February Mosaic

Almost half of this month's pictures feature snow and ice. We begin with a photo I call, "Art Imitates Life," and end with the drift of snow beside my car in the school parking lot. (A plow-made drift that was beautifully sculpted by the most recent few inches of snow that were delivered with a brisk biting west wind.)

My desk full of piles stressed me out on the day of our Valentine parties.

(Remember, that was the week I was out on Monday for mentor training, we had snow days Tuesday and Wednesday, we came back for Valentine madness on Thursday and then had PD all day on Friday?)

My desk full of piles stressed me out again the following Friday.

(That was the Friday that followed the week described above and then Presidents' Day off and another snow day on Tuesday (thank goodness because I was stranded in NYC) and the author visit on Friday and the Dublin Literacy Conference on Saturday.)

Remarkably, there are also flowers this month. You can see them in the desk piles (how about that stunning orchid that a student who moved to another school gave me?!? I hope I can keep it alive...I've never had an orchid before...) and as a centerpiece for the author visit breakfast. My favorite, though, is the crocus that a squirrel must have transplanted into the geranium that lives on my front porch in the summer and my classroom windowsill in the winter. In spite of the piles of snow outside the window, we had a sign of spring-to-come.

Last year's February Mosaic was quite different from this year's. Sigh. And with March just a day away, it seems completely unlikely that we will EVER see buds and blooms and sprouts again. But since the crocus in my classroom can believe in spring, I guess I can, too!

Poetry Friday -- Love Will Save the Day

YOU GOTTA BE

by Des'ree

from the album I Ain't Movin'

Listen as your day unfolds

Challenge what the future holds

Try and keep your head up to the sky

Lovers they may cause you tears

Go ahead release your fears

Stand up and be counted

Don't be shamed to cry

You gotta be

You gotta be bad

You gotta be bold

You gotta be wiser

You gotta be hard

You gotta be tough

You gotta be stronger

You gotta be cool

You gotta be calm

You gotta stay together

All I know all I know -- love will save the day

Herold what your mother said

Read the books your father read

Try to solve the puzzles in your own sweet time

Some may have more cash than you

Others take a different view

My oh my, eh eh eh

You gotta be bad

You gotta be bold

You gotta be wiser

You gotta be hard

You gotta be tough

You gotta be stronger

You gotta be cool

You gotta be calm

You gotta stay together

All I know all I know -- love will save the day

(the rest of the words are here)

I rarely listen to commercial radio, but when I do, it always seems like there is a song waiting there just for me. It last happened in September of 2009.

Enjoy the words, and if you want to hear it, go on over to YouTube.

Jone has the Poetry Friday roundup today at Check it Out. I missed browsing last week's roundup because of the Dublin Literacy Conference (and the ensuing chaos of "the week after," which included an evening of culture [the Peking Acrobats--wow!] and an evening of rescheduled-because-of-snow parent conferences). I'm looking forward to TWO weeks worth of poetry this weekend!

Dublin Literacy Conference Round-Up

The Dublin Literacy Conference was a huge success. The energy started with Friday night's dinner. The speakers and committee went out and had great conversations (as well as great desserts). It was a great way to start the weekend.

Saturday's conference was energizing. My head is still spinning from all of the new thinking and inspiration. If you missed Monday's post, Mary Lee summarized the day for us. And in Tuesday's post, I shared my own plans for creating a Tech Playground for families like the one we had set up for teachers at the conference. So many of our blogger friends have posted about their experiences so I thought I'd round up some people's reflections about the conference. I think you will enjoy these whether you were able to attend the conference or not.

Tim Tyson was an amazing keynote speaker. I heard him 2 years ago at NCTE's Annual Convention in San Antonio and his talk inspired me to commit to moving forward in my own thinking. I think he did the same for the participants of the Dublin Literacy Conference this week. Dr. Tyson screencast his entire speech and has created a temporary page to share many of the resources that he discussed in his keynote and featured session.

Lisa at Two Learning Journeys was Tim Tyson's Dublin Host for the day. She reflects on all that she learned while spending the day with him.

Kevin Hodgson was another one of our wonderful speakers . He ran sessions for teachers and a very popular Stopmotion session for families. Many of his blog fans were VERY excited to meet him in person at the conference! Kevin posted several reflective posts about the conference--one about the family stopmotion session and one on the conference in general. He also shared his thinking around a conversation he had with Tim Tyson in "When a Whole School Blogs".

