Handwriting in this day and age

I recently read Script & Scribble: the Rise and Fall of Handwriting by Kitty Burns Florey.

Handwriting is of so little concern these days. We don't worry, the computer takes care of it. In her book, Florey shares stories of people who thought quite differently, people who devoted their lives to their passion for penmanship.

This book was a nostalgic read. I thought, for the first time in years, of my grandmother's beautiful cursive writing. She used to write with such an even scale. And yes, she wrote her script 'Q's like large '2's. I found myself pondering when handwriting will become obsolete. Penmanship like my grandmother's is now so rare. Most adults write with a hybrid style. This is a wonderfully enjoyable book, written with appropriate lightheartedness for its subject, yet sharing an obvious passion for reading and writing.

Karla Kuskin

I was so sad to read about the death of Karla Kuskin, the children's poet, author and illustrator. Read the obituary in the New York Times here. I find her poems to be so satisfying in their rhythm, both line by line and overall. One of my favorites is in a collection I just purchased for my library, Wonderful Words: Poems about reading, writing, speaking and listening, selected by Lee Bennett Hopkins. It is called "Finding a Poem", and goes like this:

Dig deep in you,

Keep everything you find.

Sketch the ever changing views,

dappled behind your eyes,

rustling in your mind.

Unlock the weather

in your heart.

Unleash a thousand whispers,

let them shout.

Then

when you feel

the presence of a poem

wating to spring

to sting

within you,

bewitch it

into words

and sing it out.

There is no doubt that Kuskin loved (and understood) cats, frequent subjects in her work. On the cat or dog question, I place myself in the dog camp, yet I love to read these stories and poems because she shares her special insight so poignantly and with few words.

Some favorite Karla Kuskin titles in the Mohansic Library:

Any Me I Want to Be: Poems
Dogs & Dragons, Trees & Dreams: A collection of poems
Moon, Have You Met My Mother: the collected poems of Karla Kuskin
Soap Soup and Other Verses (An I Can Read book)
The Upstairs Cat
I Am Me
A Boy Had a Mother Who Bought Him a Hat
A Great Miracle Happened There: A Chanukah story
The Philiharmonic Gets Dressed
The Dallas Titans Get Ready for Bed
So, What's it Like to Be a Cat?

Here is a link to a workshop with Kuskin on Scholastic's Writing with Writers site.

Thank you, Karla, for sharing your voice with all of us. You will be missed, but fortunately, we will continue to read your poems and stories and enjoy the gifts you shared.

SLMS Leadership Conference

From August 2 -4, I was fortunate to attend the NYLA SLMS Leadership Retreat on the Cornell University campus in Ithaca with my friend and colleague Renee. Starting my third year as a library media specialist, I find this annual conference to be particularly useful. Kudos to the library media specialists who organize this event, always featuring a noted speaker from the information and education fields. I attended last year when the featured presenters were Barbara Stripling and Gail Dickinson, who helped us process the new AASL Learning Standards.

Photo: McGraw Clock Tower on flickr.com by rdesai

This year we worked with Carol Koechlin, who along with David Loertscher and Sandi Zwaan, has been a leader in instructing teachers and teacher-librarians about the inquiry process. She taught us the importance of getting our kids to learn how to learn by asking deep questions. We learned "questioning is cross-curricular." With curious, observant minds, our kids will soar. It's not a matter of some kids have it and some don't: we must teach this mindset. (A fascinating recommendation from Carol: read Mindset by Dweck. A quick read - I highly recommend it.) How do we as library media specialists do this? We need to start by building a community of learners, reinforcing observation skills, modeling effective questioning, and creating a desire to know. A strong reminder resonated with me: I need to model strong questioning more with my young students. Their natural curiosity and enthusiasm does not automatically transfer to deep thinking, though there's a natural progression there to be supported.

Toward this end, Carol supported us in extending our own questioning skills, reviewing three levels of questioning which she attributed to Manzo (1969):

• on the line - it's clearly stated in the text
• between the line - inferring from multiple references in the text
• beyond the line - it's not there; students must do further study and connect to prior knowledge

Carol shared wonderful exercises to deepen our questioning. We closed the day by linking questioning to the AASL Learning Standards. The second day focused on applying questioning to learning. Carol left us with The Big Think, from her work with Loertscher & Zwaan. When students complete the unit project, there is more work to do...we need to reflect with our students on what the content and process mean to us ("so what?") and to ask ourselves "what next?", helping students to go beyond the basic questions and to continue the learning journey.

