The Crayon Connection

Hardly any kids came to our afterschool program this past week.  That's not so surprising as we just started them and it may take a while to catch on.  The ones who came, however, drew a bit with a pencil but could not be encouraged to color in with crayon.  I started thinking about this.  Maybe at a certain age they would prefer to work with markers, which deliver a more saturated color.  Then up in the forefront of my mind popped the image of coloring programs on the computer. No problems keeping within the lines, color even and vibrant - not to mention fast.  Kids might not be finding the same joy in drawing and coloring that we did because it's not living up to what they've seen can be done (not that they're actually doing it - actually "coloring") on a computer.  They're just clicking on a space.

True, it requires use of fine motor skills to use a mouse, as anyone like me who has had to learn to do this later in life knows, but I keep thinking they need to be using their hands more.  I have even been asked by a kid, full of energy otherwise, to cut something out for him because cutting was making his hand hurt.   Watching kids of school age who are unable to do simple tasks with pencils, scissors, and tape dispensers worries me.  This story kept edging its way into the mix.  This man lost his ability to read from a stroke, but was able to work around his loss by tracing the letters he was looking at with his finger and then later with his tongue on the roof of his mouth.  Yes, it was slower - but he had not lost that part of the skill.  There is a clear link between the motor skills used to write with the ability to decode the printed word inside the brain.  This was only reiterated to me when I read this blogpost.

Computers are an integral part of our present and future, but we are already past the point where mouse use is a vital skill in computers.  We are now using just our fingertips (those of us - not me yet - who have the phones and tablet computers that do this).  Computers can now obey commands we vocalize.  We are running right past Star Trek science in some categories - even the more recent Star Trek versions.  We don't need to teach skills that are already on their way out.  And if I can learn to use computers at my age (I started after age 30 when you actually needed a huge manual and classes to figure out how to print a letter), these kids don't need to be saturated with those skills. 

Kids will learn to read better if they can connect the movements of their hands with the shapes of the letters. They need to be coloring, which teaches them to control their hands (and used to be deeply satisfying), as a pre-literacy skill.  They need to be writing and drawing with a tool in their hands to learn letters and to learn creativity.  We aren't just killing literacy with computers, but we are killing creativity.

Now, I spend way too much time on computers and I, too, get cramping in my hand trying to write a letter to someone.  I have also seen a great deal of creativity online, but most of this from people who already possess the skills from decades of writing and coloring - people who are already artists.  They aren't creating textures this beautiful with a mouse:

Virtual gown and avatar skin with hand-painted textures.

Let the children use the computers - but for limited amounts of time.  [And, while you're at it, make me get away from mine.  I am only too aware that this is not going to be an easy task.]  Make sure they get access to lots of paper, crayons, scissors, and quiet time.  Maybe you can share that time doing some writing or drawing of your own.  Try it.  It's a skill worth cultivating.  It has more value than you'd think.

201.01.10 - Updated to give a better link. Video no longer available, but NPR story still there.

