Hour of Code

Hour of Code is happening in the library this week! Ms. Linahan's Keyboarding AGP is taking some time to participate in this global movement to promote computer science to all!

Check it out here.

Book Fair Success

The middle campus Fall Book Fair was a great success! Thanks to all who came out to support this event - with a special nod to our guests on Grandparents and Special Friends Day. This is our third fair through Decatur's awesome Little Shop of Stories and was the most successful, to date. With the profits, our media center was able to procure some great new titles to support the curriculum, various student interests and a local business. 

According to sales, some of the more popular titles included:

Babysitter's Club Graphix #1: Kristy's Great Idea
Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone: The Illustrated Edition
Mosquitoland
Paper Towns
Percy Jackson's Greek Heroes

Celebrating Our Freedom to Read!

For those in the dark, it is Banned Books Week in our fair nation. This is the time to recognize the many challenges brought forth in an attempt to remove books from school and public libraries. We have a display in the media center highlighting just some of the many wonderful books that have been challenged or banned over the years. Our 8th Humanities class is about to begin the book at the very top of the current list - The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian. 

It has been fun watching student reaction to the display. Cries of astonishment and dismay are the norm. Some of the more heated conversations revolve around: 

Charlotte's Web and Winnie-the-Pooh (talking animals are blasphemous)
The Night Kitchen (nudity, sexually provocative)
The Diary of Anne Frank (too depressing)

Another challenged book, The House on Mango Street, is one that our Humanities students have read. It was carted out of a high school in Arizona after officials banned Mexican-American studies. Sound familiar? This was also when "our" poem, In Lak'ech was banned. Ironically - or not really - course offerings in Mexican-American studies have exploded in that area. This is the same effect that banned/challenged books have. 

See this article for more recent controversies (note: things to read ASAP).

Folklore AGP - Creating Tackks

Hello, students! Please see the directions below for today:

https://docs.google.com/a/atlncs.org/document/d/1ovJz8MSJ_rrFv9kHLsyWlRGajaSvMQ40Mnol7EvHvgo/edit?usp=sharing

Helen Ruffin Reading Bowl Time

It is Helen Ruffin Reading Bowl time! Last year, ANCS Middle competed for the third time in this Jeopardy-like quiz competition for super readers. Preparation is intense, but fun, and the competition is VERY EXCITING!! I would like to extend the invitation to our students to participate in this state-wide event. Here are the details:

• Sign up in the media center with Ms. Linahan
• Must read 5 of the 20 books by Tuesday, October 13, 2015
• Must submit 10 trivia questions for each of the 5 books you read to Ms. Linahan by October 13, 2015. (I prefer you share via Google Drive)
• Attend meetings at least 1x per week with Ms. Linahan and other team members for practice. This will begin October 13 from 3:45-4:. Practice days TBD. I will offer at least 2 afternoons a week to help accommodate various busy schedules.
• Commit to become an expert on several assigned books and helping create the trivia questions.
• Commit to attending competition dates. Note to parents: set aside 2 - 5 hours depending on the level of competition we attend:
• Local: TBD (late January 2016)
• Regional: February 13, 2016
• Divisional: TBD
• The team consists of 5 players and up to 5 alternates.
• Final order of the team is determined by participation, trivia knowledge and sportsmanship.
• I have one copy of each book in the Media Center but you may also check your local library or purchase your own.

Please contact me if you have any questions.
I look forward to working with our new team!!

tlinahan@atlncs.org

Exquisite Corpse

Check out this cool story on the Library of Congress website! Each chapter - or episode - is written and illustrated by well-known authors and artists. John Scieszka wrote a book we read in AGP about the wolf from The Three Little Pigs. Linda Sue Park wrote the 7th Hum book A Long Walk to Water. And Kate DiCamillo visited the Elementary Campus last year. These are just some of the authors who write chapters in this online book. It utilizes an old form of storytelling where each person writes a different part of the tale.

*Note: when you click on an episode, notice an option over to the side where you may read the story in an Interactive Format. An audio option is also available.

