Of Books and Boys and Other Stuff » in the library

Me and eBooks Down by the Schoolyard

W.H. Beck — Wed, 21 Jul 2010 16:41:41 +0000

So. I was going to blog on my two new very favorite things of this summer: my iPod Touch and Overdrive Media. That’s it, short and simple. But in thinking about them, my brain’s rambled on to digital media in general…and ebooks in particular…and how I feel about them as a writer, a reader and a librarian.*

The boys got me an iPod Touch for Mother’s Day. I use it every day and, at the risk of sounding like an old fogey, every day I marvel at it. Do you remember Ziggy from Quantum Leap? That’s my iPod Touch! Only better. And cuter.

One of my favorite iPod Touch uses is audiobooks from my public library. Does your public library have a digital audiobook collection? Our library subscribes to Overdrive Media. They have for years but (like my iPod) I’m just coming to it now. I LOVE downloading books (for free! just the rest of the library!) and not having to mess with disks or figuring out where I left off. And, I can download multiple titles, some for me and different ones for my kids. All on my little Ziggy!

So now here’s where I digress…because Overdrive Media has ebooks, too. And I’ve had mixed feelings about ebooks for a while. As a writer, I desperately want my books in paper format. Maybe it’s nostalgia. But as a reader…I am starting to see that there are times I’d read a book digitally. Like last summer, when I traveled to China. I needed lots of reading material, but didn’t have a lot of space. I thought about how nice it’d be to have a bunch of books on one device. People argue that they’d miss the feeling of a book in their hands, and I’m with them. I love to browse and read ahead and flip around. That’s not so easy to do on a screen. But then, I think about newspapers or magazines. I’ve already made the jump to reading news online. Maybe it won’t be so different? Maybe ebooks will be gradual…a little bit at a time…until it just seems logical and natural. Even to old fogeys like me.

And then that got me thinking about ebooks as a librarian. Earlier this summer, I sat down with an architect to plan out new shelving, and I wondered…will we even need this shelving in ten years? I keep downsizing my reference section as more and more often we use online resources for research. And I’m looking forward to the day when textbooks are digital (for the first week and last week of school, I count shifting textbooks as my workouts).

Will there come a day when the picture books and the easy readers and the chapter books don’t need the shelves either? It’s hard to imagine in my old fogey brain. I wouldn’t have to worry about repairs or labels or reshelving, which takes up huge chunks of my time. But how will kids browse them? Will they still come to the library as a place? What will checkout time look like? Will I booktalk them? How will we select the books?

And there it is, my source of mixed feelings on ebooks. I love digital media as a consumer. So why wouldn’t my readers and students? And why does that make me nervous as a writer and librarian?

Recent articles on ebooks and kids (and yes, the irony that they’re all links is not lost on me):

*Also fully aware that this post will be comically dated very soon.

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The Great Summer Reading Challenge

W.H. Beck — Wed, 16 Jun 2010 15:40:05 +0000

Yes, it's me. All Knuffle Bunnied up.

So, summer vacation is finally here for me! I finished inventorying (is that a word?) all 20,000+ items in my library yesterday. Luckily, I had lots of excellent help!

Summer is writing season for me. It’s also reading season. And this summer I’ve thrown down the gauntlet with my fourth and fifth graders. We’re in a race to see who can read the most pages by the first day of school, September 1. Any student who can beat my total wins UNLIMITED BOOK CHECKOUT for the entire school year. Yes, the right to check out as many books as they want. For the entire school year. I’m keeping track of my reading on a blog. They can check it for my totals or for reading suggestions.

You would not believe how excited they are about this. I’ve run into kids at baseball games and the playground and the grocery store. I’ve overheard parents talking about it at swimming lessons. My challenge is posted on refrigerators all over our neighborhood. The kids are gunning for me–and I love it! Because, of course, though I talk tough, I hope I’ll get beat. (And I know I will. I have some HUGE readers on board.) After all, as I tell my students, the very best way to be ready for 1st grade, 2nd grade, 3rd grade, etc., is to read, read, read over break!

Follow along on our reading blog here: http://mrswreads.blogspot.com/.

So, what are YOU reading this summer?

My Library à la Mo

W.H. Beck — Fri, 11 Jun 2010 02:39:39 +0000

The school year is finally winding down. The students’ last day was Tuesday; I’ll be done next week.