Thus Shalt Thou Do

The Many and Sundry Commandments in Reference to Those, 

the Computers of the Children's Room

If thou owest five shekels or more, thou shalt not have access to the Computers of the Children's Room nor those of the Adult Computer Lab.
Thou shalt not bear false witness by showing the Librarian in the Children's Room the library card of someone else.
If thou art below the age of 12, thou shalt have thy parent with thee when thou art on the Computers of the Children's Room.
If thou art above the age of 12, thou shalt hie thyself to the Adult Computer Lab where the limit is 2 hours.
If thou art the age of 12, thou mightest possibly remain at the Computers of the Children's Room unaccompanied, but pusheth it thou not.
Regardless of thy age, thou shalt only remain on the Computers of the Children's Room for 30 minutes, even if there be no one else in waiting for it.
If thou art finishing a report for school thou mayest stay on the Computers of the Children's Room longer than 30 minutes, so makest sure thou art working on thy report and not desporting thyself on a videogame for 30 minutes be the limit.
If thou art a parent, thou mayest make use of the laptop computers for work or school and only for one hour.
Thou shalt not allow thy children to run wild in the library whilst thou peruseth the Book of Faces or ThouTube.
If thou art applying for a job, considereth that this may take more time than thou hadst planned on and hie thee to the Adult Computer Lab where the limit is 2 hours and leaveth thy children with a neighbor or thy mother or thy mother's mother.
Thou shalt not view material inappropriate for the Children's Room.  Thinkest thou about it.
Thou shalt not view Book of Faces, for it is an abomination, and if thou art under 13 years of age, thy Book of Faces account be against the website's Terms of Service and thou hast born false witness to obtain same.
Thou shalt not view videos on ThouTube, because it sucketh bandwidth something awful and ruineth the interwebs experience for all.
Thou shalt not allow a preschooler on a Computer of the Children's Room and wander off to find books nor stoppeth to chat with thy neighbor whom thou hast not seen in ages.  For the preschooler, contrary to what thou mightest imagine, doth not use technology intuitively and doth bang the keyboard and yanketh on the mousecord and peereth curiously at the little red light therein.  Also, the preschooler diggeth into his nose with his finger and then smeareth the mucus upon the monitor.
When thou art finished with the Computers of the Children's Room, thou shalt return thy station to good order and return the sign to the monitor, but thou shalt not turn off the monitor nor the CPU, which confuseth the next person.

The Slippery Slope

Not Just a Witch by Eva Ibbotson

My rating: 3 of 5 stars


Ibbotson writes in the simple declarative sentences of someone telling a bedtime tale ... and then guides the reader gently by the hand into horror.  Because it's a children's book, all has to turn out for the best.  In the meantime, the most unimaginable cruelties can take place. 
There are two witches who were best friends in witching school but had a falling out and went their separate ways.  Because they are "good" witches, they try to do good.  This seems to consist of finding very bad people and either turning them into interesting animals (that are now "nice" so they must be cared for) or to stone. 
If you are a child, this might make sense, and two out of the three children who get involved are happy to help.  The third child, a very very smart Asian girl, is reluctant, but she loses her reservations when a white supremacist comes to town.  Ah, how easily we respond to fear! 
We can also be gulled by love, which steers the witches blindly into cruelty on a mass scale. 
If the actions in this book seem horrifying, they are told in a fairytale style, softening them and making them seem palatable until the little snowball runs out of control and the avalanche ensues.  This is a cautionary tale.  It's about right and wrong.  And Ibbotson has very clear ideas what constitutes right and wrong.



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SCLA Part 7 - What We Were All Waiting For: Music and Movement in Storytimes

Although I let Karen and LeVerne go to the Bouncing Babies session and I did something else, I had to go to this.  And we had so much fun, even though I was still yawning a lot.  LeVerne showed up with the pillows I'd "won" in the silent auction and the three of us cuddled together and prepared to have a good time.

Parachute for movement activities

It would be nice to be able to play the guitar for programming, but at my age I may have waited a tad too long to start.  So much for Strings and Stories.  But you can do the same stuff with just singing, which is what I do.  They use rhythm sticks (have plenty of those!), boomwhackers (OMG, don't have those!), shakers, scarves, and a parachute with beach balls on it.  They use some books we already have and I made note of a couple more I will try to use or acquire.

Boomwhackers (sorry, this picture seems to have disappeared)

This isn't the sort of thing you can describe, because there's not so much talking as there is doing.  We need lots more stuff like this going on to make it worth going.  Or maybe someone could upload inspirational storytime stuff to YouTube.

POST Hoc Ergo Propter Hoc

The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie by Alan Bradley


My rating: 4 of 5 stars
This book has all the elements of the usual mystery story, but somehow seems to surprise. I didn't yell at this book once. The only quibble I have is that, unless someone in the de Luce family was an insane horticulturist that brought a sprig back as a specimen from a trip to North America, plants that produce urushiol don't grow in Britain. Okay, maybe it was a mango tree, but it sounded very much to me like it was poison ivy.
Aside from that, it was great fun! Flavia, the 11 year old chemist, is confronted with a mystery when she finds a man dying in the cucumber patch. [Note: I thought that type of poisoning was supposed to be instantaneous.] She must solve the mystery because her father has been detained, helping police with their inquiries and being fitted up. He, in turn, is covering for someone else.
Can Flavia exonerate her father before either the real murderer or one of her sadistic older sisters gets her? Read on!

