High Speed Read: Crash into you by Kate McGarry

Another in the Pushing the Limits series by Kate McGarry but which can also be read as a standalone title.
Isaiah and Rachel are from the opposite sides of the tracks and would never normally have crossed paths except for their love of fast cars. Isaiah seems to have all the cards stacked against him heavily-tattooed and in the foster system, he is trying to find his place in the world and stay out of trouble long enough to land his dream job. Rachel is the straight A students with the seemingly perfect life whose family have never recovered from the death of one of their children. Expectations, fear, and a desire to fit in unite these two and they fight against the odds to deal with big troubles and those trying to keep them apart. The characters are believable and the story races along at high-speed. I have to admit I couldn't put it down! I thoroughly enjoy these stories and can't wait for the next one in the series!
A copy of the book was provided by NetGalley in exchange for an honest review

Marriage, family, race

Marriage Material by Sathnam Sanghera is another title I received through Netgalley.
I found it to be a very amusing, endearing and engaging story about multiple generations of a Sikh family in Wolverhampton. The story revolves around a newsagent shop from the 60s to the present day and covers love, religion, race and prejudice big subjects but done with humour and pathos. I really cared and liked this family and enjoyed seeing how their stories developed. Sanghera told the story of 2 generations of the famiy in alternating chapters.
In the 60s the newly immigrant family are dealing with a Wolverhampton that is trying o come to terms with an increasing Asian population, Enoch Powell is delivering his 'rivers of blood' speech, Sikhs are threatening to burn themselves in protest in the ban on turbans and the 2 daughters are contending with the possibility of arranged marriages. Surinder takes drastic action to this situation by eloping whilst Kamaljit marries 'beneath' herself and outside her caste.
30 years later Arjan returns to Wolverhampton from his life in London to help his mother in the wake of his father's death. This action results in his life being turned upside down as his tries to contend with life back in the city he tried to escape. Secrets from the past start to be unearthed as Arjan tries to take stock of his life, his relationship with his white fiancee, his mother's refusal to sell-up and the casual racism of the present coupled with the 2011 riots. The re-appearance of his runaway aunt and the shocking revelation at the end of the book all serve to make for an engaging story. The author admits that he has'borrowed' elements of the The Old Wives Tale by Arnold Bennett. I have to admit that I have not read the classic story but this modern retelling with an Asian slant has made me want to read it. A thoroughly enjoyable book that I would highly recommend.

Summer Reading

The summer has allowed me to read a variety of books: 2 for books groups that I belong to: Bring out the Bodies by Hilary Mantel & Maggot Moon by Sally Gardner, as well as trying out some yet to be published titles from Netgalley. I managed to read 3 pre-publication titles whilst on holiday plus another couple of titles as the e-reader is much easier to put in a bag than a book at times! The only problem I found was actually on the plane when you have to switch off the technology for take-off and landing. - sometimes you can't beat old tech!

Review 1: Rose harbour in bloom by Debbie Macomber

This is another title in the Cedar Cove sequence of books and the second title in the Rose Harbour Series. These can be read independently which is great as I have on read a few. They are pure escapism and a good excusee to curl up with a good read that will entertain.
Jo Marie is  coming to terms with the desth of her husband in Afghanistan, setting up a new business as a B&B owner, as well as  dealing with a grumpy handyman with his own issues, which I am sure will be covered in another title. She is also getting involved in the lives of her guests:some have come to celebrate a long marriage or escape a bad relationship and one to face up to a decision made in the past whilst battling serious illness in the present. This series is great to dip into a bit like a hot chocolate - a great comfort read that is not too challenging.

Review 2: The Bookstore by Deborah Meyler

Being a bookworm I was attracted to the premise of this book. Esme a British student studying in New York discovers an independent bookstore staffed and patronised b a host of kooky characters - only in NYC! The shop becomes a lifeline when she discovers she is pregnant by her older boyfriend. who quickly deserts her when faced with responsibilities. I initially liked Esme as a character but did become annoyed by her  but did wonder if some of this was down to the author's wish to show off her own art history knowledge.
I was in New York when I was reading this and the author has captured the atmosphere of the city.
This is a bittersweet story that would appeal to chicklit fans. there is no clichéd happy ending but a possible hint at one which did make me feel more positive towards the story

Review 3: Love Overdue by Karen Morsi

I wanted to read this as the main character is a librarian and as one myself wondered how the author would tackle that stereotype of the single librarian. The story started well with DJ moving to a small town to take over the running of the library currently stuck in the dark ages. It is only when she arrives that she realises that she has moved to the one place in the country where the man from the one wild time in her life lives. To her relief he has no memory of their previous encounter. As DJ battles with difficult staff, a budding romance, and trying to raise the profile of the library in town, memories of that time resurface. A meddling mother, a host of characters make this a  fun summer read.
The biggest problem was the ending, the story had been building up to the big reveal which never happened instead it jumped forward 8 years. Did the author get bored?

On the whole a good summer of reading but the start of term beckons. This coming year will be interesting as my first batch of EPQ students will be submitting their projects and I will be working with the Literacy Coordinator to raise the profile of reading with the students.

Review: Dare you to by Kate Mcgarry

I have recently discovered Netgalley where you can get galleys of new and forthcoming titles to feed your e-reader. The only ask is that you review the titles. As a voracious reader I am always keen to keep my e-reader topped up!
My first review is for a teen novel by a Kate Mcgarry, an American author I am not familiar with.

