Media matters, Vol. 7, Issue 9 (Apr. 2009)

Volume 7, Number 9

April 2009

Media Matters
A newsletter for people who care about library media programs

INSIDE THIS ISSUE:

Retiring?

2

GCBA Nominees

3

Weeding Tips

4

Andy Spinks

6

speaks

South Effingham

7

Open House

Druid Hills Rocks

8

GAIT Scholarship 10
Opportunities

The Atlanta

12

Hawks!

DeKalb honors

14

Dr. Sheth

Dolly Parton and

15

the Ferst

Foundation

Georgia

16

Children's Book

Award

Book Award

18

nominees

Congratulations

19

Buffy Hamilton!

Helen Ruffin

20

Reading Bowl

participants

Calendar

21

Meet Helen Ruffin!

Does your school participate in the Helen Ruffin Reading Bowl? Did you know there really is a Helen Ruffin? Mrs. Ruffin, who created the Reading Bowl named in her honor, was at the recent Georgia Children's Book Award Conference.
Thank you Mrs. Ruffin and thanks to all the media specialists across the state who participate in this wonderful program.

School Library Media Month

Celebrity Issue!
How many celebrities can you find in this issue? And yes, authors and media specialists count as celebrities!

Page 2

Volume 7, Number 9

Georgia Department of Education 1754 Twin Towers East 205 Jesse Hill Jr. Drive Atlanta, Georgia 30334 Phone: 404-657-9800 Fax: 404-656-5744 Email: jerrite@doe.k12.ga.us
We will lead the nation in improving student achievement.

You can always spot bright people. They are reading a book.
Gary Soto

Are you retiring this year? Is your Media Parapro retiring?
Were you chosen as TOTY in your school or system?
Were you chosen as your system or district's Library Media Specialist of the Year?
Let us know so we can honor you in the May issue.
Send an email with your information to: Judy Serritella

Be not afraid of going slowly. Be afraid of standing still.
Japanese proverb

Media Matters

GCBA Picture Storybook Nominees 2009-10

Page 3

Banks, Kate (2006) Max's Words. Ill. By Boris Kulikov. New York: Farrar, Straus &Giroux. Beaumont, Karen (2005) I Ain't Gonna Paint No More! Ill. by David Catrow. New York: Harcourt. Brumbeau, Jeff (2004) The Quilt Makers Journey. Ill. by Gail de Mareken. New York: Orchard Books. Dorros, Arthur (2008) Pap and Me. Ill. by Rudy Gutierrez. New York: HarperCollins. Hest, Amy (2004) Mr. George Baker. Ill. by Jon J. Muth. Cambridge, MA: Candlewick. Icenoggle, Jodi (2004) `Till the Cows Come Home. Ill. by Normand Chartier. New York: Boyd Mills. Kimmel, Eric (2004) The Castle of the Cats. Ill. by Katya Krenina. New York: Holiday House. Lupton, Hugh (2004) Pirican Pic and Pirican Mor. Ill. By Yumi Heo. New York: Barefoot Books. McCahon, Patricia and McCarthy Conor Clarke (2004) Just add one Chinese Sister. Ill. by Karen A. Jerome. New York: Boyd Mills. McCully, Emily Arnold (2004) Squirrel and John Muir. New York: Farrar, Straus &Giroux. McDonald, Megan (2004) Saving the Liberty Bell. Ill. by Marsha Gray Carrington. New York: Atheneum. Pinkney, Andrea Davis (2004) Sleeping Cutie. Ill. by Brian Pinkney. New York: Harcourt. Sheth, Kashmire (2007) My Dadima Wears a Sari. Ill. by Yoshiko Jaeggi. Atlanta: Peachtree. Sockabasin, Allen (2005) Thanks to the Animals. Ill. by Rebekah Raye. Maine: Tilbury House Stanley, Diane (2004) The Giant and the Beanstalk. New York: HarperCollins Weatherford, Carole Boston (2005) Freedom on the Menu. The Greensboro Sit-Ins. New York: Dial. Winnick, Karen B. (2004) The Night of the Fireflies. Ill. by Yoriko Ito. New York: Boyd Mills. Wojtowicz, Jennifer (2005) The Boy Who Grew Flowers. Ill. by Steve Adams. New York: Barefoot. Yaccarino, Dan (2005) The Birthday Fish. New York: Henry Holt. Young, Amy (2005) Belinda in Paris. New York: Viking.
If you want your children to be intelligent, read them fairy tales. If you want your children to be geniuses, read them more fairy tales.
Albert Einstein

