Earlier this week, someone requested a link to a concrete poetry making site on the SCASL (South Carolina Association of School Librarians) listserv.

Today as I was reading and tweaking my Google Reader, I came across a new tool through Jane’s E-Learning Pick of the Day that looks very promising: ImageChef’s Make Word Mosaic.

ImageChef’s simple description: “Write a comment or poem in the shape of hearts or other symbols.
Send a greeting or post to MySpace or your blog.”

After you have chosen your symbol and typed in the text you wish to include, click on the heart symbol to the right of the text box and you can add a variety of symbols to your word mosaic. In the example below, I added musical notes, envelopes, stars, and people to the mosaic.

Click on the image to be taken to the book trailer for the series

(WordPress does not allow embeddable flash players – the reason I may be moving my blog)

So, your teens have finished the Twilight saga and are hunting for another series to sink their teeths into.  Steer them to this series.  But first make sure you have plenty of copies on hand because once the word is out, they will fly off the shelves.

Our Bulldog Booklovers Club met recently to discuss The City of Bones, the first book in The Mortal Instruments series.  Even the biggest Twilight diehard fans admitted they liked this series better.

And if you check out The Mortal Instruments website, you’ll discover some very exciting news about the series.

There is always room for improvement.  My newest brainchild is our B.O.W.W.O.W. display.  My younger daughter rolls her eyes at my corny ideas, but they just keep coming! Just keep in mind that Boiling Springs High School’s mascot is the bulldog (and I won’t see you roll your eyes, so go ahead!).

Our Book of the Week (B.O.W.) and Website of the Week (W.O.W.) display is located near the front of our current facility.  It will find a permanent home soon when our new media center opens.  Each week I choose a book and Jay Campbell, the other media specialist, chooses a website to spotlight.

The display includes copies of the book and a notebook with screenshots of the website as well as signs describing each.  So far, the display hasn’t garnered much attention.  What’s missing?  Maybe a bulldog?  So now I’m on a quest to find the perfect stuffed bulldog to place in the center.

Any other suggestions to make our display stand out?

As we prepare to begin the 2009-2010 school year, I am thrilled to hear that our administration wants to highlight our literacy initiatives.  We’ve had a successful voluntary reading program in place now for eight years and added several other programs in the last few years.

Reading Paws

To kick off our Sustained Silent Reading (SSR) program three years ago, the former administration sponsored a contest to name it.  The winning entry was “Reading Paws” – a play on words since our mascot is the bulldog.  However, the name was not well promoted, and for the most part we still called that 15 minutes daily our SSR time.

Radical Readers

In conjunction with Reading Paws, our literacy coach began a program to reward classes for doing an exceptional job with silent reading.  Teachers could nominate their 4th block class (Reading Paws was held during that block) on the basis of participation and enthusiasm for reading.  The winning class would win a free lunch from Chic-Fil-A.  The first group to win was an English IV class who called themselves “radical readers.”  The school literacy team loved the name and decided to name the program “Radical Readers.”

Reader of the Month

The next year to encourage individual readers, our literacy coach began our Readers of the Month program.  Again, teachers could nominate students based on their enthusiasm for reading.  The winning student each month received a Barnes and Noble gift card.

Bulldog Booklovers Club

In the fall of 2006, I asked our literacy coach to co-sponsor a book club that brought teachers and students together to discuss young adult literature.  The Bulldog Booklovers Club was born and has continued to grow each year.  The first year we averaged five members attending each meeting, but by the end of this school year we were averaging seventeen members in attendance.

Changes in the Air

The administration, literacy coach, and I have been discussing ways to increase participation in these initiatives this year.  Creative ideas are being bandied about and excitement is in the air as we prepare to involve more faculty in promoting reading.  Booktalks will become part of our student produced news program and both student and faculty written book reviews will be included in our student newspaper.  The book club will expand to include meetings during lunch to accommodate those students who are unable to attend after school meetings.

B.O.W. and W.O.W.

This year I will be promoting a Book of the Week (B.O.W.) and Website of the Week (W.O.W.) by creating a display in the media center and posting them to the media center blog.  I want to include a wide variety of books and sites that will be interesting and helpful to the students.

Any suggestions for the new initiative would be greatly appreciated!

Make a Smilebox slideshow

Smilebox offers free Club Smilebox accounts for educators (normally costing $39.99 annually).  This tool is perfect for educators who want to create and post a scrapbook slideshow in just moments.

Club Smilebox also allows you to create animated photobooks, email cards,  and postcards to share with others.  You’ll find over 850 design templates from which to choose.  Creating one is as simple as choosing a design, importing photos from your computer, and then arranging the photos by simply clicking and dragging them onto slides.  Want to share your creation online?  It’s as simple as clicking on “share” and either copying and pasting embedding code or signing into an account like Facebook and letting Smilebox post your slideshow.

Sign up for your free account here.

(I first wrote about this tool here.  After playing with it again this morning, I felt that it was worth a repost due to its ease of use.)

I’ve been reading some of these titles this summer and wanted to introduce them to the students in a way that would grab their interest.  I hope this Animoto video does it!

Free Book Friday Teens was started by author Jessica Brody.  Each week, a YA novel and its author are featured on the site.  You’ll find a synopsis of the book and an interview with the author.

