Progress

Tough choices ahead, my reading list for the semester is quite lengthy. I’ll need to make the most of my choices. I picked out some candidates for My 10 Ten Books list. I have a couple for each category. One has me really hooked, but I reveal more on that later.
I bought a copy of Speak. I read The Giver again this weekend. I’m wondering how that paper will play out. Since I have already read much of the criticism and commentary about The Giver, I’m afraid it will taint the discussion.
FCAT was a bore. At least I managed to get into the media center at the end of the day to double check our databases for my reference class.
As for the tech class I completed the readings. I need a solid uninterrupted day to work through the lessons. It will be much more efficient that way.
Finally, the household is healthy again.
Yes! The Office is on this week.
I can’t wait.
Tomorrow we have FCAT again.
Ug
M Donlevy

My Top Ten Books- Traditional Literature 1

During one of my first years teaching I decided to design a small research project on the American Revolution. Each student group had to sign up for one battle and one person from my list. My media specialists were not very happy with the list I generated. It happened to be Women’s History Month, and I didn’t include one woman on my list. To this day they still give me a hard time about it. This Top 10 Books selection is dedicated to my media specialists.

It can sometimes be a challenge to find strong female role models for young girls these days. Furthermore, it is difficult to get many girls to get interested in some typically male dominated genres like mythology. The Lady of Ten Thousand Names: Goddess Stories from Many Cultures (Barefoot Books, New York 2001) is a great selection that helps fill this void.

Writer Burleigh Muten has selected eight different stories that truly span the globe. While many compilations of mythology stay with the Greco-Roman realm, Muten introduces us to tales from China, Wale, and Scandinavia. Muten’s retellings are geared towards middle school readers and up. On of the greatest strengths is how Muten keeps the darker edge of some of these stories intact while at the same time making it readable for a younger audience. Helen Cann’s excellent illustrations help to further bring each story to life.

M Donlevy

Links of interest:

http://www.barefoot-books.com/us/site/pages/artists.php?aid=93

http://www.barefoot-books.com/us/site/pages/authors.php?aid=128

http://www.bookpage.com/0109bp/children/lady_10thous_names.html

My Top Ten Books- Picture Book 2

The antihero- it’s a theme that has been explored throughout the history of literature, and I think the theme is an attractive one to many young readers. I believe no other author/illustrator explores this theme as well as Janell Cannon. In previous works Cannon gave us two noteworthy protagonists in Stellaluna and Verdi. Who would have thought a bat and a snake could generate so much sympathy and love? In her 2000 book Crickwing (Harcourt Inc) Cannon takes the idea of an antihero to the extreme with choosing a cockroach as her hero.
I don’t want to give away too many spoilers, but Crickwing teaches readers a valuable lesson in how to treat all creatures big and small with the respect they deserve.

Other picture books that almost made the cut for “My Top 10 Books List”- Graeme Base’s The Water Hole and Chris Van Allsburg’s Zathura.

Links of interest
http://friend.ly.net/users/jorban/biographies/cannonjanell/

http://www.teachingk-8.com/archives/author_interview/janell_cannon_mysteries_of_the_misunderstood_by_katherine_pierpont_senior_editor.html

http://readingtokids.org/Books/BookView.php?pag=1&bookID=00000472

weekly update

Finally! I’m no longer sick. It is time to get back into the swing of things.
I learned some new stuff about Excel this week. The program is actually pretty amazing once you give it a chance. I knew I could manipulate numbers, but I never explored the other types of data management it offers.
I successfully put together a PowerPoint quiz. It isn’t as perfect as I would like it to be. Apparently there are a few weird quirks Microsoft needs to work out. Planned obsolescence, you gotta love it.
I still need to add to my top ten book list. Expect the next update this weekend.
Things that really got under my skin this week- the whole merit pay thing, yes it’s another unfunded mandate. Also, that ugly project 65 things keeps appearing.
If I wasn’t an intelligent honest man I might run for office.

been sick

Bad week been sick busy too busy should have taken off earlier couldn't had to stop by stupid now worse went home today left early never leave early left early slept slept solid up for awhile got to log in later can't forget chat future freshmen night tonight can't go got to log in chat sleep the office will be on nap office tomorrow I'll stay home already called in should have called in earlier this week too busy been sick bad week.

Buy Our Book!

Time to make millions of dollars. Here is the title- CounterCultural Literacy: What Every Parent Should Know. It is sure to be a real cash cow considering we would have to release a new edition every three months or so. I'm sure there are millions of parents out there that are trying to figure out that Emo fad. I don't know about you but I'm emotional enough already; I don't need My Chemical Romance pushing me over the edge. As a self proclaimed music expert I think the Emo today is garbage. If they want Emo they need to check out the old school Emo- and nothing beats The Cure.