Page 4

Volume 7, Number 9
C h e r y l Yo u s e ' s S t u d e n t We e d i n g L e s s o n

The Problem:
When faced with the prospect of moving a 50 year old school media center twice in one year because of construction projects, I was challenged to quickly get the collection in order. It was complicated by the fact that I was the first professional librarian to ever work there and the volunteers before me had not only accepted every book ever donated, they had retained all of them. While it was interesting to discover titles such as Do-It-Yourself Taxidermy and a 14th Century Spanish Furniture series as well as a number of books with "Chicano" in the title, they did not serve the purposes of the school. There were also titles like Milk Bottle Science Projects (copyright 1947) and The Seventeen Guide to Beauty (copyright 1967) that were outdated.
The Process:
Being short of time, I decided to ask my 5th-8th grade students for help and to turn it into a lesson. First, I reviewed the Dewey Decimal System with the students, explained the difference between banning books and weeding a library collection (as we had had a number of discussions on book banning), gave them the worksheet on the next page (or click on the link), and set them loose in the stacks. Each pair of students was required to find two non-fiction books that they felt we should remove from the collection. They had to complete the worksheet and then we reassembled as a class and each student stood to present the information outlined in the worksheet about his chosen book. It was a very popular lesson with the students and they made excellent choices.
The Result:
I believe I only overruled one book and they only overruled one of my choices. The project gave me a better insight into what appealed to them. (We did keep The Seventeen Guide to Beauty and hairstyles at the Christmas dance were decidedly retro.) The students enjoyed it so much that all year I had kids dropping in to ask for 'one of those bad book papers' to search for more books that didn't fit. They learned something about currency, authority, and relevance as well as where to look for copyright and other bibliographic information. My collection was streamlined and the two moves of the books in and out of the library that year went ...as well as could be hoped for. If you have any other questions, feel free to email me at: cyouse@gmail.com.
The Worksheet:
(click here for a printable Word document of the worksheet)
(continued on next page)

Media Matters

Page 5

Weeding...

Weeding a library collection means removing the books from the collection that no longer serve a purpose for that specific library. The non-fiction books especially need to be `weeded' on occasion because they can become quickly outdated. For example, a book that says `someday man will land on the moon' may be interesting but the information is incorrect and a school library needs to get rid of that book. A book about the Baltimore Colts is no longer current because the Colts are in Indianapolis now. A 20 year old book on basketball rules is out of date because the rules have changed (three point shots weren't allowed back then). If someone donates a book to a school library on antique furniture and there is no class that would use the book and no one has been interested in the subject (the book hasn't ever been checked out), then that book should be removed from the school library collection also.

Weeding is not the same as banning a book. Banning a book means removing a book from a collection because someone does not approve of the subject matter. Banning a book means someone ELSE makes a decision about what you are allowed to read. Your parents and teachers can and should help make decisions about what you are allowed to read but people who have never even met you should not have the right to decide what books you may read. Banning a book from a library is something librarians do not like to do, but weeding a book from a library is a necessary process. If libraries never removed any books from the collection, there would be no room for new books. Having books with incorrect or outdated information in a library is not useful.