Five copies of The Lost Summer by Kathryn Williams will be given away on Friday, July 17th (only to those with a US or Canada mailing address).  To enter the drawing, complete the entry on the site (it requires only your name and email address).

Even if you don’t win the weekly drawing (you do have to revisit each week to enter), the site is a great resource . Authors featured in the past include Alyson Noel, Cassandra Clare, and Melissa de la Cruz.

To read the first chapter of Jessica Brody’s The Karma C lub , her first YA novel, click here.

Adult readers may be interested in the Free Book Friday adult site. (Using the word “adult” here makes it sound sooo racy, doesn’t it?) You can enter to win an autographed copy of Jennifer Weiner’s Best Friends Forever to be given away July 17th.

I was tagged for this meme by my friend and mentor Cathy Jo Nelson.

Rant

Ranting:  School Internet Filtering posted on September 17, 2008

The choice for this category was obvious – it has been my only rant.  But I also remember the passion with which I wrote it last fall.  Students were working in the media center and could not access the school library web site; the district’s filtering software had blocked it.  I understand that those at the district level want to protect our students from material that is not suitable for their educational pursuits in our schools.  But as educators, we cannot teach students how to evaluate questionable material if we can’t even access it to demonstrate the process.

What would I change if I were to update this today?  I would stress that when an educator finds a site that he wished to use has been blocked by the school that he take immediate action.  Contact the district level personnel who can authorize the site’s unblocking.  I am pleased to say that out of the numerous times that I have requested a site be unblocked, only one was left blocked.

Revelation
The Wally Principle posted on January 11, 2009

As I was standing in one of those endless lines at Walmart watching the never ending parade of people walk by, I realized that Walmart and public education had much in common.

If I were updating this post today, I would do some further research concerning Walmart’s success. I’m sure that educators could learn much from studying Sam Walton’s empire.

Resource

Scholastic Videos posted on December 21, 2008

It seems the majority of my posts focus on sharing resources, so this was not easy to choose!  This is not necessarily my favorite post, but the resource is one of my newer favorites.  Not only does Scholastic post author interview videos, but they also have booktalk videos and professional development videos.  PLUS the site offers much more than videos.

If I were updating this post today, I would point out some of the many other wonderful resources that Scholastic offers at their site including educational games, annotated booklists,  and the new Teacher Share site.

Reflection

Stumbling Blocks vs. Building Blocks posted on July 16, 2008

Reading the blogs of other educators often causes me to reflect on my own practices or experiences.  This post was composed after reading a wonderful post by Carolyn Foote.

If I were to update this post today, I would focus on my role this past year.  Was I a stumbling block or a building block?

Doing Some Reflecting of Your Own

Now, if you would like to take part in this meme, here’s the information you need:

Meme rules:

1. Scan your posts for your own personal favorites.
2. Choose one post in any/each of the four categories:

• Rants
• Resources
• Reflections
• Revelations

I leave it to you folks to define these terms, but my instinct is that we could treat these loosely. You are welcome to suggest new categories if these don’t fit.

3. In a blog post, list those posts and very briefly describe

• why it was important,
• why it had lasting value or impact,
• how you would update it for today.

4. Select five (or so) other bloggers to tap with this meme.

5. Tag all of your post with #postsofthepast

(I am bending the rules this time by not “tagging” others, as in “tag, you’re it,” but rather listing the writers of several of my favorite blogs whom I would love to see take on this meme- if they so choose.  Most of these folks probably don’t even know who I am, much less that I read their blogs!)

Heather Wolpert- Gawron

Dana Huff

Sue Tapp

Carolyn Foote

Steve Dembo

Image attributions:

“I Hate Mornings”  http://www.flickr.com/photos/34671994@N00/2215915251

“LED + light bulb”  http://www.flickr.com/photos/80378665@N00/3486761520

“Organized caos”  http://www.flickr.com/photos/40145521@N00/460270581

“Omar contemplates”  http://www.flickr.com/photos/41894171098@N01/15161474

The English language is growing by leaps and bounds with new words entering our vocabulary daily.  Unfortunately, some existing words are used less frequently (or not at all) because of this.

Enter SavetheWords.org.  Visit this site and words bordering on extinction will literally call out to you. Click on any word to see its definition and its use in a sentence.

Sign up for a free account and save a word (or two or three).  I am now the proud parent of “pudify.”  Because I am often pudified when I stick my foot in my mouth, I decided to rescue this word.

I hope that my readers (all three of you) will step up to the plate and rescue a word from extinction.  Otherwise, I will be pudified that my attempt to bring light to this worthy cause failed.

I wish to thank “A Library by Any Other Name” for posting information on this site.

Another notable reader’s advisory and collection development tool has just been released. The Ultimate Teen Bookshelf list  is available for download as a .pdf file.  The list includes 50 books, 5 magazines, and 5 audiobooks.  It was compiled by Pam Spencer Holley and Judy Sasges from suggestions by subscribers to the YALSA-BK discussion list.

“Ultimate YA Bookshelf,” American Library Association, June 25, 2009.
http://www.ala.org/ala/mgrps/divs/yalsa/yabookshelf.cfm (Accessed July 01, 2009)
Document ID: 549310