Ah….the word itself, Harry means as referenced: (if you click below it will take you to the link too!)

harry (v.) Old English hergian “make war, lay waste, ravage, plunder,” the word used in the “Anglo-Saxon Chronicle” for what the Vikings did to England, from Proto-Germanic verb *harohan (cf. Old Frisian urheria “lay waste, ravage, plunder,” Old Norse herja “to make a raid, to plunder,” Old Saxon and Old High German herion, German verheeren “to destroy, lay waste, devastate”), from *harjaz “an armed force” (cf. Old English here, Old Norse herr “crowd, great number; army, troop,” Old Saxon and Old Frisian heri, Dutch heir, Old High Germanhar, German Heer “host, army,” Gothic harjis), from PIE root *koro- “war” (cf. Lithuanian karas “war, quarrel,” karias “host, army;” Old Church Slavonic kara “strife;” Middle Irish cuire “troop;” Old Persian kara “host, people, army;” Greek koiranos “ruler, leader, commander”). Weakened sense of “worry, goad, harass” is from c.1400. Related: Harried; harrying.

Sometimes the day harries you, sometimes you get harried…:)

And yes, harried, speaking of that version let me let you inside today’s event…

Feeding and then walk the dogs at 5:30 AM, (before I get them out the door I pick up the papers for their bathroom area mop that while they are eating and drinking, and manage to clean the cat litter and feed them, and water their bowls and we are out the door…

Quiet, letting the dog run, tackle each other in Parque Rio, do their bathroom thing since it has been 30 minutes about after they ate, we walk, chill until 6:15  -head back, fill their water bowls, shower, skip breakfast, dress, out the door, (after covering up all possible items ready for puppy damage) –

walking to work through Roma, bump into the new teachers (Beebe family) and Mr Wilson, hitch an awesome ride with them to ASF, get there early! YEAH! – ope up library, water plants, print out my schedule for Mansfield FINAL semester and expectations for my degree and GRADUATE in December, make my way to the upstairs to hide to get things done today – make the expense report for the Finance Department from my Chicago ALA trip – calculate, receipts organized, take to Ms Lechuga for approval from Mr DeJesus, come back work on months of January to June of signup sheets for the library, check to make sure I received a first transfer of funds from my Mexico Bank to U.S. Bank, it is there!  Yeah! – eat some muffins left over from the New teacher meeting, receive email from Ms Lechuga, finance report ready for pickup and signed!  –  check email of expectations for a mentor from the library for my final semester – take that finance report mentioned earlier to Caja to turn in,  Caja is too full, go out of school to check at the Bodega to see if my Valle card is usable today, (EARLY) for groceries, on the way, deposit money for Moct at Bancomer, go to Bodega, get a cranberry juice drink, check out, yep, money on my Valle!  (breath) –

back to ASF – on way back Mr Maas asks if I can stop over and eat lunch at the Baptist Church, do so, then back and go to Caja to turn in finance report, have to go to accounting to get it signed there, have to bring in tomorrow US Cash for the money I did not use, then will get a refund of the taxi I paid for, good to go, go back to library, on the way there question about Larry Tharp’s furniture and the place on Sonora to but and have furniture made, make it to the library, check out books to Ms Ramone and Josh ( and checking books in), contact Ms Dixie and Ms Wiser about going to Costco, talk to the printer for a quote (second one) on the Repentino publishing – will send info for a quote from 2nd printer, (thanks Moct for calling him even though we found out he speaks English)  (Breathe)

