Happy Thanksgiving fellow children’s librarians. Hope that when you stuff yourself with turkey, surrounded by family and friends, you’ll reflect on all that you do for kids and their families. You may not always get the feedback you deserve, but they will remember you. One bright and sunny day in autumn, you’re paid a visit from a family you once served at another location (like I experienced this month), bearing gifts and the child you helped with reading–grown several inches taller. It’s especially rewarding to know that they talk about you when they wake up in the morning, eat breakfast or lunch, and get ready for bed, as if you’re part of their lives. You’re not only the story time lady, but you are their teacher and their guide to life. Through your lens, they see the world with wonder… We all deserve a pat on our backs for all…
Author: acrewdson
Misunderstanding Second Life
I was so excited when my article, “Discover Babylon: E-Learning Power on Second Life” came out in the November 2007 issue of School Library Journal, I couldn’t wait to share it with my mother. My mother, who is a non-native english speaker, who immigrated from Taiwan and doesn’t have more than a 6th grade education in chinese, was so proud of me but didn’t understand a word that was on the page. I was really happy that my first magazine article would be celebrated by my mom but equally frustrated that language and educational barriers prevented her from understanding my article. The second level of frustration comes from the fact that many of my colleagues do not understand what I have written despite the meticulous nature in which I approached the article with incessant phone calls to Sachin Patil at the FAS for clarification, consultation with George Needham at OCLC, and Director/Producer of Weston Woods, Paul Gagne, to verify that my…
Thumbs Up to ELVEN Institute’s Workshop on Second Life
I attended the workshop Saturday morning conducted by the ELVEN (Educators and Librarians in Virtual Environments) Institute in Second Life and it was tres excellent! Thanks to Teresa Walls and Kelly Czarnecki for the headsup, I went to their website and filled out a form that asked me to rate my interests from 1-4 from navigation, communication, clothing and shopping, use of SL for preK-12 education, to use of SL for teacher education. Dewey Jung, Puglet Dancer and the team of ELVEN assistants conducted the 2-hour basic course on Second Life in a classroom-like setting using a virtual LCD projector. The organization was impeccable with 4 main presenters (Blu Heron, Pia Klaar, Dewey Jung, Zotarah Sheperd) taking 20-30 minutes each to cover a topic. Notecards and materials were passed out to each avatar between segments. Student avatars were assigned an assistant to answer questions through IM. My assistant was Bronte…
Print Print Print Awareness!
by Ann Crewdson Print Awareness is one of the six early literacy skills that focuses on noticing print everywhere. Print is in the sky. It’s on the bottom of your shoes. It’s on someone’s arm as a tattoo. And what do you know?! Print is all over the books! Here are some new and classic books to get your kids looking around for print: Hurry Hurry by Eve Bunting Chicken starts mass hysteria at the farm with her hurrying, rallying animals to see something big going down. It’s a big rush of colorful words spilling out from page to page full of barnyard banter. Bounce by Doreen Cronin Unique presentations of the word “bounce” decorate the pages. Hop, leap, pounce and bounce in ways your toddler may never have thought of before. Snowballs by Lois Ehlert Winter is almost here–the birds are expecting snow and…
Is Second Life a Panacea?
I read a heartwarming article in the Seattle Times on October 7th about Second Life improving the quality of real life for many. http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/nationworld/2003931084_netavatar07.html It talks about a wheel-chair bound woman who is able to find physical freedom to walk, run and dance in Second Life, an autistic fellow who is able to learn social cues by chatting in Second Life and a man with agoraphobia (fear of going outdoors) who was able to conquer his fear of going outside by taking one step at a time from Second Life out to First Life. Cancer survivors find support from other Second Lifers who suffer from the same disease. These were only some of the many stories cited in the article which sounded too good to be true at first glance. Could Second Life be this “panacea” that people have claimed it to be? Is it too good to be true? Well, if we look at Second Life…
Fall For Phonological Fun!
by Ann Crewdson Not only apples and pumpkins are plump this season but there is also an abundance of books, especially those emphasizing phonological awareness, one of the six early literacy skills (what children need to know about reading and writing before they actually read and write). Phonological Awareness is defined as “The ability to hear and play with the smaller sounds in words. Use the power of repetition, alliteration, rhyme and play on words in books to teach children language. Check out this bountiful harvest of books at your local library: Llama Llama Mad at Mama by Anna Dewdney Llama Llama is forced to go to Shop-o-roma, put on sweaters, pick up groceries and decide on lunch until he realizes that he’s doing all of it with his mama. Charlie and Lola’s Numbers by Lauren Child Count to ten with Lola starting with one brother Charlie, through four moonsquirters…
How I Became an FAS Groupie!
Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed people can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has. –Margaret Mead This summer when the ALA Annual Conference was held in Washington DC, I paid a visit to the FAS (Federation of American Scientists) on K Street. As the Chair of the newly revamped Great Interactive Software for Kids Committee, I wanted to make sure that our committee had a solid foundation other than playing games for fun. And although we have expanded our criteria to include the evaluation of console games and other digital forms, in addition to pc cd-roms, I wanted a deeper philosophical backbone to our committee. So I turned to the scientists for help and decided to pay them a visit since our conference was in their neck of the woods. I didn’t really know what to expect as I walked into the gray building,…
Second Life, Third Life, Fourth Life…
For my daughter’s 9th birthday party, we decided to celebrate it at Sega GameWorks in Seattle. Everyone got unlimited access to the videogames for 2 hours so naturally, I plopped myself down on a game I haven’t played in over a decade. It was a game I used to cherish with my husband before we got married–Virtual Fighter. Now in its 5th incarnation, the graphics is an amazing work of art! The gameplay however is the same. I didn’t know I was playing against the kid seated on the opposite side as the challenger until I had defeated him for the 3rd time and heard him utter “umphh…she’s killing me…she’s good.” His friend peeked over at me and that was when I realized I was playing against a 12 year old and actually winning! I got a strange satisfaction out of the whole experience as he slumped away, with his tail between his…