Weeding Worksheet
Title of Book: _____________________________________________
Dewey Decimal Classification Number: __________________
Subject Area: ______________________________
Copyright Date: _____________________________
Is the book current? (see copyright, check information) ____________
Does the book have good information? (authority) _______________________________________ _________________
Is the book relevant? (Do we need this book to support things we study at school?) _________________________________________
I think we should dispose of this book because: ___________________________________________________________________
Use CAR (Currency, Authority, Relevancy) also when you choose sources for reports--make sure the materials you use are good choices.

Cheryl Youse is the Library Media Specialist at Colquitt County High School in Moultrie.

Page 6

Andy Spinks Speaks

Volume 7, Number 9

As budgets get tighter, legislators and educational leaders are looking for more and more ways to cut
costs. As pressures to increase student achievement mount, principals and teachers feel pressure to allocate resources and instructional time only to activities that raise test scores. Changes in accreditation standards such as SACS/CASI and the Georgia Keys provide no specific standards for library media programs, they only state that schools should be implementing research-based practices in instruction and leadership. You and I know that your library media program is a research-proven way to raise test scores, and a crucial educational tool that deserves full funding and support. Unfortunately, many outside of our ranks do not know this.
Now more than ever, it is crucial that library media professionals make it known loud and clear to our
legislators, our school leaders, and even our teaching colleagues that research has shown conclusively that good school library programs have a huge impact on student achievement. However, we need to be perfectly clear about what it means to be "good." In other words, we need to say specifically which activities and elements of the library media program are proven to impact student achievement.
In the past, we have relied on a number of different research summaries to help understand and convey
this research connection, most notably the Powering Achievement book from Lance and Loertscher and the School Libraries Work report from Scholastic. These have been and continue to be invaluable for library media specialists, but (realistically) neither is enough to be read by those outside of our field. Also, neither is organized in a way that makes it easy to comprehend the implications of the research.
With help from colleagues here in Cobb, I have developed a brief summary of the research on library
media programs and student achievement:
http://www.cobbk12.org/librarymedia/proof/research.pdf.
Continued on next page

In the March Media Matters, we published an article on privacy by Helen Adams. I neglected to let you know that she has a new book entitled Ensuring Intellectual Freedom and Access to Information in the School Library Media Program that was published by Libraries Unlimited in Sept. 2008. The URL to a description of the book, photo of the cover, and the table of contents is: http://lu.com/showbook.cfm? isbn=9781591585398/.

Media Matters

Page 7

This document is designed to be brief and powerful:
- It begins with a three page summary of the research, with most of the findings sorted into four themes or categories of impact.
- It includes two pages of implications for practice, one for library media specialists and one for educational leaders
- All research findings are cited with numbered end notes to make the text easily readable, and the references take up an entire page themselves, emphasizing the volume of research that backs up the text.
- The document is published under a Creative Commons license, so you can use it in most any way you need to without worrying about copyright.
Hopefully this will help you as you make the case to your legislators to fund your program, to your administrators to support your program, and to your teachers to use your program!
If you find any errors or typos, please let me know and I will fix them as quickly as possible. If you would like a copy of the original MS Word version, let me know and I will send it. (However, the citations in the Word version are formatted using EndNote, so I can't guarantee that it will display correctly for you.) If you need usage rights beyond those in the Creative Commons license, let me know. Finally, if this document helps you secure funding or support for your program, or if it helps you convince your teachers to collaborate more let me know that as well.
Andy Spinks is the Supervisor of Library Media Education for the Cobb County School District.
Andy.Spinks@cobbk12.org>

South Effingham Open House
April 24th from 9 until 1 767 Kolick Helmey Road Guyton 912-728-3801

Page 8

Volume 7, Number 9

Does Georgia Have Fantastic Library Media Specialists or What!!!

