Review: Airman

Airman by Eoin Colfer
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I really liked this book. It's been on my "to read" list for a while. Our hero, Conor Broekhart has been wrongly accused of a crime. He's sent to an Alcatraz-like prison where life is bleak and hope is lost. However, Conor like all good heroes is smart, daring, and resourceful. In addition to relying on his talents he receives help from the most unlikely places. This book is full of action and adventure. The only deterrent is see that would prevent our students from reading it is its length - a healthy 400+ pages. Once a reader starts this book though the pages will fly by. Highly recommended.

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A Mummified Mrs. Arnold

Student Council Members with Books for Donation

Our annual book fair occurred during the first week of December, but we are just now wrapping up all the loose ends and calling it a day.

This year we participated in Scholastic Book Fair's All for Books program.  The boys collected spare change, and then used those donated funds to buy books for the Maryland Book Bank.  All total we collected $255.88.  The student council members selected the books to purchase.

Additionally Scholastic will match our monetary donation with a donation in books from The Scholastic Possible Fund, which distributes books to children through organizations such as the Kids In Need Foundation, Reader to Reader, Inc., and the National Center for Families Learning.

As an additional incentive, the class that brought in the most spare change won the opportunity to "Mummify Mrs. Arnold," our lower school head.  The winning homeroom was a fifth grade class with $62.27 in donations.  This morning at our school wide assembly the boys were able to collect on their incentive.  I owe a huge thank you to our principal who was willing to go along with our incentive and was a very good sport about this.  Enjoy the video below!

Mrs. Arnold -- Mummified!

What a Fall!

I have been neglecting this blog for far too long.  It's been an incredibly busy fall, and I'd like to post a few highlights, and make my annual resolution to be more consistent in blogging in the new year. 

A visit with author C. Alexander London

We started our year with an unexpected author visit.  C. Alexander London spoke to our 3rd-5th grade boys about his books.  He was on a book tour and stopping by our local children's bookstore.  (We are soooo lucky to have an independent children's bookstore nearby.  It's heaven!!)  In conjunction with his bookstore visit he was interested in visiting a school, and we were very happy to host his visit.  The boys especially loved hearing about his military animal novels.  They are well written and very popular in our library.

The Great Wall

In October I had an opportunity to visit China.  (It was really my husband's opportunity, but I was invited along as a guest.)  Everyone in education knows that it's not kosher for teachers to take time off during the school year -- especially 7 school days in October.  My school generously allowed me the time off for this once in a lifetime trip.  We spent time in Shanghai and Beijing.  It is an incredible country.  It was very intimidating to be in a country where nothing is familiar - neither the spoken nor the written languages, most of the customs, and the food.  It also gave me a peek into what it's like to be immediately typed according to one's looks. 

Elementary School in Beijing

In addition to being a tourist, I was able to observe a middle/upper school in Shanghai, and then had the incredible opportunity to teach a group of 5th grade students in Beijing.  I taught this class in English, and it appeared that the students were following the lesson.  Our students begin taking Spanish in Kindergarten, but I can't imagine someone coming in and teaching a class to our 5th graders exclusively in Spanish and the students following along to the extent these Chinese students did.  They all sought me out after class to practice their English.  I could write post after post about this trip.

Shopping at the book fair

Once back from China, it was time to prepare for our annual book fair.  We used to host a book fair provided by the children's bookstore, and it was fabulous.  The owner selected books for our student population and there were none of the tchotchke type toys that I hate to see the boys spend their money on.  She stopped doing book fairs a few years ago (a sad day in this library!), and ever since we've been looking for good alternatives.  We went with Usborne Books for a few years.  Their non fiction is outstanding, but their popular fiction and picture book selection was lacking.  We have used Scholastic for the last few years.  The certainly make hosting a book fair easy, but their selection isn't always the best for a single sex school -- especially an all boy school.  Boys read, but you have to provide them with the right choices!!

I like to stick with my professional life when I'm writing these blog posts, but sometimes the personal informs the professional.  This fall my mother lost her battle with lung cancer.  It was quite advanced when it was discovered 3 years ago.  We all knew the day would come, and near the end saw it as a mixed blessing, but her passing leaves a big hole.

Book Review: Semper Fido by C. Alexander London

Semper Fido by C. Alexander London
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This middle grade book tells the story of a marine in Afghanistan and his military working dog. I learned a lot about how the military uses dogs and got a look at the what life might be like at an outpost in a hostile land. In addition to learning a lot, the author tells a good story. He doesn't give the reader any simple answers to tough problems, and is able to remain apolitical and yet still tell a good story.

