Applications to Be a 2011 JASON National Argonaut Due February 28

The JASON Project, a science, math, and engineering education program geared to middle schoolers that I've mentioned before in my blog for their fantastic curricular resources, is accepting applications for students who want to be 2011 JASON National Argonauts.  In this highly competitive program, students spend up to 10 days in the summer working in the field with professional scientists investigating some real topic in oceanography.  The rest of the year, they work with The JASON Project through speaking engagements, podcasts, posts on forums, and such.  All travel, equipment, food and boarding, and other expenses of participating (and the field experiences are international) are paid by JASON.

To be eligible, students must be 14 or 15 by June 1, 2011.  However, if you have younger students who may want to apply in the future, I suggest you check out the application now.  Students have to show great promise in math or science, as well as demonstrating a good academic and community service background.    However, they are also looking for students to have some physical skills, including swimming, snorkling, diving, rock climbing, and the like.  So if you are serious about applying for this program, you could spend the time until you are old enough working on some of those experiences to help you be a more competitive candidate.

The information about applying is on the JASON website (you will have to create an account in order to access it, I believe).  You can also address additional questions to argo@jason.org.  The application deadline is February 28, 2011.

Good luck to anyone who applies.  Make you that you let us know if you make it!

Book Review: Dark Emperor & Other Poems of the Night (2011 Newbery Honor Winner)

After the fairly surprising 2011 Newbery winners announcement, I'm trying to read the 4-out-of-5 Newbery winners that I hadn't even read.  So I started with the easiest of the four:  a book of poetry entitled Dark Emperor & Other Poems of the Night by Joyce Sidman.

I have to say that I just don't get this book as a Newbery winner.  Don't get me wrong--it's a lovely book.  It contains a poem about some denizen of the night on the left page, with a beautiful block printed and then hand colored picture on the right page, along with a column of some scientific facts about that creature on the right-hand side of the page.  The poetry is quite good and evokes a lot of senses, particularly sound and feeling (as is appropriate for a book about the night).  The scientific information is interesting if not extensive.  The pictures are gorgeous; in fact, I could more easily see this as a Caldecott winner than as a Newbery.

I guess my real issue is that the writing doesn't seem THAT phenomenal to me, and the concept isn't that much different than other books I've read.  And it also seems rather slight to me, as the entire book only contains 12 poems.  However, because it contains several different forms of poetry, including rhymed couplets, free verse, and a beautiful owl-shaped concrete poem that the animal lovers in my fall poetry class would have loved, it is a great curriculum resource for an introductory poetry class.  I would classify it as an upper elementary level book, rather than middle school, although it is sophisticated enough that middle schoolers and above can also appreciate it.

So I don't know...obviously, the Newbery Committee sees something that I missed.  I certainly enjoyed it, but I would not have given this book one of these highly-coveted award.  But I'm open to education!  If anyone else really loves this book, please let us know why in the comments section below.

Article Gives Background on Wake County Public School Politics

I have been writing a lot recently about the current politics surrounding the Wake County Public Schools, particularly in regards to the appointment of new Superintendent, Anthony J. Tata.  But I haven't gone into the background of the whole situation much.  For those of you who don't know how we got where we are today, there is an article in the Washington Post that I think does a great job of trying to give an unbiased description of the political issues the school system is struggling with now.

The articles is entitled "Republican school board in N.C. backed by tea party abolishes integration policy." The web link is: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2011/01/11/AR2011011107063.html
(Note:  I don't know if you can get directly to the article by clicking above; you may have to create or sign into your Washington Post account in order to read it.)

FREE and Half-Priced Curricula at CurrClick Secret Sale

Shhhhhh CurrClick has a secret...
CurrClick, one of the largest providers of e-book and other online curricula for all levels and disciplines of undergraduate study, is having a Winter Whisper sale.  The deal is that they have a "secret" page of FREE and half-price curricula that you can't find just by going to their normal website (like the links above), but only by having access to the special sale links.  However, they encourage those who have access to the links to share them with their networks....it's kind of a "word of social networks" kind of sale.

The good news is that for those of you who didn't win the Hands of A Child give-away I had on my blog at the end of the year, you can get a free HOAC lapbook unit on Snakes by going to this page.  There is another free lapbook unit on Amphibians from A Journey Through Learning, so you can combine them into a nice herpetology lesson.  But my favorite on the Freebie page is a comprehensive set of forms that you can use for homeschooling record keeping....attendance, book lists, lesson plans, even high school transcript forms!  Once again, click here to get to the special Freebies page.

