Penny Drop for Haiti Earthquake Relief

The students at our school began a penny drop for Haitian Earthquake relief 2 days after the disaster. On Thursday I mailed a check for $731.90 to the Salvation Army Disaster Relief from our school. This is the 3rd penny drop for disaster our school has completed. The first was the Louisiana Libraries following Hurricane Katrina, the second was to Enterprise, Alabama, after a tornado struck the town on March 1, 2007, devastating the high school and killing 8 students.

Our students are compassionate, generous and thoughtful. So proud of them reaching out to others.

On a roll

I am on a roll reading some of the titles we have in the library. In the last few weeks I've read Hate That Cat by Sharon Creech, Love That Dog by Sharon Creech, Schooled by Gordon Korman, Stolen by Vivian Vande Velde, The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman, Heartbeat by Sharon Creech, No Talking by Andrew Clements, The Wright 3 by Blue Balliett, A Crooked Kind of Perfect by Linda Urban, Vampire Academy, Frostbite, Shadow Kiss all by Richelle Mead.

Don't you find that when you talk a book to some kids the book just won't stay on the shelf? I needed some new repertoire and have been reading a new book every two days or so.

Hard Times Come Again No More

This was sung last night on the Relief for Haiti program by Mary J Blige. This version is by Nanci Griffith. Did not know it was originally written by Stephen Foster during the civil war.
It has been recorded by many Wikipedia lists many of them http://http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hard_Times_Come_Again_No_More







Stephen Foster's original lyrics:

Let us pause in life's pleasures and count its many tears,
While we all sup sorrow with the poor;
There's a song that will linger forever in our ears;
Oh Hard times come again no more.
Chorus:
Tis the song, the sigh of the weary,
Hard Times, hard times, come again no more
Many days you have lingered around my cabin door;
Oh hard times come again no more.
While we seek mirth and beauty and music light and gay,
There are frail forms fainting at the door;
Though their voices are silent, their pleading looks will say
Oh hard times come again no more.
(Chorus)
There's a pale drooping maiden who toils her life away,
With a worn heart whose better days are o'er:
Though her voice would be merry, 'tis sighing all the day,
Oh hard times come again no more.
(Chorus)
Tis a sigh that is wafted across the troubled wave,
Tis a wail that is heard upon the shore
Tis a dirge that is murmured around the lowly grave
Oh hard times come again no more.

AIMA Winter Conference

Attended a wonderful Winter Conference of the Alabama Instructional Media Association today. Theme was Promoting Your Library. Breakout sessions were helpful. Attended one on the FLIP camera, one on Signage using Microsoft Publisher, and one of the Encyclopedia of Alabama.


Here is the link


http://www.encyclopediaofalabama.org/face/Home.jsp




Encyclopedia of Alabama is a free resource. Visit it and look around

Exciting New Flip Video Camera

We just received shipment yesterday on two Flip video cameras the school purchased. What a fun tool/toy. So easy to use. Today was our annual Christmas concert. We were able to video each class's performance, load the video through the USB plug into the library computer, email the video to the homeroom teacher, who in turn sent an email copy of the video to all his students' parents. Can see many, many uses.

Problem I will need to work on is there is not enough storage on my computer to download the videos. The tech people are just going to have to unlock my C drive if I am to be able to save any. (though you can burn them to a CD)

Book Reports

Wanted to share a video of some of our students with their bookreports.

New Learning

I have just finished two videos using Animoto which is available free for educators. Now I am experimenting with the blog. I have already emailed one of the videos, posted one on Facebook, tried but failed to post it on the school library website, so the blog is next. Hope it works.