Hideously Overdue (but I've Got A Freebie For You Too!)

Folks, it's coming. Really. The High School Summer Reading List is in the works, and if I have to stay up all night all week, it will be in the mail by Friday am.  It's been a wonderfully crazy spring, lots going on in the library and I'm just plain behind schedule. (fyi - the junior high list went out a week ago, so I'm only half hopeless :-)

However . . .  the pool is open for summer checkouts!  Students are welcome to come in anytime to select their summer reading. As always, books that go out for the entire summer go on a parent library account, and a student must bring in the parental permission for that (a signed note or an email to me, giving permission and taking responsibility for all materials that go out on the parent account).  Junior high and high school students don't need a parent present, just the note.  There is a limit of 40 items per family, and the due date is September 1.

I will be in the library until noon on June 6, at which time we'll close for the summer.  Come in during the day, or after school, anytime until then. Students are welcome to make their chosen stacks (aka "shopping carts") of selected books, and can take them home when the parental permission is received.

Please call or email me if you have any questions about how any of this works.


The Freebie -- 
Awesome FREE Audiobooks

Every summer, Sync (a Young Adult program of AudioFile) presents a season of paired new and classic works for listening, for FREE.

Each week, Sync gives away two complete professionally recorded audiobook downloads – a current Young Adult title paired thematically with a Classic title. Each pair of audiobooks can be downloaded for free for a 7 day period only (if you miss it, you miss it), but can be listened to at any time and as often as you wish.

During Summer 2014, at least 4 young adult titles on this year's Paideia summer reading lists are included, plus Shakespeare, Agatha Christie, Sherlock Holmes and more.  But really, anything and everything on this list is a fine summer reading choice.

You'll need the Overdrive app to listen to the Sync audiobooks.  Go to http://www.audiobooksync.com/download-help/  to find out how to listen.

Here's the season schedule -
to sign up for weekly email reminders, go to http://www.audiobooksync.com/sync-schedule/

May 22 – May 28 -- right now! Hurry!!
CRUEL BEAUTY by Rosamund Hodge, Narrated by Elizabeth Knowelden (Harper Audio)
OEDIPUS THE KING by Sophocles, Performed by Michael Sheen and a full cast (Naxos AudioBooks)

May 29 – June 4
CONFESSIONS OF A MURDER SUSPECT by James Patterson and Maxine Paetro, Narrated by Emma Galvin (Hachette Audio)
THE MURDER AT THE VICARAGE by Agatha Christie, Narrated by Richard E. Grant (Harper Audio)

June 5 – June 11
ALL OUR YESTERDAYS by Cristin Terrill, Narrated by Meredith Mitchell (Tantor Audio)
JULIUS CAESAR by William Shakespeare, Performed by Richard Dreyfuss, JoBeth Williams, Stacy Keach, Kelsey Grammer, and a full cast (L.A. Theatre Works)

June 12 – June 18
CODE NAME VERITY by Elizabeth Wein, Narrated by Morven Christie and Lucy Gaskell (Bolinda Audio)
THE HIDING PLACE by Corrie Ten Boom, John Sherrill, Elizabeth Sherrill, Narrated by Bernadette Dunne (christianaudio)

June 19 – June 25
I’D TELL YOU I LOVE YOU, BUT THEN I’D HAVE TO KILL YOU by Ally Carter, Narrated by Renée Raudman (Brilliance Audio)
ANNE OF GREEN GABLES by L.M. Montgomery, Narrated by Colleen Winton (Post Hypnotic Press)

June 26 – July 2
FORGIVE ME, LEONARD PEACOCK by Matthew Quick, Narrated by Noah Galvin (Hachette Audio)
OCTOBER MOURNING: A Song for Matthew Shepard by Lesléa Newman, Narrated by Emily Beresford, Luke Daniels, Tom Parks, Nick Podehl, Kate Rudd, Christina Traister (Brilliance Audio)

July 3 – July 9
TORN FROM TROY by Patrick Bowman, Narrated by Gerard Doyle (Post Hypnotic Press)
PETER AND THE STARCATCHERS by Dave Barry and Ridley Pearson, Narrated by Jim Dale (Brilliance Audio)

July 10 – July 16
CLAUDETTE COLVIN: Twice Toward Justice by Philip Hoose, Narrated by Channie Waites (Brilliance Audio)
WHILE THE WORLD WATCHED by Carolyn Maull McKinstry with Denise George, Narrated by Felicia Bullock (Oasis Audio)

July 17 – July 23
THE CASE OF THE CRYPTIC CRINOLINE by Nancy Springer, Narrated by Katherine Kellgren (Recorded Books)
THE ADVENTURES OF SHERLOCK HOLMES II by Arthur Conan Doyle, Narrated by David Timson (Naxos AudioBooks)

July 24 – July 30
HEADSTRONG by Patrick Link, Performed by Deidrie Henry, Ernie Hudson, Ntare Guma Mbaho Mwine and Scott Wolf (L.A. Theatre Works)
THE STRANGE CASE OF DR. JEKYLL AND MR. HYDE by Robert Louis Stevenson, Narrated by Scott Brick (Tantor Audio)

July 31 – August 6
DIVIDED WE FALL by Trent Reedy, Narrated by Andrew Eiden (Scholastic Audio)
THE RED BADGE OF COURAGE by Stephen Crane, Narrated by Frank Muller (Recorded Books)

August 7 – August 13
LIVING A LIFE THAT MATTERS by Ben Lesser, Narrated by Jonathan Silverman and Ben Lesser (Remembrance Publishing)
THE SHAWL by Cynthia Ozick, Narrated by Yelena Shmulenson (HighBridge Audio)

Right now I'm enjoying listening to Jasper Fforde's Shades of Grey (no, not that one. This one's funny!!!!) and have downloaded Cruel Beauty and Oedipus from Sync.  I'm still working on Les Miserables, but that's a multi-year challenge.   What will you listen to this summer? 