Recommended Professional List:
Beyond Bird Units! Thinking & Understanding in Informaton-Rich and Technology-Rich Environments by David V. Loertscher, Carol Koechlin, and Sandi Zwaan

Brain Matters: Translating research into classroom practice by Patricia Wolfe

Guided Inquiry: Learning in the 21st Century by Carol Kuhlthau

Learning to Question to Wonder to Learn by Jamie McKenzie

Librarians as Learning Specialists: Meeting the learning imperative for the 21st Century by Allison Zmuda

Mindset: The new psychology of success by Carol Dweck

QTasks: How to empower students to ask questions and care about answers by Carol Koechlin

Top 20 TED Talks podcasts

This site offers the Top 20 TED Talks podcasts for busy school administrators. Clay Shirky made the list; I am reading his book Here Comes Everybody: the Power of Organizing without Organizations. The opening story of a lost cell phone in a taxi cab is such a great intro to his explanation of how we interact in a connected (read, "wired") society. Shirky was recommended by Will Richardson at a seminar I attended at BOCES last month. (oops, meant to blog on that, too!)

The arts and brain development

I found this article in the Baltimore Sun, courtesy of NCTE, that described studies looking at the connection between arts instruction and brain function. Highly interesting, though not surprising.

Having fun with nonfiction

First graders are enjoying their study of nonfiction, culminating in writing their own book on a topic of their choice. We played with the idea of fiction and nonfiction in the library today. We read Naked Mole Rat by Jody Sullivan Rake and identified many nonfiction features we have studied. Then, we switched gears a bit and read Naked Mole Rat Gets Dressed by Mo Willems. Lots of laughs! Finally, we read Animals should definitely not wear clothing by Judi Barrett, and we wondered which animal we might use in our own illustrations of Ms. Barrett's theory.

Kate DiCamillo's miraculous leads

I am already drawn in by the first chapter of The Magician's Elephant as read by the author, Kate DiCamillo. The book will be out in Fall 2009. Watch and listen to the author read here (click on "watch more about The Magician's Elephant"). See if you don't get drawn in too! She also has a link to a PDF of the first chapter on her website. This would be a great starter for a discussion about writing leads.

LHRIC Tech Expo

I was fortunate to attend the LHRIC Tech Expo last Friday. The morning keynote speaker was Sarah Robbins. She shared relevant facts about today's young learners (e.g., this is the first year that 99% of students will have had internet access their entire school career.) She made really interesting connections between gaming and learning. This is not a new topic to librarians, yet her comments led me to a great discussion with my eight year-old son about how he learns a new game on his Nintendo! She addressed the "prosumer" component of the web, as consumers participate in creating new content (example: 12 year-old Kevin Lin' s Youtube video of video special effects). She reminded us to facilitate, not "teach"; to "grow" our students in a garden instead of a flowerpot. And most impressively: she's completed requirements for her PhD while being mom to young triplets!

Marco Torres gave the afternoon keynote. His enthusiasm and love for his students and instruction were completely contagious. He showed how through digital storytelling, he teaches students to organize and classify their ideas. (His 4 P's: Plan, Produce, Present and Pheedback.) This is a lifelong skill; I use visual graphic organizers with my primary students to plan their writing. They get it. I asked him about video projects for the little ones, and he shared a project where third graders created a superhero story with illustrations and high schoolers animated the film. It was a beautiful collaboration. (He also mentioned that he prefers the quality of the Kodak Zi6 to the Flip camera.) After showing how technology supports the challenging work his students do in school, he closed with a hilarious segment on how technology is often used to support the teacher rather than student learning. Marco Torres reminded us to concentrate on the verbs, not the nouns.

Quick tip from Heidi Lappi, science teacher from Clarkstown: create a form in Google docs for students to input their collected data. Embed the spreadsheet in your wiki and they will see updated results as they continue their research projects.

Overall, a great day with wonderful ideas, large and small.

