Gamify Your Library With Michelle Simms

Michelle Simms speaking at Kerikeri High School

We were very lucky to get Michelle Simms from Te Totara Primary School to present to SLANZA Te Tai Tokerau members last Saturday at Kerikeri High School.  Librarians and teachers arrived from far and wide to attend.

The first session was on Gamify your Library which Michelle presented to the SLANZA conference in 2013.  This is not using games in your Library but rather building on the appeal of games to create an engaging and dynamic Library.  Michelle had lots of ideas of promotions which could be adapted for your Library.  Here are just some of them:

·         A Genre quiz
·         Blind date with a book
·         A customised Monopoly game
·         A novel murder
·         Reading Bingo
·         A reading quest

After a yummy morning tea with Di Eastwood’s date scones, we convened for the second session of Virtual Librarian with some ideas for online tools and apps for your Library.  Whilst I was familiar with blogs, Facebook, Pinterest (a visual discovery tool that you can use to find ideas), Symbaloo (Access your bookmarks anywhere), Livebinders (Organise your resources in an online binder), Weebly (a web hosting service that gives you an easy way to create a website), I hadn’t heard about Pond http://www.n4l.co.nz/pond/,the network for Leaning portal which is just being rolled out but this sounds like a place which we will all become familiar.

The last session was on the pros and cons and process of Genrification.  Whilst this could be organising your entire Library into genres, in most schools this has been organising your Fiction section into Genres rather than by the authors’ surname.  I think this is an interesting idea and I am keeping an open mind on it. 

We concluded with lunch of home-made soup and freshly baked bread and a raffle for some donated books.  I think we all walked away happy with our choice.

Thanks are due to Michelle Simms, Te Totara Primary School, Jeannie Skinner, National Library and Julia Smith from Kerikeri High School for an interesting and informative morning.

Dee Brooker

For more detail on these sessions, here is the link to Michelle’s presentations http://www.slideshare.net/spaceace40

“All writing is travel writing because it takes you on a journey…”

Like Dee in the previous post, I was taken by this quote from Mal Peet at the SLANZA Te Tai Tokerau event on Saturday.  It captured my imagination, and reflected the journeys that Mal and Elspeth took us on as they spoke, and through their books set in different lands and times. 

Elspeth spoke about finding the germ of an idea through her research and then the process of spinning the story through walking and talking about it and playing it out until Mal could take it and put it into words to make it come alive. Their recently published book, Mysterious Traveller, exquisitely illustrated by PJ Lynch, came from hearing about Timbuktu in Mali, Africa, being at the intersection of trade routes, where a kilo of salt and a kilo of gold were of equal value, and where there was a renowned guide who was blind but could lead people through shifting sands using his knowledge as signposts.

I thought the idea of crafting the story initially in an oral way was interesting – how maybe we need to have time to talk about a story, tease out the threads and connections, before we launch straight into writing it down…

Mal writes up in the attic room, Elspeth’s office is downstairs, and there is a cow bell which Elspeth rings if she wants Mal to come down…  Someone suggested that it was shades of Downton Abbey, but Mal replied, more like Pavlov’s dog – never knowing if the summons was about a sandwich or hoovering!

There was a question about the classification of books – teen, adult etc and Mal suggested it is adults who buy the books for children and so the classifications are for them – the children will read what they will…  He spoke about reading to children, and the ability then to read to them at their understanding level rather than their reading level which is sometimes lower.

Mal was entertaining as he spoke about his boyhood ambitions (to captain England's football team and failing that, draw cartoons for Beano), his writing process, relationships with publishers and illustrators, and the travel which has enriched his writing.  He talked about having a novel in his head being like playing three dimensional chess, with transparent pieces, against yourself – carrying it around in your head like a glass bowl of water…

Luckily for us, Mal’s self-professed speech impediment – ‘I can’t pronounce the word “no”’, meant that he and Elspeth fitted in the session in their last few days in New Zealand while on holiday in Northland, and it was an enjoyable and interesting afternoon for the 30 – 40 people gathered there.

