It is actually a bit chilly here this a.m. I love it! High of 88 degrees with scatter rain in the islands today. My weather watch is set to see what kind of weather I am missing, or not missing on St. Thomas. Bermuda sure got blasted with winds and rain by the last storm to come through. But, since they have such stringent building codes (8 " walls required) not too many were worried. Lots of the tourists just hung out and enjoyed the storm from indoors.

I have spent the a.m. reading NC school library media/technology guidelines. Not my usual fun novel reading. I need to learn the jargon used in NC - different from TX. With all of the hype about information literacy I find myself getting onto my "pulpit" regularly to remind everyone that we have to encourage leisure reading by our students, which in turn enhancing their reading comprehension skills. And I don't mean by using AR tests! Don't even get me going on how much I dislike Accelerated Reader! Students can access information in multiple formats, but it is useless if they cannot understand what they have accessed. The more they read, the better they get at it, and if that means graphic novels, series, "brain candy" - so what? ALL reading enhances reading skills, not just reading of award winning and classic titles. Okay - off the pulpit I jump!

No particular book to discuss today as my mind is on movies at the moment, based on "The 50 Best High School Movies Ever" in the Sept. 15, 2006 Entertainment Weekly. I decided to subscribe so I can stay up to day on the latest movies, TV shows, books etc. No surprise, the 1985 The Breakfast Club is the # 1 HS movie. I have to admit that I have not seen all of the 50 listed, but I have seen a good portion of them. Typical me - I am wondering how many of them are based on books and could a display be set up in the HS library, highlighting this list and the books! :-) Even if you don't have the books that accompany the movies, a display of books about high school life would still work, like Joyce Carol Oates' Big Mouth and Ugly Girl, The Chocolate War by Cormier (classic, with a movie), Nancy Garden's Endgame, Gail Giles' Shattering Glass and Playing in Traffic, Alex Flinn's Breaking Point and Fade to Black, Mel Glenn's Who Killed Mr Chippendale, etc. In other words - lots of good ideas for a book display and a booktalking session to go along with this article on HS movies, many of which the teens have seen and love. We need to use what is out there to get teen involved.

Now to get my act together for the day and head to campus to attend yet another training session.