Counting Down the Days

Five to go.  Then summer.

All around the school, things have been winding down.  Not in the library though...  Here, spurred on by the extended loan period and increased allowances, students have been flocking to the issue desk with armfuls of books to take out over the summer. It's aces.  Friday was a particularly crazy one, with over 260 issues going out over the course of the day.  There are huge gaps on the shelves now, and it's not just the most popular reads that have been going out; there's been a lot of interest in the hidden gems too.

News of the new Cherub book by Robert Muchamore has been drawing a lot of attention, but I'm sorry folks, you'll have a bit of a wait for that yet!  We'll be getting a few copies in, but probably not as many as folks who've been asking for it.

And of course it's been a huge week for Harry Potter fans, with the release of HP7b.  There were some interesting discussions about spoilers on Twitter and other sites, resulting in a determination that you can't claim to have had a plot spoiled if the narrative came straight from a best selling book that's been out for several years and that if you haven't read it, then you're not a big enough fan to justify your irritation.  Fair play.  

The other exciting news of this week is that we've taken receipt of our first library Kindle! Now, I must confess that I'm not a fan of them.  I don't like the lack of a touch screen, the buttons are clunky, it's made of plastic for heaven's sake.  But I've been trialling it and I think it's starting to grow on me.  The key thing is when you stop noticing the device and your attention goes back to what you're reading.  

The trial book of choice is Holly Black's Red Glove, sequel to White Cat which I adored earlier in the year.  The happy point has been reached where I'm no longer thinking of the Kindle, but of the book.  The advantages of this thing are starting to present themselves.  You can read one handed, lay the book (not book!) on your lap while you eat and turn the pages by hitting the button with a chopstick*, it's lighter than a book of double the thickness if you take it out of the case** and it's right - the strain on your eyes that I've come to expect when reading off a screen just isn't there.  The electronic ink is quite fab.  But the flash up of the next page in negative is horribly off-putting and I do keep coming back to the fact that it's plastic and for me, that just feels a bit wrong.  I reserve the right to change my mind when I'm tired and it reads to me.  

With a bit of luck we'll get the eBook management system up and running and over the next few months request either some additional funding or some donations so that we can get a couple more and start loaning them out.  Exciting times! 

Speaking of exciting times, thank you to all the students who have helped me out this week while I hobbled around the library and shouted at you all from the comfy chairs.  After pulling a tendon in my knee (not recommended) I've been very grateful to you all for being so fab!



* Please do not hit library loans with chopsticks.
** Which weighs almost as much as the Kindle!  Daft, but also detracts from the overwhelming plastic-ness of it.

The Mortal Instruments, by Cassandra Clare

[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="425" caption="Parts I - IV"][/caption]

Clary has grown up thinking that she’s entirely normal, until one day she sees people who others seem to miss, their eyes just skate over them.  Enter the world of the Shadowhunters, where humans born with the blood of an angel in their veins, the Nephilim, fight to defend the world from the evils that would wish humanity harm.  Uneasy alliances with vampires and werewolves, dashing warlocks, a likable heroine and a marvellously sardonic hero make these books a fantastic read.



This is one of those series to get utterly lost in, so if you’re planning to read them, make sure that you have them all lined up.  This is a complex series of many characters, but they are drawn well enough that I found myself gossiping about them with students right away, and I must admit that there is something slightly soap-opera-ish about it all.  Forbidden love (there were several very confused teens wandering around the library muttering, ‘But it’s so right!  And so wrong!’ an evil absent father, a complex history and back story, heroism, awkward and potentially forbidden love (there’s a scene in City of Glass that had us all squealing and clapping our hands), loyalty and revenge. Combined with this is a consistent and workable mythology.  Oh, and really nasty demons and monsters too.  Awesome.  And I’m totally crushing on Luke.

 

There are some books that you read, love and hug quietly to your chest.  They’re a private experience.  This series is very much a shared one, and I’ve been pleasantly surprised by the range of its appeal; I’d thought that this might be dismissed as a girly book, but the boys in our reading circle seem to have embraced it just as fully as the girls.  To quote one of them ‘Well, it’s a bit like Twilight, but, you know, good.’

Bring on City of Fallen Angels.

Victory and Celebrations!

Victory and Celebrations!

Yesterday, twenty of our students crossed the NaNoWriMo finish line and watched their percentage bar change from green to the winning purple.

 

Massive congratulations go those who made it to the massive 50,000 word mark:

 

Nick

Rachel

Kirsty

Abi

Megan

Sophie

Oscar

Lucy

Rachel

Will

Nathan

Jenna

 

And a big well done to those who chose slightly lower word counts on the Young Writers’ Program:

 

Ben

Alex

Lucy

Matt

Pippa

Sophie

Islay

Delphine

 

I’m hoping that most of them will continue writing and finish their stories, but those who finished early have already discovered how much harder it with without the impetus of NaNoWriMo.  But all are planning to send their work away to have a single copy printed and bound by one of the site sponsors so that they can wave their volumes around triumphantly.  We’re been really lucky with the support that we’ve had from staff this year; although none of the teaching staff were able to join us writing, all our novelists were excused from lessons yesterday so that they could spend the day tapping away.  Special thanks go to those who teach Year 11, as they have mocks starting today (good luck Abi and Rachel!).

This morning, all of the 'Warning! Novelling in Progress!' signs came down and the library feels a little empty.  Time to fill it with fairylights I think...