Research for Science Classes

I've created a Blogger page as a class outline for presenting science research methods and sources to Larry's DuPont Challenge and Science Fair short term classes.  Link to this page below.

Researching Science Information On the Web

Local Geography and Native American Cultures:An Outline

Note:  This is an interactive outline I use to introduce steps and sources for writing a 9th grade World Civilizations essay assignment.  The 5th & 6th period classes are starting their assignment today.

 ~ ~ ~

Paul's World Civilizations 
Two-Page Essay Research Project

Native Peoples of North America

From the textbook: in each of the ten culture areas, "people adapted to geographic conditions that influenced their ways of life."

Assignment:   Research, describe and explain (in a two-page essay) the cultural characteristics of a tribe-nation and how these characteristics have been created, shaped and or/influenced by the environment and geography.

Use at least 3 different sources (at least 1 print source, such as a book or magazine article)

Citation styles:

Books   

Magazine articles

Websites

        

!!!!  Tips for Citing Sources and Avoiding Plagiarism  !!!!

!!!!   Tip -- Use NoodleBib to create a correct bibliography and to take notes.

Finding Books - Use the Paideia Library Catalog or your public library catalog.

Finding Magazine Articles - Use ProQuest, Sirs or JSTOR

Finding Websites -

Paideia Library Recommended Native America Websites

NativeWeb - http://www.nativeweb.org

Indians.org - http://www.indians.org

Internet Public Library- http://www.ipl.org

All these links and more (such as links to local college library catalogs) are on the
Paideia Library Start Page

~ ~ ~

Tips on How to Write a Two-Page (aka "5 Paragraph") Essay

Anna's Explanation

Think of your paper as a court case on a TV show.   The police have collected the evidence (the information you've gathered in your research). You are the attorney presenting the case to the jury (in this case, your teacher).  

You present the plea, (your thesis statement) in your introduction -- "The culture of the XYZ people was shaped by the (desert, woodland, coastal, high plains, whatever) environment they lived in.  These three or four aspects of their culture (main foods, festivals, religion, style of dress, style of housing, style of tribal government, nomadic or agricultural habits, etc etc) are some of the ways the local environment influenced their culture."  

In each middle paragraph, you give evidence to support how a different cultural aspect is unique to your tribe because of where they lived.  Stick to one aspect per paragraph.  Here's where you are proving your case to the jury.  Each source is a witness, the information you find is their evidence.

Your conclusion is the attorney's summation, the closing argument, where you wrap it all up for the jury. Remind them of your thesis, explain why it matters and how you've proved it.

Explanation of the 'Argumentative' Essay from Purdue University's Online Writing Lab

Outline with Example Paper  from Glendale Community College in Arizona

History Paper Writing Tips from the Writing Center at Emory University

Emory Writing Center on organizing your essay:

1). Write your essay as if it were going to be read by someone who knew less about the subject than you do.

 2). Your first paragraph must have a clear thesis statement which explicitly states your argument. Explain here both what the thesis of your essay is and how you will substantiate it.

3). Make sure that every subsequent paragraph expands and clarifies the thesis stated in your introductory paragraph. Support your generalizations with specific historical evidence.

 4). All essays must have a clear organizing principle. Effective ways to organize them include (a) chronological organization, (b thematic organization, (c) organization by geographical region (d) organization by social group, etc. Whichever organizational principle you choose, use references to dates and time periods to structure and clarify your arguments.

 5). In your concluding paragraph, briefly recapitulate your argument and then indicate its wider historical significance.

~ Quiz ~

What's the Most Valuable Resource in the Library?

21st Century Gutenberg Revolution:Free eBooks for iPad & Kindle

If I gave in to frustration, I'd be totally bald from pulling out my hair over the ebook dilemma.  The best delivery systems either don't have the titles I want to offer or cost way too much for our little school, or both.  We are "evolving" on this issue, but for now progress is stalled.

When I first got my iPad and began to explore ebooks, I scoffed at friends who were all about free ebook downloads.  "They're all ancient," I thought, "who wants to read that?"  Yes, a librarian who was being a dumbhead about the classics. Gosh, sometimes I am so dense.  In any case, I'm now getting a daily list of all the books in the public domain that have been added to the Project Gutenberg electronic book collection, and you know, there really is some good stuff there!

"Public Domain" is a legal concept -- under United States law, creators (or assignees) automatically own the right to decide what happens to their creative works as long as they live, and the right extends to the creator's estate for 75 more years.  After that, unless an extension has been granted, that creative work goes into the public domain -- it is owned by the people.

Project Gutenberg began in the 1980s as a labor of love by a man named Michael Hart.  Since the beginning, PG volunteers have hand-typed and proof-read thousands of public domain texts, in many languages.  The first PG electronic books were computer only, but now almost every title is available in Kindle, Nook, iPad and other e-reader compatible formats.  Some even include full color illustrations!

Below is just a tiny sample of the public domain books you can download for free from Project Gutenberg.   The annotations are mine (a drawback to the project is that there's no synopsis or other description for any of the titles, so using a few research skills, and Wikipedia, does come in handy).  The PG catalog also includes audiobooks (both human-read and computer-read), and if you'd like to practice reading in  Yiddish, Norwegian, Tagalog, or any of 60+ other written languages, PG has ebooks for you too.

• The Lady with the Dog and Other Stories by Anton Pavlovich Chekhov 
  "The Lady with the Dog" was first published in 1899. It tells the story of an adulterous affair between a Russian banker and a young lady he meets while vacationing in Yalta. This collection includes 7 other short stories by Chekhov.