Over the summer, Betsy Razza, Library Media Specialist at Druid Hills High School in DeKalb
County, Julie Jordan (library clerk), a parent, and their orchestra teacher took an intensive School Master Gardening course. Their mission was to go back to their school and create a garden using native plants that would attract pollinators with student, faculty, parent and community involvement.
The garden has been used as a focus for some special lessons involving Spanish classes, special
education and environmental science students. In March, Betsy and Julie taught an environmental science lesson detailing the problems that landfills pose for Georgia, measures taken today to provide sanitary landfills, and the need to recycle and compost. The students learned what can be composted, the science behind the decay process, and collected items for the composting bins that were made during a community garden workday.
The butterflies shown in the picture were made with Spanish classes. These symbolic paper
butterflies with messages written in Spanish by Spanish II students at Druid Hills High School were sent to schoolchildren in Mexico. In a cross-curricular project, the Spanish students learned about the life cycle of the monarch caterpillars to butterflies, the long migration of the monarch butterflies to Mexico, and the cultural connection of the monarch butterflies to Los Dias De Los Muertos in Mexican culture.

More pictures on next page

Media Matters

Page 9

Page 10

Scholarship Opportunities

Volume 7, Number 9

Are you a member of GAIT? See below for scholarship opportunities.

If you are in graduate school or know of someone who is, please pass along this information.

Goen-Sloan Scholarship

This scholarship is named for two former GAIT Leaders, the late Marsha Goen, GAIT past president, and retired director of membership, Mary Jean Sloan.

The following guidelines are:

The scholarship is awarded annually.

Applicant must be a member of GAIT prior to application deadline.

Applicant must be pursuing graduate studies in a media-related area and provide proof of acceptance to program.

Completion of an application is required.

The application asks for information concerning applicant's career goals, and experience in the field or in professional organizations. A resume must be attached.

Recipients will be selected by the Scholarship Committee, which shall include GAIT Board Members and members of the Leadership Development Committee.

A rubric will be used to evaluate information provided by the applicant.

The scholarship is not awarded on the basis of demonstrated need.

Recipients may reapply each year until degree work is completed. Reapplication requires verification of successful completion of course work taken during previous scholarship award year.

In the future, the Goen-Sloan Scholarship will only be awarded twice to the same person. It will not be awarded for two consecutive years.

Amount of award will be set annually by approval of the Governing Board of GAIT.

Deadline: June 1

(continued on next page)

Media Matters

GOEN-SLOAN Scholarship Application

Name:

Street Address:

City:

State:

Zip:

Home Phone:

Work Phone:

Email Address:

FAX Number:

Degree currently being sought:

Graduate Institution:

Major Professor:

Anticipation graduation date:

Please complete the following short answer questions on a separate page.

1. What are your career goals?

2.What experience do you have in the field of instructional technology?

3. In which organizations do you hold membership?

4. How long have you been a GAIT, Inc. member?

Please submit a letter of application.

Please attach a current resume.

Please submit three letters of support for your application.

Submit all applications and/or nominations to:

Dr. Melissa Underwood Chesney Elementary School 3878 Old Norcross Road Duluth, GA 30096 Phone: 678-542-2307 Fax: 678-542-2304

Page 11

Page 12

Volume 7, Number 9

The Atlanta Hawks recently held their annual Team Reading Day at Jones Elementary School in Atlanta
City. The event sponsored by Philips Arena and Sprite featured the entire team plus the coaches reading to the children. There was also a "pep rally" for reading featuring Harry the Hawk and the team. Reading Tree donated 500 books to the Library Media Center and each child went home with 2-3 books of their very own.

Solomon Jones conducts a lesson with a group of kindergartners. I think they were talking about eating your vegetables!

Zaza Pachulia from the country of Georgia reads to a group of students at Jones Elementary.

Speedy Claxton signs autographs for students after reading to them.
There's no use going to school unless your final destination is the library. Ray Bradbury

Media Matters
The Jones Elementary principal, Mrs. Margul Retha Woolfolk, and the Hawks team!

