Hello,
I have something different for you this week. Usually I stick with books and other print materials, but this week I am bringing you a tool that you can share with the families in your school if you want. The tool is a website that rates Movies (in and out of theaters), DVDs, Games, Websites, TV, Books Music, and Mobile Apps for age appropriateness from age 2 - 18. The website is www.commonsensemedia.org.
You may have to sign up to use the site, but it is free and quick. You can also personalize a page according to the age of your child or children. What I think makes this website so helpful is the reviews which are very helpful for parents. Each review has explanations for why the program is rated the way it is. The ratings include five areas of concern for most parents – Violence and scariness, Sexy stuff, Language, Consumerism, and Drinking, drugs, and smoking.
I logged on today and noticed a movie that is coming to theaters soon – Shrek 3 - and I looked at the recommendations. This movie is listed as being age appropriate for ages 6 and up. Scenes that have some violence in them are described. Here is the description from the Common Sense website. “Characters in peril; ogre hunters wave pitchforks and torches; a bird explodes; scary fire-breathing dragon (who is much less scary when she gets a crush on Donkey); one character is eaten in one gulp by the dragon.” If a parent is considering taking a child to this movie, it would be helpful to know what kinds of things to expect.
I also picked an old musical that I enjoy to see what was said about it. “My Fair Lady” had comments about alcoholism being treated as serious and also as a gag. Listed also were the bad words found in the movie. I was quite surprised since I consider this a pretty tame movie. I checked out TV programs, games, and music, as well.
There are different tabs for New Releases, We Recommend, Parents Recommend, and Kids Recommend. The site also has a section for Parents and one for Educators. I have barely touched on the information that is available here. You need to go see for yourselves.
Once you have visited this website, you might want to let the parents of your students know about the site. If you have a school or classroom newsletter, this would be a good item for that.
I hope you have a great week and a wonderful Memorial Day vacation!
Audrey
Tuesday, May 25, 2010
Tuesday, May 18, 2010
Graphic Books and Graphic History
Recently someone asked me what I thought about graphic novels and other graphic materials such as biographies and historical fiction. For those of you who may not be familiar with this type of book, graphic books are written like a comic book with pictures and captions or dialogue. Think “Mary Worth” or “Superman” in book form and you probably have a good idea.
Well, I am not a fan of graphic books. The illustrations are usually comic in nature, the text is sparse thereby leaving out much information, and the graphic style for a whole book actually bothers me. Thus said, there are some students who love them and would actually read them. They will appeal to many of your high interest low level readers. Plus, they can be used to provide a quick overview of a historical event.
If you are looking for a few graphic format books for your library, ABDO Publishing Group has a number of books that might be of interest to you. Their Graphic History gives students a basic idea of the historical event. We have “The Fall of the Berlin Wall” in graphic form in our library. To see what other books are available, go to www.abdopub.com and type in graphic novel or graphic history in the quick search box.
Each to his own. If I decide to read a graphic book, I am much more likely to pick up a treasury of Foxtrot or Zits. I do believe there is a place for a good graphic book even if I am not interested in them personally.
Have a great week.
Audrey
Well, I am not a fan of graphic books. The illustrations are usually comic in nature, the text is sparse thereby leaving out much information, and the graphic style for a whole book actually bothers me. Thus said, there are some students who love them and would actually read them. They will appeal to many of your high interest low level readers. Plus, they can be used to provide a quick overview of a historical event.
If you are looking for a few graphic format books for your library, ABDO Publishing Group has a number of books that might be of interest to you. Their Graphic History gives students a basic idea of the historical event. We have “The Fall of the Berlin Wall” in graphic form in our library. To see what other books are available, go to www.abdopub.com and type in graphic novel or graphic history in the quick search box.
Each to his own. If I decide to read a graphic book, I am much more likely to pick up a treasury of Foxtrot or Zits. I do believe there is a place for a good graphic book even if I am not interested in them personally.
Have a great week.
Audrey
Tuesday, May 11, 2010
Copyright and Honesty
Copyright
We try to teach our students to be honest. Are we also teaching them how to be honest with the information they get from other sources such as books, magazines, and the internet? Are we ourselves being honest by crediting our sources when we find information? I believe that it is vitally important for us to not let something like copyright ethics slip by because the chances of being caught are slim.
