MARCH IS –

National Women’s History Month 
“Women Pioneering the Future” is the 2003 theme this year.  For more information go to the National Women’s History Project web site @  http://www.nwhp.org

   American Red Cross Month  

To learn the history of the American Red Cross, see exhibits, find activities for kids, teachers information and more, go to their web site @ http://www.redcross.org and click on Museum.  This is a web site with a wealth of information. 

National Craft Month
Sponsored by the Hobby Industry this is a month where craft retailers around the country will offer special classes and demonstrations.  Saturday March 29^th is a kid’s craft day with the theme “Look I Made It Myself.”  For more information or to find stores in your area that are offering programs g,o to
http://www.i-craft.com/ncm/inex.html
 

The Sangamon/Menard School Librarians Network obtained an LSTA grant last year to develop a web site that would list and link resources of interest and value to library media specialists in this area.  The web site is up.  It contains some very good information that you can use.  Check it out @  http://smsln.bcsd.k12.il.us
 

Sometimes it seems that all or most of the articles in a particular library journal are of importance or of interest to the librarian.  Well, in the last month I have found many articles that I feel are interesting and important for school librarians to know about and to read.  If you have not had time to read these magazines, this may be a reason to pick them up.  If you do not subscribe to these magazines and an article sounds good, make an ILL request for it.   Each of these magazines is available at RPLS.   

What follows is brief description of the articles I found noteworthy. 

School Library Journal is a must have journal for all school librarians.  Not only are there interesting articles and interesting columns each issue, there are also all the book reviews, web site reviews and multimedia reviews. 

The January 2003 issue of School Library Journal contained these articles--   

“Tools You Can’t Live Without: Using online programs in your lessons can make a big difference” was written by Kathy Schrock in her Educator’s Resource Kit Column.  In two pages (34 & 35) she gives brief descriptions of such tools as Calendar Server, Filamentality, RubiStar, Create-a-Graph and six other sites for educators and students. 

Gary Hartzell in his Building Influence column wrote “Anecdotal Evidence: Statistics may count, but nothing takes the place of a good story”.  This is so true.  In one short page (37) he talks about the importance of writing down and sharing these stories.  When writing grant reports these are the things grantors are looking for.  Stories also put a human face on what you do and can help make a point when making presentations to administrators and school boards.

Public Librarians note this article by Walter Minkel on pages 54-56 titled “Making a Splash with Summer Reading: Seven ways public librarians can team up with schools."  When you read this article, you will get the details on compiling booklists with the school librarians, grabbing parents’ attention, and more. 

Jumping to the February 2003 issue of School Library Journal there are more items and articles of interest.

The TechKnowledge column by Walter Minkel had a notice that Wilson Library Catalogs are now online.  The online edition is $190. For more info visit www.hwwilson.com/Databases/srhslibcat_e.htm  You can obtain a free 30-day trial through this site.

Kathy Schrock’s Educator’s Resource Kit column this month is titled “The Search Continues: When it comes to search engines, there are some real differences.” (pp. 38&39)  Besides info on when to use what, there is, also a list of "Search Tool Resources" that can help you keep up on search engines and learn search strategies.

Chris Gustafson shares her secret of sharing cookies with teachers to learn what they need and to encourage collaboration.  Read “If You Give a Teacher a Cookie: A tasty plan to win the hearts and minds of your colleagues” on page 45.

Two other articles to briefly mention are “The House of Farmer”, the cover story found on pages 48-50 written by Kathleen T. Horning, an interview with Nancy Farmer author of The House of the Scorpion.  The second article, pages 52 & 53 by Zorana Ercegovac, is titled “Bringing the Library Into the Lab: How information literacy skills make better science students." 

