Hurricane Sandy Reading Recommendations

 The devastation across most of the Eastern portion of the United States, as well as an inspiring conference over the last couple of days, has me thinking of books that relate to a theme. If I were to hash tag my thoughts on Twitter I would use #hurricane, #globalwarming and #evacuation. Those three hash tags have me recommending the following two reads:

Zeitoun tells the story of a man who chose to stay in New Orleans during the mandatory evacuation period following Hurricane Katrina. The story is at times warm, funny, heart-breaking and thought provoking. In addition to the personal liberties denied during the emergency situation is the opportunity to understand a unique cultural perspective of an American woman's conversion to Islam.  The detainment, while rife with examples of prejudice and mistreatment, should have the reader also questioning personal responsibility, the role of the government during times of crisis and suspension of liberty. YouTube search Zeitoun for interesting first-person interviews.

                                                                               
Carbon Diaries 2015 is an award winning YA novel of the near future global climate change world that results in carbon rationing. Wen predicted natural disaster actually strikes, many of the same themes found in Zeitoun are explored. As a bonus for my teen readers, this is the first book in a series, providing continued reading choices!

Grab a book, share it with your friends and family and let the conversations begin.

 The devastation across most of the Eastern portion of the United States, as well as an inspiring conference over the last couple of days, has me thinking of books that relate to a theme. If I were to hash tag my thoughts on Twitter I would use #hurricane, #globalwarming and #evacuation. Those three hash tags have me recommending the following two reads:

Zeitoun tells the story of a man who chose to stay in New Orleans during the mandatory evacuation period following Hurricane Katrina. The story is at times warm, funny, heart-breaking and thought provoking. In addition to the personal liberties denied during the emergency situation is the opportunity to understand a unique cultural perspective of an American woman's conversion to Islam.  The detainment, while rife with examples of prejudice and mistreatment, should have the reader also questioning personal responsibility, the role of the government during times of crisis and suspension of liberty. YouTube search Zeitoun for interesting first-person interviews.

                                                                               
Carbon Diaries 2015 is an award winning YA novel of the near future global climate change world that results in carbon rationing. Wen predicted natural disaster actually strikes, many of the same themes found in Zeitoun are explored. As a bonus for my teen readers, this is the first book in a series, providing continued reading choices!

Grab a book, share it with your friends and family and let the conversations begin.

High School Reading

A former principal tweeted me a very interesting article (thank you Mr. Case!) about how high school makes kids hate reading. It's an interesting read and I can't argue with many of the points. However, it is a fact that literature and developing the skills of literary criticism are part of the English curriculum. And should be! What we need to focus on and allow time for is choice reading. Unfortunately this can become a difficult task when many schools are forced by our tough economic time to reduce library staffing or eliminate it all together. Today as classes come to the library we are going to start our discussion by looking at the 4 ways high schools make kids hate reading. And then break all the rules by going around those 4 assumptions. Starting with the students helping me write my book order. Here's to choice reading! 

AHS students, please post your suggestions for new books below. You can post specific titles or topics that you would like to have available for choice reading. Take control of your high school reading!

Booktalking with Ms. Bokano

Given an assignment that allows you to choose the book you are required to read sounds good....until you actually have to be in charge of finding a book! Today we're going to look at some book trailers (essential the same thing as a movie trailer, a visual advertisement for the book) of books that we have available in our LMC. In fact, thinking about a book selection being like choosing a movie is a great strategy. It can help you identify your favorite genre, interests and potentially find the perfect match! 

When making book recommendations I have found that award books have been very popular. The awards were given for a reason! Today I'm going to feature the American Library Association's Alex Award books. The award is sponsored by a trust in honor of a young adult librarian pioneer who was nicknamed "Alex". Every year, ten books that were written for adults but have special appeal for young adults, are awarded the honor. The award list contains an interesting mix of genres. Here are this year's award winners:

 

 

 

And finally, a just because it's my favorite young adult book released in the last couple of years:

Welcome! 

Thank you for joining me today for Video Tutorials in 21st Century learning. This session is designed to be interactive with discussions and hands-on participation. Please begin by opening the Google Presentation. We have a lot to explore in a short hour! If you have not completed your show and tell item before the end of the session, please feel free to finish after the symposium and share on the Google Doc. The blog is updated more often during the school year with issues regarding technology integration and literacy. Feel free to become a blog follower and build our learning network.

Muskrat Summer Learning

The Muskrat 2.0 project began in the summer of 2011 as a way to bridge the summer learning gap that occurs from extended time between the school years. Algonac High School has created an incentive plan that makes the assignments fun and well worth the effort. One of the requirements for a chance to win an iPad is to complete the library challenge.

Muskrat 2.0 Librarian Challenge 2012

1. Obtain a St. Clair County Library card if you do not already have one. (You will need your parents with you to obtain a new card. Requirements are listed on the above link).

2. Check out a book! (You could try an ebook from the new SCCL Overdrive account)

3. Complete the Writing With Writers Book Review workshop. 

4. Write a book review of a book from the SCCL, using the workshop as a guideline. Check for spelling and punctuation errors! Post to this blog by clicking on Post a Comment underneath this post. Comments will be reviewed before posting.

If you have questions during the summer while you are completing this challenge, you may e-mail Mrs. Wynkoop at rwynkoop@acsk12.us. E-mail is checked weekly.

 

March is Reading Month

Creating Video Tutorials

The ability to create video tutorials is an important tool for educators in all the fields. The applications are limited only to your imagination. With the new buzz in "flipped" classrooms, blended learning and online instruction, educators need to move beyond text as instruction. We will review three tools to use to create video tutorials. 

The most basic of the video tools is the recorder found within your interactive whiteboard software. In my district we have SMART boards, so the tutorial will demonstrate the SMART brand.

The second tool for creating video tutorials is Jing. There is a free version that needs to be downloaded to your computer. Be sure you try to download this BEFORE the day you need to use it at your school computer as most schools will require administrative rights to download. Follow your district policy for software installation. Jing can be used to add instructions to screen captured images and create a presentation or to create a video. Jing videos are limited to 5 minutes.

The most advanced tool is Camtasia. Camtasia is from the same company as Jing, TechSmith. It allows advanced editing of videos and the company does offer an educator discount. And, it's a Michigan based company!