New Reading Service-Overdrive

New Reading Service/Overdrive

A new reading service providing digital books and audiobooks is now available to Shen K-12 students and staff!  It is offered through our BOCES school library system.  Students and staff may download books from home to their computer, ipod, mp3 player,  ipad, Nook, Kindle or smart phone from their school library online catalog.  Books will automatically return themselves to the library when they are due.  You will need your school library number/barcode.   See your school librarian for more information.

HSW

» MRS. RANDAZZO’S E-MEDIA CLASSES
Check out the HSW Library display case! Bookmarks created by students as part of Poem In Your Pocket Day.  Ms. Malizia

Poem In Your Pocket Day April 26th

Mr. Flynt started the day by reading part of “O, the Places You’ll Go” by Dr. Seuss. Several students and staff shared their poems throughout the day. Some wrote their own, others chose favorites. All who did were entered into a drawing. Prizes included a gift card to Regal Cinemas, gift cards to Dunkin Donuts and Shen T-shirts. Thank you to all who made the prizes possible (Mr. Flynt, Mrs. Donlon, Mr. Gutchell, Mrs. Tremblay, Ms. Hulme) In addition, Mrs. Randazzo’s E-Media classes created bookmarks; Mrs. Stammel, Mr. Salls’ English and Mrs. Gordon’s French classes received extra credit if they had a poem with them.
Ms. Malizia HSW Library

Wireless Devices in the Shen HS East Library

Students and teachers have been enjoying the wireless network access now being provided in the High School East Library. Many students have begun to bring in laptops, tablets, ebook readers, and smart-phones to assist them in research, access library subscription databases,  view teacher web-pages and blogs, and work collaboratively on projects. There are even apps available from database providers to make it easier to access quality, edited information.

Beginning in early May, we will introduce students to our new Overdrive service, which will allow digital check outs of ebooks, available in a variety of formats.

Latin American research at Arongen

 

On April 3, fifth graders from Mrs. Potter’s class culminated their research unit on Latin America with a celebration of culture and food.  Students worked hard during the previous weeks, using the library’s resources to research the history, culture, geography and wildlife of various countries.  Each individual then created an original book for their country, complete with citations, a timeline, maps and text.  To celebrate this accomplishment, students then searched to find an authentic recipe from their country, prepared it, and shared at the Latin American Celebration.  Great work fifth graders!

 

“Choosing Novels I’ll Love” @ Gowana

This lesson aligned with the Unit entitled Outside Reading – Library Book Talks and was a collaboration between myself and a 6^th grade reading teacher. This lesson connected to the NYS Common Core, 21^st century skills, including media literacy, collaboration, communication and critical thinking. The teacher and I created a fun, informational Photostory called “Choices Choices Choices” that discussed why we read, what makes a book a good book and how do we choose a good book. The studentsalso, in preparation for this book talk, wrote reviews on books that they have read recently. These reviews were given to me and I pulled books accordingly. This helped talk about “word of mouth” and how it helps you pick a book to read.  I even submitted recommendations and talked briefly about these. We taped the reviews to the books and allowed the kids to walk around and read the reviews, talk to each other and look inside the book to determine if they wanted to check it out.

Writer of the Month @ Gowana!

I have a library club called “All Booked Up.” It consists of mostly 6^th graders and some 8^th graders. One of the activities that we are involved in is Writer of the Month. Students in all grades submit pieces of writing and the members of the club read and choose their favorites. We choose a winner at the end of every month and reward that student with a certificate, picture on the Shen website, homemade recycled bookmarks (made by club members), a place on the bulletin boards outside of the library, a morning announcement,and a personalized journal with sentiments written inside by members of the club, myself, library staff and school administration. This encourages students to keep writing and allows students to be rewarded and acknowledged for their writing skills. At the end of the year, we compile a binder full of the winners and the runners-up. We keep this in the Gowana Library reading nook for all to read.

Developing “Green Light” Questions

Composing essential questions is the first step of Inquiry-based research.  Fifth graders at Okte kick off their South of the Border project (a study of a Latin American country) with a “World Cafe” activity where they visit different tables in the library media center designated with the strands of social studies (geopgraphy, history, government, economy, culture, science and technology) in order to brainstorm questions that could be answered in their study.  For example, one group of students decided that a question that could be asked for the government strand is, “When traveling in this country, what laws would I need to know about?”  A culture question could be, “What is a typical meal for an average family?” 

After brainstorming collaboratively on chart paper, all the “green light” questions were put onto a helpsheet to guide the research investigation.  A green light question is one that cannot be answered in one word and leads a researcher into learning more.  After research is conducted, the final expression of knowlege for this project will be either a print or electronic travelogue.

David Lubar @ Tesago

Earlier this month, Tesago students had a treat—an author visit from David Lubar—the self-proclaimed “Emperor of the Weenies.” Mr. Lubar spoke to 3^rd, 4^th, and 5^th graders at the library. Students learned all about his life as a writer and worked on excellent writing prompts, like title ideas, story hooks, and “what if”s. It was a terrific day!

In a feedback survey, students thought the author’s jokes were the best part of the presentation (they were funny!). Of the writing tips, most students liked “playing with titles” best, following pretty closely by “What ifs.” Many students had not read David Lubar prior to the visit, but were inspired to try him out afterwards. Other comments included: “Mr. Lubar was a wonderful author that burst my imagination and gave me some ideas for writing essays and stories” and “He was totally AWESOME!”  Good for Mr. Lubar! The author also visited Okte, Chango, and Skano.

 

Two Towns – One Book: Tesago reads along!

Tesago 1^st and 2^nd graders read Wolf! by Becky Bloom as part of the Clifton Park–Halfmoon Public Library’s “Two Towns-One Book” program. Given how wolves are usually depicted, many students were pretty surprised at the ending to this story! But they found it easy to relate the wolf’s efforts to read to their own experiences learning new and difficult things, like playing the piano and doing gymnastics; they talked about how they have to practice a lot in order to be able to do it with “confidence and passion,” like the wolf and his reading.