Hello,
I am not sure which books I recommended for Christmas previously, but I do have some wonderful favorites. Some of these are good read alouds, and others are good picture books. Some are heartwarming and others might be a bit sad in spots, but all are good books for someone.
A Certain Small Shepherd by Rebecca Caudill. I LOVE this story about a family in the Appalachian hills. Jamie, a young mute boy, is thoughtlessly assigned to sing with the chorus in the school nativity play. Soon he is reassigned to play a young shepherd which he embraces wholeheartedly. On the date of the Christmas pageant, a blizzard sweeps in and Jamie is disappointed when the pageant is canceled. Through the snowy night comes a couple in need of shelter. Father takes them to the nearby church and soon they have a baby. When Jamie sees the new baby, he runs back to his house then returns to the church wearing his shepherd costume. For the first time he speaks aloud and gives his own Christmas gifts – an orange and a dime – to the family. Other Rebecca Caudill books you might enjoy are A Pocketful of Cricket and Did You Carry the Flag Today, Charlie?
The Christmas Day Kitten by James Herriot. You may be familiar with James Herriot’s All Things Bright and Beautiful and other books about his experiences as a veterinarian in Yorkshire, England. This story is taken from one of his books and made into a picture book. On Christmas Day a young mother cat brings her kitten to a home where she has experienced friendliness. She is ill and does not survive. The kitten becomes part of the family. Trust me, the story is much better than I tell it here!
Silver Packages by Cynthia Rylant. This is another Appalachian Christmas story about a wealthy man who brings a Christmas train each year to give gifts wrapped in silver to the children. One young boy wishes each year for a doctor’s kit. You likely have heard this story but you will enjoy the wonderful paintings by Chris Soentpiet. (Pronounced SOON pete)
Patricia Polacco is a prolific writer and has a few books about Christmas. Two that are wonderful true stories of her family are The Trees of the Dancing Goats and An Orange for Frankie. Patricia’s family celebrates Hanukkah but the neighbors celebrate Christmas. One year scarlet fever is rampant in the neighborhood so Patricia’s family decorates small Christmas trees with their own brightly painted little wooden toys and deliver the trees to the neighbors. When the neighborhood recovers, they return the gift with one that Patricia’s family appreciates. In An Orange for Frankie, the family is excitedly preparing for Christmas and hoping Father is able to return in time. Father will be bringing the oranges which are a once-a-year treat for the family. When Father brings the oranges, Frankie just wants to hold his and smell it so he stuffs it inside his sweater and the family attends the Christmas pageant. When they return home, Frankie is horrified to realize that he has lost his orange! Mother solves this problem for him in a wonderful way. Most of Patricia Polacco’s books are fantastic, but she has a few that are pure fantasy and might not be a book you wish to place on your shelves. Be careful and read the book first before purchasing it just to make sure it is one you really want.
The Christmas Tree Farm by Ann Purmell. Have you ever wondered where those Christmas trees in the parking lots or grocery lots come from? How do they care for those trees during the year? What happens to Christmas trees in summer or spring? This book answers these questions and more plus includes facts about Christmas trees that your students will find fascinating.
Too Many Tamales by Gary Soto. Tamales are a traditional Mexican holiday meal and Maria’s family makes twenty-four of them in preparation for the family that will be arriving soon. Maria eyes her mother’s diamond ring and wishes to wear it for just a little while, but when she cannot find it later she realizes that the ring is lost in the tamales! She and her cousins eat all the tamales in order to find the ring, but no one finds it. Weeping, Maria confesses to her mother about the lost ring and the tamales, but then sees the ring on her mother’s hand. The family laughs over the picture of the cousins eating so many tamales, and all pitch in to make more tamales.
I hope you enjoy these titles. If you have some Christmas favorites, please let me know and I will include them next week.
Have a good week,
Audrey
Tuesday, November 30, 2010
Tuesday, November 23, 2010
Tips and Ideas
Hello,
I am sorry that I didn’t send a post last week, but I was out all week with a horrible upper respiratory infection. I made it to school this week, but still have some residual symptoms. Anyway, I am doing better, but this post will be blessedly short. Call it a Thanksgiving gift.
While perusing one of my library journals I noticed a few really interesting ideas. Here are some that may be helpful to you.
