Monday, December 9, 2013

Minutes of the last meeting: December 5, 2013

Click here to read the minutes of the general meeting on December 5, 2013.

The Canadian school librarians put on a generous spread of Christmas goodies.  Many thanks!

The next meeting is at Tanglin Trust School, Junior Library, on February 6th.

Sunday, November 24, 2013

New Red Dot 2013-2014 website up and running

www.reddotawards.com now points to a new 2013-2014 website.


The Goodreads Groups -- one per category -- are set up as well.  All the links are via the Google Site. 

You can start discussions on the Goodreads groups.  

You can also share related links by joining our Diigo Group: Red Dot Books

Use the same hashtags as for Twitter: #reddotbooks, #early_reddot, #younger_reddot, #older_reddot, #mature_reddot

The only thing still not done are posters, bookmarks, stickers, etc. -- i.e., promotional materials.  If you feel like making some and sharing them, great.  Otherwise wait a few weeks and I'll have my staff make some -- and put them up on the website.

Remember:  Voting starts Wed March 5, 2014, and will run for one week.

The Readers Cup competition isn't until mid-May (date to be determined by who is hosting it).  The books for the competition are a subset of the 8 titles in each category -- and aren't chosen until after the general winners are announced in March.

So the goal now is just to have kids read the books -- and enjoy them.

The voting is purely personal on the part of the student.  Their favorite book on whatever basis they want.

There are slideshows of the book covers in our network Picasa Web Album -- accessible via the site -- and below.
And don't hesitate to be watching for books to go on next year's long lists and shortlists... Click here for links to the 2014-2015 Goodreads Listopia lists already set up.

Tuesday, November 12, 2013

Red Dot Shortlists 2013-2014 -- DONE!

Sorry for the delay.

Getting four balanced baskets of books takes longer than you think.

For now the lists are only on Goodreads shelves.  The website will come later.

EARLY YEARS Shortlist

YOUNGER READERS Shortlist

OLDER READERS Shortlist

MATURE READERS Shortlist

If there are any glaring problems, e.g., with availability, let us know.


Thanks to the Early/Younger subcommittee:  Kim, Isabel, Anamika, Ali, Kate B, and Pam
Thanks to the Older/Mature subcommittee: Katie, Lisa, and Susanne
Thanks also to others who offered suggestions all along the way:  Linda, Barb, et al

UPDATE Wed-13-Nov:

Fixed the link mix-up -- where both the Early and Younger links above went to the Early list.  The Younger Readers shortlist should now be appearing correctly.

Questions re sourcing books:
  • Follett Titlewave lists can be requested from Jenna Emerson (jemerson@marcthispage.com);
  • Bookaburra is happy to provide books, especially the Australian ones.  For example, they will be ordering in multiple copies of "First Third" by Will Kostakis on the Mature list.  Email Cheryle Hum: enquiries@bookaburra.com . 
  • Book Depository -- free shipping.
  • Fishpond.com.sg -- also free shipping.   They sometimes have Aussie/NZ books that Book Depository doesn't (e.g., "First Third" by Will Kostakis).

Thursday, October 31, 2013

Singapore Writers Festival / Words Go Round

http://www.singaporewritersfestival.com/ 
Singapore Writers Festival is on this coming week - with mainly authors for adults.

http://www.singaporewritersfestival.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/05/WGR-2013-Programme-Booklet.pdf
Words Go Round - an annual event where author events are organized for students.

Note:  Ray Mathur (UK) and Kate Forsyth (Australia) are part of the next one, in March.
Bookings open 18 November.

Thursday, September 19, 2013

From Holly Thompson: free guide to her latest verse novel, The Language Inside

Hello Librarians,

I'm happy to announce the Discussion, Writing, Activity and Service Guide for my YA verse novel The Language Inside (Delacorte/Random House 2013). You can download this extensive Guide HERE.  Created for classrooms, book groups, readers and writers, included in the guide are discussion questions, essay topics, poetry prompts, extension activities and service project ideas.  

Here is my blog announcement about the guide, and here is The Language Inside page of my website. Here is a post about Lowell, Monkey Dance and the Southeast Asian Water Festival, here is a post about Julia Tavalaro and Inspiration for The Language Insideand here is a recent  PoetryFriday interview of me about The Language Inside.

I hope you enjoy The Language Inside and this new Guide. 

As always, I am available for school visits.