Cathy Mere, another presenter at the conference and author of MORE THAN GUIDED READING shared some thinking and resources about the session that she did with Deb Frazier on self-assessment and student ownership. She includes her Powerpoint presentation as well as other documents.

Julie at Raising Readers and Writers posted her initial thoughts on the conference as well as her thinking a few days later that has resulted in a blog curse as well as an energized feeling!

If you read Mandy's post at Enjoy and Embrace Learning before the conference, you know that she was very excited that she would be meeting Ann Marie Corgill, author of OF PRIMARY IMPORTANCE. She did get to meet Ann Marie and she shares her thoughts on both of Ann Marie's sessions.
Shelley from Two Learning Journeys posted about her thoughts on Ann Marie's sessions and book.

Katie at Creative Literacy shared her learning from Katie Van Sluys, author of WHAT IF AND WHY? LITERACY INVITATIONS FOR MULTILINGUAL CLASSROOMS.

And, in his post, " 'I Don't Do Tech.' Really?!?!", Tony at LearnMeSumthin' shares the highlights of the day which include sessions and informal conversations.

As you can see, the day was filled with friends and learning!


(**Top photo is of committee member Abby of AUTHENTIC LEARNING and speaker Ann Marie Corgill enjoying their Brownie Sundae at Mary Kelly's in Dublin on Friday evening. You may recognize Ann Marie from other appearances on our blog, her most popular last summer when she learned to play the Ocarina on the iPhone.)

2010 NCTE Notable Children's Books in the Language Arts

Chrysanthemum by Kevin Henkes. Used with permission of Kevin Henkes and Greenwillow Books.

Each year, a seven-member committee selected by the Children’s Literature Assembly, an affiliate of the National Council of Teachers of English, identifies 30 exemplary works of fiction, non-fiction, and poetry written for children, grades K-8. To be selected as a Notable Book in the Language Arts, books must meet one or more of the following criteria:

1) deal explicitly with language, such as plays on words, word origins, or the history of language;

2) demonstrate uniqueness in the use of language or style; and

3) invite child response or participation. In addition, books are to have an appealing format, be of enduring quality, and meet generally accepted criteria of quality for the genre in which they are written.

2010 Notable Children’s Books in the Language Arts

POETRY

Florian, Douglas. (2009). Dinothesaurus: Prehistoric Poems and Paintings. New York: Simon & Schuster.

Heard, Georgia. (2009). Falling Down the Page: A Book of List Poems. New York: Roaring Brook Press.

Hoberman, Mary Ann and Winston, Linda. (2009). The Tree that Time Built. Illustrated by Barbara Fortin. Naperville, IL: Sourcebooks.

Hughes, Langston. (2009). My People. Illustrated by Charles R. Smith, Jr. New York: Simon & Schuster.

Myers, Walter Dean. (2009). Looking Like Me. Illustrated by Chris Myers. New York: Egmont.

Nelson, Marilyn. (2009). Sweethearts of Rhythm: The Story of the Greatest All-Girl Swing Band in the World. Illustrated by Jerry Pinkney. New York: Penguin.

Ruddell, Deborah. (2009). A Whiff of Pine, a Hint of Skunk: A Forest of Poems. Illustrated by Joan Rankin. New York: Simon & Schuster.

Sidman, Joyce. (2009). Red Sings from Treetops: A Year in Colors. Illustrated by Pamela Zagarenski. New York: Houghton Mifflin.

HISTORICAL AND REALISTIC FICTION

Baskin, Nora Raleigh. (2009). Anything but Typical. New York: Simon & Schuster.

Carmichael, Clay. (2009). Wild Things. Honesdale, PA: Boyds Mills Press.

Davis, Tanita S. (2009). Mare’s War. New York: Random House.

Grimes, Nikki. (2009). Rich, A Dyamonde Daniel Book. Illustrated by Christie, R. G. New York: Penguin.

O’Conner, Barbara. (2009). The Small Adventure of Popeye and Elvis. New York: FSG.

Stead, Rebecca. (2009). When You Reach Me. New York: Random House.

Stoffels, Karlijn. (2009). Heartsinger. New York: Scholastic.

FANTASY / FOLKLORE

Compestine, Ying Chang. (2009). A Banquet for Hungry Ghosts. New York: Henry Holt.

