Blog headers

This weekend, I retired this blog header:

which features our fabbobananas purple word wall, and installed a new blog header, because, well, I've clearly been influenced by waaay too many refurb shows.  Or maybe I just felt like a change.

You remember this photo, taken with the iPhone app Hipstamatic (Kodot film, John S lens) last week?

Foofing it through the iPhone app TiltShift, then cropping and adding some text with a photo editor, arrived at this:

which I rather like because it includes some of the important things about the library - Keep Calm, Welcome, heart, colour, inspiration.  And I like the lairy colours.

Just like it's good to keep your library refreshed (what will you do this week?), it's good to keep your blog refreshed too.  As well as playing with some new toys.  Now to see how I can use these apps to make stuff for school...

Do you like it?

Cheers

Ruth

Exciting Vampire Book Give-Away: $40 Value!

I am very pleased to facilitate a book giveaway generously offered by authors Heather Poinsett Dunbar and Christopher Dunbar. (See them pictured, left. Aren't they adorable?)


THIS CONTEST REGARDS: AUTHOR AUTOGRAPHED!

• BOOK 1: Morrigan's Brood
• BOOK 2: Morrigan's Brood: Crone of War

Each paperback sells individually for $19.99. That means this giveaway is worth $40.00!

CONTEST GUIDELINES:
Eligible entrants will be from the US only (unless a winner wants to pay for shipping!) Entries will be accepted until midnight on Feb. 13th. I will announce the winner on Valentine's Day, February 14th, the same day that the above mentioned authors make their guest appearance, here, at Vampire Review.


TO ENTER
* Leave a comment, below, to express your interest in winning the prize (substantial comment please, not just "entry")
* Then email your private mailing address to SunTigerMOJO [at] gmail (dot) com in order to be entered in a random drawing.


RANDOMNESS
On Valentine's Day, my spouse will pull a name out of a jar so the winner is chosen by a very unbiased method. (That means close friends will not have any winning advantage; sorry.)


*Your mailing address will not be shared with anyone. Spam sucks (and not in a good vampire way). A mailing address must be received to enter - or the prize cannot be shipped.

*May the most worthy entrant WIN!

*Check back tomorrow for my review of Morrigan's Brood: Crone of War.

Character Blog: Vamchoir

Tweet: @Vamchoir

Facebook: Vamchoir

Publisher: SunTigerMOJO.com 

Libday 3, Wednesday

On Wednesday, it was the Australia Day public holiday.



Also, as forecast, very hot. 42deg Celsius.



So on such a hot day, and at the point in the summer hols when there are some nonkiddyfare new releases in (air-conditioned) cinemas, a shot of (air-conditioned) culture seemed like a great plan.



It was. True Grit was good, Black Swan angsty, Unstoppable sheer popcorn fun.

And the air-conditioning was just the ticket.

Cheers

Ruth

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Effective study: ethnicity vs good habits

There is, wandering about in the education world, an assumption by some that the success of some ethnic groups is related to their ethnicity.  A recent SMH article, reporting on a  DET NSW forum, debunks this.  Chinese students top the tests out of habit, not ethnicity, study shows, by Anna Patty was published on 29 December 2010.  (nb: sometimes the SMH only leaves articles up free for a couple of weeks, and then you have to pay - try the link, but apologies if it doesn't work).

Key points:

• The place where children do their homework - whether at a desk or in front of the television - may play a big role in how well they do at school
• ''Successful students see homework as a daily routine,'' Mr Coutts-Trotter said. ''They have a desk of their own and a school and family that help them develop scholarly routines.
• "Visiting libraries regularly is another thing successful students do.''
• Children do better sitting at a desk than on a bed; implies a different attitude
• From primary school, some groups establish better habits - study each day, and for longer.  In the year 3 group studied, the children of Chinese background spent about an hour every night of the week, compared with children of Pacific Islander background - 10 minutes for two to three nights a week - and Anglo Australian children - about 20 minutes on only some nights during the week.
• Socio-economic background wasn't necessarily a factor in success/failure - good habits helped at any level

I'm interested in this because I'm working on a study skills program for Year 11 which will be running in term 1 this year.  This sort of information demonstrates that students can choose how successful they are; one theme running through the program will be the small choices that add up to greater achievement.  Time.  A desk.  Habits.

