The Scorpio Races by Maggie Stiefvater
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
Lauren, thank you so much for highly recommending this book! It was so right up my alley with what I truly love to read. Maggie Stiefvater crafted such a great story with a believable storyline about "water" horses, orphans, the rich vs the poor and a romance that slowly grows between Kate "Puck" Connolly and Sean Kendrick, a horse-whisperer of the carnivorous sea horses. The island of Thisby is a hard scrabble place that needs the tourists the annual Scorpio Races brings, to survive. Puck and her two brothers have lost their parents to the flesh eating horses and life has been very difficult since then for them. Whereas Puck and Finn love the island, older brother Gabe has announced he is leaving with his two friends, because he can't take it anymore. Sean Kendrick and Puck alternate telling their stories. Sean Kendrick loves his Capill uisce, Corr and Puck loves her quarter pony; and it is Sean who stands up for Puck as the first female rider, against those islanders that challenge her. I really disliked both Mutt Malvern and his father. I wanted to like Mr. Malvern, but I could see that he was like Sean Kendrick (poor) but he was never going to let Sean or Corr go. I saw true evil in Mutt and it was difficult to read when he tried to "hurt" those associated with Sean Kendrick. But it was the slowly moving, delicate relationship of Puck and Sean that I applaud. Stiefvater takes two people who are animal lovers and through deliberate situations, moves them from strangers, to acquaintances, to friends and then a mutual respect and love. Highly recommended!
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The Orange Houses by Paul Griffin
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
It took me awhile to get around to reading this book, but I was determined since it was listed on 2010 Best Books for Young Adults...
All of the characters were important, even Shanelle and her gang as Griffin tells of harsh urban life in the Bronx, where three people's lives intersect, they become friends, and the environment just crushes people. I want to say this book has a redemptive ending, but it falls a short---but that is just life and Griffin wants us to know about living on the mean streets of an urban, decaying city. Each chapter covers one of the friends; Jimmi Sixes is a schizophrenic war veteran who has love in his soul for poetry and the beautiful artwork of Tamika and Fatima. Tamika is hearing impaired and uses a bad set of hearing aids which she likes to "turn off" rather than listen to the loud, nasty insults and jeers of those who taunt her. Fatima is fresh off the boat from Africa where she has lost most of her family and she knows she has to be almost invisible to stay off the radar of the immigration police. Jimmi befriends Fatima, gets her a volunteer job at the veterans hospital when she is not selling newspapers and introduces her to Tamika. It is true friendship that develops between Fatima and Tamika. But Tamika is taunted, pushed and chased by bully Shanelle and she gets more and more in her gang to "take care of Tamika." Fatima meets her at school and walks her home but life is about to take an even nastier turn. For a look at real life on the streets of New York, Griffin's book does not disappoint.
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Now that I've been reading Pam Berger and Sally Trexler's book, Choosing Web 2.0 Tools for Learning and Teaching in a Digital World, I've decided to resurrect my blog that I'd started as part of the PSLA "23 Things" exercise. I exported it to another email account and changed the blog URL, and in the process I lost my previous followers. You can find the blog at http://librarythreads.blogspot.com if you'd like to sign up to follow it again.
We are appreciating the opportunity to use LibGuides at Chambersburg Area Senior High School Library. See our page for our 11th grade English "Junior Project": http://palibraries.libguides.com/aecontent.php?pid=270348&sid=2236206
We assign a separate tab for each research project, by the teacher's name. (We haven't decided yet what to do when the teacher comes in for a second project. I suppose we could put a "2" after the name.) It's nice to have all the resources in one spot, and a lot easier to use than our school Web site.
The Scorpio Races by Maggie Stiefvater
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
Lauren, thank you so much for highly recommending this book! It was so right up my alley with what I truly love to read. Maggie Stiefvater crafted such a great story with a believable storyline about "water" horses, orphans, the rich vs the poor and a romance that slowly grows between Kate "Puck" Connolly and Sean Kendrick, a horse-whisperer of the carnivorous sea horses. The island of Thisby is a hard scrabble place that needs the tourists the annual Scorpio Races brings, to survive. Puck and her two brothers have lost their parents to the flesh eating horses and life has been very difficult since then for them. Whereas Puck and Finn love the island, older brother Gabe has announced he is leaving with his two friends, because he can't take it anymore. Sean Kendrick and Puck alternate telling their stories. Sean Kendrick loves his Capill uisce, Corr and Puck loves her quarter pony; and it is Sean who stands up for Puck as the first female rider, against those islanders that challenge her. I really disliked both Mutt Malvern and his father. I wanted to like Mr. Malvern, but I could see that he was like Sean Kendrick (poor) but he was never going to let Sean or Corr go. I saw true evil in Mutt and it was difficult to read when he tried to "hurt" those associated with Sean Kendrick. But it was the slowly moving, delicate relationship of Puck and Sean that I applaud. Stiefvater takes two people who are animal lovers and through deliberate situations, moves them from strangers, to acquaintances, to friends and then a mutual respect and love. Highly recommended!
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Look Back and Forward
My Capstone experience has reinforced my belief that in order to be an effective teacher, you must remain a lifelong student. My significant learning moments came when I applied what I learned from ISTE colleagues to my interactions with building level peers and of course my students! Informing my peers that they could work together even though they could not find a convenient meeting time for all concerned by using Google.docs was a fulfilling moment for me. Seeing my students reach out to others across the nation via ePals was also fantastic - my students were so proud of themselves and felt so accomplished! I loved creating my personal learning community. I will definitely continue to maintain and grow my pln. I also loved sharing tools, resources, and strategies with colleagues and students and I hope to continue that learning as well. My next major professional step is to become National Board Certified as a School Library Media Specialist in the next several years!
Well as a culminating activity to my ISTE Capstone journey, I have to come up with a way to express all that I have learned in 3 to 5 minutes! UGH! I have never been to stay within a time limit. Anyways, I decided to try and use Prezi to highlight everything I’ve learned over the course of the last year about integrating technology into the curriculum, global citizenship, and the digital world. Prezi is an awesome digital tool and I will definitely be using it a lot in the coming months as I move away from being a PowerPoint Queen. My students are going to be so surprised as I generally have used PowerPoint as a cornerstone of library instruction for the past couple of years. I have been able to incorporate a large number of digital tools into the PowerPoint format but I have been trying to move away from it for the last several months and I believe that Prezi is going to be a new favorite tool for me.
Overall, my ISTE journey has been fantastic. I have learned a tremendous amount and I have made some very good friends. While I feel like I have benefitted enormously from my Capstone experience, the real winners have to be my students who have a teacher who has been reenergized and is brimming with enthusiasm for teaching!
See My Prezi at http://prezi.com/j2spbwtfwrmv/my-iste-capstone-experiences/
