Learning through Books, Media and Technology

ARTICLES THIS ISSUE:

1995 Administrative Leadership Award for Library Media Services

1995 President's Award Winner

1995 Technology Award

Editorial: Highlighting the Arts

Seurat, Haiku, Computers, Murals...

Keywords for the Fine Arts

Library Bids on Bach's Lunches

Quilting Gifts for the Community

Using the Arts to Understand

"Do We Get to Come Back Tomorrow?"

Intersecting disciplines

Good Ideas! Updates

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Seurat, Haiku, Computers, Murals…

Rossmoor School

Jennifer Suggs, Sarah Driscoll, and Charis Parsons display their creative computer art.

Books are the basis for most activities within the Rossmoor media center, but the follow-up to books may range from discussions about Braille, to map study, to creative art projects, to the use of computers in the creation of haiku, to using watercolors for murals and paintings - to almost anything.

In her monthly editions of "Media Center News," library media teacher Cynthia Carlson narrates her own tale of activities, a kaleidoscope of adventures with books and media, comments and praise about aides and volunteers, and anecdotes about the responses of children. For example, she notes that in the art lab (part of the media center), Joyce's group "is working on a series of pictures 'in the style of' that will eventually be part of a calendar the fifth graders will be making for holiday gifts. They started with an upside-down drawing of a Georges Seurat painting."

The "in the style of" project also included research about six different artists using print and nonprint information. Students were able to see at least one example of the work of each artist on the computer screen. Finally, they used word processing to create captions for their paintings.

It is clear from her newsletter that Cindie values the art of illustration as well as the words of the books she shares with children, thus deepening their appreciation and helping to sharpen their perception. She helps children play with words and is quick to point out the humor that might otherwise escape them.

• Rossmoor School (Grades K-5; enrollment 630)
  3272 Shakespeare Drive, Los Alamitos 90720; (310) 596-9315
  Laurel Telfer, Principal
  Cynthia Carlson, Library Media Teacher
  Los Alamitos Unified School District