It is a toss-up which is more highly anticipated in a Lower School--Christmas or Halloween. The holiday books go on display on October 1st, and this still life is the centerpiece of that holiday display. Our school head starts her annual tradition of hiding "Hunter's Pumpkins" around the school. These orange paper pumpkins can be exchanged for a book from the library and a chance in a drawing for a gift certificate to Barnes & Noble. We are really fortunate to have a head of school who supports the library and books so enthusiastically.
What a clever way to encourage participation...we need more headmasters, or principals, or whatever their title might be, to be that engaged. Reading is so important! And I agree...Halloween is a huge favorite among the kids!
very nice still-life! How great to have the support for literacy. At one of my preschools to be in the Halloween parade, the costume must be a character from a book! I thought that was super-cool!
I'd have been all over the notion of "Hunter's Pumpkins" when I was in grade school...I loved treasure hunts! And to this day, who doesn't like participating in a drawing...and for such a perfect gift idea! It's a delight to see your Halloween decorations and a book to go with them... I was in Costco today and all the Christmas decorations seem to bypass the fun of Halloween!
This shot has all sorts of resonances. October 1 is Mike, my husband's birthday. Pumpkins and squashes which are amongst our favourite vegetables are now well and truly in season, with all sorts of shapes and sizes. Last night we were at dinner with friends, who suddenly turned out the lights and brought in this hollowed out pumpkin lit from the inside with 64 carved into the side - Mike has become the beatles classic! and we all sang happy birthday. Great fun.
Like the shot Allison and really like the hiding pumpkins around the school thing! School libraries can tend to be overlooked somewhat, especially in schools that seem fixated on grabbing every bit of technology they can.
I was talking to my mate Conan the Librarian (secondary school librarian, 11-18 year olds), she works in a fairly small secondary school, about 900 students, has about 18,000 books and a huge stack of other resources collected by the school over the last 30 years, including diaries of press clippings surrounding student/staff achievements. When I worked at the school there were three staff, then it got cut to two years ago. Now her library assistant is taking early retirement in March and she won't be replaced. This is obviously going to have a large impact on the service the library can provide (it's also open to members of the public who use the building during the school day for example) and it's really quite sad.
@agentz I can't imagine how she will be able to maintain the collection and provide services to the patrons without assistance. Does she have a corps of volunteers? Or is the goal to do away with the library completely. Sad days.
@allie912 It seems at the moment as though it's a case of "just do the best that you can", but there's no way the library can maintain it's level of service with only a librarian. As far as I know there are no volunteer helpers apart from a couple of students who help out at lunchtimes.
A simple example would be the catalogue system - all of our school libraries are connected to the main library catalogue system, but Conan was determined to keep their old-style card index, and keep it updated as she feels it's an important tool for teaching the fundamentals behind an index and information retrieval system. That might have to stop as there will be no time to keep it updated.
Love seeing the beginnings of Halloween in your photo. Hate reading about the library's situation from Agentz. Such a sad thing today to see our libraries suffering through budget cuts.
October 5th, 2010
Leave a Comment
Sign up for a free account or Sign in to post a comment.
thanks for the comment on my photo, Allison! I did post a link to my runners-up: http://doublee.shutterfly.com/pictures/246
I was talking to my mate Conan the Librarian (secondary school librarian, 11-18 year olds), she works in a fairly small secondary school, about 900 students, has about 18,000 books and a huge stack of other resources collected by the school over the last 30 years, including diaries of press clippings surrounding student/staff achievements. When I worked at the school there were three staff, then it got cut to two years ago. Now her library assistant is taking early retirement in March and she won't be replaced. This is obviously going to have a large impact on the service the library can provide (it's also open to members of the public who use the building during the school day for example) and it's really quite sad.
A simple example would be the catalogue system - all of our school libraries are connected to the main library catalogue system, but Conan was determined to keep their old-style card index, and keep it updated as she feels it's an important tool for teaching the fundamentals behind an index and information retrieval system. That might have to stop as there will be no time to keep it updated.