Summer ABCs

Living in a land of ice and snow...well, normally right?...we spend much of our time, particularly during the school year, inside.  When the "weather outside is frightful, but the fire is so delightful", it is so much easier to curl up with a great book and read.

I would be remiss as a "librarian" not to spread the word about summer reading.  Like my own kids, I am just as guilty of not making time to read as much as I should during the summer.  We spend the entire day running to sports camps (yes, basketball is an all-year sport in my house), league games and travel team tournaments, swimming in the pool, playing in the neighborhood and chatting over the campfire with some awesome neighbors.  When we get in the house, we crash like mighty oaks who have outgrown their roots.

Here's my goal for this summer...three simple ABC steps to get the family reading regularly.

A is for Access

Access, access, access is what I normally yell for technology.  Access to equipment, access to resources, access to expert assistance.  Books are much the same way.  To truly embrace a great book, readers need access to places to get books (free is preferable, cheap is acceptable), access to books themselves, and access to professional readers (Librarians of the world unite!).  So, how do I (or my children and students) get access to books during the summer...

1.  Our awesome public library.  Wisconsin is blessed with some excellent public library systems.  If you can't find your favorite book at your local library, they will get it shipped from another library to your local one for FREE!  Then you can check it out for FREE!  I live in the Outagamie-Waupaca Library System (OWLS) and they truly are the greatest library staff and group of libraries anywhere.

2.  Reading clubs for children, young adults and adults through public libraries, Starbucks or book stores.  Reading with others is always more interesting than reading by yourself.  Discussing great books, or even just good books, brings the story to life.

3.  Digital or audio books for iPad, Kindle or Nook.  Load up your reading list at the beginning of summer and you are good to go.  I currently have 32 books on my iPad for summer reading enjoyment and I take them to every kid's sporting event, vacation, barbecue, etc... My intent is to sit by the pool while the kids swim, enjoy our lovely Wisconsin summer and read.  I will also bring them on our trip to Florida in August to listen on the way or read at the beach.

Book for my trip south

4.  If you are a teacher, please ask your school librarian for a stack of books for the summer.  Over my 13 years in districts, I loaned thousands of books to teachers over the summer...why?  As we all know, teachers (elementary, esp.) have time over the summer to catch up, reinvigorate, and truly enjoy all the new books that came out during the year.

Call it "literature refreshment" as opposed to the liquid kind.



B is for Books That I Want To Read

Read what interests you.  Don't get caught up in "I should read this..." or "I have to read this..."  Summer reading needs to be interesting and engaging and make the time investment worthwhile.  Read something you don't have time to during the year.

I would encourage you to try audiobooks as well.  Easily downloaded to your iPod/iPad, audiobooks are great for long trips, walks, lounging by the pool or at the beach.

The professionals at your local public library will always be there to help you out.  If you need suggestions, please email me.



C is for Commitment

Just as we take time to retool and retrain for our increasingly complex profession, make the commitment to re-invest in your own literacy.  I am a believer, whether I can prove it or not, that reading voraciously improves writing abilities (no comments please), rational thinking (again with the comments), memory, vocabulary and the ability to communicate effectively.

The Zen side of me also knows reading is a method to calmness, inner peace, and satisfaction.

Make the commitment to find 30 minutes a day to exercise your brain.

LMC Promo

Definitely worth sharing...

From the Oral Interpretation Class at Rhinelander HS

My Addled Brain Learns Math & Science

Research continues to show that boys and girls learn differently.  Taken from scans of the brain, girl's brains--the hippocampus and Cerebral Cortex in particular--generally devote higher functioning to verbal and memory skills.  Boy's brains are dedicate more towards spatial and mechanic functioning.  

Without making gross over-generalizations, I am beginning to believe in this day and age of smartphones, HD gaming, and access to other technology, the gap between how the brain functions across genders is decreasing.  I continue to observe, however, differences between how boys and girls function and learn in school settings and work on developing a variety of tactics to engage the student with whom I work.

With this in mind, I have been asked more and more to find resources for STEM (Science Technology Engineering Math) instruction and classes, particularly for students who are "reluctant" scientists or mathematicians.  Here are some interesting ones:

1. The Science of Football--From NBCLearn, this site uses videos to discuss physics and math as it relates to football.  Excellent visuals for understanding.
2. Exploratiorium's Sport Science--Site has a wide variety of resources and lessons that deal the the math and science of sports.  Most sports have some representation here as well...Go Sk8trs!
3. MLB Vision--Awesome video dealing the calculations, reaction time and vision needed to hit a 90-mile-an-hour fastball.  
4. The Science of Hockey--From NBCLearn, this collection of videos discusses math and science as it relates to hockey.
5. Mathematics in Sports--Great, higher-level site that deals with a variety of aspects of math in sports--how to make the best football or tennis racket, the power of the right swimming suit...

I have to admit Math and Science (notice the capital letters) are not my forte, but I find them entirely interesting.  Combined with a true passion (sports), the ability to visualize how all these things come together makes science riveting!

Some other suggestions:

• Use fantasy sports to teach math concepts like averages, basic math functions
• Use bowling to teach math (elementary)
• Use pool to teach about geometry and possibly some trig
• Use sports to teach statistics (Moneyball)

I would certainly have retained much more math and science learning it this way.

Evolution, Revolution or Convolution?

As the school year winds down, I am finally catching up on reading print subscriptions (yes...print...painful but necessary?) to a variety of library and professional educator magazines.  I came across this article in Scholastic Administrator yesterday.  It's just a "skimmer" article but poses some interesting questions and options for future classroom content.

Scholastic, Spring 2012

IBooks Author is slowly changing the way we operate.  Gone are the days of asking your friendly, local media specialist if you can copy chapters, short stories, poems, articles from various sources and put them into your own class "textbook".  With iAuthor (my term), teachers can make their own, entirely interactive, textbook with videos, links, etc...viewable entirely on the iPad (or computer).  Textbook companies, like Houghton Mifflin, McGraw-Hill and Pearson, are quickly working to use this new tool as well.  They are offering textbooks at a greatly reduced $14.99!  Quite a bit different than the $60+ for print versions.

I will be the first to admit there are some serious limitations to iBook Author...licensing and proprietary software being the main concern.  Apple is awesomely proprietary and doesn't play well with others...no Windows version of iBooks Author, created textbooks are viewable only in iBooks on the iPad (which means you need to buy iPads, etc...

However, creating your own textbooks is a great idea.  There are other options as well.  Five distinct FREE possibilities:

1. Use Diigo or Delicious to bookmark sites and resources (articles online,...) for your classes.  Create a stack of materials and share these resources with your classes.
2. Use Livebinders to collect all your materials into an online "3-ring" binder...tabbed and organized.  Livebinder is awesomely easy to use.
3. Aggregate your resources with Google Sites or a wiki site.  I prefer Google sites because they are easy, included with our Google Apps for Education accounts, and integrate videos and gadgets well.
4. Use course software (Edmodo,...) to collect resources and create online, blended classes.
5. Use a blog, like this one, to collect resources and share content and ideas!

The important concept is finding delivery methods that meet the needs of our students for timely, relevant and meaningful learning and engagement.  

They are ready...are we?