Happy Halloween from Schu! October 31, 2007
Happy Halloween! Here are some of my favorite stories to share on or around Halloween…
My favorite!
The Alphabet from A to Y… October 31, 2007
I go to Anderson’s Bookshop (Naperville) every Tuesday to check out the new releases. Tonight when I found The Alphabet from A to Y with Bonus Letter Z among the new releases I thought, “Oh, no! Yet another celebrity children’s book.” However, I left with my own copy because of the alliterative sentences and colorful illustrations! 
Here’s the publisher’s description:
The acclaimed entertainer and bestselling author Steve Martin and the wildly clever New Yorker cartoonist Roz Chast team up in a weird, wonderful excursion through the alphabet.
The ABCs have never had it so good. Created by two of today’s wittiest, most imaginative minds, The Alphabet from A to Y with Bonus Letter Z! is a sheer delight from A to Z. In twenty-six alliterative couplets, Steve Martin conjures up much more than mere apples and zebras. Instead we meet Horace the hare, whose hairdo hides hunchbacks, and Ollie the owl, who owed Owen an oboe. Roz Chast contributes the perfect visual settings for Martin’s zany two-liners. Her instantly recognizable drawings are packed with humorous touches both broad and subtle.
Each rereading—and there will be many—delivers new delights and discoveries. There, hidden behind Bad Baby Bubbleducks, is a framed picture of a beatnik holding balloons; and the letter C finds clunky Clarissa all clingy and clueless adrift in a landscape cluttered with images ranging from a curiously comfortable clown to Chuck’s Chili stand. A smart, laugh-inducing introduction to the alphabet for young children, The Alphabet from A to Y with Bonus Letter Z! will also enchant adults with its matchless mix of the sophisticated and the silly.
Allergic to Halloween October 31, 2007
This is why I am giving out Play-doh and cans of Jones soda!
October 30, 2007
Three-year-old Georgia DeRousse has been talking about Halloween for months.
Tomorrow, she’ll finally get to dress up as Cinderella and go trick-or-treating in Oak Lawn.
But Georgia won’t be able to eat most of the candy. She’s allergic to milk, eggs and wheat, all common ingredients in candy.
Just about the only candies safe enough for Georgia to eat are suckers and Smarties. Anything else could trigger a reaction severe enough to send her to the emergency room.
For families that have children with food allergies, Halloween can be one of the toughest holidays.
Candy bars usually include one or more allergy-causing ingredients, such as milk products, peanuts, tree nuts, eggs, wheat or corn.
And some candies that would otherwise be safe are made on the same equipment as candies containing peanuts or other allergy-causing ingredients.
Ingredient labels often warn of the possibility of such cross contamination. But individually wrapped Halloween treats typically don’t list ingredients. So to be on the safe side, parents avoid them.
For many allergic kids, especially ones with multiple allergies, there’s not much they can eat, except perhaps for candies such as Dum-Dum Pops, Starbursts, Sweetarts and, as mentioned above, Smarties.
Seven-year-old Brendan Watson of Arlington Heights (allergic to milk and eggs) will trade with his sister Elizabeth for candies he’s allowed to eat.
And 5-year-old Simon Nosek (peanuts, tree nuts, milk) will trick-or-treat at his Oak Park neighbors who have stocked up on allergy-free candies.
Some neighbors give out toys or quarters. And some allergic kids ask for donations to UNICEF or the Food Allergy and Anaphylaxis Network, instead of candy.
These are among the food allergy network’s Halloween tips:
• • Have the child eat before trick-or-treating, to reduce the temptation to eat a treat before it’s been checked.
• • Give candy your child can’t eat to other kids, or to a local hospital or food bank.
• • Carry emergency medications in case there is an allergic reaction.
• • Pass out non-candy items such as small toys or Halloween stickers, to promote food allergy awareness.
Shelly DeRousse will take a half day off work to take Georgia trick-or-treating. The risks are so great DeRousse doesn’t trust the job to anyone else. DeRousse will carefully examine every piece of candy before Georgia is allowed to eat it.
Georgia has asthma, and the smallest exposure to a dairy product can trigger a severe reaction. Georgia will break out in hives, her mouth will burn and she won’t be able to breathe. Georgia already has made six trips to the ER.
Halloween, DeRousse said, “is a small bump in the road, compared to everything else we put up with every day.”
http://www.suntimes.com/lifestyles/health/626296,CST-NWS-allergy30.article
In 2017, libraries will be… October 30, 2007
In 2017, libraries will be… 89, originally uploaded by aliallovic.
Yoga at school? October 30, 2007
Less Homework, More Yoga, From a Principal Who Hates Stress
NEEDHAM, Mass. — It was 6:30 p.m. The lights were still on at Needham High School, here in the affluent Boston suburbs. Paul Richards, the principal, was meeting with the Stress Reduction Committee.
