Thursday, February 18, 2010

Please Vote for My Students "Novels"

Yet again, I've failed to keep up with this blog. Since school resumed in January, it seems like my life has been almost entirely taken up with preparing my students for the 7th Grade State Writing Assessment the beginning of March. In addition to working on formal writing, though, we have also done some fun blogging assignments. For the most recent assignment, students imagined that they had just published a novel. In their postings, each of them shared the book’s title, first paragraph, and a typed or recorded “booktalk” promoting it. Then, students in each class read all their classmates’ postings and nominated their favorites, from which I created a finalist list for all four classes. We are now inviting any other interested readers to enjoy these delightful finalist postings and vote along with my students on the top novel from all four classes. I know my students would enjoy knowing that they had visitors outside our school participating.

You can see links to all the finalists' work and the voting ballot in my class blog posting.

Please consider participating. Voting will close on February 25.

Many thanks!

Outside of Work

While life seems to be taken up almost entirely with work right now, I have also enjoyed some activities outside work. I was thrilled to be involved in CSLA Southern Section's webinar with Joyce Valenza, one of the school library field's brightest stars, on January 23. If you missed out on this event, check out the webinar wiki set up by Marie Slim, our terrific event organizer. I am also looking forward to Southern Section's PARTY (Palms MS for Advocacy, Reading/Research, Technology, and You!) workshop on March 27. If you are in Southern California, you won't want to miss the chance to hear Keynoter Stephen Krashen, attend great concurrent sessions, participate in our first-ever Web 2.0 Tools Smackdown, visit with terrific vendors, participate in our popular raffle basket drawing, and socialize with old and new friends. Check the workshop wiki for details. With ugly budget cuts threatening us all around, we need more than ever to stick together and advocate for the school library programs our students need. Attending our workshop is one opportunity to get together and build strength. Please come!

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