Apparently, as indicated by the lack of posts, things have been very, very busy in the Kimball HS Library. Classes have been scheduled for research or writing assignments almost every day. In addition, cataloging of equipment, some old, some not-quite-as-old, has taken a bit of time, especially in the case of donated equipment, where certain information had to be tracked down through multiple e-mails and trips to class rooms to view the equipment personally.
For research assignments, I have been presenting a basic overview of the databases which may be beneficial for their papers, that is: Encyclopedia Brittanica Online and World Book Online, History Study Center, EBSCO, and Gale Databases for the social studies assignments; EB and WB Online, and the General Reference area of the DISD's OPAC, Dallink for a paper on outstanding hispanics in celebration of Hispanic Heritage Month; and for the ELA and Reading Classes, an overview of EB and WB, Dallink, especially noting the Dictionary and Thesaurus available online (I love the Merriam-Webster site because it pronounces the word for you!), and information which can be found using the Novelist database.
Book Club was enthusiastically restarted on August 26th. We have the addition of a few new members. My first activity/idea asked the members to create a summary and "script" of the Vampire Kisses first three books, in order to create a video of this "book summary-skit." This task was partially completed by the group, with an outline contributed by Armando - thank you for your effort!! We spent a portion of two meetings trying to sketch out this script, but unfortunately, Ms. Anderson didn't force this into completion! This idea didn't have a strong reception...perhaps I could have explained it better. We continued discussing and outlining summaries of the three books, and we concluded that Shanise is very good with the details, large and small, of the books she reads, while Armando is very good with organizing these ideas. Kitty and Ashlee are good with providing strong opinions of the action and characterizations. We also discussed that several members need to contribute more and make more of an effort to keep up with the reading. Two weeks ago, we started a video of discussion and book talk of "Vampire Kisses." I will be posting that as soon as I get all the video we created, and organize it into a video using Windows Movie Maker. I'm really looking forward to posting this, so members who have video, you know who you are, please let me have a copy of it as soon as you can. We are leaving the Vampire Kisses series with our next title: City of Bones.
We also celebrated "Banned Book Week" with a bulletin board of a description of what it is, some promotion posters, and the opportunity to sport an ALA-created pin "I Read Banned Books," by filling out a one-page book report sheet which asked for the following: Title, Author, Characters, 1-2 sentences (each section) about the beginning, middle and ending, "my personal connection," prediction to what happened after the story ended, and personal opinion of the book, and recommendation to read or not to read. Congratulations to Kitty on being the first to return her sheet and get a "I Read Banned Books" pin!
sadly enough to say, my opinions go unnoticed by fellow members. i've decided to let them choose what they wish to read and weather or not they choose to participate is truly up to them. I know that it sounds like brash complaining but its really not. i'm just stating the way things may be based on past performance. so i'm just going to sit back and let the unorganized have run of our group.
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