NH Representative Paul Hodes Reads at my library!
technorati tags:essay_contest
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Monday, November 19, 2007
We are in good hands
NH Representative Paul Hodes Reads at my library!
Sunday, November 18, 2007
Strasser, Todd. Can't Get There From Here
Today's podcast is for Todd Strasser's book Can't Get There From Here
I had planned to record some podcasts today to get me through the week. Unfortunately, I have a terrible case of laryngitis and sound horrible. Believe me, no one wants to listen to me like this. I was complaining to my daughter that I had trouble getting anyone to help me in the electronics store yesterday. Acutally, it makes sense that no one wanted to be near me!! But, here is the last pre-laryngitis podcast I have prepared.
Strasser, Todd.
CAN'T GET THERE FROM HERE
New York : Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers, 2004.
Why don't you just go home? Can't. Mother's new husband is still there. Can't. Mother threw me out. Can't. Don't want to talk about it. Can't get there from here. So here they are. Street kids. Trying to take care of each other when they can't even take care of themselves. They are cold, dirty, hungry and hopeless. Society doesn't care about them. They are throw away kids. But you will care about them by the end of this book. Get to know Maybe and Tears and Rainbow and Jewel and the others as they form a tribe and try to survive on the streets of New York City.
Podcast: http://www.nancykeane.com/booktalks/mp3/strasser_can't.mp3
technorati tags:strasser, podcast
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Saturday, November 17, 2007
ATN Reading Lists
Recent changes/additions to ATN Reading Lists wiki. Check out all the pages at:
http://atn-reading-lists.wikispaces.com/space/changes
technorati tags:atn_readinglists, reading_lists
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Friday, November 16, 2007
Jordan as art
Created with dumpr.net - fun with your photos
This is a really fun application. Just upload a photo and choose a background! Here's my grandson Jordan looking down as a work of art. He just doesn't look happy! I'll have to let him out of the picture!
Of 6th graders and bibliophiles
I got to work with 6th graders on Tuesday. It wasn't on a research assignment as I usually do. This was for their reading projects. This is a great group of kids. They come to the library every Monday to pick out books, read magazine, and just to be in the library. We don't have "library time" in our school but these kids and their teacher have decided that they want to have a regular time. This week we had no school on Monday so they missed their time. But on Tuesday, I went to them with lots of ideas about projects they can do for their grade. We looked at PhotoStory, VoiceThread, Animoto, videos, podcasts, vodcasts and even our old reliable PowerPoint. There was so much energy and enthusiasm in the room. The kids signed up for lots of projects and I'm looking forward to working with them during the rest of the year.
technorati tags:6th_grade, book_projects
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Tuesday, November 13, 2007
Blog Readability
Who have guessed? I took the blog readability test and I guess I must use some big words because it came out:
Does that mean I use a whole bunch of fancy words? Well, golly whompers!
technorati tags:readability
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Saturday, November 10, 2007
A new booktalking tool?
I’m not really sure if I will use this in booktalking, but VozMe beta is a lot of fun. This is a tool that converts text into audio. Just drop in some text, click a button and, viola, you have an mp3 file. The voice is rather robotic so it may be fun to use for booktalks about robot books.
I've used VozMe to convert my booktalk for Robot Santa
http://www.nancykeane.com/santa.mp3
What do you think?
technorati tags:vozme, mp3_converter
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Thursday, November 08, 2007
Sunday, November 04, 2007
Ghost Girl by Ray
Today's podcast is for Ghost girl by Ray
http://www.nancykeane.com/booktalks/mp3/ray_ghost.mp3
I'm also working on a pathfinder for one of the teachers at school. The lesson is on cryptids and other mysteries. It's been a lot of fun tracking down websites about the Jersey devil and other assorted beasties. I can't wait to see what the kids do for their projects. They have a menu to choose from and having seen some of these kids in action, I am sure it will be great.
The tech ed teacher and I just had the kids doing wikis. It was one of those unfortunate scheduling problems that I had to supervise a study hall during the class so couldn't work with the kids. The teacher gave them the assignment the day before the lesson was to begin. He told them what the pages would be and gave them the rubric. He had expected to start lessons the next day. But, several of the kids went home after they were told about the assignment and created their own wikis without instruction. And they in turn taught mini-lessons to the other kids. This is what it's all about folks. These kids were so enthusiastic about the project that the teacher repeated it with his other classes. If we do it again with an academic class, there needs to be a bit more structure but the tech ed class was dealing more with the technology.
The 8th grade general music classes created their decades radio shows during October. Some were so good that we have decided to post them on our school podcast. I'm just waiting for the files to be digitized and away we go.