One of my favorite activities was my Caldecott unit with my second graders. We finished it with not a moment to spare at the end of the year. It consisted of reading lots of Caldecott books and checking out the different media used by various illustrators, then zooming in on Mo Willems and the Knuffle Bunny books. Finally, we tried our hands at creating art like Knuffle Bunny. Here are some of my favorites.

p.s. Yes, that’s me in many of the pictures. At least I’m smiling, not shushing!

p.p.s. I highly recommend the Scholastic/Weston Woods videos of Knuffle Bunny and Knuffle Bunny, Too. Narrated by the real Trixie and Daddy! And also an interview with Mo Willems.

p.p.p.s. You know there’s another Knuffle Bunny coming this fall, right? Knuffle Bunny Free!

Wisconsin Libraries Say Cheese!

W.H. Beck — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 12:05:21 +0000

When we were in China, we were often asked what dish our part of the country known for. This was a stumper. Um, venison? Lutefisk? Then we realized it wasn’t so much a dish as a food group we should be sharing. And we started talking about cheese. I don’t know why we didn’t think of it sooner–”cheesehead” is not just a stereotype here in Wisconsin. Cheese and milk and cows are literally everywhere here. And they’re a lot easier to explain than lutefisk.

So, it only stands to reason that when the Campaign for Wisconsin Libraries was looking for a way to promote the variety and wealth of resources, services, programs, and activities that libraries offer, they came up with Wisconsin Libraries Say Cheese! Day. And guess what? It’s today. Click over to their page, or flick through the Wisconsin Libraries Say Cheese! Flickr account to see all the great things Wisconsin libraries are up to.

How to Create a Reader?

W.H. Beck — Tue, 06 Oct 2009 01:53:44 +0000

(Things have been a little quiet around here lately, huh? Yeah, some extra, unexpected stuff happened last week. But things are coming closer to normal now.)

Last week, a fifth grade girl came into the library after school. She’s one of my “regulars.” I’ve often suspected she comes more for the chats than the books. She’s nice, but needy. A little lost in a big family and a big school. One you wonder about how she’ll fare in middle school. She could go either way.

After a few minutes, she popped her head up from the shelves. “Mrs. Wojahn, did I tell you that I’m an Advanced Reader?” She said it with such pride and authority I could hear the capital letters.

“Why, no. But I’m not surprised. You’re such a big reader.”

She grinned. “Yes, I just found out. My mom told me last night that my teacher said I was at parent/teacher conferences. And now, my mom is so happy, she’s taking me to the bookstore for more books!”

I smiled at her. She was so excited. And, truth be told, I had already heard about her reading test scores. Her beginning of the year evaluation was kind of a surprise to everyone–she’s never scored like that before. And I admit, I have often wondered how much she actually read of all the books she checked out. But watching her there, I thought, does it matter if she really is an Advanced Reader or if she just made lucky guesses on the test? I could see–her expectations for herself had changed. And so had her mom’s. And her teacher’s. And how much would all that affect her as a reader? As a learner?

Thinking about that, made me wonder. What if we could tell every student (all in the strictest confidence, of course ) that they were, each and every one of them, an Advanced Reader. Better than all the rest. Would it make a difference?

Create Your Own Comics…in the Library

W.H. Beck — Wed, 09 Sep 2009 12:00:37 +0000

Last week when I wrote about The Dunderheads, I forgot to link to some of the other online reviews. One of my favorites is by 100 Scope Notes. Yes, he created a “Toon Review”!

Once I got past my jealousy of not thinking of doing “Toon Reviews” first , I had to check out the site 100 Scope Notes used to create his comics: Bitstrips, http://www.bitstrips.com. It was so very much fun that now I’m thinking of how I can use them in the library with students. Yes, we will probably do our own “Toon Reviews” because I love that idea. But with library orientations looming in front of me, I’ve been thinking about having the older students take a library rule or procedure and create a comic for it. Then we’ll share them with the younger students.

In the meantime, I’ll leave you with this: a conversation I had yesterday with Colonel Mustard.

Warbling About Wordle

W.H. Beck — Thu, 27 Aug 2009 13:48:37 +0000

So, in trying to get back to my regularly scheduled blog posts (nothing like traveling across the world to throw you for a loop)…I’m still interested in trying out some of the websites that AASL deemed “the Best,”and seeing how I can put them to use in my writing and librarianing lives. My next up is Wordle.