All the best,
Holly Thompson
hatbooks@gmail.com

Saturday, September 14, 2013

Red Dot Longlist - give us your comments by end of day Monday

The Red Dot longlist spreadsheet was made public on Sep. 2 (see previous blog post) and several of us have added our comments.  I had hoped to close the document last Monday, but (of course) got waylaid by school things and didn't get this blog post written.  So let's go for this Monday as the deadline.

Here is the link again:  RED DOT LONGLIST SPREADSHEET

Those people who enter comments on books by end of day Monday, September 16, will get a Doodle invite to set a date to get together in person - as many of us as possible - to determine the shortlists, which should be announced by Sep 30th.

So see which ones you've read and want to argue for.  Instructions re how to enter comments are on the first tab of the spreadsheet.




Tuesday, September 3, 2013

GAFE: Google Apps for Education - @SAS - this Saturday & Sunday

 
I don't know how many of you are going to the Google Apps conference this weekend at SAS (I think there's still space, if you're interested).  I went last year and found it useful, e.g., on how to use scripts to do mass emails using Google Spreadsheets.  It's also good to be reminded of the deeper features of Google Search.  Many of the presenters are Google employees flown in for the event, while other workshops are offered by local people like us.

I'll be doing a session on Sunday morning called "Geeking out with GoodReads" together with a middle school English teacher from Dover -- Angie Erickson.

We'll be publishing a Google Site of our presentation -- bit.ly/goodreadsgeeks -- so you can see what we covered.  It's not public yet (as it's not finished - haha) -- but, after Sunday, have a look.


Follett Workshop @ UWCSEA East - Thu, Nov 21 & Fri, Nov 22

Jenna Emerson, Tim Ramsey, and Larry Gilbert are running a Follett Workshop in November at UWCSEA East.


Click here to register or see more information.

Day 1 - Destiny Training for all levels: 
Destiny usage, tips and tricks and hands on exercises.  What's new in Destiny 11.0, digital reources integration and more  
Discussion Items:
  • Destiny training including an overview of what's new in Destiny 11.0
  • Individual sessions available to address specific school related issues
  • Resource sharing with other libraries, RDA, eBook integration
  • Finding library materials outside of traditional Destiny search
*Agenda details and times are subject to change
Day 2 - Follett Resources for the Library: Exploration and Training
Follett eBooks and digital solutions, Titlewave, Collection Development and more 
Discussion Items:
  • Throughout the day, Destiny users will have the option of meeting with the Destiny Doctor, Larry Gilbert 
  • Digital Content
    • What tools are being used in schools to meet digital demands
    • Challenges facing schools with regard to digital content
    • Marketing digital content
  • Connection with the classroom
    • New ways to support classroom instruction and build reading skills
    • Nurturing students reading progresson in a digital world
  • Collection Analysis and Collection Development
    • Effectively analyze your library collection
  • Tools for mapping your collection development and using these results to ensure continual support of the library program
   *Agenda details and times are subject to change


The workshop is being hosted in our school's Centre for International Education -- which offers a variety of workshops, all of which are open to anyone.  Check out the list here.

Monday, September 2, 2013

New page off this blog: Librarian Journals/Resources

At the top of this blog there's a new page/tab:  Librarian Journals/Resources

If you click it, you'll go to a public Google Spreadsheet which anyone can edit.  Just like our Recommended Suppliers page.

I'd been meaning to make a list of all the library-related journals available via the NLB (no longer freely available to us - sigh), but never got around to it.  Then Anthony Tilke, the new secondary TL at the UWCSEA Dover campus, started making a list of library and book review journals and their priees/availability for our internal purposes -- and I said, oh, let me make it the start of an ISLN shared resource.

So add to it -- fill out the information -- as you will.


Red Dot Longlist... discussions to lead us to our shortlist......

It's that time of year... when we pool our ratings and comments on the Red Dot longlist in order to move towards the magic movement when we settle upon a nicely balanced set of 8 books for each category:  Early Years, Younger, Older, and Mature Readers.

Before we have a meeting, let's pool our thoughts on what books we read over the summer -- on or off the longlist.

Here's a Google spreadsheet which anyone in the world can edit -- I put all the longlist books on it (see this previous blogpost if you need links) -- though you can also add new ones that you think should have been on the longlist.


There is one tab per category.   Instructions are on the home tab.  Basically, as you add your ratings and comments, be sure to rename the column heading to show your name.  We can add more columns as more people add comments.  Remember:  your rating isn't about the book as a whole, but about its appropriateness for our book award.  (You could love a book, but realize it's not right for our audiences.)  The books we choose should be ones worth buying multiple copies of -- and passing on to our literacy/English departments and book circle collections.  Published within the past four years (2013, 2012, 2011, and 2010).

