I Have Been Remiss

I have been remiss with my blog posts during September. As those of you know who work in schools, it is the busiest month of the school year. When you add that to a building project that falls behind schedule and my library that was the depository for multiple rooms of furniture and computers, it adds up to chaos. Throw in a late start to the school year and things just spin out of control.

Needless to say, amongst all that commotion, I quickly found out that taking two classes at S.U. this fall was not working for me. The decision was a hard one to make, but one that will make it easier on me to focus on one class (IST 605 - Reference and Information Literacy Services) and my 50-hour fieldwork that I will be doing with grades 3-5 in my school district.

Children's Movies from classic books

It's great to see several children's movies coming out based on classic children's stories. Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs opened recently at the theaters, Where the Wild Things Are opens on October 16th, and Fantastic Mr. Fox opens on November 13th. Alice in Wonderland will hit theaters on March 5, 2010.

Today in my primary school library, I read Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs to several classes. It was surprising (or not) to see that many of the young students did not realize that this story was actually a book before it became a movie! It was a great "teachable moment" where I could show the students several of the library books that have been made into movies that they all know. Some of the examples I used were The Polar Express, Jumanji, Curious George, Horton Hears a Who, The Cat in the Hat, and Harry Potter. I also explained that the movies adapt material from the book and that the movie and the book will have some differences.

Fall Classes Underway!

I'm nearing the end of the first week of fall classes (IST 605 - Reference & Information Literacy Services with Dr. Megan Oakleaf, and IST 663 - Integrating Motivation & Information Literacy with Dr. Ruth Small) and so far, so good! The information is interesting and I've got a couple more days to finish first week assignments. School starts on Tuesday for me as well - in the elementary school where I work in the library. I've worked the last two mornings there getting things organized and ready for the first day of school. This will be a real test - the juggling of full time work with my graduate work requirements.

Next Friday, I will be heading to Syracuse once more for a weekend residency for IST 663. I will also be taking workshop tests that Friday afternoon to complete a NY State requirement for all teachers. My fieldwork of 50 hours in an elementary library also begins next week in the district where I work. I'll talk more about that in a future post as I'm still working out all the details. Oh, I almost forgot to mention that I have also registered for the LAST exam for December - one of three exams required by New York State for all teachers. This should be a very busy semester filled with lots of learning experiences!