FAME

Wow, was the FAME (Florida Association of Media in Education) good this year. It was at Walt Disney World, which is a fantastic place for a conference. Mickey Mouse came to the opening session of the exhibits, how cool is that!

One of my favourite (Canadian spelling) parts was meeting all of the authors. I was lucky enough to meet Jacqueline Woodson, Dan Gutman, Jack Gantos (for the second time) and Alex Flinn, who also spoke about reluctant readers. I also purchased many of their books plus others. I came home with about 30 for me personally and the school library. I just can't control myself when it comes to books!

The Teens Can Read workshop was very worthwhile. Not only was I introduced to many YA books, of which I want to read them all, many reading and collaborative strategies were discussed along with the handouts which makes it really easy to add them to my classes. Students, just wait, you'll be doing these activities soon, I hope you like them!

Another workshop also dealt with Library Media Center standards. We all know that funding is going down while book prices are going up. $6 per student does not allow us to purchase enough resources for our schools, especially when books, non-fiction particulary are costing $22 and up in many cases. My own collection has an average age of 1992, and that is with serious weeding of old and misleading books over the last few years. We are almost in 2007, which means the average book at Coral Shores is fifteen years old ! And these students are being prepared for the future with outdated resouces? Hmm, does anyone else see a problem here?

Okay, I'll get back on my soapbox on a later date. But in the meantime, teachers, there is plenty for you at FAME too, especially English, Reading, or Technology teachers. Hopefully I'll see you there next year.