• Unicorns by James Huneker 
  A collection of essays, published in 1917, by American music writer and critic James Huneker. Included are essays "In Praise of Unicorns," on George Sand, James Joyce, Henry James, Brahms, Wagner, Cezanne, and "The Great American Novel."

• Two Boy Gold Miners by Frank V. Webster
  Frank V. Webster was a pseudonym controlled by the Stratemeyer Syndicate (publisher of The Hardy Boys and Nancy Drew books). This pseudonym was used on books for boys from the early 1900s through the 1930s. Two Boy Gold Miners was published in 1909.

• Tom Swift and His Motorcycle; or, Fun and Adventure on the Road  by Victor Appleton. 
  The first book (1910)  in a long-running series from the Stratemeyer Syndicate.  Tom is a teenage genius inventor, modeled after such real-life inventors such as Henry Ford and Thomas Edison, whose adventures have inspired young people from Issac Asimove to Steve Wozniak.  As with so many older books, readers should be aware that ethnic and racial depictions can follow negative stereotypes, and parents may want to be prepared to discuss changes in society since then.

• Life of Beethoven by Anton Schindler  
  Anton Felix Schindler was an associate, secretary, and early biographer of Ludwig van Beethoven. His "Life of Beethoven," first published in 1840, had a great deal of influence on later Beethoven biography. He claimed to have been Beethoven's best friend.

• The Wendigo by Algernon Blackwood 
  1910 horror story by Algernon Blackwood, one of the most prolific writers of ghost stories in the history of the genre.   In the Canadian wilderness, a hunting party separates to track moose, and one member is abducted by the Wendigo of legend (a malevlolent canibalistic monster, possibly created when a person ate human flesh).

• The Man in Black by Stanley John Weyman
  Written by an author much celebrated in his time, and later by modern author Graham Greene, The Man in Black is a short and spellbinding Cinderella tale with a monkey, a cruel, crafty-eyed showman and the evil of the man in black, a charlatan and wizard. This is a tale of corruption, abuse of the innocent and the complete destruction of evil by good. One of the most imaginative and clever works by Weyman, it is a magnificent tale.

• The Complete Plays of Gilbert and Sullivan
  
  
• The Million Dollar Mystery by Harold MacGrath 
  Harold MacGrath (September 4, 1871 - October 30, 1932) was a bestselling American novelist, short story writer, and screenwriter. This 1915 novel was written from MacGrath's work on the 1914 serialized silent film, and was also adapted for a second "Million Dollar Mystery" film in 1927.  There's a review of the novel (with plot summary) at http://www.angelfire.com/planet/edwardian/million_dollar_mystery.htm
  
  
• The Book of the Little Past by Josephine Preston Peabody
  A 1903 collection of poems by Josephine Preston Peabody, entitled "The Little Past", which relate experiences of childhood from a child's perspective. Josephine Preston Peabody (May 30, 1874 - December 4, 1922) was an American poet and dramatist, born in New York and educated at the Girls' Latin School, Boston, and at Radcliffe College. From 1901 to 1903 she was instructor in English at Wellesley.

If you have an eReader, but aren't quite sure how to go about downloading from Project Gutenberg (or for that matter, from your Atlanta area public library), zap me a message, come on by the library and we'll try to get you set up.  It's one of those tricky things that, once you know how, it's not so hard, but a helping hand is really really useful in getting started.

Are you planning to read any classics over the sumer?  On paper, or "pad?" 

More Poetry, Year-Round

We have bid National Poetry Month adieu for another year.  Today is May Day, a rite of spring, and also the first day of Mystery Month.

But poetry is not far away.  As noted earlier,  I am crazy about podcasts and Open University-type courses.  There are a couple of new university-level Massive Open Online Courses (or MOOCs, if ever there was a goofy acronym) in the mix this spring -- Coursera and Udacity.  As with most of the other MOOCs (like MIT and Yale), a majority of the classes are tech and science related, but Coursera is offering several Humanities classes too!

In September 2012, The University of Pennsylvania, through Coursera, is offering a 10 week class in Modern and Contemporary Poetry, taught by Penn professor Al Filreis.  The course is described as videotaped seminar-style, collaborative close readings of poetry from Dickinson and Whitman to poets of the early 21st century, with online discussion forums and occasional quizzes or short essays.

Professor Filreis is also the host of a regular podcast, Poem Talk, sponsored by The Poetry Foundation.  Each podcast is a close reading of a poem, led by Filreis, with roundtable discussion featuring a rotating groups of contemporary poets.  If you are interested in the online class, check out a couple of the podcasts, as the descriptions are very similar and you can see ahead of time if this approach works for you.

As always, an investigation into one source turns up so many other sources previously unimagined. Who knew there were so many other podcasts and online resources for studying poetry??  A short list would include

• English 310: Modern Poetry  a downloadable course from Open Yale Courses

• Restoration and 18th Century Poetry, a survey of currently unfashionable poetry, from Brandeis professor William Flesch.  Available as a collection of downloadable podcasts.

• Podcast series from The Poetry Foundation -- Poem of the Day, Poetry magazine, poetry lectures

• PBS NewsHour Poetry series -- short podcasts (under 10 mins each) that couple profiles of contemporary poets with reports on poetry news and trends. (NewsHour poetry website)

Another of the Coursera humanities courses that caught my eye is a survey of World Music, which starts in July?  Have you ever taken an online academic course?  Was it a good experience?   Your comments on online learning are welcome!

Hey, It's John Green!:Junior High Reading Club

No, not OUR John Greene, the OTHER John Green. The one that writes crazy popular YA novels, including today's Reading Club book, The Fault in Our Stars.

Here's some info to get us started . . .

