I know I've been neglecting you. It's been a crazy busy time, with the regular library stuff, a full time job on its own, getting busier than ever, and a couple of events that have taken up a lot of time but should end up being very beneficial.
The first was the launch of our Trust School Status, a mini-charrette (consultation process) with the Trust Partners (Herts Uni, Sir John Lawes School, Presedence ICT and Rothamsted) that was held at the University on the 22nd March. Thirteen of our students and a similar number from SJL went along to talk through plans and ideas about how the Trust could be work for the schools and what we could all bring to the mix. Our students did so well and spoke eloquently and confidently, often leading discussion and feedback sessions. I know the staff at the University and the Trust partners were very impressed with all of them! Of course, knowing what they're all like it wasn't a huge surprise for me, though Alex's capacity for crisps came as a bit of a surprise, and Max's attachment to the flipboard pens was a little worrying. Congratulations to everyone who took part though.
The second was my trip up to Cambridge for the Cambridge Librarians' TeachMeet. It was my first one and I'd taken the bold step of agreeing to present, which may have been a little foolhardy. It was a wonderful evening though, and I learned a lot from all there as well as having the chance to put names to Twitter names! My presentation went well though, and you can see it here:
[slideshare id=7436719&doc=camlibtmnicky-110329155637-phpapp01]
The notes are available over here.
And now with these over, I'm clear to focus on my favourite part of the library year. It's Carnegie Shadowing time!
Friday, 1 April 2011
Friday, 11 March 2011
Awesome
Have been playing with the avatar generator on the Skullduggery Pleasant site.
Aces.
Complete with roller derby nose plaster.
Aces.
Complete with roller derby nose plaster.
Thursday, 3 March 2011
World Book Day
Happy World Book Day everyone! It’s been a frenetic day up here in the library, with the book swap running through break and lunchtime, with some fantastic books being offered for exchange this year.
We’ve also been handing out the £1 book tokens to forms all round the school and showing off the posters for the specially published books.
Sofie, Tegan and Lucy took over the library at lunch to run a very successful and impressively rowdy game of Book Charades, with dozens of students from all year groups taking part. Year 7 dominated though, possibily because they could yell the most.
There were quizzes and competitions with all the entries being taken before the end of the break, and now we’re sitting up in the computer area working on our stories for the various creative writing competitions that our writing groups are entering this term.
Around this merry chaos, reading and knitting continued.
Our charity knitting group are working well and have started sewing their first blanket together. Their skill is increasing every day and there are fewer dropped stitches to pick up now.
Lovely day!
We’ve also been handing out the £1 book tokens to forms all round the school and showing off the posters for the specially published books.
Sofie, Tegan and Lucy took over the library at lunch to run a very successful and impressively rowdy game of Book Charades, with dozens of students from all year groups taking part. Year 7 dominated though, possibily because they could yell the most.
There were quizzes and competitions with all the entries being taken before the end of the break, and now we’re sitting up in the computer area working on our stories for the various creative writing competitions that our writing groups are entering this term.
Around this merry chaos, reading and knitting continued.
Our charity knitting group are working well and have started sewing their first blanket together. Their skill is increasing every day and there are fewer dropped stitches to pick up now.
Lovely day!
Wednesday, 16 February 2011
First Steps
The first batch of DVDs have arrived! Also out of shot there's another box with Science based ones, such as Planet Earth and The Sky at Night, as well as several History documentaries. But as you can see, we've gone for the classics in terms of tie-ins with the texts taught by English, and have invested quite a lot in our new Modern Foreign Languages selection, which I think are going to be really useful for students studying languages at GCSE and A level. Additionally there are just a few that I couldn't do without ;)
Tuesday, 15 February 2011
Dash and Lily's Book of Dares, by Rachel Cohn and David Levithan
This is a Christmas story really, so I came to it a little late in the game, but with the last remnants of flu still hanging around, this was a fun book to curl up under a blanket with.
Dash is browsing in his favourite New York bookshop when he finds a red Moleskin notebook with a message and a task written on its pages. When he decides to take the notebook up on its offer of adventure, he completes the task and leaves it with a new one of his own, striking up an interesting relationship with its owner, Lily. What I really enjoyed about this story was the role that the notebook played for the two of them, a connection and a place where they could show their real and honest selves, the selves that they couldn't often show in real life for fear of appearing too vulnerable. Written in alternate chapters by the book's two authors, Dash and Lily are two very distinct voices, but there's a point somewhere a long the way where you can hear that they're picking up the same language, and as they get closer to meeting, the hope that they'll suit each other is balanced out by the awful fear that they might not. Sounds a bit sicky, doens't it? And it could it, were it not for Dash's sardonic manner and the wodnerful supporting cast, provided mostly by Lily's extended family. I hope one day I can be as marvellous as her aunt.