If you're interested in contributing, please try to add something to the Google Doc by Wednesday.  That way we'll know who is potentially interested in finding time to physically meet and hash out the lists. 

Questions?  Contact me: katie.appleton.day@gmail.com

The Charles Sturt Student Librarian Tour of Singapore Libraries

This week Judy O'Connell is in Singapore with 25 Charles Sturt University distance-learning students in librarianship for a week-long study visit.  Most of them have come up from Australia, while a few are living here in Singapore (e.g., our own Suzanne Parfitt at Tanglin, and Nadine Bailey, a UWCSEA parent).  We will hopefully be socializing with them on Wednesday night, after our network meeting.

In case you're interested, here is their busy schedule:


And click here for a list of general questions about libraries that the students will be considering as they visit each library.  It's a good reminder of the things we all should be aware of.

(If you go to Judy's blog, you can see the presentation she did last week at IASL in Bali._

I'm looking forward to seeing them Wednesday....

Tuesday, August 27, 2013

A few photos from last week.... IFLA / ALA....

I took a few snaps with my phone last week.  They're not great photography, but they give you a sense of the evenings.

First we had the Gale-Cengage reception, where both Susanne Clower and Pam Males won prizes in the Bingo game!  (Sorry, Susanne, I only captured Pam's big win.)

IFLA - Gale/Cengage night
Click on the photo to go to the album....


Then on Thursday, we had the social evening with ALA (American Library Association) executives, at Susanne's sister's house in Woodlands.  It was a wonderful evening of library talk -- and the food (catered by Chutney Cafe) was delicious.

Below is Barbara Stripling, the current ALA President (centre), with Susanne Clower (UWCSEA Dover) and Ruth Soeding (GESS).

See more candid shots here:
ALA-ISLN Evening, Aug 22, 2013
Click on the photo above to go to the album

We were especially thrilled to have one of our international school students attend the evening:  Rabiah, who is in Grade 12 at UWCSEA Dover.  

Rabiah attended the ALA Annual Conference in June as she is an avid YA blogger -- she picked up over 80 ARC (Advanced Reader Copies) at the conference.  See her blog, The Confessions of a Readaholic, or follow her on Goodreads, where she has over 5,000 books on her shelves.

We are interested in getting students who are YA lit fans (or avid readers in general) from all the international schools together, especially those who blog or are active on sites like Goodreads.  A Saturday summit?  The start of a student booklovers network here in Singapore?  Rabiah is very keen -- and as we only have her around until next June -- this is the year to do it.  If you are willing to get involved -- or know of students at your school who would -- please contact me or Susanne Clower.

-- Katie Day 

Monday, August 19, 2013

"How was ALA?"

Quite a few of us attended the American Library Association (ALA) conference back at the end of June in Chicago.
  • Kate Brundage (SAS)
  • Ali Cuthbert (SAS)
  • Rosa Shin-Gay (SAS)
  • Nancy Johnson (SAS)
  • Kim Klein (SAIS)
  • Susanne Clower (UWC)
  • Katie Day (UWC)
plus (we later found out) one Grade 12 Dover student, Rabiah, went on her own (and picked up over 80 ARCs).  She's a prolific blogger about YA literature -- see"Confessions of a Readaholic", aka  http://iliveforreading.blogspot.sg/ -- and she has over 5,000 books on her Goodreads shelves.  (And, yes, we've invited her to join us on Thursday.....)

As we have the ALA evening coming up, I thought you might be interested in hearing something about the conference.

I have at least started on the process of feedback with this post: "Reporting back: On being with 26,000 librarians".  You'll notice I cleverly promise to write further posts about the individual sessions I attended.  (How many conferences do you attend and intend to write up later?  I have a whole filing cabinet full.)

So Kate, Ali, Rosa, Kim, and Susanne.... feel free to share what you got out of ALA.  You can be a guest blogger here (just send me whatever and I'll post it for you).

Thursday: Social event with ALA (American Library Association) executives attending IFLA

Again, emails were sent out on the Google Group list about this, but just in case you didn't hear.... Below is the original invite.



As you may be aware, the IFLA conference is being held in Singapore from 17/Aug/13 to 22/Aug/13.

The American Library Association is sending a contingent of their officers to attend the conference, and ISLN has been in touch with them to arrange a small party for the ALA officers and ISLN members. This is a wonderful opportunity to meet and greet some very accomplished librarians, and talk about how librarianship is perceived and practiced all over the world.