Bio

John Green was born in Indianapolis, Indiana on August 24, 1977 (making him 35 this year). He grew up in Orlando, Florida before attending Indian Springs School, a boarding and day school outside of Birmingham, Alabama. He graduated from Kenyon College in 2000 with a double major in English and Religious Studies. His first book, Looking for Alaska, was largely inspired by his time at Indian Springs School.

He is married to Sarah, has a son, Henry, and a dog, Willy. More bio in the John Green Wikipedia article (because John Green's own website doesn't actually tell you anything much about his life). They all currently live in Indianapolis.


Books

He has published 5 novels:


and some short stories. A list of all the John Green books (and books with his stories in them) in the Paideia Library is right here, on the library catalog.

He's a Blogging Fiend

In January 2007, John and his brother Hank (who's two years younger) started a 365 day project to communicate regularly through videos posted to a blog (so, "vlogs"). They called this project Brotherhood 2.0. At the end of the year, they decided to keep it going, and 4 years later their YouTube channel Vlogbrothers, is going strong. Each entry has thousands and thousands of views; altogether they have almost 2 millions views.

Here are some of the Vlogbrothers entries:


How to Be a Nerdfighter (December 27, 2009)





Quotations (March 29, 2010)






The Fault in Our Stars (January 10, 2012)





Life is Wierd. Also beautiful. (February 21, 2012)

Linking & Thinking: A Week of Brain Fodder (3/11/2012)

A weekly collection of annotated links to blog posts, articles and websites about information, school and teaching.

===

• 3M Cloud Library Integrates with Polaris ILS — The Digital Shift

  Hearing about the 3M Cloud Library a few months ago was one of the first alternates to OverDrive I came across. This article points to new and positive developments that make it seem wise to stay out of the ebook fray for a while yet. The article says that the 'cloud library" of ebooks is integrated into one company's library catalog system, so patrons can find and download ebooks in the same database as the library's physical materials. One-stop shopping! Something to keep an eye on.

• Patricia O’Brien (as Kate Alcott) Sells ‘The Dressmaker’ - NYTimes.com

  An interesting commentary on the exclusively commercial nature of the book industry, selecting books to publish not on inherent quality or sellability of the individual book, but on past sales of the author.

• Neil deGrasse Tyson Lists 8 (Free) Books Every Intelligent Person Should Read | Open Culture

  Now this list could keep a rising senior busy for a lot longer than a summer.
  
  NDT is an astrophysicist, director of the Hayden Planetarium, and popularizer of science.

• Should Libraries Get Out of the eBook Business? | Librarian by Day

  Wow -- exactly where I am with the whole business. I would LOVE to offer ebooks to our school community, but am stuck by the turbulence in the industry. The way I'd do it is currently illegal (violation of copyright law) and publishers are the biggest roadblock. They are so afraid that library ebook loans will hurt sales, that they can't see the thousands of copies that would be sold to libraries. I did not know that the "right of first sale" (if you buy a book, you get to decided what happens to it, whether you re-sell it, turn it into art, or burn it, because that copy belongs to you).
  
  So for now, this is my solution: "get [or stay] out at least until there is a better system." Aargh.

• With Axis 360, Baker & Taylor Establishes a Foothold in the Ebook Distribution Market — The Digital Shift

  In a couple of weeks, the Paideia librarians will be attending a professional meeting to go over ebook provider options. If you've ever borrowed and downloaded an ebook from the public library, then you've probably experienced OverDrive. I love how it works and the selection, but 1) it's really expensive, and 2) not only do only LEASE the materials (instead of an outright purchase), you only lease it from OverDrive, so if a better option comes along and switch vendors, you lose all access to the ebook collection you've developed and paid for. Not going there, not yet, for sure. Axis 360 may be something to look into.

• The End of Nonfiction (a different approach to organizing print material in the library)

  Our library 'downsized' the reference book section 6 or 7 years ago, which helped with physical reorganization and greater likelihood of students finding the materials. It doesn't address the demand for getting the information through the Internet rather than in print, though. We wrestle daily with when/how to enter fully into providing information for our students through ebooks.

• Lesson Plan | What Is Modern Slavery? Investigating Human Trafficking - NYTimes.com

  Another great lesson plan. This one is related to the Race, Class & Gender curriculum that several of the JH homebases study, and also to the work of our Amnesty International club.

  
  

• 55 Free Philosophy Courses | Open Culture

  Open Culture is a tremendous collection of links to all kinds of free education on the Web. They've just updated the philosophy collection. If you want to "hack" an education of any kind, get familiar with Open Culture.

  
  

Linking & Thinking: A Week of Brain Fodder, 3/4/2012

A weekly collection of annotated links to blog posts, articles and websites about information, school and teaching.
====

• Lesson Plan | Easy Access: Creating Annotated Versions of News Articles - NYTimes.com

  I just love lesson plans from the New York Times Learning Network blog. They're smart, adaptable, and use sophisticated materials (from the NYTimes, of course). This one has students read a news article, then mark it up with definitions, background links and related material to increase understanding of the article and its issues.

Linking & Thinking: A Week of Brain Fodder 02/28/2012

A weekly collection of annotated links to blog posts, articles and websites about information, school and teaching.
====

• Visual Turn • Why student success is such a radical idea

  I watched Sebastian Thrun's talk on the difference between teaching to "weed out" students, and teaching so that all students are successful in learning the information. It is an important distinction, and a hard approach to fit into the way schools work now. Why? Some students take longer than others to be successful, and when students are at many different places on the way to the same goal (individualized learning), it takes more individual teacher attention than marching everyone along at the same pace.
  
  Quote: "MIT starts out with the traditional assumption that only a limited number of students should be successful. Thrun is instead starting out with the assumption that all students should be successful, provided enough support and opportunity to learn."

