Cast your peepers over this idea:
Go play. Have fun. Make your library special for your kids, so they say WOW and love being there. Isn't that how it should be? And won't that be fun for you too?
Cheers
Ruth
*GIFSL = good ideas for school libraries
Thursday, February 10, 2011
GIFSL* no.56: Valentine's Day 2011
What's a teacher librarian to do to fancy up the library for Valentine's Day? (note: as ever, not just for pretty's sake, but to change the space, add excitement and buzz and encourage reading, to get them through the door.)
Cast your peepers over this idea:
That's made from free stuff, folks. Catalogue/magazine pages. The tutorial (and source of the picture) is here but it's not at all a hard idea to play with. Is it? Maybe you've got kids who'd like to help? Maybe you could have some with the names of favourite books/characters on them? Maybe...
Go play. Have fun. Make your library special for your kids, so they say WOW and love being there. Isn't that how it should be? And won't that be fun for you too?
Cheers
Ruth
*GIFSL = good ideas for school libraries
Cast your peepers over this idea:
Go play. Have fun. Make your library special for your kids, so they say WOW and love being there. Isn't that how it should be? And won't that be fun for you too?
Cheers
Ruth
*GIFSL = good ideas for school libraries
Wednesday, February 9, 2011
So what are they doing better in Finland (in education)?
Teaching less and learning more. Read an excellent overview with handy graphs and a video in Less is More. Teach Less, Learn More by David Truss on Connected Principals.
“This creativity aspect is very important because in Finland we believe that risk-taking, creativity and innovation are very, very important for a society like ours. And particularly working in this global and globalized world it is more important than what you actually know and remember, it is more what you are and what you are capable of doing.” ~ Pasi Sahlberg
Worth reading the whole piece - click on over. We seem, here, to be using the UK and US as our educational models, far more than places like Finland, even though the Finnish approach is more successful.
Cheers
Ruth
“This creativity aspect is very important because in Finland we believe that risk-taking, creativity and innovation are very, very important for a society like ours. And particularly working in this global and globalized world it is more important than what you actually know and remember, it is more what you are and what you are capable of doing.” ~ Pasi Sahlberg
Worth reading the whole piece - click on over. We seem, here, to be using the UK and US as our educational models, far more than places like Finland, even though the Finnish approach is more successful.
Cheers
Ruth
Tuesday, February 8, 2011
Currently Reading: "Vampire Academy" by Richelle Mead
I am currently reading: Vampire Academy, by Richelle Mead
bloggers 
have promised would be superb. I hope, like those reviewers, I will lo♥e LO♥E lo♥e this book. This is the month of February, after all. This is the SEASON for surrounding ourselves with lo♥e.May YOU, dear reader, feel supported by people who utterly and completely adore you. Happy month of Valentine's Day!
The Joy of Statistics
For all the dross and muck and pointless stuff on YouTube, there are also gems. Here's one to share with your colleagues in Maths, Science, Social Science, and anyone else teaching students about statistics - a one hour BBC documentary with Dr Hans Rosling. Free and available on YouTube. Bargain.
EDITED: Hmmm. YouTube playing games; this seems to have gone 'private' since I drafted this blog entry.
You can find the video embedded here:
http://www.gapminder.org/videos/the-joy-of-stats/
and it played when I just checked it. Other related videos on that page, too.
Original YouTube link here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oOOmqHzkkOo
Remind your teachers to load this ahead of the lesson, so they're not waiting for it to load as they show it.
Found via the Laughing Squid.
Cheers
Ruth
EDITED: Hmmm. YouTube playing games; this seems to have gone 'private' since I drafted this blog entry.
You can find the video embedded here:
http://www.gapminder.org/videos/the-joy-of-stats/
and it played when I just checked it. Other related videos on that page, too.
Original YouTube link here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oOOmqHzkkOo
Remind your teachers to load this ahead of the lesson, so they're not waiting for it to load as they show it.
Found via the Laughing Squid.
Cheers
Ruth
Monday, February 7, 2011
What is a Library? (1)
Libraries are about books, but they're also about much more than books. They're about ideas and invention and imagination and play and curiosity and wonder and hope. Yes, libraries are all about hope. They are houses of possibilities.
Phil Shapiro, Towards a National Transition Plan for Libraries, in PCWorld
So, each one of your working days you and I walk into a house of possibilities. So what can you (and I) do today to make it so, and make it better?
Think I might find a way of displaying this quote in my library (could be handy for one of my library pieces in the regular school newsletter, too). I notice, on reflection, that some of the words are in my word walls already - imagine, wonder, hope. Good.
In this article, Phil Shapiro is canvassing ideas about public libraries in the future - what they're for, how they might look, design considerations. Worth reading.
Cheers
Ruth
Phil Shapiro, Towards a National Transition Plan for Libraries, in PCWorld
So, each one of your working days you and I walk into a house of possibilities. So what can you (and I) do today to make it so, and make it better?
Think I might find a way of displaying this quote in my library (could be handy for one of my library pieces in the regular school newsletter, too). I notice, on reflection, that some of the words are in my word walls already - imagine, wonder, hope. Good.
In this article, Phil Shapiro is canvassing ideas about public libraries in the future - what they're for, how they might look, design considerations. Worth reading.
Cheers
Ruth
Sunday, February 6, 2011
I was NOT looking for this website!
...I swear to goodness, I wasn't looking for this. It came up quite incidentally when I was researching something else entirely. But when, at 5.45pm after a long day at school when you tried (and failed) all day to compose and send one (long/comprehensive/program-planning) email (although a whole lot of other unplanned things were sorted out/helped with/encouraged etc); when you trip over this site, and you end up snorting Diet Coke because it's funny and sad and OMG-worthy...
...well, there's nothing to do but share it.
Click here. Enjoy. Be appalled (or inspired?!). Maybe even snort Diet Coke too, as you chuckle.
Cheers
Ruth
PS One of the last examples includes Hamlet's "To be or not to be" soliloquy, in a font that's already old hat, if not old old antique hat. But it's there forever. I liked the accurately snarky comments about it....
...well, there's nothing to do but share it.
Click here. Enjoy. Be appalled (or inspired?!). Maybe even snort Diet Coke too, as you chuckle.
Cheers
Ruth
PS One of the last examples includes Hamlet's "To be or not to be" soliloquy, in a font that's already old hat, if not old old antique hat. But it's there forever. I liked the accurately snarky comments about it....
Quote: Mark Twain
Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things you didn't do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover.
— Mark Twain
Found this one today. Not sure how I might use it in the library, but it has potential for sure...
Cheers
Ruth
— Mark Twain
Found this one today. Not sure how I might use it in the library, but it has potential for sure...
Cheers
Ruth
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