John Newbery Award

I worked with 6th graders last week to talk about the John Newbery Award for children’s literature. Students enjoyed hearing about the history of the award and looking at the books that won the award in the 20s and 30s. I showed them a poster with all the winners from 1922 to 2010, talked about the runner’s up books called Newbery Honor winners, and did booktalks on When You Reach Me (2010 winner) and The Graveyard Book (2009 winner). I showed book trailers for them too. I ended the lesson with a challenge. Only five authors have won the Newbery Award twice. Who are they?

The Newbery Award – PPT

Accelerated Reader Top Ten for April/May

Congratulations to the students who earned the most Accelerated Reader points in each grade for April/May.  Students must maintain an 85 average on their quizzes to be included.  I have the top ten lists posted on the wall in the media center. All names on the list were placed in a drawing for five students to win coupons for a free vanilla cone from Sonic. Winners are Hassan W, Emma T, Macy N, Trevor P, and Monisha T.

          6th grade                        7th grade                              8th grade

Crystina F	155.2		Ted G	226		Andrew W	114
Hasaan W	90		Lyndsey W	107		Kristen K	101.6
John C	82.8		Chris K	79.7		George G	93.3
Sampada C	81.8		Kevin L	69.3		Sara B	72.2
Gabriel H	75.2		Emma T	61.6		Trevor P	66.2
Sabrina V	55.4		Allie L	45.9		Sydney D	57.9
Janae M	40.9		Whitt V	44.1		Chelsea W	56.2
Macy N	40.6		Monisha T	41.1		Tyler P	52.4
John J	40		Saderrick B	38.9		Ben L	50.6
Timara B	39		Dijona A	36		Loren E	40.6

New Books in the Library!

We received over 125 new books and Accelerated Reader quizzes this month. Make sure to stop by to check them out!

Can’t see the above slide show? Check out the collages below.

Liberty County Technology Conference

I attended the technology conference today in Liberty County in Hinesville and wanted to share some of the highlights from the two sessions I attended. In Freeloader’s Guide to Educational Software  Daniel Rivera shared wonderful Open Source software available on the web:

Crayon Physics – Crayon Physics is a 2D physics game, in which solve puzzles with your artistic vision and creative use of physics.

Art Rage 2 – ArtRage, the easy to use, stylish painting package that lets you get painting from the moment you open it up. You can paint with oils, sketch with pencils, sprinkle glitter, and more. You can paint with gold leaf, silver foil, and other metallic colors.

Picasa 3 – Picasa is software that makes it easy to view, organize, edit and share the digital photos on your PC. You can cut, crop, resize, straighten, or touch up your photos with a few clicks. 
Celestia – Celestia is a simulation of the entire universe, based on current astronomical information. It includes beautifully rendered planets, moons, and some smaller orbital bodies such as Mir and the International Space Station. You can visit other stars or even travel outside the galaxy.

Geogebra – lets you create constructions with points, vectors, segments, lines, and conical sections as well as functions. You can change them later as well. You can also enter coordinates and equations directly, including variables, of course.

In the second session Web 2.0 Nibblets: Nom, Nom, Nom , we divided into groups and investigated different Web 2.0 technologies:

Drop.io – Simple real-time sharing, collaboration, and presentation.
Use drop.io to privately share your files and collaborate in real time by web, email, phone, mobile, and more. Create each drop in two clicks and share what you want, how you want, with whom you want.

Remember the Milk – Managing tasks is generally not a fun way to spend your time. They created Remember The Milk so that you no longer have to write your to-do lists on sticky notes, whiteboards, random scraps of paper, or the back of your hand.

Glogster – Simply put, Glog is a kind of poster – fully designed by yourself! Glog is a fancy creation from text, images, music and video. No matter if it is colorful, sexy or emo. Your Glog will stand out. It gives you a perfect tool to express yourself.

Prezi – A presentation tool using a map layout and zooming to show contextual relationships

Cacoo – Cacoo is a user friendly online drawing tool that allows you to create a variety of diagrams such as site maps, wire frames, UML and network charts.

Edmodo – Edmodo is an online classroom communications tool for teachers and students to share Notes, Files, links, and assignments.

New Books in the Library!

We received over 125 new books and Accelerated Reader quizzes this month. Make sure to stop by to check them out!

Can’t see the above slide show? Check out the collage below.

