Well, here it is - the venue for me going out, seizing the world of books by the lapels, and shaking until they consent to meet and greet the wonderful kids I work with, by gum and by golly.
My name is Mars, and I'm a high school librarian. I run a book club for dozens of high school kids, and we have a budget. I also have a limited contract to be a high school librarian - my position amounts to 'glorified long-term substitute' - but I'm working with a school district that makes a point of holding on to good things they get, and actually has a budget to encourage their kids to be readers. For six months this year, I get to put all my creativity and chutzpah into doing what few educators get the time and support TO do. I get to go above and beyond to foster the love of books, reading, and writing.
I could sit back on my heels and work on reshelving and cataloguing (and, to be fair, I do that, too). Instead, I am looking at the great gift of the Internet and its networking capabilities, my friends with contacts in the publishing world, and my own inclination to make some noise, and I intend to try for 'amazing'.
On my info page, you'll find a list of my goals; I also intend to update my progress here, and I'll link to our book blog, one of my big projects to revamp and improve.
I welcome and love comments, responses, and assistance. One hates to be all 'think of the children', but in this case, I really hope you do. I work with great kids who love the library and the act of reading as much as I do, dedicated teachers and professionals who do their utmost to foster a good environment for these kids, and a boss who really takes me seriously when I say "I want to go crazy, literature-style". More than that, I'd like to see what half a year, a big dream, a little money, and better networking than the world has ever seen before can produce to inspire great things.
Today Holmen High School, Holmen, WI. Tomorrow: the world. Forward, Literary Mischief!
My name is Mars, and I'm a high school librarian. I run a book club for dozens of high school kids, and we have a budget. I also have a limited contract to be a high school librarian - my position amounts to 'glorified long-term substitute' - but I'm working with a school district that makes a point of holding on to good things they get, and actually has a budget to encourage their kids to be readers. For six months this year, I get to put all my creativity and chutzpah into doing what few educators get the time and support TO do. I get to go above and beyond to foster the love of books, reading, and writing.
I could sit back on my heels and work on reshelving and cataloguing (and, to be fair, I do that, too). Instead, I am looking at the great gift of the Internet and its networking capabilities, my friends with contacts in the publishing world, and my own inclination to make some noise, and I intend to try for 'amazing'.
On my info page, you'll find a list of my goals; I also intend to update my progress here, and I'll link to our book blog, one of my big projects to revamp and improve.
I welcome and love comments, responses, and assistance. One hates to be all 'think of the children', but in this case, I really hope you do. I work with great kids who love the library and the act of reading as much as I do, dedicated teachers and professionals who do their utmost to foster a good environment for these kids, and a boss who really takes me seriously when I say "I want to go crazy, literature-style". More than that, I'd like to see what half a year, a big dream, a little money, and better networking than the world has ever seen before can produce to inspire great things.
Today Holmen High School, Holmen, WI. Tomorrow: the world. Forward, Literary Mischief!
I love October - it's my favorite time of year next to April, and it has my favorite holiday. Thank you, Saundra, for celebrating it with us! You all can join in the fun, too:
Go HERE for Trick or Treat 2009!
Go HERE for Trick or Treat 2009!
Lovely!
Am not dead, merely on the annual summer hiatus from all things high school library. I spent my summer vacation editing somebody else's musicals (yes, musicals, with songs and libretto and all) and writing the greater chunk of a draft that's currently truly sucky, and planning my next fabulous year.
This year, my school, like so many, faced huge budget cuts. And just as I'm revamping all the library clubs we host. It's gonna be a bumpy ride.
Ready to go!
Am not dead, merely on the annual summer hiatus from all things high school library. I spent my summer vacation editing somebody else's musicals (yes, musicals, with songs and libretto and all) and writing the greater chunk of a draft that's currently truly sucky, and planning my next fabulous year.
This year, my school, like so many, faced huge budget cuts. And just as I'm revamping all the library clubs we host. It's gonna be a bumpy ride.
Ready to go!
Can barely post about library, teenagers, writing or life. Have been eaten by a grue, and the grue's name is Textbook Management.
The high point of my week was being interviewed by a senior student of my friendly acquaintance, who this week has changed his blonde du-uuude look into one with dyed hair, black trenchcoat, heavy silver chains, and a new girlfriend who squeals when I identify her style of dress as Gothic Lolita without having to be told. Oddly, this total transformation delights me, as it says that he's stopped trying to blend.