I just love all the excitement over the web 2.0 applications. It harkens back to 1995 when we first introduced the kids to the Internet, Powerpoint, Word and other computer technology that was so new to them. It's great to feel charged up again.!
technorati tags:ray, ghostgirl, podcasts, wikis, studentlearning
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Saturday, November 03, 2007
Fishbone, Gregory R. THE PENGUINS OF DOOM
Fishbone, Gregory R.
THE PENGUINS OF DOOM : FROM THE DESK OF SEPTINA NASH
Austin : Blooming Tree, 2007
IL 3-6
ISBN 1933831030
THE PENGUINS OF DOOM : FROM THE DESK OF SEPTINA NASH
Austin : Blooming Tree, 2007
IL 3-6
ISBN 1933831030
Meet Septina Nash. I bet you have never met anyone like her. She is the 7th child of a 7th child which makes her rather special. She also has purple hair. Now that is what you would probably notice if she were in you class! And now Septina has something very special to do. She is helping the police find her sister! Yes, her sister Sexta, has gone missing. Has she run away or has something sinister happened to her? Through it all, we meet many unusual characters from Septima's mother -- the famous skateboarder who makes a living selling lottery tickets -- to the dreaded Dr. Fignizzi, Septina's mortal enemy. Where is Sexta? And who are the Penguins of Doom?
Podcast: http://www.nancykeane.com/booktalks/mp3/fishbone_penguins.mp3
technorati tags:fishbone, penguins
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Sunday, October 28, 2007
Robert's Snow
Robert's Snow for Cancer's cure
Own a piece of art from your favorite children's book illustrator while helping to fight cancer. Participate in Robert's Snow: for Cancer's Cure, a unique fundraiser for cancer research. Since 2004, this online auction has raised over $200,000 for Dana-Farber, and with your help, we can continue this holiday tradition in 2007.
"Robert's Snow" is a children's story about a mouse not allowed in the snow. Children's book illustrator Grace Lin wrote the book, which was inspired by her husband Robert's battle with Ewing's sarcoma. After the book was published, Grace gathered artists from all over the children's book illustrating community to create special snowflakes to be auctioned off, with the proceeds benefiting sarcoma research at Dana-Farber. These snowflake auctions became known as the event "Robert's Snow."
technorati tags:Robert's_snow, jimmyfund
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Sunday, October 21, 2007
NESCBWI Writing Workshop
Yesterday, I had the great fortune of attending the NESCBWI Encore workshop. These were repeat workshops that had been presented at the spring conference but there was so much going on, I didn't get to these. I was thrilled when I got the message about the repeats. Mark Peter Hughes, John Bell and Sue Burgess presented at the Encore Workshop in Salem, NH
And what a day it was I went away inspired and feeling energized. I grabbed my little tape recorder and dictated all the way home!! Thanks especially to John who listened to my little germ of an idea and helped me flesh it out. John, I think I got those holes filled in on the way home. Now it's off to the computer to get it all down.
technorati tags:nescbwi, workshops
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Saturday, October 13, 2007
Iowa Library Conference
I just returned from the Iowa Library Conference. What a great conference! I'm sorry that I couldn't attend the whole thing. I heard it was quite something. And very well attended -- over 950 attendees. What a success!
I arrived late Thursday so missed the live band and the dancing. But I had the pleasure of riding in from the airport with Steve Abrams. He is always so fascinating to listen to. He was key note on Friday as well. I have heard him speak before, but he always gets me thinking about what I am doing and why I am doing it. I came away with some new ideas as always.
I spoke at two consecutive break out sessions so didn't get to hear any other speakers. The luncheon speaker was Jeffrey Kluger who spoke about his new book "Splendid Solution". Fascinating.
The ride back to the airport was highlighted by Loriene Roy, President of ALA, sharing her "Male Librarians of Texas" calendar with me. What a great idea for a fund raiser. And those guys are really good sports!
Thanks to the Iowa Library Association for the invitation and thanks to all the wonderful librarians I had the chance to meet. It was a great time.
technorati tags:iowa, conferences
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Monday, October 08, 2007
Booktalks update
I have loaded the October update of Bootalks Quick and Simple. No, your eyes don't deceive you. There was no September update. I have been so busy, I have had no time to read very much let alone update the website. I have finally finished my BER handbook and put together the finishing touches of some new workshops I'm doing this fall. I've also finished writing the booktalking course for YALSA. I got it uploaded just in time for the course to begin on Monday. I still have to get back to work on the new book but I'm feeling a bit less pressure right now. I am speaking at the Iowa conference this Friday but then I have no more workshops to do until December.
But things outside of library land have continued to go crazy. Yesterday, a tree fell on my son's new car. He had totaled his car last month and we just got a new to him replacement. It now has no back window. I have complained to the city about this tree and they even came out to look at it last week but said it didn't need to come down. In the past year, one branch fell into the road, another fell into our driveway -- fortunately no cars were there. But we weren't so lucky yesterday. I have no idea what will happen. It is a city tree so hopefully they will pay for the window. It just missed a man walking his dog.