  
  

• The Power of Feedback | blog of proximal development

  A followup to the Assessment post linked below. This quote could be written about the Writing Mentors approach to working with students:
  
  As teachers, we must help our students answer three questions:
  
  Where am I going?
  How am I doing?
  What actions do I need to take next?
  
  In other words, effective feedback focuses on goals, progress, and next steps. It’s important to keep in mind that our role here is to guide, not to answer these questions for our students. Feedback that helps them answer these three questions will provide exactly the kind of guidance that’s needed.

  
  

• Assessment for Learning | blog of proximal development

  This blog post discusses the difference between assessment OF learning and assessment FOR learning, the idea being that comments on student work should give the student clues on exactly what was done well and exactly what needs work and how to do it.
  
  These ideas are similar to the approach we want to be at the center of the peer Writing Mentors program. Rather than judge, evaluate and suggest changes to student writing, the writing mentors should have a conversation with the writer about intent, clarity and communication, and let student writers find their own answers.

  
  

• Advice for Parents of 1:1 Programs | The Thinking Stick

  Jeff wrote a thoughtful and thorough reply to the question I left on the 1:1 laptop post. It's been helpful in establishing more ground rules in our household, and can help all parents who struggle with their kids' attachments to their devices.

  
  

Posted from Diigo.

Wednesday Website: Harvard's Mathematics in Movies

Math is cool. The real life situations that can be explored, described and understood with mathematical concepts are amazing to me. One of my cousins did a dissertation on fractals, an old boyfriend did his on representation theory. I have another cousin who's a global expert on algorithms, music and artificial intelligence. He designs and teaches computerized instruments that can hear music and jam along with a band, kind of like a robot that can play improv jazz (or bluegrass). I mean, how cool is that?

Nobody should hate math, even if the details of how to do it are hard or confusing (as for me), or you don't especially like to do it. You can appreciate math, whether or not it's a favorite subject.

Happily for all of us, the Department of Mathematics at Harvard created Mathematics in Movies, a webpage with a large collection of movie clips with some sort of math content. Of course there are scenes from math-themed movies like Stand and Deliver (gigolo algebra! who knew), but Kumar's "root 3" poem from the stoner slapstick Harold & Kumar Escape from Guantanomo Bay is awesomely effective in getting the girl (watch it here).

And remember, mathematical thinking doesn't have to include numbers. Check out Pinocchio's math logic in definitely not rejecting the possibility that he doesn't not have any idea where Shrek might be!



Intrigued? Check out some of the many "teach yourself" style math books we have in the Library.

Wednesday Website:Forget the Film, Watch the Titles!

Are you a person who bolts from the cinema at the close of the last scene, or one who watches a movie from first to last frame, including what I used to explain to my children was the "business," the opening and closing credits? I always stay in my seat until the very last credit rolls by, sometimes to see some small bit of information like music performers or location credits, and sometimes because those closing credits are great film in and of themselves.

From the fabulous Open Culture , I found this nifty film, art and design website called Forget the Film, Watch the Titles - "showcasing the very best in title design." As of this week, Watch the Titles has clips, background information and interviews with title designers for 155 different movies. I'll introduce you to the site with a couple of book-related titles. Watch the sequences embedded here, but be sure to go to the site to read more about the creation and design of each.

The pilot film for a 13-part series (shown in the US on HBO) is based on Alexander McCall Smith's The No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency. Set in Botswana, the book series features Mma Precious Ramotswe and a colorful cast of characters, thoughtfully and unhurriedly investigating the foibles of human nature in contemporary southern Africa.

No 1 Ladies' Detective Agency – titles from Airside on Vimeo.

Another book-related feature on Watch the Titles comes from the 2004 film of Lemony Snicket's dismal and darkly humorous A Series of Unfortunate Events, in which the 3 plucky Baudelaire orphans are sent to live with their uncle, evil Count Olaf, who continuously plots to kill them to inherit the family fortune. Dear reader, if you sighed with relief at the children's near escape, you sighed too soon . . .

Read more at Forget the Film, Watch the Titles.

Do you stay to the very end to watch the closing titles?

Blogging Dayze

Since the beginning of Long Term 2 I have been in a Blogger state-of-mind. I've collaborated on 4 blogging projects, set up 12 different blogs for junior high and high school classes, and taught sessions on the projects, goals & expectations, and how to get started on the blogs. I love it.



The "C-word" - Collaboration -- is the heart and soul of the librarian's purpose in school. In working with teachers to co-plan the design, structure and execution of an information-based project, I support Paideia's educational goals, I support the teachers in their teaching, and I work with students on developing the skills and thought processes needed in finding and using information.

The junior high language class project is an expansion of a project from last year. It's a term-long research project, in which students in Olivia, Mark, Lisanne, & Eddy's language classes research three different topics of choice from three different Spanish- or French-speaking countries. Each topic period lasts 3 weeks. The students' research is self-directed -- they can find out and report on anything they want that's related to the topic, and there's no immediate "end product" required. Later on, they'll pick one of the country/topic pairs to do a more focused and in-depth project for the ¡Fiesta! celebration in May, but for now it's all for the fun of finding out, and learning something more about a culture and words related to their language studies.



The students have run with this assignment and are following their interests, from soccer in Argentina and Cameroon, to Oscar de la Renta (did you know he was from the Dominican Republic??!!) to HIV/AIDS in the Democratic Republic of Congo.