This is non-frilly and at times gut wrenching romance that will appeal to anyone who picks it up!
Friday, 11 February 2011
Good News
It's a tense time for schools and libraries across the country at the moment as the cuts start to bite. Many we know have been threatened with, or notified of redundancies. The good news here is that the staffing hours in our lovely library have not been cut this year, so we'll continue to be able to do all the things that we love doing so much! And, you know, eating and having homes, little essentials like that.
We'd like to extend our thanks to those who made the decisions and managed this difficult situation.
We'd like to extend our thanks to those who made the decisions and managed this difficult situation.
Monday, 17 January 2011
Room, by Emma Donoghue
Five year old Jack lives with Ma in Room. In Room, there is Rug, there is Bed, there is Table. All things are proper nouns, because this room and his mother are Jack's entire life, after she was kidnapped and imprisoned by 'Old Nick', who brings them food and comes by almost nightly to take advantage of his prisoner while Jack hides in Wardrobe. Sounds horrific, and it is, but it is a story of more hope and love than I can remember reading in a long time. The thing is that Jack's happy in this tiny world, it is all that he knows. It's only when he tells us of his Ma's desperation, as the details of her story filter down to us, that the true horror of their situation becomes apparent. It's difficult to say much more without saying too much, but this is truly an amazing book, narrated by an engaging and captivating character. Looking forward to the discussion on this one. Read it now.
Wednesday, 12 January 2011
Christmas Reading Update
Though I took a massive stack of books home over the break, the evil flu that decided to infect me stopped my eyes working properly and I managed to do impressively little reading over the two week break. Boo. But here’s what I did get through:
White Cat, by Holly Black
First book in the Curse Workers series, and my favourite of the break, White Cat tells the story of Cassell, who lives in a world where magic workers are heavily reagulated, but a black market of shady magical dealings runs like a dark river under him and his family. The only non-curse worker in his family and haunted by his deeds years ago, Cassell suffers from strange dreams about a white cat, who seems to be asking for his help.
I loved this book and found it utterly gripping. The characters are appealingly dark and tied up in a complicated world of allegiances and employment. There are strong elements of horror in this story, and I wouldn’t recommend it for the faint hearted; there’s an underlying violence in some parts that’s quite harsh but fleshes the book out from fairy tale to a very human world. Really looking forward to the second part of the series, Red Glove, but can’t believe I have to wait until June for it! If anyone has an ARC they could slip my way, I will reward you biscuits.
Nobody’s Girl, by Sarra Manning
Seventeen year old Bea has grown up overshadowed by her energetic and exuberant mother, who is determined that her daughter will not repeat her own youthful mistakes. When the popular crowd at school suddenly befriend her and invite her on holiday with them, it seems like the perfect way to step out of the gloom and into her own life, but when plans change and she finds herself suddenly alone in Europe, the world opens up and she starts to find her own way.
I read this as an attempt to read outside my comfort zone and experiment with some of the books that are really popular with my students, and I admit I struggled. Around a third of the way through, I gave up for several days. Not having been a girly girl or having a group of female friends at that age, the whole bitchiness and back stabbing, tried my patience in such a way that indicates that Manning captured perfectly how these relationships play out, with the mind games, manipulation and feelings of rejection that I’d always fought to avoid so stubbornly. It was a bit like hating snakes but deciding to read a book about them. But I returned to it when I started to recover a bit, and as soon as Bea and Toph (read it, you’ll find out who he is) were in Paris, I became very fond of this book and of the two of them, and when I closed the book after the last page, had a big silly grin on my face.
The Dark is Rising, by Susan Hill
If was dark, freezing and there was a thick layer of snow on the ground. Of course I had to read this book! Book two of The Dark is Rising sequence, this book tells the tale of Will Stanton, seventh son of the seventh son, and born an Old One, warrior of the light. In the dead of winter, the dark is rising and it’s up to Will to find the six Signs of Light and bring them together to save our world from freezing.
I first read this sequence of books when I was very young and absolutely adored them. Magic, history, adventure bravery, there was nothing not to like. Re-reading them as an adult, I still loved them, though this time I only read The Dark is Rising, as it was the most approapriate to the season. Getting utterly carried away in this story is harder now, some elements have dated a little, and I occasionally felt that there was too much going on, such as Will’s first trip to the Great Hall, but the sense of wonder and the feeling that winter is something so much bigger than just the cold that bites at your fingertips will never be lost, and I’ll continue to reach for this book any time it snows before Christmas.
White Cat, by Holly Black
First book in the Curse Workers series, and my favourite of the break, White Cat tells the story of Cassell, who lives in a world where magic workers are heavily reagulated, but a black market of shady magical dealings runs like a dark river under him and his family. The only non-curse worker in his family and haunted by his deeds years ago, Cassell suffers from strange dreams about a white cat, who seems to be asking for his help.