There are also HUNDREDS of other curricular packages that are discounted to half price or so on this special sale page.  For example, one that I just purchased was by A Journey Through Learning called "An Overview of the 19th Century (A Unit Study with Correlating Copy Work and Games)."  Geared for upper elementary through middle school, it is the spine of American history in the 1800's.  While I think it needs some supplementing for the middle school level, it has some great visuals and timelines and such that help the students link together the various aspects of this busy time in American history.  This is exactly the kind of curriculum that I wouldn't necessarily buy at the full price of $17.00, but since we are studying 19th century history this year, it is worth the sale price of $8.50 to me not to have to go find all these timeline images and such on my own.  But you have to go through the  sale page to get it for this price (which I why I can't give you a link to go directly to this particular package).

Anyway, there is lots of good curricula at a really good price, so go check it out.  But the sale is only running until January 19, 2011, so you only have about one week to download the freebies or buy the others at a discount.  And feel free to forward this information to your friends, colleagues, or other networks.  I know we can all use some bargains at this time of the year!

2011 Newbery Awards Announced

The ALA announced the winners of the Youth Media Awards this morning, and I think the top Newbery award could be considered quite an upset.  The winners for the 2011 Newbery Awards are:

Medal: MOON OVER MANIFEST

Honor: DARK EMPEROR

Honor: HEART OF A SAMURAI

Honor: ONE CRAZY SUMMER

Honor: TURTLE IN PARADISE

For myself, I haven't even heard of the book before the announcement.  Of all the winners, the only one I read was One Crazy Summer , which I loved and included on my list of preferred Newbery candidates.   My son also read Heart of a Samurai and like that pretty well, although it wasn't one of his favorites.  The other two I've heard good things about, but no one in our household has read them.

Having read over 20 different Mock Newbery predictions from across the country, I have not found ONE that had Moon Over Manifest, the first novel by Clare Vanderpool, on their list of finalists.  I don't know that anyone in my son's Mock Newbery Club read it; it certainly was never on any of their list of top contenders.  (Note:  He says that only one person from his club read that book.)  I think the same thing might be true for the other area library, because there are no comments on this book on their Mock Newbery blog (and the book itself is categorized as "Not Mock Newbery").  So at least I don't feel too alone about having missed the boat in regards to this book.

Apparently Moon Over Manifest is a historical fiction, which much more seasoned Newbery followers than I claim is a favorite category for the Newbery Committee.  It is set in the 1930's, but also goes back to the 1910's as the protagonist, Abilene, goes back to her father's old hometown and stumbles into a mystery involving ancient letters, a spy, a map, and a recluse who tells tales of the area's long-held secrets.  

So it sounds interesting.  I'm just amazed that nobody in all these clubs seems to have read it, or at least liked it enough to consider it to be a contender.  But, then, this is my first year of Mock Newbery...perhaps I will understand the selection process better if I have a few more years of Newbery predictions under my belt.

Movie Review: The King's Speech

Last night, my husband and I went to the The King's Speech, the movie about how Australian speech therapist Lionel Logue helped King George VI overcome his stammer when he was forced to give public speeches upon gaining the throne after the abdication of his brother, King Edward VIII.  Like almost all the critics, we loved this movie.  It features terrific actors, it captures the look and feel of the time perfectly, it is based on true events, and it has an uplifting ending.  My husband and I don't get out to the movies much, but if we do, this is exactly the kind of movie I want to see.

The subject matter is appropriate for middle school and high school students.  It provides some background on the lead up to World War II, and certainly gives Americans a better picture of the family of the current Queen, Queen Elizabeth II, and of the institution of monarchy altogether.  Even more importantly, I think it gives some great lessons about heroism.  It is a wonderful example of how we might admire someone famous or from a famous family or with a lot of power, and never realize that they, just like all of us, have their own challenges to overcome, their own demons to face.  Colin Firth's "Bertie" is a man who is surrendered to his duty, who is noble and persistent and struggles to live up to what his nation and his people need him to be, even if it is not the path he would have chosen for himself.  Helen Bonham Carter makes a wonderful wife to the would-not-be King, sweet and strong and stoic and compassionate all at once.  (Her performance is especially delightful since the last time we saw her, she was playing Bellatrix Lestrang in the latest Harry Potter movie, where she is pretty much the polar opposite of the role she plays here.)  And Geoffrey Rush's Lionel Logue is an eccentric commoner who never loses his dignity and refuses to be pushed around in the face of the royal juggernaut of honors and procedures, facing down the issues of power and class differences that were quite a big deal at the time.  It is really a film about everyone striving to be their best selves under trying circumstances, which is a message that none of us, but especially our middle and high school students, can hear often enough.