Dare You To is about Beth, a girl with a troubled and traumatic past and Ryan, the golden boy who seems to have it all. Beth and Ryan are brought together by a dare, Ryan's failure to get her phone number only whets his appetite when Beth turns up on his home turf. What starts as a dare turns into something more serious as the secrets they are both hiding are gradually revealed. Beth's past continues to impact on her life and her loyalty to those left behind threatens to destroy her future.
I had not read any Kate Mcgarry before and this book is part of a series but each story is independent. The characters are believable and you care that they will find a solution to their problems without doubting that they will.
A good read for those who don't like their romances all sweetness and light with believable characters and a wellplotted storyline.

Networks

Thing 7: Real-life networks

I have been a chartered member of CILIP for more years than I care to to remember and for the last few years I have been asking myself the same questions - am I going to renew my susbscription this year? Is it actually worth the money? What do I get out out of it?
I have renewed and that has been due to the raised profile of CILIP in the media.
The network I do use use most is the SLN forum where school librarians share good practice, news and experiences via Yahoo groups. This network is a lifeline for us school librarians where we are often single-staffed without a wider professional network. In Leicestershire we are lucky to have a vibrant and effective SLS but this is not the case for many areas. The SLS arrange termly meetings to share good practice, developments and news. Previously they have arranged CPD but in recent years this has been reduced and we are looking at new ways of providing CPD. Libteachmeets seem to be becoming increasingly popular and we are looking at utilising this approach -is this informal system the way forward for networks?

Thing 5 (cont): Reflective practice

I have completed my sessions with post 16 students - over 4 lessons and 3 weeks. I set outwith the objectives of  showing them
How to structure an effective resrearch strategy;
Introduce new resources that they may not be familiar with;
Plagiarism and referencing;
Structuring a report

I had introduced it with a PowerPoint and gave them a work book and tasks to do and used Herring's PLUS model to try and give them a structure to work round.

Planning before they sat down at a computer was not something they had really done before - breaking down their question into smaller subquestions and finding keywords. I used the 8Q model (http://www.teachingexpertise.com/e-bulletins/enquiry-tools-promoting-emotional-engagement-and-ownership-3593) to formulate questions and identify areas that they wanted to concentrate on and set parameters for their work. I find it fascinating how the majority of the students don't seem to do this before they sit down at a computer - that they jump on Google type in a search term and pick the first couple of entries they come across.

I introduced them to the e-resources we held and to subject gateways and then encouraged them to refer back to their questions as they searched for information.

Plagiarism and referencing is the most difficult area to cover in my opinion - how do you make it interesting? I recently discovered the University of Manchester's resources to support the EPQ which have proved to be a bonus and have tried some of their resources to some effect http://www.manchester.ac.uk/undergraduate/schoolsandcolleges/post-16/epq/support/.

Students were surprised that they were having to spend so long on the planning and locate stage when as  one student said - when can I start writing? For some it was a completely different way of working.

When I did the final session on structuring a report  and told them to start by writing their conclusion - I think that really turned everything on the head for them! I used DMU's HEAT toolkit which has some wonderful resources which can be used for all ages with some tweaking http://www.library.dmu.ac.uk/Support/Heat/ .They had never been shown how to work in this way before and I think that the process I took them though over the 3 weeks was totally alien for many of them.

Thinking over the sessions I feel that the jump from GCSE to Alevels is,  as many of us know, a much bigger jump than the students realise (till much later) and I also think that there is confusion between working independently and indepedent working - students can only carry our independent work when thay have been gven the skills to work indepedently and this in my view means taking them back to the basics. My current school is post 14 -19 so is somewhat of an exam factory -the  focus is on the end goal of passing the exams but we need to equip them with more skills than the ability to pass an exam, maybe equipping them with those skills will raise the attainment in the long term -but that means eating in to the time to focus on the syllabus - a catch-22 situation.

Thing 5: Reflective practice

I'm always aware that I need to reflect more in my job but using a blog to do this seemed too time consuming - having to set it up/update it and too public!

In my post I constantly tell students that they need to self-evaluate - reflect on what they've done and what they could have done to improve it and what they are going to do next time -  but I don't do it myself!

In September I started a Masters. My first assignment was a reflective essay on the work I had done at my previous school on the Extended Project Qualification with recommendations for what could be done at my current school. Writing that piece made me stop and think about the work I had done over the previous 5 years with students from KS3 to KS5. I realised that I had been constantly tweaking sessions expanding and reducing them to fit the available time and abilities of the students but I hadn't recorded it anywhere. I had looked at exam criteria for the EPQ, resources available, produced a toolkit to support students learning and record keeping so that they could reflect on what they had learnt - but I hadn't done any of this myself. The only physical evidence I had was the versions of the toolkit (now on version 5), two reports analysing two questionnaires that students had done and memories of discussions that I had had with the Director of Learning who was responsible for the EPQ. How much easier my life, and essay, would have been if I had taken time to record my thoughts on the toolkit, the successes and failures of the teaching tasks that I had done and to record student observations.

After half-term I start teaching year 12s for the first time in my new school, this is new for my school who have never had a Librarian that has done this before and will be a new experience for me in this school.

I have gone back to my toolkit to tweak it for the students who are going to be doing a 5 week research project. I have looked at the PowerPoint I have created and some of the tasks that I have used in the past to try teach students how to use e-resources and catalogues, how to reference and to try and teach them about plagiarism - always an exciting topic!

I have decided that I am going to use this blog to evaluate those sessions and see what worked well, what didn't and how I am going to improve those sessions. So watch this space.....