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The Library Computer User's Pledge

Today I was going through some files at my desk looking for some "thingies" - you know, those - those things. You put them in binders and ... oh, nevermind. There was a file on computer miscellany and in it I found this "poem" I wrote as long as 10 years ago when we still had the Gates computers with internet in the Children's Room. Yeah. Think about it. We had to police fifth graders on the MTV site, adults from looking at what was literally a photo of a sucking chest wound (in the children's room! And looking at me completely mystified when I said, "Think of where you are!"), and kids endlessly clicking the print button. That was what really got to me, the endless clicking.

The Library Computer User's Pledge

I do promise
On my honor
That I will not
Be a speed mouse clicker.
I will point
And click one time.
Then I will wait
For the computer
To do its thing.
Only then
Will I click again.
Double-clicking
Is only for icons.
And I know enough
About computers
To know what an icon is.
I know so much,
In fact,
That I will never
Bother Miss Marf
Or Miss Nicole
Or Miss Abby
by saying:
"This won't work!"
I promise.

Here are some notes I made on children using computers from Jane M. Healy's Failure to Connect:

The learning gained (on the computer) will never replace that gained by caring for a pet or playing outdoors. (Warren Buckleitner, p 51)
Simple parent-child activities such as hobbies, games, and reading together have a solid research track record for improving academic skills. Using computers for these activities is both more expensive and less effective.
The key to positive use of any medium is the quality of the adult-child interaction. (p 73)
A youngster who spends a lot of early learning time on a computer is being programmed to prefer that type of presentation to reading a book, engaging in a discussion, or hearing a lecture about the same topic.(p 143)
Starting children on computers too early is far worse than starting them too late.
Don't let screen time substitute for lap time and don't expect books on CD-ROM to substitute for interactive reading with loving adults. (p 239)
And .. children below age 7 should not have unsupervised computer time. (p 250, italics mine, but could prolly use some boldface as well)

I might make a sign out of that last one.

All that said, I would like to add that a kid also needs time to be a kid without the adult interaction. It's up to y'all to balance that on your own. Me, I'd give 'em more play alone time as they age. They'll probably tell you when they want you to start butting out.

Write About It!/Ga Children's Lit Conference

Miriam ("Mimi") Rutland is a published author of a series of books about Miss Pistachio. Her session on teaching writing realistic fiction to kids using their own experiences interested me because of the Be Creative theme of this summer's reading program. I was already thinking about a poetry workshop. Maybe I could do this also or instead - maybe I should just go lie down.

Rutland uses a storyboard approach in her 3rd-5th grade writing clubs. She has them think of three people that are important to them, then three events: vacation, birthday, lost tooth. They have to pick one of the people (who doesn't have to be connected with the event) and describe the person: what they look like, what sort of personality. Then you put the person together with one of the events ... and embellish. Add little bits, like spices.

She says that the hardest thing to do is to start. Sometimes they need to have realistic explained to them (no flying cars or talking animals). Sometimes they need to brainstorm a special event: going to the beach, visiting a friend's house, making a new friend.

And she made us go through the process. She read some of the paragraphs we wrote "anonymously." She was careful to praise what she thought was good or interesting about the paragraphs, which of course reminded me of Mrs. Smith in Kindergarten and how she squashed a classmate's clay cat and told her she had done it all wrong and to "Start Over!" I had been looking at her method of dividing the clay into pieces and making the cat (we all had to make a cat that day - no creativity in that class!) out of them the same way you'd assemble a snowman: ball with smaller ball on top, tiny balls pinched into ears, another piece rolled into a long tail, etc. I looked at my cat, all pinched here and there and messy looking and then at her neatly assembled one and had been at the point redoing mine when Mrs. Smith waddled over in her grey wool suit, ruffled blouse, and black orthopedic shoes and squashed the snowcat flat. It's a lesson for all of us who work with kids. [Not to put too fine a point on it, the lesson is: Don't Do That!]

