Innovation Center
December 2016
Building Communities
We have been hard at work this semester at building communities in the innovation center. Just as teachers build communities in the classroom, we strive to create a place to foster students' curiosity and creativity in a comfortable environment.
Thank you to all who supported our book fair. We were able to add to our collection with profits from the fair. Congratulations to seventh graders Zoie M. and Felicity S. who won the raffle for the autographed copies of Dead City and President of the Sixth Grade.
An astounding nine classes visited the library on Election Day to destress with the therapy dog teams. Both students and teachers enjoyed interacting with the dogs. We hope to bring back all five therapy dog teams in January during Florida Literacy Week.
Have a stressed student? Come check our new mindfulness center in the innovation center. There will be revolving activities that encourage focusing on the present moment, e.g., coloring and the Pixel Thoughts app.
Innovation Center Highlights
Bookaneer Fair
Election Destress
Mindfulness
What's coming up?
- The Hour of Code returns for Computer Science Education Week, December 5-9. Last year, several classes visited the innovation center for Hour of Code where they learned how to code games for Minecraft and Star Wars. The Minecraft Club will be programming their own versions of Minecraft on December 9th. If you want to get in on the fun, computers will be available that week for students or whole classes. Let Ms. Ratliff know if you are interested. Anyone can code! Check it out at https://code.org/!
- The Sunshine State Young Readers book club will begin in January with the new research classes. In preparation for the book club, December is a good time for ELA and reading classes to visit the library to learn about this year's SSYRA selection. Ms. Ratliff can do book talks for the 15 books on the list, and the library assistants are working on creating book trailers for all of these books. Improvements to the book club this year will be longer meetings on block days, student subscriptions to BattleQuestions.com to check reading comprehension, and SSYRA eBook availability. Student book club contracts will be given to ELA teachers before winter break. Please return completed applications to the innovation center by December 12th.
- Reminder: ELA & reading teachers! Warrington Middle has qualified for the First Book Open eBooks initiative which lends free children's and YA ebooks to students. To participate, students need to download the free Open eBooks app to their phones or tablets (not available on Chromebook). Then each student will enter a unique code which will unlock a vast digital library. Students may check out up to 10 free ebooks at a time for up to 56 days before renewal. Contact Ms. Ratliff if you would like First Book eBooks for your students, and codes will be provided for your classes.
- Overdue book notices will go out this month. Please encourage students to return books to the library bin in the cafeteria if they cannot return books to the library.
Visit the Innovation Center
"A great library is one nobody notices because it is always there, and always has what people need."
–Vicki Myron
Email: sratliff@escambia.k12.fl.us
Website: https://wms-ecsd-fl.schoolloop.com/MediaCenter
Location: 450 S. Old Corry Field Rd.
Phone: 850-453-7440