eBooks and Audio Books

I am furiously working away through my Plan to Read list.  I've read some really amazing books in the last few months, but I seem to keep adding titles, both new and classic.  I kind of feel that I'll never catch up with Junior titles the way I want to and be able to keep up with the Adult Fiction and Young Adult fiction I read.  I hate having to drive on long trips because it's time I could be reading - yes, I'm one of those lucky people who can read in the car.  That being said, the girls and I have a 7 or 8 hour drive to Grandma & Grandpa's house coming up next week.  My husband isn't going, and so that leaves all the driving to me.  It occurred to me that I should take some audio books with me that I can enjoy with the girls.  I picked a few titles from my Plan to Read list and a few that I hadn't thought of yet (those got added to my Shelfari shelf.)  I know we won't get through all of those titles on our trip, but at least 1 or 2 would be great to mark off my list.

Then I realized that I've been wondering how to upload and play more of my music on the computer at the school library while I'm working in the summer.  Duh.  I should be listening to books!  I don't have to listen extremely closely, I just need to catch the gist of the story.  And if it really intrigues me, I can go back and read the book itself.  I can't believe I didn't think of this sooner.

As for eBooks, I am still waiting to hear from the school district tech team if I will be able to install Adobe Digital Editions on my school computers.  I'd like to use the public library's Overdrive to check out picture books to read to the kids during story time on my projector screen.   I do appreciate the quick access that Overdrive allows me.  Today I was in training for classroom management, and I finished Paint the Wind by Pam Munoz Ryan - 5 star book, by the way - on a break and wanted something on my lunch hour.  I jumped onto Overdrive using my Kindle Fire and grabbed Angus and Sadie by Cynthia Voigt.  I don't think either the public or school library owns it as a print book so this is the only way I'll get it read. (I didn't realize it until I started the book, but Angus and Sadie are the dogs who appear in Voigt's later book Young Fredle.  I love story connections!)

Teaching how to use the Internet responsibly & I Spy Dewey Decimal display

I have said it so many times, I'm not a teacher.  So, there are some things I know are important but don't really know how to teach.  I've been working my way through books on Library Skills & Manners, and I found one by Toni Buzzeo (she's a lot of great ones on this subject) called But I Read It On the Internet.  It had a great worksheet in it to help kids figure out if the site they are using is a reliable source of information.  I used that worksheet to create my own, and I plan to use it to help the 3rd grade and up classes learn to use the Internet responsibly.  You can download my version of the worksheet here.

I really loved all of the books by Toni Buzzeo.  In her book, The Great Dewey Hunt, she had the kids find small objects to represent the different classes of the Dewey Decimal system.  I have been trying to decide the best way to make the DD system seem easy to understand to the kids.  I was tossing around the idea of some kind of 3d collage for each DD class.  I thought of maybe mounting them on half sphere's of Styrofoam and mounting them on the wall, but then I worried about the little objects being pried off.  So my thinking switched to shadow boxes.  This would be great, but my budget doesn't allow me to go buy 10 shadow boxes.  But then it occurred to me out of the blue, I might have the perfect thing already in my possession!

These are card cases that my father-in-law built for my husband and his brother's collections.  My husband still uses his, but my brother-in-law didn't want his, so we took them.  They've been in my storage room for quite awhile.  They are very solidly built, have plexi-glass lids, lock and can be tilted up or lie flat.  Oh, and they are lined with dark blue felt, perfect for the blue and white Lincoln Leopards!  I wish they had 5 sections each, since there are 10 DD classes, but I think I can get around that.  Rather than have my husband remove the little ledges inside and put in 5 sections, I think I'll combine some of the classes that are going to be hard to display anyway.  For example, the 000s General Knowledge, the 100s Philosophy and the 200s Religion. Each DD class will have a simple breakdown of what's in that range, then the objects will signify everything you can find in the class.  Ideally, each section will look like it's own little I Spy scene.

Part of the work finding the object was to find a decent listing of the different classes and ranges of the Dewey Decimal System.  So I created an abbreviate Dewey Decimal Classifications list that I think is kid friendly.  Obviously there is more to each class, but I doubt kids would have much use for Freudian theory and frankly, I don't want to go too deeply into Religion in a school library.

I have always been a collector of - for lack of a better word - little things.  I kept a "thing box" all through elementary and junior high and in high school I created a 3D collage with my things.  I started treasure boxes for both of my girls and I keep odds and ends for scrapbooking and other projects.  We have so far gathered a lot of little plastic animals - cheap ones from the dollar store, not our nice Schleich toys, plastic bugs, plastic dinosaurs, seashells, coral, a wooden spoon, art supplies, a baseball bouncy-ball, a mini football player, sports cards, old 45 records, dice & dominoes, playing cards, a globe (it's really a pencil sharpener), an American Flag and a 1776 keychain.  I will need to keep my eyes open for other pieces that will fit into the cases; they are not deep so there is a limit on how big items can be.  I am not sure how I'll represent the 800s, but I will cross that bridge when I get to it.