Just retweeted this.
RT@walkyouhome: The disgraceful interrogation of L.A. school librarians latimes.com/news/local/la-… #savelibraries #austl #tlchat #APPALLING #yam
Twitter for iPhone • 15/05/11 6:31 PM
Go read that article, dear teacher librarian colleagues, and ponder having to be in their shoes.
Alternate link to same article:
http://t.co/S73bqhq
Here's an extract from it:
A court reporter takes down testimony. A judge grants or denies objections from attorneys. Armed police officers hover nearby. On the witness stand, one librarian at a time is summoned to explain why she — the vast majority are women — should be allowed to keep her job.
The librarians are guilty of nothing except earning salaries the district feels the need to cut. But as they're cross-examined by determined LAUSD attorneys, they're continually put on the defensive.
"When was the last time you taught a course for which your librarian credential was not required?" an LAUSD attorney asked Laura Graff, the librarian at Sun Valley High School, at a court session on Monday.
"I'm not sure what you're asking," Graff said. "I teach all subjects, all day. In the library."
"Do you take attendance?" the attorney insisted. "Do you issue grades?"
I've seen a lot of strange things in two decades as a reporter, but nothing quite as disgraceful and weird as this inquisition the LAUSD is inflicting upon more than 80 school librarians.
And here's a teacher librarian's account of those proceedings:
http://mizzmurphy.blogspot.com/2011/05/settle-in-its-long-one.html
Cheers (for those brave souls). I'm appalled for what this may mean for the kids in that education system.
Ruth
- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone
Sunday, May 15, 2011
Friday, May 13, 2011
Black Death - History You Love To Hate - Movie Released 11 June 2010 (UK)
97 min - Historical Adventure | Drama | Real Horror ... bought my DVD from Costco: $15
While Black Death is NOT about Vampires per se - I felt anyone who loves old-time witch-hunt stories with all the historic hysteria that led to demonizing the innocent would really appreciate this film, which is now on DVD. Don't get me wrong, what's presented here is pretty hard to stomach ... but the movie will stick with you long after you've engaged yourself in it.
Filmed in England, Black Death presents the Christian-dominated medieval era, 1348 specifically, when the bubonic plague first broke in every community save one - a remote Pagan village. The film begins with a young monk named Osmund whose torn about the suffering he sees in Christianized England and he also observes that his fellow monks are not immune to such agonizing contagious death, as they too are being buried.
What's more, Osmund also questions his love for his beautiful childhood companion and seeks a sign from God to leave the monastery in search for her. That's when violent men appear before the monks and they're seeking a guide for their quest to find the supposed "evil" that caused this plague so they can destroy it. They've heard stories of necromancy and bring a heavy torture device with them on wooden carriage. They must find that scape-goat to quench their thirst for revenge. After all - surely a single human being is responsible for bringing so much destruction to the hordes of plague sufferers.
As the young monk leads the crusade, the Christians encounter remote witch burnings and murdering raiders along the way. The acting, action and suspense in this film are all top notch. (See the trailer.)
One of my favorite comments under the above posted trailer follows: posted by chunkylover5311: "This is hard to masturbate to."
LOL! With all the violence and hatred? That's a gross understatement. This movie will NOT leave you feeling warm and fuzzy AT ALL.
FIRST IMPRESSION WAS NOT MY LASTING RESOLVE:
I often buy dvds to resell on eBay. Immediately after watching Black Death, I decided (because the lasting message was rather uncomfortable to absorb) that I would toss this flick on my "to sell" pile. Yet days later ... I'm still thinking about this film and all the hatred that religions of all kinds have perpetuated throughout history. Because it's still making me think and because this movie conveys that hatred and killing is despicable in ANY religion - I'm now deciding to add my copy of "Black Death" to my alphabetized collection of dvds.
Black Death
Screenplay: Dario Poloni
Directed: Christopher Smith
Stars: Eddie Redmayne (Osmund), Sean Bean (Cruisader) and Carice van Houten (Pagan Necromancer)
While Black Death is NOT about Vampires per se - I felt anyone who loves old-time witch-hunt stories with all the historic hysteria that led to demonizing the innocent would really appreciate this film, which is now on DVD. Don't get me wrong, what's presented here is pretty hard to stomach ... but the movie will stick with you long after you've engaged yourself in it.
Filmed in England, Black Death presents the Christian-dominated medieval era, 1348 specifically, when the bubonic plague first broke in every community save one - a remote Pagan village. The film begins with a young monk named Osmund whose torn about the suffering he sees in Christianized England and he also observes that his fellow monks are not immune to such agonizing contagious death, as they too are being buried.
What's more, Osmund also questions his love for his beautiful childhood companion and seeks a sign from God to leave the monastery in search for her. That's when violent men appear before the monks and they're seeking a guide for their quest to find the supposed "evil" that caused this plague so they can destroy it. They've heard stories of necromancy and bring a heavy torture device with them on wooden carriage. They must find that scape-goat to quench their thirst for revenge. After all - surely a single human being is responsible for bringing so much destruction to the hordes of plague sufferers.
As the young monk leads the crusade, the Christians encounter remote witch burnings and murdering raiders along the way. The acting, action and suspense in this film are all top notch. (See the trailer.)