Thinking of Poetry

National Poetry Month is around the corner, though I believe in celebrating poetry throughout the year. Kindergartners loved Touch the Poem by Arnold Adoff. I look forward to Eloise Greenfield's recent book, Brothers & Sisters.


If you choose to begin with Mother Goose, take a look at The Real Mother Goose. Find ideas for a Poem in Your Pocket Day at NYC Bd of Ed's page here. First graders loved listening to Kristine O'Connell George reading her short and touching dog poems. Hear Charles R. Smith, Jr. reading from Perfect Harmony, his magnificent collection about the Boys Choir of Harlem. Naomi Shihab Nye's poems for teens are amazing; for elementary, try Come With Me: Poems for a Journey. Enjoy children's poet laureate Mary Ann Hoberman. Don't wait until April!

Has anyone tried National Geographic Wildlife Filmmaker?

I just picked up on this fun and applicable tool from this post on Kristin Fontichiaro's blog on SLMAM.

National Geographic Filmmaker lets kids create their own wildlife video with a library of video and sound clips. They can add their own captions too. You can save and share your final product. Visual learners will love this! Second graders will love this! I am sure NatGeo will add more clips as they develop the product. I agree with Joyce Valenza that a voice recording feature would be nice. I can't wait to share this with students! It's a great complement to our second graders' animal research project.

The Mohansicott Winners!

First graders chose the winners of our first annual Mohansicott Award! Students evaluated what makes a "distinguished" picture book, as described in the Caldecott Terms & Criteria. We looked at several past winners to help us identify "distinguished" attributes, such as details in the illustration, colorful pictures, something new and different we had never seen before, and illustrations that shared a feeling from the story.

The winner is A Kitten Tale by Eric Rohmann! Students enjoyed the colorful and playful illustrations complementing a sweet story of kittens enjoying winter's first snow. Our two Honor titles are Louise, the Adventures of a Chicken illustrated by Harry Bliss and written by Kate DiCamillo, and Old Bear by Kevin Henkes. The illustrations in Louise matched the adventures in the story: exciting and fun! Louise looked like a cartoon! In Old Bear, Kevin Henkes told the story of a bear who went to sleep for the winter and dreamed of the changing seasons. We loved how we could tell from the illustrations which season Old Bear was dreaming of.

We enjoyed sharing the Caldecott Committee's choice, The House in the Night, illustrated by Beth Krommes, written by Susan Marie Swanson. Some first graders noticed that this cumulative tale tells a story then "rewinds" to tell the tale in reverse. Many students loved the beautiful etched illustrations with its careful use of golden color.

Special thanks to polldaddy for helping us tally our votes. We will soon have a medal designed for the winning and honor books that will be placed on the book covers in the Mohansic Library. Can't wait until next year!

Web 2.0 Goodies

The Web 2.0 goodie of the month: Jing Project, for video screen capture. Capture exactly what you are doing on your computer into a video package which you can narrate then share. Great tool! Thank you to friend Sarah Chauncey who introduced me to it! Jing seemed cool right away, but I keep thinking of more ways to use it in professional training for teachers and classroom instruction. You need to download a piece to your computer then you're good to go!

Another fun tool: Remindr - lighter than Jing, but very useful! Tell it what to remind you of, when, and how (phone, email, Twitter). It sends you a message. The authors do not take themselves too seriously either; but, they have a really simple tool that works.

I am excited to begin studying with Shelley Paul's online K12-Learning 2.0 class this month. Off topic for a moment, I highly recommend the online course, Teaching Poetry to Children, offered through ALSC, taught by Sylvia Vardell, a tireless advocate for poetry for children. The Moodle course improved my practice in the library. I was charged up about several poets and well-prepared to share their work with my students. A favorite "find" from the course (perfect for kindergarten!) was Touch the Poem by Arnold Adoff.

One more: I follow Teachers Love Smartboards. There are some gems on this site,including a link to Nicole Mobley's site with Smart Board lessons for your Kindergarten classroom.