Thanks to Kerikeri High School for the venue and hospitality, Di for afternoon tea, Books on Hobson for providing books for sale, and to Lisa Salter, Kevin from Books on Hobson and Clare Giesbers who provided books for the successful raffle won by many happy ticket holders.  Congratulations also to Ahipara School who brought along a group of students who asked interesting questions.

Teachers / book clubs may be interested in the Walker Books Classroom Ideas resource kits for Mal’s (and other people’s) books – here is the page for Secondary Fiction Classroom Ideas http://www.walkerbooks.com.au/Teachers/Classroom-Ideas/Secondary-Fiction-Classroom-Ideas

Cheers, Jeannie

Bob Docherty visits Kerikeri and Whangarei

Here is an opportunity to hear a knowledgeable 
and enthusiastic speaker

promote new and interesting children's and teen fiction

Come and listen to Bob Docherty, to find out what books hook teens into reading, and how you can hear about new books.

Bob Docherty

Bob Docherty:

•       consultant promoting reading and literacy in schools
•       20 years experience with National Library selecting fiction for the Schools Collection
•            Judge and Convenor of Judges for the LIANZA Book Awards 2005-2008
•       author of Bobs Books Blog - http://bobsbooksnz.wordpress.com

Kerikeri High School Library - this Wednesday, Sept. 14,

4:00-5:00pm

Whangarei Girls High School Library - this Thursday, Sept. 15, 

4;00-5:00pm

Afternoon tea will be provided at both venues at 3:30pm and a gold coin donation would be appreciated, plus there will be book browsing and buying opportunities with Take Note at Kerikeri and Storytime at Whangarei

Please email Jeannie re numbers for catering if you wish to attend

Bob's Books : "I want your kids to read!"

I did a post last month, but just a reminder about the SLANZA meetings in week 7 this term with Bob Docherty from Christchurch promoting new and interesting fiction for teens. Could be of particular interest to English teachers.

• Kerikeri High School Library, Hone Heke Rd, Kerikeri, Wednesday 14th September

• Whangarei Girls’ High School Library, Lupton Ave, Whangarei, Thursday 15th September. Many thanks to both the host schools.
  

• 3.45pm for afternoon tea, 4 - 5 pm for Bob

• Free meeting, all welcome, gold coin donation welcome as contribution to afternoon tea, and please RSVP to Jeannie.skinner@dia.govt.nz with numbers attending which meeting.

Bob's Books blog is at http://bobsbooksnz.wordpress.com/

Moving on : young fiction

Just a quick post to say that if you are interested in the Young Fiction / Quick Reads area of your library which Liz and I did a session about, you can come and join the online community set up on the National Library Services to Schools site.

If you already a member (free for anyone to join) then just find the Moving On online community and join... http://schools.natlib.govt.nz/community

If you are not a member, here's how to join - it is easy to do !

1. Go to the online community page http://schools.natlib.govt.nz/community and click on Signup

2. Choose a user name (something easy to remember and recognisable is good, like your first name and initial/ surname rather than "book girl" or something), and then add your email address.

3. Now scroll down - click on Moving on (and any other groups that take your fancy but if not now you can always add more later.)

4. Tick the box to receive National Library Services to Schools newsletters if you wish.

5. Add the name of your school and your location - if you want to put more info that's fine eg photo etc, but again, that can be added later.

6. Decipher the horrible double letters and click on Create new account

Now, what happens next is that you get an email saying Welcome to the online community. It will give you a "temporary password" but you don't need to worry about that - it will also give you a direct link to the page and ask you to choose your own password. Choose something easy to remember, but if you forget it you can always ask for a reminder. If you don't receive an email welcoming you, check your spam folder as sometimes "no-reply" messages get sent there.

Now you are a member of the online community. You will receive a notification each time a post is done in any groups of which you are a member, and you are able to make comments or add posts yourself to connect with others interested in the same area.

For Northland people, there is also the Northland Networks online community, another group open to all, with posts about our school library network meetings in Northland each term.