Weekly Reading/ Clockwork Angel

ClockWork Angel by Cassandra Clare is the first in a series called The Infernal Devices. Tessa is trying to find her brother and be reunited with him, He is all the family she has left, Her parents died when she was very young, and now her beloved Aunt who had taken care of her and Nate has passed. She is on a mission to find Nate.
    Tessa is doing what she needs to do to find Nate- she travels  to England. She  gets entwined with the Dark Sisters because they are the link to getting to brother - but then she is tapped. The sisters teach her how to' change' and are trying to get her ready for the Magister.

  To me this is fantasy and horror rolled into one. Will and Jem and the Institute  become Tessa's new "family". When the Dark sisters are partially eliminated, The Institute  helps Tessa find her brother- but that brings up a whole new set of problems for them. Slowly they begin to unravel  how the Shadow hunters can save Nate and the Institute.  This leads into the second book of the series so  you will want to keep reading.

 The novel is well written and riveting  until the end. And then you are wondering what will happen next?

Middle School Lessons- Library Orientation

 This is a brief outline of what I will do  when school resumes in September for my library orientation so that students will be familiar with the library.

  Orientation & Map
1) Introduction to library, personnel, policies( circulation)
2) "Tour " of Library- Like Vana  since it is so small
3)  Review of Destiny ( Online Card Catalog- shown on whiteboard)
4) Explain  how to do map, and library and card catalog activity

Vocabulary: overdues, circulation, fiction, non-fiction, biography, reference, dewey decimal system, fiction arrangement, genres.

  REsources :Worksheet- 2part- general  & card catalog activity

  Where do the lessons take place?
 Orientation- Library
Completion of map and general sheet- in library
Completion of Card Catalog activity: library or computer lab

Can you share what you do for your orientation? This will work for  grades 5-8.

Weekly Reading- Summer Time! Victoria/ Goodwin

  This is my weekly reading series again! It is so nice to have time to read! ( That is what I do best!)
I just finished reading Victoria/ Goodwin and it was excellent. We had seen the PBS special in the winter and when I saw the book  ,I grabbed it.
 Goodwin follows the life of Queen Victoria in great detail. In the end papers , she notes that she wrote the novel while they were filming the shows. She had done extensive research  and brought Victoria to life.
 Victoria is the young queen who had a hard time being taken seriously , but it was a role she was meant to do. The descriptions of the 1830's and how life was for Victoria and her family are outstanding and interesting. If you saw the series ,and loved it , I would definitely recommend this book. I Only wish there was a second book-who knows maybe there will be. I would love to read more about Victoria and Albert !

Middle school Lessons

 I am trying to devise a online curriculum for my 7th and 8th grade students. So I am searching what others have available as lessons and online tutorials.  So Far, I have found a few that look good and will als match up with my student needs.

  What is needed first is an overview of elementary lessons because when the students get to middle school, they forget what they have learned or they do not remember learning the basics ( like online card cat, arrangement, genres, dewey decimal system, ect.)

  Also I want to focus on internet safety, digital citizenship, and evaluation of websites, and also databases.
The reference process is I will do in collaboration with classroom teachers  when they are doing research/ inquiry. This will also include Easy Bib directions .

  As I search I will look for additions and adapt them to my students, This will go on my google classroom  for student use.

Summer Vacation

 Yes! It is finally here! Summer! Although for several days now it has been cool and spring like!  I will get back in the groove. I put all my school stuff away except my pile of books that I want to read ( YA 's from school) and some lessons that I want to look over , and my journals with articles marked that I want to read.
  Of course today I went to my public library and got a pile of  magazines and the book Victoria ( from the PBS special)so I will read that first.  ( I will probably do a review too)  My flowers are growing like crazy, and I will soon have to harvest some of my herbs  I Love Summer!

Active Learning Strategies

 Here are some examples of active learning strategies:

 1)Round Robin is a small group activity. Have students in groups of 3 or 4 . Students pass around a paper and each will write a fact, opinion or piece of information on the topic. Time is called at a predetermined time ( say 10 to 15 minutes) This allows students to share knowledge of a topic and discuss what they know about a topic.

2 ) Discussion  . When you have a general discussion as a whole group, have students jot down what they have heard. Do they agree or disagree, or did it give them a new idea or piece of information.

3) Flash cards- Have students make flash cards for use of study for tests or quizzes. Flash cards can also have drawings or words.

4) When students work in pairs, give them a time limit. Students will be more focused when given a limited amount of time.

Fiction Arrangement by Genres

  I was trying to figure out if I had written about this before . I even did a search but did not come up with anything so I am not sure if I am repeating or not. Maybe someone will let me know if I did??

  In both our Middle and High school, the fiction books are arranged my genres and then in alphabetical order.  When I first got there , I said to myself  that It would never work and I would have to change it back to regular  arrangement.
  But now I am sort of glad that we did not. Each genre  has a different color label that goes over the call number , signifying the genre. (example purple for Historical fiction) What this does is that when a student knows he  or she prefers  science fiction, fantasy , or sports books, they can go right to that section to look for another book to read. They don't have to go the card catalog ( on line) to get books in the same genre, This also makes it easy for the library staff to recommend  other titles  in say the same genre or series
  What we did also was assign another prefix to the call letters. So for a Historical fiction book, the call letters look like this in the on line catalog   HF_Fic And.  So if students find it on the catalog , they know where to look.