The issue in sharing this movie with students, however, are several instances of extreme profanity.  The swearing scenes, which are a great contrast to the language in the rest of the movie, serve a dramatic purpose.  Nonetheless, many of us may not feel comfortable taking our children to a movie with language that is profane enough to have earned the film an R rating.

So you may have to wait until it comes out on DVD, and then fast forward over a couple of bits.  Other than that, however, it is a great movie for teaching students a variety of lessons, historical and otherwise.

My 2011 Newbery Award Winners

Last night my son's mock Newbery Book Club made their selections for what book they thought should win the 2011 Newbery Award.  I didn't want to influence his decision, so I've been keeping my opinions to myself.  However, since the actual awards will be announced Monday morning, I thought I would share my choices for this prestigious award for the best American book for middle school children published in 2010.

There are so many good books that it is hard to chose, but I finally came up with the following decision:

1.  Countdown by Deborah Wiles
This book gets my nod for the best book of the year because it does such a wonderful job of not only helping young readers experience a particular moment in American history (the Cuban Missile Crisis), but it explores a number of other societal issues (the aftermath of war, civil rights, individuality versus conformity) as well as the typical questions worrying the average middle schooler (Does he/she like me?  Is he/she really my best friend?  Can I fit in with the popular crowd?).  The characters are well drawn and interesting, the author does a great job of juggling and eventually tying together the multiple plot threads, and the conclusions of the different threads are satisfying and not predictable.  I also loved the pictures and quotes scattered through the book that also try to give the reader a better picture of life in the 1960's.  This book has stuck with me, and gets my vote for top book of the year.  (Click here to read my original review of the book.)

Then, in no particular order, my choices for Newbery Honor awards are:

• The Strange Case of Origami Yoda by Tom Angleberger (Click here to read my original review of the book)
• One Crazy Summer by Rita Williams-Garcia (Click here to read my original review of the book)
• The Cardturner by Louis Sachar (Click here to read my original review of the book)
• They Called Themselves the K.K.K: The Birth of an American Terrorist Group by Susan Campbell Bartoletti  (Click here to read my original review of the book)

You can see the reasons I liked these books in my original reviews, so I won't repeat them here.  Most of these are on many of the short lists of Mock Newbery clubs and others who are trying to predict the Newbery winner.  The one that isn't usually mentioned is The Strange Case of Origami Yoda by Tom Angleberger.  I chose it over two other books that most people see as top Newbery contenders--Mockingbird by Kathryn Erskine (see my review here) and  Out of My Mind by Sharon M. Draper (see my review here).  Both of those are also great books; Mockingbird won the National Book Club best children's book award for 2010, and Out of My Mind was the favorite of both of the two area library Mock Newbery clubs.  However, I felt Mockingbird was really a teen read, but is a superior book to Out of My Mind.  But Origami Yoda contains a similar message, but delivers it in a lighter, humorous, much more accessible way.  Especially if you are trying to reach boys who aren't great readers...I just don't see them picking up books about dealing with the grief of a school shooting or trying to get into the head of a girl with Asperger's or quadriplegia.  And the concept is so original and appealing--I mean, who doesn't like Yoda?  And who ever imagined a talking origami puppet?  I think middle school students can really appeal to the situation of the kids in the book, and even the casual reader will be drawn in by the style and humor and stick around to the end for a great lesson.  Origami Yoda isn't the lengthy, serious tome that apparently is generally preferred by the Newbery Committee, but I think it is a terrific little book and deserves some recognition.  The other thing that sticks out is that I seem to have a thing going with the 1960's, since three of my five books deal with that time period.

Other than Origami Yoda, my top picks and my son's don't overlap (OY was one of his top five, but you can see his top three by clicking here to see his blog post).  He had a tougher job than I did, because he read three times as many Newbery possibilities as I did.  I have to say that I am really proud of him, because he read 42 potential Newbery books in his 8 months in the Newbery Club (which works out to about 1 1/4 Newbery book every week).

Now we just have to wait until Monday, when the official winners will be announced.