Well, so much for my long weekend of doing nothing but catching up on my reading.
technorati tags:booktalks, October
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Thursday, September 27, 2007
Readergirlz hosts 31 authors
This sounds so cool. Check this out at http://groups.myspace.com/readergirlz
Don't miss the fun. Come join the readergirlz group forum and get ready to chat!
Week One
1. Meg Cabot 2. Tiffany Trent 3. Brent Hartinger 4. Lorie Ann Grover 5. K.L. Going 6. Nikki Grimes
Week Two
7. Ellen Hopkins 8. Justina Chen Headley 9. Chris Crutcher 10. Ann Brashares 11. Sarah Mlynowski 12. Cecil Castellucci 13. Kirby Larson
Week Three
14. Tanya Lee Stone 15. John Green 16. Sara Zarr 17. Deb Caletti 18. Rachel Cohn 19. Kirsten Miller 20. Mitali Perkins
Week Four
21. Sonya Sones 22. Lisa Yee 23. Carolyn Mackler 24. E. Lockhart 25. Janet Lee Carey 26. Gaby Triana 27. Lauren Myracle
Week Five
28. Holly Black 29. Cynthia Leitich Smith 30. Dia Calhoun 31. Stephenie Meyer (Her chat is at Midnight, Eastern, on Halloween!)
Readergirlz has joined YALSA to celebrate Teen Read Week. At the readergirlz group forum we will be hosting 31 of the top YA authors of today. Each night of October at 5 Pacific and 8 Eastern, we will be chatting on a thread with a different fabulous author: Meg Cabot, Stephenie Meyer, John Green, Ann Brashares, and 27 more! See the full schedule and print the poster at www.readergirlz.com
Don't miss the fun. Come join the readergirlz group forum and get ready to chat!
Week One
1. Meg Cabot 2. Tiffany Trent 3. Brent Hartinger 4. Lorie Ann Grover 5. K.L. Going 6. Nikki Grimes
Week Two
7. Ellen Hopkins 8. Justina Chen Headley 9. Chris Crutcher 10. Ann Brashares 11. Sarah Mlynowski 12. Cecil Castellucci 13. Kirby Larson
Week Three
14. Tanya Lee Stone 15. John Green 16. Sara Zarr 17. Deb Caletti 18. Rachel Cohn 19. Kirsten Miller 20. Mitali Perkins
Week Four
21. Sonya Sones 22. Lisa Yee 23. Carolyn Mackler 24. E. Lockhart 25. Janet Lee Carey 26. Gaby Triana 27. Lauren Myracle
Week Five
28. Holly Black 29. Cynthia Leitich Smith 30. Dia Calhoun 31. Stephenie Meyer (Her chat is at Midnight, Eastern, on Halloween!)
technorati tags:readergirlz, ya_authors
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Sunday, September 16, 2007
Leaving Colorado
Today we spend our last day in Denver and head home to New Hampshire. We arrived on Thursday night very late. We drove up to Fort Collins and checked into the hotel and fell into bed. Between the time change and the fact that we had been traveling for so long, we were exhausted.
Friday I spent in Cheyenne, Wyoming at the Wyoming Library Conference. What a great bunch of people. My afternoon program was shortened due to the luncheon program going over. But if you had the chance to hear Will Hobbs, you wouldn't complain about it running long either. I did feel a bit badly for those who attended my programs. I had to shorten both of them to get them into the time left. But I hope it went ok.
My son spent Friday at Colorado State University. He's thinking of transferring there. He took the tour and spent the day on campus while I was at the conference. He was very impressed.
We spent Friday night and Saturday morning in Fort Collins before climbing back into the rental to head to Denver.
Oh yea, they didn't have the small car I had requested so I am driving a huge van. I have never driven a huge van. I do not like driving a huge van. Nor do I like driving in cities. But, I decided that I had to be the grown-up and drive in Denver I did. We spent yesterday exploring the city as much as we could in the time we had. This morning we are heading off to the zoo. I was surprised when my big college age son asked if we could go. I certainly and not saying no.
We'll spend the morning at the zoo and then head off to find the car rental place to get rid of this van. I'll be happy to get into my little Hyundai again. And then it's off to the airport for a flight to Chicago. A two and a half hour layover in Chicago and then home to New Hampshire. We should be home by 12:30 am and hope to get a few hours of sleep before school tomorrow.
I have been loading podcasts while I'm in Colorado. I can't believe there was a time when you couldn't get access while on the road. Thank goodness things have changed.
technorati tags:Colorado, Wyoming
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