Adventures with Iowa High School Battle of the Books

WHAT A DAY?  Imagine spending the morning with almost 100 students that have all read the same 30+ books, actively engaged in friendly competition about BOOKS?  It's library heaven!

Today, MHS hosted the Grand Battle for the Iowa High School Battle of the Books.  The state finals included 16 teams from around the state battling trivia from 30+ books on this year's list.  I heard high schoolers rock-solid with book knowledge congratulate others, clap for others, cheer each other on, and have a wonderful time discussing award-winning literature.  I saw coaches (teachers and librarians) bring their students from all over the state of Iowa, some leaving before dawn today; some traveled yesterday and spent the night in Marshalltown.  I saw volunteers, my friends and colleagues, give of their time and talent to provide a challenging and entertaining time for the battlers.  Was it a lot of work?  You bet.  But the smiles, hugs, kids reading, and friendly competition makes it all worthwhile!

My fellow teacher at MHS, Susan Fritzell, and I started IHSBOB years ago to meet the requests of some of our incoming freshmen.  They had participated in Battle of the Books at middle school and elementary levels and wanted the same in high school.  Problem was, we couldn't find a high school competition in Iowa.  So we made up our own.  In 2008, the competition was open only to schools in AEA267 (we had no idea what we were doing!).  After a successful year, we went state-wide.  Each year more teams register and compete...this year 98 teams registered.  We now have a full committee, a Google Sites website, Twitter and Facebook.  Lesson learned -- if you can't find what you want, create your own!

Check out our day at https://sites.google.com/site/ihsbobooks/home

Next year?  Absolutely!

Multi-posting

A colleague shared with me today that I can email my posts (and same for Twitter and Facebook).  This is way too cool.  Amazing for me, ordinary for him.  Thanks Sam!

My ordinary may be someone's amazing?

In thinking about 2012 IASL in Des Moines today, I'm encouraged to dust off this Blogger account I created YEARS ago and start contributing.  I'm an avid reader of blogs, wikis, nings, twitter, facebook, but I don't take the time to reflect and contribute.  So, a new leaf turning....and one I hope to keep up.  Just starting, so don't expect too much, but I'll try not to disappoint!  Thanks Barbara Stripling and Iowa Teacher Librarians for "provoking" me!