create calendar to set up events of library and literary importance from 2013 to year 2014, check again on the deposits for a second transfer to U.S. from Bancomer, not done yet, (waiting for that to pay my tuition), find out with I will go home and walk the dogs, come back, grab Lucinda, and head to Costco, so head out saying hello and bye to Dr. Lawrence, make it home at 3:17 – briskly walk the dogs, they do their doo doo outside and are actually good minus the magazine and assorted items they chewed while I was gone, out the door asking Osseily to call Lucinda and let her know I am on my way, make it to ASF again (leaving at 3:57) – make it at 4:35 – we see Susan (new teacher) drop her at the ABC Bus, Lucinda and I try to find out out to get to Costco – get stopped by police asking for id, license, saved by the Montes sisters who make sure the police do not rip me off (first time they let me go, Montes sisters, you ROCK! -make it to the Perifico, headed right for a bit, then lost, circle to the right, then back in a circle, under an overpass, headed to what we think is right, she grabs her navigating coordinates, we make it through some side streets, get into a sidelot that is NOT for Costco but new cars without license plates, laugh, celebrate because we SEE Costo’s, get out of that lot, into Costco’s garage, INTO COSTCO!  Take out time (first time of the day) – get dog food, cat food, fruit, dried fruit, chocolate blueberries, WAFFLES! – bread, lots of cat litter, assorted foods, out of there – get to the bottom of Costco, overspend my Valle for the first time on what seems not many groceries but I did buy double, so (how long will this last me?) forget to get parking validated, go back, VALIDATED! – in truck, out of Costco, to Polanco, some highway/expressway travel, miss side road before we know it Masaryk! – to Lucinda’s unload her groceries, see her roominess and new apartment!  – GOSH! I need to use the bathroom! – head out, find way home, oops, wrong way on Reforma, past Auditorio (the WRONG WAY!) – through a cool park, find way BACK, towards Reforma, to Sevilla – to Insurgentes, to my apartment, 8:15 – unload all groceries, whew!  5 minutes before parking meeting from our building, afraid people will be mad I have a large vehicle (breathe!)

in the garage with all the apartment residents, watching a cool verbal fight between the amazingly good looking resident next to me (gosh I like her) – and another female resident (thinking, throw a baby poll, jello, and mud, I could make a fortune) have my friend Osseily beside me translating some amazing fast Spanish for me amid the conversations) find that no one cares about me in the garage, just want me to ask when I need out, WHEW! – Oseeily fuming about the “badness” of his last edit of his movie that will be submitted to Sundance, ranting from Osseily, but me also ranting because the repairman for the cabinet door did NOT put the door back and fix it, and left open, being an open invitation for my wonderful tame puppies and mama dog to tear the oatmeal all over the floor from the open cabinet, mixed with some plastic spoons on the floor, and Osseily’s laptop, and his jump drive (yet all are in tact) minus the oatmeal, dogs looking innocent but not, we are exasperated and say we need beer!, we go to the corner grab 2 beers a piece (thanks to Osseily) and snacks from the house come back, GREAT!  just newspaper shredded by the puppies! – we head to the roof,

D R I N K,  S N A C K,  A D M I R E the night as we slow things down, what a day for both of us! we exclaim, falling slowly into our chairs and reflect on what “harried” means….

Happy Tuesday  🙂

Whew.  Minutes, hours, weeks, then months!   Alot has happened since the end of July and yet, needs and wants of what makes a content, satisfying life sometimes become clearer as those same minutes, hours, weeks, and months go by.

Let’s try to go back to the pie baking dream of RHUBARB. Thanks to the patience and know how of Tracy Miller, Deb Lawrence and I settled down to create a Rhubarb-pie that over the next week, (sorry, it couldn’t and didn’t last long) melted in your mouth.  That afternoon was just a great afternoon to be yourself, let down all “have to be somewhere” and relax, and enjoy the day.  The ice cream and pie for the next week was not quite bad either.  I remember days of old where I had picked fresh rhubarb with a girlfriend and we made pies that would just hook me for well, now years later.  City Market? Rhubarb supplier of Mexico and beyond!  I took two slices to the couple that works beside me at the bookstore, added some ice cream, and they absolutely loved it.  Shared some with my friend Osseily, divine.  Overall, success and now I look to make more, lol.  Thanks Tracy and Deb!

From that point on, alot of rushing and cramming, yet, receiving, meeting, and socializing with an amazing group of new teachers to ASF since July 24, 2013, has been amazing – the new staff, their children and the simple experiences of just trying to be an information supplier has been fun and rewarding, and the smiles and freshness of Mexico through their eyes and questions has made it all worth the while.

