CYBILS SHORTLISTS

The 

CYBILS SHORTLISTS

are supposed to be posted 

tomorrow,

January 1, 2009.

I was on the panel for the Intermediate Grade/YA Nonfiction.

The books we chose are EXCEPTIONAL!

I can't wait to see what everyone else chose!

I AM A HIP AND WITH-IT GAL

I am a hip and with-it gal! And in case anyone ever doubted that, I've joined TWITTER. I don't quite totally understand it yet, and given that I am one of the only people in America that does not quite have the hang of text messaging, I have my doubts about whether I can actually do it, but some of my online  friends have assured me that we will figure it out together. 

All joking aside, I have long believed that teachers (and probably everyone else) need to learn one new thing each year. I also believe that we as teachers, especially as veteran (not to be confused with old) teachers, need to understand that our students don't learn in the same ways that we did when we were in school, or when we started teaching. I will ALWAYS love books, but I also need to be open to learning how to use technology as a part of my teaching. 

Getting my blog up and running was my challenge for this year. I've posted 90 times, learned how to add graphics and links, served as a CYBILS panelist for intermediate and YA nonfiction, and maybe most importantly, made some great new online friends. I plan to continue my blog in 2009. I also want to develop a website, do more with digital photography (maybe even get my own camera, instead of borrowing my son's all the time!), and now, my latest, learn to twitter. 

If you want to read about some teachers who are several months into TWITTER, check out Franki and Mary Lee's blog.

If you want to follow my tremendously exciting life, my twitter name is carwilc (it's the same as my AOL name, because I can't remember too many things at one time, and K's basketball team is participating in three leagues in January and February, which has just about maxed out my memory card!)

If you are one of the three people that read my blog, I would love to follow you, so email me with your twitter name.

If you want to be hip and with it and start your own twitter account, go here.

AMAZING KITCHEN CHEMISTRY PROJECTS YOU CAN BUILD YOURSELF- Cynthia Light Brown

When I was in high school, and then again in college, I took chemistry. Now, many years later, I remember only a few things. My high school chemistry teacher was very young and very handsome. My friends and I spent much of our class time admiring his muscles. My college chemistry professor, a world renowned chemist, spoke heavily accented English. I had a hard time understanding what he was saying, let alone grasping the concepts of chemistry. 

If AMAZING KITCHEN CHEMISTRY PROJECTS had been around when I was in school, I would have found chemistry a whole lot more interesting, and I would have understood it a whole lot better.  The book is divided into ten chapters, each focusing on a different aspect of chemistry, e.g. atoms and molecules, acids and bases, and the states of matter. Each chapter begins with an introduction and a glossary of 5-10 words kids need to know. There are also several interesting stories from the world of science. In the chapter on SOLIDS, for example, kids learn about the world's longest running science experiment (it's about whether a solid can actually become a liquid, and has been going on at the University of Queensland since 1927). They also learn about a hotel built entirely out of salt (it's in Bolivia) and about the salt marches of India.

Maybe most importantly, each chapter contains 3-5 really cool experiments that kids can actually do with stuff that most people have, and with a minimum of adult supervision. In the SOLIDS chapter, kids can make two different kinds of crystals, rock candy, and build candy-glass houses. Each experiment is followed by a section called "What's Happening?" where the author explains the scientific concepts related to the experiment. 

As I write this post, we are about halfway through Christmas vacation. We've baked, played cards, and watched movies. The boys have experimented with their phones and played video games. No one has said anything, but I think they are starting to get a little bored. I can't wait until they get up this morning. We are going to do some chemistry!

SCIENCE ON THE LOOSE- HELAINE BECKER

Two or three years ago, one of my sons (who shall remain nameless on the grounds that this story might incriminate him)  had to do a science fair project. Evidently, the teacher presented a list of possible topics. Said son selected "Black Holes," which the teacher later described as one of the most difficult projects. His assignment (his mother's assignment???) was to find a minimum of five objects successively smaller in size but weighing more than the previous object. I don't remember exactly what objects we ended up using, but I do remember numerous trips to a variety of stores. I also remember trying to fill black balloons with flour, although I can't quite remember why we did that (perhaps some things are better forgotten).

Boy, do I wish I had had SCIENCE ON THE LOOSE when we were trying to do that project. This book includes approximately 50 science experiments on any number of topics, including animals, atmosphere, atoms, black holes, chemistry, cloning, density, electricity, energy, friction, genetics, the human body, lights, mass, planetary orbits, plants, robotics, stars, states of matter, time, viscosity, and weather. The materials necessary for these experiments, are, for the most part, things most of us have in our kitchen or bathroom cupboards. The directions are clear and concise. They are things kids could actually do by themselves or with friends. Most experiments are accompanied by a a detailed, but kid-friendly explanation.

In addition to all of the experiments,  SCIENCE ON THE LOOSE also contains lots and lots of interesting, science-related information. Readers learn about topics like dominant and recessive genes, Pavlovian reflexes,  methane gas emissions, and whether pickles actually contain electricity. Information is presented in a voice that's friendly, and interesting, and understandable. 