Page 13

Mike Bibby talked with these 5th graders before reading to them.

Mo Evans mesmerized the students with his words (and height!)

Joe Johnson was a hit with the students as he read to them!

Page 14

Volume 7, Number 9

Rosalind L. Dennis, Instructional Coordinator in the Department of Educational Media in the DeKalb County School System recently arranged for Dr. and Mrs. Jagdish Sheth to be honored for his gift of books to all the schools in Georgia. India Unveiled and Finders Keepers were sent to all school systems in January 2009 for distribution to the schools.
India Unveiled was a gift to both middle and high schools and Finders Keepers was given to both middle and elementary schools. You can send a thank you note to Dr. Sheth at the Goizueta Business School, Emory University, 1300 Clifton Road, Atlanta 30322.

Didn't receive your books? Please check with your central office. They were mailed in January to the Media Coordinators in each system.
From last year...but just too cute not to share again.

Dr. Sheth addressing the group in DeKalb County.

Media Matters
The Ferst Foundation for Childhood
Literacy recently hosted a celebration announcing the partnership between Rotary International, the Dollywood Foundation, and the Ferst Foundation for Childhood Literacy. The Ferst Foundation hopes to take their wonderful program statewide.

Page 15

State Superintendent Kathy Cox and Deputy Superintendent Dr. Martha Reichrath listened intently to Dolly who spoke on the topic of childhood literacy and then entertained the group by singing "9 to 5."

One of the Rotary officers with Dolly during the press conference part of the presentation.

Page 16
The recent Children's
Literature Conference in Athens was well attended and the presentations were, as usual, thought provoking and full of creative ideas. Authors signed their books for hundreds of fans.
Mark and Caralyn Buehner autograph their books for Library Media Specialists!

Volume 7, Number 9

Andrea Gilbert, Caralyn Buehner, Christina Badowski, and Mark Buehner.

Gail Carson Levine, Newbery Honor winner for Ella Enchanted, signing my purchase.

Media Matters

Page 17

Two time Caldecott Honor recipient Bryan Collier autographs Martin's Big Words.

Paul Janeczko autographs a book at the recent Children's Literature Conference.

James Campbell of Lee Street Elementary (Clayton County) shares a story with Peter Sis.

Three time Caldecott Honor recipient Peter Sis (foreground) and Mark and Caralyn Buehner sign autographs for bibliophiles.

Page 18

GEORGIA CHILDREN'S BOOK AWARD NOMINEES 2009-2010

Volume 7, Number 9

ESPECIALLY FOR LOWER GRADES (4-5) Mills, Claudia (2006). Trading Places. Farrar. Nitz, Kristen W. (2007). Saving the Griffin. Peachtree. ESPECIALLY FOR UPPER GRADES (7-8) Haddix, Margaret P. (2007). Uprising. Simon & Schuster. Schmidt, Gary D (2007). The Wednesday Wars. Clarion. POSSIBLY FOR ALL GRADES (4-8) Berlin, Eric (2007). The puzzling world of Winston Breen. Putnam. Blume, Lesley M. M. (2007). The rising star of Rusty Nail. Knopf. Bruchac, Jospeh (2007). Bearwalker. HarperCollins. Crowley, Suzanne (2007). The very ordered existence of Merilee Marvelous. HarperCollins. Curtis, Christopher Paul (2007). Elijah of Buxton. Scholastic. Easton, Kelly (2007). Hiroshima Dreams. Penguin. Fleishman, Sid (2008). The entertainer and the dybbuk. HarperCollins. Fogelin, Adrian (2007). The sorta sisters. Peachtree. Green, Tim (2007). Football genius. HarperCollins. Hahn, Mary D. (2007). Deep and dark and dangerous. Houghton Mifflin. Lichtman, Wendy (2007). Do the math: secrets, lies and algebra. HarperCollins. O'Connor, Barbara (2008). Greetings from Nowhere. Farrar. Porter, Tracey (2007). Billy Creekmore. . HarperCollins. Wilson, N.D. (2007). Leepike Ridge. Random House. Wolf, Joan M. (2007). Someone named Eva. Houghton Mifflin. Woodson, Jacqueline (2007). Feathers. Putnam.

