The Gravity Keeper by Michael Reisman

Kim Given, a colleague of mine, suggested this fun middle school title.

Thanks Kim!

Sixth grader Simon Bloom can't believe his luck when he finds a book that enables him to control the laws of physics. This is a very creative story about a facet of science that usually isn't the focal point of a novel.

Social Network Sites: Public, Private, or What-Section 3 Reading

Dana Boyd's article really struck a chord with me.
http://kt.flexiblelearning.net.au/tkt2007/edition-13/social-network-sites-public-private-or-what/
Teenagers today don't really worry about on-line privacy. When asked if they knew that anyone could access their profiles on-line, they replied "but why would they?" That concerns me because they don't realize that invisible audiences look up profiles of job or college applicants, lurkers might follow friends of friends to find juicy gossip, etc. What you say or post sticks around, it never goes away. Also, anything on-line can be copyable and searchable. Today, I came across an AP article Researchers Claim They've Cracked the Social Security Number Code which told how Carnegie Melon researchers could predict SS #'s by looking at the birth dates and hometowns listed on Facebook profiles. http://news.cnet.com/8301-1009_3-10280614-83.html

These social networking sites are great and a big part of teen life. As educators, we need to teach students media literacy, on-line safety and responsibility. -quite a challenge!

Blue Skunk Blog

Hey! I found Will Richardson mentioned in The Blue Skunk blog, another one of my favorites!

Small world!

http://doug-johnson.squarespace.com/blue-skunk-blog/2009/6/17/skills-of-the-independently-employed.html

Free Technology for Teachers

I find a lot of gems reading this blog. Here's a posting from the NECC Conference-Week in Review, the most popular items:
http://www.freetech4teachers.com/2009/07/week-in-review-most-popular-items.html

I especially like to get new ideas from Glogster and find out what's coming soon...

Social Networking Changes Everything

Joyce Valenza, my library goddess heroine, has a great blog, The Never Ending Search, that I've been following for the last three years. In a recent post, she comments on Twitters finest hour.



http://www.schoollibraryjournal.com/blog/1340000334/post/570045657.html?nid=3714

The Last Dickens: A Novel by Mattew Pearl

I loved Pearl's book, and if you're a Dickens lover like I am, you will too!

Title Detail: "Full-Text Reviews
Booklist (January 1, 2009 (Vol. 105, No. 9))
Pearl’s latest literary historical mystery aligns perfectly with his two previous works, the widely applauded Dante Club (2002) and the equally esteemed Poe Shadow (2006); like its predecessors, the novel is a brilliant, exciting thriller exactingly set in past times and involving mysterious aspects of the lives of famous writers. This compelling yarn opens with a—yes, mysterious—scene set in 1870 India, in the wilds, when a mounted policeman invokes the name of Dickens while chasing a robber. Zoom off to Boston on the same day, when a clerk at a publishing house, who was sent to take into his own hands, for his boss, the advance sheets of the next installment of the recently deceased Charles Dickens’ novel The Mystery of Edwin Drood, is run down by an omnibus on his way back to the office, and the pages go missing. This situation necessitates the publisher’s going to England to attempt to ascertain how Dickens intended to end his novel. Just what do the seemingly disparate parts of the story have to do with one another? What the publisher becomes embroiled in, in London, is far more complicated than simply manuscript detection. A whole world of life-and-death nefariousness awaits both him and the reader, who will be well rewarded."

White Darkness by Geraldine McCaughrean

It's been cold in Traverse City this week- 60 as a high...seems only fitting that I should be reading a book about Antarctica. I can't fathom why anyone would want to visit this white wasteland, but McCaughrean's book was a good read, winner of the Printz Award (ALA's Best Book for Young Adults)

Summary:

I've been in love with Titus Oates for quite a while now--which is ridiculous, since he's been dead for ninety years. But look at it this way. In ninety years, I'll be dead too, and the age difference won't matter. Sym is not your average teenage girl. She is obsessed with the Antarctic and the brave, romantic figure of Captain Oates, from Scott's doomed expedition to the South Pole. In fact, Oates is the secret confidant to whom she spills all her hopes and fears. But Sym's uncle Victor is even more obsessed--and when he takes her on a dream trip into the bleak Antarctic wilderness, it turns into a nightmarish struggle for survival that will challenge everything she knows and loves. In her first contemporary young adult novel, Carnegie Medalist and three time Whitbread Award winner Geraldine McCaughrean delivers a spellbinding journey ino the frozen heart of darkness. Distributed by Syndetic Solutions, Inc.