Also known as Test Prep, but hey, who’s checking anyway. I don’t know about your school, but ours is hunkering down and cramming all the review they can into these last 15 or so instructional days. Here are a few Power Point Presentations I use to review content with students. While I’m the first to [...]
We can moan and groan all we want in Long Beach about budget cuts, but at least we’re not in this school district: Superintendent Linda Paramore says to deal with this reality, the school board has sent every employee a pink slip. From NPR: In Pontiac, Mich., Schools, Everyone Gets A Pink Slip.
President Obama landed at the Long Beach Airport Wednesday afternoon, and a few of our students made a special trip out to welcome him to our city. See the big yellow banner in the middle. . .that’s us. Mr. Algie (History) and I watched from the Library as Marine One (there were five copters [...]
What a wonderful event! Yesterday our middle school held its second annual Career Day, giving all 1100 stuents a remarkable learning opportunity. This year’s event was even a bigger sucess that last year! I must stop here and loudly thank my guest and airline pilot, Captain Eric Snyder, for attending. Not only did he [...]
Here are some of the great new books (reviewed and approved!) coming to our Library! The White Gates by Bonnie Ramthun. This was a wonderful novel that I think will hit our “top ten” list in no time. When Tor moves to Colorado with his mom (she’s divorced, and a new doctor) he immediately figures out [...]
An interesting opinion on BoingBoing; pointing out the subtle, socially significant role of a hardcover book. This post is a reponse to another very intersting opinion that hardcover printing prices are what’s runing the book industry. What do you think? Replace Hardcovers with a Bunch of Big Signs the “hardcovers gently single out the most [...]
I am so very much in love right now with Bill Bryson. I just finished reading A Walk in the Woods : Rediscovering America on the Appalachian Trail, and I loved every page. I consider myself a reasonably competent outdoorsy-type, but I was still inspired and awed as he described the simple beauty of this [...]
Our school is focusing on developing student academic vocabulary: making sure students understand the academic langauge that is often used in standardized testing, as well as in preparation for high schoo and beyond. This may sound simple, but we’re talking about some hard words here. ”Analyze the characterization,” and “Compare the two passages in terms of [...]
So far this week, I’m 0-for-3. I sent all three books I was reviewing for my library back to Library Services with the same post-it attached: Too mature for middle school, please send for high school review. There has been much discussion in our district about where boundaries are between middle school and high school [...]
Anyone else think it’s pretty cool when your profession gets a “shout-out” from CNN? Public libraries (and school libraries for that matter) find themselves in high demand when things go south in the economy. Here’s an article that looks at how this wonderful establishment is helping Americans get back on their feet. From Cnn.com: [...]
