Monday, October 09, 2017

The World Wide Web Has Made The World Small

Wednesday, September 20, 2017


Eighth-grade teacher, Geri Rydz, casually asked me, “Do you have any books to recommend to my eighth-grade students?”
I replied that I certainly did. I have 130 books that Chip and I have reviewed on Too Much Scrolling over the last 170 weeks. We have kept a database of the whole list at http://books.toomuchscrolling.com
I walked in to her first hour class, after morning announcements, and gave them a summary of five books:
  • The Punch Escrow by Tal M. Klein
  • Angel Killer by Andrew Mayne
  • A God in the Shed by J-F Dubeau
  • Ready Player One by Ernest Cline
  • Pilot X by Tom Merritt
I left quickly after my presentation and wondered if any of my recommendations would be accepted. Geri Rydz found me later in the day to report that 4 of the titles were selected.
I decided to take a picture of the students’ exit slips and posted them on Twitter, tagging each of the four authors.
Four of the authors replied. They were all excited that students would choose their work for school.
I was so excited that they were engaged in this process so I emailed each of them and asked if they were willing to record a video greeting, naming the specific students.
Three of the authors, Tom Merritt, Tal M. Klein, and Andrew Mayne all recorded a personal message for these students. https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLu9K79vIYfVdsGbiCePM38bg81GK0Wk1u I was beside myself!
As they came in, I kept messaging Geri Rydz with updates. She was as star-struck as I was (maybe even more so).
Monday morning, I returned to the class to share the messages. The students were even more excited than we were.
The lesson to learn here is that the world wide web has made the world very small and we have access to anyone on that web of information. If you have something you want to know more about, ask the source. They might be very excited to hear you ask too.  

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