Don’t forget that your library is available 24/7 over the holiday break. Use the Brytewave K-12 app to download ebooks/audiobooks on your devices for hours of fun!
We love book recommendations, so stop by the library in January and let us know what you’ve read!
Hour of Code is a global movement to encourage students to spend one hour learning more about computer science. The library teamed up with the Computer Science department again this year to come up with a fun way to celebrate. Some of our current computer science students worked together to create a project using the Tickle App that allowed students to program a sphero ball to complete a maze. Students worked together in teams to see how fast they could complete four different mazes.
The smiles and the cheering when the mazes were conquered proved how much fun these students had coding!
Mr. Tully, one of our computer science teachers, showing students how to code the sphero using the tickle app.
One of our senior computer science student demonstrates how to code using the Tickle app.
I see coding in your future…
Check out these successful maze videos!
Congrats to @M_Tuts, @briantreylai, & @josephnewell14 for coding a successful sphero maze! #HourOfCode #fp1440 pic.twitter.com/qdxKemZ6zb
— Tompkins Library (@TompkinsLibrary) December 10, 2015
Success at today’s #HourOfCode! #fp1440 pic.twitter.com/h4D2zOjVwM
— Tompkins Library (@TompkinsLibrary) December 9, 2015
If you haven’t jumped into the world of Lunars and cyborgs, now is the time! Author Marissa Meyer just released Winter, the final book in her epic sci-fi series, The Lunar Chronicles, and it did not disappoint.
In the Lunar Chronicles, Marissa Meyer takes classic fairy tales and adds a sci-fi element to create a completely new story with hints of the fairy tale throughout each book. Meyer must have done incredible research when writing these books because there are so many direct correlations to the fairy tale that fit so nicely into the story. The book Winter loosely follows the tale of Snow White. Winter (Snow White) eats an apple candy that was poisoned by the evil Queen and then falls into a deep sleep. Although she doesn’t wake with the kiss of a prince, she does wake from a delusional state by the kiss from her true love. There are lots of other correlations, but I’ll let you read them for yourself.
At 800+ pages, Winter is not a quick read, but not a long read, either. The story is full of action with lots of twists and turns. I highly recommend this series for any sci-fi fan!
Read more about Lunar History HERE!
We have 2 copies available for checkout in the library, but if you want a head start, you can download chapters 1 & 2 of Winter for free HERE!
One of my favorite lessons of the year is Book Spine Poetry. Freshmen English classes have been discussing poetry in literature and came into the library to create their own poetry from titles of books.
Students were encouraged to create a poem about a feeling/emotion using 4-6 books. They looked at different book titles throughout the library that supported their topic and stacked them on top of each other to create a stanza. Some even used the catalog and performed title searches to find just the right book. 🙂
After students created their poem, they had to present it to their teacher, Coach Brown, and explain the meaning of the poem and what inspired them to create it. The students were so thoughtful in their explanations, which led to other great discussions!
This poem led to a great discussion about what makes a good leader. These students are incredibly insightful!
The author of this poem stated that this poem was about “fake friends”.
The 12 Days of Technology is something I started with my staff last year. It introduces them to technology that they may consider implementing into their classroom. I also include some kind of activity/holiday trivia for staff members to participate in that increases their chances to win “bookish” holiday crafts made by the Tompkins Library Staff.
Here’s how it works:
1. Click on a different tag each day and read about the highlighted technology.
2. Follow the directions at the bottom of each daily slide to enter the drawing for your chance to win a “bookish” holiday craft!
3. Winners will be announced on Friday, December 18th!
Bring on the 12 Days of Technology!!
