Book Review: In the sea there are crocodiles

Author: Fabio Geda

This is the true story of Enaiatollah Akbari, a boy who was forced to leave his home and family behind in Afghanistan at age ten. It follows his remarkable journey from Afghanistan to Italy with many hardships, and even life threatening challenges as he tries to find a safe place to live and belong while running from the Taliban.

I couldn’t imagine at age 10, being left alone in a new country or a new city with no family or friends, not even any food or a place to sleep. This is exactly what he is faced with in one day after fleeing his small town of Nava in Afghanistan. His mother feels the only way for Enaiatollah to be safe is to give him a new start away from the Pashtun, a group who wish to take him, and will surely end up killing him just like his father. I think she would prefer to know he has a chance at surviving, rather than surrender him to a fate with the Pashtun.

I am amazed Enaiatollah is still alive after reading this story. He moves to find a better life, a safer life but to do this he has to get trafficked from country to country in horrible conditions, with no idea if he will make it to the next place. He is forced to hang off and hide in a lorry, walk for weeks through mountains and cross the ocean in a rubber dinghy. Then after all this, there is no guarantee that once he undertakes the dangerous journey and risks his life, the police won’t just catch him and throw him back over the border to where he started. It shocks me what he can endure at such a young age. It is only when he finds a safe place, one where he belongs and can’t be sent back to the horrible places he has been, will he be able to stop.

Fabio Geda tells the story for Enaiatollah as he recounts the journey to him. He describes the sights, smells and each place with detail. I found it easy to imagine what these places might be like in my own head with never having been there.

This book would be ideal for middle to senior school students because it is a true story of a boy at the same age, and enables them to see how different his life is, compared to their own.

Review written by Clare McDonald

Support Staff

Barkly College Secondary Campus

Further musings on Digital Citizenship

Becoming a digital citizen and being a digital native is the way of the future. It can’t be stopped and it can’t slow down. The material world that we live in feels sometimes as though it fades into the background and we are communicating more and more via digital methods.

For those of us that are old enough to remember, the internet was something that you did research on and received information about a topic. You could basically look at the internet as a one way street; giving us information without giving us the means to return the favour. This was called Web 1.0. Today however, Web 2.0 is here and this is the natural habitat of the digital native. Within this habitat, the digital native has many tools that it needs to survive. These tools include: blogs, wikis, RSS feeds, ebay, twitter, Facebook, Youtube, Myspace, Delicious, Stumble Upon, Wikipedia, Skype, Photobucket, flickr and visual thesaurus, just to name a few.

Many of the tools that the digital native is competent with are also useful in an educational setting. What does this mean for the modern library and more importantly, for this particular library? Do we need to think about changing the way that we provide information to many of the digital natives (students) that we assist every day?

With the introduction of eBooks, iPads and media players, we already have a big fat foot plonked heavily into the digital world.

So where to now? We use facebook, ebay and many other Web 2.0 tools every day. Many of them could be utilised in schools to deliver information efficiently because of the collaborative capabilities of Web 2.0.

Although this all seems fine and dandy, there are a few complications. How do we control the flow of information so that it is still beneficial to our students learning? We have a duty of care with our students and it would be necessary to make sure that they are aware of online privacy laws and what that means for them. Do they know that you are not allowed to put up any one else’s photo without their permission, and what can they do if someone has done this to them? Do they know how to adjust the settings on Facebook or similar to block out unwanted people/comments? How do we moderate digital conversations so we know that students are safe from bullying in the library, the one place where students traditionally come to feel safe and secure at recess and lunch times?

Questions I think we need to ask ourselves/to ponder upon.........

·        Most of today's young people are comfortable with technology, but are they using it appropriately – or even capably?

• Do they understand their roles and responsibilities in digital society?
• What are our own personal standards / ethics, especially if we think we cannot be caught or seen?
• How can we, as adults, help children to become responsible digital citizens?

These are challenges that at some stage, every school library is going to have to face. To provide relevant information to students we need to be in tune with the ways in which they are comfortable with receiving, and in using it. Libraries have been doing this reasonably successfully since around 3 A.D, and this is just another step along the long road of information storage/retrieval and usage. We just keep changing our methods of doing this to suit the clientele we are working with.

The scary part of this ramble is that it sounds like I know what I am talking about – and I do, to some degree, but in actual fact, I am being a duck. Calm and unruffled on the surface – but paddling like crazy underneath, just to keep my head above water. The good bit is I don’t think I am alone – and that is comforting in a way – we can all keep paddling along together and learn from each other. After all, isn’t that what this digital and social world is all about – collaboration?

Digital citizenship and what it could mean.