I've been bookmarking some resources for this program over in my Delicious Diigo; I'll likely highlight some here, but if you want to toddle over there for a squizz, you're very welcome (there is a preview of the most recent ones over on the right).  If you have ideas/bookmarks you'd like to share in return, please do leave a comment.

Cheers

Ruth

So? What Do You Think So Far?

Regarding yesterday's post, I'm wondering if, by the fact that I'm highlighting things in this blog that I find offensive about some books, I might be scaring or offending decent blog readers so they run screaming in the other direction.


More specifically:
1. Do you also find it offensive (after all these years of waiting for books with female super heros) when the heroine uses her genitalia to fight vampires?


2. Do you think it's helpful that my blog points that sort of observation out to readers?


3. Are you, like me, and prefer - when sex takes place between adult characters in a story - there is some sort of emotional relationship going on for a while before that happens?


Your feedback will help me improve the content that I provide on this blog. (Thank you.) When you leave feedback, please list your blog URL under your name.

Character Blog: Vamchoir

Tweet: @Vamchoir

Facebook: Vamchoir

Publisher: SunTigerMOJO.com 

How to learn? from mistakes (Diana Laufenberg)

To start the new school year*, an inspirational TED talk about teaching



Her three key points (and please do watch the video, don't just clock these and click on in your travels - it's a great ten minutes) are:

• experiental learning
• student voice
• embracing failure

Page URL if the video doesn't work for you:
http://www.ted.com/talks/diana_laufenberg_3_ways_to_teach.html

Cheers

Ruth

*Yes, the Australian school year follows the calendar - we've just finished our summer holidays and are back for a new school year.

Glimpsing possibilities

Sydney is hilly.  The CBD, too.  Sure, some bits are flat, but the edges slope down to the harbour.  I love it when you get off at Wynyard or Martin Place stations - or you're just walking down towards Circular Quay - and you get, through the office blocks and Victorian sandstone, a glimpse of the Sydney Harbour Bridge.

Yes, it's there.  Right in the middle of the picture, below the overhanging balcony on the right, past the curved building on the left.  (I'm besotted with the Hipstamatic camera app on my iPhone at present, which accounts for the look of this photo).  The Sydney Opera House is nice, but I love the bridge. 

This photo is kinda like some of these holidays.  I'm working on a study skills program for Year 11 in Term 1, to be delivered weekly.  It's a reshaping of content I've already developed, and a reworking of other content, and a complete reprogramming of timetable/delivery.  It's been a long process of thinking, seeing things gradually coming into focus, getting glimpses of the bridges it can build and the habits/mindsets it can help establish with our new senior students.

I took this photo on a fabulous day in town going to photographic exhibitions.  Annie Leibovitz at the MCA,  Wildlife Photographer of the Year at the Australian Museum and Beach, Bush & Battlers: photographs by Jeff Carter at the State Library of NSW. 

This image (source) is The Drover's Wife by Jeff Carter (it was my favourite).  Here's what the SLNSW says about this exhibition:

The Jeff Carter photographs in Beach, Bush + Battlers have been selected from his remarkable, historically significant archive of over 50,000 works celebrating the lives of everyday Australians in rural, outback, urban and coastal communities dating from the late 1940s through to today.
Curator Sandra Byron, the leading expert on Carter's work, says about the exhibition: 'Carter's iconic images are a testament to his respect for ordinary people and his commitment to the Australian landscape and environment.'

It was a wonderful exhibition.  Worth seeing - it closes 20 Feb.  The other two close in March.  If you can get to Sydney on Australia Day, there are a bunch of other things on in the city too (program here) and one of my favourites is the vintage bus service - a chance to ride through the city on a vintage double-decker bus (for only a gold coin donation).  Just slip slop slap; the weather forecast for Wednesday is for a very hot one.

Why not pass on info about these exhibitions to your Visual Arts/Photography teachers?  And I'm going to be pointing my History and English teachers at the Jeff Carter photos too.  If the Vis Arts people are doing an excursion to Art Express, they could add in one or more of these too.

Cheers

Ruth