I loved this book and found it utterly gripping. The characters are appealingly dark and tied up in a complicated world of allegiances and employment. There are strong elements of horror in this story, and I wouldn’t recommend it for the faint hearted; there’s an underlying violence in some parts that’s quite harsh but fleshes the book out from fairy tale to a very human world. Really looking forward to the second part of the series, Red Glove, but can’t believe I have to wait until June for it! If anyone has an ARC they could slip my way, I will reward you biscuits.
Nobody’s Girl, by Sarra Manning
Seventeen year old Bea has grown up overshadowed by her energetic and exuberant mother, who is determined that her daughter will not repeat her own youthful mistakes. When the popular crowd at school suddenly befriend her and invite her on holiday with them, it seems like the perfect way to step out of the gloom and into her own life, but when plans change and she finds herself suddenly alone in Europe, the world opens up and she starts to find her own way.
I read this as an attempt to read outside my comfort zone and experiment with some of the books that are really popular with my students, and I admit I struggled. Around a third of the way through, I gave up for several days. Not having been a girly girl or having a group of female friends at that age, the whole bitchiness and back stabbing, tried my patience in such a way that indicates that Manning captured perfectly how these relationships play out, with the mind games, manipulation and feelings of rejection that I’d always fought to avoid so stubbornly. It was a bit like hating snakes but deciding to read a book about them. But I returned to it when I started to recover a bit, and as soon as Bea and Toph (read it, you’ll find out who he is) were in Paris, I became very fond of this book and of the two of them, and when I closed the book after the last page, had a big silly grin on my face.
The Dark is Rising, by Susan Hill
If was dark, freezing and there was a thick layer of snow on the ground. Of course I had to read this book! Book two of The Dark is Rising sequence, this book tells the tale of Will Stanton, seventh son of the seventh son, and born an Old One, warrior of the light. In the dead of winter, the dark is rising and it’s up to Will to find the six Signs of Light and bring them together to save our world from freezing.
I first read this sequence of books when I was very young and absolutely adored them. Magic, history, adventure bravery, there was nothing not to like. Re-reading them as an adult, I still loved them, though this time I only read The Dark is Rising, as it was the most approapriate to the season. Getting utterly carried away in this story is harder now, some elements have dated a little, and I occasionally felt that there was too much going on, such as Will’s first trip to the Great Hall, but the sense of wonder and the feeling that winter is something so much bigger than just the cold that bites at your fingertips will never be lost, and I’ll continue to reach for this book any time it snows before Christmas.
Experimenting with Pathfinders
We’ve often been told that the current generation of students in our schools are the ‘Google Generation*’, a group of students who use the web with ease and feel that they have no need for books and traditional research as we know it. What we’re seeing in schools however, is a generation of students who though they may use the internet widely, do so ineffectively and use only a very limited number of applications. They may be a whiz at Facebook and MSN IM, but ask them a question and their primary search strategy is to type the whole thing into a Google searchbar and hit enter. Sadly, many of their teachers are also at a similar stage, but being better at selecting key words, get better results with only a little more skill. Though students are taught how to use advance searches and strategies in ICT, this is seldom backed up and would need consistent reinforcement to become the norm.
The difficulty that we face in library based research lessons is that there is neither the time or the space to teach these skills. The library isn’t laid out as a classroom, and unless it’s a small group it’s nearly impossible for me to speak to a whole class all at once, let alone monitor their progress. So more and more this year we’re going to be focusing on passing these skills on to teachers to drill down to their classes, and setting up Pathfinders for students. This involves breaking down the task of research into a series of stages and providing them with starting points, or sign posts long the way. Often these also open up the possibility for talking through search strategies with individual groups, as by providing a clear direction, they are able to see quite clearly where they want their research to go.
The format of these Pathfinders is proving tricky to perfect as yet. Unfortunately our VLE just, well, isn’t, so there’s no central space to display the information. At the moment I’m experimenting with creating documents and webpages that will guide them through, but haven’t quite found the right formula. What I need is something that our students can get to with one click from out home page. You know, like a VLE…** So at the moment we’re making good use of sites such as Diigo to collect key sites, and also Pearltrees, which allows you to display your links in a way with huge student appeal. This is the Pearltree created for the Year 12 English groups who are just about to start studying The Great Gatsby:
Great Gatsby Pearltree (Sorry, it won't embed.)
Students were able to find starting points on many areas of interest and then take their research further using key words that they identified during their reading. So far it’s working well! We’ll continue to investigate and develop formats and presentation until something clicks, then feedback on the process. Wouldn't it be great to use something like a VLE for this? *winks at ICT people* *bats eyelashes*
*And may I congratulate the writer of this article on his wonderful moustache.