Have you ever used the internet to comment on what you see online, share information about yourself or others, communicate with friends, play games, get material for an assignment or buy stuff? If you answered YES to any of these then you are a digital citizen.

According to Wikipedia:

"A digital citizen commonly refers to a person that participates in society using a certain amount of information technology...through means of digital tools such as computers or mobile phones, along with access to these devices...

People characterizing themselves as digital citizens often use information technology extensively, creating blogs, use social networking and other means of modern communication. Digital citizenship begins the first time any child, teen, and/or adult signs up for an email address, posts pictures online, buys merchandise online, and/or participates in any [kind of] electronic function."

Using the above criteria, at face value, it would seem that most, if not all of us are digital citizens.  However, a discussion has been happening in the Library over the difference between digital citizen and digital native, terms which are often used interchangeably. The feeling in general here is that these are actually distinctly different terms.

One of the ideas put forth is that most students would be considered digital natives as they have been born into this era, where it is all there for them to access, they are not afraid of using the technology and have reasonably unrestricted access to it.  Depending on our ages many of the staff fit into the digital citizen term – or in some cases may even need to be ‘naturalised’ before fitting into this terminology.

Another comment made was that instead of digital citizen, maybe digital immigrant is a better term, with digital citizen being used to define someone who can manage their digital footprint safely and responsibly in our online world, and this is a comment that I can feel comfortable with.    

I cannot give you my own definition. This is because the definition is a collaboration of what many people think, not just one singular person coming up with the idea. Many websites split the population up even further. Digital toddlers, digital deniers and digital immigrants are some of my favourites. I don’t know how far I have to go until I earn my digital citizenship but I am excited about the places that it will take me (digitally of course!).

Worthless Wisdom # 4

Here is another worthless wisdom post - because we can, and because we were asked to.  No idea whether or not these are true but they are certainly fun to read about and share.  Enjoy!

·       A snail can sleep for three years

·       The Great Pyramid at Giza in Egypt holds a constant temperature of 68 degrees Fahrenheit

·       People who chase after rare birds are called twitchers

·       Human eye detects 10 million colours

·       One California law states that sunshine is guaranteed to all people

·       Blueberry juice boosts memory

·       If you keep a Goldfish in the dark room, it will eventually turn white

·       'Jedi' is an official religion in Australia with over 70,000 followers

·       Frogs use their eyes to help them eat their food: frogs can pull their eyes inward toward the mouth to help push the food down their throat

·       Some kinds of frogs can be frozen solid then thawed, and continue living

·       Butterflies smell with their feet

·       An egg laden goldfish is called a twit

·       The average chocolate bar has 8 insect legs in it.

·       On average, a 4-year-old child asks 437 questions a day.

·       The collecting of Beer mats is called Tegestology.

·       During thinking, we use only about 35% of our brains

·       Ants never sleep

·       The study of flags is called Vexillology

·       The human brain is 80% water

·       A 'jiffy' is an actual unit of time for 1/100th of a second

·       Antarctica is the only continent without reptiles or snakes.

·       A flamingo can eat only when its head is upside down

·       Peanuts are one of the ingredients in dynamite

·       A lover or collector of books is called a Bibliophile.

Weblinks of Interest

Below are some sites that may be of interest to staff and students.  These are ones that cover study skills, help with generating bibliographies, as well as cyber safety and digital citizenship.

Check them out and see what you think.

http://www.studyvibe.com.au/home.aspx

is a new free resource for students between the ages of 13 – 17.

It has been designed by a small group of teacher librarians and teachers from Perth, including Leonie McIvenny.  The site focuses on research and study skills, from motivation to referencing to suggested iPad apps.  It also offers many downloadable documents and subject specific resources (for maths, sciences and English amongst others).

A Teachers’ Lounge is currently in the works and should be available in the next month.

http://www.schools.ash.org.au/dckc/refgen/refgen.html

This is a site for helping students to put together a Harvard style bibliography for their assignments.

You simply choose a category from the left side bar that is closest to the item you need to reference and fill in the boxes with the information from the item.  Then click generate reference and you will be given a bibliographic entry to add to your work.  Continue with each item until you are finished.

http://cybraryman.com/cybersafety.html

The internet catalogue for students, teachers, administrators & parents.
Over 20,000 relevant links personally selected by an educator/author with over 30 years of experience. 

http://www.cyberbully.org/documents/cybersavvyschools.pdf

Trying to prepare students for their future and teach them about Internet safety without Web 2.0 in schools is like trying to teach a child to swim without a swimming pool!

A combination of factors should ~ and will ~ lead schools to reassess how they are managing student Internet use, addressing Internet safety education, and responding to the concerns of youth risk when using technologies.