1. Inside some gift cards these days there is a little cell that can be used to record a message. You can use this technology to do ‘book talks’. Print a small cover of the book and place the cell with the recorded message behind the cover to make your own book talks. Students just push the button and hear a short book talk about the book. Or you could let students record book talks for books.
2. Signage for libraries can be very expensive, but you can make your own with a large coffee can, a yardstick, pebbles or rocks, spray paint, and paper. Spray the outside of the coffee can and both sides of the yardstick. Fill the can partway with the pebbles or rocks. Attach a sign to one end of the yardstick and stick the other end into the pebbles. Put these types of sign on table or shelving or wherever works in your library. These can be changed easily when needed.
3. Have a hard time getting your boys to read? Try what one school did. They took pictures of the adult males on campus reading a book and made a bulletin board titled “Real Men Read Books”. This really increased interest in reading and the boys began asking the men about the books they were reading. What if you are a small school and don’t have many adult males on staff? Use pastors, parents, or older siblings. I would advise that you have these males hold books from your library, possibly books that they enjoyed as a young person.
4. Encourage reading by using vendor’s catalogs. Cut out all the colored pictures of books that the library owns, laminate them and glue them to clothes pins. They can be used for bookmarks, genre sorts, library skills games or whatever you can think of. Don’t have vendor’s catalogs? Try using the book jacket. I usually cover the book jacket in plastic and affix to the book. But if you don’t use those book jackets, cut the cover off, then laminate and hang with clothes pins along a line in your library to call attention to the books and promote them.
5. One school had a Junior Prom Etiquette check day. Students were invited to bring their lunches to the library and different situations were reenacted such as introducing their date to their parents, table manners, and tips for awkward situations. We might not have the same situation, but our students can still profit from learning more about manners. Showcase books on manners and etiquette and have students act out etiquette tips and situations.
I hope these ideas were helpful to you. I was inspired when I read them and thought that you might be, too.
Have a great week and a very happy, safe, and warm Thanksgiving!
Audrey
I am sorry that I didn’t send a post last week, but I was out all week with a horrible upper respiratory infection. I made it to school this week, but still have some residual symptoms. Anyway, I am doing better, but this post will be blessedly short. Call it a Thanksgiving gift.
While perusing one of my library journals I noticed a few really interesting ideas. Here are some that may be helpful to you.
1. Inside some gift cards these days there is a little cell that can be used to record a message. You can use this technology to do ‘book talks’. Print a small cover of the book and place the cell with the recorded message behind the cover to make your own book talks. Students just push the button and hear a short book talk about the book. Or you could let students record book talks for books.
2. Signage for libraries can be very expensive, but you can make your own with a large coffee can, a yardstick, pebbles or rocks, spray paint, and paper. Spray the outside of the coffee can and both sides of the yardstick. Fill the can partway with the pebbles or rocks. Attach a sign to one end of the yardstick and stick the other end into the pebbles. Put these types of sign on table or shelving or wherever works in your library. These can be changed easily when needed.
3. Have a hard time getting your boys to read? Try what one school did. They took pictures of the adult males on campus reading a book and made a bulletin board titled “Real Men Read Books”. This really increased interest in reading and the boys began asking the men about the books they were reading. What if you are a small school and don’t have many adult males on staff? Use pastors, parents, or older siblings. I would advise that you have these males hold books from your library, possibly books that they enjoyed as a young person.
4. Encourage reading by using vendor’s catalogs. Cut out all the colored pictures of books that the library owns, laminate them and glue them to clothes pins. They can be used for bookmarks, genre sorts, library skills games or whatever you can think of. Don’t have vendor’s catalogs? Try using the book jacket. I usually cover the book jacket in plastic and affix to the book. But if you don’t use those book jackets, cut the cover off, then laminate and hang with clothes pins along a line in your library to call attention to the books and promote them.
5. One school had a Junior Prom Etiquette check day. Students were invited to bring their lunches to the library and different situations were reenacted such as introducing their date to their parents, table manners, and tips for awkward situations. We might not have the same situation, but our students can still profit from learning more about manners. Showcase books on manners and etiquette and have students act out etiquette tips and situations.
I hope these ideas were helpful to you. I was inspired when I read them and thought that you might be, too.
Have a great week and a very happy, safe, and warm Thanksgiving!
