From Knowledgeable to Knowledge-Able

Here is an excellent video by Michael Wesch who challenges teachers and librarians by taking a look at the media environment in which our students live.

He says, "This new media environment can be enormously disruptive to our current teaching methods and philosophies. As we increasingly move toward an environment of instant and infinite information, it becomes less important for students to know, memorize, or recall information, and more important for them to be able to find, sort, analyze, share, discuss, critique, and create information. They need to move from being simply knowledgeable to being knowledge-able."

This short piece is worth watching.

http://librariesandtransliteracy.wordpress.com/2011/03/11/knowledgeable-to-knowledge-able/

Keeping Our Kids Reading

Arapahoe Library District has Summer Reading Programs for Children, Teens and Babies again this June and July. The theme for Kids is One World, Many Stories and for Teens it is You Are Here
The fun and incentives begin on Saturday, June 4 and continue for two months with events and prizes for completion.
Visits to many Littleton, Cherry Creek and Sheridan schools have already been arranged for May and early June in order to promote participation by the children and their families.
Information in the libraries and on the website
www.arapahoelibraries.org will tell everyone about the summer events and there will also be registration for the reading program on line.
Urge your students to go to their neighborhood library and find out what great things can be found there!

You Are Invited to Attend

District IV Community Conversation Saturday, April 9th 1 pm - 3 pm Carson Nature Center, Solar Classroom Spice. A synthetic form of marijuana sold as an "all natural" incense. No age limit to purchase. Inexpensive. Readily available on line and at many retailers throughout the metro area. Yes, it's here. It's in our schools, it's in our community. Dear Neighbors, On Saturday, April 9th my District IV Community Conversation will focus on an issue that can be difficult to talk about; drugs. Specifically the new drugs that are entering the market so fast that it is near impossible to keep up. Spice - a synthetic form of marijuana is sold as an all natural incense. The label reads, not for human consumption, but it is. It's specifically intended to be smoked or eaten in order to get high - that's why it's sold next to bongs, pipes and other drug paraphernalia. The DEA has put it on the illegal drug list for a year while they figure out how to deal with it. There is state legislation being introduced to make it illegal in Colorado. Retailers in Littleton are in violation of their city sales tax license agreement if they violate any Federal law. There were five retailers in Littleton selling Spice. They have since taken it off their shelves when we told them it goes or they go. Spice has been found in Littleton middle schools and high schools. Throughout the metro area hospitals are seeing more admissions in the ER from Spice and its derivatives. This is not a drug to ignore. And, yes, I believe it is a drug and not "incense". Along with Spice there are other synthetic drugs entering the market place. A product referred to as bath salts is a synthetic form of cocaine that acts as both an amphetamine and hallucinogenic. What's a hookah bar? Did you know we have one in Littleton? I found it's hours of operation interesting; most nights open 7 pm - late and on Friday and Saturday the hours are posted as 7 pm - very late. This meeting is intended to provide information and answer your questions - not scare you. Information is power. We all need to know what is going on and what is being done and what we can do. I have invited LPS administrators, drug counselors, legal experts, code enforcement and law enforcement to the meeting (see complete invitee list below) to share their experiences, advice and expertise. I encourage you to join us for this very important meeting. Bring a friend and/or neighbor. Everyone is welcome.

Debbie Brinkman City Council District IV Mayor Pro Tem 303-797-3427

Guests who have been invited to share their expertise:

Scott Murphy Superintendent Littleton Public Schools
Lucinda Hundley Asst. Superintendent LPS, Student Support Services
Ken Moritz Principal, Heritage High School
Don Begier Principal, Littleton High School
Steve Wolf Principal, Powell Middle School
Kathleen Ambron Principal, Goddard Middle School Gary Hein Principal, Euclid Middle School Kay Wilmesher Director, Greater Littleton Youth Initiative
Mark Barons Neighborhood Resource Coord, City of Littleton Code Enforcement
Suzanne Staiert City Attorney, City of Littleton
Heather Coogan Chief of Police, City of Littleton
Youth Counselor Arapahoe/Douglas County Mental Health

I hope they will all be able to make the meeting and join the discussion.

Knock Poetry Off the Pedestal!

That is the title of an article in the April 2010 School Library Journal in which Marilyn Singer asks a variety of outstanding poets who write for kids to suggest ways to spread the good word that poetyr is playful, diverse, private, social, and perfect for everyday use. Nineteen poets offer fun ideas, but all gree that kids have to hear it in order to enjoy it!
http://www.schoollibraryjournal.com/article/CA6724230.html

Here are just a few amazing books filled with poems and illustrations kids will like:

Mirror Mirror: A Book of Reversible Verse by Marilyn Singer
Guyku: A Year of Haiku for Boys by Bob Raczka
Wonderful Words by Lee Bennett Hopkins
Pocket Poems by Bobbi Katz
Splish Splash by Joan Graham
Canto Familiar by Gary DeSoto
Dinosaur Dances by Jane Yolen

Thank You, Littleton Public School Media Council!

November 9 the Littleton Public School Media Council met at Southglenn Library and gave Arapahoe Library District Youth Librarians the opportunity to show what services our public library has that will help the public schools and public libraries work together to benefit students.

I so appreciate Jennifer Colmanaro and Sally Tejan, Council Chairwomen for contacting me as we in the libraries are always eager to communicate with media specialists and teachers who are also trying to show kids how to access information and find pleasure in reading.

Following up on a conversation yesterday afternoon, you may want to read the SLJ article telling how Pennsylvania School Library Association helped to get the Pennsylvania House of Representatives to ask the State Board of Education and Pennsylvania Department of Education to conduct an in-depth study on the status of media centers across 500 Pennsylvania K-12 districts. They hope to uncover how many schools have lost their librarians and libraries, and if the students have been negatively impacted by it.
http://www.schoollibraryjournal.com/slj/home/887243312/pa_passes_historic_resolution_to.html.csp

International Children's Digital Library

Do you already know about this website that provides books for kids in many different languages? It has an endless number of choices of books kids will enjoy reading.

http://childrenslibrary.org/

You can search by age: 3-5, 6-9, 10-13. You can search for picture books or chapter books. You can search by genre: kid characters, make believe, true, real animals, etc. You can even search by color of the cover! You'll find books in English, Spanish, Farsi, Mongolian, Serbian, French and more. Give it a look. I think you will be amazed!

The Arapahoe libraries also have a new database for learning languages. It is called BYKI which stands for "Before You Know It" You can find it on our website http://www.arapahoelibraries.org/
by choosing Research and Business and looking alphabetically among all the databases. If you wish, once you enroll you can keep coming back to pick up your learning where you left off.

Kids and Family Reading Report from Scholastic

We who work closely with children will be interested in this 2010 survey which examines family attitudes and behaviors towards reading books for fun in the digital age.

Briefly some results show:

• Parents believe the use of electronic or digital devices negatively affects the time kids spend reading books (41%), doing physical activity (40%), and engaging with family (33%).

• From age 6 through age 17, the time kids spend reading declines while the time kids spend going online for fun and using a cell phone to text or talk increases.

• While only 25% of kids have read a book on a digital device (including computers), many more (57% of kids age 9-17) are interested in doing so.

• When asked about the most important outcome of reading books for fun, children age 9–17 say it is to: open up the imagination (43%), be inspired (36%), and to a lesser degree, to gain new information (21%).

Check it out at the link below.
http://mediaroom.scholastic.com/themes/bare_bones/2010_KFRR.pdf