IMWAYR - First Post in a long time

After a long blog vacation, I am joining in on the blog link-up at Teach Mentor Texts.



And at the recommendation of a librarian friend, I linked to Twitterature with Modern Mrs. Darcy, too.

I haven't posted because.....I got a full-time librarian job at a K-2 school , and WHEW!, life has been wonderful and BUSY. I'll be honest - there wasn't much reading going on for the first 2 weeks except what I was reading aloud to the kids! I'm still running about 15 miles a week, and we've had a home cooked dinner just about every night - thank you, crockpot....and there are just only so many hours in a day!

Also, I changed the name of this little blog. I never really liked the other one - it was just way too generic for me.

Without further ado, here is what I read this weekend:




My library doesn't have the complete set of these, but they are flying off the shelves. I read the first one this weekend. It's a fun graphic novel for the younger grades. The pictures are bright and lively, and the dialogue is snappy. I have the full set on order for the library. I know it will never be checked in.



I also have this set on order for the library. I read the first one quite awhile ago, so this weekend I read the second one. There are b&w pictures on every page, and lots of white space in the text. They are perfect for the very early transitional reader crowd. My own first grader, Henry, loves them. I've ordered him all of them, and he is plowing through them.





This YA novel is definitely not for my little readers. I'm reading this at night before I go to bed. I'm enjoying it, but I'm not completely hooked at this point.

Narrative NonFiction for a Middle School Civil Rights Unit

One day this week, I substituted in a 6th Grade social studies classroom, and they were covering The Baby Boom after WWII, the Civil Rights era, The Cold War, and the creation of NASA. As I was going over the material with them, I thought of several narrative NF titles that would go well with this unit.

I think a selection of these titles would be fabulous to use in Nonfiction Book Circles. Here are some general resources for book circles with specific info for NF Book Circles: http://www.lauracandler.com/strategies/litcirclemodels.php

If I were doing this in my classroom or library, I would do the following (with adjustments made as necessary, of course! That's always my outlook - monitor and adjust!)
-I would start by presenting video book trailers when available. For example:


-I would have them read these books aloud in their groups for at least the first couple of weeks to get into the stories, help each other with vocabulary, etc.
-I would grade based on their preparedness and participation in the literature circles.
-We would divide the book pages equally so that they are all reading to a certain page in their book each week. For example, one group might need to 92 this week while another group might be reading to 99.
-I would have short nonfiction narrative picture books and poetry written about this era to share throughout the unit.
-I would use the Reader's Guides when available to generate discussion questions, and create discussion questions myself when necessary. There is only one book listed here that doesn't have a Reader's Guide!
-I would have the kids contact the authors and see if we could get a response and possibly a Skype session! It's always ok to ask!

Here is my quick list of books that came to mind:




Almost Astronauts by Tanya Lee Stone
Reading Guide available at her website: http://www.tanyastone.com/almost-astronauts.html



Miles to Go For Freedom: Segregation & Civil Rights in the Jim Crow Years by Linda Barrett Osborne



Freedom Walkers: The Story of the Montgomery Bus Boycott by Russell Freedman
Reading Guide from the publisher



Getting Away with Murder: The True Story of the Emmett Till Case by Chris Crowe
Reading Guide by a teacher



Claudette Colvin: Twice Toward Justice by Phillip Hoose
Teacher's Guide from the Publisher



Courage Has No Color: The True Story of the Triple Nickles by Tanya Lee Stone
Reading Guide available on the author's website: http://www.tanyastone.com/courage-has-no-color.html



We've Got a Job: The 1963 Birmingham Children's March by Cynthia Levinson
Many great resources available for teachers and students at the author's website!

Shadow and Bone by Leigh Bardugo

Shadow and Bone by Leigh Bardugo (Book One of The Grisha Trilogy)
The Lone Star Reading List 2013
Which readers? 12 and up
Goodreads rating - 5 stars
Author's website: Leigh Bardugo

This book starts with a beautiful map (drawn by Keith Thompson) that sets the tone for this Russian-esque story. It is not only a lovely drawing, but it is quite helpful in understanding the adventure.