Carl's 9th grade World Civilizations and 10th grade American History classes are doing a different kind of project, that also works well on a blogging platform. His classes have a weekly assignment to read a current events article related to one of several specified topics, and write a reaction piece to it. Several of the students are finding their articles through subscriptions in their Google Reader accounts (did I ever mention I love my Google reader??), that they all set up earlier this school year. Some basic skills are involved in the assignment: identify author, title and source of the article (with hyperlinked URL), give a brief overview of the content, and give a thoughtful response/reaction to the article's focus.

The blogging platform works really well for these class activities. We use Blogger.com for several reasons: we can keep the blogs private but allow selected readers to see what students have written; it's easy and attractive; and, not least, a large majority of the students already have Google accounts (because of Gmail, Google Docs, other blogs they've worked with, or Google Reader) so they're ready to get started right away.

We've chosen to use one blog for a group of students (all the American History students, or all students in 6th period Spanish, for instance) rather than individual student blogs. Each student can post and edit her/his own articles, but not anyone else's, and multiple students can write and post to the blog at the same time (great for working in class). Publishing for an audience of peers is more authentic than a teacher audience-of-one, and both teacher and classmates can comment on a student's work.

One of the nicest things that the blogging platform offers is automatic indexing using "labels." A major part of the posting protocol is three labels (often called "tags" on other sites such as Facebook or Delicious.com) for each article: in JH language they are Name, Topic and Country (eg. Alex, Algeria, Music). Blogger then creates an index of every post with each label, so students and teachers can click on the label (say, Algeria), and get a page of all the posts about Algeria. Someone interested in music could click on the Music label and get a page of every music post, regardless of the country. It's also very easy for student to see where they stand in terms of number of posts and also see all their posts collated on one page. World Civ students should have read and responded to 10 different Current Events articles this semester. The index shows the number of posts per label, so when Bob sees (8) next to his name, he knows he has two more to go. It's satisfying how smoothly this works.

In the near future, John & Sydney's class will be blogging and playing with poetry, and a short term Human Sexuality class will use Blogger as an interactive website for information and projects.

I wish I could link you all to the enthusiastic work students are displaying on the blogs, but we've got them all limited to class students and teachers. You can experiment with labels and indexing features on this blog if you want -- click on Teaching With Technology at the bottom of this post to create a page of all articles with that label. The automatically generated index displays in the right sidebar. Cool, isn't it?

If you have a Junior High language student or high schooler in Carl's World Civ or American History class, ask about the blog and how it's going.

Wednesday Websites:Free Online Movie Sites

Now that you've seen Salvador Dali on "What's My Line" and at the High, are you interested in finally seeing Un Chien Andalou, a bizarre 16-minute surrealist film created by Dali and Luis Buñuel? Maybe a student missed school the day you talked about Robert McNamara and showed The Fog of War, and needs to watch it over the weekend. Or do you just want to watch the original 1968 zombie flick Night of the Living Dead? Lots of folks go to Hulu or YouTube to see TV shows and pop culture videos, but there are hundreds of professionally produced documentaries and classic films available to watch online for free.

The Moving Images Archive, a subset of the Internet Archive (also home to the Wayback Machine web page archive), is a library of thousands of video files, either in the public domain or uploaded by the copyright holder. Most of the films are downloadable -- some have been edited or enhanced by users, and those versions are also available in the archive.

"Thousands of feature-length documentary films are produced every year, but almost nobody gets a chance to see them. A few dozen are shown to small audiences at major film festivals, and a handful make it into theaters. For every blockbuster, there are hundreds of documentaries that never find an audience," Walter Mossberg wrote in a review of Snag Films. Snag Films was created by a documentary filmmaker frustrated by the "distribution bottleneck" that prevents most documentaries from ever being seen by a wide audience. The website offers a collection of over 1,600 documentary films, both short and full-length. Several of these films were released commercially to great success (Super Size Me, for instance), and there are PBS and National Geographic documentaries that have been seen on TV, but there are also hundreds of shorter or indie-produced documentaries and labors of love.

Snag Learning is a subset of Snag Films that features selected documentaries for middle and high school students. The web page for each Snag Learning selection includes discussion questions and information about a related non-profit organization. Some include teacher-submitted lesson plans, and teachers are encouraged to contribute their own materials for the film. Recent additions to the Snag Learning site are The Danish Solution, a 58-minute documentary narrated by Garrison Keillor, about the citizens of Denmark who stood against Hitler's plans to exterminate Danish Jews, and Bridge over the Wadi, about Jewish and Arab children learning together in a bilingual school in Israel.

Of course there are dozens, if not hundreds, of free films scattered across the web, some on individual sites, many on YouTube and Google Video. The fabulous site Open Culture created a list of "200 Free Movies Online" to get learners started off in the right direction to see Russian epics, indie films, the weirdness of David Lynch, and the original slapstick of the great Charlie Chaplin.

The Gold Rush (1924)

Too Good To Miss:Dali on "What's My Line"

Again, Open Culture rocks! Here's an online freebie to round out your Salvador Dali experience at the High Museum -- a 10 minute clip of the flamboyant artist as mystery guest on the TV game show "What's My Line."



27 January 1957

Wednesday Website:Open Culture

This one is for all the life-long learners out there. Subtitled "the best free cultural & educational materials on the Web," Open Culture is a project of Dan Coleman, the Director & Associate Dean of Stanford's Continuing Studies Program. As he describes it:

Open Culture brings together high-quality cultural & educational media for the worldwide lifelong learning community. Web 2.0 has given us great amounts of intelligent audio and video. It’s all free. It’s all enriching. But it’s also scattered across the web, and not easy to find. Our whole mission is to centralize this content, curate it, and give you access to this high quality content whenever and wherever you want it. Free audio books, free online courses, free movies, free language lessons, free ebooks and other enriching content — it’s all here. Open Culture was founded in 2006.

