Elena is four years old!

I had just written a post to this blog about reading books and electricity when the electricity went out here in paradise, Chimuri Cottages, Puerto Viejo, Costa Rica. It happens on a regular basis. I was worrying about my granddaughter not reading -- because of the attraction of TV, computers, cell phones, games, etc. etc. Already her mother's generation has been wooed away from reading. But I also gave kudoes to the teacher librarians who are making use of technology to entice young people to read books! This is one of the themes of our CSLA Conference, November 19-21 in Ontario, Calif. which I helped plan, but won't be able to attend.
Elena was thrilled to get this book for her birthday. She had already seen the movie and received a stuffed "Wild Thing" from her Dad. I understand the movie wasn't that good -- she fell asleep. But I also think that movies like that are made often for adults.
So this will be short so I can post it before I lose electricity again.
Here's to reading and a future that will include books. I don't think you can replace them as they do not depend on electricity. Of course, they may have to be handwritten in future!

Our Changing World and What It Means

My friend Benito Del Aguila Malvaez shares wonderful video clips from youtube on his Facebook page. This latest one is from 2008 and I had hoped my Library Services department would share it with our Teacher Librarians. It's titled "Did you know 2008 3.0" and asks "So what does it all mean?" Also available from Teachertube, it lists many facts about our changing world, including the fact that India and China are likely to become great powers soon. But it also emphasizes how much information is available to people compared with earlier times. China will soon become the number one English speaking country in the world. Our students are being prepared for jobs that havent been created yet. "We are living in exponential times." There are 540,000 words in the English language -- five times more words than in Shakespeare's time. Mind boggling numbers that make the job of teachers, especially teacher librarians, a challenging responsibility. I am grateful for School Library Learning 2.0 and for the CSLA Conference coming up in November. There will be many sessions devoted to library advocacy and technology for our changing world. One hot topic is the educational use of cell phones -- our students are always using them, how can we make this an educational tool? I have become addicted to my BlackBerry although I now wish I'd bought an iPhone. I'm sure that when I purchase my next phone, there will be many more uses for a cell phone. Pictured here is my almost four year-old granddaughter Elena who is being a DJ - one of the 34 jobs she might have in her lifetime. She loves to do puzzles on Jigzone. What will her world be like? Will her education be as good as mine was?