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Summer Reading...Had Me a Blast -- Upper School

This is the final part about how my school conducts summer reading for our students.  The first two  parts discussed the lower and middle schools, and today we'll talk about the upper school.

Upper school summer reading has had many different looks through the years.  There have been all school reads, books required for every class, optional only books, and books sponsored by teachers.  All have met with varying degrees of success.  Each year our upper school librarian tweaks the program, and each year it gets better.  It's difficult to strike that balance between reading for curricular purposes and reading to encourage lifelong habits. 

Determining the how to access summer reading has always been an issue for our faculty.  Many faculty worry that if the students aren't accessed on their summer reading then they won't read.  But if boys are to be tested on what they read, then why would anyone read a book in June that they'll be tested on in September?  Summer reading becomes late August reading, and it makes me wonder exactly what are we trying to encourage here.

Each student reads a required book for his English class, and some of the AP classes have additional books required.  This is fairly standard and commonplace among independent schools.  This is accessed in English class in the fall.

Now comes the brilliant part.  Each boy is also required to read a faculty sponsored book.  All of the faculty members have sponsored a book.  The librarian has collated all of the information and posted it on the US Summer Reading LibGuide.  The boys sign up for a book using SignUpGenius.  Sign ups close out once the predetermined number of students have signed up for the book.  In the fall the faculty will meet with the boys who have signed up for their book for a discussion.  This allows the boys choice, assures quality literature is being read, and assessment is done informally through discussion.  Brilliant!

Summer Reading...Had Me a Blast -- Middle School

This is the second part in a three part series about how my school handles summer reading.  Today's focus is our middle school.

Middle school readers are first and foremost middle schoolers!  They can be a tough crowd still caught between admitting they like to read, and wanting to move into the world of cool. 

Our middle school librarians do everything they can to bring the cool to the MS library.  The librarian is also a restorer of WWII Jeeps and always has gadgets for the boys to touch and play with.  He is also a passionate and engaging book talker, and knows exactly the type of literature that appeals to adolescent boys -- being a former adolescent boy himself.

MS boys are required to read four books over the summer.  Two are required by the English department, and vary according to grade level.  The other two books are of the boy's choosing and suggestions are made for each grade level.  The boys must complete written assignments for the required books and be prepared to discuss them in class upon return to school in the fall.  All of the middle school summer reading information is contained in a LibGuide, and available online.

In order to keep the fun in summer reading, provide incentive for reading quality literature as optional selections, and appeal to a MS students love of free pizza; the librarians have devised "Reading Cafe" selections.  These selections are sponsored by middle school teachers.  If a boy selects a Reading Cafe book, he reads the book over the summer, and comes to a pizza lunch to discuss the book with other middle school readers and the sponsoring teacher.  They have proven to be very popular and provide a simple incentive for summer reading.

Summer Writing -- Faculty Edition

This summer the faculty at my school has been tasked with summer writing rather than summer reading.  I have decided that I'll be posting my ruminations on this blog for the world (or all 17 of my followers) to read.  This is a very brave step for me.  Some of my responses will be personal, and I tend to shy away from the personal when the world is watching -- or reading.  They will also likely expose my inner Pollyanna and nerdiness.  Something I usually keep hidden except to those closest to me.

I need to think a bit more before I start posting my responses to my headmaster's queries.  But as a preview, the questions I will be responding to are listed below.

1. In what ways does Boys' Latin stand for true excellence? Share an anecdote (or two) that captures this for you.

2. What does the following mean to you as a BL faculty member: A genuine joy of teaching. A genuine joy of learning. How have you seen this come alive at BL?

3. Share your favorite story (or two) of how you've seen a BL student arrive or come to your class with a unique set of distinctive talents, combined like no other, and how you've experienced this student's own redefining of his infinite possibilities.

4. Please take some time to reflect on yourself and your ‘faculty profile.’ What do you bring to the class? To your teaching? In addition to your academic credentials, what else adds the special dimensionality to what you do for our boys? As you think about these questions, it might be helpful to consider the short essays of the “This I Believe” series. What’s your belief statement about yourself and the important and noble work that we do?

5. And please list any accolades, recognitions, awards, and the like that you've received (whether it's school-specific, related to your outside community service, or volunteer work), or would like to receive.

I'll be answering these questions within the next few weeks, but before you read my replies, take some time and consider how you might answer the questions.  Substitute your school for mine, and add your replies in the comments section.

Make Way for Ducklings...hopefully in a month!