The Inauguration Concert

I was so thrilled last night to view the concert in celebration of tomorrow's inauguration of Barack Obama. My family and I are not in Washington; we watched on television, but the excitement and anticipation of the huge crowd was still palpable. My young son was excited to see Pete Seeger, whom we met this summer in nearby Beacon, during a street festival. My family adores Pete Seeger, and can sing much of his classic folk repertoire by heart. We joined in with Pete and Bruce Springsteen as they sang "This Land is Your Land", written by Woody Guthrie. We sang also with James Taylor singing his "Shower the People" and the moving finale by Beyonce singing "America the Beautiful", joined by all the actors and singers who had performed earlier. The entire event was an astounding feat of logistics and artistic show and we enjoyed it from beginning to end. As we look forward to tomorrow's event, which we plan to view via streaming video in our school, I look forward to not just hearing the words of our new president and the response of the enormous crowd, but viewing this experience through the eyes of the 6 - 8 year olds in my school who have some sense in their young experience that this is a moment in our American history which will not be forgotten. Options for viewing the inauguration, check here (thank you to LM_NET).

Martin Luther King, Jr. Day

Courtesy of one of my favorite sources for navigating the web, Librarian's Internet Index, here is a helpful guide to Martin Luther King, Jr. at the San Jose Public Library. They link to an interesting page for kids, including games. Try and guess the words to Dr. King's legendary I Have A Dream speech here. Check out the origin of Martin Luther King Day at factmonster. Two lesson plans for K-2 on ReadWriteThink: 100 Acts of Kindness and Identifying With a Hero. Take a virtual tour of Dr. King's birth home in Atlanta. This year on January 19, 2009, we commemorate the 80th anniversary of Dr. King's birth.

Jan Brett's new contest is open

Jan Brett opened her 2009 school library visit contest today! This year is a little different -- you print out three characters to color and glue them under the right hat, then mail it to Jan Brett. Last year's contest was entirely online; this year, you get to mail your entry to Jan Brett! Remember that last year, Mohansic first-grader Ben won a signed poster from Jan Brett!! You can enter as many times as you wish! Click here for the contest page at janbrett.com to enter. Good Luck!

First Annual Mohansicott Award

First graders are learning about the Caldecott Medal, awarded to one picture book annually since 1938. We looked at the terms and criteria for the award, and had a lively discussion of what is meant by "the most distinguished American picture book for children"; how do we identify "distinguished" illustrations? We examined many Caldecott winners and noticed some characteristics of these "distinguished" books.

We do not know which books are being considered for this year's award. But there are several places to find some educated guesses. Try and google "Mock Caldecott" and you'll get a glimpse into a variety of opinions on the subject. Check out what School Library Journal thinks. The Allen County Public Library has a blog devoted to their mock Caldecott election. Here is the list by the Wells County Public Library. These are the books that first graders will choose from for the first Mohansicott Award:

What To Do About Alice? by Barbara Kerley, illustrated by Edwin Fotheringham	Owney, the Mail Pouch Pooch by Mona Kerby, illustrated by Lynne Barasch	Old Bear written and illustrated by Kevin Henkes	A Kitten Tale written and illustrated by Eric Rohmann	Grace For President by Kelly DiPucchio, illustrated by LeUyen Pham
Monarch and Milkweed by Helen Frost, illustrated by Leonid Gore	Wabi Sabi by Mark Reibstein, illustrated by Ed Young	1, 2 Buckle My Shoe by Anna Grossnickle Hines	Duel! : Burr and Hamilton's Deadly War of Words by Dennis Fradin, illustrated by Larry Day	Louise: the Adventures of a Chicken by Kate DiCamillo, illustrated by Harry Bliss

We will use a survey website for our election, so we can easily track the winner. I can't wait to get started sharing these books together! Even if your favorite doesn't win, there's nothing better than discovering a wonderful new story!

Author visit in January

We are all very excited about the planned visit by talented author/illustrator Pat Schories to Mohansic's kindergarten. Pat's illlustrations for the Biscuit books are adored by early readers. She has also created her own character, Jack, a Jack Russell terrier who is the main character in a wonderful series of wordless books.

Kindergarten students will learn where Pat gets her ideas for her illustrations and how she uses models for her drawings. We will enjoy telling each other the stories in the wordless Jack books.

If you would like to view an interview with Pat Schories and Alyssa Satin Capucilli, the author of the Biscuit books, click here.