Something Wicked This Way Comes of Age

Author Name: Tammy Gantz
Library System: Washington County Free Library

Top 3 things learned:
We learned why it is important to understand the appeal of horror to teens. We may have our own feelings about horror to deal with, we are the defenders of their choices, and if w understand the appeal we understand their issues better. Horror is a window into their worries. We learned about the mechanics of horror's appeal. Horror makes us realize we are not alone in our fears. Teens gain reassurance by reading about kids just like them who are going through things so much worse than what they are. We discussed the different types of horror and books specific to that type.

How to implement:
This class helped with Reader's Advisory for teen horror. I could also create a book display or teen program in this genre.

Digi-Spaces-Coding with the Raspberry Pi

Author name: Cyndi Powell
Library System: Washington County Free Library
Date of program: 08/13/2015

Digi-Spaces-Coding with the Raspberry Pi

Description of Activities: 

At the start of the program, I explained what a Raspberry Pi is and gave examples of what it is used for and the types of things that it is capable of being turned into. For example, how security system, used by hobbyists and inventors, micro-computer...these were some of the things I talked about. I showed the teens the different plug-ins and hooked it up to a keyboard, mouse and projector screen.

Most of the program was an introduction to coding with the program Python, which is already pre-loaded on the Raspberry Pi. I followed an activity found in the book called "Raspberry Pi Projects" by Andrew Robinson from Chapter 2 called "Generating an Insult". I found this to be a good introductory project because the coding language was simple and it was a short series of commands. I led them through the project, typing in the code, showing them how the program worked, talking about the different commands, the different screens and how the program can easily be modified.

Then I gave them a project to follow that I found in a book called "Help your kids with computer coding : a unique step-by-step visual guide, from binary code to building games" by Carol Vorderman. We followed Program #4 "Ghost Game". I let the teens follow the instructions for writing the code. We ran their program and played the game. Then we looked further through the second book at the explanations of what it is we did when we wrote the coding. This book is a great resource and explains everything in a clear, user friendly language and it's a visual guide which is great too!

The last 10-15 minutes of the program, the teens were experimenting and modifying the Ghost Game
program. Adding more doors, ghosts and commands. It was great to see them apply the knowledge they had learned from the exercises we did and start to explore the different
possibilities in coding!

In the Works: Reader's Advisory for Children/YA/Teen/Juvenile Librarians

Go to 100 Scope Notes to view full image.

This morning Jeff Ridgeway and I met to talk about the possibility of coordinating efforts in order to schedule a day-long staff development event for the region centered around reader's advisory for children's/teen/YA/juvenile literature and below are the notes and ideas I gleaned from our discussion. Please chime in with feedback and ideas!

Format: We're looking at following a modified format of BCPL's Great Books events they once held back in the day where it might look something like this:

10am-11am - Keynote speaker (author or RA guru)

11am-11:30am - Q&A with keynote speaker

11:30am-12:30pm - lunch and time to catch up w/colleagues

12:30pm-1:30pm - Breakout Session: Hands-on RA activities

1:45pm-2:45pm - Breakout Session: Colleague show-n-tell

2:50pm-3pm - Evaluations / CEUs (up to 3 CEUs)

If there's interest among the library staff and the public school teachers in each of the three western counties and if I'm feeling especially ambitious, I can foresee a plan where we hold this event three days in a row - once in Washington county, once in Allegany county, and once in Garrett county. But this absolutely depends on interest and # of attendees because of course the cost would go up regardless of the keynote speaker and we definitely want to make sure ROI is high for something like this.

Content: I like the idea of using films to predict popular titles among youngins and if we can identify 3 top trends in this genre then we could identify either one author from one of those genres or one RA specialist to be our keynote. These top trends would then set the stage/framework for the hands-on breakout session at 12:30pm and the show-n-tell session at 1:45pm. Some current trends that we identified: fairy tales, distopian fiction, supernatural but not vampires. Which trends do you see on the horizon? It might also be to our benefit to invite local authors/RA specialists who fit the bill rather than looking nationally. Thoughts on this?

WENTK: (Who Else Needs to Know?) I'm currently working to pick the brains of my colleagues at the Eastern Shore Regional Library who recently hosted a public event featuring Jack Gantos.

 

But if you know of other libraries near or far who have done something similar, please let me know. This type of thing - content wise - finds me bit out of my element so, I'm happy to learn from those who have more experience! 

In addition, I have been in contact with Jamie Watson at BCPL to get more information about their Great Books events - they haven't had one of these in a couple of years but it's still good to have a contact to give me some perspective! These events were on a much grander scale than what I'm envisioning is possible for the west but it seems scalable enough.

As far as who else I might be roping in with me ... well, I definitely want to involve anyone from the MLA Reader's Advisory Interest Group - especially those who work in Allegany, Garrett, and Washington counties; any and all library staff from the western region who work closely with the youngins in our libraries; and possibly the public school teachers from those counties, as I know this group is near and dear to Jeff's heart since he works with them (at least the ones in Washington county) quite frequently. 

Did you know? There's a Children's Literature Centre at Frostburg State University? This just happens to be almost right in the middle of the western region! They often host literature festivals and author institutes. These would count toward certification so, if you're interested be sure to bookmark the site and talk with your staff development coordinator.

Stay tuned ...

Giving a Fish a Bath

I do so love the title, don't you, lol...engaging, passionate presentation by Heather Higgins at the Clear Spring Branch - neuroscience is offering a fresh perspective on why teens are not reaching adulthood with the mindset & skills for success. Some info learned: the old way of thinking was that little brains grew into big brains. New way of thinking: brains have predictable periods of high vulnerability (0-5 and 12-18)and are very vulnerable to stress. I also learned that less sleep means less "encoding" the ability to remember and turn short term memory into long term. (I think that affects Moms too!)I thought it was interesting too that teens for the most part can not read a person's emotions like we adults can and did you know that video games give feedback every 3 seconds? Instant gratification - no wonder my boys love them!

Understanding why a teen behaves as he does, goes a long way into supporting & serving them in a library setting (and living with them!)

Back-to-School Update for High Schoolers