Summer means yard work and tackling some of the tough parts of the yard.  One of the few neglected areas in our yard is the very back by our fence.  This is where the compost pile is, where the extra stakes for the tomatoes come to rest, and where poison ivy grows in abundance.  Recently while attacking the poison ivy my hubby found a nest of eggs on the ground in the hollow of a tree.  There were 5 of them and they were about the size and color of a chicken egg.  The wooden spindles you see in the picture are extra tomato stakes -- industrial sized, because the hubby grows amazing tomatoes!

This nest was quite a surprise to us since we hadn't seen any birds of a size that

could lay eggs that big, and we have a dog who is in command of the yard and tolerates no other inhabitants!  We kept an eye on the nest and within a few days there were many more eggs surrounded by feathers. 

The mystery of who created the nest and laid the eggs was soon solved by Cody, our dog ducktective.  He came out to the garden with me in search of dill and while I was engaged with the dill, he surprised the duck who had been sitting on the nest and she flew off.  By the time I got to him, he had taken a few sniffs of the eggs, but no harm had been done. 

 Our neighbors spotted the nesting pair strolling across their yard.  So now it was time to take to the internet and research mallard ducks.  The first thing I learned was that EVERYTHING eats duck eggs and/or baby ducklings.  Yikes!  I started to imagine hungry foxes, crows, and possums everywhere!  We also had to consider our dog.  Keeping him on a leash for a month or more seemed daunting, especially since we have large windows that look out into our backyard and Cody positions himself there ready to keep the yard free of any squirrel that dare to trespass.  The ever resourceful hubby fenced in the area around the tree that is serving as home for the nest.  The duck goes in and out freely, and the dog stays out.

At last peek, the eggs are covered with feathers, and the duck has started sitting on the eggs.  Hopefully in 20-25 days we'll have ducklings. 

Summer Reading...Had Me a Blast -- Lower School

Here we are at the beginning of July.  The summer seems to be already flying by.  I've barely begun my summer reading, but many of my students are fully engaged with theirs...Yay!

My school requires summer reading for all boys grades 1-12.  Each year we struggle with what we want it to look like.  We know what the research tells us about boys and reading, but that can often be at odds with what the core content areas require for summer reading.  This is more problematic as the boys get older and our MS and US librarians have devised clever ways to make everyone happy.

I'm going to take the next few posts to talk about what summer reading looks like in each division.  I'm starting today with the Lower School.

All lower school summer reading is accessed through the Lower School Summer Reading LibGuide.  Students are required to read a certain number of books based on their grade level, but no particular titles are required.  The LibGuide contains a variety of suggestions.  Students fill out a reader's log and return it to school in the fall. 

Rising 4th and 5th grade students' summer reading looks different.  They participate in a "Summer Reading Challenge".  They read books based on a variety of criteria, and write book reviews about the books.  There is competition, choice, and a social component involved with this program which are appealing to boys.

The good part of using online services for summer reading is that things are always changing, but the challenging part of using online services is that things are always changing...  Each year it looks slightly different. 

This year we are using BiblioNasium as a safe way for the boys to post their reviews.  It provides the social piece and allows the boys to read each others' reviews, but in a closed, controlled environment.  So far it's worked well, and the boys are off and reading!

Book Review: Brown Girl Dreaming by Jacqueline Woodson

I liked reading this book a lot. It's won several awards for children's literature.  It's the life story of the author told in short free verse poems. Her life growing up was a lot different than mine even though we are from the same generation.  She taught me a lot through the vignettes of her childhood.  We see much of the civil rights story told through her life. I especially liked the pictures she included at the back of the book -- I felt as though I knew every one of her family members.  I was sorry to see this book come to an end.

End of Another School Year

As a teacher it's always bittersweet to come to the end of the school year.  The last few weeks are an exhausting sprint to the finish, students and faculty alike have their minds on summer yet there's plenty of work still to be accomplished.

In year's past our fifth graders bring in money to buy a book as a parting gift to the library.  This year the fifth grade teachers wanted the gift to be more meaningful to the boys, and decided to have the boys offer the gift of service.  As the school librarian I was a grateful recipient of much of that service.  Boys were reading and cleaning shelves, removing the batteries from our Playaways, and sorting magazines for a start.  As you'll be able to see they took their jobs very seriously and they did a good job.

Elissa Brent Weissman and Authors 4 Earth Day

Author Elissa Weissman playing Jeopardy

We had a wonderful visit with author Elissa Brent Weissman today. She is the author of several popular books in our library. Most notably The Trouble With Mark Hopper, Nerd Camp, Nerd Camp 2.0, and The Short Seller.

