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

“I woke up, to the feeling of moving, like seriously, I was MOVING – like down the street.  I wondered WHAT THE HECK is going on as I noticed that before I knew it, I realized the electricity was off and I was on total darkness,  the stereo was off and had stopped playing.  This is the odd thing, I was too tired to worry about it and just stayed where I was, laying in my bed, I didn’t move a muscle.  Honestly, the next thing I remembered, (not being woken up or anything), was the fact that I was in a line of people, a literal line in a very very dark and dismal movie theatre-looking lobby.    Everyone was pretty much emotionless, colorless, and I turned my head and there was….Megan Ver Duin?  Yes?  She turned to me and I noticed she was the only one that had color, red lipstick, I remember red lipstick,  and she said super slowly and softly to me, “There IS a line, and I will represent you.  This is so much easier with you not having any previous court cases, this make it SO much easier.”  I asked, “Why?” and she replied, “With you having no previous scuffles or conflicts you should be in and out, that is why”, the whole time speaking super slowly as she realized either I was still asleep or still waking up.  I remember looking down at my dilapidated shoes  afraid of what the honorable judge would think or say to me.

Didn’t matter, because the next thing I remember was paying, and I had no money but I did have my credit card, the total came to almost 350 pesos and I was relieved, – that paid the amount I still owed for back payment and the impoundment fee of my RV)  – I had THAT but not the 2-3000 pesos I thought it would cost.  I worried though, would I be able to a)Find my way back home from where I was since  I was asleep during the trip and b)make it home without my RV being impounded again since I did not have a license plate on the RV, I mean, it was an RV after all and I never intended for it to be removed from its permanent spot.”

There, everyone tells me I need to stop, wake up, and write down the dreams I have, so as soon as I woke up with worry about how I was going to get home and not be pulled over by the police, I decided to record my dream.  1) I do not OWN an RV, 2) the threat of being over is ever present in Mexico City some days to me, and 3)Megan was the only thing that settled my fears in this dream, so what does that dream mean folks?

LOL, in the middle of trying to get all the Conference ideas out and into the open before I forget the last week, *it feels like a dream trying to get it all down before I forget the details!* yes, there has been things going on – other than dreaming, promise.

The puppies have become attached to me and do not want to leave my side, I have been able to introduce them to the outside and they have started to realize going the bathroom outside is MUCH better than inside (and the newspaper supply has been dwindling!) – this has been only going on for one week and they already are learning, I think there is hope…).  I have figured out a how to walk all three, (we get stopped every block because people have to croon over them, they so get the attention) –  I did get all their shots minus the rabies, so that is next on the list.  They were SO WELL taken care of when I was gone, for a week in Chicago at the ALA Conference,  if you need a caretaker, Walking Dog is AWESOME !  

I haven’t quite gotten used to the retainer but it feels so amazingly good to have my braces off, Cynthia Castro is a MASTER – MASTER at Orthodontics and she took a 10+year ordeal for me and within 1 1/2 years made magic, she is A M A Z    I N G.

The weather is beautiful, I love the long days I spend with Kinah, Wriggley, and Amaya outside in the different parks, we pick a different one every day! I talked to my friend Natalie and about 1/4 convinced I can run the marathon with her in Disney in January, that is closer to being convinced than I ever have so that scares me…

I have to say, my apartment is FINALLY getting organized, cleaned and I am motivated to do so a little every day, and with working on the Repentino. magazine details with new and returning staff, planning our New York trip details now already for March, I think it will be a year where I can be vacant on the weekends, VERY excited.

Okay, honest a few more posts about the Conference, AMAZING again how much I came across and away with in one week, but hope it can be used by others!  Hope your summer is AWESOME so far!

Believe it or not, despite the awesome workshop and meeting Oliver Stone moment on Monday, there was more, I mean, major cram day but one of the BEST days!

http://alicewalkersgarden.com/new-books/

Get this – Meeting and hearing Alice Walker and getting an autographed book from her, AND meeting Janis Ian, who honestly I had NEVER met or known before this – Before my time but my GOSH – her performance AND session was truly

worth the Monday it fell on.

I was amazed at the soft spoken Alice Walker yet her powerful message that was so much larger than her name even.  Seeing the excerpts of her video in the notes below on Alice and Janis Ian make this worth checking out and THEN some…

Monday special speakers

So you can image, after the workshops, meeting special speakers, and trying to absorb it all was a little overwhelming.

http://thetinymouse.com

The messages of peace, the hysterical moments that Janis Ian talks about commissioned to write a story/song about a mouse to sea, the selflessness

of Alice Walker and the time she was willing to give to people.