**Apparently there is one, it just hasn’t been set up, and staff haven’t been trained on it. This is hugely useful, as you can imagine.
The difficulty that we face in library based research lessons is that there is neither the time or the space to teach these skills. The library isn’t laid out as a classroom, and unless it’s a small group it’s nearly impossible for me to speak to a whole class all at once, let alone monitor their progress. So more and more this year we’re going to be focusing on passing these skills on to teachers to drill down to their classes, and setting up Pathfinders for students. This involves breaking down the task of research into a series of stages and providing them with starting points, or sign posts long the way. Often these also open up the possibility for talking through search strategies with individual groups, as by providing a clear direction, they are able to see quite clearly where they want their research to go.
The format of these Pathfinders is proving tricky to perfect as yet. Unfortunately our VLE just, well, isn’t, so there’s no central space to display the information. At the moment I’m experimenting with creating documents and webpages that will guide them through, but haven’t quite found the right formula. What I need is something that our students can get to with one click from out home page. You know, like a VLE…** So at the moment we’re making good use of sites such as Diigo to collect key sites, and also Pearltrees, which allows you to display your links in a way with huge student appeal. This is the Pearltree created for the Year 12 English groups who are just about to start studying The Great Gatsby:
Great Gatsby Pearltree (Sorry, it won't embed.)
Students were able to find starting points on many areas of interest and then take their research further using key words that they identified during their reading. So far it’s working well! We’ll continue to investigate and develop formats and presentation until something clicks, then feedback on the process. Wouldn't it be great to use something like a VLE for this? *winks at ICT people* *bats eyelashes*
*And may I congratulate the writer of this article on his wonderful moustache.
**Apparently there is one, it just hasn’t been set up, and staff haven’t been trained on it. This is hugely useful, as you can imagine.
Tuesday, 11 January 2011
Hello, New Term!
Back to work! Missed most of last week thanks to an appalling attack of flu that was well on its way to turning pneumonic* but now we’re back! And plans for the year are already coming in thick and fast.
It looks as though the Government are reconsidering their cuts to Booktrust. I'm a little worried that the wording is still very fluffy and could result in there still being a massive cut. The hope of course is that there will be a way that the gifting schemes will be able to keep running in some way that resembles how it is now, but we'll wait on the new funding announcements for that. Students are asking if next year's Year 7s will get books too but I can't give them an answer.
The first email about the Carnegie Shadowing came in today and I admit it, I squealed. Last year was my first year co-ordinating our Shadowers and we had so much fun reading, reviewing and arguing about the short listed books, I just can’t wait to do it again. Hoping that some of the teething problems with the Shadowing site will have been sorted out, such as the endless logging in and the lack of paragraphing capability – grr!**
There have also been some discussions with students lately about what they’d like the library to be, and how we can make it better. Sadly many of the suggestions are things that we just can’t do*** but some of them might be possible, and we’ll do our best to make it happen. We’re in discussions with ICT now about the possibility of getting a small number of netbooks to compliment the computers that we have already, so that there are more available for break and lunch times. The issue is money, mostly, and connectivity. There’ll be no point in getting them if we can’t use them to connect to the internet and the school network. The hope is that the ICT budget will be able to meet us half way, and with any luck, we’ll have five netbooks available over the next couple of months. We’re also going to be buying some portable DVD players, so that the DVDs we stock can actually be played in the library. Whoever thought of putting in computers without a CD/DVD drive, big sarcastic thumbs up. Well done guys.
Sadly it looks as though our Kindle plans will have to go on hold. The good news is that they’re allowing Kindle users to loan out their books to others, which would make the whole system so much easier, but sadly at the moment you’re only allowed to loan out each book once. Ever. Which kinda defeats the whole being a library thing, so we’ll hold off for a while until that’s sorted. Fingers crossed that by the time they make it feasible for us to have them, we’ll also have a wireless network up and running to make loading them up easier.
Work’s also underway to extend the INSET work that we started with teaching staff last year. It was so much to pack into one session that we’re hoping to run a year long activity based on the ’23 Things’ format that’s been used so effectively by many groups, particularly last year by the Cambridge librarians. If we can get approval and support from those on high, we’ll be working with teachers from across the curriculum to develop their use of Web 2.0 technologies and tools. When there’s so much out there available for free, if would be daft in these times of cuts not to take full advantage of them.
Time to conquer 2011!
*Not sure if pneumonic is a word, but it should be.
** Can’t help it – ex-English teacher.
*** Would love to have a café and loads of armchairs! That would be AWESOME. But it’s just not going to happen.
It looks as though the Government are reconsidering their cuts to Booktrust. I'm a little worried that the wording is still very fluffy and could result in there still being a massive cut. The hope of course is that there will be a way that the gifting schemes will be able to keep running in some way that resembles how it is now, but we'll wait on the new funding announcements for that. Students are asking if next year's Year 7s will get books too but I can't give them an answer.