Audrey
Monday, November 8, 2010
Weeding Guidelines
Hello,
Today I will be tackling the difficult subject of weeding in the library. No matter what size your library is, you must periodically weed out books that are no longer useful. This can be a problem in most schools. Parents, church members, or even other teachers might criticize when you throw away books. Comments you may get are, “Why are you throwing away perfectly good books?” or “You ask for money for books, then you go and throw them away!” The best response is to have specific guidelines for this procedure that you can refer to as to WHY this book or that book has been discarded. Here are some guidelines that will be a good starting place for you.
General guidelines for weeding:
1. Information in the book is outdated, inaccurate, false information or obsolete. Imagine having a book on space travel written in 1960! Things have changed drastically since then.
2. Mediocre writing style or repetitious series– you likely have books in your library that were churned out to meet a popular interest which has passed and is not longer popular. Some of these may still be popular with your students, but if no one reads them and you cannot generate interest in them, they are taking up valuable real estate on your library shelves.
3. Material containing biased, racist, or sexist views or terminology. These don’t need to be kept for ‘historical purposes’. This kind of thinking is wrong. Is this what you want your students to learn? If not, then get rid of it.
4. Unused sets of books. Check these carefully to make sure they are useful to your school. If they aren’t something that you need, and they fit one in criteria #1 above, toss them out.
5. Duplicate books – if you have more than one copy of a book, consider if it is needed or not. If not, then get rid of the duplicate.
6. Superseded editions – it is usually not necessary to keep older editions if you have the newer one. Keep in mind that if your library is using all editions, then by all means keep them.
7. Weed out any material is worn out, ragged, shabby, dirty, warped, bug-infested, marked up, mutilated, missing pages, poor quality pictures or illustrations, or ‘edited’ by patrons.
8. Has the book been sitting on the shelf without circulating? Maybe it is no longer useful.
The guidelines above are just that - guidelines. It may be that you discard a book, while another school chooses to keep the same title. It will depend on your school and your particular needs. If you are having a difficult time with the idea of throwing away ‘good books’, keep in mind that you are improving your library and making it the best place for your children to study and learn. How can we do this with old, useless information?
Discard Process
Books may need to be discarded in a particular way. Delete them from the computer or shelf list if you have one. Black out the school name, spine label, and any other information that may bring the lost sheep home once it leaves. If you truly will be criticized heavily for removing them from shelves, put them in a black trash bag, drive to another town, and find a dumpster.
If you have older books that are in good condition that aren’t circulating, try a trick I sometimes use. Pull a student aside and ask them in a confidential way if they would be willing to help you with a problem. Give them the book and ask them to read it and let you know if they think it is a good choice for the library or if they think it should be discarded. Most students are willing to do this. I have also pulled out a shelf of books that look like they might need to be discarded and asked a class or two of students to help me decide if these books are worthy of shelf space.
I also have designated a shelf and titled it “Lonely Books: Please Read Us”. Then I do my best to sell these to the students.
What do you do with discarded books? If they are in truly deplorable condition, find a dumpster and dump. If they are in decent reading condition, I put them on a ‘Sale’ shelf and sell them for a quarter each. Parents even come in a check the sale shelf for books. It puts a little bit of money in the library kitty. You may have a better idea of what to do with discarded books.
If after all this you STILL have reservations about weeding in your library, tell me and I will come there myself and weed! Well, I probably won’t, but I hope you will see the importance of improving your library and making it the best it can be.
Last school year I discussed weeding in specific Dewey Decimal Classification areas and we went from the 100’s into the 500’s. If you weren’t a part of the email list or if you want to be reminded of what kinds of things to weed in those Dewey Decimal Classifications, you can check my blog at sdalibrarian.blogspot.com for that information.
Have a great week,
Audrey
Today I will be tackling the difficult subject of weeding in the library. No matter what size your library is, you must periodically weed out books that are no longer useful. This can be a problem in most schools. Parents, church members, or even other teachers might criticize when you throw away books. Comments you may get are, “Why are you throwing away perfectly good books?” or “You ask for money for books, then you go and throw them away!” The best response is to have specific guidelines for this procedure that you can refer to as to WHY this book or that book has been discarded. Here are some guidelines that will be a good starting place for you.
General guidelines for weeding:
1. Information in the book is outdated, inaccurate, false information or obsolete. Imagine having a book on space travel written in 1960! Things have changed drastically since then.
