Tuesday, October 26, 2010

Cash for Clunkers

Hi, Everyone,
I had intended to let you know again about the Cash for Clunkers program from Enslow Publishers. However, most of the Upper Columbia Conference teachers may have already received this information. No worries. It is still a good deal. Enslow will give a 45% discount on an order of 10 books when you weed out 5 old books. The process is listed below. I did this last year and got some great new books to help replace a few old weeded ones. Start thinking about this soon, because the offer is only good through December 31, 2010. Feel free to forward this information or email to any educator friends or librarians you know.

Let me know if you need any help choosing your new books. I LOVE spending other people’s money!

Have a great week.
Audrey
Sdalibrarian.blogspot.com

(information included in original email)

Cyber Safety

This week I’m focusing on cyber safety or being safe online. This is good information for all people, young or old. Sometimes we think that our children already know how to be safe since they are part of the technology generation. But children are often too trusting and tend to believe everything they see on the internet.

We need to educate our students (and probably their parents, too) in online safety. A few years ago someone contacted me asking for information about keeping children safe online. She was writing an article for Women of Spirit magazine. I sent her these basic guidelines.

1. Computers should NEVER be in a child's room or any room that is not supervised at all times. Put the computer in the kitchen or family room where lots of traffic will be. Do not leave children at a computer unattended. Children can access objectionable sites in seconds. Monitor what sites children are accessing and check the history.

2. Invest in good filtering software and set parent controls with a password. If parents don't know how to do this, ask or pay someone who does know how to teach you. Change the password regularly. You can even set up accounts on the computer so children cannot get on the computer unless you type in the password.

3. Set your internet to open to a child-friendly site such as kids.yahoo.com. (This used to be called Yahooligans) You can also customize Yahoo or another browser to look the way you want and avoid certain sites.

4. Teach your child to not give out any personal information. Teach them what "personal information" is. Continue to reinforce this. Many parents think that if they told their child once, that is enough. Quiz them in the car, anywhere. "If someone asks you for your
address, is that personal information?"

5. Instead of using real names, use a computer code name. Make it simple and not suggestive. Don't use something like "prettygirl", "cuteasabutton", or names like that.

If you type in ‘online safety’ or other search terms like that you will come across many sites that will give you some good information. Here are three that you might check out.

http://www.ou.edu/oupd/kidtool.htm
http://www.safekids.com/
http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2272549,00.asp
Cyber bullying is yet another problem that could be a problem at your school. Most states have laws against bullying and more states are including cyber bullying in their law. Check out the laws in your state to see what the consequences of this can be.
Most students just aren’t aware of how dangerous it can be online. We don’t need to frighten them, but to teach them how to search the internet and what kind of information not to post. Facebook and Twitter and other social networking sites have our kids on them even though they may be underage. Parents are allowing their children to have their own Facebook page and may not be monitoring them.
Now you’re wondering if I know of any books to use to teach this information. The answer is ‘Yes’. In fact, I have a very good set of books that I used with grades 3 – 6 last year. It is a set of five books and was easy to use and talk with kids about. The books generated some good discussion and I was surprised how much the older children didn’t know. I thought that the kids would be savvier than they were, so I was glad I was able to do some teaching about these subjects.
The set is written by David J. Jakubiak and published by PowerKids Press, 2010. The books cost around $22.00 each with library binding, but I checked Amazon.com and saw them in paperback for less than $10.00 each.
A Smart Kid’s Guide to Social Networking Online
A Smart Kid’s Guide to Doing Internet Research
A Smart Kid’s Guide to Avoiding Online Predators
A Smart Kid’s Guide to Internet Privacy
A Smart Kid’s Guide to Online Bullying

Teaching children is one thing; we have them captive. But what about when they go home? Will they take these guidelines home and use them? It might be a good idea to have your Home and School leaders arrange an education program to help parents learn about these dangers and how to keep their children safe at the home computer. If this isn’t an option, consider a newsletter or a mailing with information for parents about this topic.

I hope you have a good week and keep yourself safe in all areas.
Audrey
Sdalibrarian.blogspot.com

Tuesday, October 12, 2010

Dewey Decimal System

Teaching the Dewey Decimal System

Hello,
The Dewey Decimal System is a valuable resource for anyone. Even if your library doesn’t use Dewey, students will need to know it or at least know the basics in order to use most other libraries. Most public schools teach the Dewey Decimal System, but often our SDA schools don’t do as well at teaching this. Some might disagree with me, but I think that a student should know (memorize) the basic hundreds and the types of books that one can fine in each hundred. Here is an easy way to present this to your students.

The Dewey Decimal System is arranged a little like a person growing up.
100’s - Who Am I? (Psychology) When we are little, we think only of ourselves. The books in this section have information that a person might want to know about himself. Books on my thoughts or how I feel would be included in this section.

200’s – Who is My God? (Religion) As we grow a little older we start to wonder where everyone came from. These books explain the world and how it was created. Books on religions are located here. (Also books on Mythology, but we don’t usually include these in our lessons!)

300’s – Who is My Neighbor? (Social Studies) Once you learn about other people, you want to find out more about others. What do they do and where do they live? Books on careers, jobs, holidays, folktales are located here. These books are all about the social world.

400’s – How Do I Communicate With My Neighbor? (Languages) Now that we know something about other people, we might want to communicate with them. We need to learn their language, so books on other languages are here.

500’s – Man Sees the Things God Made. (Pure Science) Books on science and nature are in this section. We learn about the heavens, the animals, and the world God made.

600’s – Man is Lazy and Learns “How To’ Use the Science and Nature information to Work for Him. (Applied Science/Technology) Books on cars, airplanes, building bridges and other things, caring for your health, books on diseases, cookbooks, caring for pets; all these subjects are in here. This section is the “How To” section. The animal books are in the Pure science section, but caring for them (How To) is in the Applied Science section.

700’s – Man Enjoys Leisure Time. (Fine Arts) Since Man has learned to use science to work for him, he now has time to enjoy things like sports, crafts, music, drawing, and other hobbies.

800’s – Man is Vain and Likes to Tell Stories About Himself. (Literature)

900’s – Man Likes to Leave a Record of His Doings, Goings, and Comings. (History, Geography, and Biography)

000’s – General Information. This includes books like encyclopedias, media, newspapers, and books that have a lot of general information such as question and answer books.

I hope this information is helpful to you and will be enough of a start to explain to students how the library is arranged.

Have a great week.
Audrey
Sdalibrarian.blogspot.com