Grace, Lin. (2009). Where the Mountain Meets the Moon. New York: Little, Brown.

Pinkney, Jerry. (2009). The Lion and the Mouse. New York: Little Brown.

INFORMATION / BIOGRAPHY / AUTOBIOGRAPHY

Bryan, Ashley. (2009). Ashley Bryan: Words to My Life’s Song. Photographs by Bill McGinness. New York: Simon & Schuster.

Osborne, Linda Barrett. (2009). Traveling the Freedom Road: From Slavery and the Civil War through Reconstruction. New York: Abrams.

Russell, Ching Yeung. (2009). Tofu Quilt. New York: Lee and Low.

Sandler, Martin W. (2009). The Dust Bowl through the Lens: How Photography Revealed and Helped Remedy a National Disaster. New York: Walker.

Sturm, James, Arnold, Andrew, and Frederick-Frost, Alexis. (2009). Adventures in Cartooning: How to Turn Your Doodles into Comics. New York: First Second.

PICTURE BOOKS

Black, Michael Ian. (2009). Chicken Cheeks. Illustrated by Kevin Hawkes. New York: Simon & Schuster.

Chin, Jason. (2009). Redwoods. New York: Roaring Brook Press.

Coffelt, Nancy. (2009). Big, Bigger, Biggest! New York: Henry Holt.

Feldman, Eve B. (2009). Billy and Milly, Short and Silly! Illustrated by Tuesday Mourning. New York: Penguin.

Gerstein, Mordicai. (2009). A Book. New York: Roaring Brook Press.

Mora, Pat. (2009). Book Fiesta!: Celebrate Children's Day/Book Day; Celebremos El dia de los ninos/El dia de los libros. Illustrated by Raphael Lopez. New York: HarperCollins.

Patricelli, Leslie. (2009). Higher! Higher! New York: Candlewick.


NCBLA 2010 Committee (left to right): Quinn White, Kathy Short, April Bedford, Janelle Mathis-Chair, Jonda McNair, Mary Lee Hahn (not pictured: Mary Napoli, Deanna Day-Past Chair)...and the 30 2010 books!

Coming in March: Tech Playground for Families

One of the things the Dublin Literacy Conference has been thinking about this year is how to make student learning visible. A component of our conference has always been the display of student work. These have changed over the years. When the conference began 21 years ago, an entire area was designated to students displays. They took up walls and walls of space and celebrated our students' learning. But recently, we have had to rethink these "displays" based on the kinds of work our kids are creating. Jason Blair, one of our elementary art teachers, was the committee member who volunteered to rethink displays. He set up a great area of student digital displays that conference participants were able to see. But, Jason also wanted a place where teachers could try things out, where they could get their hands on some of the new tools. So he came up with the idea of a "Tech Playground".

At this year's conference, thanks to Jason's brilliant idea, we hosted our first Tech Playground. One room was designated as a place where participants could play with some of the new tools available to our students. The room had a portable SMARTBoard, Kindles, iPods, Cameras, Flip Videos, Laptops and more. Students and staff were available in the room to help out if needed. The room was a great hit. I went in a few times over the lunch break and the room was packed with participants trying out new tools. It was a fun room with lots of energy--a bit like any Apple Store.

I loved the idea of this Tech Playground and have decided to host one for our families in our school library. We've received so many great new tools through various funds for our students at Riverside that I think it would be great for them to be able to share the tools with their families. A Tech Playground seems the perfect idea for families.

After talking to some colleagues about the idea, we've decided to host the Tech Playground for Families during our Spring Book Fair in a few weeks. We always host our book fair during parent-teacher conference nights because so many families are in the building. It makes sense to tie the Tech Playground to this time since so many of our parents and families visit the library for the Book Fair. This will give parents another reason to come to the library and it will give everyone a chance to buy books and learn a bit about the new tech tools. Families buying books and playing with new tech tools--it sounds like the perfect combination to me!

Dublin Literacy Conference

The screen behind Dr. Tim Tyson says, "School Can Be Anything That You Can Imagine." Dr. Tyson's thinking about the transformative capabilities of technology in our classrooms set the tone for the conference with the first keynote. (Check out #DubLit2010 on Twitter for a running commentary on his and other speakers' presentations.)

To continue with the theme of 21st Century Literacies, we collected digital as well as traditional student displays for attendees to view, and there was a "Technology Playground" with a myriad of tools (Flip Video, Kindle, iPod Touch, iPod Nano, etc) for folks to try out.