Rutland's presentation was simple and organized and fit exactly in the time allotted. So maybe there should be short sessions and longer sessions.

Crafty Thursday

For the second week in a row I've been sub'ing in the Homeschooler program. They do a craft activity whilst I ruin their childhood with the 1947 Newbery award-winner Miss Hickory. I say ruin their childhood because wait until they get to the part where Squirrel - I can't go on. Oh, the horror! Already Squirrel has been eyeing Miss Hickory's head and popping up unannounced and uninvited in her bed (I'm not making this up, y'all!) to "keep her warm," he claims. It has become apparent that Fawn's mother is off to the local deer processor. Fawn's father is probably already on someone's wall. Miss Hickory is rendered homeless by a selfish chipmonk ("monk" indeed!). Poor drab Miss Hen-Pheasant has told her tale of abandonment by Cock-Pheasant, probably on account of her moping, lack of intelligence, and low self-esteem. Miss Hickory has advised her to throw the bum out if he comes back.

Fortunately for their sakes, the kids had these nice, colorful beads to play with while I droned on and on about this forest soap opera. Fortunately for me, their regular host will be back to finish this story about a little stick-woman who gets her head torn off by her down-stairs neighbor leaving her body to stagger about and come to the "happy" conclusion that it would never have to do any of that "hard thinking" again. This book is perfect for Halloween! It's chock full of horrors!


Carolyn Sherwin Bailey's Miss Hickory

shelfmonkeys: "free pencils"

Sometimes I feel like the biggest, meanest ogre in Fairyland, but, I mean, it just gets on your nerves!

shelfmonkeys

In honor of his birthday this month! Here's to Theodor Geisel. My first Dr. Suess book was One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish. Although I don't remember being taken to the library, I must have been familiar with the concept. My mother had taken me to a bookstore and let me pick out a book. I chose this vibrantly yellow book ("cadmium yellow light" I'd have called it then, which would have gotten my mother a free trip to talk to the teacher). I was stunned to learn it did not have to go back! This was also my first book of all my own. The rest were hand-me-downs from my sister. I can't describe how thrilled I was with this book. I took it to school for show-and-tell and then left it on the playground. I made my mother drive me back to the school to get it. My favorite Seuss story, though, is the Grinch. I read it to kids every year. It is long for pre-schoolers, but they already know the story, having seen the tv version and can fill in the Whoville Carol.

shelfmonkeys

Marketing on a Shoestring Workshop in Columbia

9 March 2007

Marketing on a Shoestring

with Padgett Lewis of the Richland County Public Library

which has 10 locations plus one book-not-mobile

that will soon be replaced by a storefront branch,

and a $16 million budget,

a Public Relations Department

with their own color printer for doing anything 1,000 or less.

Shoestring? Suuure.

Ms. Lewis is a journalism major who is part of a 4-person permanent public relations department at the RCPL. Their department consists of a PR manager (Ms. Lewis), a PR specialist, and two graphic designers. The RCPL does no paid advertising. That, apparently, is a slippery slope. If you pay once, they think you will pay again. They rely on building relationships with the media. Their PR is done by Staff, Media, and Community Partnerships.

Everyone wants to know how to get their message about, but the library has many messages. As it is easier to sell one on one, she recommends prioritizing. So, the overall goal is to prioritize. What is the most important message you want to get out? Whom are you trying to reach? Are you trying to increase usage of resources (which resources)? Are you trying to attract new users?

The RCPL has won national recognition, but Ms. Lewis says that national recognition means diddly-poo if one person at the grocery store doesn’t use the library. They started with a community survey to develop a true marketing campaign. They found out that while everyone had a favorable impression of the library, they still didn’t use it. (What? Doesn’t Google have everything? Okay, they have a lot, but they don’t have Personal Assistance. The main problem? The Library just isn’t “cool.”) They changed their domain name from the “rcpl.lib.sc.us” to something easy: myrcpl.com. RCPL needed to be a Brand, and they needed to be consistent with it. They wanted to make the library into a community gathering spot (develop community).