The first email about the Carnegie Shadowing came in today and I admit it, I squealed. Last year was my first year co-ordinating our Shadowers and we had so much fun reading, reviewing and arguing about the short listed books, I just can’t wait to do it again. Hoping that some of the teething problems with the Shadowing site will have been sorted out, such as the endless logging in and the lack of paragraphing capability – grr!**
There have also been some discussions with students lately about what they’d like the library to be, and how we can make it better. Sadly many of the suggestions are things that we just can’t do*** but some of them might be possible, and we’ll do our best to make it happen. We’re in discussions with ICT now about the possibility of getting a small number of netbooks to compliment the computers that we have already, so that there are more available for break and lunch times. The issue is money, mostly, and connectivity. There’ll be no point in getting them if we can’t use them to connect to the internet and the school network. The hope is that the ICT budget will be able to meet us half way, and with any luck, we’ll have five netbooks available over the next couple of months. We’re also going to be buying some portable DVD players, so that the DVDs we stock can actually be played in the library. Whoever thought of putting in computers without a CD/DVD drive, big sarcastic thumbs up. Well done guys.
Sadly it looks as though our Kindle plans will have to go on hold. The good news is that they’re allowing Kindle users to loan out their books to others, which would make the whole system so much easier, but sadly at the moment you’re only allowed to loan out each book once. Ever. Which kinda defeats the whole being a library thing, so we’ll hold off for a while until that’s sorted. Fingers crossed that by the time they make it feasible for us to have them, we’ll also have a wireless network up and running to make loading them up easier.
Work’s also underway to extend the INSET work that we started with teaching staff last year. It was so much to pack into one session that we’re hoping to run a year long activity based on the ’23 Things’ format that’s been used so effectively by many groups, particularly last year by the Cambridge librarians. If we can get approval and support from those on high, we’ll be working with teachers from across the curriculum to develop their use of Web 2.0 technologies and tools. When there’s so much out there available for free, if would be daft in these times of cuts not to take full advantage of them.
Time to conquer 2011!
*Not sure if pneumonic is a word, but it should be.
** Can’t help it – ex-English teacher.
*** Would love to have a café and loads of armchairs! That would be AWESOME. But it’s just not going to happen.
Tuesday, 21 December 2010
Government cut funding for Booktrust
Today the news was announced that the Government are cutting the 100% of the funding for Booktrust, the organisation who run the Booked Up programme, which has been giving away a free book to all Year 7 students in the country.
When the sample set of books arrives each year and go on display, they're instantly a hit with our students; not just the Year 7s who will get them, but the upper years as well, who all want to borrow them straight away and are annoyed when we tell them they have to stay on display for longer. Then the order forms go out with the leaflets, and the excitement and buzz this creates is wonderful. Suddenly a whole year group is talking about books, which ones they'll get, organising in groups of friends to get the whole collection between them. And these aren't just throw away titles. This year our three most popular titles were Invisible City by M.G. Harris, the first book of the Joshua Files, Fever Crumb by Philip Pullman, which you'll remember was nominated for the Carnegie medal this year, and Love, Aubrey by Suzanne LaFleur. These aren't obscure titles from obscure authors, these are exactly the books that our students wanted to read. The range is always superb, offering non-fiction, poetry, and picture books for those with serious literacy difficulties too. There really is something for everyone, not even our most reluctant readers could avoid being enthusiastic about choosing their title.
From the day the order forms were collected in, the library was besieged by Year 7 students asking when their books were arriving. And when they found out they weren't there yet, we were able to tell them about other titles that they might enjoy, based on their choice, and our loan figures took an immediate jump. Then they were there, in big purple boxes, complete with stickers and bookmarks. I didn't get to hand them out. As soon as the students saw the boxes they begged to be allowed to take them to registration for distribution, and for a whole day, every single Year 7 student in the school walked around the campus with a book in their hand or in their pocket. No one put them in their bags.
What the Government have failed to grasp is that a large proportion of these students do not own books. Their parents don't own books. For many of these students, reading and literacy are not valued at home. These aren't the students whose parents will take them to the library. Few of them will visit the school library outside of lessons because it just isn't part of their culture to do that. But now they have a book. And it's not one that they're being forced to read, it's one that they chose, and it's theirs to keep. No overdue reminders, nobody waiting to take it back. It's a gift. When I handed them out to my form, a Year 7 group that contains a couple of students with serious literacy difficulties, one boy took his in both hands.
"You mean I get to keep it?" he said.
"Yes, it's yours. A present."
"Wow. No one's ever given me a book before."
Our school is not in a low income area. Our proportion of students on free school meals is ridiculously low, average incomes are huge and there are still students, even here, who live in a world where they have never been given a book. I hate to think what it's like in more disadvantaged areas.
