Prezi for Presenting Author Research Utilizing Glogster

Glogging with Jerry Spinelli: My Online Interactive Poster About Him

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Portrait of an Author: Jerry Spinelli

Biography of an Author: Jerry Spinelli

 

Jerry Spinelli was born in Norristown, Pennsylvania, in 1941. Before becoming an author, Jerry dreamed of being a cowboy and then of becoming a major league baseball player. His favorite book as a kid was Barbar the Elephant. He had his mom read it to him many times. After his dad published his poem about football in a local newspaper, Jerry decided he liked writing enough to do it full time when he was in the eleventh grade.

Getting his English degree from Gettysburg College, Jerry became a magazine editor. Every day at lunch, he would shut his office door and write for an hour. Jerry’s first four books for adults were not published. His first published work was about a young teen.  Instead of being disappointed, Jerry loves being a writer about kids for all ages.

Jerry’s wife, Eileen, is also an author. They write in separate rooms, but show each other their work when they are finished. Jerry calls Eileen “his first editor.” She helps him when he has problems with a story. They have six children together and twenty-one grandchildren! They now live in West Chester, Pennsylvania. Some of the inspiration for Jerry’s stories comes from his childhood, as well as his children’s childhoods.

Jerry has written a variety of fiction books about kids and teenagers. Milkweed, one of my favorites, takes place during the Holocaust and took him over a year to write. I personally love this book, even though it makes me cry, because it is very touching to read about this horrible time in history through a child’s eyes. Somehow, Jerry keeps that sense of innocence throughout the book. Other books, like There’s a Girl in My Hammerlock, are about sports like wrestling. This is another favorite of mine, since I enjoy the humorous situations and the personal strength in the main character. Jerry’s first pet, Bernadette, a rat, makes an appearance in this story about a tom girl who tries out for her school’s wrestling team.

Jerry won a Newberry Award for Maniac Magee, which is still taught in some schools. He has written over thirty books and plans to continue with his love of writing. When asked to give advice to young writers, Jerry says, “Write what you care about.” His other hobbies include playing with his grandchildren, playing tennis, picking berries, reading, riding trains, and listening to country music.

 

Adlit.org. Meet the Author: Jerry Spinelli. Online video clip. Youtube, 24 Jan. 2011. Web. 15

May 2014. <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fv8uUevERTE>

Jerry Spinelli.  Random House. 15 May 2014. <http://www.randomhouse.com/kids/catalog/

author.pperl?authorid=29311&view=sml_sptlght>

Jerry Spinelli Interview Transcript. Scholastic. 15 May 2014. <http://www.scholastic.com/              teachers/article/jerry-spinelli-interview-transcript?pImages=n&x=89&y=15>

Spinelli, Jerry. FAQ’s. Jerry Spinelli’s Website, 2012. 15 May 2014. <http://www.jerryspinelli.

com/newbery_004.htm>

 

Final Presentation on Prezi- Rhonda, Are You There?

Here is my final for my class about the collaboration between teachers and teacher-librarians. Finally done!!! I was so proud and making my presentation on Prezi.com was rather simple... until I somehow had text on the background. What did I do?! Finding help for this was like finding a diamond in the desert sand. It. Just. Wasn't. Happening. Ugghh... Finally, something must have worked, because the text wasn't showing up anymore. The mysteries of Prezi... Oh, well, at least I'm done!

Dying Out?

A Dying Breed

Commenting on other peers' blogs led me to a link that Eddie had found:  How To Survive the Zombie Librarian Apocalypse.

The Adventures of Library Girl

Being essential, rather than expendable, is essential with all the budget cuts. Although librarians might be in shortage in the future, I know plenty that have been moved to classrooms. Glad to know someone is addressing this and fighting the good fight!

Thing #23: Congratulations

All Done

Or is this simply the end of the beginning?

A couple of my favorite activities were discovering how other school librarians were incorporating ideas and technology into their work and libraries (Joyce Valenza and the Mighty Little Librarian, to name a few), as well as the fun exercises, like making trading cards. Completing my 23 Things blog has taught me two very important lessons: 1) Exploring technology is vital to being a school librarian, since you have to expose your students to ALL emerging tools on the web, and 2) Technology and using the Internet is usually not hard, but it does take time and trial-and-error. If those are the only things I take away, I am much richer as a teacher-librarian-to-be and a teacher. I was surprised that when I started really knocking out my posts on my blog, I almost didn't want to stop. I started doing two-to-three most days in the end, but getting in the groove was the hardest for me at first. Once I did, I found blogging and exploring to be really enjoyable. In order to improve the 23 Things blogging exercise for the future students, just make sure that links are all up-to-date and add any important trends in the library world. Time permitting, I would definitely want to participate in a program like this. Having a due date does make completing it more of a priority, but I did learn so much doing this. As a librarian, continuing to blog would be something great to show prospective employers as a portfolio. However, my tongue-in-cheek humor might not always be appreciated. Describing my experience in one sentence: As a librarian, the only way to create life-long learners is to BE a life-long learner.

Now, I get to comment on my peers' blogs. I'm excited to see what they've discovered....

Thing #22: Your Turn

My Turn!

I chose to explore word clouds for the part of my blog. I love the integration of generating a visual using words. Although I know most people at my school use Wordle, I wanted to try something with more shape options. So, I chose Tagzedo instead. There are many pre-set shapes for layouts, fonts, and color themes. You can print out your word cloud, save it to your computer, or even make a product (like a tee) with your word cloud. How could I use this? Well, this would be a great exercise in the library about using personality traits o describe a book character, vocabulary words that fit a continent, or even a poem about the first days of school. For mine, I chose to describe my dog, since he's become a big part of my blog. Thanks for the inspiration, Charlie!

Charlie's tail is shorter, but otherwise a good likness

Although I love this idea, I think this is a bit beyond my realm. This blogging librarian created her OWN word cloud using a Cricuit machine that is owned by the school (lucky!). With sticky vinyl sheets, a leveler, and some help, the Mighty Little Librarian created something any librarian would envy... Sigh. What will these amazing librarians think up next?!

Talk about amazing. I want to be in her librarian! Can I be her student?