Media matters, Vol. 5, Issue 5 (Dec. 2006)

Georgia Department of Education

January 2006 Volume 4, Number 6

Media Matters
A monthly newsletter for people who love library media programs

National Board Certified Library Media Specialists

Congratulations to the new 15 NBCTs in Georgia certified in Library Media !

Joan Abraham of DeKalb County Sue Dalelio of Muscogee County Ollye Davis of Fulton County Wanda Dunn of Henry County Mary England of DeKalb County Cynthia Holloway of Muscogee County

Catherine Robbins of Chatham County Evelyn Schneider of Gwinnett County Glovis South of Heard County Terry Starner of Gwinnett County Linda Williams of Berrien County

Virginia Matthews of Columbia County

Tammy Miller of Lowndes County

Stephen Piazza of Clarke County

Betsy Razza of DeKalb County

21st Century Library Media Specialists We read. We lead. Get used to it.
Martha Hickson

Inside this issue:

Open Houses

2

Help Wanted

2

Let it snow!

3

Narnia lives!

4

Forensics

6

Archaeology Trunk

6

Grant Information

7

Media Man

8

The Polar Express

9

Calendar

10

Page 2

Media Matters

January 2006

Exemplary Library Media Open Houses!

Elementary
Riverbend Elementary January 26, 2006 9:00 AM until 2:00 PM

Middle School/ Junior High
Carrollton Junior High January 19, 2006 9:00 AM until 2:00 PM

High School
Wheeler High School January 30, 2006 9:00 AM until 2:30 PM

Everybody can be great because anybody can serve. You don't have to have a college degree to serve. You don't need to make your subject and verb agree to serve. You only need a heart full of grace. A soul generated by love.
Martin Luther King, Jr.

For details on the Open Houses see the December issue of Media Matters.

HELP WANTED
Readers/Reviewers to read the applications for the 2006 Exemplary Library Media Program. Please email Judy Serritella at jserrite@doe.k12.ga.us if you would like to help with the evaluation process.

Media Matters

Page 3

Let it Snow! Let it Snow! Let it Snow!
Snowflakes are temporaryworks of art. After just a few short minutes on the ground, a fallen snowflake will lose its ornate structure, its unique pattern that will never again be repeated. Photography allows us to preserve a few of these minute masterpieces and to examine their form up close.
Check out:
http://www.its.caltech.edu/%7Eatomic/snowcrystals/ photos/photos.htm

Snowflake Bentley
Read about Snowflake Bentley by Jacqueline Briggs Martin and illustrated by Mary Azarian on Carol Hurst's website at: http://www.carolhurst.com/titles/snowflakebentley.html Carol has included reviews, activities, and related books.

Page 4 January 2006

Media Matters
Narnia Lives On At King Springs Elementary School by Elisabeth J. Tovi (Cobb County Schools)

Jim Trelease, author of The Read Aloud Handbook, says people are pleasure oriented. When we help children associate reading with pleasure, they will come back to reading over and over again. That being true, and I believe it is, then the place that houses their books should also be a pleasure to visit. With this perspective, we came up with the idea of turning the media center of King Springs Elementary School into Narnia.
Before Disney decided to join Walden Media in their Narnia project, I came across the perfect lamppost in an after Christmas sale. It was covered in snow and looked enchanted. I must have sounded the fool standing in line at the check-out saying things like, "Look, it's so Narnian! Always winter, but never Christmas."
I suppose you had to have read the entire series aloud to your children twice -- to appreciate my enthusiasm.
Next, I found a father in our school who owns a woodworking company. He built a sturdy wardrobe without a back. It was perfect. Then I contacted muralist Lynne Looney about painting some murals. We have almost no walls since our building was erected during the schools-without-walls period. Then Lynne just took over. She decided to paint the wardrobe with stain to make it look like carved images of lions, and castles and kings, and queens. We filled the wardrobe with fur coats, and mounted a shimmer curtain on the back. Children now had the option of entering the media center through the wardrobe.
Next, Lynne cut foam to approximate trees in winter and painted it. We strung icicle lights and snow flakes around where the lamppost stood. When the children came through the wardrobe, and the magic of the shimmer curtain would cling to them as they came out, their eyes would fix on the snow and the lights and they were truly enchanted. It was great.
We have had a reading ship (reading loft) since time immemorial. When Lynne saw it, she suggested we make it over into the Dawn Treader, the ship from the Narnia series. A plain brown ship was completely transformed by paint and gold and silver leafing. The floor of the ship got two layers of carpet padding and new carpet. Satin and sequins, tassels and more, made a ship truly fit for little kings and queens. Above the ship she painted two murals, one of Aslan and the other, a scene including Cair Paravel.
As I read aloud to my own children as they grew, I came to love the English language as used by British authors. The syntax as well as the larger vocabulary stretched their understanding and enjoyment of language. I am delighted the classic Narnia series by C.S. Lewis has been made into a major motion picture, so that more children will be enticed to pull these books off the shelf and read through them with pleasure.
Anyone wanting to makeover their media center could not find a more talented or creative artist than Lynne Looney, who now lives in the Atlanta area.

