A successful first Falcon Book Club!

The Falcon Book Club started the school year off right…by reading! More than 25 students sign up to participate in our very first book club! Our first book selection was The City of Bones by Cassandra Clare .

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Students read the book, participated in an optional Edmodo discussion, and went to see the movie. The culminating activity was a group discussion after school.

Students were excited to munch on some goodies, win some door prizes, and discuss this popular book with their peers. We even had a couple of faculty members join us for the discussion!

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The City of Bones was a great book to begin our Falcon Book Club with. We will continue the tradition with The Book Thief by Markus Zusak during the month of October. We hope to attend the movie that will premiere in November, too. Stay tuned…

Celebrate Banned Books Week with the Tompkins Library!

Banned Books Week  is an annual event celebrating the freedom to read and highlights the value of free and open access to information.

The Tompkins Library will be celebrating the week of September 23 – 27.

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Staff and students can come by the library and get their “mug shot” taken for reading banned books!

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Students can participate in a contest by trying to guess the title of the challenged/banned book in the jar. Do your research! There is a Chick fil A sandwich on the line!

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Check out our library displays and find a good banned to check out…and READ it!

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Celebrate your fREADdom to read at the Tompkins HS Library!

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Five YA authors coming are to Houston!

Do you like Paranormal and Dystopian books? If so, plan to stop by Blue Willow Bookshop on Friday, September 27th at 7:00pm to meet five amazing YA authors on the DARK DAYS tour.

Rae Carson – THE BITTER KINGDOM
Michelle Gagnon – DON’T LOOK NOW
Mindy McGinnis – NOT A DROP TO DRINK
Madeleine Roux – ASYLUM
Sherry Thomas – THE BURNING SKY

Katy ISD’s very own Erin Segreto, CRJH librarian, will be moderating the event.

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Stay in touch with Remind101.

The Tompkins Library will be using Remind101 to send out information about book clubs, author visits, and more. All you need to do is text a code to a particular phone number. You can get both the code and phone number in the library. You can also set up your account to receive either text messages or emails. It’s your choice! What an easy way to stay up to date with the happenings in the library!

View this brief video for more information on how to use Remind101.

Remind 101 Promo Video from Ray Media Productions on Vimeo.

We will never forget 9/11/01.

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The Tompkins Library is honoring the 9/11 heroes by displaying books and encouraging students and staff to NEVER FORGET.

Here are a few books the library has to offer:

what we sawWhat We Saw by CBS News

Examines the events of September 11, 2001, and its aftermath in images, words, and other forms of media, from the reporting of CBS News journalists, the first interviews, and eyewitness accounts, and includes coverage of the crash of United Airlines Flight 93, documentary footage, and more.

 

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We’re Not Leaving: 9/11 responders tell their stories of courage, sacrifice, and renewal by Benjamin Luft

A compilation of powerful first-person narratives told from the vantage point of World Trade Center disaster workers-police officers, firefighters, construction workers, and other volunteers at the site.While the effects of 9/11 on these everyday heroes and heroines are indelible, and in some cases have been devastating, at the heart of their deeply personal stories-their harrowing escapes from the falling Towers, the egregious environment they worked in for months, the alarming health effects they continue to deal with-is their witness to their personal strength and renewal in the ten years since.

dog heroesDog Heroes of September 11th: a tribute to America’s search and rescue dogs by Nona Kilgore Bauer

An illustrated documentation of the efforts of eighty search-dog handlers and their dogs after the events of September 11, 2001, describing their work at the World Trade Center, the Pentagon, the Fresh Kills landfill, and the Shanksville, Pennsylvania, crash site and discussing how dogs have been used in Iraq and Afghanistan and other post-9/11 rescue missions.

 Copyright © 2013 Follett Library Resources, Inc.

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 Stop by the library and check out a book about 9/11 to learn more!

 

Weekend Reading

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Here’s a look at what we are reading this weekend.

nightThe Night She Disappeared by April Henry

Gabie drives a Mini Cooper. She also works part time as a delivery girl at Pete’s Pizza. One night, Kayla—another delivery girl—goes missing. To her horror, Gabie learns that the supposed kidnapper had asked if the girl in the Mini Cooper was working that night. Gabie can’t move beyond the fact that Kayla’s fate was really meant for her, and she becomes obsessed with finding Kayla. She teams up with Drew, who also works at Pete’s. Together, they set out to prove that Kayla isn’t dead—and to find her before she is.

