One Man’s Trash

We check out classroom sets of supplemental books from our library. Unfortunately, students can not check out a book if they have something overdue. This turns into a sour subject. Students make grand statements, like "Fine, if I fail English it will be your fault". OK, I don't think that is correct, but anyway, I found the answer. Instead of throwing away the old discard copies of classroom sets, I now keep them. We call them trash copies. If you have an overdue, then you take a trash copy. It is falling apart and we don’t care if we ever see it again. Return your overdues and you can check out a book with all of its pages. It works great. The picture shows our collection of trash copies to be given away. There are kept in a back room.

Recycling and Cute to Boot

We have four rather large showcases outside our Library (silly architect)! Mind you, they are showcases not bulletin boards, so they need to have 3D items in them. One of my pet peeves is an empty showcase or bulletin board. Here is what I came up with as a quick fix, when other groups are not using the showcase and they are empty. I collect very large cardboard boxes (like filing cabinet boxes) and cut them into large panels for drawing. Then I use that old monster called the Opaque Projector to draw on the cardboard panels. I use things like clipart books that are not copy righted. Once I have the picture outlined in pencil, I trace over it with black marker, paint it, and cut it out with a hobby knife or box cutter. The figures are almost life size--each has a word bubble sign. It only takes a few minutes to put them in or take them out of the showcases. I have made several sets that I will just reuse. Click on the slideshare below to see our latest display!

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Altered books--or a positive thing to do with Discarded Books!

Would you like to have teachers begging you for discarded books? If so, talk them in to doing a project with discarded library books as a culminating activity for a unit on a novel, or anything else that requires a creative approach! Our English 10 teacher had students make an Altered Book using as a culminating activity for their class. In the past, the book may have focused on a book they studied during the year that they liked, but the two pictured were made as a way to review the highlights from all their work in English 10 (World Lit for us). One of the books also contains poems and creative writing from the class as well. This activity greatly appeals to students who enjoy scrapbooking, or working with their hands to create. Think of students who need that creative expression.

Here are some websites and books to guide you:

Incredible Art Department Altered Book Lesson

TeacherTube videos on Altered Books (pull the page down--there are 3 from a teacher High School Teacher)

Lesson on Altered Books at Young Poets

What are Altered Books at Michael's Arts and Crafts

Altered Books on Squidoo

We bought these books for our collection for the students to use as examples:

702 ARE
Arendt, Madeline. Altered art for the first time. New York :
Sterling Pub., c2005.
http://www.amazon.com/Altered-first-time-First-Time/dp/1402716559/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1201364783&sr=1-1

702 BRA
Brazelton, Bev, 1946-. Altered books workshop : 18 creative
techniques for self-expression. Cincinnati, Ohio : North
Light Books, c2004.
http://www.amazon.com/Altered-Books-Workshop-Techniques-Self-Expression/dp/B000X1N3PU/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1201365061&sr=1-1

702 HAR
Harrison, Holly. Altered books, collaborative journals, and
other adventures in bookmaking. Gloucester, Mass. :
Rockport, c2003. http://www.amazon.com/Altered-Collaborative-Journals-Adventures-Bookmaking/dp/1564969959/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1201365154&sr=1-1


702 MAT
Matthiessen, Barbara. Altered book collage. New York :
Sterling, c2005.
http://www.amazon.com/Altered-Collaborative-Journals-Adventures-Bookmaking/dp/1564969959/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1201365154&sr=1-1

702 mic
Michel, Karen. The complete guide to altered imagery : for
collage, altered books, artists journals, and more.
Gloucester, Mass. : Quarry Books, 2005.
http://www.amazon.com/Complete-Guide-Altered-Imagery-Mixed-Media/dp/1592531776/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1201365406&sr=1-1

745.593 URE
Ure, Susan. The altered book scrapbook. Ogden, UT : Chappelle,
c2006.
http://www.amazon.com/Altered-Book-Scrapbook-Susan-Ure/dp/1402752024/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1201365258&sr=1-1

Geez, now that I am looking at this list from my Bookbag on OPAC, I am wondering why they aren't cataloged together. Lucy and Ethel will have to work on that in our spare time!

Jazz it up! Recycle and Reuse

Our school has some really old looking AV carts rolling around in it. When the teachers come to check one out and we try to give them the old green cart instead of the newer black ones, they whine, "Can I have that one over there? It's prettier". This drives me crazy so I started thinking about how can I give these poor unattractive carts a make-over. Here's what I came up with. Details:

Can of black spray paint - Wal-Mart $0.96.

2 Grip-It-No-Slip Placemats on Clearance - Targets $0.25 each.

Can of green paint I picked up from the school yard the Sunday after Homecoming. I try to go out to the school the weekend after homecoming. Kids have taken apart their floats and have left wonderful treasures behind.

A little creativity and about an hour of my time total. (10 minutes spray painting it black, 45 minutes painting dots.)

Ta Da! Now every teacher wants to check out "my little Pygmalion"

Options: I have also just painted them a pretty color and used one roll of the Grip-It-No-Slip shelf liner from Dollar Tree to cover the shelfs. ($1.00 per roll - one roll will make a runner down 3 shelves). If you don't have the time, energy, or talent, send the carts to your art department and let the students jazz them up.

Give us your ideas

Lucy, Ethel, and environmental awareness

Lucy and Ethel try to model sound environmental practices to our high school students and faculty. We run recycled paper through our printers (we did warn our faculty that we were doing this). We took apart our vertical files (gasp), and reused the paper in it, even though some of it was 15 years old. We found a site we'd like to share with our fellow media folks, as it contains a fundraising idea-selling reusable grocery bags, an idea we really like. Check out the ChicoBags fundraiser site by clicking here. You'll also find a shopping site there as well--Ethel has tried and uses their green bags for produce. She gives them high marks. I am going to purchase 1 reusable bag for each family member for Christmas! We are waiting to hear from ChicoBags --we'd like to sell them to make a little money for the library--and to educate our students along the way!