HAPPY VACATION!!!

It is here! I think students and faculty are excited for some time off to recharge, refuel and reconnect before heading into the last two months of the school year. The weather has been playing tricks on us and as of yesterday I would have thought we were heading into February vacation instead of April vacation. The library wishes everyone a wonderful and safe April vacation and looks forward to ending the year on a fantastic and warm note!!

Senior Internship
Every year a large number of the seniors at NHS go out on internships for 4th term. Experiences range from working at local elementary schools to interning with physical therapists or surgeons. This year I am very fortunate to have the pleasure of hosting an intern in the library. Sabrina Surin asked if she could intern with us. She has spent the last few years in the library during any of her free time and felt she really wanted to get to know the workings of a school library better. Sabrina has embraced the spirit of internship. She comes to the job everyday with a professional attitude, excited and enthusiastic to take on any of the tasks set before her. She works well independently and has taken on some projects all on her own. It has been a joy having her here and she will be missed when it is over. She has done everything from shelving books, creating slides for the t.v. screens, various displays and checking attendance to reading to the preschoolers, checking in/out books and offering book recommendations to students and staff. Thanks Sabrina! The experience has been as great for us as I hope it has been for you!

Sabrina, NHS Senior & Library Intern!!

Who says students aren't reading?.....And speaking of reading.....The QR Code is back!

This week the majority of the senior English classes began their independent memoir project. Students came to the library to choose a memoir and then, the best part.....they all sat and read for the block. Each student found a nook of the library, put their nose in a book and read. It was such a great scene to witness! Of course what helped was the very generous gift from the class of 2013! Thanks to the 2013 class, the library has four brand new "comfy chairs." These chairs have become an instant hit for two reasons. One they are comfortable to sit in and provide a relaxing place for students to unwind. And two, they each have a small table built into the side where they can place their laptop, books, binders etc. We are so thankful for this beautiful addition to our space!




















April is ebook month!! In order to promote our digital library we have gone a bit "old school" and brought back the QR Code!! We have a link to our digital library on our website but as is often the case, students and staff like to browse the stacks and see what books are available. Mr. Wong created QR Codes for many of our ebooks and students can head to the stacks and scan the QR code into their phone with a QR code app. It will then bring them to the log in page and once logged in, right to the book! We are hoping this will provide another way students can access and take advantage of our ever growing selection of ebooks and audio books!

And The Winner Is.........

After weeks of hard fought battles, intense debates, a few cries of indignation...we have finally come to the end of March Madness!!!! And the winner of the 2014 Battle of the Books for Natick High School is..................

THE FAULT IN OUR STARS!!!!! 

 

It was a close match, The Hunger Games lost out by only four votes! The movie version of the book is set to come to theaters June 6th. If you haven't read the book, do so before the movie comes out! Thank you to all students and staff who participated in our battle....we are looking forward to next year!! 

SAYING GOODBYE......

Today is the last day for all seniors going out on internships....as they wrap up their time at Natick High it is hard to believe this time has come. The library staff has watched many of these seniors grow from small freshmen learning to navigate their way through high school to confident, mature seniors, ready to tackle the next step in their lives. To those seniors in particular who have called the library their "home" for the last four years, who have been part of our community and we have gotten to know so well, we will miss you more than you know! Good Luck!!! We are so proud of you!!!

Working together....Art Extraganza and the Library!

It was a busy week in the library, MCAS make-ups, classes researching urban issues relating to the recent reading of All Souls / Michael MacDonald. Seniors are choosing a topic that affects teens such as gun violence, poverty and teen pregnancy. They have to gather data and then create a potential solution or program to combat the issue.

In addition, Thursday was the Natick Public Schools Art Extraganza! For the second year in a row the district has created a night to celebrate the arts in our schools. Students from all schools celebrated at the high school through various forms of art. Chorus and bands performed from the elementary level through high school. Dancing was showcased  and art work in all forms played a prominent role. The library partnered with the Art Departments and held the Middle school/High school art reception in the library along with various performances such as the Speech Team from the high and the ever popular Brown School 4th grade Rhythm Ostinato! The art work displayed in the library has brightened up the space and is gathering a ton of foot traffic as high school students are coming in to show their friends their pieces! It has been a big success!!