SCIENCE ON THE LOOSE in two words or less- fun and fascinating!

BODY DRAMA-NANCY AMANDA REDD

Do you remember high school? How you worried that no one else had those weird zits on their back? When you were desperate for the perfect tan? Or when you were sure that everyone else's parts were absolutely symmetrical, but yours were not? BODY DRAMA is a book that I wish I had had back then. Author Nancy Amanda Redd is a Harvard graduate. She is also the winner of the Miss America Swimsuit Contest. 

BODY DRAMA is divided into five separate sections- Shape, Skin, Boobs, Hair and Nails, and 'Down There.' Each section is further divided into about ten "dramas." In the "Skin" section, for example, the dramas include "My Face is a Zit Factory," as well as "I'm Addicted to Tanning," and "My Thighs Look Like Cottage Cheese." There are "How To's" e.g. "How to Give Yourself a Facial" and "How to Find the Perfect Piercer." There are tons and tons of other features, e.g. short articles about  detecting skin cancer and recognizing the differences between cold sores and herpes. And that's only the "Skin" section…other sections address things like perspiration, gastrointestinal issues, and STD's. BODY DRAMA also contains many, many pictures of "real" teenage girls, with normal shaped bodies. 

This is a book I wish I had had when I was in high school and college. It's a book I want to give to all of the high school and college girls I know. Redd addresses a myriad of really personal issues, but she does it in a way that's natural and friendly and helpful. She helps teenage girls realize that all of their health concerns are perfectly normal, and that they are not alone. She helps young women know "what to do when…" and when to consult their doctors. She provides lists of websites and organizations that young women might need. 

Interestingly, BODY DRAMA is a book I also enjoyed sharing with my teenage boys. I especially liked showing  them the sections that compared normal photographs of teenage girls with the same "Photo-shopped" or computer enhanced photos. 

Now if only there was a BODY DRAMA  for boys…

DISCLAIMER: This is a tremendous resource for teenage girls. I plan to order a copy for the young women in my life. It contains lots of graphic (and really helpful) photographs, however, and is not a book that I would have in an elementary school library. 

POETRY FRIDAY

Today I'm celebrating Pat Mora, one of my favorite Hispanic authors and poets. Pat is probably best known for TOMAS AND THE LIBRARY LADY (Sorry- I'm leaving out the accent on Tomas only because I'm on my mom's PC instead of my Apple computer and I don't know how to do accent marks- I will fix it when I get back to Denver and my own computer tomorrow). About a year ago, Pat released YUM! MMMM! QUE RICO!, a collection of haiku about foods indigenious to the Americas. Here's a sample:

Smear nutty butter,

then jelly. Gooey party,

my sandwich and me.

Hoping you get to spend this Friday after Christmas with yummy leftovers, time with family and friends, and good books!

11 PLANETS: A NEW VIEW OF THE SOLAR SYSTEM by DAVID A. AGUILAR

In 2006, astronomers surprised the world with the announcement that Pluto had been reclassified. The ninth planet was no longer a planet, instead it was a dwarf planet. As a person who has spent her entire life living on one of NINE planets, this was more than a little troubling to me. No more!

David Aguilar's 11 PLANETS: A NEW VIEW OF THE SOLAR SYSTEM  presents a whole new framework for understanding our universe. The planets are broken into three groups- terrestrial (Mercury, Venus, Earth and Mars), gas giants (Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune), and then the dwarf planets (Ceres, Pluto, and Eris). Aguilar devotes a two-page spread to each of the eleven planets. The left page is a full color painting. The right page contains the text, another picture or labeled diagram, and a small captioned picture about the origin of the planet's name. Additional two-page spreads explain other extraterrestrial bodies such as moons, meteorites, and comets. 

David Aguilar is the Director of Science Information at the Harvard Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics.  His voice in his book is knowledgeable, but it's also very kid- friendly, e.g. "Unlike any other planet in our solar system, Uranus has a 98-degree tilt to its axis. Scientists think that really early in its history, it was hit by something really big that knocked it completely over on its side."

Aguilar's space artwork has been exhibited in galleries nationwide, and I can see why. The artwork in this book is breathtaking; careful captions also make it a terrific teaching tool, e.g. "An ice sheet on Jupiter's moon Europa is a perfect viewing place. From here, we can see the Giant Red spot- a hurricane that has raged for hundreds of years. Astronomers believe a vast ocean is hidden beneath Europa's ice."

One of my favorite parts of this book was an appendix entitled "The Solar System in a Bag." This section lists common household objects, e.g. a large yellow grapefruit- the sun, a box of salt- one small  grain is Mercury, a box of raw brown sugar- one grain is Earth, a cherry tomato (Jupiter) and three rolls of gauze (tied end to end these are the length of the tail of the Great Comet of 1843. You'd need a really big space (Eris is 10 football fields away from the Sun) but this would be so much fun to try with kids!

A great new "space read!" I could see myself sharing this with kids from ages 5 to 105!