2. Mediocre writing style or repetitious series– you likely have books in your library that were churned out to meet a popular interest which has passed and is not longer popular. Some of these may still be popular with your students, but if no one reads them and you cannot generate interest in them, they are taking up valuable real estate on your library shelves.
3. Material containing biased, racist, or sexist views or terminology. These don’t need to be kept for ‘historical purposes’. This kind of thinking is wrong. Is this what you want your students to learn? If not, then get rid of it.
4. Unused sets of books. Check these carefully to make sure they are useful to your school. If they aren’t something that you need, and they fit one in criteria #1 above, toss them out.
5. Duplicate books – if you have more than one copy of a book, consider if it is needed or not. If not, then get rid of the duplicate.
6. Superseded editions – it is usually not necessary to keep older editions if you have the newer one. Keep in mind that if your library is using all editions, then by all means keep them.
7. Weed out any material is worn out, ragged, shabby, dirty, warped, bug-infested, marked up, mutilated, missing pages, poor quality pictures or illustrations, or ‘edited’ by patrons.
8. Has the book been sitting on the shelf without circulating? Maybe it is no longer useful.
The guidelines above are just that - guidelines. It may be that you discard a book, while another school chooses to keep the same title. It will depend on your school and your particular needs. If you are having a difficult time with the idea of throwing away ‘good books’, keep in mind that you are improving your library and making it the best place for your children to study and learn. How can we do this with old, useless information?
Discard Process
Books may need to be discarded in a particular way. Delete them from the computer or shelf list if you have one. Black out the school name, spine label, and any other information that may bring the lost sheep home once it leaves. If you truly will be criticized heavily for removing them from shelves, put them in a black trash bag, drive to another town, and find a dumpster.
If you have older books that are in good condition that aren’t circulating, try a trick I sometimes use. Pull a student aside and ask them in a confidential way if they would be willing to help you with a problem. Give them the book and ask them to read it and let you know if they think it is a good choice for the library or if they think it should be discarded. Most students are willing to do this. I have also pulled out a shelf of books that look like they might need to be discarded and asked a class or two of students to help me decide if these books are worthy of shelf space.
I also have designated a shelf and titled it “Lonely Books: Please Read Us”. Then I do my best to sell these to the students.
What do you do with discarded books? If they are in truly deplorable condition, find a dumpster and dump. If they are in decent reading condition, I put them on a ‘Sale’ shelf and sell them for a quarter each. Parents even come in a check the sale shelf for books. It puts a little bit of money in the library kitty. You may have a better idea of what to do with discarded books.
If after all this you STILL have reservations about weeding in your library, tell me and I will come there myself and weed! Well, I probably won’t, but I hope you will see the importance of improving your library and making it the best it can be.
Last school year I discussed weeding in specific Dewey Decimal Classification areas and we went from the 100’s into the 500’s. If you weren’t a part of the email list or if you want to be reminded of what kinds of things to weed in those Dewey Decimal Classifications, you can check my blog at sdalibrarian.blogspot.com for that information.
Have a great week,
Audrey
Tuesday, November 2, 2010
Books and Such
Hello,
Don’t you need more ideas of books to get? I have a few good ideas again this week.
A friend of mine is a vet and has written a book about his experiences. Ask the Animals by Bruce R. Coston is one that you will enjoy. Bruce relates stories about his practice and his clients. Think James Herriot and add a Seventh Day Adventist point of view.
Dewey, The Small Town Library Cat Who Touched the World by Vicki Myron and Bret Witter is about a tiny kitten that was put in the book return slot one wintry night. Vicki Myron found the kitten the next morning, cleaned him up and fed him not realizing that Dewey would claim the library as his home. The original book is wonderful and there are some picture books for younger readers about this cat named Dewey Readmore Books.
We have a popular series in our library called the ‘Dear America series’. These books are written in diary format by a fictional character but the reader learns about a particular event or time in history. If you don’t’ have any of the books in this series, consider getting them. One of the newest in this series is “The Fences Between Us: Seattle Washington, 1941”. The story revolves around Piper Davis, a young girl whose father is the pastor of a Japanese Baptist Church in Seattle. When his congregation is incarcerated in an internment camp, he follows them taking Piper with him. This could be a good introduction to this period in US history. The Dear America books are all diaries written by girls, but boys who aren’t interested in reading a book by a ‘girl’, might enjoy reading the series called “My Name is America” which are journals written by ‘boys’. I was visiting family in British Columbia and found three books called ‘Dear Canada’ which I bought and put in our library here. Lastly, “The Royal Diaries” written by historical royals are quite popular here, as well. All of these are published by Scholastic.