Disclaimer:if you’ve perused any of the links on my site at all, you’ll know I already was familiar with Wordle. In fact, I have a Wordle to the right here –>. So, it’s not new to me. But be kind, I’m still waking up in the middle of the night with jet lag and reacquainting myself with American food and my running shoes.

Wordle (http//www.wordle.net) is a nifty (and somewhat addictive) site that allows you to plunk in a chunk of text, then it analyses it and pulls out the most frequently used words. Then it arranges it all pretty with color, funky fonts, and different directions of text–a word cloud. See, here’s my post on China, all Wordlized. (And it makes me think I should go back and edit–how did I use the word “baby” so frequently in that post???)

You can also plug in a blog or web address (as long as it has an RSS feed) and it’ll analyze the whole thing.

If you are a control freak, you can set your fonts and color and text directions. You can even limit how many words you want your Wordle to zoom in on or if you want it to take out the most common (the the’s, a’s, etc.). Or you can just keep hitting randomize until you see a Wordle you like. Which, personally, I think is the most interesting.

So fun, right? But what’s the point? Well, I’ve been mulling this over. In my writing, I’ve found it somewhat enlightening to plug in my synopsis of the novel I’m working on. You can see it here. It gives me a big picture look at what my book is really about.

At school, I can see even more uses. Someone on lm_net came up with some Wordles for the Dewey Decimal system. They are some nice displays of what kinds of books are in each hundred (and ones I totally plan to borrow and adapt). You could do this for any theme or display. Here’s a Wordle that I’m going to use as a poster at the entrance of my library.

To do these kind of Wordles, instead of pasting in text, you need to do some brainstorming and enter in the words into Wordle. Then you have to weigh the words, entering the more important ones more times. For example, I entered “books” more times than I did for “audiobooks”, so that “books” would show up bigger in the Wordle.

And that’s where I think the power of Wordle is. Student projects, where kids need to sum up something. It makes them put their ideas into words, but in a different way than the typical sentences. It’s a whole different kind synthesizing learning. A great back-to-school introduction to the computer lab might be to have students create Wordles on themselves. Or maybe, after my third graders finish their animal reports, we plug those papers into Wordle to see what they look like, just for fun. Or maybe students could create Wordles about a character in a book, or the main idea of a science or social studies lesson.

Here are some other examples of Wordle uses in the classroom/library.

What have you used Wordle for?

Animoto = Ani-mazing

W.H. Beck — Wed, 22 Jul 2009 15:47:14 +0000

First up from the AASL Top 25 Websites for Teaching and Learning (remember, I warned you about this?), Animoto.

Do you know Animoto? I confess: I did not. But it’s been a lot of fun to play around with. Basically, Animoto is a web-based tool that allows you to plunk in your photos, add some music (yours or theirs), and text to create mini “movie” slideshows. How’s it different from something you’d make in Powerpoint? Well, it’s just plain snazzier. Animoto times out your music for you and automatically adds transitions between pictures. The results is much more sophisticated (and quicker to do) than anything in Powerpoint. Here are those same photos from my ALA session, all Animoto’d up:

Wasn’t that a lot more fun? And honestly, it probably took me less time than uploading those photos to my blog post originally. Now, the downside is you lose a little creativity. I didn’t get to pick how those photos came in or what font I wanted. Also, the free videos are limited to 30 seconds–about 10-12 photos/slides. Want longer or better quality?–it’ll cost you. These sounds like drawbacks, and if you’re a video editor, they are, but if you’ve ever been in a room with indecisive, click-happy ten-year-olds, sometimes less choice is better. Instead, students have to focus on their message and their content.

Other Pros

The videos are housed on Animoto’s site. So, no grumping from your tech people about taking up too much space on the schools’ servers.

You can email or embed the videos as needed. Great for sharing with classmates, other teachers, and parents at home!

Some Negatives

I had to compress some of my pictures to get them to upload. So if you’re doing a project with a class, you’ll want to check that you’re taking/using pictures that’ll work ahead of time. Having to shrink your pictures would definitely suck up valuable class time.

And the biggest issue is: it’s cool, I’d use it, but can I get to it from school? Unfortunately, a LOT of the great Web 2.0 stuff is blocked with our Internet filters at school. Frustrating, but true. I’ll have to head into work in the next few days to see.

