Faculty Newsletter: Winter 2016

Bookopoly: A Successful Teen Read Celebration

This year we are celebrating Teen Reading with a Bookopoly game, and it has been an exciting success with students.  We kicked off the game on day one of Teen Read week, and will continue to play until the day before vacation, allowing students to roll their dice once a day for opportunities to enter to win our grand prizes, or land on Community Chest for smaller immediate prizes.  

The draw is in part due to some wonderful prizes, among them a Chrome

book, but I believe the variety of ways to engage in the game has made it accessible to a wide range of students as well.  We have students at every grade level engaged in playing and exploring the library in new ways.

Below you will find an outline of the game design and rules.  

Game Board: Monopoly to Bookopoly translation

Property Spaces = Genres

*Sports

*Mystery

*Fantasy

*Science Fiction

*Adventure

*Teen Topics


Utilities = Game Time

Railroads = MakerSpace activities

Chance Cards = Cards that prompt literacy related activities

Community Chest = Pick from our mini prize trunk

Free Parking = Free Reading (enter your name to win)

Go to the Library = Enter your name to win

Feel free to use my Bookopoly cards as templates to design your own game pieces.

How to Play:

Roll our giant dice once a day, move your game piece (1" square character pieces with tacks) around the bulletin board/ game board

Collect "Genre cards"- collect three of any genre to enter for prizes or read one of the books reviewed    

        on a card and enter to win (students are allowed to trade genre cards)

Complete MakerSpace activities from the "MakerSpace cards" and enter to win

Complete literacy challenges within Chance cards and enter to win

Play Chess or another strategy game in the library  when collecting "Game Time cards" and enter to win

I am so excited by the engagement and active exploration of the library- it has been our best Teen Read celebration yet!  

Faculty Newsletter, Part One

MakerSpace Learning

This is the purpose statement that I wrote this fall, as we kicked off a MakerSpace in the library here at the high school.  I started out in the fall by placing challenges in the MakerSpace, which students could work on at their leisure.  Challenges have ranged from "What can you make out of Duct tape?" to Lego challenges to Origami, and lots in between.  While we have continued to provide these self paced challenges, we have added Maker Monday times when we provide some instruction on more in depth projects.

I worked with a small student advisory team to brainstorm different project ideas,
wanting to cover STEAM topics, with varying levels of technology.  Students have also been instrumental in sharing their expertise in the MakerSpace.  I really
envision this as a student run area, with me serving mostly as advisor, and providing the materials and support for what they want to create.

I have been very excited by the range of students who have come to use the MakerSpace.  It has been a space where students of all ages can come together and be creative.

I feel like we are still very much in the learning stages of this MakerSpace venture, so the resources this month have been invaluable to me, adding to my repertoire of project ideas and resources.  The Tinkerspace blog has some especially helpful ideas for organization.  This will increasingly be an area that I explore, as we grow and have more supplies to manage.

#shelfchallenge Day 2

Wow- I am really enjoying reading some poetry.  It is a genre that I have neglected for a long time!  Today I read some Maya Angelou- I didn't know that she had written an Inaugural poem to read at Bill Clinton's inauguration in 1993.  This could be a great close read- to infer some of the historical context as well as social issues during that time period.  Very cool!
I especially like the juxtaposition of these two sections:

"You, the Turk, the Arab, the Swede,
The German, the Eskimo, the Scot,
The Italian, the Hungarian, the Pole,
You the Ashanti, the Yoruba, the Kru, bought
Sold, stolen, arriving on a nightmare
Praying for a dream."
...............................................................

"Women, children, men,
Take it into the palms of your hands,
Mold it into the shape of your most
Private need.  Sculpt it into
The image of your most public self.
Lift up your hearts
Each new hour holds new chances
For a new beginning.
                                                                                    Do not be wedded forever
                                                                                    To fear, yoked eternally
                                                                                    To brutishness."

Poetry Month #shelfchallenge

So, for the month of April I am going to take the #shelfchallenge, inspired by Colleen Graves blog post on this challenge.  I decided to combine this challenge with celebrating National Poetry month, so I choose our first shelf of poetry to read through this month.

 I am excited about digging deeply into exploring this part of the curriculum.  I'm sure that this will just be the tip of the iceberg, and I will get hooked on this deep exploration of the collection.

I just got started today, and since we are already half way through the month, I am trying to make some good progress.  I started by pulling the first four books from the shelf to look through. Of those four books  I will be weeding two of them!  The first is from 1969 and the dull appearance and musty smell will give it little appeal for students.



The second is from 1990, and I found very frustrated to use.

 It is Ain't I a Woman!: A Book of Women's Poetry From Around the World, but there is no way to search for poetry by country.  The Table of Contents is not very useful, with very little information given, and there is no index at all.  Because it lacks these tools, it loses its usefulness.

The next book is awesome though!  I discovered Kwame Alexander's Crush: Love Poems, and have thoroughly enjoyed reading through them.  I love his imagery and use of practical life experiences to explore the stages and feelings of love.  I particularly appreciate the lines,

"He wishes 

He were a library

Each book she would check out."

I think this would become a very popular title, especially with the current popularity of The Crossover, if it got discovered- so, it's going on a display today!!  Great success already- looking forward to continuing my challenge.

I've already got ideas for how to expand this #shelfchallenge to include our book club kids- maybe encouraging them to select a shelf to read for the summer?  Or next year picking a shelf that they will be responsible for reading and reviewing.  Lots of possibilities to explore!

Switch: A New Reading Experience

I have to admit, although I get excited about the information I want to learn from nonfiction books, I am not a lover of the process of reading nonfiction.  Given the choice between a great story and an information rich book, even on a topic of high interest, I am going to go for the story pretty much every time.

So, this first chapter of the book Switch: How to Change Things When Change is Hard was a wonderful surprise.  I have been excited to read this book to get the information, but now it is clear that I'm also going to enjoy the process of reading it, which means I might just get through my reading before it is due for our book discussion!
The clear message of a three step process, "To change behavior, you've got to direct the Rider, motivate the Elephant, and shape the Path" was delivered through a series of engaging stories and entertaining case studies (19).  The practical application for this three step process, which I originally thought would apply primarily in my professional life, will have far greater reach.  I can already see connections that I will make at home, through my youth ministry involvement, and in my own life.
So, what is the Rider, the Elephant, and the Path you may ask?  Well, the authors, Chip and Dan Heath, use clear illustrations for this analogy:

• The Rider is our rational side, which provides the direction for any change we want to make. "What looks like resistance is often a lack of clarity" (17).
• The Elephant is our emotions, and will provide the energy and motivation to make a change. "What looks like laziness is often exhaustion" (17).
• The Path is the situation, or the circumstances surrounding the change.                              "What looks like a people problem is often a situation problem" (18).  

I invite you to read along with me as I find out more about how to change things when change is hard, and share any stories of how you are working through change in your own life.  Happy reading!