With my AASL Grant for Strong Public School Libraries, I wanted to promote reading with my students. (The grant can't be used to purchase books or equipment so...) As we launched the Million Words Challenge, I have run into an unanticipated surprise. Some of the most voracious readers have decided not to join the challenge.
"Why not?" I asked them as they checked out their weekly stack of books (or, for some, the first stack of the week).
"It's not really a challenge for me to read that much," some answered. "So what's the point?"
"I don't have a twitter account," answered others.
"If the drawing is for a Starbucks gift card, then I don't need it. I never go to Starbucks," answered a third group. (Due to savings already on some expenses, there will be other prizes as well, but this information did not sway all students to change their minds.)
Of course, a few answered with all three of the above responses. While some students have created twitter accounts for the challenge and plan to delete them in May at the end of the challenge, the reluctance of a select few to use twitter did surprise me. (I had to create a way for students to be accountable for reading since there would be some students who would cheat and just submit titles. Tweets about the book seemed the easiest and most efficient way to do this with approximately 100 students currently registered and more able to join at any time. Of course, only a handful have started to tweet about their books so reminders may need to be sent to those registered.)
While one erstwhile and eager student offered to submit book reports on every book, I gently explained I would prefer 132 character + hashtag submissions on each chapter instead...I do have 2 Library Science I classes and a Library Science II class plus the new Poetry Slam Club to advise and other duties. Teachers, encourage your students to sign up! It's never too late to join the challenge...at least not until May 1 or so since it ends on May 12!
Meanwhile, the green screen is in use! We've had "live" broadcasts from American History using the Library of Congress' primary sources, Earth and Environmental Science is about to journey to the center of the Earth using a magic taco truck, and a marketing class is selling original products through commercial advertising! Remember to sign up in advance if you're interested in using the green screen. We also need to discuss uploading the background images to the iPad before the day of filming.
The media center has also been busy teaching copyright to Pirate TV students and CTE classes. Anyone who wishes to have their students learn how to follow Fair Use Guidelines on their projects or how to avoid plagiarism can contact me and set up a short lesson in the media center!
