Some of the books shared were:

• Mary M.: Maximum Ride: The Angel Experiment
• Gabriel D.: Sammy Keyes and the Wild Thing
• Natalie D.: The Trap & Bella At Midnight (Natalie could you let me know the author of The Trap)
• Mrs. House: The Mailbox
• Scott T.: Goosebumps:
• Erika T.: The Invention of Hugo Cabret
• Mrs. Branson: Room One: A Mystery or Two & The London Eye Mystery
• Mrs. McDaniel: Boxcar Children and Nancy Drew Mysteries (shared these two series)

All of these sounded wonderful and I can’t wait to check out a couple of them myself because there were four shared that I haven’t read yet.  Our next virtual summer book club meeting will be on July 28, 2008 at 7:00 pm and we will be discussing realisitic fiction books.  Get to the public library today and check out your book for our meeting.  Don’t forget to keep up with the number of pages that you are reading even if you don’t get to join us online.

Happy reading,

So… if you haven’t become motivated to start the summer reading program, No Book Left Unread, and you haven’t dived into all those great books on the reading lists that we sent home in May, join me in this challenge. 

You can join the Summer Reading Challenge by making a list of the books you want to read.  Why don’t you make the list and send me a copy at my blog or Schoolnotes email?    It doesn’t matter how many books or how many pages … just so you make a list and “stick to” reading the books on your list.  Keep up with the book titles and the number of pages (for our participation in NBLU)  You can email me here everytime you complete a book on your list.  Here is my reading list…

1. Elijah of Buxton by Paul Christopher Curtis
2. Dexter the Tough by Margaret Peterson Haddix
3. Jack Plank by Natalie Babbitt
4. Roxie and the Hooligans by Phyllis Reynolds Naylor
5. The Big One-Oh by Dean Pitchford
6. Room One: A Mystery or Two by Andrew Clements
7. The Winner’s Walk by Nancy Ruth Patterson
8. The Wednesday Wars by Gary D. Schmidt.

In case anyone wants to use the reading calendar, here is the link for June and July .  I’ll post the August calendar later. Yes, a “STAR Buck” for every five activities you record and share with me in August!

I’ve been checking out the bookstores this summer and found some of the new titles being released this summer that are from some of your favorite series.  You may not be able to wait until August - but be assured they will be available when you get back to school in the fall.  Ha!  Betcha can’t wait for school to start back now!  Happy summer reading!

• The Time Paradox (Artemis Fowl Book 6 - Released July 15)
• Warriors: Cats of the Clan (Released June 24)
• The Battle of the Labyrinth (Percy Jackson and the Olympians, Book 4 - Now Available)
• Raven Rise (Pendragon - Now Available)
• Queste (Septimus Heap, Book 4 - Now Available)
• The Quest Begins (Seekers Series Book 1 - a new series by Erin Hunter - now available) 

It was heart breaking to read about the difficult and dangerous struggles he faced as he attempted to cross into the US. This novel brought to light many controversial issues, including the current debate over regulation of immigration laws; the prevalence of “coyotes” and “mules” and how their reputation and illegal trades have affected so many of the Mexican population; and role of border police and vigilantes. Our students found a greater understanding of the desire to come to the US, illegally, even if the trip is life threatening.

A good read which offered great controversial topics for discussion.

Again, this summer we plan to participate in the statewide summer reading program, called, No Book Left Unread. The State Department of Education will give prizes to the winning student, school and teacher. Registration forms should be returned by May 23, 2008, but late forms will be accepted. Every student will receive a reading log along with a suggested reading list or you can find it at this link.

In addition to reading and keeping up with pages read, we will be offering a live Interactive Video Conference (IVC) and book club chat via a webcast twice a month in June and July. We will have a panel of teachers, students and parents to chat live with opportunities for others to chime in with their comments on the books they have read. Each session will focus on a specific genre and the choice of title belongs to the child.

To participate in the live book club chat:

• Parents should email me at brendabranson@gmail.com. I will need to add you to our “invite” list so that you can sign in at the time of the IVC. You will get an email saying that you have been added.
• You can sign up to join the live chat at WiZiQ.
• Just before we launch our live session, you will get an email inviting you to enter the session (if you have registered).
• If you have a microphone and webcam, you will be able to communicate using those. If not, you can type in responses in the chat box on the right side of the screen and participate that way.
• We will have more instructions and information about setting this up on this library blog under Summer Reading IVC. We have also prepared some tips for participation and posted to that page.

Schedule at 7:00 pm:

• June 30 Mystery
• July 28 Realistic Fiction

Think about this story -  what  do you think will happen to Victor in  5 years?  Do you think he will be able to succeed?   Did you change in any way after reading this book?  What did you like or not like about the book?

View Survey

Fortunately, we’ve done an about face at our school in relation to games - yes, I believe we’re still having some filter problems with a few game sites, but even so, the idea of engaging students with games has been integrated throughout the school’s curriculum.  While gaming, we see students engaged in cooperative learning situations, developing social skills, problem solving, decision making, and having loads of fun.   Our school has had Scrabble tournaments, the 6th grade had its own March Madness extravaganza, we own Webkinz for the school - one per grade level, PE classes use Dance, Dance, Revolution, Uno, the music department uses Guitar Hero,  we have had a Chess Club, and class sets of card decks can be found throughout the school.  Our library student work stations have bookmarked, several game sites for student  use and I’ve made it a passtime to continue searching for great student games, especially those with educational content.

90% of our staff is WOW (Working On The Work) trained and the commonality among our classrooms, is that total engagement of students, especially when involved in activities with game components featured as part of the learning.  I’ve been feeling pretty good about our exploration with games.  Except now!  I just read about a state movement to include games in education and library settings to the extent that they have correlated various and numerous games to their state curriculum standards.  The game featured on their blog Home page is even one I bought for my husband at Christmas, Snorta.  The School Library System of Genesee Valley BOCES  has done a remarkable job identifying games that support their curriculum standards.  Chris Harris has even aligned the premise behind some games and the skills involved with the AASL’s Standards for the 21st Century Learner.  WOW, never did I think about how those basic board games that we all have stuffed away in our closets could be so closely related to the curriculum and provide hours of engaged learning in our schools! 

My goal for this summer is to clean closets in search of games, examine the games for their potential value in the media center, hit some yard sales, and add a new component to our library collection.  Of course, I can’t put down my Mac, so I’ll be constantly reading all those wonderful blogs and discovering other great games online.  If you have ideas or suggestions, please share in a comment on this blog.  Otherwise, be sure to check out some of these blogs that focus on gaming in the library.

Gaming School Libraries and the Curriculum

Library Gamer

Game On: Games In Libraries

The Shifted Librarian

Schu’s Blog of Lit and More

School Library Land

Another great discovery today is Community Walk. This is a great map program that lets you create paths and tag areas of interest with images and video clips.   Very easy to use!  And then there is the site with the game templates, Modern Language Teachers Association of Victoria.  This site has templates for interactive games and downloads for teachers or students to create.  It provides easy to follow instructions and they are easy to save and share.  You can burn them to a disc, save to a flash drive, or save to a webpage and share with others.   For you math teachers, there’s Numbernut.  You’ve got to check this math game out - it covers everything.