The ALA people can meet with us on Thursday, 22 August. After some discussion with our ALA contact, we've decided to have this event at a private home, which will provide a nice personal touch. 

The network will provide finger food and drinks for this gathering that will be from 6:00 (for a 6:30 start) to about 9 or so. 

We will be gathering at a private house in the Woodlands near SAS; the postal code is 738223. 

Dress is casual, as we will be both inside and outside (around the pool.) 

We have to limit this event to about 35 people, 15 of which are our ALA guests, so attendance will be on a first-reply, first-accepted basis. 

Please reply to susanneuwc@uwcsea.edu.sg to secure your spot.

Thanks and hope to see you soon,
Susanne, ISLN Secretary



I spoke with Susanne this morning and there is still room for a couple more people.

The current president of ALA (which is the oldest and largest library association in the world) is a school librarian:  Barbara Stripling.  (See her ALA president's website.)  She's also a professor in the School of Information Studies at Syracuse University.

Have you ever heard of the Stripling Model for Research?  That's Barbara....  Read here to remind yourself of her work:  Teaching Students to Think in the Digital Environment

Taken from this article on "Teaching Inquiry with Primary Sources"
Last week Barbara was in Bangkok for an IFLA Satellite meeting where she gave a keynote on "Creating the Future by Empowering Youth to Tell Their Stories."

Come along on Thursday to meet this famous librarian... and others.

Contact Susanne soon if you're interested.

Tonight: A Social Engagement with Gale Cengage

I trust you all heard about this via a Google Group emailing, but tonight Gale Cengage is hosting a reception for all librarians -- in connection with the ongoing IFLA Conference here in Singapore.

6:30pm - 8:30 pm at the RedDot Brewhouse @Boat Quay (33/34 Boat Quay)

Sean Chia, our Gale Cengage rep, hopes to see several of us there.


Monday, June 24, 2013

Joint IFLA/IASL Workshop: Advocacy for School Libraries, 24 August, in KL


If you are concerned 
about the future of our children in this information-rich world

If you are concerned 
about developing reading and information literacy among our children

If you believe that
school libraries are important for our children, 

then join us for a workshop on 

Advocacy for School Libraries 

in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia on 24 August 2013

Jointly organized by the International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions (IFLA)Section on School Libraries and the International Association of School Librarianship (IASL), and hosted by the Department of Library and Information Science, University of Malaya, this workshop seeks to examine ways and means of enhancing advocacy efforts for school libraries.

There is a great need to advocate for school libraries. In the real world, the resources available are finite. Every day, people are pleading their cases before policy makers and resource allocators to give priority to their needs and causes. School libraries need to do so too, or run the risk of being left out when the time comes to make decisions.

This workshop seeks to examine ways and means of further advocating for school libraries.
----------------
This conference occurs between the ILFA one in Singapore and the IASL one in Bali.  See our PD page for links to all major conferences in the area.  I hope some of our members will be able to attend.

New local library supplies company: PM Associates

I had a visitor a while back from a local company now offering library and book care products: PM Associates

David Wong is the sales executive (david@pma.com.sg - tel: 9769-5569) and they're located at 20 Sin Ming Lane #02-63, Midview City, Singapore 573968.   Website = http://www.pma.com.sg

As you will see on their website, they mainly do IB and IGCSE textbooks.  (In fact, their website doesn't seem to indicate they carry library supplies.)

PM Associates' library products come from Neschen, a German company.   See, for example, their book care products here.

One thing in their catalog which I've been looking for locally is a tape rolls dispenser:
(Gawd, the small things that will make us happy....)

Anyway, welcome to PM Associates.

I've put them in our Suppliers spreadsheet (click for link here).  Remember everyone is welcome to add to that list.

-- Katie

Sunday, June 9, 2013

Red Dot: Mature longlist: WRONG "Curveball" title

Scott Riley, the SAS middle school literacy coach, just alerted me to the fact that the "Curve Ball" title on the Red Dot Books: Mature longlist was the wrong one.  We wanted this one:  "Curveball" The Year I Lost My Grip" by Jordan Sonnenblick. 


The one I obviously clicked by mistake when setting up the GoodReads shelves was some (trashy?) heroine romance called "Curve Ball" by Charlotte Stein -- which you don't want your students reading!

