and I could go out to see the latest Harry Potter movie. I thought it was the funniest by far. I think that the young actors have grown so close during the making of these films that their own senses of humor and playfulness came across on the big screen.

I have to admit that one of my favorite parts of the night were seeing the trailer for the new Percy Jackson and the Olympians: The Lightning Thief movie set for a release on February 12, 2010. Rick Riordan said he thought the trailer looked very promising. I loved it!

Of course there was also the trailer for Where the Wild Things Are. I’m not so sure Spike Jones is making a children’s flick though it looks like it is going to be great. I can’t wait to take my Books Gone Hollywood class to go and see these in the theater.

I have been trying to chip away at the 67 books I’m reading over the summer for the Young Hoosier Book Awards Middle Grades selection committee. I’m finishing up book 17 this morning. I have a long way to go, but I stumbled across Oprah’s Summer Reading List and wanted to share. Her book clubs did amazing things to get people reading again.

Why waste time and money printing books on demand, when you can get books in electronic format. I guess if you are a traditionalist and don’t like the idea of curling up with a Kindle, then look forward to this new invention that can spew out 105 pages per minute….giving new meaning to the phrase “Hot off the Press!”

Upon registering for the conference today, I received a thumb drive from the Indiana State Library. I thought that was cool, but what is even cooler is that they put files on it from the presentations. This is amazing! I’m having fun tonight looking through the files from the presentations I didn’t get to attend. What a great idea!