Art Work By High School Students

Art Work By Middle School Students

How important is sleep and literary productivy? Well according to these writers....it varies! The board below is based on the sleep habits of some famous authors and how many pieces of writing they have published. Word of note....Ellen Hopkins was GREAT! Library Assistant Brian Wong emailed her to ask what time she wakes up in the morning and she responded immediately!! Got to love that!!

Created by Brian Wong

Alternative to Google....Instagrok!

INSTAGROK
I am constantly looking for ways to teach solid research skills to students and provide them with options to find quality sources. In the world where everyone Googles, I feel it is important to provide other alternatives. I was fortunate to present at Hopkinton High last week with their amazing library teacher at their in house staff development day. I love when I learn new things and was introduced to Instagrok. Instagrok themselves describes it best: (from their website)

"instaGrok is an innovative educational search engine that combines sophisticated semantic technology with an interactive user interface to make learning more engaging, personalized and fun for everyone. instaGrok is used by hundreds of thousands of students, teachers and everyday people every month."

Istagrok results are returned using the mind map concept. It has a slide where you can level the results based on difficulty. In addition the results are broken up into categories, "key facts" "websites" "videos" "images" and "concepts." There is a quiz you can take based on your search topic. For example, I did a search on Parkinson's Disease and they provided a quiz asking basic informational questions about Parkinson's. It could be used as a pre-assessment.  There is also a place to journal, students can keep notes they are collecting from the resources right on their account page. There is a paid subscription but so far the free version has been top notch. This is one of the best tools I have seen in awhile! Check it out and thanks Kirsten for sharing!!! Hopkinton is lucky to have you!! http://www.instagrok.com/

MARCH MADNESS CONTINUES!

Well the first round of playoffs are in and there were some hotly contested games including a tie that had to go into a play off game!! But the next round of books has been decided in the Battle of the Books...Come down for the next round of voting, all this week! There have been tears, trials and tribulations about the outcome....

The next round of play offs are the following:

Absolute True Diary of a Part-Time Indian vs. Beautiful Creatures

Lovely Bones vs. Crank

Delirium vs. Fangirl

City of Bones vs. Fault in Our Stars

Book Thief vs. Looking for Alaska

Hunger Games vs. Mockingjay

Speak vs. Perks of a Being a Wallflower

Glass Castle vs. To Kill a Mockingbird

Madness is not limited to basketball!!!!

Another Friday....another frigid day in New England!! Someday soon it will have to nice out...until then....we will focus on something else...and that my friends...is the madness of March!!! In order to take our minds off of the snow, cold temps and general grayness of the month, we decided to hold our own March Madness in the library. Wish I could take credit for this great idea, but many libraries have been doing it for years! So while the NCAA basketball tournament is one of my favorites, GO UMASS!! I hope you make it in this year,...the library decided to focus on the Battle of the Books. The staff came up with our brackets and the voting began yesterday. WOW, we have been inundated with students and staff who are angry, frustrated and concerned over the pairings!! "How dare we pair Hunger Games vs. Divergent or Eleanor & Park vs. The Fault in Our Stars?!!!" WE LOVE IT!! The conversation and debates over which books to vote for has been fantastic!! Can't wait to see how this plays out!! We will keep you posted!!!

Student voting for her top picks!

LIt Crit and the Road to Analyzing....

One of my favorite projects various departments do is to create an annotated bibliography. Students in biology have been working on this for a few months now. Such a great skill to have, all students entering college will have to know how to really use and understand this skill. The junior English classes are currently tackling this key skill through the analysis of various pieces of literature using literary criticism. Digging into the literary databases we have access to, using the advanced search features and understanding how to use search terms effectively, students have been looking at various themes in novels such as The Scarlet Letter, The Great Gatsby and The Catcher in the Rye. Students are also taking advantage of the numerous print resources we have on these novels. They are finding the books to be more helpful than anything else they have stumbled upon as they are realizing some authors devote their lives to literary criticism. For me, watching a student decide on a theme to analyze, research the topic and have that "aha" moment when it all begins to make sense is what this is all about. I always stress to the students that research is a messy affair! If done correctly, there will never be that one article or resource that will answer your question because ideally you are gathering information and evidence to create something new. If you find something that can write your whole paper then you are not offering anything new. You may only find a paragraph or two in a 6 page article that is helpful but those two paragraphs could be THE ones that give you that aha moment! It is like putting together a puzzle and when it all comes together and you can see the design it is pretty amazing!!