We as educators must learn the basics of copyright rules and follow them and we must teach these basics to our students. You would expect high school teachers to require this from their students when they do research and most of us would be shocked if we learned that a teacher didn’t follow through on this practice. But what about a first grade teacher? Can we expect these young children to cite their sources? Isn’t this a bit much? Most teachers and parents would never even consider this a copyright violation. So where do we start? When is it OK to use information and not give credit to the creator of that information? I believe that this must start in the lowest grades. Do you have your children cut pictures from magazines to paste on posters or projects? Have them show the magazine they got the pictures from. Did they learn something from a book they read? They can show the book when they present their information to the class. Did they get pictures from the internet? They can tell how they found the pictures. By these acts they are crediting their sources in an age appropriate manner.
When students get to third grade and above, they are old enough to understand that they need to have a list of sources for the information they find. At our school we do not allow students to print from the internet. Instead we teach them to copy and paste only the information they need into a Word document. Then we also have the children copy and paste the URL address either under the picture or on a separate page to include in their report. By printing from Word, we can consolidate the information and save quite a bit of paper.
I do not accept “Google” as a source. I tell students that saying I got this from Google is the same as saying “Come to my house for my birthday party. I live in the United States.” If someone issued us an invitation like that, we would all say that we need quite a bit more information. If students try to push you on this, have them type in www.google.com and see what comes up. Their information will not automatically appear. The Google logo appears. That is a good way to illustrate that “Google” is NOT a source, but a place to start from.
Many teachers say the ‘Fair Use’ clause entitles them to use material if it is for educational purposes. This is partly true. ‘Fair use’ means that we can use a small portion of the information for educational purposes without contacting the author for permission to use the material. It does not mean that we can use the material without citing the source. You can use the material. You still must cite your source. Fair use does not mean that you can use anything and everything you want just because you are an educator.
Here is just one example of a fair use situation. You are teaching a unit on the Civil War. One evening you notice that there is a special television program on the Civil War and it would be perfect for your unit and the lesson you will be presenting tomorrow. You have no time to write and get permission to use the video. Can you tape the program and use it or will this be a violation of copyright? The answer is “Yes, you can tape the program and use it tomorrow in your class. This is not a violation of copyright.” The information is for educational purposes and you have the problem of time constraints here. But what if you teach this unit every year? Can you keep your copy and use it again each time you teach the unit? This is where a copyright issue comes up. Now, you DO have time to contact the author and ask for permission to use the whole video or DVD in your class or you now have time to purchase the program for classroom use. At this point, you legally cannot save your copy and use it again without permission.
There is a lot to know about copyright. Thick books are written about the subject and legal battles fought daily over this. We likely will not learn all there is to know about copyright, but I believe that educators need to be informed of the basics. I am ready to help you with this. I found a short online course for teachers to use. It is entertaining, it takes about 30 minutes or less, and it is very informative. The course was made for staff development in Henrico County public schools. You can go through the same presentation and learn the same information; you just will not be able to take the quiz at the end. I hope you will take time to look at this site and either learn or refresh your memory about copyright.
Have a great week,
Audrey
Henrico County Staff Development presentation on Copyright http://henricostaffdev.org/copyright/
We try to teach our students to be honest. Are we also teaching them how to be honest with the information they get from other sources such as books, magazines, and the internet? Are we ourselves being honest by crediting our sources when we find information? I believe that it is vitally important for us to not let something like copyright ethics slip by because the chances of being caught are slim.
We as educators must learn the basics of copyright rules and follow them and we must teach these basics to our students. You would expect high school teachers to require this from their students when they do research and most of us would be shocked if we learned that a teacher didn’t follow through on this practice. But what about a first grade teacher? Can we expect these young children to cite their sources? Isn’t this a bit much? Most teachers and parents would never even consider this a copyright violation. So where do we start? When is it OK to use information and not give credit to the creator of that information? I believe that this must start in the lowest grades. Do you have your children cut pictures from magazines to paste on posters or projects? Have them show the magazine they got the pictures from. Did they learn something from a book they read? They can show the book when they present their information to the class. Did they get pictures from the internet? They can tell how they found the pictures. By these acts they are crediting their sources in an age appropriate manner.
When students get to third grade and above, they are old enough to understand that they need to have a list of sources for the information they find. At our school we do not allow students to print from the internet. Instead we teach them to copy and paste only the information they need into a Word document. Then we also have the children copy and paste the URL address either under the picture or on a separate page to include in their report. By printing from Word, we can consolidate the information and save quite a bit of paper.