With our children's authors Denise Fleming, Melissa Sweet, and Patrick Carman, we celebrated the joy of reading words and pictures and books that come in multiple formats, and with David J. Smith, the importance of reading the world .

It seems appropriate that today is Edna St. Vincent Millay's birthday. She's the poet who wrote,

"My candle burns at both ends;

It will not last the night;

But ah, my foes, and oh, my friends —

It gives a lovely light!"

The committee, the teacher presenters, and the featured speakers all worked hard to make this conference one of the best of the 21 we've held. And now we are all turning back to our day jobs, hopefully enriched and enthused and challenged and inspired to do our work better and smarter and with the knowledge that all we do every day (whether as teacher, author, or illustrator) does indeed make a huge difference -- a "lovely light" -- in the world.

Poetry Friday -- Heavenly Sunshine

When I was a wee one in summer Vacation Bible School, I loved two things: the frosted animal crackers for snack and the songs. I took those songs to heart. I'd get up early and go out to stand in the middle of the back yard and belt out "Heavenly SUNshine, heavenly SUNshine, filling my soul with glory dee-vi-ine..." and I'd FEEL the glory divine filling my soul.

Recently, our winter skies have yielded more tentative sunshine (as above) than heavenly sunshine. We're due for some bright blue skies and warmth.

Here's Mary Oliver's take on early morning sun:

WHY I WAKE EARLY

Hello, sun in my face.
Hello, you who made the morning
and spread it over the fields
and into the faces of the tulips
and the nodding morning glories,
and into the windows of, even, the
miserable and the crotchety –

(the rest of the poem is here)

Irene has the roundup at Live. Love. Learn!

PLNs-More Than Our Own Personal Learning Networks

We are gearing up for this year's Dublin Literacy Conference on Saturday. This year marks the 21st year that we've run the conference and I have been thinking about this year's speakers and reflecting on the ways my own professional learning has changed in the last 21 years. Learning from others--formally and informally--has always been a huge part of my own professional growth. 21 years ago, I had no idea what a Personal Learning Network (PLN) was, even though I am pretty sure I had one. I have always been lucky to learn from so many others who are passionate about kids and teaching. With Web 2.0, our learning networks have expanded in ways that we couldn't have imagined 21 years ago.

For years, Mary Lee and I had attended NCTE and other literacy conferences and we were connected to a group of literacy educators across the country. We valued what we learned from that group. We looked forward to those few times each year when we could learn from so many of our most important mentors. Learning face-to-face was the only option and we were limited to learning from only the people (mostly literacy teachers) who attended the same conferences that we did.

When we started blogging, I remember what fun it was to discover voices of experts we didn't know. We found so many other people out there who had the same beliefs about books and reading that we did. The thing that struck me early on with blogging were the powerful bridges that were being built naturally because of the networking tools that had become available. We never figured our audience would be anything other than elementary teachers. But now, when we say we are part of the "Kidlitosphere," this group includes teachers, librarians, authors, readers, illustrators, parents, publishers, editors, and advocates for children's books. Web 2.0 has helped people come together that had no way of finding each other before. Each person plays a different role and the ability to have ongoing conversations with this amazing group has been powerful.

I think this type of thing is happening every minute. Because of all of the networking tools available, we are better able to share expertise and learn from people we may not have been able to learn from before. Just as the Dublin Literacy Conference will host speakers whose expertise is in both literacy and technology, other conferences have done the same. When Kylene Beers chaired the annual NCTE Convention a few years ago, she brought in speakers that talked about issues around 21st Century Literacies. For me, that convention introduced me to yet another group of amazing people whot I could learn from. Two years later, after finding new blogs and networking on Twitter, I am looking to expand my own learning by going to a summer conference that focuses more on the changes that technology is bringing, than one that focuses on literacy alone. I feel extremely lucky to have these networks so readily available. My own professional learning has been amazing over the past few years. I learn from someone new every single day.

I worried yesterday when I read the following blog post at LIBRARIAN BY DAY. I absolutely believe that school and public librarians have an important role in new literacies and that funding for libraries is a very important issue. But to imply that we are the only ones who can do this goes against all I believe about the work that we do. To say that any one group (or place) can or should be totally responsible for something so huge seems crazy to me. I know from my own learning, that to presume that others--those with a different area of expertise--are not as important, goes against all that learning is about. It is our work together that will make a difference.