There are other sites that pull together great educational materials. Many top notch colleges and universities such as MIT and UC Berkeley post readings, syllabi, and video or audio lectures for many of their most popular classes through Open CourseWare projects or iTunes U. TED posts videos of its inspiring and thought-provoking talks on its website for the world to view. Free Technology for Teachers is an award-winning collection of all kinds of freely available websites, with ideas on how they can be used to benefit student learning. I love them all, but a very nice thing about Open Culture is that it's very inclusive in topics and formats, which makes it an awesome place to start.

Students who want extra help, or to learn a language not taught at Paideia, there are links for you. Want to go further into Roman Architecture than you did in World Civ? Learn from a professor at Yale. Psyched to travel, or catch up on the classics of literature? Open Culture links to 20 different top quality travel podcasts and dozens of free audiobook classics you can download to your iPod. And the blog has daily posts that link to all kinds of just really cool stuff -- on Monday it led to a transcript of a 1939 lecture by Alfred Hitchcock on the art of suspense, a great find for all film buffs with hungry minds.

Being a school librarian is a great outlet for a hungry mind. As we work to satisfy student learning needs, we get to learn at the same time. And then pass it on. If Paideia students graduate into a vocation as life-long learners, we'll have done our jobs well.

Wednesday Websites: For Journalism Students (and everyone else)

On Tuesday I talked with the staff of The Forum in Jennifer Hill's journalism class, about Internet research, finding reliable web sources, and fact checking. As I prepared, it occurred to me that all of these skills are the same techniques that all students should be using for their classes and for their personal information needs. Teachers and other grownups would benefit from researching like a journalist as well.

In class we went over a few main points:

• using websites dedicated to verifying (or debunking) political and social rumours, urban legends, chain mail claims, and the like (Snopes.com, PolitiFact.com, and others)

• Google is fine, but use the power tools (+, - and "") to get better quality searches. Consider that Google hits may be weighted in various ways, and go beyond the first few to find more solid sources. Use clues from blogs or Wikipedia to lead you to the information in quality sources. Double-check all facts by finding the same information in one or more quality source (CNN, US government website, primary source, etc).

• make sure that multiple sources are actually different sources (not just the same Wikipedia article in different websites). Do your sources all quote the same primary source? Find the primary source yourself.

• use the Paideia databases (SIRS and ProQuest) as a way to find sources (reports & articles, including AJC archives back to 2002) that have been through some sort of filtering process before being included. CQResearcher has comprehensive reports on current social and political issues

• questions to ask of any website in deciding whether it's reliable enough to stake your journalistic reputation (or grade) on its content
  

Links to all of the websites mentioned in the session are on PiLibrarian's Recommended Websites list, with the tag Journalism.

Wednesday Website:TED & William Kamkwamba

Technology, Entertainment, Design. TED sponsors two annual conferences, one in California, the other in Oxford (UK) to bring together the world's most fascinating thinkers and doers, who are challenged to give the talk of their lives (in 18 minutes or less). The best talks and performances from TED are made available to the world, for free, on TED.com. More than 700 TEDTalks are now available, with more added each week. I like to download interesting-sounding TEDTalk videos to my iTouch, and watch them when I have waiting time (like at the doctor's office).

One of this year's Junior High Summer Reading Bowl choices is The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind, an autobiography/memoir by a young man from Malawi, William Kamkwamba. When he was a young teen William had to drop out of school. Unwilling to stop learning, he read science books from his village library and managed to build a windmill that generated electricity for indoor lights and a radio. Five years later, when he was about 19 years old, William first spoke about his achievements with co-author Bryan Mealor at TED Global 2007, in Arusha, Tanzania. He was very nervous.






Two years later, after many more achievements and triumphs, William spoke again, at TED Global 2009. A much more confident and experienced speaker, this short talk tells his story of determination, ingenuity and wonder.



Since 2007, William has been able to attend a pan-African boarding school for emerging leaders, begin a foundation to support similar self-help projects in Malawi, and write a blog. A short film about his windmills is being turned into a feature-length documentary. His book is one of my top books of the year (as well as an Amazon.com and Publisher's Weekly Top 10).

And all because 14-year-old William wanted to read his books after dark.

Triangle Fire, primary source articles from the NYT

New York Times articles about the Washington Place fire, March 26-April 3, 1911
(no passwords needed from campus; to access off-campus, use ProQuest database ID & password)

• DEATH LIST SHOWS FEW IDENTIFIED; Eight Have Died in Three Hospitals of Injuries Received by Jumping to the Street. 33 INJURED STILL SURVIVE Pay Envelopes Brought About the Identification of Some of the Victims -- The Missing List.
  New York Times (1857-1922). Mar 26, 1911. p. 4 (1 page)

• 141 MEN AND GIRLS DIE IN WAIST FACTORY FIRE; TRAPPED HIGH UP IN WASHINGTON PLACE BUILDING; STREET STREWN WITH BODIES; PILES OF DEAD INSIDE; The Flames Spread with Deadly Rapidity Through Flimsy Material Used in the Factory. 600 GIRLS ARE HEMMED IN When Elevators Stop Many Jump to Certain Death and Others Perish in Fire-Filled Lofts. STUDENTS RESCUE SOME Help Them to Roof of New York University Building, Keeping the Panic-Stricken in Check. ONE MAN TAKEN OUT ALIVE Plunged to Bottom of Elevator Shaft and Lived There Amid Flames for Four Hours. ONLY ONE FIRE ESCAPE Coroner Declares Building Laws Were Not Enforced -- Building Modern -- Classed Fireproof. JUST READY TO GO HOME Victims Would Have Ended Day's Work in a Few Minutes -- Pay Envelopes Identify Many. MOB STORMS THE MORGUE Seeking to Learn Fate of Relatives Employed by the Triangle Waist Company. 141 DEAD IN WAIST FACTORY FIRE HERE
  New York Times (1857-1922). Mar 26, 1911. p. 1 (3 pages)