At some point, you realize how do you get energized?  It is at the very moments you spend with a group of people that make you feel energized, so yes, sometimes, it is a 8-9 hour sleep early (which I have done over the last few days) – or, it is just walking, talking, and reflecting amongst each other, and often that does the trick as well with the right people.  I have to say, one of the most enriching experiences is and has been the fact that I am trusted to give information and provide assistance to one of the best new groups of staff I have ever met and seen.  This start to the new year enhances the way you perceive the new year, at least for me.  I am excited of a year of making sure I respect and appreciate the little things that make the larger problems seem somewhat insignificant.

For example, waking up after a post-Mexican midnight rain – nothing like it.

Do it early enough, and you see the freshness of the streets, the air, the emptiness of the streets and you realize, this is pretty much as amazing as I could possibly imagine, and you are smack dab in the middle of it!  And even moreso, if you choose, you are surrounded by people that make that experience of the culture, the air, the freshness even more clear.  Clarity…I have fund so much in the last few days with an amazing group of people, animals that always are there to remind you that when it comes down to basics, the simple things of being there for another, making tons of time to play, and tons of time to just sit back and enjoy,

making the sense of clarity a reality every day.

That’s right, Book Lover’s Day!  Please send me from now until the 9th your favorite books and I will post them here for all to see!  🙂  Thanks!  I am starting this off with one of my all time favorites, Beach Music by Pat Conroy – still one of my favorites!  What is yours?

Summer 2013 – whoa, wow, and yippee!  🙂  It’s so amazing how you think summers are going to turn out and yet, how they turn out.  Staying in Mexico wasn’t the original, original plan, yet, what an amazing summer!  I have been able to meet probably the most amazing group of new teachers I have ever met, positive, energetic, awesome – met awesome people as Oliver Stone, Alice Walker, and many more at an ALA Conference, organize and clean my apartment, organize and redesign the library, meet new people, train my Afghan pups and Mom as well, and that is just the tip of the iceberg!  Then there was yesterday…

I realized how long 50 years is for a business when I see the Clausurada everywhere, and the Cortinas, who reupholstered my couch and seat in the apartment JUST celebrated 50 years yesterday!  I was walking downstairs, and grabbed by the family and owners and told, “4:00!  Aqui!  Comida!”  and I laughed and said No problemo!  But I had no idea what a huge celebration, on the corner of my apartment it would be!  I came back, went upstairs, came back down, and there were singers, guitar players, comida, they instantly gave me a plate of food, a tall glass of wine, and the serenades began!   The wine was truly unbelievable, the music amazing, and the whole neighborhood came to our corner – making me realize how dear this Roma community is and literally, they came for blocks to take in the celebration!

When Monica Patino, international chef showed up, I was amazed and had to take a second look!

 I love her restaurant Delirios, and she was an amazing guest and gracious – she lived only a few blocks away – and was a wonderful and generous guest for the celebration.  She mentioned my blog and I was shocked, but honored, and she proceeded to tell me to email her, and overall, her presence was a great blessing for the event!

I realized, that the days are so worth taking in, and the chances to complain about things exist, however, the ability to see past those, work through things that challenge us, and spend more time enjoying experiences enrich our lives and make us better people to be around.

Upon leaving the family gave me one of their inscribed wine glasses and a sewn commemoration of their 50 years – an amazing day!

That evening, I visited Josh and Tara Vinelove’s apartment and LOVE, love love love and they deserve a great space for themselves and their children.

As I come into my last semester of the school year, I have some inner resolves…

1)Every weekend separate myself from the phone and anything that does not spell vacation, period, no exceptions.

2)Stay away from people that begin, “Have you heard the latest gossip?” – it angers me and distresses me.

3)Get into my zone where I matter more than anything else, part of that is wanting to do anything to make others feel at ease, but NOT to give in to the negativity, doom and gloom, and depressing attitudes of others who refuse or turn away the light.

Life in Mexico has been amazing this summer, and has contained many many lesson about ourselves if you take the time to notice!

