Normal 0 false false false MicrosoftInternetExplorer4 st2\:*{behavior:url(#ieooui) }st1\:*{behavior:url(#ieooui) } /* Style Definitions */ table.MsoNormalTable {mso-style-name:"Table Normal"; mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0; mso-tstyle-colband-size:0; mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-parent:""; mso-padding-alt:0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; mso-para-margin:0in; mso-para-margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:10.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-ansi-language:#0400; mso-fareast-language:#0400; mso-bidi-language:#0400;} Ten things you need to know about online classes, with a little help from the Beatles (by GraceAnne A. DeCandido, for my graduate classes at Rutgers 8/2009) Normal 0 false false false MicrosoftInternetExplorer4 /* Style Definitions */ table.MsoNormalTable {mso-style-name:"Table Normal"; mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0; mso-tstyle-colband-size:0; mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-parent:""; mso-padding-alt:0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; mso-para-margin:0in; mso-para-margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:10.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-ansi-language:#0400; mso-fareast-language:#0400; mso-bidi-language:#0400;} 1. The Long and Winding Road : Taking a class online is more work than an in-person class. You have to read more and faster, interact with your classmates more, log in almost daily to see what is going on, and keep up.   2. We Can Work It Out : Everybody has a life.

Winnie the Pooh and friends are back at the Children's Center at 42nd Street, New York Public Library. Pooh, Eeyore, Piglet and others of the beloved A.A. Milne characters, originally the toys of Christopher Robin Milne, are back and accepting visitors at the Children's Center at 42nd Street of the New York Public Library.

The January 2009 issue of Horn Book contains an article I wrote (with much delight) on the new, 35th anniversary edition of Free to be ...

I had the honor of being the keynote speaker for the Southeast Chapter of the Pennsylvania Library Association in King of Prussia PA on October 17, 2008.

I read my course evaluations today. I always try to read them with an open mind and heart. It is lovely to read that most of the students I teach love my courses, love the readings, and love the intensely interactive style of my online classes.

One of the most profound and satisfying parts of online teaching in children’s and Young Adult literature   is how it enables so intimate a relationship between the books and the students. Students must wrestle with the books; they must write about them; they must respond to their classmates and the instructor’s ideas and see how they fit into or reflect their own. In a virtual way, it is close to the kind of instruction traditionally given at Oxford, where a small group of students meets with a tutor, gets reading and writing assignments, and then returns to discuss them. That’s how we do it.

Philip Pullman, author of the fabulous trilogy His Dark Materials , was interviewed tonight by Charles McGrath before an avid and eager audience about writing, about stories, and about the upcoming Golden Compass movie. The New York Times Center is a fine space: and you can see some of how fine here http://thetimescenter.com/ Chip McGrath, writer at large (what a lovely title) for the NYTimes interviewed Philip Pullman for about an hour and then Philip took questions from the audience. I cannot guess numbers of those present, but the range of   ages was great: children from Lyra’s and Will’s age to Philip’s age (which is also mine, that is, early 60s). It was easy and funny and wise. &

Today I got to see and to hear Jo Rowling at Carnegie Hall, in the company of 1600   NYC schoolchildren. Wow. She is the perfect author.

One of my graduate students has objected to two particular titles in Materials for Young Adults on religious grounds. I thought I would post some of my thinking and some of my responses to her to this blog for my colleagues. Please know this is a work in progress, and the situation is still in a fluid state.

I have been teaching online classes and hybrid classes since 2000: I love teaching, and I love teaching online. I have worked hard at trying to produce a three-minute conversation for people who are skeptical, horrified, or mildly interested in praise of online teaching and learning. What I would also like to share are two articles I have published about it:   Horn Book , May/June 2002,   p293-298. &