On the agenda: finding the right time to bring in experts to train students in relaxation techniques.
Don’t try to have them teach relaxation in study hall, said Olivia Boyd, a senior. Students, she explained, won’t want to interrupt their work. They were already too busy before or after school for the training.
No one is busier than Josh Goldman. Captain of varsity tennis, president of the Spanish club and a member of the student council and the Stress Reduction Committee, Josh was not able to squeeze in the meeting at all.
Mr. Richards noted his absence wryly. “Josh is a perfect example,” he said. “He’s got a hundred things going on.”
Here is the high-powered culture that Mr. Richards is trying to change, even if only a little.
But cultural change does not come smoothly. When Mr. Richards stopped publishing the honor roll in the local newspaper last winter, a move aimed at some parents who had turned the lists into a public accounting, Rush Limbaugh accused him of politically correct coddling of students, and Jay Leno mocked the school on national television. He received hate mail from all over the country.
Mr. Richards is undeterred. “It’s not that I’m trying to turn the culture upside down,” he said.
“It’s very important to protect the part of the culture that leads to all the achievement,” he said. “It’s more about bringing the culture to a healthier place.”
His new stress committee is starting to come up with recommendations, like the relaxation consultants, and is surveying students about unhealthy stress. This term, Mr. Richards is talking up the yoga classes that are required of all seniors. He has asked teachers to schedule homework-free weekends and holidays.
“The irony,” he said, referring to the homework breaks, “is that students tell us they appreciate the time because it allows them to catch up on other schoolwork.”
Mr. Richards is just one principal in the vanguard of a movement to push back against an ethos of super-achievement at affluent suburban high schools amid the extreme competition over college admissions. He has joined like-minded administrators from 44 other high schools and middle schools — most in the San Francisco Bay Area but others scattered from Texas to New York — to form a group known as S.O.S., for Stressed Out Students.
The group was formed four years ago by Denise Pope, a lecturer at the Stanford University School of Education and author of the book, “Doing School: How We Are Creating a Generation of Stressed Out, Materialistic and Miseducated Students” (Yale University Press, 2001).
High schools in other Boston suburbs — Wellesley, Lexington, Wayland — have taken steps similar to Needham’s, organizing stress committees and yoga classes. Some high schools are requiring students to get parental permission before enrolling in Advanced Placement classes. Others are experimenting with later start times so students can get more sleep.
For the rest of the article: http://www.nytimes.com/2007/10/29/education/29stress.html?_r=1&ei=5088&en=455d787e7f4f7240&ex=1351396800&partner=rssnyt&emc=rss&pagewanted=all&oref=slogin
Planet Esme October 30, 2007
Esme Codell, author and certified Readilogist, manages a wonderful website full of quality recommendations. I have known about this site for a few years but just discovered that she has a blog that opens with this message: Welcome to the Wonderful World of PlanetEsme! I hope this book-a-day plan will be a boon to anyone who would like to play a supporting character in a child’s reading life story. This blog is a supporting page to sister site PlanetEsme.com , where you will find a silly amount of additional reviews, thematic lists, links, and much more…everything you need to become an expert in children’s literature.
Check out her main page at www.planetesme.comand her blog at http://planetesme.blogspot.com/.These are the things that TRULY titillate me!
Diary of a Fly October 30, 2007
Today I FINALLY bought the third and final book in the “Diary” series, Diary of a Fly. Fly is always trying to get away from her 327 siblings and runs into even more problems when it comes to a science assignment. Diary teaches educational facts about flies through humor and visual jokes. Harry Bliss always brings such life and humor to his illustrations. (If you have not read A Fine, Fine School run out and buy it.) A wonderful addition to a school or a classroom library!
To learn more about Doreen Cronin and Harry Bliss, visit http://harpercollinschildrens.com/HarperChildrens/Parents/BookDetail.aspx?isbn13=9780060001568&BDMode=8
Chester October 30, 2007
This book is just too cute! :) I recommend it for ages 4 through third grade. I plan to use it to demonstrate organization and voice. I’m sure some awards will soon cover the ”Place award here.”
Chester is more than a picture book. It is a story told, and retold, by dueling author-illustrators.Mélanie Watt starts out with the story of a mouse in a house. Then Mélanie’s cat, Chester, sends the mouse packing and proceeds to cover the pages with rewrites from his red marker, and the gloves are off.
Mélanie and her mouse won’t take Chester’s antics lying down. And Chester is obviously a creative powerhouse with confidence to spare. Where will this war of the picture-book makers lead? Is it a one-way ticket to Chesterville, or will Mélanie get her mouse production off the ground?
http://www.kidscanpress.com/kidscanpress/KidsCanPress_3/KCP/books/bookdetail.html?id=1952
One Laptop Per Child October 29, 2007
I found this great idea on Cindythelibrarian’s blog.
