Author Archives: othslibrary
New Year…New Goals…New Books!
Welcome back, Falcons! The New Year allows you an opportunity to reflect on the previous year and set goals for the New Year. I hope you have given your reading goals a thought! I’m always thinking about ways that I can connect teens with literature. With that being said, here are my library goals for the New Year.
1. Do more book talks with classes. 2. Share my book reviews on the library blog. 3. Do more bookish contests in the library.Celebrate the New Year with some New Books in the library!
Recommend a great read to your fellow Falcons!
As always, if you can’t find a YA book you are looking for, don’t hesitate to ask. I can probably find you a copy. Librarians are magical in that way. 🙂
Happy Holidays from the library!
Your library is never closed!
Don’t forget that your library is open 24/7 during the holiday break. You have access to thousands of ebooks and audiobooks right at the touch of your fingers.
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BryteWave Mobile lets you access your BryteWave bookshelf from most web-enabled mobile devices including iPads, Android tablets and smart phones. Your experience is always synced across devices, so your notes and highlights stay with you at all times. Access our fiction, some nonfiction, and audiobooks with this app. Click HERE for information on how to use the BryteWave app. |
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Access your library — even when you’re not at school! It’s as simple as using the Access My Library School Edition app from Gale. After a simple, one-time log-in using your library’s password, the mobile app will give you free, unlimited access to your school library’s reputable, authoritative Gale online resources. Access all of our online reference ebooks with this app. |
Have fun reading over the holidays! We will see you back in the library on Tuesday, January 6, 2015!
Bring on Hour of Code Week!
Let’s get excited for Hour of Code Week!! Mr. Tully, our OTHS computer science teacher, and I have been busy planning for this week for a while now. Hour of Code is a global movement to introduce computer science and to show that anyone can learn the basics of coding.
During the week of December 8th – December 12th, the library is hosting Hour of Code activities BEFORE and AFTER school. Our CompSci students are also available during these times to help students, answer questions, and share their experiences with regards to computer science.
We also created an OTHS Hour of Code symbaloo for students that want to learn more about coding after the introduction activity. This symbaloo contains lots of great activities and information on graphical and textual coding.
We hope to see each and every Falcon in the library this week for a sneak peek into computer science and coding!
Weekend Reading
We received this book in the library not too long ago and I have been anxiously awaiting for the holiday season to read it. (It just wouldn’t feel the same reading it any other time of year, you know.)
My True Love Gave to Me – edited by Stephanie Perkins
If you love holiday stories, holiday movies, made-for-TV-holiday specials, holiday episodes of your favorite sitcoms and, especially, if you love holiday anthologies, you’re going to fall in love with My True Love Gave to Me: Twelve Holiday Stories by twelve bestselling young adult writers (Holly Black, Ally Carter, Matt de La Peña, Gayle Forman, Jenny Han, David Levithan, Kelly Link, Myra McEntire, Rainbow Rowell, Stephanie Perkins, Laini Tayler and Kiersten White), edited by the international bestselling Stephanie Perkins. Whether you celebrate Christmas or Hanukkah, Winter Solstice or Kwanzaa, there’s something here for everyone. So curl up by the fireplace and get cozy. You have twelve reasons this season to stay indoors and fall in love.
Copyright © 2014 Follett School Solutions, Inc.
What are you reading this holiday season? Post it to the blog!
12 Days of Library and Technology Tools
Each year I like to give my staff 12 days of holiday trivia/puzzles and give away fun prizes. It gets everyone in the holiday spirit and just adds a big smile to their faces.
Last year I attended a workshop by librarian, Shannon Miller, in which she did something similar but shared technology tools with her staff instead. I began to think about the impact that this could have on my staff and decided that I would combine my fun trivia/puzzles this year with great technology tools that teachers can use in their classrooms.
Each day I am highlighting one library/technology tool and sharing a fun holiday game. Teachers that participate will be in a drawing to win one of these handmade book ornaments. We are only on Day 2, but there is a lot of buzz in the air from staff members that they MUST have one of these ornaments!