If you have given the list out to students for summer reading, you might want to have them note the correction on the GoodReads shelf:  MATURE Longlist 2013-2014

Thursday, June 6, 2013

The world through picture books

The World through Picture Books is an on-going initiative of the International Federation of Library Associations. Participating countries have each contributed ten favourite picture books to produce a wonderfully international and diverse catalogue.
Included are familiar favourites from Singapore, the U.K., Germany, France, the U.S.A. 36 countries in all are represented.
This catalogue is a delight to browse and an excellent source of ideas to enrich our mother tongue/world literature collections.
A reminder that Select Books is an Asian book specialist here in Singapore.

Friday, May 31, 2013

PD opportunity - IFLA World Congress, Singapore 17-23 August 2013

The International Federation of Library Associations will be holding its world congress here in Singapore in August. The theme is "Future libraries: infinite possibilities."
Here is a link to the programme and the satellite meetings.

Tuesday, May 28, 2013

Summer Red Dot Longlists.... and the AFCC today....


Six of us met on Saturday (Kate B (SAS), Carla (EtonHouse) , Lisa (CIS), and two middle school literacy specialists -- Scott from SAS and Angie from UWC Dover) and added quite a few titles to the GoodReads bookshelves.

These bookshelves include all the titles on the Listopia lists, but also include ones members suggested either in person or via email. We also looked at the current shortlists of our sibling awards: the Panda ones in China, the Sakura Medal in Japan, and the Morning Calm Medal in Korea.

RED DOT LONGLISTS:


Criteria in choosing books for the longlist:
  • Mix of genres, e.g., fiction, nonfiction, poetry, graphic format
  • Balance of boy/girl main characters
  • Balance of nationalities
  • Published (in English) within the last 4 years
  • The shortlists will consist of 8 books at each level
  • Preferably only #1 if in a series
  • Preferably no repeat of an author from previous years

NB:  Titles can still be added - the shortlists are limited to the longlists.  You might find a great book over the summer, so keep reading!

We're looking for someone to head up the Red Dot committee for next year -- and to call a meeting in late August so the shortlists can be announced at our September 4th meeting.  Please let me or Linda know if you're interested.  You might think about a joint-leadership position (i.e., two working together).


Today I'm heading off to AFFC - http://afcc.com.sg - the Asian Festival of Children's Content at the NLB main building on Victoria St. 

The line-up includes Holly Thompson, Wendy Orr, Candy Gourlay, people from Shen's Books and the Paper Tigers blog, and lots of local authors and illustrators, not to mention our own Ben Farr on a panel at 4:15pm and Nancy Johnson doing the children's book awards keynote starting at 7:30pm.

Hope to see some of you during the day.

Thursday, May 23, 2013

Red Dot longlist meeting, Saturday May 25

Now that Readers Cup is past, it's time to look forward to the 2013-2014 Red Dot Books.

Yesterday at SJII, Lisa Patton (CIS), Kate Brundage (SAS) were chatting and decided to meet up  this Saturday afternoon, May 25,  3 - 5 pm at the American Club, where Kate is a member, to discuss booklists.  The club has wireless, which is useful, and Kate may be able to book one of the conference rooms. 

Anyone is welcome to join us.  Just let us know you're coming, as Kate needs to sign guests in. You can  email me (katie.appleton.day@gmail.com) or call/ text (8233-2922).

We three feel on top of the best of recently published American literature for children and young adults, so are particularly looking for help on the Canadian, British, Australian, New Zealand, European, and other world-wide titles.

If you can't come, but have some ideas, either email me or go to our GoodReads' Listopia lists where we are collecting titles -- and add or vote on books.
Remember:  only titles published within the past four years are eligible, i.e., 2013, 2012, 2011, or 2010.  For translated works, we look at how many years they have been published in English.  We also aim for a range of countries represented and at least one non-fiction book per category.

Shortlists (to be announced at our September 4th network meeting) will have 8 titles each, so the longlists are typically 20-30 books in each.

We'll publish our recommended lists here on Monday.

(Hint: the longlists make good summer reading lists.....)

And the winners of the Readers Cup are....


We had a very successful Readers Cup event yesterday at SJI International.  For full information, including the scores for each team and the questions & answers for each competition, go to the Red Dot website - Readers Cup page.

In summary, Singapore American School (SAS) won the Younger Readers, St Joseph's Institution (SJI) International won the Older Readers, and the German European School of Singapore (GESS) won the Mature Readers.  Congratulations to all!