Copyright © 2013 Follett Library Resources, Inc.

What are you reading this weekend? Post it to the blog!

Student Library Orientation

Our FALCON students have been exploring their new library using QR Codes since school has started. QR codes are similiar to barcodes and allow students to scan the codes on their mobile devices to receive information. QR codes were posted throughout the library with detailed information about that area of the library and resources that are available to the students.

Students worked in groups to explore the library on their QR Code Scavenger Hunt.

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Each group consisted of 3-4 students with at least one person having access to a device.

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Students downloaded the FREE i-nigma app that allowed them to scan the QR codes.

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Throughout the scavenger hunt, students worked together to answer questions about the library. They asked questions (to each other and staff members) and have a great sense of what the library has to offer them. The best part of the orientation was seeing the smiles on their faces!

 

*Lesson adapted for the Tompkins HS Library. Inspired by Joyce Valenza, Gwyneth Jones (The Daring Librarian), and Erin Segreto (CRJH Librarian).

Weekend Reading

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Here’s a look at what we are reading this weekend!

city of ashesCity of Ashes by Cassandra Clare

Sixteen-year-old Clary continues trying to make sense of the swiftly changing events and relationships in her life as she becomes further involved with the Shadowhunters and their pursuit of demons and discovers some terrifying truths about her parents, her brother Jace, and her boyfriend Simon.

 

Copyright © 2013 Follett Library Resources, Inc.

This is book #2 of the Mortal Instruments series. We are reading book #1, City of Bones, for our Falcon Book Club. If you are interested in joining the discussion and going to see the movie together, check out our Book Club Blog Page.

 

What are you reading this weekend? Post it to the blog!

We are ready for the first day of school!

About 6 weeks ago, hundreds of boxes of books were delivered to the Tompkins Library. What started out as an empty library has been transformed into a BEAUTIFUL, 21st century library that offers students access to a variety of print and digital resources. It has taken a lot of hard work to get the library ready for our Falcons and we couldn’t be more pleased with the outcome.

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The books are on the shelves waiting to be checked out!

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We have audio books…lots of them!!

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Even though the magazine racks have not been installed yet, you can still check out the magazines! The library offers 40 subscriptions to various magazines.

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We know you will be tired on the first day of school, so we are offering coffee flavored “scratch-and-sniff” bookmarks when you check out a book!

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Want to visit the library during study hall, lunch, or enrichment? The library has you covered!

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The library will be offering many opportunities for you to particpate in a variety of book clubs. Our first book club is on CITY OF BONES by Cassandra Clare. We will have an optional Edmodo discussion and we will go see the movie together after school in a few weeks. You don’t want to miss this!! Sign up in the library! For more info, check out the Falcon Book Club Blog Page.

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Proud to be a TOMPKINS FALCON!

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Our doors will be open bright and early Monday morning, Falcons! We can’t wait to see you! Until then…Don’t Forget to be Awesome!

The Falcon Library books have arrived!

I have been eagerly awaiting the delivery of the OTHS library books since I placed the order at the end of May. The 18 wheeler, packed with 26 pallets of boxes filled with library books, arrived at Tompkins HS on Monday, July 15th. Oh, happy day!

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It took several hours for the books to be unloaded from the truck and taken into the library.

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Since the Fire Marshall had not signed off on the library yet, we could not unpack the boxes. So, the boxes were placed on the floor in front of the shelves that they would be placed on later.

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I got the call on Wednesday afternoon that the Fire Marshall had signed off on the library and that we could come in and start unpacking. My good friends Laura, Lynette, and Mitzi came up to help unpack…and have a little fun in the process.

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After a lot of hard work…and a lot of sweat…we called it a day. My sales rep, Billy, and I were back on Thursday to finish up the job. I must say that it was worth the wait! Our Tompkins HS Library looks incredible!

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Oh, and I found one of my most favorite books while unpacking! 🙂

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I’m looking forward to our Tompkins HS students, staff, and parents to come and visit our amazing BOOK-FILLED library! See you in August!