Great Christmas Gift Idea «
Here’s a great Christmas gift for two children: for $399 you can buy two very special laptops, one to be sent to a child in a developing country, one to be shipped to you in time for Christmas. These laptops are specially designed for children with open source software, cameras, and peer-to-peer technology. Don’t have a child of your own who could use one? Consider donating the second one to an inner-city school and take two tax deductions.
School Silence Creates Noise October 29, 2007
I knew that this would create HUGE debates. My school takes 35 seconds for ‘reflection.’
- | Tribune staff reporter October 26, 2007 Dawn Sherman and her father, atheist and activist Rob Sherman, contend the law providing for “silent prayer or for silent reflection on the anticipated activities of the day” runs afoul of the constitutional separation of church and state. They plan to seek an injunction to prevent the observance of a moment of silence in Township High School District 214, which is scheduled to begin the practice Tuesday.They also hope to reverse the statute statewide, said Gregory Kulis, an attorney representing the Shermans. “I just don’t want my education to be interrupted,” said Dawn Sherman, who successfully campaigned to drop “God Bless America” from the homecoming school song list this fall.District 214 spokeswoman Venetia Miles said officials there expected legal action and alerted their lawyers.
Waukegan teacher Brian Bown knows firsthand how difficult overturning such laws can be.
Bown challenged a Georgia law enacted in 1994 that mandated a period of reflection. The Wheaton native worked at the time as a high school teacher in an Atlanta suburb of Snellville.
“I just felt like this is not something to be done in school, out of respect for everybody,” said Bown, 54, a special education teacher at Waukegan’s Benny Middle School.
In the end, Bown lost both his job and a legal battle that dragged on for seven years, and teachers in Georgia schools still must conduct a period of reflection every day. That Illinois teachers now must do the same confounds Bown, who said he will walk out of class in protest when the observance begins.
“It’s deja vu,” Bown said. “It’s the same things, the same arguments being said 13 years later.”
Titled the Silent Reflection and Student Prayer Act, the Illinois law makes obligatory what had been an optional moment of silence since 2002. Lawmakers overrode Gov. Rod Blagojevich’s veto of the measure, which states “the period shall not be conducted as a religious exercise.” Enacted Oct. 11, the law was effective immediately but carries no penalties for schools that do not comply.
School administrators then scrambled to determine such nuts-and-bolts issues as what constitutes a moment — in some districts three seconds suffices, while in others it can last up to 20 seconds — and when to pause for the observance during the morning routine of announcements and Pledge of Allegiance.
In Chicago, district officials sent a memo to schools Thursday after consulting administrators, teachers and lawyers, said spokesman Michael Vaughn. Administrators were directed to observe a brief period of reflection after the Pledge of Allegiance, and were reminded that the time should not be used for religious purposes.
Gurnee’s Woodland School District 50 also proceeded with care. School board members tabled the issue until they receive clearer direction from their attorneys and the Illinois State Board of Education. The state agency informed school districts about the law two weeks ago, but said decisions about how long or when in the morning a moment of silence occurs are best resolved locally.
“We do need to obey it, but we want to do it in a way that our community is satisfied,” District 50 School Board President Bruce Bohren said.
Northbrook-Glenview School District 30 this week began to sandwich five seconds of reflection after the Pledge and before daily news. School officials said they’ve received no complaints about the new practice, outlined in a letter to parents last week.
“We couch it in how they’re going to make it a good day and a positive day. That’s it. We leave it to [the pupils] to take it from there,” Assistant Supt. Elaine Aumiller said.
Many educators and students alike dismissed the law as bizarre but said a few seconds of thought at the start of a school day does not hurt.
“In my mind, 10 seconds is not a big issue,” said Jay Sabatino, superintendent of Lake Villa-based Community High School District 117. “It’s just a strange law.”
Debate sprouted quickly among students in high school civics classes and online discussion groups. A forum on the social networking Web site Facebook drew more than 1,000 members to discussions about the merits of personal reflection, the history of secularism and how to contact Illinois legislators to register concern or support.
Stevenson High School junior Aliya de Grazia often logs on to chime into the discussion. There, she first floated the idea of a walkout from the Lincolnshire school to protest what she calls a legislative overstep. About a dozen students left first-period class last Friday when the moment of silence was observed.
Skipping class — in de Grazia’s case, non-Western civilization — meant she and others involved must spend three hours Saturday in study hall.
“It’s good for a lot of students to take a moment and think about their day, but that should be done on their own time,” de Grazia said. “This doesn’t seem like a big deal now, but these kinds of things can escalate.”