“If a child can’t learn the way we teach, maybe we should each the way they learn.” – Ignacio Estrada

As I posted this on my facebook, I realized it is one thing to post something you feel relative, but then what? Let it lie there, and do nothing?  Take it to the next level.  So here is an example I thought of for students to use magazines in the classroom. (Don’t groan, YET).  Get a scholarly magazine, one students would normally not check out on their own, so students begin to understand the difference early in the year.  Then have students prepare a electronic of physical list of connections of all the articles they see in the magazine, or as far as they can get, for 30 minutes.  Here is an example:

English Journal – Volume 102, Np. 1 September 2012

“Literacy is More Than Books and Pens – Anna J. Small Roseboro (page 16)

Dro. Robert Probst – I remember from presenting at NCTE Las Vegas, is referenced in this article about preparing students to do without us, not rely merely on the teacher for everything, which seems to emphasize the role of guide rather than authoritarian.  Media Literacy and multiple intelligences are the two main areas that are pertinent that can insure this.  Emphasis on insuring parents can help students read, discern, evaluate, and critique all can help reinforce creative approaches to education in the classroom. “We must admit that current society is less likely to turn to books for information and less likely to use a pen and paper to communicate ideas.”

I like the ideas that the use of pen and paper was a different modality, and acknowledging the existence of different modalities in fact, dictates the teaching style of teachers (not taking students to the library/Media Center to fill time but taking students outside with an educational journal and asking them to connect three articles with three items they see on campus) for crying out loud, not WASTING the educational opportunity but enhancing it!

Page 21 – Review of the book Dead End in Norvelt, interesting take on Norvelt, PA, a town named after Eleanor Roosevelt, which one the Newberry Award and Scott O;Dell Award for historical fiction. Must be good!

page 27 – Noticed a picture of Superman, a statue, in front of the courthouse in Metropolis, Illinois that represents the article by Barry Gilmore about how enhancing literary characters through graphic novels, different approaches to characters in fiction, and three questions: Why do we care about literary characters, How do we care about literary characters, and How do we express our understanding of characters?  Romeo and Juliet, Lord of the Flies, Sherlock Holmes, Sandra Cisnero’s Eleven, Harry Potter, and DC comics all referenced to help enhance the depth of characters.

Page 34 – “Making Characters Come Alive: Using Characters for Identification and Engagement” – Jocelyn A Chadwick

Question of the article – “How do we as English teachers, with our amazing gift, empower students to see and experience literature not as a burden that must be endured and memorized for the test and then mercifully forgotten, but as a vehicle for self-discovery and reflection?”

Kenneth Burke’s A Rhetoric of Motives, The Joy Luck Club, Heart of Darkness, The Great Gatsby, and use of blogs, wikis, video sharing are just some of the social media references to bring characters alive.Actual lesson plans, organizers, and projects are presented for a developing unit on this.

Cormac MacCarthy’s The Road referenced on page 40 with the quest of father and son motivation, conflict, and identity.  The theme of travel logs and this relationship between characters is discussed as an analysis strategy.  Also how to teach the Illiad to 10th graders!

page 48 – “Challenging Characters: Learning to Reach Inward and Outward from Characters Who Face Oppression”- Betina Hsieh

Texts such as The Diary of Anne Franke, The Godfather, A Child Called “It”, The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-time Indian, Hunger Games,  just some of the possible texts for this unit  Literature circles as one strategy to this approach and focus.

Ivan Ilych article on page 52? Who was he?

I finished reading a book called The Glass Castle” and there is an article titled “Mind and Hearts: Using Jeanette Walls’s Memoir, The Glass Castle, to Teach Emotional Intelligence.” – Andrea Irvin     This article addresses the area of Emotional Intelligence to reach students, flat versus round characters, and class activities surrounding this text.  Also, lifelong discovery based on the analysis of the text is a long term goal.  Again, Sherman Alexie is referenced and John Steinbeck to name a few.

Page 100 – “A Billable Services List: Paying TeachersMore Like Doctors” by Beth Aviv was a great article, it was funny as well.  If teachers were to charge for their services she suggests it would look like this:

$1420.00 – teaching that you can indeed judge creative work based on technique, composition, and meaning.

$400.00 Teaching Eliot’s The Hollow Men and discussing alienation

$761.00  Photocopying materials

$1586.00 – Fixing a jammed copy machine

$9780.00 Posting daily assignments using Blackboard or a blog

$320.00 – Scribbling hall and bathroom passes; not caring if writing is legible.

$188.00 Tripping over overstuffed backpacks lying among student desks

$182.00 Trying to convince a parent whose child got a 63 to care more

$182.00 Trying to convince a parent whose child got an 89 and not a 90 to care less

Overall, the above took me longer to type than make connections in that half hour I sat in the park, and surely this type of “discussion” and exercise demonstrates the following:

How to use an apostrophe on a name that ends in s, why giving credit matters os much when you need to go searching for a specific article and who write it, literary creativity when it comes to analysis, tying current events to literary content, JUST to name a few connections.  I like this exercise than receiving the standard issue ditto coming back at me in waves of boredom in the class 🙂

Hola!  I am just highlighting specific pages that have been revamped to help!  ONE – is a page specific to children and family events in Mexico City at this page on my blog: Children and Family Specific Events

Also I have started to reedit the page for museums based on the 16+ museums (and climbing) so you can get an idea if it’s worth the trek for you.

I have re edited the page on markets and you will see that here.

In 2013-2014 I start revamping my outside the city explorations, and will begin to post these on this page as well!  As always suggestions are accepted!  Thanks!

I do not usually post book reviews on my main blog, but this was a text that after receiving from a controversial individual, Oliver Stone, and I could not put it down for 600 pages, and still am in shock and do not have the exact words, but if you ever want to read something that will cause some shock, this is your text, and this is my review among many other new additions to my book review page.

July 15, 2013  Oliver Stone and Peter Kuznick’s The Untold Story of the United States

It is funny, looking at the self that was me before entering Mexico, and the self now after entering Mexico, I see a totally different me. Why? I actually have been lucky enough to have the gift of time. Time to reflect, time to think, time to introspect and time to see the things around me and make connections. I never had that ability in the states due to the amount of work I had to expend on my part to get by. Then I also saw the true issues behind immigration, and seeing how people in the street of Mexico are thankful for 5 pesos when given to them by someone exiting the metro. FIVE PESOS. After reading Oliver Stone and Peter Kuznik’s text, and hearing their wishes for a true telling of American History in textbooks, I aligned myself with the way I have changed since coming to Mexico and seeing a more worldly and unimperialistic view of things.

Funny, as long as I have been in the United States, I have so much to be thankful for, my family, my education, opportunities to be where I am now. Yet in so many ways I am ashamed of being a part of a country that hides behind documents and actions made private and top secret, individuals being harassed and chased for releasing activities that belong to the general public after all, and those people that also help expose the truth are ridiculed. Why? Greed. When you come to another country, and not just as a tourist, you realize, when you get to see the areas that many do not go to on their own, countries outside of the U.S. deserve their chance to grow and expand and rule their own country, and not be lumped into an imperalistic want and need by the United States. When you see some of the comments, some of the chances the past government individuals had to make a difference and steer clear of this dominate and take over, and they turned their back on it, you too will first be shocked as I still am, and then wonder if you can ever go BACK to a country, living in a county where it makes you feel s your opinion will not make a difference because the government pushes their greed and despite for oil, policing the world, and trying to be the most powerful country, and well, everyone else is second best. But hearing and reading the comments and so many discrepant decisions made just is well, like I said shocking, yet, to not read this book, you go on thinking the thoughts that popular media and supporters would have you to think. It will take me a longtime to ever thing of the United States in the same light after this text that hits straight to the core of every American, hopefully enough to want to force a change.