Let's get the figures straight. The schemes cost the Government £13m. Quite a lot of money. But this is used as a basis to raise sponsorship of over £56m. So what the Government is doing is waving goodbye to over £43m of support for literacy that doesn't even come out of its own pocket. And they decided to announce this just as the Christmas holidays began. Well, Merry Christmas to you too, you [insert insults here].
Local councils are cutting library budgets. Staff hours in our area have been cut by 40% and there are closures happening right across the country. School budgets are being cut, and school libraries will be on the line as Headteachers are forced to make difficult decisions. So at a time like this, when a fundamental aspect of every child's education, reading, is under threat, the Government cuts funding for schemes that we know make a difference. I don't understand what they're aiming for. An illiterate public? An absolute division of the haves and the have nots? And yet today they announce a consultation on tackling child poverty. It's been widely accepted that the fastest, most effective and most sustainable way of reducing child poverty is through education, so what on earth are they trying to do?
When the sample set of books arrives each year and go on display, they're instantly a hit with our students; not just the Year 7s who will get them, but the upper years as well, who all want to borrow them straight away and are annoyed when we tell them they have to stay on display for longer. Then the order forms go out with the leaflets, and the excitement and buzz this creates is wonderful. Suddenly a whole year group is talking about books, which ones they'll get, organising in groups of friends to get the whole collection between them. And these aren't just throw away titles. This year our three most popular titles were Invisible City by M.G. Harris, the first book of the Joshua Files, Fever Crumb by Philip Pullman, which you'll remember was nominated for the Carnegie medal this year, and Love, Aubrey by Suzanne LaFleur. These aren't obscure titles from obscure authors, these are exactly the books that our students wanted to read. The range is always superb, offering non-fiction, poetry, and picture books for those with serious literacy difficulties too. There really is something for everyone, not even our most reluctant readers could avoid being enthusiastic about choosing their title.
From the day the order forms were collected in, the library was besieged by Year 7 students asking when their books were arriving. And when they found out they weren't there yet, we were able to tell them about other titles that they might enjoy, based on their choice, and our loan figures took an immediate jump. Then they were there, in big purple boxes, complete with stickers and bookmarks. I didn't get to hand them out. As soon as the students saw the boxes they begged to be allowed to take them to registration for distribution, and for a whole day, every single Year 7 student in the school walked around the campus with a book in their hand or in their pocket. No one put them in their bags.
What the Government have failed to grasp is that a large proportion of these students do not own books. Their parents don't own books. For many of these students, reading and literacy are not valued at home. These aren't the students whose parents will take them to the library. Few of them will visit the school library outside of lessons because it just isn't part of their culture to do that. But now they have a book. And it's not one that they're being forced to read, it's one that they chose, and it's theirs to keep. No overdue reminders, nobody waiting to take it back. It's a gift. When I handed them out to my form, a Year 7 group that contains a couple of students with serious literacy difficulties, one boy took his in both hands.
"You mean I get to keep it?" he said.
"Yes, it's yours. A present."
"Wow. No one's ever given me a book before."
Our school is not in a low income area. Our proportion of students on free school meals is ridiculously low, average incomes are huge and there are still students, even here, who live in a world where they have never been given a book. I hate to think what it's like in more disadvantaged areas.
Let's get the figures straight. The schemes cost the Government £13m. Quite a lot of money. But this is used as a basis to raise sponsorship of over £56m. So what the Government is doing is waving goodbye to over £43m of support for literacy that doesn't even come out of its own pocket. And they decided to announce this just as the Christmas holidays began. Well, Merry Christmas to you too, you [insert insults here].
Local councils are cutting library budgets. Staff hours in our area have been cut by 40% and there are closures happening right across the country. School budgets are being cut, and school libraries will be on the line as Headteachers are forced to make difficult decisions. So at a time like this, when a fundamental aspect of every child's education, reading, is under threat, the Government cuts funding for schemes that we know make a difference. I don't understand what they're aiming for. An illiterate public? An absolute division of the haves and the have nots? And yet today they announce a consultation on tackling child poverty. It's been widely accepted that the fastest, most effective and most sustainable way of reducing child poverty is through education, so what on earth are they trying to do?
Tuesday, 14 December 2010
Exciting Times
In January, our school will be transforming into a Trust School, with close links to neighbouring establishments and the University of Hertfordshire. We recently attended a meeting with them about the possibilities of allowing our students and staff access to their well stocked LRCs, and to our delight, they’re in complete agreement about going forward with this. This means that when it’s all set up (hopefully well before the next academic year), we’ll have access to all of their e-resources, journal and database subscriptions, with access to the LRCs for all of our students on a reference basis, and hopefully interlibrary loans, if we can arrange the logistics. What’s so wonderful about this is that this means access to advanced resources that we could never dream of affording. Our Information Literacy course for sixth form can be expanded to include an induction to the University LRCs, so those who go on to study at University will have a huge head start. For more information about the University’s LRCs, please follow this link.
