New Faces, New Episode!

After a long absence, the Phillips 'Behind the Paws' crew has produced a new episode.

• New Faces
• New Music
• New Animation
• New Bloopers

Special thanks to Mrs. Kaushal for being so flexible during her interview!

Enjoy!

Treated as a Professional

I'll just let this hang here.

School Library Month

School Library Month Is Right Around the Corner....

How Will You and Your Students Celebrate?

Cool Library Quote

'When you are growing up there are two institutional places that affect you most powerfully: the church, which belongs to God and the public library, which belongs to you. The public library is a great equalizer.'

                                                                                                 Keith Richards, The Rolling Stones

Inspirational Memes

Here's a couple of my fav inspirational memes.  Enjoy!

#Self-Explanatory

My Busy Week!

Last week was so busy!  Here's a day by day breakdown:

Sunday:  Reflection

Still overcome with emotion after watching the #Selma50 celebrations on C-Span

I snapped this picture when I was getting my locs maintained.  #SoInspiring

Monday:  Wake Up!

The big reveal took place:  I was named a 2015 Library Journal 'Mover and Shaker.'  Huge honor!

Updating the Phillips Twitter page, listening to Bob and drinking coffee

Anime/Manga Club Meeting:  The students are working on their next project, and I'm the subject!!!

Yup, they are up to something!

Selfie Tuesday!  

Here's a couple of pictures

I found my glasses, Tuesday is a good day!

My students just love coming into my personal space.

Fortee' is way to comfortable on top of my library table!!!

Wednesday:  

Good news and tears

I received some really good news from CPS.  Stay tuned!

When these kids graduate in June, I'm going to lose it.  #EmptyNester

Thursday:  

Technology Thursday 

So happy to see my Techie Girl Rebekah today!

Friday, March 13th is National Digital Learning Day!  See Phillips video below!

Urban Fiction/Street Literature....The Debate Continues

    Yesterday I was informed that there was an interesting discussion about Urban Fiction/Street Literature on the YALSA listserv. After reading the posts and sleeping on it, I decided to put in my two cents.

  I've been using and advocating the use of the genre of Urban Fiction/Street Literature for over 10 years with allot of successes. I pride myself on having a healthy mix of teen friendly and adult Street Lit. books for my teen readers. Regardless of how one may feel about this genre, it's here to stay. 

My student Rebekah describes what Street Lit. means to her and her classmates who live in the Bronzeville neighborhood in Chicago.

My Final Thoughts About Urban Fiction/Street Lit.

1. All stories have VALUE, regardless of the lens/perspective it's told from.

2. Who are any of us (librarians/libraries) to say Urban Fiction is not a genre?

3. Urban Fiction is a genre and Street Literature is a sub-genre of Urban Fiction, both should be respected as such.

4. Urban Fiction is a genre that should be in all library collections for teens and adults. As should other books about various subjects and cultures.

5. To make excuses (I've heard many of them) not to include them is just plain sad and a disservice to your patrons.

6. Urban Fiction is a genre that should not be ignored by librarians. This genre has served as a catalyst to jump start reluctant readers to read more frequently.

7. Urban Fiction has provided a pipeline for readers to learn/understand communities unlike their

own.

8. From my personal experience, many critics of Urban Fiction have not bothered to either read not just one book, but a body of work representing various authors and reading levels.

9. Many critics of Urban Fiction just don't understand it. Just think about it: What happens when we don't understand something....We reject it.

10. Many librarians have Young Adult Urban Fiction and Street Literature books within their collections, and are unaware of their genre classification.

 If you would like to read more on this subject of Urban Fiction/Street Literature you can read my blog post on my other blog, MissDomino.BlogSpot: 

"Street Lit. Writers Must Be Heard"
  http://missdomino.blogspot.com/2014/08/street-lit-writers-must-be-heard.html 

Another post that should be read is Amy Koester's blog post,
"Selection is Privilege"
http://showmelibrarian.blogspot.com/2015/02/selection-is-privilege.html

Making Animation Videos!

After several weeks, the Anime/Manga Club's meetings have resumed.   Club members decided to extend their meeting time and met online and at teen venues around the city/suburbs.    The website is finally done and the students are proud.....I'm proud of them!  Check out their work here:   http://phillipsanimemangaclub.weebly.com/


During the last two meetings, we covered allot!  Here's some pictures and video from these meetings and I hope you enjoy them all!

Each meeting begins with a review of the updates on the Anime/Manga Club website.

For Black History month, the students viewed and discussed African-Americans in Anime and watched this video.



They ate pizza!

Then they listened to a lesson led by their classmate, Jordan.  

Today's assignment:  perfect using the Animation Creator HD iPad app.

They received their iPads and stylus and started working!

Here's video from the last two meetings.  Enjoy!

College Readiness

I am proud to announce that I am featured in a new column by School Library Journal called, "College Ready" The magazine covered my work with my high school students using Pinterest as a tool to engage deeper understanding. http://www.slj.com/2015/02/opinion/college-ready/promoting-college-readiness-via-pinterest-college-ready/

I Blew My Book Budget!

I absolutely love this time of year!  I log onto the I Love Libraries website and listen with thousands of other librarians  across the country. You're probably wondering what are we listening to? Well it's the American Library Association's, Youth Media Awards, the librarians equivalent to the Oscars.

Sadly I have never attended one of the early morning ceremonies.  I've always listened online and screamed with delight when some of my favorites are recognized for their efforts to provide great reading books for children and young adults.

I spent about an hour online ordering books that either won awards or were related to books that I have not read this past year.  Yes, I blew my book buget for the month!  The following is a list of books that I ordered during that first hour after the ceremony.  I'm too embarrassed to tell you how many more books I have ordered since then. 

Here's the actual video from the awards ceremony.  Enjoy!

2015 American Library Association Youth Media Awards Press Conference:
http://youtu.be/M-ruMCY0EFQ

Black History Month On Pinterest

For over a year I've been working very hard to maintain a Black History Month board on Pinterest.  Normally I provide my teachers with a handy Black History Month Pathfinder, but I thought I would kick it up a notch.  So far, my teachers really enjoy using this resource along with the district's African-American Studies Curriculum.

Personally, this has been a really facinating experience for me as I have learned so much while adding content to the board.  As a result of the Black History board, I created a Black History Firsts board that celebrates the many groundbreaking achievements of African-Americans.

You can follow the board two ways:
Pinterest.com/boydk or
Pinterest.com/auslwpahs

Enjoy!

Popular Library Memes

Here's my Thursday round up of librarian memes.  Some are humorous while others focus on our ongoing advocacy efforts.

I also included an original meme featuring one of my freshman athlete students and I.  Creating your own memes are a great way of encouraging students to pick up a book and read and they promote your Library Media Center.

Enjoy!