She played Author Jeopardy with the boys rewarding correct answers with bookmarks. The Jeopardy game took the boys through the entire publishing process. It was creative and engaging. Our boys ate it up.

4th graders presenting to the 5th grade

She was here as a part of the Authors 4 Earth Day program. Authors for Earth Day (A4ED) is a coalition of children's authors and illustrators who mentor young readers by giving them "an authentic research project with real-world impact."  Each participant visits one school designated as the A4ED school and the author donates at least 30% of that day's speaking fee to a non-profit conservation organization as directed by a student vote. Ms. Weissman will be donating 70% of her honorarium.

Students research a list of five conservation nominees selected by the author and then vote for where they would like the donation to be directed.  The author writes a check to the winning organization in the school's name. The lower school technology coordinator and I had the 4th graders research the conservation nominees as a part of their Research and Digital Literacy class.  This year's nominees were: National Aquarium, Chesapeake Bay Foundation, Jane Goodall Institute, Conservation International, and Wildlife Conservation Society. 

Winning organization presenters with author Elissa Brent Weissman

They presented their research to the 3rd and 5th graders and all 3rd-5th graders voted on where the money should go.  All of the presentations were informative, interesting, and compelling.  The organization that received the most votes and which will be receiving our donation is the Wildlife Conservation Society.

As a part of her visit Ms. Weissman had lunch with the boys whose presentations had the most votes.  She was able to see and hear the compelling presentations for herself.  It was a wonderful experience for all of us.

A special thanks to our Parents' Association for providing a grant that provided the financial support for this author visit, and making this learning experience possible.

Live Like a Laker Talk

All of the eighth graders at my school give a speech to the middle school student body.  A few years ago faculty started giving speeches that reflect on the school's core values, or essentially what it means or what it looks like to "live like a Laker." 

This year I was invited to give a talk.  I was very honored, but also quite terrified.  It's intimidating to speak to 150 people even if the majority of them are middle school students, but most intimidating was trying to figure out what on Earth I could talk to them about.  I wanted to make the speech a little personal, but didn't think that they would find me so very interesting.  Since I don't teach or work with middle schoolers on a regular basis I wondered what I could find to speak about that would hold their attention.

Just the week before my talk was scheduled, my school paired with the One Love Foundation and spent the better part of the day talking about relationship violence in the upper school, respect in the middle school, and living the golden rule in the lower school.  I just happened to be assigned to a middle school group for the day.  One of the boys in my group mentioned that a good way to show respect was not to judge what's on the outside of another person, but rather what's on the inside.  Going further with this discussion, he mentioned that one needed to get to know the other person in order to learn what's on the inside.

I started to think about how important it is to learn other people's stories, and how much I love stories.  This lead me into thinking about the Humans of New York Project, and all of a sudden my Laker talk was born.  Here is a link to the text of my talk.  I followed this with a short PowerPoint presentation.  It was a wonderful experience.

Library Lock-In

Each year the Alumni Association at my school hosts a Bull and Oyster Roast.  It's a fund raiser that includes food, a silent auction and a live auction.  For the last few years I've offered a party in the library for 8 boys as a silent auction item.  Believe it or not it's been a popular item going for more money that I would have ever imagined.

This year's Lock-In was "won" by a third grader, and we recently had the party.  It begins immediately after school with a snack and a change of clothes -- as all good parties should!  We then played dodge-ball, sideline football, made duct tape wallets, ate pizza, played video games on the big screen, and ended the night with a movie.  It's fun for all!

Mario Kart

Pagemaster -- Perfect movie for boys "locked" in the library.

Sideline football

And the Winners Are...

On Saturday the winner of the Black-Eyed Susan book award was announced.  It's Maryland's children's' choice award, and each year the students at my school eagerly await the announcement of the statewide winners.

We support and participate in this program in the lower school. All of our 1st and 2nd graders read the picture book nominees, and vote for their favorites.  This occurs during library class throughout February and March.

Our 3rd-5th graders can participate in the chapter book and graphic novel categories.  This takes the form of book clubs and is completely voluntary.  They meet during lunch time, and all reading is done outside of school.  My school is a boys' school so all of our readers are boys.  They must read a minimum of 4 of the 10 nominations in order to vote.  The clubs run from November through April.  This year we had 38 participants in the chapter book club and 30 in the graphic novel club.  This is from a pool of 95 3rd-5th graders. I couldn't be prouder of our students.

Our vote aligned with the state winner in the picture book and chapter book categories.  The Day the Crayons Quit by Drew Daywalt and Escape from Mr. Lemoncello's Library by Chris Grabenstein were the winners in our school and the statewide winners.