Congratulations!

Two of our Year 8 Reading Group members, Louise and Ben, have been chosen to be part of the panel involved with the forthcoming Young Guardian Books site. 

Followed a small mention on the main Guardian Books site, both students submitted an email detailing why they'd like to be involved and what they'd want to see from the site.  Really looking forward to seeing what happens with this.

Edit: A third student has now also been accepted! Well done to Elle!

Frantic Scribbling

It's now Day 12 of NaNoWriMo and the target wordcount for the end of the day is 20,000.  We've had eleven days of hard-working, excited students hammering away at the keyboards, churning out words at a rate of knots.  The progress they've made has been absolutely stunning, with many of them putting in extra time at break, lunch and for an hour and a half after school.  It's the after school sessions that have been making the most significant difference, when they all gather in the computer area and we go for twenty and ten minute word sprints.  All you can hear is the clacking of keys, until the alarm goes and the sighs of relief, shrieks of frustration or pent up giggles escape.  They're making good use of our virtual classroom and have been posting discussions on the forum, sharing ideas and working collaboratively when they need to. 

I think it's starting to dawn on them quite how much hard work NaNoWriMo is.  They're starting to realise what writing is when it becomes a job and how very, very easy it is to get up and do something else.  A couple of them have developed the shakes and several are well on their way to yelling out seemingly irrelevant words in class as their novels start to take over their minds.  I feel slightly as though I'm creating an army of vaguely confused mini-mes.  Today, we'll celebrate the end of the second school NaNo week with plenty of snacks and some mammoth word sprints as they all get a head start at the weekend rush.  They're making excellent use of Write or Die.

For the first time ever, I'm ahead!  Having switched my home computer over to mac a while ago, I've been working this time using Scrivener, which is making a frightening amount of difference to how difficult the process of writing can seem.  Annoyingly, the things that it's doing that make it seem so much easier are things that I could quite easily have done myself before: proper outlining, breaking up the text into manageable chunks.  I don't know about you, but when I'm in the midst of trying to make a piece of writing sound the way I think it's supposed to, I utterly lose sight of such things as logic and organisation.  Scrivener puts the logic in front of you, pats you on the head and tells you that everything will be fine. 

They've just released the Windows version in Beta, so I'm trying that out on the office computer.  No hiccoughs yet, and my home file from the mac seems fully compatible.  Hoping that for next year we'll be able to consider buying it for the library machines, to return to our novelists the logic that seems to be fleeing from many of them, screaming.

Half Term? Now? Are you sure?

Wow.  I do feel tired enough for it to be half term next week but I hadn't actually thought that it would be.  Where did this half term go?  Carnegie I guess, various staff illnesses, closures, technology fails and any number of other things that have kept us on our toes.

This half term marks an important anniversary though.  I've been back at the school and in the library for a whole year!  This time last year I'd just got the job and was preparing to start the crossover period with our previous librarian, working with her until the summer when the crown* would be passed over to me, a crown which I wear with pride.  I can honestly say that it's been the best working year of my life and I've never been happier in a job than I am here.  The students are great, the staff are largely lovely, and the library is a gorgeous place to be.  Our two library assistants have been patient stars, merrily going along with daft plans and adjusting their own work when I've suddenly decided to put events on.

Sometimes I have to take a step back and realise what this job is.  I get to work with some wonderful people, in a lovely place where everything is focused towards something positive.  Our managers are lovely and happy for us to work relatively unrestricted, we're supported and encouraged to do new things.  There are battles to be fought of course, but they're not ones to hurt your head beyond the end of the day most of the time. I'm being paid to have fun setting up new things, encouraging students to read, talking about books.  Teaching students how to play card games and do a riffle shuffle properly is laughingly called work. So much of it feels like playing half the time.  I'm lucky.

We've done a whole lot over  the year:

• Placed fiction books in every tutor room under the 'Spread the Word' scheme that we stared in September.


• Hosted (and some won!) NaNoWriMo.


• Introduced a system of student librarians, with dozens applying to help out where previously no one wanted to.


• Stocked games for break and lunch times.


• Added hugely to the graphic novels available and altered their status within the school to that of 'proper books'.


• Adjusted proceedures and habits to make the library more accessible and welcoming.


• Hosted Book Week, with school wide events and readings at lunchtimes.


• Made small but significant alterations to the physical space, adding plants, beanbags, new signage.


• Adjusted our stock buying habits to ensure value for money


• Started the Reading Group on creating their own Wiki page to record their reviews and thoughts.  This'll be going school wide at the end of the year.


• Hosted KS4 and 5 Creative Writing Club.


• Started to offer staff INSET on research skills.


• Had a jolly nice time!  The library biscuit intake has gone through the roof, and I've gently encouraged the average consumption of one cup of tea a day to a more comfortable four or five, with the addition of Cecil the coffee machine making caffeine more accessible and tasty.

I know there was more too, but I can't quite remember it all!  Book swaps, competitions, lunchtime events. etc.  And next year there'll be even more.

Big huge thank yous to all of my student librarians and library helpers, and of course to Mrs S and Mrs C, who keep me in check and hide the sweets when I've had too many.  Ladies, you rock.

*I joked about the crown to some of the prospective new head teachers when they were touring round the school.  He didn't even smile.  I'm quite glad he didn't get the job - the one who laughed did.