The Happiest Book Club in the World

I have tried student book clubs in the past, but since it has been initiated by me the success of them has been lukewarm. Usually the members halfheartedly read the books, just to please me. Mostly they liked that we had a nice room where we could all get together and chat and have nice treats. Which, after a while, was fine. But, I did yearn for a real book club.

So when I got an honest to goodness request to have on FROM A STUDENT you can imagine my elation. I tried to play it cool. Then I found The Jane Austen Fight Club video on youtube (you can watch it below. It rocks!). I showed it to the book club presidents (two of the most positive and cheerful girls in the entire universe.




They loved it. I suggested that we could show this video when they presented book club to the upper division students at convo and then our first book would be Pride and Prejudice and Zombies. So, now we have a Jane Austen (mashup) book club and will be reading Bridget Jones Diary, Clueless, Emma, PPZ, etc. I'm very stoked about it.

Plus, Paige and Hilleary are amazing book club presidents. At our first meeting, we made bookmarks.

Here's one of the bookmarks we made. They brought all the supplies, stickers, crayons, everything.

Everyone got a happy pencil with a cute eraser topper! 8-)

Here are the presidents setting up the table. They are so cute!

Here's the chest of jewels and prizes to be handed out to anyone who makes a great discussion point. At the end of the year the person who has contributed the most will win a gift certificate to one of the bookstores.

Here's how the table looked with some of the stuff laid out on it. They really are dynamos.

Veteran's Documentary Film Class

Last year I proposed a course to have students interview and film WWII veterans and then make documentaries from their interviews. The class was approved and I am teaching it now with the chair of the history department chair and an art teacher.

We have a class of 14 and we have 7 WWII vets who we have paired them up with. Last Friday we went out to their senior center to have lunch with them so the kids could meet them (they all had sent them introductory letters) and get to know them a bit better. Our kids are so impressive. They really are. They had no problem conversing with the vets and we had some very cool coincidental matchups that worked out so nicely. For instance, one student's grandfather was in the 106th battalion and his vet was in the 106th battalion. Another student's grandfather was a POW in Borneo and his vet served in an operation on Borneo.

This semester we are concentrating on getting the interviews and preparing them for inclusion in the Veteran's History Project for the Library of Congress. Next semester will be all about making the documentary and pulling together the seven stories into one cohesive theme. I'll post some photos from the luncheon next week.

Stress Times Ten

Well, I did ask for it. I did ask for a puppy to raise for the Southeastern Guide Dogs for the Blind. I did ask to teach a class on interviewing WWII vets and filming those interviews and turning them into a documentary to be turned into an end of the year premier event. Go Web 2.0 and new technology! I did ask to continue all my current job responsibilities and library director and department chair, and lead the book club, advisory, sponsor four clubs, be on the board of a professional organization and be the technology director. I did offer to write an article for a library journal. I did offer to do a one unit challenge with two colleagues on the media and new technology and its affect on the 24 hour news cycle.

I did ask for it. So I shouldn't be surprised that I am a bit stressed by it all. School starts today.