A recognition of the relatedness of these factors provides the opportunity for schools to address these issues in a more comprehensive manner. This document will outline how these issues interact and how Cyber Savvy Schools can embrace the future.

Semester 2 underway!

This semester has really started off with a bang! We have a whole stack of new magazines and the Laser eBooks are ready to go. We've also spent a lot of time selecting a range of different magazines for students to read. The library now has magazines on cooking, gaming, technology, movies, dirt biking, travel and special interest. These magazines are currently unable to be loaned out, but staff and students are more than welcome to come and read them at recess and lunchtimes at their own leisure. At this point the plan is that the eBooks are for staff to borrow out in a single class set. A number of classic novels have already been uploaded. We are more than happy to search for more titles at teachers' requests. Coming soon to the library is the fourth instalment of the "Inheritance Quartet" written by Christopher Paolini and the second book in the "Lorien Legacies" by Pittacus Lore. Also, Isobelle Carmody is releasing the last book of the "Obernewtyn Chronicles" (finally). There are many staff and students that are looking forward to these new arrivals and it will be interesting to see who gets them first. This semester is setting up to be very exciting and fast paced. The library staff are ready and waiting for your requests. Have a good semester two, Barkly College!

Thyla

I’ll be honest – horror is not my usual choice of reading matter but the idea of Tasmanian Tiger shapeshifters caught my attention enough to pick it up – and once past the first chapter I was hooked.  No way was I planning to go to bed until I knew how this ended – and what frustration when I realised that this was the first in a series!

Tessa is found wandering with no memory about her past.  All she knows is her name and that she is strong and brave and does not cry.  Everything else is a blank canvas to be filled in as best she can.

The police officer who finds Tessa takes her under her care.  Connolly has also lost her daughter, Cat, near where Tessa was found and Connolly hopes that maybe once Tessa has her memory back, they will know what happened to Cat.

She places her in the boarding school where Cat had been and Tessa begins to realise that she is in the middle of something huge – something that she is obviously a part of even though she has no memory of it.   Something that has been happening here for at least 160 years.  The long slashes, like stripes, that appear across her back make that very clear. 

And what are the Sarcos and the Diemens?  Where do they fit into this? And who can she trust?  She is in the middle of a shapeshifters war - and it is like walking on quicksand with no real idea of where to turn.

I love the way Tessa starts out as a blank canvas that slowly becomes painted in as we learn more about her, and her history.  This is a story of a girl who is finding out who she is, making friends and maybe even falling in love a little. It is a horror/mystery about Tasmania’s unique animals, as well as the supernatural and convict history, all wrapped up in one book.

As the blurb on the back cover says:   “Thyla is a story of Tasmania, of darkness, of convicts, of devils and tigers and of promises that stay true through the centuries”

It is the story of what happened to Cat – and what Tessa really is”

Last Day of Term 2

Today is the last day.  WooHoo!  Four weeks of peace and quiet in the library, and we are hoping to get a few little projects completed that we haven’t had the chance to do throughout the semester.

The school is running a Drug Awareness Expo today and the Library is hosting all the organisations that came on board to help out.  It is awesome – we have people everywhere at various tables all through the Library.  This includes Legal Aid, Sexual Health, Alcohol Awareness and lots of others. Our school nurse has been busy pulling all of this together and has done a fabulous job.  Thank you, Mel!

 I also set up a few DVD’s for the students to watch concerning the effects of alcohol and ice on the human body along with PowerPoint presentations about the dangers of smoking.

Elsewhere in the school there are sports programs and drama activities along with drumming and Hip Hop events.  The Science department is busy demonstrating the effects of alcohol on the brain by melting polystyrene brains in turpentine much to the delight of the students.

We also have the Grade 5 & 6s visiting from the Primary Campus who are just delightful.  Their manners are fantastic and they are so involved in what is happening - we are looking forward to seeing them here in High School.

Coming up at the start of next semester we will have lots of new ‘stuff’’ to introduce to the staff.  This will include magazines and new technology to use with our students to encourage literacy and reading.

To all staff and students – have a safe and relaxing 4 week break and we will see you all back at the end of July.    

Pats on the Back!

Barkly College Library Staff are pleased to announce that we were asked to write a guest article for the SLA of Victoria's Bright Ideas blog, which is all about the great things happening in schools and school libraries around Australia.  Our article was about how we went about setting up our blog, so that others can get an idea of how easy it was - and on the use of Web 2.0 tools in our library.

It was great to have acknowledgement and so early in our blogging journey!  Thank you.

The link is here - please check out the blog.

http://slav.global2.vic.edu.au/

Library Lessons with year 7s

We have had a couple of great lessons with the year 7s this week, discussing whether or not everything is true on the internet and learning how to evaulate websites.