There is also the possibility that the library will start to stock Kindles from next Easter. There’s a lot to look into in terms of licensing, but keep your fingers crossed! At the very least, they’ll be stocked with the freely available classics, and we can look at buying ebooks for requested titles.
And of course, most importantly, it’s nearly Christmas! The library is looking gorgeous, decked out in fairy lights and strewn with snowflakes, so a big thank you to all who have made decorations. Also thank you to the IT support folks who borked Eclipse for a day so that Miss A had to spend a day cutting out paper and sticking it everywhere. Aces.
There is also the possibility that the library will start to stock Kindles from next Easter. There’s a lot to look into in terms of licensing, but keep your fingers crossed! At the very least, they’ll be stocked with the freely available classics, and we can look at buying ebooks for requested titles.
And of course, most importantly, it’s nearly Christmas! The library is looking gorgeous, decked out in fairy lights and strewn with snowflakes, so a big thank you to all who have made decorations. Also thank you to the IT support folks who borked Eclipse for a day so that Miss A had to spend a day cutting out paper and sticking it everywhere. Aces.
Thursday, 2 December 2010
Snow Joke
We've got just enough here in Herts to make driving interesting, walking around campus treacherous, and roofs pretty. Not enough for a snow day. Clearly our students have not been performing their snow dances adequately. This will have to be remedied.
Wednesday, 1 December 2010
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...
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...
Sunday, 28 November 2010
The Finish Line is in Sight
It's the 28th November, two days of NaNoWriMo remaining. Three of our students have crossed the 50,000 word mark, so huge congratulations to Nick, Rachel and Kirsty. What's really impressed me about these three is the way that they started out at a normal pace and then just shot a head as they got more and more involved in their stories. Made me feel very proud and slightly teary!
We have an occasional day on Monday, so there's extra writing time for everyone who is still going, and then most of our Wrimos have been signed out of lessons on Tuesday (thank you, lovely and understanding teachers) so they'll be arriving in the morning armed with snacks and Thermos flasks full of tea. Keep writing everyone!
We have an occasional day on Monday, so there's extra writing time for everyone who is still going, and then most of our Wrimos have been signed out of lessons on Tuesday (thank you, lovely and understanding teachers) so they'll be arriving in the morning armed with snacks and Thermos flasks full of tea. Keep writing everyone!
Wednesday, 17 November 2010
Passing the Halfway Point
NaNoWriMo continues to rattle along, with some students so frighteningly far ahead that I wonder if they're sleeping or eating. Others have had to give into the pressures and either drop out (with a promise to try again next year from nearly every single one of them) or adjust their word counts to a more appropriate number, a luxury only afforded to those on the Young Writers' Program. We celebrated the half way point on Monday, and recalculated possible targets, doubling the number of words already written and adding a couple of thousand to make sure that it's still a challenge. This has helped many of those who were feeling disheartened to pick up their stories again with renewed energy. We've also been having great fun at our Plot Clinics, deciding on horrible things to do to our characters if they were starting to bore us. To Pippa's characters I can only apologise. It was my idea to have you fall off the mountain.
Students in the KS3 Creative Writing group, led by Holly and Megan in Year 12, will soon be starting work on their entries for the Red House Young Writers' Yearbook competition. We'll also be opening up the competition to GCSE English students, who may be able to double up and submit a piece of their GCSE coursework. Good luck to all who enter!
The news for schools and budgets is horrifically doom and gloomy at the moment, and we're all being asked to make cut-backs wherever humanly (and sometimes inhumanly) possible. Chances are we'll have less to spend on books next year, but we're already plotting ways to make sure that all our students get access to what they need, be it fiction, websites or good old-fashioned information printed on paper. Signing up to free book schemes and strengthening our connections with other local schools should mean that we can share our resources and make the most of what we've got. The biggest risk is to our staffing and hours, which could have a huge and instantly detrimental impact on what we can do. Though I know that there are people within the school who will fight for us, there are also staff (worryingly) who don't see why we need a library like the one we have. Please keep your fingers crossed for us! With the local public libraries looking at a staffing hours cut of almost 40% and potentially disastrous spending budgets for next year, the role we play in providing our students with essential services is only going to increase in importance. There will be no alternatives.
Students in the KS3 Creative Writing group, led by Holly and Megan in Year 12, will soon be starting work on their entries for the Red House Young Writers' Yearbook competition. We'll also be opening up the competition to GCSE English students, who may be able to double up and submit a piece of their GCSE coursework. Good luck to all who enter!