April is National Library Month

In celebration of National Library Month, the media center has a few activities going on to encourage students to visit. We have a contest in which students could win a free book. Faculty members were polled to find out their favorite children’s book. Students have to match the books to the correct faculty member. The person with the most correct answers wins a copy of Ripley’s Believe It or Not 2010. Entry forms can be found in the pocket on the bulletin board outside the media center. Book club members have assisted with creating Wordles on their favorite book. Many of these are on the bulletin board.  Check them out and see if you can guess the book they are describing. Best-selling author, Patrick Carman will be visiting via virtual chat. He is the author of Skeleton Creek, Ghost in the Machine, The Land of Elyon series, and Black Circle, the fifth book in the 39 Clues series. Details are coming soon. In addition, all during the month book trailers will be featured on the morning news program. Book club member also helped with a PSA about National Library Month. Check out the video below.Can’t see the video below? Try this link.

Check out these READ posters that we have outside the media center doors…..

Can’t see the above slide show? Check out the collages below.

April Newsletter

Check out what’s going on in the media center this month~

April Newsletter – PDF

Accelerated Reader Top Ten for February/March

Congratulations to the students who earned the most Accelerated Reader points in each grade for February/March.  Students must maintain an 85 average on their quizzes to be included.  I have the top ten lists posted on the wall in the media center. All names on the list were placed in a drawing for five students to win coupons for a free vanilla cone from Sonic or a free blizzard from the Dairy Queen. Winners are Dallas B, Saderrick B, Auston M, Victoria A, and Chelsea W.

6th grade			7th grade			8th grade
Sampada C	120.4		Ted G	387.9		Lexie H	185.7
Gabriel H	106.6		Chris K	221.7		Andrew W	76
Sabrina V	90.2		Whitt V	147.3		Bre’Anna M	60.3
Macy N	78.6		Saderrick B	95.2		Sydney D	55.1
Crystina F	76		Lyndsey W	80.9		Kristen K	48.8
John C	59.6		Kevin L	75.6		George G	42
Brenden J	47.7		Dallas B	53.1		Stephanie S	37.2
Timara B	44.4		Katie W	38.2		Victoria A	32.6
Katherine P	43		Dymond C	36.7		Hunter D	31
Auston M	35.7		Scarlet S	33.4		Chelsea W	26.1

The Camera Does Lie-Retouched Magazine Photos

Did you know that up to 99% of images in magazines are retouched? Mrs. Anderson brought her students in this week for a lesson on the false messages the media sends with retouched photos. Students viewed several before and after shots of celebrities to see just how much digital editing is done. In addition, they viewed the Dove Evolution video which shows the audience a magazine cover photo shoot from start to finish. It starts with the model with no make-up, then she is made-up, hair is done, pictures are taken, the final photo is digitally retouched on the computer, and finally we see the completed billboard ad. So how do the experts do it? They use digital editors to “fix” all those flaws. I taught the classes how to use FotoFlexer, an online image editor. They were able to see just how easy it is for the experts to change the original photos. Highlights included smoothing out wrinkles and shrinking that waistline.

Can’t see the video below? Try this link.

Media Literacy-Retouched Magazine Images

Mr. Yawn Goes to Jail to Support MDA

To support the MDA (Muscular Dystrophy Association) in its efforts to continue vital research for treatment and a possible cure for muscular dystrophy, principal Mike Yawn agreed to go to jail Wednesday, March 10th until he could raise enough money to post bail. Students in the Jr. Beta Club have been stationed in front of the media center for the past two weeks taking donations and pleading with students and faculty to help out.  A police officer arrived this morning and escorted Mr. Yawn via patrol car to the “lock-up” where he will remain in jail until local citizens come to his aid with the bail money. Everyone needs to pull out their wallets and make donations so we can get Mr. Yawn back to WJMS!

Can’t see the above slide show? Check out the collage below.

Spring Book Fair a Success

Thanks so much to everyone for helping to make this book fair a success! The media center made over $475 and received $450 in books. Ted G. won the skittles contest with his guess of 59,174 words in Sent by Margaret Peterson Haddix. The poster winners are listed below. These students will be called throughout the day to come pick up their poster.

Kim G, Sara Jane B, Trisha M, Codie M, Dylan C, Kayla W, Chris C, Jerquale L, Shayla J, Taylor R, John J, Frank H, Colin C, Pierce L, Ashleigh T, Jasmine J, Morgan B, Nick A, JeMarsha B, Omar T, Rebecca L, Chant’e B, Margaret H, Trevor D, Andrian K, Matthew S, Mallory H, and Ricky W.