Leigh Bardugo creates a lavish world full of magic, monsters, and good vs. evil in this fantastical tale. Alina is an orphan who has never quite felt like she belonged anywhere. She grew up with another orphan, Mal, and their bond is tested as they both try to make their way in the world. When it is discovered quite by accident during a terrifying attack that Alina has magical powers, she is whisked away to the palace by mysterious and handsome Darkling for her safety and for training....but is The Darkling really her savior? And Alina has not seen Mal since the attack. What has become of him?

I must admit that I am not a huge fantasy reader. Sometimes I can get bogged down in all the strange names and unexpected parameters of these worlds, but I really enjoyed this book. It is not High Fantasy, and Bardugo does an excellent job of making it accessible to a new or reluctant fantasy reader.

This book has richly imagined characters and setting, and there are many fansites and artwork devoted to readers' visions of Ravka and its inhabitants. The triangle created by the relationship between Alina, Mal, and The Darkling provides and abundance of material and possibilities! The next book in this trilogy comes out in June 2013.

Fan Sites/Blog Posts:
This blog has fantastic photos/artwork for what the characters might look like.

Great picture collage on this Tumblr site.

I love this "fauxto" of Alina in her antler collar. You'll have to read the book to understand!

Grisha Fan Site

Leigh Bardugo is in the middle of a Blog Tour, and you can find the dates and blogs here!

The cover of the next book in the trilogy coming out in May:

The False Prince by Jennifer A. Nielsen

The False Prince by Jennifer A. Nielsen
2013 Lone Star Reading List
Which readers? 4th grade and up
My Goodreads rating - 5 Stars

Young Sage is an orphan with a history of thievery and deception who is used to living by his wits when necessary. When he is suddenly forced into a game with three other orphans where he must choose to lie and impersonate a prince or he will die, he has to learn to play the game to his advantage at every possible turn. Not everyone is as they seem, and even the game is not exactly as he has been told.

From the first page, this book grabbed my attention as the plot raced ahead. This book has it all - a tight storyline, friendship, secrets, villains, camaraderie, and even a tiny bit of romance. The ending is absolutely astounding....and that is all I can say without giving a spoiler. I highly recommended this to my fourth grader, and I think kids all the way through middle school will enjoy it.

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I've now read 6 out of the twenty books on the Lone Star list. (Wonder, Cinder, Steve Jobs bio, The Lions of Little Rock, Almost Home, and The False Prince) I'm currently listening to Curveball when I run, and finishing up Shadow and Bone. Reviews to come!

Auggie in the Book Parade

(photo used with permission)

My good friend asked me for a bedtime readaloud recommendation for her 3rd grade daughter, P. I recommended Wonder by Palacio, and of course it was a huge hit. P's school recently had a book parade, and she made herself a paper mache astronaut helmet for her Auggie costume. So cute! Great job!

5.13.13 What I'm (We're) Reading!

Joining in on the Monday reading round-up at Teach Mentor Texts.

It has been a busy week around here with a sick child and crazy work schedules. I have not read as much as I would like! So it goes.



My kindergartener has discovered Bad Kitty books, and so I got as many as I could from the library. These are so funny and make us both laugh out loud. These look like BIG chapter books, but each page is pretty light on text and heavy on pictures. He gets great satisfaction out of being able to read such a thick book.



For our bedtime read-aloud, we've been reading a chapter of Daisy Dawson and The Secret Pond every night. In the first chapter, there is a wasp that brought my 4th grader, Leo, out of his bedroom to listen, too. The wasp says things like "BUZZY-WHAT? BUZZY-WHAT? LIAR-BUZZ! LIAR-BUZZ! LIE!", and I read his parts in a fun little sing-song that had both little boys laughing.



The big hit for Leo this week has been Ender's Game. Todd (dad) recommended this to him, and they have just had great discussions about it. Todd is a huge sci-fi fan, and so he always has great recommendations.



I read Locomotion on the recommendation of a colleague after a discussion of middle grade novels written in free verse. I enjoyed this book and thought Lonnie was a compelling protagonist. I like that Woodson left some ambiguity in his feelings and made him so 3-dimensional.