I do not accept “Google” as a source. I tell students that saying I got this from Google is the same as saying “Come to my house for my birthday party. I live in the United States.” If someone issued us an invitation like that, we would all say that we need quite a bit more information. If students try to push you on this, have them type in www.google.com and see what comes up. Their information will not automatically appear. The Google logo appears. That is a good way to illustrate that “Google” is NOT a source, but a place to start from.
Many teachers say the ‘Fair Use’ clause entitles them to use material if it is for educational purposes. This is partly true. ‘Fair use’ means that we can use a small portion of the information for educational purposes without contacting the author for permission to use the material. It does not mean that we can use the material without citing the source. You can use the material. You still must cite your source. Fair use does not mean that you can use anything and everything you want just because you are an educator.
Here is just one example of a fair use situation. You are teaching a unit on the Civil War. One evening you notice that there is a special television program on the Civil War and it would be perfect for your unit and the lesson you will be presenting tomorrow. You have no time to write and get permission to use the video. Can you tape the program and use it or will this be a violation of copyright? The answer is “Yes, you can tape the program and use it tomorrow in your class. This is not a violation of copyright.” The information is for educational purposes and you have the problem of time constraints here. But what if you teach this unit every year? Can you keep your copy and use it again each time you teach the unit? This is where a copyright issue comes up. Now, you DO have time to contact the author and ask for permission to use the whole video or DVD in your class or you now have time to purchase the program for classroom use. At this point, you legally cannot save your copy and use it again without permission.
There is a lot to know about copyright. Thick books are written about the subject and legal battles fought daily over this. We likely will not learn all there is to know about copyright, but I believe that educators need to be informed of the basics. I am ready to help you with this. I found a short online course for teachers to use. It is entertaining, it takes about 30 minutes or less, and it is very informative. The course was made for staff development in Henrico County public schools. You can go through the same presentation and learn the same information; you just will not be able to take the quiz at the end. I hope you will take time to look at this site and either learn or refresh your memory about copyright.
Have a great week,
Audrey
Henrico County Staff Development presentation on Copyright http://henricostaffdev.org/copyright/
Monday, May 3, 2010
Student Policies
Hello,
Last week I gave you ideas for putting together a policy for your community patrons – parents, church members, home school families, and others. Soon after I sent the email, I got a question asking what my policy is for my students. At first I hesitated sending this out because each school should do what works best for them. But, then I thought that it might be interesting to know what other schools do. Here is the policy we use at Rogers.
LIBRARY CARDS
Each student has a library card which stays here in the library. The cards are filed according to classroom and each teacher has a box containing all the library cards for their students. Since we have fourteen classrooms, on each card we place a tiny sticker to help us return the cards to the correct box. For example, Mrs. Thompson’s classroom cards have a blue star; Mr. Sutton’s class has a purple whale, and so forth.
LIBRARY CLASSES
We have regular library times for each classroom to come visit the library and we also have times that students can come individually. We require that students bring a pass from their teacher so we know that they do indeed have permission to be here. Students that come without a pass are reminded to pop back to the classroom and get one.
CHECK-OUT
Kindergarteners are allowed to check out one book each week. I teach them about the different sections and they choose a book from the different sections.
Grades one and two are allowed to check out two books each week. For third grade and above, the students are allowed three books each week.
There are exceptions to this. My Library Club workers are allowed to have four books out at a time, and a select group of junior high students can also have four books at a time.
LATE BOOKS
We don’t have fines for late books, but the students cannot check out again until their books have been returned to the library.
LOST BOOKS
Often students will tell us that their book is lost. If this happens, we ask them to have their parent or guardian contact us and then we will let them continue to check out. This puts some of the responsibility on the student. The main reason for this is to assure us that the parent does indeed know about the lost book and they will keep looking to find the book. Since our library is automated, we then put an alert for that student stating the name of the lost book, the date, and that they have permission to check out.
Occasionally we will have a parent who says they don’t want their child to check out books. With a little finesse, we usually learn that the child has lost a book and the parent doesn’t want to pay for more lost books. We will ask the parent if the student might check out books but keep them here at school. That usually is fine with the parent. We then put an alert on the student’s profile and remind them that they need to leave their books at school. When we swipe their library card barcode, the alert comes up to remind us.