• PARTNERS' ACCOUNT OF THE DISASTER; Blanck and Harris Tell of Their Escape in the Maddened Throng of Employes. CHILDREN OF ONE THERE Fled to the Roof When Other Avenues Were Cut Off and Thus Escaped with Their Lives.
  New York Times (1857-1922). Mar 26, 1911. p. 4 (1 page)

• QUICK GRAND JURY FIRE INVESTIGATION; District Attorney, a Witness of the Horror, Takes Steps for an Immediate Inquiry. CONFERS WITH CHIEF CROKER Fire Department Head Says All Loft Buildings, Once Tenanted, Are More or Less Fire-Traps.
  New York Times (1857-1922). Mar 26, 1911. p. 5 (1 page)

• CROWD OF 50,000 WATCHES THE RUINS; Press Against Police Lines All Day for Glimpse of Building Where So Many Died. MANY TRINKETS PICKED UP Some Money Dropped by Victims Also Found in the Street and in the Burned Building.
  New York Times (1857-1922). Mar 27, 1911. p. 3 (1 page)

• FIRE TRAPS THERE ARE HERE.; Cloak Trade Committee Tells of Violations It Found. Scenes During and After the Washington Place Fire.
  New York Times (1857-1922). Mar 27, 1911. p. 1 (2 pages)

• LOCKED IN FACTORY, THE SURVIVORS SAY, WHEN FIRE STARTED THAT COST 141 LIVES; Two Doors Still Locked in Ruins and Others Burned Away Where Many Victims Fell. PROPRIETORS DENY THIS District Attorney to Ask Grand Jury to Fix Responsibility for the Disaster. DEATH LIST STAYS AT 141 Only 86 Identified, Though Throngs in Search of Missing Ones Visit the Morgue. OTHERS BESIEGE THE RUINS Vainly Try to Join in Search There -- Trinkets Picked Up Give Clue to Some Victims. GAYNOR CALLS FOR AID Wants Citizens to Contribute to Red Cross Fund for Relief of Sufferers. MANY FIRE TRAPS HERE Committee of Clothing Manufacturers Has Prepared List of Factories That Violate Law.
  New York Times (1857-1922). Mar 27, 1911. p. 1 (1 page)

• RUSH TO THE AID OF FIRE SUFFERERS; Many Civic Organizations Take Steps to Bring Immediate Relief to Them. MAYOR MAKES AN APPEAL Waistmakers' Union Goes to the Rescue - Red Cross Society Joins in the Work.
  New York Times (1857-1922). Mar 27, 1911. p. 4 (1 page)

• THE WASHINGTON PLACE FIRE.
  New York Times (1857-1922). Mar 27, 1911. p. 10 (1 page)

• WHITMAN MEN SEEK TO FIX RESPONSIBILITY; Two Doors That Escaped Flames Were Still Locked -- Hear That All of Them Were. BODIES HEAPED NEAR THEM Said Also That These Doors Opened Inwardly, Contrary to Law -- Narrow Fire Escape Also Blamed.
  New York Times (1857-1922). Mar 27, 1911. p. 4 (1 page)

• BLAME SHIFTED ON ALL SIDES FOR FIRE HORROR; Fire-Escape Law Admittedly Inadequate and Legislature Plans Reforms. THE 142D VICTIM DIES 29 Bodies Remain Unclaimed at the Morgue, Where 26 Were Identified Yesterday. CIGARETTE CAUSED FIRE Fire Marshal So Convinced After Examining Survivors -- Oil Cans Near Spot of Origin. DOORS WERE JAMMED TIGHT Chief Croker Says They Had to be Chopped Down -- Firemen Will Testify To-day. RELIEF FUNDS POUR IN Andrew Carnegie Gives $5,000 -- Many Pitiful Stories Told by Mourners at the Morgue.
  New York Times (1857-1922). Mar 28, 1911. p. 1 (2 pages)

• FIRE-ESCAPE LAWS TO BE STRENGTHENED; Labor Commissioner's Power Over Factories Will Probably Be Extended. DENIES RESPONSIBILITY HERE Court Placed Fire Escape Control with Building Departments -- $3,000 Voted for Relief.
  Special to The New York Times.. New York Times (1857-1922). Mar 28, 1911. p. 3 (1 page)

• THE FIRE INVESTIGATION.
  New York Times (1857-1922). Mar 28, 1911. p. 12 (1 page)

• MANY NOW TELL OF FIRE TRAPS; Over 1,000 Factory Workers Give Secret Information to Civic Committee. DEATH LIST GOES TO 143 Another Victim of Saturday's Fire Dies in Hospital -- 19 Still Unidentified. FUNERAL MARCH OF 300,000 Unions Plan a Big Demonstration -Official Inquiries Continue -Relief Fund Grows.
  New York Times (1857-1922). Mar 29, 1911. p. 3 (1 page)

• CITY WILL BURY THE UNIDENTIFIED; Mayor Ends Controversy Over Possession of the Fourteen Bodies of Fire Victims. PARADE ISSUE NOT SETTLED Charities Commissioner May Decide on Private Funeral -- Another Victim Dies in Hospital.
  New York Times (1857-1922). Mar 31, 1911. p. 2 (1 page)

• MASS MEETING CALLS FOR NEW FIRE LAWS; Metropolitan Opera House Gathering Decides to Name Standing Committee on Protection. WORKERS NOT IN ACCORD Woman Union Leader Says They Have Lost Faith In the Public and Must Rely on Themselves.
  New York Times (1857-1922). Apr 3, 1911. p. 3 (1 page)