In preparation for this afternoon (last day of term 2), I put this list together:
Wiggle and swim
Robot
Line up - wavy arms
Walk
Sideways shuffle
Kissy hands
Stop hands
Train whistle
Wiggle
Rock climb
Walk
Slow wiggle
Guns
Thump floor
Punch down
Flap arms
Crocodile claps
Line up and link arms
Step forward
Final pose!
And no, nobody at teachers' college EVER told us about preparing lists like this. It's a choreography list. And before you ask, as a dancer I am a FABULOUS teacher librarian.
We have a concert on the last afternoon of term 2; performances from students and staff. It's the finale to Spirit Week, when there are special events on each day as well as dress themes, and the kids are fundraising for charity. So this week I have done my poor best to garb with bling, rock and roll, ninjas or pirates, and horror. The kids have done a great job (my fave was the kid in jeans and a hoodie on the pirates or ninjas day. I'm a software pirate, he said. That's clever!) and enjoyed themselves.
If you look at this video, and imagine gaffer-taped stuffed animals, costumes made up of salad-cover headwear, shower-curtain dresses and headwear, balloons stapled to a garbage bag dress and, oh, a bunch more invention-of-the-moment Gaga costumery - well, you have a flavour of the part of this afternoon in which I was involved (together with one of the two faculties who did a faculty performance).
(Link: http://youtu.be/Z_bRDeY89A4 )
We finally rehearsed at lunchtime, minutes before.... we did have a colleague holding up cue cards from that list, which helped. The students liked it, anyway!
I showed the choreography list to the dance teacher a couple of days ago. She was very very polite; but the slight widening of her eyes was a giveaway. Guess I haven't nailed the terminology yet....!! (but you know, it was clear enough for my equally non-dance expert colleagues, so that's what matters!)
The happy life of teacher librarians: so you think you can dance? (No. Entertain? More probable.)
It was fun. And now it's hols. YAY!
Enjoy your break, if you're having one. See you back here next term.
Cheers
Ruth
PS The longer I teach, the more I realise about how many things they didn't tell us/teach us about in teachers' college. Garbage bag/balloon couture, for example.
PPS I discovered how to date myself instantly among younger teaching colleagues. Use the term "teachers' college".
Thursday, June 30, 2011
Monday, June 27, 2011
A new film of Romeo & Juliet
I'm researching Romeo & Juliet trailers and video bits for a lesson (will share 'em later - found some Amazing Stuff!) and tripped over mention of a new film. I still think Baz Luhrmann's 1996 Romeo + Juliet is fabulous, but this one looks interesting too. Cast includes True Grit's Hailee Steinfeld as Juliet
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and Douglas Booth (who was in Pillars of the Earth) as Romeo - both young, but probably close to the given ages in Shakespeare's play.
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Benvolio is played by young Australian actor Kodi Smit-McPhee, from Romulus my Father, Let Me In, The Road.
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Release date is given as 2012, so don't hold your breath, and the script is by Julian Fellowes (Gosford Park, Downton Abbey). Director is Carlo Carlei.
More at IMDB here: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1645131/
Cheers
Ruth
PS. Luhrmann's film is 16 years old now? Yikes!
and Douglas Booth (who was in Pillars of the Earth) as Romeo - both young, but probably close to the given ages in Shakespeare's play.
Benvolio is played by young Australian actor Kodi Smit-McPhee, from Romulus my Father, Let Me In, The Road.
Release date is given as 2012, so don't hold your breath, and the script is by Julian Fellowes (Gosford Park, Downton Abbey). Director is Carlo Carlei.
More at IMDB here: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1645131/
Cheers
Ruth
PS. Luhrmann's film is 16 years old now? Yikes!
Photos from their respective IMDB profile pages
Sunday, June 26, 2011
The happy life of teacher librarians: the late note
The scene: a school library. Busyish lunchtime over, a few students in the library on study periods etc.
Polite young Year 7 boy clutching a novel: Miss?
Yup?
Miss, can I please have a late note?
Um, for what?
To get into class...
(I check the time: it's 25 minutes AFTER the end of lunch bell)
Lunch finished quite some time ago.
I know.
So...
So I was reading in one of the seats upstairs Miss, and I didn't hear the bell.
He looks sorta apologetic, and rueful, and what the heck? Isn't it great to know he was so comfy and happy (in the seats we have scrounged and recovered and set into a reading layout) and had so disappeared into the world of a book that the world beyond didn't register? Yup. It is. A lovely compliment to the library. He got his late note (with a cheerful explanation for the teacher). Not that it would be good to be writing them every day, but he was genuine and it was a delightful moment.
The happy life of teacher librarians: best late note ever?
Cheers
Ruth
Polite young Year 7 boy clutching a novel: Miss?
Yup?
Miss, can I please have a late note?
Um, for what?
To get into class...
(I check the time: it's 25 minutes AFTER the end of lunch bell)
Lunch finished quite some time ago.