It has been my experience that students who lose a book usually find it at some point in the school year. Over the year I would estimate that we check out 2000 or more books each year. I usually have about 10 – 15 books that are really lost. I send charges to the office at the end of the school year to be put on the last bill. By sending charges in once, I do not have to refund money over and over during the course of the year when each book is found. I figure the charges this way. I look up the cost of replacing the book and add a $5.00 processing fee. If the book is found over the summer, I will refund the cost of the book, but not the processing fee. Other schools have the students pay for lost books at the time they are lost, and then will refund the money if the book is found. Some schools have a flat rate for lost books. I prefer students having to pay to replace the book rather than a flat rate. If a student loses a paperback book and has to pay $20.00, that doesn’t seem fair to me. If a student loses a $50.00 book and has to pay only $20.00, this also doesn’t seem fair.
As you are working with your library and your students, make sure that the procedure you have in place is something that will work for you and that it works for your school. What works for one school will not necessarily be the best plan for your school. Check with your board or principal and get support for your policies, then make sure that parents are aware of them.
Have a great week.
Audrey
Sdalibrarian.blogspot.com
Last week I gave you ideas for putting together a policy for your community patrons – parents, church members, home school families, and others. Soon after I sent the email, I got a question asking what my policy is for my students. At first I hesitated sending this out because each school should do what works best for them. But, then I thought that it might be interesting to know what other schools do. Here is the policy we use at Rogers.
LIBRARY CARDS
Each student has a library card which stays here in the library. The cards are filed according to classroom and each teacher has a box containing all the library cards for their students. Since we have fourteen classrooms, on each card we place a tiny sticker to help us return the cards to the correct box. For example, Mrs. Thompson’s classroom cards have a blue star; Mr. Sutton’s class has a purple whale, and so forth.
LIBRARY CLASSES
We have regular library times for each classroom to come visit the library and we also have times that students can come individually. We require that students bring a pass from their teacher so we know that they do indeed have permission to be here. Students that come without a pass are reminded to pop back to the classroom and get one.
CHECK-OUT
Kindergarteners are allowed to check out one book each week. I teach them about the different sections and they choose a book from the different sections.
Grades one and two are allowed to check out two books each week. For third grade and above, the students are allowed three books each week.
There are exceptions to this. My Library Club workers are allowed to have four books out at a time, and a select group of junior high students can also have four books at a time.
LATE BOOKS
We don’t have fines for late books, but the students cannot check out again until their books have been returned to the library.
LOST BOOKS
Often students will tell us that their book is lost. If this happens, we ask them to have their parent or guardian contact us and then we will let them continue to check out. This puts some of the responsibility on the student. The main reason for this is to assure us that the parent does indeed know about the lost book and they will keep looking to find the book. Since our library is automated, we then put an alert for that student stating the name of the lost book, the date, and that they have permission to check out.
Occasionally we will have a parent who says they don’t want their child to check out books. With a little finesse, we usually learn that the child has lost a book and the parent doesn’t want to pay for more lost books. We will ask the parent if the student might check out books but keep them here at school. That usually is fine with the parent. We then put an alert on the student’s profile and remind them that they need to leave their books at school. When we swipe their library card barcode, the alert comes up to remind us.
It has been my experience that students who lose a book usually find it at some point in the school year. Over the year I would estimate that we check out 2000 or more books each year. I usually have about 10 – 15 books that are really lost. I send charges to the office at the end of the school year to be put on the last bill. By sending charges in once, I do not have to refund money over and over during the course of the year when each book is found. I figure the charges this way. I look up the cost of replacing the book and add a $5.00 processing fee. If the book is found over the summer, I will refund the cost of the book, but not the processing fee. Other schools have the students pay for lost books at the time they are lost, and then will refund the money if the book is found. Some schools have a flat rate for lost books. I prefer students having to pay to replace the book rather than a flat rate. If a student loses a paperback book and has to pay $20.00, that doesn’t seem fair to me. If a student loses a $50.00 book and has to pay only $20.00, this also doesn’t seem fair.
As you are working with your library and your students, make sure that the procedure you have in place is something that will work for you and that it works for your school. What works for one school will not necessarily be the best plan for your school. Check with your board or principal and get support for your policies, then make sure that parents are aware of them.
Have a great week.
Audrey
Sdalibrarian.blogspot.com
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