Cultural Literacy and Kids

Everyone’s poetry comments were well taken.
This discussion has really got my brain churning.
I started to reexamine some of my old posts, and I remembered my reference to the book Cultural Literacy: What every American Needs to Know.
I don’t think we can ever start our kids too early on this idea. Are there any resources that outline what our kids need to know from a cultural standpoint?
Suggestions?
M Donlevy

Poetry Lesson

Here’s something I do before either my slavery or civil rights unit:
On a transparency I display Maya Angelou’s “Caged Bird” and Paul Lawrence Dunbar’s “Sympathy” side by side.
I ask them a series of compare/contrast questions and then we discuss the themes.
I’ll then give them some background info on both of the authors.
For homework, they are to compose a poem that explores the same theme.

Dunbar’s Poem- http://www.web-books.com/classics/Poetry/Anthology/Dunbar_PL/Sympathy.htm

Angelou’s Poem http://www.poemhunter.com/p/m/poem.asp?poet=6834&poem=33060

M Donlevy

Top 10 Books- Picture Book 1

The following memory is brought to you courtesy of Eric Rohmann’s 2002 My Friend Rabbit (Roaring Brook Press, Brookfield)- the first picture book of “My Top Ten Books”
We lived in a small subdivision of townhouses known as “The Gardens”. It was the summer between 5th and 6th grade. I was staying over at a friend’s. Since his dad was working all night we didn’t have a curfew. Actually we did have a curfew, but his dad was working all night. With no real curfew the night was ripe for adventure.
We set out for the pool area to play some midnight shuffle board. The actual game we intended to play doesn’t really resemble traditional shuffle board in any kind of way, but at least it used the same equipment.
Our path was blocked. The sprinklers were on, and they were spraying our path. It wasn’t that we minded getting wet. After all, we were playing midnight shuffle board. It was that getting wet with reclaimed water wasn’t very pleasant. It was more about the odor from the water.
Our solution- redirect the sprinklers. A simple twist would provide us a clear, dry, odor-free path. However, the twist wasn’t as simple as it seemed. Who knew that a simple little twist would unscrew the sprinkler head and create a large geyser of smelly reclaimed water?
All we needed to do was get the sprinkler head back on. Struggling to put a sprinkler head back on while getting pummeled in the face with “sewer water” was no easy task, but we managed it. We managed it so well that no water would come out of that sprinkler head again. Since the water needed to go some where it was redirected back to the surrounding sprinkler heads. Apparently, these other sprinkler heads weren’t designed to handle the added water pressure. The result was several small explosions of water and the creation of four more geysers in the area. We fled the scene.

Rarely does a book illustrate the innocent follies of youth as My Friend Rabbit does. Simple problem- not so simple solutions, that’s just how our minds worked (some of us haven’t quite grown out of it). As I read the book with my son I smile and think about all of the sprinkler heads he’ll break in the future.

Does your life story run parallel with any children’s books you know? How can we use these stories to help share life lessons? Wait a minute, FCAT doesn’t test life lessons. Can you tell I’m bitter about FCAT?
Please share.

Links of interest
Unofficial fan site- http://www.darkmaterials.com/rohm3.htm
Interview- http://www.childrenslit.com/f_rohmann.html

M Donlevy

Poetry

I must admit, I wasn’t too excited about having to review a book of poetry for “My Top 10 Books” assignment. Frost, Cummings, eh, I could take them or leave them. However, once I started exploring our media center I was pleasantly surprised in what I found.
Marilyn Singer’s 2002 publication Footprints on the Roof: Poems about the Earth (Knopf, New York) was a pure gem. It wasn’t just about the poetry. It was the unique blend of simple poetic rhythms accompanied by some absolutely captivating art. Illustrator Meilo So uses a distinctly minimalist Asian style of brush work to help the reader develop their own visions of the scenes that Singer describes. Each poem is a distinct snapshot of, well life on earth. What make it work is the variety of perspectives she gives. Topics range from mud to ice to fossils to the critters that live underground. I would highly recommend this to middle school readers and up.
Links of interest
http://www.marilynsinger.net/index.htm

http://www.theartworksinc.com/face/msface.htm

One of my personal challenges is to try to incorporate a larger variety of poetry, literature, and art into my curriculum. It is tough to find a place to start. How do we start? Or, do we just leave it the art teacher? Will it help them on FCAT? If not then what’s the point?
Thoughts?