New Books At Our Library

February 28 Storm System

The storm system that went through Alabama on Saturday, February 28th hit our junior high school and ripped the roof from the lunchroom, tore away the sign, shattered doors and caused much water damage. Our junior high students will be housed in portables on our intermediate and high school campus until the damage is repaired. I am so thankful it was a Saturday and no one was at school. An 18 wheeler overturned on the highway near the school and a church next door to the school was demolished. When the weather cleared in the afternoon the temperature got into the 70s. Then, today, March 1, we had 3 inches of snow in the time I was at church this morning. Roads are icy, however, we still have power which is a blessing. Don't know about school tomorrow, but with the relocation of all the junior high kids, freezing weather and snow may not be the time to do it.

Lunchroom at Wacoochee Junior High School

Church adjacent to school. Notice the picture still hanging on the far wall. It is of praying hands.

Storm of March 1, 2009. Day after tornado.

OH, NO!

I misspelled the name of our new president! In two previous posts Barack was spelled Barak. My sister-in-law who writes a news column for a local paper caught the mistake and emailed me to quickly correct the spelling before anyone else saw it. The funny thing is in one entry I had it spelled both ways. She tried to excuse my mistake by telling me the Biblical spelling of the name was Barak. (Judges 4 & 5, and Hebrews 11) Now I am mortified that the letters I sent to the White House on the day after the inauguration also had our president's name misspelled. No wonder we have not received any response, not even a form letter!

New Wordle & Ipod

Wanted to create a new wordle based on the blog. It was quite a while ago I did another one. Also I wanted to report that my husband bought me an ipod. One of my 5th grade teachers said, "Well, it's about time you got one." Still learning how to use it, but it has made walking at the gym much more interesting.

Songs on it include some by Bon Jovi, Josh Kadison, Deana Carter, The Eagles, Mercy Me, Carrie Underwood. And podcasts by Garrison Keillor and Killearn United Methodist Church. I tried to download an audiobook but got all confused with that. Maybe later.

Apollo Theater in the Library

For the last several years during Black History Month I have created a display of the Apollo Theater in our school library. Our library door has the address 253 W 125th St, New York, NY 10027. A vertical sign reads APOLLO. Inside the library we have a tree stump that is our Tree of Hope.

Also are pictures of famous African Americans who began their careers at the Apollo.

Read this information on the Tree of Hope taken from http://www.bigapplejazz.com/tree_of_hope.htm

"Nestled between the Lafayette Theatre and the popular nightclub Connie's Inn, a tall [elm] tree was rumored to bring good luck to all who touched it.
During the Harlem Renaissance, aspiring performers such as Ethel Waters, Fletcher Henderson, and Eubie Blake were rumored to have visited the Tree of Hope.
When the tree was cut down in 1934 during the expansion of 7th Avenue, it was cut into logs and sold as souvenirs. One section was salvaged and found a home at the Apollo Theater, where today's amateur performers continue to rub the trunk in the tradition of their predecessors.
"Nestled between the Lafayette Theatre and the popular nightclub Connie's Inn, a tall [elm] tree was rumored to bring good luck to all who touched it.
During the Harlem Renaissance, aspiring performers such as Ethel Waters, Fletcher Henderson, and Eubie Blake were rumored to have visited the Tree of Hope.
When the tree was cut down in 1934 during the expansion of 7th Avenue, it was cut into logs and sold as souvenirs. One section was salvaged and found a home at the Apollo Theater.

As word spread that this unassuming log was part of the once great Tree of Hope, it became a tradition of Amateur Night to have each contestant touch the tree on the way to center stage. Since then, every single performer that has appeared on Amateur Night has touched that log. Within a year of its debut, its surface was as smooth as glass from all the now famous and not-so-famous hands that had touched or rubbed it.
Now, touching The Tree of Hope has become recognized as the famed Apollo ceremonial act carried out by all Amateur Night performers before they compete. Rooted between a glorious past and an even greater future, the Tree of Hope links generations of performers together in an unbroken tradition of chance, desire and success."

We Watched the Inauguration

Several classes converged on the library at 12:00 EST to view Barack Obama take the oath of office as President of the United States on January 20, 2009. Although our district had live streaming available, we chose to use the big screen TV. Shown are Mrs. Bryant and Mrs. Baldwin's classes. Mrs. Ebrahim, our 5th grade counselor, watches too.

We also wrote letters to the new president during library classes that day. These were mailed on Wednesday. Will be interested to see what sort of response we get. I do know one thing....we all need to use CONGRATULATIONS as a spelling word!

Inauguration Barack Obama

I found through my membership in a library media specialist list-serv a wonderful site with links for the inauguration next week of Barack Obama as President of the United States. The site was created by Stacy Bodin of Vermillion Parish School District in Louisiana. Here is the link http://www.vrml.k12.la.us/curriculum/holidays/inauguration/inauguration.htm

It is worth your time to take a look.