The Legend of the Thousand Cranes and Other Media Matters

"Would you like these?" a sophomore asks, showing me 3 origami paper cranes he has made at the end of SMART lunch.

"Why, thank you! I'll display them here at the circulation desk. Have you ever heard of the Legend of the Thousand Cranes?" A discussion of Japanese folklore ensues.

.....24 hours later.....

"I made you more. I'm going to make a thousand cranes. Where should I put this set of 100?"

And so began the collection of 1000 beautiful origami cranes in the media center. At first they sat on one window ledge behind the circulation desk (moved there after several students attempted to take a few on their way out the door), visible to all. Then they took up a second window ledge. And a third. And the fourth. And the area of the circulation desk by the printer.

I brought in clear glass vases, but each only held 50-60! They did make for beautiful displays. Finally I hot glued the cranes to a piece of 32' x 42' black foam board in a random pattern. It made for a beautiful piece of artwork, allows me to dust the windowsills, and the cranes are more visible to all in the media center! (Now the student is making another set of 1000 in order to create a new display board for an art contest!!!!) The small vase next to the picture is filled with metallic origami cranes.

The next "project" in the media center involved the shifting of the shelves. Many of our shelves (a few nonfiction, but mainly fiction) had reached their carrying capacity. This made it difficult to fit new titles in some areas which is NEVER a good thing in my media center so...with the aid of my ready and somewhat-willing media assistants we utilized some shorter shelves at the end of the nonfiction stacks, moved around part of the nonfiction, one shelf at a time while leaving a few strategically placed shelves empty for growth, and then were able to open up quite a few of the fiction shelves. This task was finished today to the joy of the assistants (and the media coordinator!).

My final project this week has involved the "installation" of my faux bulletin board. The design of this room does not lend itself easily to a bulletin board on the wall, which makes it more challenging for some of the displays I would love to do. Therefore I used one short shelf that is not in use (it used to hold graphic novels, but the collection grew too large and now is in a new area) to display student art and my "bulletin board". The tree was created by a student in an art class is made using magazine pages. Although there is one part not finished utilizing QR codes and book trailers, this is it so far:

Post Conference Highlights...Part II

One of the most anticipated sessions (for me, anyway), was the Poetry Slam session. Why? Well, I've always enjoyed poetry, reading and writing it, and I like performance arts. Pair the two together and....Poetry Slam!

The presenter works at a small K-8 school in Pitt County. Although she didn't believe anyone present would know the name of her school, I not only knew the name, but I have actually been to the school itself! While her ideas work well at a tiny school, they can definitely be adapted for our very large population.

Naturally, however, this creates a to-do list that will have to be put off until the spring semester. (Why put off anything that late? Well....next week alone is Early Release, Veteran's Day, and the ASVAB test. In 2 weeks is Thanksgiving. A few weeks after that? Christmas. We come back in January and jump into exams. Not a lot of time to get anything ready on the parts of the students or any staff members helping (plus there are the winter concerts and other events already underway!).

What could there possibly be to do? Well, when planning a slam, it helps to have the students introduced to poetry. This is most easily done in English classes, but not everyone takes English in the fall semester. If it could be introduced (it doesn't have to be in depth) at the beginning of the spring semester, that could give all interested students the opportunity to be thinking about poetry in preparation for an April slam. Then the following tasks are needed for a successful event:

1. Set date
2. Reserve space
3. Have video equipment, spotlight, stool for performers (if necessary), audience seating, etc. - this would not be a problem since we have an auditorium, but we would have to work around spring performance schedules!
4. Invite speaker/poet/headliner if planning to do so
5. Get donated prizes if desired
6. Promote early!!!!!
7. Get 3-5 judges
8. Get staff members to be the scorekeeper, timekeeper, photographer, videographer, slideshow tech, run sound/music, lighting, set up/tear down (students can do the last 6)
9. Create you tube channel if planning to show video of slam
10. Create google hangout if planning to stream live
11. Create slideshow to randomly introduce performers
12. Have google form for performers to fill out to use to create slideshow
13. Have something to entertain audience during transition moments between performers
14. Have M.C.

Now, the rules for a slam can be tailored for your school, but in general they would be something like:

1. It must be an original poem. 
2. It must be memorized.
3. Your performance (emotion, enthusiasm, gestures) is important.
4. Two-minute time limit.
5. No props, costumes, offensive language, or other person's poetry.
6. Group poetry is okay but it must have parts performed in unison and must be written together.
7. Poetry is judged by effectiveness, emotion, and performance.

Often if you have 5 judges, it can have an Olympic type scoring where the highest and lowest scores are dropped.

My thoughts on this? It can be fun, It might have to be done during a SMART lunch in some way, and it is not something to do solo...this is an activity that will be a lot of fun when shared with other people!