Entrance into Narnia (the Library Media Center) lies behind the wardrobe doors.

Media Matters

Page 5

Below: Building the reading boat and beautiful murals on the walls.

Page 6

Media Matters

January 2006

Forensics in the Classroom

As part of its ongoing commitment to education, Court TV is pleased to bring forensics to high school science classrooms nationwide. This FREE, exciting new program conforms to nationally recognized standards and was developed as part of a continuing educational partnership with the American Academy of Forensic Sciences. New for this year they have added two units - one for middle school, the other for high school - that were also developed in collaboration with the National Science Teachers Association (NSTA). The NSTA is the largest organization in the world committed to promoting excellence and innovation in science teaching. By incorporating key scientific concepts and lab experiments into creative, forensic-based mysteries and activities, FIC provides a way to engage and teach students about the expandingand fascinating world of forensic science. http://www.courttv.com/forensics_curriculum/

Georgia Elementary Students To Get A Lesson in Archaeology

Georgia's elementary school students will soon have a rare opportunity to glimpse what life was like here during and even before the First Century.

On Wednesday, December 14, 2005

at 11:00 a.m., the Georgia

Department of Transportation

presented the Georgia Department of

Education (GaDOE) with an

Archaeology Teaching Trunk to

display at schools across the state.

DOT archaeologists present the archaeology teaching

The trunk contains educational

trunk to Kathy Cox.

games and activities, as well as actual

artifacts recovered from Georgia DOT project sites.

The trunk was compiled by Southern Research, Historic Preservation Consultants Inc., (SRHPC), the Department's archaeological contractor on the highly-significant Leake Site complex in Cartersville, Georgia.

To reserve the trunk for your school, email Judy Serritella at the GaDOE.

Media Matters

Page 7

ALA Bookshelf Grant
For the first time ever, ALA will be awarding a Bookshelf - 15 classic books for young readers on the theme of "Becoming American" - to 2,000 school and public libraries. This is four times the number of Bookshelves ALA has awarded in the past for a single application deadline! ALA hopes you will take advantage of this easy opportunity to acquire free books for your library media center.
Guidelines and the on-line application are available at www.ala.org/ALAthepeople from September 6, 2005 - January 17, 2006. Library Media Centers interested in receiving the collection are required to develop and host a program to introduce the collection and its theme of "Becoming American" to students and/or patrons.
Unlike past ALA the People Bookshelves, there will be no second deadline for "Becoming American." All applications are due by January 17, 2006.
To access a list of titles and further details, please visit http://www.ala.org/ALAthepeople. With questions, contact publicprograms@ala.org .

Grant Funding Opportunity

Foundations for the Future is pleased to announce a new K-12 grant funding opportunity mailing list for Georgia educators. The purpose of this email list is to simplify the process of locating new funding opportunities for teachers, administrators, and others involved in K-12. The funding email list will include details about upcoming grant opportunities from foundations, government, and other organizations for which Georgia educators are eligible to apply. Each email will include a short description of the grant opportunity with a link for more information.