The first part of the lesson involved the students constructing Al-foil Deflector Beanies (otherwise known as AFDBs) while Library Staff explained that this was to keep them safe from mindcontrol rays.  We had some pretty awesome beanies happening as they decided to make a fashion statement, since they would be wearing it. 

They also had lots of great ideas for saving the endangered Tree Octopus, involving bridges, tunnels and lots of signage. 

Then they were introduced to Google MentaPlex and everyone had a go at trying to 'think' their search term at the spiral. 

We then went back, and using a checklist and working as a group, evaluated some websites to see whether they were real or hoax.  This generated a fair bit of discussion as to why people would put up things that are not true and how you can tell if it is a hoax site.  They were very unimpressed that people would provide such wrong information - but were happy to test out various sites to see if they were good or bad. 

They were not all that happy with Carrie and myself either - for 'tricking' them - but hopefully we are back in their good graces now.

Quotes of interest.

I did a bit of hunting around on the Internet for a bunch of quotes to put on the blog. Here they are and I hope that some of them speak to you.

A wise man will make more opportunities than he finds.
Francis Bacon

Winning isn't everything, but wanting to win is.
Vince Lombardi

If you don't know where you are going, you'll end up someplace else.
Yogi Berra

They can because they think they can.
Virgil

The difference between a successful person and others is not a lack of strength, not a lack of knowledge, but rather a lack in will.
Vince Lombardi

Everyone has a fair turn to be as great as he pleases.
Jeremy Collier

I cannot give you the formula for success, but I can give you the formula for failure -- which is: Try to please everybody.
Herbert Bayard Swope

Impatience never commanded success.
Edwin H. Chapin

There is nothing either good or bad, but thinking makes it so.
William Shakespeare

No one can make you feel inferior without your consent.
Eleanor Roosevelt

You can't expect people to look eye to eye with you if you are looking down on them.
Anonymous

You can tell more about a person by what he says about others than you can by what others say about him.
Anonymous

How a man plays a game shows something of his character, how he loses shows all of it.
Anonymous

I hope that you enjoy these quotes. I find that if I am having a difficult day, sometimes words of wisdom from someone can help me get through.

Carrie

The Hunger Games

         

The Hunger Games, written by Suzanne Collins, is a fiction book aimed for the young adult genre, which I found myself unable to put down. Its combination of nerve-racking tension, thrilling action, and engaging love story kept me up at all hours of the night, wondering what will happen next. I was surprised at how completely fascinating the plot was.

When the story begins, North America as we know it has been destroyed and is divided into 12 districts, ruled by a cruel government located at the Capitol. Every year, the Capitol selects one boy and one girl from each district to compete in the terrifying Hunger Games. The Games forces children from ages 12 to 18 against each other in a fight to the death in a giant, hazardous arena. Everything is televised all over the country.

Katniss Everdeen, a 16-year-old girl from District 12, takes her younger sister’s place as one of 24“tributes”.

Katniss must not only survive the Games, but deal with a romance between her and another tribute Peeta Mellark from District 12, knowing how heartbroken her best friend Gale is, seeing her every move with Peeta. While finding the strength to kill strangers her own age for her survival and to impress the government is a lot of pressure on Katniss.

The further I got through the book, the more interesting it got. Suzanne Collins described the locations in perfect detail and made me feel like I was in the arena, witnessing everything that Katniss experienced. When it came to the romance of Katniss and Peeta, it was impossible to put the book down. Knowing that the only way to keep your other tribute alive is to show affection and knowing that it killed Gale to see this made Katniss even more desperate to survive.

I absolutely loved this book from start to finish; it left me itching to find out what happens next. If I had to rate it out of ten, I would give it an eleven!

 

by Tori Reid

Year 11 Student

Barkly College Secondary Campus

National Simultaneous Story Time: Our Library Lesson

I like both Ms Carrie and her mum, Ms Shelagh because they are kind and good to us, our Class.

Every Wednesday, Block One we, Year 7 F0 go to the Library for lessons on books. Today Ms Shelagh read a whole book about Feathers for Phoebe. The story was about a bird that was not happy with the way she looked. So she tried her best to try all the colourful wings, crest, tails, chest but nothing worked.

In the end, she fell off a tall tree and landed on another bird. All her beautiful feathers fell off and she was a grey bird again and became what she was like before. Each one of us also made a Book Mark, they were all very colourful, we had to choose the bright colours and they were all bright and awesome!

I think the character, Phoebe was sad in the end. I enjoyed the story very much and I am looking forward to listening to both our good librarians next Wednesday. Thank you very much.

By Jordan Shadforth