I agree with Bobbi Newman at Librarian By Day in the fact that we should all believe that the work we do is the most important work--not because it is, but because when we believe that, it means we are doing the work we are supposed to do. But, we are at a time when we have the opportunity to bring groups together that have never been able to have this kind of ongoing dialogue before. Being open to learning from and with people with different sets of knowledge and skills or different ways of looking at the world can and will have a huge impact on our learning if we let it.

I have been in many roles as an educator and the one thing that I am certain of is that each and every role is an important one. None of us could or should do this work alone. It is by bringing our thinking together that we can do our best for children. I believe we are extremely lucky to live in a time when these networks are so readily available. Because I have been able to learn from and with people whose expertise is different from my own, my work is so much better. It has been a powerful experience.

PLNs are about more than our own personal learning. It seems bigger than that. PLNs of the 21st Century have given us the opportunity to bring groups together that have never been able to have ongoing talk before. I have already seen the power of that over the last few years. I think we each have a role to play in all of this. We need to take advantage of the ways in which we can learn from people and groups we haven't had access to before. I can only imagine how far we can go as more groups collaborate to share and grow understandings. It is an exciting time to be a learner.

PRINCESS PIGTORIA AND THE PEA by Pamela Duncan Edwards

I love any new version of THE PRINCESS AND THE PEA. I loved it when I was little and I still love it. So, when I saw PRINCESS PIGTORIA AND THE PEA by Pamela Duncan Edwards, I bought it, of course! I was expecting to love it because I love all books about the Princess and the Pea. But this one may make it to my favorites list. It is a GREAT story. A smart, independent princess.

Princess Pigtoria was very poor. So, when she saw that a rich prince was looking for a bride, she went to Porksville to apply. The pig was a little arrogant but she enjoyed her time by hosting a pizza party before she goes to sleep on several mattresses (under which, of course, the Prince has placed a pea). I don't want to give the ending away, but be assured that the princess gets the happy ending she deserves. The alliteration in this book is pretty fun--not so much that it gets in the way of the story, but it just adds to the fun.

This is a princess story I am extremely happy to add to my collection.

SAVING THE BAGHDAD ZOO: A TRUE STORY OF HOPE AND HEROES by Kelly Milner Halls and Major William Sumner

When I look at the nonfiction books that we weed from our school library, they are often encyclopedia-like books that don't seem to have been written for children. So many older nonfiction children's books are like that. The field of nonfiction books for kids has gotten so much better over the past decade. Now our kids have great nonfiction to read--stories that are interesting and written with kids in mind.

One of my worries is that kids love nonfiction but don't always have the stamina to read anything longer than a magazine article. They check out nonfiction often but when I chat with kids about the books, it becomes clear that they enjoyed the photos but didn't read much beyond the captions.

Stocking our library with great nonfiction on topics that kids can't help but be interested in will hopefully build a stamina for nonfiction and help students find great topics that are interesting to them.

A new nonfiction book I picked up at Cover to Cover this week is SAVING THE BAGHDAD ZOO: A TRUE STORY OF HOPE AND HEROES. This is a great read. I read it at my kitchen table in one sitting. This is a 60ish page book with great photos spread throughout. It tells the stories of many of Iraq's zoo animals that were saved from terrible conditions. In the introduction, Major William Sumner says, "During my time in Iraq, I was asked repeatedly why we were helping the animals and not the people of Baghdad, but I believe that we were doing both." After reading the stories of rescues throughout the book, this statement becomes so clear to readers. Saving the zoo animals was such an important thing for so many people.

The book begins with some basic history and general information about what was found when people were sent to check out the state of the remaining animals in the zoo. Following the first two chapters, different animals are highlighted. We learn about rescues of a variety of animals over a period of time--bears, Arabian horses, camels, lions and more. Each story can stand alone but together, the stories show the impact of what was done to save these animals.

This is a great story. So often our kids come to the library looking for books about war. I am never sure quite what they want and neither are they. This book does not cover up the tragedies of a war, but doesn't focus on those. Instead this book focuseds on this one aspect of recovery and we get to know the real dangers, the real people and the animals who were involved. And Kelly Milner Halls definitely knows how to write for kids.

This book would make a great read aloud for upper elementary students if you are looking for quality nonfiction that can be read over several days.