This email list will be sent approximately once a week. The list is free to subscribe to and your name will never be sold or used for spam messages. Funding opportunities posted to this list will also be archived on the Foundations for the Future (Grant $) website (http://www.f3program.org).
To subscribe, please send an email to dara@gatech.edu with the subject "funding list."

Obstacles are those frightful things you see when you take your eyes off your goals.
Henry Ford

Page 8 January 2006

Media Man
created by Dale Lyles

Media Matters

Britannica Training at ETTCs
Encyclopeadia Britannica, in collaboration with the GaDOE and the ETTCs, will offer training on the Britannica database in the near future.
Be on the lookout for information from your local ETTC for times and dates.

Media Matters

Page 9

The Polar Express comes to Peachtree City
Peggy James, library media specialist at Crabapple Lane Elementary in Peachtree City, has made the Polar Express come to life. During the holidays she used technology to share the e-book The Polar Express with the students. The Media Center was decorated to look like a train, with the chairs arranged in rows to be the "train car". As students became part of the literature...they were served hot chocolate just as the children in the story.were served.
Upon returning to the classroom, the students found a box that was cold (from the freezer) with a note from Santa, and inside the package was a small silver bell for each child.
Library Media Specialists throughout Georgia create magic all the time for students as they find the joy in reading and begin to fall in love with books.
What are you doing in your library media center? Share your best practices and creative ideas.

Phone: 404-657-9800 Fax: 404-657-6822 Email: judy.serritella@doe.k12.ga.us
1970Twin Towers East 205 Jesse Hill Jr. Drive Atlanta, Georgia 30334
We will lead the nation in improving student achievement.

Be sure to check out the media newsletters on the GLC site. These newsletters are customizable for your school and available on two instructional levels.

January 2006
GaDOE Library Media Services

Sunday
1

Monday
2

J.D. Salinger born: Birthday ofIssac

1919-

Asimov: 1920-

1992

Tuesday
3

Wednesday
4

Thursday
5

Friday
6

Saturday
7

J.R.R. Tolkein

Jacob Grimmborn: 1st Library School Carl Sandburg's

born: 1892-1973 1785-1863

opened: 1887 birthday: 1878-

Death ofGeorge 1967

Washington

Carver: 1943

Zora Neale Hurston born: 18911960

8
11th amendment ratified: 1789

9
Concorde tested: 1969

10
Thomas Paine p ub l is hed Common Sense: 1776

11

12

Alan Paton born: Birthday ofJack

1903-1988

London: 1876-

1916

13

14

1st African Ameri- Hugh Lofting

can Cabinet

born: 1886-1947

member: 1966

15
Birthday of Martin Luther King, Jr.: 19291968

16
Birthday of Robert Lipsyte: 1938-

17

18

19

20

21

1st child born in Birthday ofA.A. Edgar Allan Poe End ofAmerican Traffic Light inve-

White House: Milne: 1882-1956 born: 1809-1849 Revolution: 1783 nted: 1923

1806

Birthday ofDaniel

Robert Cormier

Webster: 1782-

born: 1925-2000 1852

22
Lord Byron born: 1788-1824

23

24

25

Graduation of1st woman physician, Elizabeth Blackwell: 1849

Birthday ofEdith Wharton: 18621937

Macintosh computer went on sale: 1984

26
Australia founded: 1788

27

28

Birthday of

Birthday ofVera

Mozart: 1756- B. Williams:

1791

1927-

Lewis Carroll

born: 1832-1898

29

30

31

Birthday ofBill Lloyd Alexander's Scotch tape develPeet:1915-2002 birthday: 1924- oped: 1928

December 05 S M TW T F S
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February 06 S M TW T F S
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Whateveryoucando or dreamyoucan, beginit. Boldness has genius, power, and magic in it. Beginit now. Goethe.