There is a smattering, SMATTERING of items that go innoticed, workshops I was able to catch tail bits of, and pieces here and there that do not work their way into the schedule of a normal day.  This post is devoted to the countless pays educators can take items and travel with the to the classroom and literally, turn the walls inside out and bring the world outside, within.  So below are a collection of items worth their salt in examining, perusing, and incorporating…An “*” indicates a new topic I am representing for you.  Also, do not forget to check out at Twitter – #ALA2013 where you scroll and grab you might have missed by attending the conference! Ad the link for session that had handouts HERE!

*Cognotes, the newspaper of ALA Conference, Here!  Tons of highlights and overviews of the conference in general – excellent to have online!

*10 Steps to a Better Library Interior                                                                     Contact Traci at traci@msrltd.com if you have any questions, or problems with the file.

*Facebook: Upcoming Workshop July 17th  $50.00

*Article Regarding Academic Rigor                                                                                         Thanks to: Forristyna W. Walker, M.Ed. Retired Curriculum Coach

*Common Core – Common sCores: Instructional Partnerships that Deliver Success – Presenters: Judi Moreillon, Suzanna Panter, Gloria Voutos, Stacy Cameron

What is the core of 21st-century school librarianship? How does OUR core relate to the Common Core State Standards and other state standards? What are the skills, dispositions, responsibilities, and self-assessments we can apply to co-achieve uncommon success? This preconference will provide strategies for demonstrating the school librarian’s central role in the academic program through practicing instructional partnerships to ensure success for K-12 students, teachers, administrators, librarians, and for the school librarian profession, too.

Learning Objectives:

• Identify connections between the common core of the library program (S4L) and CCSS or other state-level standards and cite research that confirms positive correlations between the collaborative work of school librarians and student achievement, particularly in reading and language arts (SLRR).
• Apply a rating scale to self-assess development as L4L school librarians and identify specific areas for improvement based on five roles’ descriptions (EL) and Specify skills, dispositions, and responsibilities of instructional partners.
• Deconstruct/assess (with a rubric) a unit plan published as a Knowledge Quest 40.4 article and gain strategies for advocating with site- or district-level administrators for instructional partner role (AASL Strategic Plan: Advocacy).

Topic Areas: Teaching and Learning; Professional Development and Leadership; School Relationships

Report: State Library Conferences as Professional Development Venues: Unbalanced Support for the AASL-Defined Roles of the School Librarian http://www.ala.org/aasl/slr/volume15/moreillon-cahill-mckee

http://cultureofcollaboration.edublogs.org/2013/07/

and regarding Common Core, AND STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts, and Mathematics):

STEAM at the Library Supports Literacy, Common Core

*Privacy issues that came out in ALA:

http://www.ala.org/advocacy/privacyconfidentiality

Will You Stand for Privacy?

A Message to ALA Members from ALA President Barbara Stripling

In early June, reports of the National Security Agency’s secret practices rang loudly around the world. News reports detailed PRISM, the U.S. government surveillance program that obtains the Internet records from ten U.S. companies: Verizon, Microsoft, Yahoo, Google, Facebook, PalTalk, AOL, Skype, YouTube, and Apple. It appears that phone records, emails, photos, and social networking activities have been collected and catalogued by the FBI and the NSA over the last seven years.

ALA is saddened by recent news that the government has obtained vast amounts of personal information and electronic communications of millions of innocent people. The extent of the personal information received by the government is very troubling. Those of you who have been long-time members of ALA know that we have always argued that provisions in the USA PATRIOT Act encroach on the privacy expectations of library users. Worse, the surveillance law erodes our basic First Amendment rights, all while undermining the very fabric of our democracy.

When we spoke out in 2001 against the passage of the PATRIOT Act, we were concerned about Section 215, a provision of the law that allowed the government powers to obtain “business records and other tangible things” from suspected terrorists. We were fearful that the government would come into libraries without warning and take library records on individual patrons without reasonable suspicion. Libraries were one of the first groups to publicly oppose the bill, and many legislators and privacy experts have noted that Congress would not have understood the chilling impact on privacy if librarians had not brought it to the nation’s attention. Librarians were so vocal in their opposition to the law that Section 215 was called the “library provision.” We could not have imagined then what is happening today. Today, in spite of the leak allegations, the government continues to use the “library provision” to vacuum up private communication records of Americans on a massive scale.