The high point of my week was being interviewed by a senior student of my friendly acquaintance, who this week has changed his blonde du-uuude look into one with dyed hair, black trenchcoat, heavy silver chains, and a new girlfriend who squeals when I identify her style of dress as Gothic Lolita without having to be told. Oddly, this total transformation delights me, as it says that he's stopped trying to blend.
Yay! Via 
medwriter!
Between all the rush of the season, and all the economic downturns in the news, we might forget the daily simple things that can make us smile, so here is a meme . . .
Quick! Off the top of your head, think of the last five things that made you smile:
1. One of my senior students declaring that I needed to process and catalog the new books faster because he knew I'd picked out good ones, then offering to help if it would only make the books get to him quicker.
2. I have tomorrow off because my new washer/dryer arrives. No more schlepping to the laundromat for the first time in my adult life!
3. My daughter proudly wearing her homemade bear-ears headband for her school program, and practicing her lines for same.
4. Figuring out what happens in the Christmas-themed short story I've been working on after the main character clocks Santa Claus in the head with a fireplace poker. It was a sticking point.
5. Hulu's movies for download. You guys, I am addicted and I have a problem. I have watched Wimbledon about five times now, just because it's cute and I would happily watch Paul Bettany read me the phone book, but I've also been screening others whenever I get bored, simply because they're there. It could cause me to get bored more.
Tag: Anybody who wants, really. Consider yourself tagged, for I am lazy (and also, posting this in between the aforementioned cataloging work).
medwriter! Between all the rush of the season, and all the economic downturns in the news, we might forget the daily simple things that can make us smile, so here is a meme . . .
Quick! Off the top of your head, think of the last five things that made you smile:
1. One of my senior students declaring that I needed to process and catalog the new books faster because he knew I'd picked out good ones, then offering to help if it would only make the books get to him quicker.
2. I have tomorrow off because my new washer/dryer arrives. No more schlepping to the laundromat for the first time in my adult life!
3. My daughter proudly wearing her homemade bear-ears headband for her school program, and practicing her lines for same.
4. Figuring out what happens in the Christmas-themed short story I've been working on after the main character clocks Santa Claus in the head with a fireplace poker. It was a sticking point.
5. Hulu's movies for download. You guys, I am addicted and I have a problem. I have watched Wimbledon about five times now, just because it's cute and I would happily watch Paul Bettany read me the phone book, but I've also been screening others whenever I get bored, simply because they're there. It could cause me to get bored more.
Tag: Anybody who wants, really. Consider yourself tagged, for I am lazy (and also, posting this in between the aforementioned cataloging work).
270,000 words.
That's our ACTUAL final word count, now that all stragglers who skip meetings and don't report word count totals until you bribe them with pizza are accounted for. We had at least five students write more than 30,000 words, which to me is accomplishment enough to celebrate. The reporter did not actually come today, but is going to meet with some of our participants over the next week rather than interrupt our pizza party.
270,000 words in a month, from fewer than 20 high school students. I am pleasantly staggered.
That's our ACTUAL final word count, now that all stragglers who skip meetings and don't report word count totals until you bribe them with pizza are accounted for. We had at least five students write more than 30,000 words, which to me is accomplishment enough to celebrate. The reporter did not actually come today, but is going to meet with some of our participants over the next week rather than interrupt our pizza party.
270,000 words in a month, from fewer than 20 high school students. I am pleasantly staggered.
OMG OMG OMG OMG.
OK, so I lied about the dignity and restraint. But (cue Elle Woods imitation here), OH MY GOD, oh my God, you guys! The newspaper of the city closest to us (La Crosse, WI) is sending a reporter to my NaNoWriMo wrapup pizza party for the kids to write a feature story on our Young Writers' program!
My kids deserve this so much. They worked so hard even if nobody made goal. As the word counts come in, we've gone past 150,000 total words between all the participants. That's a big reason to shine.
Oh my God, you guys!
Going home now, singing.
OK, so I lied about the dignity and restraint. But (cue Elle Woods imitation here), OH MY GOD, oh my God, you guys! The newspaper of the city closest to us (La Crosse, WI) is sending a reporter to my NaNoWriMo wrapup pizza party for the kids to write a feature story on our Young Writers' program!
