As they say, I got nothin'. More soon. :)
Cash in the Coffee Can: $292
Thursday, February 24, 2011
Thursday, February 17, 2011
A Glimpse at the World of Teens
(this post is not about Summer Reading, I couldn't help myself!)
I am honored to be acting as a NYS judge in the national Letters About Literature program. I received my packet of letters this week and started reading and two things jumped out at me.
The goal of the program is for kids and teens to write letters to authors to let them know how their book changes their view of the world or of themselves. The letters I received were from 7th and 8th graders. I had kids from Nassau and Suffolk, as well as a few from Manhattan and a bunch from the Rochester area (the city as well as the rural/suburban areas around it).
The first thing I noticed was how many of the students talked about being bullied. It was without a doubt the most frequent theme in the letters and what was especially striking was how many of them said they had been picked on for no reason. I was proud, though, that they were willing to write about it in letters that went through their teachers, which tells me that anti-bullying efforts are working to at least help kids feel brave enough to talk about being bullied. It's an important first step.
The other thing that struck me was how many students made comments like "Living in my comfortable, middle class home, I didn't know that there was . . ." and then said things like poverty, racism, discrimination, war. It was shocking to me that in this age of 24/7 media and constantly being plugged in, our teens are that insulated from the world outside their doors. Now, granted, some of this is just teens being self-absorbed teens, but still.
This made me think again about an article by Douglas Rushkoff in the February, 2011 School Library Journal I've been talking about to everyone. It has to do with rethinking how we do technology with young people. The letters made me recall his comments about how social networking is changing the way we communicate. Discussing how communicating in virtual environments removes the 93% of communication that is non-verbal, he says "our interactions online become highly literalized, suspicious, devoid of context, and continually parsed for their real meaning. We end up experiencing one another much in the way someone with Asperger's does" (p. 31).
So. Yeah.
Instead of feeling inspired by many of the letters I judged that talked about how reading whichever book made them see what the world is really like, I feel oddly depressed. Mostly because I get the sense that this wasn't life changing for most of these teens, but just another assignment for school and that they would go back to their comfortable, middle class lives and forget the glimpse beyond their doors. And social media is going to help them do it.
Bluh.
Cash in the Coffee Can: $278
I am honored to be acting as a NYS judge in the national Letters About Literature program. I received my packet of letters this week and started reading and two things jumped out at me.
The goal of the program is for kids and teens to write letters to authors to let them know how their book changes their view of the world or of themselves. The letters I received were from 7th and 8th graders. I had kids from Nassau and Suffolk, as well as a few from Manhattan and a bunch from the Rochester area (the city as well as the rural/suburban areas around it).
The first thing I noticed was how many of the students talked about being bullied. It was without a doubt the most frequent theme in the letters and what was especially striking was how many of them said they had been picked on for no reason. I was proud, though, that they were willing to write about it in letters that went through their teachers, which tells me that anti-bullying efforts are working to at least help kids feel brave enough to talk about being bullied. It's an important first step.
The other thing that struck me was how many students made comments like "Living in my comfortable, middle class home, I didn't know that there was . . ." and then said things like poverty, racism, discrimination, war. It was shocking to me that in this age of 24/7 media and constantly being plugged in, our teens are that insulated from the world outside their doors. Now, granted, some of this is just teens being self-absorbed teens, but still.
This made me think again about an article by Douglas Rushkoff in the February, 2011 School Library Journal I've been talking about to everyone. It has to do with rethinking how we do technology with young people. The letters made me recall his comments about how social networking is changing the way we communicate. Discussing how communicating in virtual environments removes the 93% of communication that is non-verbal, he says "our interactions online become highly literalized, suspicious, devoid of context, and continually parsed for their real meaning. We end up experiencing one another much in the way someone with Asperger's does" (p. 31).
So. Yeah.
Instead of feeling inspired by many of the letters I judged that talked about how reading whichever book made them see what the world is really like, I feel oddly depressed. Mostly because I get the sense that this wasn't life changing for most of these teens, but just another assignment for school and that they would go back to their comfortable, middle class lives and forget the glimpse beyond their doors. And social media is going to help them do it.
Bluh.
Cash in the Coffee Can: $278
Thursday, February 10, 2011
Straight from the CEO's Mouth
I learned two things this week from meetings where Mr. Galante spoke that are super important for teen services.
First, did you know that teens are our largest population of library users? On any given day, 10,000 teens walk through our doors. This is huge, folks, both literally and figuratively. Are we, organizationally and individually, doing all we can to meet the library needs of those teens?
Second, it was so great to hear at the Director's Talks that the decision to stop buying books rather than face library closures was made in order for our libraries to remain community spaces. This is also huge, especially for our teens, who often have no place else to go than the library.
As we plan for Summer Reading, keep these things in mind. If we're seeing 10,000 teens a day, we can easily register more than 7200 for Summer Reading. And think of what being a community space in your community means, especially in the summer months, especially in the face of looming budget cuts and use that to inform not only your program planning, but your advocacy efforts as well.
Cash in the Coffee Can: $264
First, did you know that teens are our largest population of library users? On any given day, 10,000 teens walk through our doors. This is huge, folks, both literally and figuratively. Are we, organizationally and individually, doing all we can to meet the library needs of those teens?
Second, it was so great to hear at the Director's Talks that the decision to stop buying books rather than face library closures was made in order for our libraries to remain community spaces. This is also huge, especially for our teens, who often have no place else to go than the library.
As we plan for Summer Reading, keep these things in mind. If we're seeing 10,000 teens a day, we can easily register more than 7200 for Summer Reading. And think of what being a community space in your community means, especially in the summer months, especially in the face of looming budget cuts and use that to inform not only your program planning, but your advocacy efforts as well.
Cash in the Coffee Can: $264
Friday, February 4, 2011
Halfway There
Can you believe it? But the cash can doesn't lie and here we are, halfway to the goal!
Now that we're solidly into 2011, the SR book lists are done and we're heavy into the planning stages for Summer Reading 2011, my blog focus is going to be more practical in nature. I hope. I usually start out thinking nuts and bolts and end up writing library theory (along with the occasional rant).
And given how . . . wintry . . . this winter has been, isn't it kind of nice to start thinking about summer?
Cash in the Coffee Can: $250
Now that we're solidly into 2011, the SR book lists are done and we're heavy into the planning stages for Summer Reading 2011, my blog focus is going to be more practical in nature. I hope. I usually start out thinking nuts and bolts and end up writing library theory (along with the occasional rant).
And given how . . . wintry . . . this winter has been, isn't it kind of nice to start thinking about summer?
Cash in the Coffee Can: $250
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