On Branding: can use graphic arts students to develop a logo. [We did this with the Born To Read sticker.]

Use every opportunity to showcase your resources. Tailor existing programming to events (Black History Month, Women’s History Month). Capitalize by seeing a need in the community at a certain time and telling the community, “We have something!” Identify Your Audience, and find the best way to reach them. [Example: Hispanic Community distrustful of things that smack of government and filling out forms. Reach them through their children at the schools, where the children are more familiar with the concepts of library and forms.]

They started a Teen Advisory Board (Dana and I were chuffed that we already had an active TAB). They asked the TAB what was the best way to contact them. They said e-mail. Okay, but if we e-mail you info on upcoming events, will you forward that info to all your friends? Yeah, but don’t make it longer than one line. Teens don’t like to read a lot of stuff. So, they send teens one line with a link. They like their pictures on things. They put photos of TAB members on their website (with signed releases). Do they like to be called “teens” or “young adults?” Ask ‘em. And let your signage reflect their preference. [Okay, okay, we’ll call you “teens,” but would you like to check out a YA book?] Use technology to reach teens. They love it. On cards given out at desk or programs put a “Yes, please send me info on programming by e-mail.” On a program evaluation form add that and “How did you learn about the programming?” and “your comments count.” RCPL uses the Excel database for e-mail addresses (need to tell people to okay the library’s e-mail address so that their notices won’t bounce back or go to the bulk files).

They asked the TAB what sort of programming they would like. They said a Teen Idol contest. [We’d need an auditorium and sound equipment for that.] Everyone from RCPL rolled their eyes and tried to weasel out of it. It sounded like a nightmare. But because it was their idea, the TAB took ownership of it (a tremendous pay-off), and even handed out fliers. RCPL found sponsorship for the prizes (an hour’s recording time in a studio and one got to sing the national anthem at a major venue … and kept getting asked back to do it). Attendants were quizzed on library usage. This will be their fourth year of Teen Idol.

RCPL was going to open a wi-fi coffee shop. Teens got a special preview night all to themselves.

Ms. Lewis says to tell county council how teen programs cut down on teen violence. [Hmm, we’d need statistics for that, wouldn’t we?]

Sure, you have lots of vegetables for teens (SAT test info), but try to balance notices about that sort of stuff with stuff they want (graphic novels? Cool programming?). Video game contest: rent the machinery. Carnival games. Henna tattoos [been there, done that as well]. They sent a bitchin’ info packet to the media (with a poster of a middle-aged librarian with tattoo photoshopped on) and the tv stations showed up.

Lowe’s and Target have grant applications on line. Don’t let the manager sniff that they only give to their own community (you are a part of their greater community). Just slip in, get the manager’s name from the front and fill out the form on line. Sneaky, sneaky.

You can get e-mail info from the state schools website to use for contacting media specialists, music teachers (Teen Idol), art teachers, etc. [This is true. I got e-mails for principals for mailings I did.] Communicate with the schools. They are used to communicating with parents. Communicate with Homeschoolers [We used to keep a list of them and their addresses.]. Blog. Conduct polls on line. Post book reviews. The media has blogs as well [they do? Must check the Index-Journal. Seems so unlikely.] The RCPL puts out 20 news releases a month.

RCPL has a very popular handout on “10 reasons to come to the library.” It “flies off the counter.” Ms. Lewis will e-mail that to us. We can use that any way we want and let patrons know they can use it any way they want (church newsletters, personal websites, etc.).

The RCPL raised Friends dues from $10 to $25 (because the dues didn’t even pay for the mailings). They lost people who couldn’t afford it, but gained money. [Yeah, but then your notices go to fewer people.] They had some fancy tote bags made. [These really were beautiful. They were capacious, black, with the trademark green printing. Must have cost a bundle.] Next time they will add the website.