The change in format -- from oral questions to written ones with timed rounds -- helped to speed up the length of each competition, though we still went over a bit.  (The Mature Readers event finished at 6:30pm.)  The change in scoring -- increasing the number of questions and adding the selection of a Joker Round for double points and 10% bonus points for finishing within 3 minutes instead of 4 -- did prevent tie situations, though narrowly.  In the Younger Readers event, there was just 0.1 points between 1st place and 2nd place!

I'll put a Google Form up on the Readers Cup page to collect suggestions and comments on how the competition went.

Do you have any photos or videos of the event you'd like to share?  I've made a new Photos & Videos page for Readers Cup and have uploaded a few photos and videos that one of our teachers took for me.

Many thanks to Siti Nurhidayah for organizing things so well at the SJII end.  Lisa Patton at CIS Lakeside has already asked to host next year's event -- and Kate Brundage at SAS says she'll do it the year after.


We are grateful to Cheryle Hum of Bookaburra Books for serving as a judge as well as supplying book prizes.  Thanks also to APD Books for their generous support of book prizes.

Special thanks also to Barb Philip Reid at Alice Smith School for sharing her experiences with Novel Knockout in KL and giving us the idea of timing the rounds and bonus points, as well as the all-important spreadsheet template for the more complicated scoring.  Maybe next year we will go with her idea of using iPads for the multiple choice quizzes.  At the very least I will be suggesting we use laptops and Google Forms for submission of the short-answer quiz as I killed quite a few trees prepping the quiz sheets this year.

Monday, May 6, 2013

School visits by local authors available through APD.

Our friends at APD have advised that they have local children's authors available for school visits at no charge. What an opportunity!
One such author is Maranna Chan, creator of the Triple Nine Sleuths series. Triple Nine Sleuths is targeted at upper primary to lower secondary students (ages 10-14). 
The series follows the adventures of Secondary One students Corey, Colton and Stacy as they encounter and investigate a series of intriguing mysteries in their neighbourhood and around Singapore. As they search for answers, big secrets are revealed and surprising connections are drawn between old cases. Think Nancy Drew or Enid Blyton's classic Secret Seven series, but with a fresh, local twist: familiar locations like Serangoon Public Library, Nex mall and even St John's Island, and tech-savvy leads who use their smartphones and Facebook to aid them in their sleuthing missions.
To purchase this series, or discuss a possible school visit, email Frizal at APD: frizal@apdsing.com

Wednesday, May 1, 2013

Possible Storyteller Visit: Courtney Campbell




Homepage:  http://www.courtneycampbell.com

Click here for brochures, price information, etc. about Courtney Campbell.

Courtney is already booked to perform at some international schools in KL and HK -- and is interested in stopping over in Singapore.

Dear Singapore International School Librarians,
I'm a singer/songwriter, storyteller/writer.  I've been performing in international schools world-wide for many years.  I'm going to be on tour in KL in September/October and in Singapore November 4-15.  Leanne Windsor of IIlliawara school in Australia recommended me to Katie Day.  In KL I"ll be performing for Siobhan Roulston at Garden International School as well as many other schools.  I"m available in your area November 4-15. To find out more about me you can go to my website: www.courtneycampbell.com.  I"ve also attached some " information about myself, my fees and my work.  I would love to come and perform for your schools.  Please contact me at: ctc@courtneycampbell.com.   I look forward to hearing from you.  It would be helpful to hear from you within a few weeks  as I am in the process of booking all my tours for the coming school year.  

All the best,
Courtney Campbell

Readers Cup: Sample Questions & Posters Available


Sample questions for all the books (5-10 each) are ready, in Google spreadsheet form.  Have your students create their own in the same vein for prep purposes.


SJII also made some posters to help everyone advertise the event.

Professional Development

I've just updated our page of professional development links -- which you can always check by clicking the Regional PD box in the header.

Please let me know if I should add other links.


A Special Plug for Learning 2.0

Learning 2.0 will be in Singapore Friday, October 10 - Sunday, October 12, at our UWCSEA East campus -- after years of being in China.  Early Bird Registration (until June 1st) just opened, so do what you can to reserve your place now.

Jeff Plaman, the secondary digital literacy coach who sits with me on my front desk, is the coordinator of the conference, so I know what a great experience it will be.

The call for workshops form isn't up on the site yet, but they promise it will be soon.  So be thinking of what you might be able to offer.  I hope there will be enough library-related ones to qualify as a strand of sorts.

There will also be a wide range of pre-conference offerings on Thursday, October 9th -- for $75 per person.  So even if can't attend the 3-day event, you might get an interesting day of something else, e.g., digital tools for Readers/Writers Workshop.  Click here for the full list.

-- Katie Day