I started The False Prince yesterday. Since I've finished the Bluebonnet List for this year, I thought I would focus on the Lone Star list a little bit. When I finish this one, I'll have read 5 of the 20 books on that list. So far, this is a great book! I think my Leo will like it.

Video Sharing - the agony and the ecstasy

I've been playing around with a few different ways to create and share videos. Here are my thoughts, victories, frustrations, etc.

Vine

This is a free app that I downloaded to my iphone. It was not available for ipad. Vine allows the user to create 6 second looping videos that are then shared on the Vine app, Facebook, or Twitter. You can also email them to yourself to get a link to embed them on your blog, etc. This app was very fun and easy to use. You can see examples of very creative little videos via the app and at this blog post. This app feels very much like the video head cousin of Instagram.

Here is my simple video tour of our backyard. It is such a beautiful day - I just wanted to go outside! How would this app be used in the classroom or library? Making a short how-to video to go with a how-to paper. Give a tour. Make a stop motion animated book trailer. The possibilities are, of course, endless.

(Click in the box to turn on the movie. You need to click on the little speaker at the top left to hear my amazing commentary, I think.)



iMovie

I downloaded iMovie to my iPad mini and experimented with making a video of our family, just for practice. The app cost $4.99. I made the videos with my iPhone because I just wasn't thinking, and then I needed to get them to my iPad. So, a quick Google search led me to a free app, Simple Transfer, that would let me send my videos between devices via our wireless network. Very simple to use. I added all my videos to iMovie, edited out the little parts that I didn't want, added captions, etc. iMovie was very user friendly and never made me want to pull my hair out. That is a very important rating system. :) Leo (fourth grade) loves to use iMovie.

Next, I uploaded it to YouTube so that I would be able to share it here. The first time I uploaded to YouTube, you could barely hear any of the audio. I went back into the editing screen of iMovie and turned the volume up as high as it would go, and then I uploaded it again. Strangely, Henry's talking at the end was very understandable, but the rest of us were still too quiet. When I checked back on the editing screen, his was the only volume that had stayed at max. So I moved them all to max AGAIN and made sure that they stayed that way. The third time was the charm, and here is my little video.




And, finally, MS Movie Maker.

I took a little class on how to use this software during the TLA convention. When I got home, I discovered that we had an older version of movie maker. I wanted to use the same little clips that I used in the iMovie video above to basically make the same movie and compare the two tools. You will notice that there is no movie shared below. The short story is that I made the video, but I can't get it to share to YouTube without a bunch of hoops, so I have given up for a little while. I will come back to it. Here is the LONG version.

*The video clips were made on IPhones. I had to download a converter to change them from .MOV to .MPEG. I found a free one to use. It installed a bunch of junk on my computer, too! Yay!
*In my little TLA class, I learned to make an animated slide on PowerPoint and then save it as a .wmv. This can be used as the intro/title slide on the movie, and it will have great little animations. Well, I have Power Point 07, and it does not have the capability to save a file as a .wmv. I tried using Google Presentations, but that couldn't do it either. So I decided - ok, no animation. I'll just import the plain ppt title slide. I did, and it worked fine.
*I spent about two hours making the movie, adding captions, a closing credits slide, getting everything edited just right. The editing was not as easy as it is on iMovie.
*When I went to upload it to YouTube, it would not accept it as a .whatever (haha) that came from Movie Maker. It turns out that the newer version of Movie Maker can export it straight to YouTube, but our old version does not. I need to download yet ANOTHER converter to do this, and so I decided I was done with this for awhile.

It was definitely easier on the newer version of Movie Maker that we used in the class, so I will try again when I have access to that. It's a free download, but I think I've had all the technology fun I can stand for today. I like the flexibility that MSMM offers over iMovie, but iMovie definitely does not have quite so steep a learning curve. And, of course, the old software was a big frustration. I should have just uploaded it from the beginning, but I did not realize it was free. I thought it was part of the whole Office suite pkg.

What other movie sharing apps/software/etc. should I experiment with?