Want to join in the fun? Check out our “12 Days of Library and Technology Tools” smore!
Creating poetry using books!
April may be National Poetry Month, but it’s not the only time to celebrate poetry. Our Freshmen Falcons have been studying poetry and stopped by the library to use their creativity to create book spine poems.
Here’s how they did it:
1. Students chose a topic. This was just a starting point. As they searched for titles, their ideas may have changed.
2. Students developed a search strategy by deciding what type of search to use (keyword or title).
3. Then students performed the searches using the library catalog and located the books on the shelves.
4. With a minimum of 5 books, students then created their book spine poem.
Some classes were asked to write a short explanation of their poem and what inspired them to write it. The results were incredible! The students really thought about their poems and carefully choose titles that added meaning and depth to their poem.
State of the Library
Statistics may be boring, but they are important. They indicate areas that are thriving in the library and others areas that may need to be addressed. Our district held a “Library Snapshot Day” on 11/18/14 to gather information about our libraries. I continue to be amazed at the number of students that utilize this great space. It lets me know that they feel comfortable in the library and that we are building a community of readers here at Tompkins HS. Makes my 
smile.
I’m very pleased with our state of the library. Check out this infographic that I will be sharing with our Campus Advisory Team today.
Veteran’s Day…honoring all who served.
On the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month of 1918, a temporary cessation of hostilities was declared between the Allied nations and Germany in the First World War, then known as “the Great War.” November 11th became a legal federal holiday in the United States in 1938 dedicated to honoring American veterans of all wars. (Read more about Veteran’s Day from the History Channel HERE.) © 2014, A&E Television Networks, LLC. All Rights Reserved.
One of the ways we can honor American veterans is to try and understand their experiences. Books help readers to do just that. They allow us to get a glimpse into a soldier’s life and all that they have sacrificed for this great country.
Looking for a way to connect with veterans? Read one of these great books found in the library.
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For the past five years, Hayley Kincaid and her father, Andy, have been on the road, never staying long in one place as he struggles to escape the demons that have tortured him since his return from Iraq. Now they are back in the town where he grew up so Hayley can attend school. Perhaps, for the first time, Hayley can have a normal life, put aside her own painful memories, even have a relationship with Finn, the hot guy who obviously likes her but is hiding secrets of his own. |
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American Navy SEAL and team leader Marcus Luttrell tells his story of the loss of his teammates in July 2005 along the mountainous Afghanistan-Pakistan border to al-Qaida insurgents. |
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Depicting the men of Alpha Company—Jimmy Cross, Henry Dobbins, Rat Kiley, Mitchell Sanders, Norman Bowker, Kiowa, and the character Tim O’Brien, who survived his tour in Vietnam to become a father and writer at the age of forty-three |
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A biography of Olympic runner and World War II bombardier, Louis Zamperini, who had been rambunctious in childhood before succeeding in track and eventually serving in the military, which led to a trial in which he was forced to find a way to survive in the open ocean after being shot down. |
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As the country’s first African American military pilots, the Tuskegee Airmen fought in World War II on two fronts: against the Axis powers in the skies over Europe and against Jim Crow racism and segregation at home. Although the pilots flew more than 15,000 sorties and destroyed more than 200 German aircraft, their most far-reaching achievement defies quantification: delivering a powerful blow to racial inequality and discrimination in American life. |
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In 2003, 85 years after the end of World War I, Richard Rubin set out to see if he could still find and talk to someone who had actually served in the American Expeditionary Forces during that colossal conflict. Ultimately, he found dozens, aged 101 to 113, from Cape Cod to Carson City, who shared with him at the last possible moment their stories of America’s Great War. |
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A set of biographies of five generals who single-handedly saved their nations from defeat in war. |
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Photographs and the memories of World War II veterans, including accounts from men and women who were drafted or volunteered into the Air Force, Army, Marines, and the US Navy. |
Copyright © 2014 Follett School Solutions, Inc.