My kids deserve this so much. They worked so hard even if nobody made goal. As the word counts come in, we've gone past 150,000 total words between all the participants. That's a big reason to shine.
Oh my God, you guys!
Going home now, singing.
Nearly 500. Or, if you prefer, approaching 150,000. Estimated page count/word count of my Young Writers' NaNoWriMo group, 2008.
Nobody made goal -- but when you put it like that in terms of progress, there's plenty to be proud of. At least six kids hit five-digit word counts, and at least two were so close it killed them, one girl coming within 5K of goal. I totally bombed what I was writing due to writing it from the wrong viewpoint and hitting a wall that only really made sense to get around by writing it from a different POV. Next year: a more straightforward story, and start November's big event in OCTOBER. We also took a group of just a bit under 50 kids to go see Twilight en masse, which is really the way to see that movie if you feel you ought to do so. Mind the 'squee'.
Also, November didn't kill me, so it only made me stronger (*Kanye plays here*), and I am roaring back with a Christmas promotion featuring Lauren Myracle and Maureen Johnson and John Green as our highlighted authors (as we gave away one beautiful BLISS shirt to the senior who helped us vamp up the library for Teen Read Week, but we have one remaining for Fun Prize Times, and I just picked up some other pertinent copies of new books for giveaway). I may need talking down before I label it 'Re(a)d and 'Write' and Green All Over', as the contest involves using our new book-review feature on the card catalog (we are our own Amazon.com) OR reading one of the many books of the above luminaries, including the newest such as Let it Snow, Bliss, Suite Scarlett, and Paper Towns. It also involves stockings and a giant prop fireplace now sitting in our reading nook under the skylight. We are FESTIVE.
This month's book is Notes from the Midnight Driver by Jordan Sonnenblick; next up is Nineteen Minutes by Jodi Picoult.
Nobody made goal -- but when you put it like that in terms of progress, there's plenty to be proud of. At least six kids hit five-digit word counts, and at least two were so close it killed them, one girl coming within 5K of goal. I totally bombed what I was writing due to writing it from the wrong viewpoint and hitting a wall that only really made sense to get around by writing it from a different POV. Next year: a more straightforward story, and start November's big event in OCTOBER. We also took a group of just a bit under 50 kids to go see Twilight en masse, which is really the way to see that movie if you feel you ought to do so. Mind the 'squee'.
Also, November didn't kill me, so it only made me stronger (*Kanye plays here*), and I am roaring back with a Christmas promotion featuring Lauren Myracle and Maureen Johnson and John Green as our highlighted authors (as we gave away one beautiful BLISS shirt to the senior who helped us vamp up the library for Teen Read Week, but we have one remaining for Fun Prize Times, and I just picked up some other pertinent copies of new books for giveaway). I may need talking down before I label it 'Re(a)d and 'Write' and Green All Over', as the contest involves using our new book-review feature on the card catalog (we are our own Amazon.com) OR reading one of the many books of the above luminaries, including the newest such as Let it Snow, Bliss, Suite Scarlett, and Paper Towns. It also involves stockings and a giant prop fireplace now sitting in our reading nook under the skylight. We are FESTIVE.
This month's book is Notes from the Midnight Driver by Jordan Sonnenblick; next up is Nineteen Minutes by Jodi Picoult.
I thought I'd have only four or five kids sign up for National Novel Writing Month, and maybe one would make it across their word-count finish line.
Man, I give my students too little credit. Sixteen students have signed up, and at least five of them are right on top of their word count and working steadily towards novel completion. They humble me in a good way. But it's also got me busy as the proverbial one-armed paperhanger. We've had Signup Day, Chocolate Inspiration Day, and Plottercoaster Tracking Day so far; Wednesday is our day for Word Count Cheerleaders.
The story summaries so far for my students feature two very different time-travel tales; a comic confessional novel that is a bit 'I Was a Teenaged Maenad', like a darker Percy Jackson; a buddy-cop story where the co-authors, both senior boys, are delighting in writing suspense and car chases; a vampire epic whose chapters all begin with poetry; and a realistic story about a teenager physically abused by a parent. My students take time out of study halls, lunch hours, and afterschool time to come in and write. We have shy students, bold students, students from all four grades. I can't believe this is our first year out.