Animoto for Education

I’ve applied for an education account, which I’m crossing my fingers about. I ‘m hoping that it has an easy way for students to log on–without giving up too much personal information. And I suspect that the 30-second time limit isn’t in place, which makes Animoto a possibility for even more projects. Finally, I’m not sure, but with the paid account you can download the videos and burn them (not so with the free one)–maybe the education account will have this, too?

So What Would You Use It For?

You tell me! I’m itching to share with the teachers I know who do book reports–what a fun way to share a book! How about some public service announcements? Or using photos of students’ own artwork to tell a story?

As far as my own applications, I could see using it to make promo videos for our Open House or to launch our Battle of the Books and our Golden Archer student-choice book award programs.

I’d love to hear how you’d use Animoto. Comment and let me know!

AASL Best Websites for Teaching and Learning

W.H. Beck — Tue, 21 Jul 2009 16:26:57 +0000

I love lists. So last week when the American Association of School Librarians announced their 25 best sites for teaching and learning, I couldn’t wait to click over to it. And, while many of the sites are familiar, there were a couple I hadn’t used yet and a couple I hadn’t even heard of. For your browsing pleasure, here they are (organized by the AASL Standards for the 21st Century Learner):

Top 25 Web sites for Teaching and Learning

The “Top 25″ Web sites foster the qualities of innovation, creativity, active participation, and collaboration. They are free, Web-based sites that are user friendly and encourage a community of learners to explore and discover.

Organizing and Managing

Content Collaboration

Curriculum Sharing

Media Sharing

Virtual Environments

Social Networking and Communication

So, how many do you know from the list? How many have you used? With kids?

Coming soon: Me, trying out some of these and brainstorming about how my students can use them. Right here on this blog. (I know–the SUSPENSE. Don’t miss it! )

Book Look: The Secret Science Alliance and the Copycat Crook

W.H. Beck — Mon, 20 Jul 2009 12:40:38 +0000

The Secret Science Alliance and the Copycat Crook by Eleanor Davis

My rating: 4 of 5 stars
Out of the huge stack of books my boys collected at the ALA conference last week, this was the very first one that Mr. E (10) picked up and devoured. I know why. With science gadgets you wish were real, a secret club with a way cool hideout/lab in a hidden basement, and three underdog kids saving the world from an evil genius–all told in a graphic novel format by the creator of the Geisel-honor Stinky, no less–it basically screams “boy book!” But even better, it lived up to all Mr. E’s expectations because he wasn’t letting go of it until he got to the last page.

When I got my hands on it, I had to agree with him. Besides all the cool stuff mentioned above, there’s lots of humor and details in the illustrations and three main characters who, despite their outward differences, really let their mutual love for science shine through. (There are really not enough books out there where the science stars and math whizzes get to be the heroes.)

Can’t wait to put it on my library shelves and watch other kids snatch it up.

View all my reviews >>

And We’re Back

W.H. Beck — Wed, 15 Jul 2009 13:49:07 +0000

Whew! What a whirlwind trip. We did the visit-the-relatives, attend-part-of-ALA, tour-Chicago combo vacation. We even celebrated a birthday in there!

Our Nonfiction Book Blast presentation at ALA on Sunday was a huge success. The (enormous) room was full. We had crowds waiting to come in! This was–frankly–amazing to me. Not because we didn’t deserve it (all the other authors were superb in their presentations), but I’ve been to pretty many conferences now, and nonfiction usually doesn’t get this much love. But the audience seemed to enjoy it and we’re already getting hits on our wiki.

Want to join us? You can add your nonfiction booktalk to our wiki. We’re hoping for a big collection of them for teachers and librarians to use. Our wiki also includes our own booktalks and handout.

In the meantime, here are some photos…

Book Look: Frankie Pickle and the Closet of Doom

W.H. Beck — Wed, 15 Jul 2009 02:14:14 +0000

Frankie Pickle and the Closet of Doom by Eric Wight

We now have a couple of Frankie Pickle fans here in our house! Frankie doesn’t see the point in cleaning his room–it’ll just get messy again. So when his mom finally agrees with him, he’s delighted. Only…things get really deep and dirty and smelly fast. Of course, Frankie sees the light and straightens up in the end. Told through a mix of graphic (the dramatic adventures Frankie imagines) and regular text (what’s really happening), there’s enough visual and verbal humor sprinkled throughout it all to keep everyone chuckling. Perfect for my almost-ready-for-chapter-books boy reader (Colonel Mustard).