Take a journey into the rich sensory experience of autism. Imagine a world where words taste and thoughts feel, where sounds swell with color and leaves on trees change tones visible to the naked eye, and where eye contact with another can cause physical pain. Spectrum: A Story of the Mind explores autism through the lens of diverse characters on the spectrum.
Airs 4/6 at 1:30 p.m.
What a gloriously uplifting term! What it really means?
Weeding.
Whether you’ve just inherited an old collection, you haven’t had the time to look at your catalog, your administrator or school culture doesn’t like to get rid of books, or you have difficulty making those difficult decisions yourself, you most likely have a collection that needs to be weeded. It’s a struggle that School Librarians face continuously.
As we purchase new materials, we need to consistently weed out old materials. Therefore, we’ll be writing a couple of posts in the next few days that provide information vital to keeping your collection up to date, easy to navigate, and useful for your students.
Today we’re going to start with WHY?
Weeding your school’s library collection is vital for a variety of reasons:
Yes, we know you already know all of this. But sometimes it’s difficult to put into action, and sometimes it’s even more difficult to convey it to others. So here are some articles you can share when you need to convince someone else.
Weeding to Let My Collection Grow by Christine James (Knowledge Quest, 2017)
Weeding without Worry (American Libraries, 2016)
Keeping Your Library Collection Smelling F.R.E.S.H! (The Adventures of Library Girl, Oct 2013)
Most importantly: Before you dive into a full-blown weeding session, make sure you know your school policy on removing library resources from the collection. We hope these resources are helpful to you.
The word “Karamu” comes from a Swahili word meaning “a place of joyful gatherings.” For the past 100 years, the Karamu House in Cleveland, Ohio – the oldest African-American theater in the United States – has lived up to its name, serving as a community center for the arts and maintaining a legacy of innovation and diversity. Narrated by James Pickens, Jr. from ABC television’s Grey’s Anatomy, KARAMU: 100 YEARS IN THE HOUSE is a 30-minute documentary which tells the story behind this important theater in America’s arts and culture history. Karamu House has come to be known as a respected training ground and launching pad for many nationally known actors, playwrights and artists, including poet and playwright Langston Hughes, and author, folklorist and anthropologist Zora Neale Hurston. The film shows how the theater’s past parallels African-American history over the past 100 years, and even how it directly intersected with the civil rights movement when it sent busloads of activists to march on Washington.
Airs 4/5 at 3-3:30 a.m.
Hey guess what! April is not only Autism Awareness month, and National Poetry month. It’s also the best month ever… because it’s National School Library Month!
Created and hosted by the American Association of School Librarians, April is a celebration of school librarians and their programs. We encourage you to host activities to help your school and your local community understand the essential role that your library program plays in transforming learning for your students.
This year’s spokesperson is Dav Pilkey, and the theme is Everyone Belongs @ Your School Library.
Every Wendesday of this month, AASL is hosting webinars at 7:00 pm Eastern time:
The Power of Manga, Comics, & Graphic Novels through the Lens of the AASL Standards Frameworks for Learners
Wednesday, April 3, 2019 | 6:00 p.m. Central
Addressing the Gatekeepers: How to Turn Comic and Graphic Novel Skeptics Into Believers
Wednesday, April 10, 2019 | 6:00 p.m. Central
Comics Librarianship: Essential Tools for the School Librarian
Wednesday, April 17, 2019 | 6:00 p.m. Central
TBA
Wednesday, April 24, 2019 | 6:00 p.m. Central
For more information about School Library Month, and this years events, go to the AASL School Library Advocacy page.
Airs 4/3 at 10 p.m.
This program is about the otherwise ordinary things in our homes and museums that mean the most to us because of their associations with people and experiences. The film examines items recovered or offered in response to 9/11, the Oklahoma City bombing and the Vietnam War, along with stories of people who find them important. Without the objects the stories would lack vibrancy; without the stories the objects would lack significance. Taken together, the commonplace is transformed into the remarkable and where the stuff of history is highly personalized.
Airs 4/3 at 4-5 a.m.
April is (among other things) National Poetry Month! Started in 1996 by the Academy of American Poets (poets.org), National Poetry Month has become the largest literary celebration in the world. There are a myriad of ways to acknowledge and celebrate the importance of poetry in our culture:
Check out this list of 30 ways to celebrate national poetry month.
Meet a group of pilots who donate their planes and time to volunteer on fascinating conservation projects throughout North America.
Airs 4/2 at 2-3 a.m. (4/16 at 2-3 a.m.)
A film from award-winning filmmaker Ken Burns, tells the story of the five black and Latino teenagers from Harlem who were wrongly convicted of raping a white woman in New York City’s Central Park in 1989. Directed and produced by Burns, David McMahon and Sarah Burns, the film chronicles the Central Park Jogger case, for the first time from the perspective of the five teenagers whose lives were upended by this miscarriage of justice.
Airs 4/2 at 9 p.m.
April is (among other things) Autism Awareness Month. PBS has a number of valuable programming for this purpose. Check out the following programs and use the request form for a recording.
POV #3011 “Swim Team” – Parents of teens on the autism spectrum form a competitive swim team, training them with high expectations. Follow the rise of three athletes as the film captures a moving quest for inclusion, independence and a life that feels like winning.
Airs 4/3 at 7 p.m.;
Spectrum: A Story of the Mind – Take a journey into the rich sensory experience of autism. Imagine a world where words taste and thoughts feel, where sounds swell with color and leaves on trees change tones visible to the naked eye, and where eye contact with another can cause physical pain. Spectrum: A Story of the Mind explores autism through the lens of diverse characters on the spectrum.
Airs 4/6 at 1:30 p.m.
America Reframed #514 “Deej” – the story of DJ Savarese (“Deej”), a gifted, young writer and advocate for nonspeaking autistics. Once a “profoundly disabled” foster kid on a fast track to nowhere, DJ is now a first-year college student who insists on standing up for his peers: people who are dismissed as incompetent because they are neurologically diverse. Will Deej be able to find freedom for himself and others like him?
Airs 4/13 at 10 p.m.
Autism: Coming of Age – In the next 10 to 15 years, an estimated 800,000 children with autism will age out of the school system and transition into adulthood. Then, they will look to ill-prepared state and federal governments for the support services and resources to meet their many needs – a situation autism experts refer to as the “coming tsunami.” The one-hour documentary AUTISM: COMING OF AGE provides an inside look at the lives of three adults with autism and includes interviews with their families and support teams. Autism and disability experts from Massachusetts, New York, Washington, Virginia and Pennsylvania also discuss the current system, impending challenges and possible outcomes for the future.
Airs 4/13 at 11 p.m.
Keep checking the Offair Listings portion our blog throughout the month as we post more information and links to request these.