There is also something new. Learning Quarterly, a new magazine is billed as being for Leaders in Education.  This first issue is on Professional Development and includes an Editor’s Note (Doug Johnson is the editor), Administrator’s Outlook, A Case Study, Practically Speaking, and Selected Resources—professional development tools you can use.  Take a look at this new magazine.  Future issues will tackle such topics as assessment and evaluation, promoting reading, and curriculum standards and testing.

The December 2002/January 2003 issue of Book Links (v.12 no.3) is their Multicultural Literature Issue.  While all the articles are good, three articles jumped out at me from this issue.  The first is titled “To Make a Poet Black, and Bid Him Sing” (pp. 41-45) is about African America Poetry for children and contains a bibliography for preschool through high school.  Written by Henrietta M. Smith, this is an article to share with teachers as they prepare for National Poetry Month in April or to expand Black History Month activities.

“We Are Still Here” by Jan Mouttet (pp. 58-62) is a listing of books about contemporary Native Americans for preschool through middle school students. 

Junko Yokota and Shari Frost have an article titled “Multiracial Characters in Children’s Literature” (pp. 51-57).  This is what the table of contents page says about this article. “Finding books that feature multiracial individuals can be a challenge, but the titles in this bibliography do just that and are recommended for their believable representations and engaging stories.” This list covers books for preschool through high school.

  I am not done yet.  The past month has dropped a wealth of magazines on my desk.  The enc focus magazine of the Eisenhower National Clearing house Volume 10 Number 1, 2003 has the theme “Data-Driven Decision Making.”  The entire issue is very interesting with articles on finding and using statistics.  One article titled “Cooking with Data to Reduce Achievement Gaps” by Craig Jerald (pp24-28) takes a look at three statistical words, disaggregated, longitudinal and cross-tabulated, and gives an explanation of the words and an example of how to use data in relationship to these words.  Very clear and precise and a must read for any person who is charged with looking at data but without a statistical background.
 

MARCH DATES TO NOTE 

March 1-6 Return Borrowed Books Week

March 3 Read Across America Day

March 5 Ash Wednesday

March 6 Casimir Pulaski Day

March 11 Johnny Appleseed Day

March 17 St. Patrick’s Day and Holi ( a holiday of India http://www.holihangama.com/)

March 18 Purim (a Jewish Holiday)

March 21 Vernal Equinox--First day of Spring

March 22 Birthday of Randolph Caldecott

March 26 Muharram 1, Islamic New Year

March 29 Coca-cola invented, 1886
 

With all the different holidays, and Holy Days of the many cultures of the worlds tolerance for each other is very important. The Southern Poverty Law Center has a web site “Teaching Tolerance” that contains resources and ideas for teaching tolerance to children.  There is a free magazine published two times a year that is available for educators.  Checkout their web site for librarians who are interested in the concept to “fight hate and promote tolerance” @ http://www.tolerance.org/teach/index.jsp
 

QUOTE OF THE MONTH IN HONOR OF YOUTH ART MONTH
FROM LEO AND DIANE DILLON

“Believe you are an artist.”

 

When students have a project or report that deals with an event that has had an anniversary and they are looking for resources, have them go to the Reader’s Guide for the year that the anniversary of the event took place.  There they will find many articles that will talk about the event and also cover some of the impact that the event had on the country. As an example the bombing of Pearl Harbor took place in 1941, the 50^th anniversary was in 1991.  If a student went to the 1991 Reader’s Guide and looked up Pearl Harbor they would find a wealth of citations to information they can request to meet their report needs.
 

A recent request to the RPLS General List about needing help creating call numbers in Dewey brought this response from Michele Romence.  She used this web site http://bubl.ac.uk/link/ddc.html when she needs to classify something in Dewey. 
 

Looking for craft ideas to make from brown paper bags.  Here are four titles that you may want to take a look at. 

Brown Bag Ideas from Many Cultures by Irene Tejada

Paper Bag Crafts by Jeri Dayle

Look What You Can Make with Paper Bags Ed. By Judy Burke

What Can You Do With A Paper Bag by Judith Cressy