I know.
So...
So I was reading in one of the seats upstairs Miss, and I didn't hear the bell.
He looks sorta apologetic, and rueful, and what the heck? Isn't it great to know he was so comfy and happy (in the seats we have scrounged and recovered and set into a reading layout) and had so disappeared into the world of a book that the world beyond didn't register? Yup. It is. A lovely compliment to the library. He got his late note (with a cheerful explanation for the teacher). Not that it would be good to be writing them every day, but he was genuine and it was a delightful moment.
The happy life of teacher librarians: best late note ever?
Cheers
Ruth
Must See: "Prey" (2010 movie)
PREY (2010)
Talk about a super cool movie. I'm more of an animal rights person than a hunter but when the men in this family go shooting for wild hogs, gone even wilder thanks to chemicals used as fertilizer, I was glued to the screen and found myself wishing I was part of the hunting party. That is until the dog and then humans started to die.
Yes this is a foreign film and you must read subtitles to understand what's really going on but you will utterly and completely love "Prey." It's scary and creepy and full of gore and it's all rolled up into one hour and nineteen fascinating minutes of horrifying pleasure.
Prey tells the story of Nathan (Gregoire Colin) who is soon to be a father but his father in-law is so horribly cruel and wants his daughter to have an abortion simply to continue working in the family business. You'll completely love to loathe that despicable man. I cannot say more without spoiling the movie ... but trust me when I say this is one you definitely wanna watch.
Director: Antoine Blossier
Writers: Antoine Blossier (screenplay), Erich Vogel (screenplay)
Stars: Bérénice Bejo and Grégoire Colin to name only two.
Talk about a super cool movie. I'm more of an animal rights person than a hunter but when the men in this family go shooting for wild hogs, gone even wilder thanks to chemicals used as fertilizer, I was glued to the screen and found myself wishing I was part of the hunting party. That is until the dog and then humans started to die.
Yes this is a foreign film and you must read subtitles to understand what's really going on but you will utterly and completely love "Prey." It's scary and creepy and full of gore and it's all rolled up into one hour and nineteen fascinating minutes of horrifying pleasure.
Prey tells the story of Nathan (Gregoire Colin) who is soon to be a father but his father in-law is so horribly cruel and wants his daughter to have an abortion simply to continue working in the family business. You'll completely love to loathe that despicable man. I cannot say more without spoiling the movie ... but trust me when I say this is one you definitely wanna watch.
Director: Antoine Blossier
Writers: Antoine Blossier (screenplay), Erich Vogel (screenplay)
Stars: Bérénice Bejo and Grégoire Colin to name only two.
Friday, June 24, 2011
Quirky Book Week: It's a Book
Today's book is a book (which I can also share with you via a video) about books.
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Books remain wonderful bits of technology. The day after I bought Press Here and All My Friends are Dead (Quirky Books blogged about earlier this week), was a Friday. Staff morning tea at recess. I brought them with me and slid them like contraband to this person and that. Just try it. Go on. It's funny. And they did. PE teachers and Art teachers and History teachers and English teachers and more. Not just people with a practical teaching need for a quirky fun picture book, but colleagues and friends who would enjoy the fun of them, their gift of laughter. I didn't need a screen or a battery or a lead. Just the books. Which is kinda the point of Lane Smith's book.
Here's a book trailer that covers the whole book, pretty much, and will give you a good flavour of it.
And here's the link, if that doesn't work:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x4BK_2VULCU
For all the things books don't do, there is so much that they do so well.
One thing is share laughter, provide a shared experience. That's what Quirky Books can offer, and how they can add value and fun to your library, as they do here. I've already blogged about books with legs: http://skerricks.blogspot.com/2011/06/happy-life-of-teacher-librarians-books.html and they certainly qualify as Quirky Books too.
The wonderful local independent bookshop I mentioned yesterday was the one that got me onto this book, so props to them (after I bagged them yesterday!).
Hope you've enjoyed these five Quirky Books, and I hope to learn about more candidates from your comments - do leave one!
Cheers
Ruth
Books remain wonderful bits of technology. The day after I bought Press Here and All My Friends are Dead (Quirky Books blogged about earlier this week), was a Friday. Staff morning tea at recess. I brought them with me and slid them like contraband to this person and that. Just try it. Go on. It's funny. And they did. PE teachers and Art teachers and History teachers and English teachers and more. Not just people with a practical teaching need for a quirky fun picture book, but colleagues and friends who would enjoy the fun of them, their gift of laughter. I didn't need a screen or a battery or a lead. Just the books. Which is kinda the point of Lane Smith's book.
Here's a book trailer that covers the whole book, pretty much, and will give you a good flavour of it.
And here's the link, if that doesn't work:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x4BK_2VULCU
For all the things books don't do, there is so much that they do so well.
One thing is share laughter, provide a shared experience. That's what Quirky Books can offer, and how they can add value and fun to your library, as they do here. I've already blogged about books with legs: http://skerricks.blogspot.com/2011/06/happy-life-of-teacher-librarians-books.html and they certainly qualify as Quirky Books too.