Retrieved from http://www.chicagotribune.com/business/content/education/chi-silentsuit_26oct26,0,3176136,full.story
Gary Paulsen wins Tribune book prize October 29, 2007
Gary Paulsen spoke at the Harold Washington library yesterday. My friend, Donna, attended and said he was amazing and kind. He grabbed her hand when she told him that she used to teach in the some of the most remote parts of Alaska. The best line in the article is when Gary says, “I am alive because of libraries.”
October 20, 2007–Chicago Tribune
Gary Paulsen, author of scores of books, has captured the attention of young people, particularly those drawn to his depictions of the natural world and triumph in the face of adversity. On Oct. 27, Paulsen will receive the 2007 Chicago Tribune Young Adult Book Prize at the Harold Washington Library Center. Past winners have included Blue Balliett, Lois Lowry, Richard Peck and Kate DiCamillo. These authors share an extraordinary ability to connect with young readers with gripping, powerful stories. Paulsen, 68, a veteran of Alaska’s Iditarod dog-sled race and a rough childhood in northern Minnesota, certainly knows something about endurance.
In advance of his visit, Paulsen, who is married and lives part of the year alone in the remote Alaskan bush, spoke by telephone with Tribune literary editor Elizabeth Taylor. Over the din of barking dogs, Paulsen reflected on the importance of books in his own childhood and how that transformed into his passion for writing:
Q I’m sure Chicago will seem really noisy when you arrive — your life sounds so peaceful.
A It is, except that here when we’re training now with the dogs, at 5 in the morning we start harnessing and they go insane because they want to run so much. There is a din, just a different kind.
Q And you will be met by a different sort of din — of enthusiastic young fans — when you appear at the wonderful Chicago Public Library.
A I am alive because of libraries. I think I would have been in prison. I mean, I had a terrible childhood. My folks were drunks and, this is all cliche, I suppose, but I was a street kid in a small town in northern Minnesota. I was walking around and went into a library one night to get warm.
I would wait around until the drunks got juiced in the bars and I could sweep their change off the bars and they wouldn’t see. I lived on the street. I also set pins in a bowling alley, and this librarian kind of took me under her wing.
And she just started me reading. I was a poor reader and a miserable student. She gave me a library card, which was the first kind of thing I ever had. It had my name on it, and I was so impressed. I actually had an identity.
I was one of those kids that was an outcast. The cliche now is that those kids fall through the cracks. I didn’t really have any friends. I was not social in my childhood. Never had a girlfriend, a date, I didn’t go out for sports. I orphaned myself to the woods, really. There were forests right around that town, and I would just stay in the woods and hunt and trap and fish. And read. She got me to reading. . . .
Later, it became my mainstay to read. It still is. I read myself to sleep every night. I carry books with me to the woods when I’m training dogs. I’ll carry a paperback on the training runs when I’m out with the dogs.
Q What do you read?
A Now I’m doing a lot of research, so there is a lot of non-fiction. I am actually reading about prizefighting in Victorian England. You know how some “very not nice people” fight dogs now? They used to fight men that way — they would just let two men fight until one dropped. Maybe 100 rounds. Children were involved.
Anyway, I am doing research now on that whole era when they used children for this in England — very much like slaves, as a matter of fact. When cotton was king, they would sweep the streets of London, gather children and put them in the cotton mills on the looms. I want to do a book about a kid who lived in that era in London.
Q One of your books was dedicated to 13-year-old-boys, and many of your books speak to those boys. Are they more vulnerable today than they were in the past?
A One of the things I find particularly galling is sports. I don’t like the way sports are done. I think sports has become a religion to people — it is way past common sense.
Q You must hear from a lot of young people.
A I get 200 to 400 letters a day — fan letters — and I really focus on the ones from kids who may be in trouble or in danger. I may even call the school if I feel really concerned.
Kids often write to me about such things because I’ve never kept my childhood a secret. They feel I can relate to that — a lot of boys will write about how they want to be good at sports, but can’t be — and that they’d like to be sports heroes or whatever. They will try to pay me, at times, for autographs because most of the sports figures charge for such things. That is horrible, just ridiculous.
Q What role did the natural world play in your reinvention?
A I mean, nature saved me. My childhood was abysmal. I couldn’t ever go home so I threw myself to the woods . . . and at times in my life when things have been bad financially, or divorcewise, or emotionally. People can relate to the idea that nature can kind of do the same for them, that they can reinvent themselves through natural living.
Retrieved from http://www.chicagotribune.com/features/booksmags/chi-paulsenbw20_dt_chatoct20,0,7486488.story
Piggie Pie October 29, 2007
Piggie Pie is over ten years old but is still one of my favorite Halloween picture books. It is not your average Halloween story. When I read it to my third graders last week, we smiled and laughed as Gritch the witch underwent one funny act after another. The beautiful illustrations and awesome alliteration lent themselves to interesting discussions. Piggie Pie is my number one Halloween recommendation! Tomorrow we are reading the sequel:
