Monday, November 19, 2012

Kindness Week: Read All About It!

Check out the display of great books to celebrate Kindness Week in the Learning Commons!

Celebrate Kindness by reading these brand new books:

Read Ellen Hopkins poetic novelization "Tilt".  Follow the lives of  three teens who find the strength they need to hold on when their world's been tilted completely off its axis.  



Read  Everybody SEES the ants.  Lucky Linderman doesn't want to wake up...he has a secret that helps him wade through the daily mundane torture of his life.  In his dreams he escapes to the war-ridden jungles of Laos, and the prison his grandfather couldn't escape, where he can be a real man, an adventurer and a hero.  But how long can Lucky keep hiding in his dreams before reality forces its way through?            
                                                                         
 

Read The Pregnancy Project, a memoir.  A girl pretends to be pregnant in high school and learns the meaning of family, friends and living beyond stereotypes. 



Read The Letter Q:  Queer Writer's Notes to their younger selves.  In this anthology 64 award winning authors and illustrators such as Michael Cunningham, Amy Bloom, Jacqueline Woodson, Terrence McNally, Gregory Maguire, David Levithan and Armistead Maupin make imaginative journeys into their pasts, telling their younger selves what they would have liked to have known then about their lives as lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgendered people.  With bracing honesty, these are words of love, messages of understanding, reasons to hold on for the better future ahead. 




Read The Relectant Journal of Henry k. Larsen.  Thirteen year old Henry's happy ordinary life comes to an abrupt hald when his older brother, Jesse, picks up their father's hunting rifle and leave the house one morning.  What follows, shatters his family, who are forced to resume their lives in a new city, where no one knows their past

Check out these titles and more @ your Learning Commons!


Friday, November 9, 2012

Lest We Forget....Read to Remember!



Check out the display of books about War and Peace in the Learning Commons!

Watch the War themed Book Trailers on the SJH Learning Commons Youtube Channel by clicking on the link below: 

Friday, October 26, 2012

WP and RM Books are now in! Come read 'em!



Check out the list of titles @ www.accessola.com/forest.

Students speak about what the Forest of Reading means to them:


Thursday, October 25, 2012

Instagrok Learning Tool @ instagrok.com

Check out this excellent research tool but use with CAUTION! @ www.instagrok.com


It allows students to enter searches for key concepts. The results are displayed in the form of an interactive web graph.  The right side bar displays key terms with links to websites, a list of websites, videos and images related to the concept queried.  It also creates a multiple choice quiz and glossary of terms using the search results.

CAUTION:  Some of the results are in congruent and therefore lead to some red-herrings in the resources list and quiz!  This could be used as a meta cognition teaching opportunity in that students could explain which results are excellent and which results are erroneous!  

In a perfect world, the user would be able to manipulate the results list and customize the graphs but hey...it's a FREE resource which means it is not free of FRUSTRATION!

Enjoy!

Monday, September 17, 2012

Welcome Back Friends of the Learning Commons!

Celebrate returning to school, meeting old friends and making new ones by creating a Friendship bracelet in the Learning Commons at lunch.

We will supply the thread, charms and clipboards...
You bring your friends!

Check out all the crazy patterns you can create @ myfbm.com!