One of my favorite comments under the above posted trailer follows: posted by chunkylover5311: "This is hard to masturbate to."
LOL! With all the violence and hatred? That's a gross understatement. This movie will NOT leave you feeling warm and fuzzy AT ALL.
FIRST IMPRESSION WAS NOT MY LASTING RESOLVE:
I often buy dvds to resell on eBay. Immediately after watching Black Death, I decided (because the lasting message was rather uncomfortable to absorb) that I would toss this flick on my "to sell" pile. Yet days later ... I'm still thinking about this film and all the hatred that religions of all kinds have perpetuated throughout history. Because it's still making me think and because this movie conveys that hatred and killing is despicable in ANY religion - I'm now deciding to add my copy of "Black Death" to my alphabetized collection of dvds.
Black Death
Screenplay: Dario Poloni
Directed: Christopher Smith
Stars: Eddie Redmayne (Osmund), Sean Bean (Cruisader) and Carice van Houten (Pagan Necromancer)
Wednesday, May 11, 2011
Trove: researching Australia
It's a project from the National Library of Australia.
Trove is a new discovery experience focused on Australia and Australians. It supplements what search engines provide. If you are researching in the fields of the social sciences, literature, local or family history, or need inspiration for your school assignment, then this is the tool for you.
For example if researching images relating to Edmund Barton, our first Prime Minister, results will include descriptions such as people, book, manuscript, map and newspaper articles. A researcher searching for information on Nellie Melba will be presented with a range of results including biographies, pictures, music, newspapers, books etc.
Find out more on the Trove Australia site here. You can follow them on Twitter: @TroveAustralia
One to pass on to your history teachers and others doing work involving Australian history (like maybe that science assignment that focuses on Australian scientists?)
Cheers
Ruth
Tuesday, May 10, 2011
The happy life of teacher librarians: OMG is this 1995???
(Two girls with a camera walk into the library and up to my office door)
Hey miss, do you mind if we take some photos?
No, of course not. What are you looking for?
It's for art, we're doing stuff with lines so we thought we'd take photos of books and spines.
Great idea! Take them in different areas - the fiction book spines are different to the mixed sizes of nonfiction, and don't forget the graphic novels either.
Thanks miss. (They head off).
(Some minutes later, they're walking down the steps from fiction.)
Hey, those steps could be a good lines photo too.
We can't, miss
Oh?
We ran out of film...
(And we all laughed like loons over suddenly being in 1995, and not 2011 where one just EXPECTS that you can take, like, a gazillion photos on a digital camera, and hadn't had the 'run out of film' experience for years...)
The happy life of teacher librarians: OMG is this 1995??? The good new days and the good old days sometimes collide; and there's always something amusing in each working day. Love a library with laughter in it.
Cheers
Ruth
Hey miss, do you mind if we take some photos?
No, of course not. What are you looking for?
It's for art, we're doing stuff with lines so we thought we'd take photos of books and spines.
Great idea! Take them in different areas - the fiction book spines are different to the mixed sizes of nonfiction, and don't forget the graphic novels either.
Thanks miss. (They head off).
(Some minutes later, they're walking down the steps from fiction.)
Hey, those steps could be a good lines photo too.
We can't, miss
Oh?
We ran out of film...
(And we all laughed like loons over suddenly being in 1995, and not 2011 where one just EXPECTS that you can take, like, a gazillion photos on a digital camera, and hadn't had the 'run out of film' experience for years...)
The happy life of teacher librarians: OMG is this 1995??? The good new days and the good old days sometimes collide; and there's always something amusing in each working day. Love a library with laughter in it.
Cheers
Ruth
Free Comic Book Day + Supanova
Find out all about it on the Free Comic Book Day website here. It happens across North America and around the world.
My comic book fiends went to King's Comics and Kinokuniya in Sydney. The site has a FAQ page and a store locator so your comic book fiends can find out about any local stores that are participating and toddle along to acquire freebies.
Said one, "Miss, you should go to Supanova this year."
Supanova?
Supanova Pop Culture Expo is where the adoring public comes face to face with Supa-Star celebrities and the creative talent that inspire their imaginary worlds under one big roof.
Gathered from the wonderful worlds of science-fiction, pulp TV/movies, toys, console gaming, trading cards, animation/cartoons, fantasy, comic books, entertainment technology, books, internet sites and fan-clubs, the result is an amazing celebration in an atmosphere tailor made for expessing your inner geek and where getting into cosplay (cos-tume role-play) is the obvious thing to do!
Cheers
Ruth (who thinks she is flattered to have been perceived as having an inner geek).
Monday, May 9, 2011
How do I write a resume, miss?
From Flickr, used under a Creative Commons license
She couldn't find the Careers Adviser, so I was her next port of call. "How do I write a resume, miss? I have one, but I don't think it's very good, and I want a better part-time job."
OK. Some quick searching later, and we landed on the Youth Central site from the Victorian government and hit paydirt:
- An outline of what to include in a resume
- A list of sample resumes covering various situations (eg. some work experience/none, finished school/not)
- And here's the sample she's working with - not finished school but some work experience.
She went away happy. I've bunged it on here so it can be useful for others. It's all good.
This site looked useful too: http://www.how-to-write-a-resume.org/
Cheers
Ruth
Sunday, May 8, 2011
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