We diverged when it came to the graphic novel category.  Our boys voted overwhelmingly for Cat's Cradle: the Golden Twine by Jo Rioux, but the statewide winner was Astronaut Academy: Zero Gravity by Dave Roman.  Astronaut Academy came in second among our voters, but it was a landslide win for Cat's Cradle here.

Black-Eyed Susan Graphic Novels

This is the second year of our Black-Eyed Susan Graphic Novel club.  It was a bit of an experiment last year, but has proved to be popular and participation almost doubled this year.  One thing I struggle with is making this club different from the chapter book club.  We meet more often -- every other week from February through April.  The boys read the graphic novels quickly and exchange books at a rapid rate.  Many of the boys are able to read all 10 of the nominated books.

Instead of having a pizza voting session as our culminating activity, the GN boys have lunch in the library with a chocolate fountain for dessert.  This is a big hit.  The club has grown in size such that I had two fountains running and we still found ourselves short on time.  I'll have to rethink this next year, especially if this club continues to grow.

Just as in the chapter book club our boys are passionate about the books.  In addition to discussing the story, they are also articulate and well spoken about the art in the books.  I had to cut some of the discussions short in order to be sure that we had enough time for the chocolate fountains.

As I have mentioned before in this blog, I am a reluctant convert to graphic novels, but this year's GN selections seemed especially excellent even to my neophyte eyes.  Our school's overwhelming favorite was Cat's Cradle: The Golden Twine by Jo Rioux.  This was a surprise to me, mostly because at first glance one would consider this a "girl" book.  The main character is a girl and she is featured prominently on the cover.  This book got the most votes by a landslide, which goes to show that a good book is a good book!!!  The statewide winner will be announced on May 2.

March Madness RESULTS

Our March Madness competition came to an end at approximately the same time that the NCAA tournament ended.  The winner at my school was I Funny by James Patterson.  In addition to voting for the favorite book, we had a bracket competition going.  The boys filled out brackets making predictions as to the winners of each round.  One boy competed his bracket perfectly.

While we had a lot of fun with this reading promotion, I'm not sure if I'll continue with it in the future.  I'm not so sure how many of the books the boys actually read.  There was a lot of lobbying going on for particular books, but it lacked any critical thinking and meaningful discussions relating to the books.  It seemed like completing the brackets, and then tracking the brackets seemed more engaging than reading the books.

The timing of this also coincides with the culmination of our two Black-Eyed Susan book clubs.  Typically as we reach the end of the book clubs, the boys reading becomes more directed, and slightly frantic since they want to be sure to read the books they might want to vote for.  This is in direct conflict with the March Madness competition.  Neither activity can be changed to another time of year since both are tied to external timelines.

Black-Eyed Susan Chapter Book Club

Our 3rd-5th grade participants recently voted for their favorite Black-Eyed Susan book.  We have about 40 boys in the club who independently read the nominated books from November through April.  We get together over lunch every three weeks to discuss the books, and check in about reading progress.  The boys comments are thoughtful and insightful.  They like the freedom to choose which of the 10 nominated books to read.  I require them to read at least 4 in order to vote.  They also like to be able to dislike a book, and can passionately describe why they dislike it. 

We end our reading season with a pizza voting lunch in our school's Alumni House.  The Alumni House is the home of our Development and Alumni offices -- not a place lower school students often frequent.  They love the grown up feel of the Alumni House and it imbues the voting lunch with a sense of purpose and importance. 

All votes are recorded and "count", but the boys love to learn which book "won" at our school.  This year's vote was a close one with only one vote separating the top three places.  Escape from Mr. Lemoncello's Library by Chris Grabenstein was our overall favorite, with This Journal Belongs to Ratchet by Nancy J. Cavanaugh coming in second, and Buddy by M.H. Herlong and I Funny by James Patterson tying for third.  Our statewide winner will be announced on May 2.

Walking to the Alumni House

Voting/Lunch Session

Review: The Screaming Staircase

The Screaming Staircase by Jonathan Stroud

My rating: 4 of 5 stars



This story takes place in England at a time when "visitors" (ghosts, spirits, specters, etc.) rule the night. Adolescents are most sensitive to and able to fight the visitors. This is the story of Lockwood, Lucy, and George who staff an all adolescent agency that is on the brink of closing, when they are tasked with investigating the most haunted building in Britain. If they make it through the night, their financial woes will be over. Of course nothing is as it seems. The teens are clever, the story pulls from established folklore, and the story is compelling. The author includes a helpful glossary in the back of the book (something I didn't realize until I was well into the story.) Time spent with this book is time well spent for the middle grade reader.



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