Check out the games created by this year’s Future Professionals crew.
I set up a new area. You can get there by going to http://briangriggs.com/games.
Archive for the ‘Administrative’ category
Future Professionals games for this year
May 20th, 2009Catching Fire, Shiver, and a Ghost in the Machine
May 8th, 2009Check out some new releases for the fall, as listed by Phoenix Book Company.
Hunger Games is no longer on hold – and the Catching Fire synopsis
May 7th, 2009I booktalked Hunger Games on October 7 of this year. Today is the first day that it has not been on hold, today being May 7.
Check out the summary for book two, Catching Fire from Amazon:
Against all odds, Katniss Everdeen has won the annual Hunger Games with fellow district tribute Peeta Mellark. But it was a victory won by defiance of the Capitol and their harsh rules. Katniss and Peeta should be happy. After all, they have just won for themselves and their families a life of safety and plenty. But there are rumors of rebellion among the subjects, and Katniss and Peeta, to their horror, are the faces of that rebellion. The Capitol is angry. The Capitol wants revenge.
September 1 is too far away. Thanks to Standhart for keeping me informed.
Be in the sequel to Skeleton Creek!
April 27th, 2009Did you like Skeleton Creek? (Creepy, right?) In October Ghost in the Machine is coming out. I’m very excited.
Yes. How does that book have a sequel? Perhaps it’s a companion book.
But would you like to be one of the video stars in the book? Patrick Carman’s studio will be holding auditions on May 1. Click on the link for more information.
Choose whether you want to read for the guy script or the girl script and it will open the audition PDF file. Videotape your audition and put it on YouTube following their directions.
Even if you don’t want to audition, it’s still pretty fun to read parts of the script ahead of time.
I can’t find where to audition as the bearded librarian…
AIMS Writing Test Update
April 17th, 2009An e-mail coming across today quoted Tom Horne looking at cutting the AIMS Writing test for 4th, 5th, and 8th grades in light of the budget crisis. This is an interesting move, because those essays need graders and now we save on materials as well as paying people to grade the essays. Now it will be just Scantron.
Some drawbacks, though, are that some students do poorly on Scantron. Also, will writing not be assessed for those three years? We also need to make sure that we don’t just teach to the test – even though 8th graders will not be AIMS-tested, they’ll still need to work on their writing to be able to survive in the academic world (and eventually the world outside of school).
The test will still be there for the other grades. I think it’ll work, especially at cutting some costs, but when we’ve conditioned ourselves to focus ourselves so subconsciously towards the AIMS, we need to remind ourselves that people wrote long before the AIMS test.
We’ll see if this proposal becomes official on April 27.
10th Grade Bleeds
March 23rd, 2009
I’m excited. I just got in the mail today the advanced copy for the new Vlad Tod book, 10th Grade Bleeds by Heather Brewer. Just gotta finish Max by James Patterson. It’s definitely better than Final Warning…
Session 5 Handout is up
March 9th, 2009Tonight we talk about Frankie Landau. Next time, Chains by Laurie Halse Anderson.
You can find the handout here.
Celebrity Reviews
February 24th, 2009What I find funny in Scope magazine is what celebrities recommend for teen readers. Jack Black suggests A Wrinkle in Time.
Miley Cyrus recommends Don’t Die, My Love by Lurlene McDaniel. I can believe that.
Also of note – I guess Massachussetts has an official state epic novel.
Handout for Session 4
February 23rd, 2009The handout for session four is now online. Tonight we’ll be talking about Daniel X, our perceptions, and trustworthy narrators.
Remember, you can find the handout archives at http://briangriggs.com/teenlit.
Advocating for Free Stuff During a Tough Economy
February 11th, 2009Check out the article from ALA (as well as great coverage from MSNBC) as to why cutting libraries is a bad idea.