The news for schools and budgets is horrifically doom and gloomy at the moment, and we're all being asked to make cut-backs wherever humanly (and sometimes inhumanly) possible. Chances are we'll have less to spend on books next year, but we're already plotting ways to make sure that all our students get access to what they need, be it fiction, websites or good old-fashioned information printed on paper. Signing up to free book schemes and strengthening our connections with other local schools should mean that we can share our resources and make the most of what we've got. The biggest risk is to our staffing and hours, which could have a huge and instantly detrimental impact on what we can do. Though I know that there are people within the school who will fight for us, there are also staff (worryingly) who don't see why we need a library like the one we have. Please keep your fingers crossed for us! With the local public libraries looking at a staffing hours cut of almost 40% and potentially disastrous spending budgets for next year, the role we play in providing our students with essential services is only going to increase in importance. There will be no alternatives.
Monday, 15 November 2010
Promoting LGBT Literature
My read of last week was Will Grayson, Will Grayson, by John Green and David Levithan. It’s an absolutely wonderful, touching and at times painfully well observed tale of friendship and young love; I laughed so hard it hurt, and bawled my eyes out at the end. It also features two gay characters, one, Tiny Cooper, who is openly gay (and fabulously so, if he does say so himself) right from the start, and one of the Will Graysons, who comes out in the course of the novel. And here in lies the conundrum. This is a book that I know so many of my students would enjoy. The writing styles and the way that the characters talk to each other is so perfectly tuned to the way that teenagers speak to each other that they’d laugh with recognition at it all the way through. But if I pass this book to a male student and tell him that he might enjoy it, chances are he’ll jump to the conclusion that I think he’s gay.
One of my first missions when I took over this job was to increase the number of LGBT books we stocked. There was one. A whole one. And it wasn’t keyworded ‘gay’ on the system, because the previous librarian feared that this would attract the wrong sort of attention. And the Stonewall guide to LBGT friendly employers was hidden in the office for the same reason. This counter-intuitive approach to shielding LGBT teens from negative attention was clearly not the way I wanted this library to be. We now stock many titles, both fiction and non-fiction, that are securely keyworded and clearly available. So far only one of them has been taken out.
On the face of it, this is a friendly, open school where we’ve had extensive work done in combating homosexual bullying. The word ‘gay’ when used as an insult or with negative connotations, is treated as seriously as a term of racial abuse. And yet there are very, very few openly gay students. In fact, I think I could only name one and he left last year. Statistically, we can estimate 1% of students in this school are gay or lesbian, 0.5% are bi, and 3% are unsure*.
So what’s the best way to promote LGBT literature without making it seem exclusive, and without potentially upsetting students? The English department are planning to use an LGBT text as a class reader at some point in the near future, which will open up the subject, and I’m going to be putting together a display of relevant books that will be out for a couple of weeks just to make it clear that we do have books that would appeal to anyone who is curious.
I would really appreciate hearing how you or anyone else have handled this in your libraries, or if you’re a student here at RPS, what do you think would be a sensible and sensitive way of promoting these books?
*These statistics are based on adult respondents, so I’d expect our ‘unsure’ numbers to be higher.
Friday, 12 November 2010
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!
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.
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.
Monday, 1 November 2010
It begins!
Day 1 of NaNoWriMo. At lunchtime, the novelling hoards should descend and start work on their masterpieces. Then they'll be here after school too, hammering away at their keyboards with me until half four.
Sadly the writing cafe is not to be - it seems that Health and Safety will not allow it. The big no-no, I'm told, is the possibility of students carrying hot drinks across the library. Drinking them is fine, spilling them on books and computers is not a concern, but clearly carrying is a risky business. The irritation here is that we're expecting these students to act as young adults, but we deny them the responsibilities of it and treat them like children. This doesn't make any sense. And no, apparently it is not enough to gather parental consent forms for tea carrying and offer special training. Nor is it relevant that they do this every week in food tech, and take hot dishes out of ovens with their bare hands*. But I'm allowing them to bring snacks and drinks, and, y'know, flasks. Of tea. *subtle wink*
*This is not entirely true.
Sadly the writing cafe is not to be - it seems that Health and Safety will not allow it. The big no-no, I'm told, is the possibility of students carrying hot drinks across the library. Drinking them is fine, spilling them on books and computers is not a concern, but clearly carrying is a risky business. The irritation here is that we're expecting these students to act as young adults, but we deny them the responsibilities of it and treat them like children. This doesn't make any sense. And no, apparently it is not enough to gather parental consent forms for tea carrying and offer special training. Nor is it relevant that they do this every week in food tech, and take hot dishes out of ovens with their bare hands*. But I'm allowing them to bring snacks and drinks, and, y'know, flasks. Of tea. *subtle wink*
*This is not entirely true.
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