Another series that is loved by the same group that loves the Dear America books is the Sisters in Time series. I am about to place “Lydia the Patriot’, ‘Maria Takes a Stand’, ‘Nellie the Brave’, ‘Betsy’s River Adventure’, and ‘Meg Follows a Dream’ on our shelves. In a fashion similar to Dear America, these books help to chronicle a period of history through story format. ‘Lydia the Patriot’ is about the Boston Massacre, ‘Maria Takes a Stand’ is on the battle for women’s rights, ‘Nellie the Brave’ is about the Cherokee Trail of Tears, ‘Betsy’s River Adventure’ tells of the westward expansion, and ‘Meg Follows a Dream’ is on freedom for slaves. There are many more; just choose the subject or area of history you would like to have in your library.
I have heard that some of you print out and save my weekly posts. Some save them in a folder on their computer, and I am sure that many of you delete them. If you ever find yourself needing to refer to something that I have written or just need to check back, remember that I have each post on a blog. You can check back to each post dating from January 2009. (The blog was actually started in February and I posted January’s posts at that time, so you won’t see any posts for January, but they are there. I promise!) The blog is sdalibrarian.blogspot.com.
I hope you have a wonderful week. The sun is shining here and it is lovely weather. I hope the weather is good where you live, as well.
Audrey
Don’t you need more ideas of books to get? I have a few good ideas again this week.
A friend of mine is a vet and has written a book about his experiences. Ask the Animals by Bruce R. Coston is one that you will enjoy. Bruce relates stories about his practice and his clients. Think James Herriot and add a Seventh Day Adventist point of view.
Dewey, The Small Town Library Cat Who Touched the World by Vicki Myron and Bret Witter is about a tiny kitten that was put in the book return slot one wintry night. Vicki Myron found the kitten the next morning, cleaned him up and fed him not realizing that Dewey would claim the library as his home. The original book is wonderful and there are some picture books for younger readers about this cat named Dewey Readmore Books.
We have a popular series in our library called the ‘Dear America series’. These books are written in diary format by a fictional character but the reader learns about a particular event or time in history. If you don’t’ have any of the books in this series, consider getting them. One of the newest in this series is “The Fences Between Us: Seattle Washington, 1941”. The story revolves around Piper Davis, a young girl whose father is the pastor of a Japanese Baptist Church in Seattle. When his congregation is incarcerated in an internment camp, he follows them taking Piper with him. This could be a good introduction to this period in US history. The Dear America books are all diaries written by girls, but boys who aren’t interested in reading a book by a ‘girl’, might enjoy reading the series called “My Name is America” which are journals written by ‘boys’. I was visiting family in British Columbia and found three books called ‘Dear Canada’ which I bought and put in our library here. Lastly, “The Royal Diaries” written by historical royals are quite popular here, as well. All of these are published by Scholastic.
Another series that is loved by the same group that loves the Dear America books is the Sisters in Time series. I am about to place “Lydia the Patriot’, ‘Maria Takes a Stand’, ‘Nellie the Brave’, ‘Betsy’s River Adventure’, and ‘Meg Follows a Dream’ on our shelves. In a fashion similar to Dear America, these books help to chronicle a period of history through story format. ‘Lydia the Patriot’ is about the Boston Massacre, ‘Maria Takes a Stand’ is on the battle for women’s rights, ‘Nellie the Brave’ is about the Cherokee Trail of Tears, ‘Betsy’s River Adventure’ tells of the westward expansion, and ‘Meg Follows a Dream’ is on freedom for slaves. There are many more; just choose the subject or area of history you would like to have in your library.
I have heard that some of you print out and save my weekly posts. Some save them in a folder on their computer, and I am sure that many of you delete them. If you ever find yourself needing to refer to something that I have written or just need to check back, remember that I have each post on a blog. You can check back to each post dating from January 2009. (The blog was actually started in February and I posted January’s posts at that time, so you won’t see any posts for January, but they are there. I promise!) The blog is sdalibrarian.blogspot.com.
I hope you have a wonderful week. The sun is shining here and it is lovely weather. I hope the weather is good where you live, as well.
Audrey
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)
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
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
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
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