Start here for all the details:

http://read.gov/exquisite-corpse/

8th Grade Media Center Research

Hello, 8ths! Here is the information we covered in the presentation.


Contact me if you have questions!

Welcome Back!

It is great to be back in the media center! I am enjoying the new students as well as our returning crew. We have tons of enthusiastic readers this year. The library averages 40 check-outs per week, and one week into this school year, we have already circulated a whopping 64 books! 

Some things I look forward to in the coming weeks: helping our students become more savvy digital citizens and improving their research skills. We will also participate in Georgia's Helen Ruffin Reading Bowl. I will post more details about that in the coming weeks. A book club will also be happening for interested readers....and it appears we have plenty of them!

Finally, I must urge everyone to stop in and see the media center. Loads of improvements have been made over the last few years - especially with the help of PTCA mini-grants. Last year, along with generous donations from the PTCA and auction, I was able to procure new furniture for our reading area. And although decorating skills have never been my strong-suit, I must say....the space looks great! The new chairs, loveseat, ottomans and rug blend wonderfully with the NEW CARPET that was installed over the summer. It's just a lovely place to be. Thanks to all who were involved in making it happen. Please come by and see us some time!

Summer Reading!

The required summer reading lists are below. Please check your local libraries and bookstores if you need a copy. I have limited resources, but contact me if you are having trouble finding a copy.

Rising 6th graders (Choose one or more) 

• Anne Frank: The Diary of a Young Girl, Anne Frank
• Number the Stars, Lois Lowry
• The Devil’s Arithmetic, Jane Yolen
• The Book Thief, Markus Zusak

Rising 7th graders 

• Flush, Carl Hiaasen

Rising 8th graders

• The Glory Field, Walter Dean Myers

Reveling in the Reference Books!

Words cannot express the gratitude and excitement I feel about our new collection of reference and non-fiction books. These beauties will be go-to sources for students in need of print references during research projects. Huge thanks to the PTCA for making this dream happen. And the gorgeous flower arrangement, too.

Actress Julianne Moore's New PSA to Support School Libraries

#postithashtags for New Books

In-House Marketing, Unplugged

Voting for the Georgia Children's Book Award

The votes are in for our student's favorite books from the GCBA nominees! The numbers are submitted from schools all over the state, and the winner will be chosen soon. I like this particular award, as the student's choose....not a wise scholarly panel of older folks.

Last year, the winner of the middle grade nominees was Wonder, one of our summer reads from 2013.

This year, several of our more popular student votes included: Counting by 7's, Three Times Lucky (also a 2013 Summer Read) and Michael Vey: Prisoner of Cell 25.

The American Library Association has announced their annual awards! Newbery, Caldecott and more! Visit the media center to read some of them!

Newbery 2015 Winner:

Crossover by Kwame Alexander

From School Library Journal

Gr 6–10—Twins Josh and Jordan are junior high basketball stars, thanks in large part to the coaching of their dad, a former professional baller who was forced to quit playing for health reasons, and the firm, but loving support of their assistant-principal mom. Josh, better known as Filthy McNasty, earned his nickname for his enviable skills on the court: "…when Filthy gets hot/He has a SLAMMERIFIC SHOT." In this novel in verse, the brothers begin moving apart from each other for the first time. Jordan starts dating the "pulchritudinous" Miss Sweet Tea, and Josh has a tough time keeping his jealousy and feelings of abandonment in control. Alexander's poems vary from the pulsing, aggressive beats of a basketball game ("My shot is F L O W I N G, Flying, fluttering…. ringaling and SWINGALING/Swish. Game/over") to the more introspective musings of a child struggling into adolescence ("Sit beside JB at dinner. He moves./Tell him a joke. He doesn't even smile….Say I'm sorry/but he won't listen"). Despite his immaturity, Josh is a likable, funny, and authentic character. Underscoring the sports and the fraternal tension is a portrait of a family that truly loves and supports one another. Alexander has crafted a story that vibrates with energy and heart and begs to be read aloud. A slam dunk.—Kiera Parrott, School Library Journal.

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