The wonderful local independent bookshop I mentioned yesterday was the one that got me onto this book, so props to them (after I bagged them yesterday!).
Hope you've enjoyed these five Quirky Books, and I hope to learn about more candidates from your comments - do leave one!
Cheers
Ruth
Wednesday, June 22, 2011
Quirky Book Week: Press Here
Today's Quirky Book is deceptively simple. You will probably say, I could have thought of that. But you didn't. Nor (dangit!) did I. But hurrah and hurray that Herve Tullet did.
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But what happens when you open the book and press the yellow dot?
This, for starters:
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What's not to like about a book that draws a crowd?
The Amazon.com page for this book has some pictures from inside. It also has a link so you can create this minibook version (only a few of the many fun pages in the complete book, but enough to show you how it works).
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On one of the pages, the instruction is to clap to make something change in the book. I can track the progress and location of this book around the library by the clapping...
Another one to make the library a fun place for happy discoveries.
My wonderful local independent bookshop and I disagree on this book. I'm enormously amused (and so are the people at school, kids and teachers, with whom I share it). The normally smart bookshop folk say, 'meh'. So it's lovely and gorgeous to have people say to me, Where did you get it? and I can direct traffic to the wonderful local bookshop, adding that I hope the buyer will let the bookshop know that Ruth showed them this book.... 'meh' my Aunt Fanny!
I learned about this book from friends who had learned about it from the Children's Bookshop in Beecroft NSW: Paul McDonald from there always has good recommendations (as does my wonderful local independent bookshop; just on this book, they're wrong and I'm right!!).
Tomorrow, another favourite Quirky Book. Have you enjoyed them this week? Do leave a comment with your own favourite Quirky Books!
Cheers
Ruth
This, for starters:
The Amazon.com page for this book has some pictures from inside. It also has a link so you can create this minibook version (only a few of the many fun pages in the complete book, but enough to show you how it works).
On one of the pages, the instruction is to clap to make something change in the book. I can track the progress and location of this book around the library by the clapping...
Another one to make the library a fun place for happy discoveries.
My wonderful local independent bookshop and I disagree on this book. I'm enormously amused (and so are the people at school, kids and teachers, with whom I share it). The normally smart bookshop folk say, 'meh'. So it's lovely and gorgeous to have people say to me, Where did you get it? and I can direct traffic to the wonderful local bookshop, adding that I hope the buyer will let the bookshop know that Ruth showed them this book.... 'meh' my Aunt Fanny!
I learned about this book from friends who had learned about it from the Children's Bookshop in Beecroft NSW: Paul McDonald from there always has good recommendations (as does my wonderful local independent bookshop; just on this book, they're wrong and I'm right!!).
Tomorrow, another favourite Quirky Book. Have you enjoyed them this week? Do leave a comment with your own favourite Quirky Books!
Cheers
Ruth
Tuesday, June 21, 2011
Quirky Book Week: Cherise the Niece
After yesterday's sweet little girl, today you can meet Cherise:
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A sweet wee thing. Well, kinda. I was going to do a blog entry about books with n@ughty little girls, until I considered what search engines and their bots might do with that particular concept...
On the Amazon.com page for this book, you can take a look inside. You can also buy a Kindle ebook edition, and download the first chapter free. The product description on Amazon says:
The bloody footprints leading out of Cherise’s bedroom are the first clue that perhaps the little darling with the bow in her hair is not an angel. As Cherise is shuttled from one aunt’s home to another, her aunts vanish, meeting inventive and hysterical ends. With a killer punch line on its final page, Jim Benton’s Cherise the Niece will leave readers laughing.
I myself feel that it's important to let you know that there is a note at the beginning of the book advising that no aunts were harmed in its making...
Definitely black humour; if you're not in a high school, maybe one to read before adding to the collection.
But fun? Heck yes! It's caused lots of chuckling in our library.
Tomorrow's Quirky Book is one of my favourites.
Cheers
Ruth
Image from www.bookdepository.com
On the Amazon.com page for this book, you can take a look inside. You can also buy a Kindle ebook edition, and download the first chapter free. The product description on Amazon says:
The bloody footprints leading out of Cherise’s bedroom are the first clue that perhaps the little darling with the bow in her hair is not an angel. As Cherise is shuttled from one aunt’s home to another, her aunts vanish, meeting inventive and hysterical ends. With a killer punch line on its final page, Jim Benton’s Cherise the Niece will leave readers laughing.
I myself feel that it's important to let you know that there is a note at the beginning of the book advising that no aunts were harmed in its making...
Definitely black humour; if you're not in a high school, maybe one to read before adding to the collection.
But fun? Heck yes! It's caused lots of chuckling in our library.
Tomorrow's Quirky Book is one of my favourites.
Cheers
Ruth
Image from www.bookdepository.com
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