Even the most cynical among us could not have predicted that the Obama Administration—an administration that campaigned on the promise of greater government transparency and openness—would allow a massive surveillance program to infringe upon the basic civil liberties of innocent, unsuspecting people. We understand the responsibility of the government to investigate terrorism and other harmful acts. But the need to protect the public does not mean that Americans have to relinquish their Fourth Amendment privacy rights in the process. ALA has already joined other civil liberties groups to call for more legal review, judicial oversight, transparency and public accountability. Our country needs to find the right balance.

We need to restore the balance between individual rights and terrorism prevention, and libraries are one of the few trusted American institutions that can lead true public engagement on our nation’s surveillance laws and procedures. Libraries have the tools, resources and leaders that can teach Americans about their First Amendment privacy rights and help our communities discuss ways to improve the balance between First Amendment rights and government surveillance activities. And patrons are ready to learn about their privacy rights from their libraries.

Next Steps: Be a Leader at Your Library

We are calling on librarians to facilitate local public dialogues and educational sessions on government surveillance and transparency. To help libraries convene privacy forums and moderate public conversations, ALA is launching “ALA Liberty,” a new privacy website that contains tools that librarians can use to host educational sessions and public forums that help Americans understand their First and Fourth Amendment rights.

 The website contains the following resources:

 Guide for Moderators (PDF)

This document outlines the steps and process for moderators to convene a forum on privacy in their community. Libraries are a perfect location for this form of civic engagement. Librarians may choose to serve as moderators or find other individuals in the community to fill the moderator’s role. This PDF contains the information necessary for moderators of a forum on privacy.

 Guide for Participants (PDF)

Distribute this document to individuals participating in a library-hosted community discussion on privacy. It provides an overview of the deliberative process and outlines the privacy issues to be considered.

Checklist for Convening a Forum on Privacy (PDF)

This document outlines the steps needed to host a successful forum on privacy in your library.

Choose Privacy Week Resources

This offers videos that can be used for programming on surveillance. The site includes guest blogs from national privacy advocates and American Library Association t-shirts and posters.

If you have any questions about the privacy toolkit, contact Jazzy Wright, press officer of the ALA Washington Office at jwright@alawash.org or (202) 628-8410             –Barbara Stripling   ALA President

*ALA Battledecks – HYSTERICAL!

What is Battle Decks?  Explanation:    Battledecks represent the ultimate challenge for a public speaker as they are challenged to give a coherent presentation based on hand-selected, seemingly unrelated slides that they see for the very first time live on stage. This competition, often referred to as “PowerPoint Karaoke,”, will see eight brave and willing participants compete for the glory of being crowned ALA’s reigning Battledecks champion.

http://www.americanlibrariesmagazine.org/blog/ala-battledecks-iv-chicago-showdown

http://ala13.ala.org/node/11347

https://www.facebook.com/events/122988837734149/

And the Video…

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X3OKa_satrQ&list=UUX-WTvHM1ZocNPr3A6cljrw

*Flat Eugene at ALA!

*Myth and Reality of the Evolving Patron

The Powerpoint:  2013 – 6.29.13 – Evolving Library Patron – RUSA at ALA

*White House vetoes reproducing the speech to ALA – Not sure how I feel about this !

*Tips for Library Fun!

*Attracting Male Readers 

*Fleeing the Reference Desk:

*Required Knowledge, Skills, and Abilities: What Librarians Really Need to be Successful at the Reference Desk:

Session Details  and Poster

* Thanks! – Daniel Ransom ‏- Collaborative zine made at #ALA2013’s Zine Pavilion, filled with stories of weird things seen in libraries    Magazine

*Video of speakers:

Maureen Sullvian 2012-2013 ALA President

Khaled Hosseini

Rahm Emanuel

Beginning Introductions to ALA of members 2013-2014

Octavia Spencer

Congressman John Lewis

Temple Grandin

Peter Kuznick and Oliver Stone

Alice Walker on Fairness

Ann Patchett