Carl Sagan teaching kids about the universe

  This from the Kepler Mission guys that posted about it: "Sagan visits his old elementary school and tells the children: "By the time that you people are as old as I am, we should know for all the nearest stars whether they have planets going around them or not. We might know dozens or even hundreds of other planetary systems and see if they are like our own... or very different.. or if no other planets are going around the stars at all... That will hapen in your lifetime and will be the first time in the history of the world that anybody found out REALLY if there are planets around the other stars." He was right (though the techniques he describes are not those that have been most commonly employed as of yet). Many of us working on the Kepler team were about the same age as those children at the time of the filming. And now, we are about Carl's age at the time of the filming. It's our wish that the children of today will be inspired by Kepler's discoveries and the prospect that in their lifetime, we should know of a world that could harbor life -- that one day soon we might know of world that DOES harbor life. Have a great weekend everyone!" (via onegoodmove)

Babies Driving Robots!?!

I love living in the not-too-distant-future!

Somebody Really Likes Me

Well at first I thought they can't have very high standards if they let me win one, but then I see that I somehow sneaked onto a list with the likes of Cathy Jo Nelson, Buffy Hamilton, Travis Jonkers, Mrs. Yingling, Leigh Ann Jones, Mr. Schu, Diane Cordell, and Jacquie Henry--mentors and teaching ninjas all.

I don't know who came up with the list, if there was voting or if they're just hawking their teaching degree site but it's always nice to be recognized and it's an honor to be listed in such high company. Lately I've found myself more interested in writing about my reading than my librarianship, but I'll endeavor to correct that in the upcoming year. I usually write my more librarian-related stuff on the GLMA website who has an amazing stable of contributors you will learn much from.

So thank you for the honor, whoever you are, and I will now walk out of my office to accept the challenge of an even bigger honor--helping kids find the right book to read and getting to be their school librarian.

Thanks,
Jim

The Lost Thing

5 years and I still miss this guy

Steve Irwin 22 Feb 1961 - 4 Sept 2006

It's not often an ad makes me cry

But this one did:




(via TED)

Overnight Zoo Field Trip

So yeah, I spent the night at the Altanta Zoo Tuesday night as a chaperone for my daughter's 2nd grade class field trip.  But it's a big school.  There are nine 2nd grade classes.  Three of them went Tuesday night and the rest were doing it Wednesday.

It was wonderful and crazy.  So you get there, dump you stuff in this big room, then head into an auditorium where they lay out the rules for the kiddos.  The kid I'm sitting next to?  Lost his tooth right there.

Then we split up and our class went into tis room where our guide brought us different creatures to talk about and touch including a six foot python that used it's tail to try and pickpocket her radio.

After some other activities we hiked out at night and saw the Komono dragon, then up to the Reptile house.  Each of the kids were given little squeeze lights of different colors, the lights were left off and they were let loose inside.  It was wonderfully controlled mayhem with these kids seeing all these freaky snakes and snapping turtles being much more active (and creepier) by the glow of little quivering lights.

Then the highlight of the evening, off to the kitchen where the "food" is prepared for the animals.  I'm not going to go into detail on this.  It was awesome.  You should go.

Then we crashed in that huge room with sleeping bags.  I had a little camping pad under mine and smirked at the adults who had gone all out and brought air mattresses. How bourgeois, I thought to myself.  Next morning?  Wished I had one of those dang things!  But it wasn't like I was getting much sleep with the adults snoring and the little kid away-from home nightmares.

How good is my daughter's 2nd grade teacher?  My little friend was freaked to find the tooth fairy had left him a dollar.  At the zoo!  Wow.

Wednesday was the best.  That's the reason to do this trip. You get to run around the zoo with a knowledgeable guide and no massive hoards.  They answer all your questions and, even better, the animals are being fed and very awake and active (except for that lion who was up roaring at night, he was crashed out).

Some hilarious bits:  That lion was spreadeagled with his, um, boy parts getting happily aired out.  One of the kids said, "That's a boy lion!"  The guide smirked, "Clearly."  The kid: "Ya know how I can tell?  Because of his mane!"  Oh. Yeah. That too.

The rhino backed up to a large flat rock and let go an impressive jet of urine.  Guide: "That's how they mark their territory.  That's his rock."  Me: "He can have it!"

A gorilla decided to vigorously scratch his ass. Kids: "Ewww!  Why is he doing that?"  Guide: "It itches."

Guide at the Kangaroo pen: "These are all females with our one intact male." Me: "Intact?"  Guide: "I'm just going to leave it at that."

Fun times!

It's a great program, our guide couldn't have been better and the kids reportedly remember it forever.  Totally worth it.

Atlanta Zoo NightCrawler Program

(Oh, and that picture is one of my many from the trip. It's of the Red Panda which isn't really red or a panda.)

Ms. Yingling Reads!

And reads and read ands reads.  (I always think of the Martha Speaks theme song in my head when I think of that, but the I do have a seven-year-old).

Ms. Yingling has completed one of the coolest reading challenges you'll ever hear of.  She has finished reading all of the fiction titles in the middle school library she runs.  From Douglas Adams to Jane Zirpoli.

Of course, not only has she read all the fiction titles that the library holds, but hasn't placed a new fiction title on the shelves until she's read those as well.  So the challenge continues! (Now I'm hearing the Rocky theme song for some reason...)

Volume: Done! --Librarian Reads Entire Collection

Ms. Yingling Reads