The story I'm working on is not the one I expected to be working on for NaNo. I wish I could say it was going great, but it's a slog; even so, it's never-say-die on it. Students counting on you makes a HUGE difference towards maintaining motivation to keep trucking along.
Man, I give my students too little credit. Sixteen students have signed up, and at least five of them are right on top of their word count and working steadily towards novel completion. They humble me in a good way. But it's also got me busy as the proverbial one-armed paperhanger. We've had Signup Day, Chocolate Inspiration Day, and Plottercoaster Tracking Day so far; Wednesday is our day for Word Count Cheerleaders.
The story summaries so far for my students feature two very different time-travel tales; a comic confessional novel that is a bit 'I Was a Teenaged Maenad', like a darker Percy Jackson; a buddy-cop story where the co-authors, both senior boys, are delighting in writing suspense and car chases; a vampire epic whose chapters all begin with poetry; and a realistic story about a teenager physically abused by a parent. My students take time out of study halls, lunch hours, and afterschool time to come in and write. We have shy students, bold students, students from all four grades. I can't believe this is our first year out.
The story I'm working on is not the one I expected to be working on for NaNo. I wish I could say it was going great, but it's a slog; even so, it's never-say-die on it. Students counting on you makes a HUGE difference towards maintaining motivation to keep trucking along.
If I have been slow to respond to some of you (you may know who you are), rest assured it is not because I am ignoring you, but because school is insanely busy for a long while yet, and I'm going to answer email this weekend when I get two days off. We are celebrating Gaming In Your Library Day! We are celebrating National Novel Writing Month! We are having contests featuring the fabulous and amazing Lauren Myracle and BLISS! We are gleeful over getting an ARC from the delightful Miss Carrie Jones! We have some cool activity ongoing in this library until the week before Christmas, yo. We are on FIRE.
We need a nap. And by 'we', that time, I meant 'I'. :D
Today was signup for my NaNoWriMo group. As partial incentive, as well as our prizes and bribes and 'eat Halloween candy and write' events for the first week, my students got to pick which of my outlines was going to be my own personal NaNo project. The options were:
A) Straight realistic YA surrounding a family of community theater geeks and what happens to them when the school the teenagers in the family attend drastically cuts its arts budget in the middle of the school musical;
B) Teenaged kleptomaniac girl discovers she can turn into a raven and visit the lands of the dead as a psychopomp, which leads into a romantic triangle with two hot guys -- one dead and one alive;
C) Teen girl inherits father's berserker-esque werewolf abilities when her father loses his mind, keeps anger management journal to help, but this may not be enough to keep her from eating a classmate;
D) World's worst garage band finds that selling lead singer's soul to the man in black at the crossroads for talent causes more problems in the long run than it helps.
I thought my students would pick 'C', because /I/ like that project-to-be; I was surprised when instead they chose 'D', so my NaNo 'I will not refuse to do that which I make teenagers do' project 2008 is working-titled Hope You Guess My Name, and is liable to be absolutely gloriously terrible.
We need a nap. And by 'we', that time, I meant 'I'. :D
Today was signup for my NaNoWriMo group. As partial incentive, as well as our prizes and bribes and 'eat Halloween candy and write' events for the first week, my students got to pick which of my outlines was going to be my own personal NaNo project. The options were:
A) Straight realistic YA surrounding a family of community theater geeks and what happens to them when the school the teenagers in the family attend drastically cuts its arts budget in the middle of the school musical;
B) Teenaged kleptomaniac girl discovers she can turn into a raven and visit the lands of the dead as a psychopomp, which leads into a romantic triangle with two hot guys -- one dead and one alive;
C) Teen girl inherits father's berserker-esque werewolf abilities when her father loses his mind, keeps anger management journal to help, but this may not be enough to keep her from eating a classmate;
D) World's worst garage band finds that selling lead singer's soul to the man in black at the crossroads for talent causes more problems in the long run than it helps.
I thought my students would pick 'C', because /I/ like that project-to-be; I was surprised when instead they chose 'D', so my NaNo 'I will not refuse to do that which I make teenagers do' project 2008 is working-titled Hope You Guess My Name, and is liable to be absolutely gloriously terrible.
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