Media Matters

Page 19

Buffy Hamilton and Creekview High School shine!

Buffy Hamilton, a media specialist at

Creekview High School in Cherokee

County, has been appointed to a two

year term as a member of the American

Association of School Librarians

(AASL) Blog Group. The mission of

the AASL blog is "to use the AASL blog

to

provide a focused and flexible format

for providing information about

programs, conferences, projects,

resources, and activities of interest to AASL members and others in the K-12

Buffy with author Peter Sis

library media community" (AASL). In

addition, Ms. Hamilton has been selected as a presenter for the AASL 2009

National Conference in Charlotte, North Carolina. Her presentation, "Not Just

Another Brick in the Wall: Engaging 21st Century Learning Through

Participatory School Librarianship," will be presented during the conference in

November 2009.

Creekview High School Media Center

http://theunquietlibrary.wikispaces.com/

http://theunquietlibrary.wordpress.com
http://mysite.cherokee.k12.ga.us/personal/ buffy_hamilton/buffyhamilton/default.aspx

And the school is spotlighted in Joyce Valenza's latest column!!!
http://www.schoollibraryjournal.com/ blog/1340000334/ post/1090041909.html? cache=FALSE&postComment=TRUE

Media Matters

Page 20
Helen Ruffin Reading Bowl participants marching in at the recent Georgia Children's Book Award Conference.
Did you miss this event? Don't miss next year!

Deal with the faults of others as gently as with your own.
Chinese proverb

April 2009
Georgia Department of Education

Su nday

Mond ay

Tuesday

Wed nesday

Thu rsday

1

2

Fr iday
3

Satu rd ay
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March S M TW T F S
1234567 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31

May
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1970: Nixon signs http:// www.

1860: Pony

legislation

hudsonvalley. Express begins

banning cigaret- org/education/

te ads on TV

Background/

and radio

abt _irving/abt_

irving.html

Washi ngt on

Irving: 1783-1859

http:// www. mayaangelou. com/
Maya Angelou: 1928-

5

6

7

8

9

10 11

1984: AbdulJabbar breaks points record

1896: First modern1770: Willi am Olympic games Wordsworth is born

1974: Henry Aaron sets homerun record

1939: Marian An- 1906: The Gi ft

derson sings at oft he Magi is

Lincoln

p u b lis h ed .

Memorial

Who wrote it ?

Joseph Krumgold:

1908-1980

1970: Apollo 13 is l aunched to the moon. What happened?

12 13 14 15

Beverl y Cleary--1916-
http:// www. beverlycleary. com/

1997: Tiger

Eudora Wel ty i s

Woods wins

born:

first maj or

1909-2002.

tournament.

Where did she

How old was he live?

at t he time?

Birthday of Leonardo da Vinci: 1452

16
Gert rude Chandler Warner1890-1979

17
What was the Bay of Pigs Invasion?

18
1989: Chinese students prot est against the government

19
1775: The Revolutionary War begins

20 21 22 23

1902: The Curies Charlotte Bront-- Birthday ofHenry Wi lliam

isolate radium 1816-1855

Fielding: 1707- Shakespeare--

1754

1564-1616

24 25

Robert Penn Warren--19051989

1859: Ground broken for Suez Canal. Where is the canal located?

26
Patricia Reill y Giff--1935-

27 28 29 30

Birthday of

Harper Lee--1926- What is special 1803: Louisi ana

August Wil son: What books has about Lincoln Purchase

1945-2005

Harper Lee

University? It

written?

opened in 1854.

There's no use going to school unless your final destination is the library. Ray Bradbury