They use local kids’ artwork on brochures and promotional materials. They just went to the art teachers and asked to look at some stuff. The ones they used they had framed and made a presentation at the school (with the brochures to go home with the kids). Very uplifting. And put that in the newsletter as well (photo of kid being presented framed art and story about art on brochure). [You know, this sounds like such a great idea if you have a huge printing budget with full-color brochures.] The booklet bibliographies have photos of local kids. A release is always signed. No names of children are ever printed. If media arrives, they are escorted (to “facilitate,” a euphemism) and must get signed releases. Yes, the library is a public area, but what people are reading is private. This is a written policy at RCPL.

[Note from other participant: “Don’t put a bathroom in the staff room. It’s disgusting.”]

If you have self-check-out with self-holds-pick-up, and the books are covered in paper (for privacy), use it for PR! Print info on it. It’s worth spending a little more money to tell them about more stuff they might be interested in.

Most important thing we learned: Bribe the media with food. Take them out to lunch. Or, here’s what they did for the Augusta Baker’s Dozen. It happens year after year. Media Person thinks: “Oh, here’s another news release about that d@mned story thing!” They got some Krispy Kreme donuts (no tax dollars were used) with colorful sprinkles, photographed the top and bottom, enlarged it, and used that for a cover for the press info. Then they ate the donuts. This was delivered with a dozen donuts (dough-nated) to local media (including radio stations that held the deliverer and made her talk on air … she was upset about this, but you can’t buy publicity like that).

If a vendor provides publicity materials and they are generic, ignore them. See if you can get them to tailor them to your library. Why just advertise them? Morningstar has a newsletter with “Library Notes.” The RCPL created some 10-minute on-line tutorials for their databases and that was written up.

The end of the workshop concentrated on one goal. Services to Hispanic Community was chosen.

Recruit from the community and engage them in dialogue. What do you need? [Queremos más gente de la comunidad hispánica venga a la bibioteca. ¿Qué podemos hacer? ¿Qué necesita la comunidad hispánica de la biblioteca? ¿De cuál modo podemos servirles?] Be a presence at latino festivals. RCPL has as much trouble as we do, actually.

In summation: prioritize. Pick one thing and hammer it.

For Children’s Services: programs, fliers, survey (hard copy or on website) asking for e-mail address. “Do you want to be part of …” nice wording. “We won’t share!” Cull out dead ones. To ensure delivery, add this address to your list (or it will turn into spam).

Hand out program info stuff when doing storytimes or other programming away from the library.

Every person in the library is Public Relations. You are library PR. No one should enter the Children’s Room without being greeted.

Start each program with “Who has a library card?” Tell them how many items they can check out. After a program, “Don’t you want to check out a book today?” And have some available.

At RCPL they pre-select books for the age group targeted (by the program) so that after a program, they can walk out with a stack. Of course, they have RFID (you can just set the stack on a thingie and the machinery reads the titles and checks them out to you), lucky so-and-sos.

They also have Library Pals, volunteers from the rising 3^rd grade to age 15 to help with puppet shows, simple shelving (easy and paperbacks), and pre-cutting crafts. There is a brochure with an application.

Coupon for “free” library card. Okay, we know it’s already free. Hand ‘em out anyway.

Who is your audience? Focus on something. Focus and prioritize.

So, what did I actually learn that I can use now?

For all programs:

Have some books on display.

Ask who has a library card.

Talk up the library card.

Encourage people to check out books after the program.

Not worry too much if the books aren’t on the program theme.

Approach members of the Hispanic community to see what they want/need from the library.

Keep an eye peeled for events (esp. in Hispanic community) that we can piggy- back on.

Work up press packages for local media and deliver them in person with food.

Example: press package for summer programs with Mystery theme accompanied by jelly donuts (surprise!). Of course, donuts will need some quality control … That’s radio stations, cable company … hmm, may need to bake cookies instead.

Revive Homeschoolers Mailing List and use it.

shelfmonkeys

Where are those cub scouts when you need them?

shelfmonkeys

Just a typical Monday evening. Books to put away, storytime to do, and an unexpected cub scout meeting. Where do I find time to draw these things?