March Newsletter

Check out what’s going on this month in the media center~

March Newsletter – PDF

Spring Book Fair Scheduled

Book Fair Promotions:

We will have a “Bonus Buck” drawing for every class that visits the book fair.  Each of the chairs in the media center is numbered.  I will draw a number and the student in the winning seat will win a free “Bonus Buck” to spend in the book fair.

Each of the 28 posters will be prizes in another drawing.  Each student that visits the book fair will be given a slip of paper.  They will need to put their name and homeroom teacher’s name on the paper and place it in the box in the media center.  For every $1 they spend in the book fair, they will receive an additional slip of paper.  At the end of the book fair I will draw 28 names from all the slips of paper for the winners of the posters.

Guess the correct number of words in the book Sent by Margaret Peterson Haddix and students can win a jar full of skittles. Each guess is $.25.

The Name of This Book is Secret by Pseudonymous Bosch

Warning: this description has not been authorized by Pseudonymous Bosch. As much as he’d love to sing the praises of his book (he is very vain), he wouldn’t want you to hear about his brave 11-year old heroes, Cass and Max-Ernest. Or about how a mysterious box of vials, the Symphony of Smells, sends them on the trail of a magician who has vanished under strange (and stinky) circumstances. And he certainly wouldn’t want you to know about the hair-raising adventures that follow and the nefarious villains they face. You see, not only is the name of this book secret, the story inside is, too. For it concerns a secret. A Big Secret.

Website

Interactive Website

Reading Guide

Quiz

Educator’s Guide

The sequel is If You’re Reading This, It’s Too Late. Here’s a sneak preview…

Can’t see video? Try this link.

February Newsletter

Check out what is going on this month in the media center ~

February 2010-PDF

Rules by Cynthia Lord

“No toys in the fish tank.” “A boy takes off his shirt to swim, but not his shorts.” These are some of the many rules 12-year-old Catherine has for her autistic younger brother, David, to help him cope with others. Catherine loves her brother but is frustrated dealing with his autism. His needs always come first in the family. While attending David’s therapy sessions Catherine meets Jason, a boy who can only talk using cards. This opens a whole new world for Catherine and helps her to appreciate her special brother.

Good Book

Black History Month

We have many resources available for Black History Month in the media center.  I have put together a resource list in Destiny, our library catalog.  To access this list, go to Destiny and click on Resource Lists on the left-hand side of the page.  Click the Public Lists tab and then click Black History Resources.   To access appropriate web sites, click the Online Resources tab.

Accelerated Reader Top Ten for December/January

Congratulations to the students who earned the most Accelerated Reader points in each grade for December/January.  Students must maintain an 85 average on their quizzes to be included.  I have the top ten lists posted on the wall in the media center. All names on the list were placed in a drawing for five students to win coupons from Sonic for a free vanilla cone.  Winners are Sabrina V, Landon H, Janae M, Sydney D, and Sampada C.

6th grade                        7th grade                         8th grade

Sampada C	162.1		Ted G	332.4		Mckenzie G	139
Gabriel H	161.6		Chris K	188.8		Andrew W	120.8
John  C	83.3		Whitt V	112.8		George G	89.7
Brenden J	82.9		Hannah S	71.4		Tyler P	75
Timara B	68		Saderrick B	53.9		Stephanie S	71
Sabrina V	60.5		Monisha T	47.6		Loren E	65
Shaye S	59.5		Dallas B	39.3		Sydney D	61
Janae M	46.8		Allie L	36.6		Kristen K	60.7
Macy N	46		Emma G	31		Sara B	60.5
Makenna M	45.5		Landon H	31		Laney C	50

Bulloch County Technology Day

I enjoyed the Bulloch County Technology Day held on January 4th at Southeast Bulloch High School and learned about so many great resources. Over 35 different sessions were held on topics such as podcasting, blogging, file management, computer maintenance, free educational software online, Photo Story 3, and Glogster. I taught the classes on What’s the Big Deal About Blogs? and Book Trailers: Not Your Typical Book Report.  I attended sessions on digital photo editing with GIMP, and using FLIP video cameras with Windows Movie Maker. Resources for the sessions can be found on our school’s Homer server in the Techday directory and RESA’s ETC page. Thanks so much to our county’s technology team for putting together such a great opportunity for faculty.

Class Sessions Offered

January 2010 Media Newsletter

Check out what is going on this month in the media center ~

January 2010 – PDF