BMS Media Center Monthly
December, 2012
Database of the Month!
This is an excellent source of biographical information on historical people to up & coming personalities! Includes articles, links to web-sites, multimedia & more!
To access, visit our Database Page and under "Gale Sites" click on the link "Biography in Context". No passwords, usernames, or library card #s are needed if you are in Massachusetts!
Our databases are brought to us through our membership in the Massachusetts Library System and funded by the Massachusetts Board of Library Commissioners.
*Do you have holiday cooking to do? You may want to try the "Culinary Arts Collection". It is also available from the database page above - under "Gale Sites"
"The Culinary Arts collection includes major cooking and nutrition magazines, culinary journals and several Delmar Reference titles. Coverage includes thousands of searchable recipes, restaurant reviews, and industry information."
All of the Gale databases also have a free App for Apple or Android products - "Access My Library". It requires entering in the school password (available in the media center) the first time you use it to set it up.
5th Grade Author Visit with Jake Halpern
Jake Halpern
Author Jake Halpern talks to fifth graders about writing about what you know and "adding lies".
Jake Halpern
Fifth graders hung to his every word!
Jake Halpern
Jake Halpern, holding "Dormia" which he co-authored.
Website of the Month
"Online Flyer Creator"
This month I am trying out a new tool to create this newsletter - "Smore". It is easy to use, and I like the look of it so far. It took me only a moment to create a free account. Features include the ability to embed videos, audio and pictures. I thought perhaps it could be used with students as an alternative to Glogster. Although I like the fact that it has less distractions and a cleaner look, the drawback is that it does not have an education version.
The site includes social network sharing which can be enabled or not. Similar to other social sites, it also allows you to "earn badges" - in this case based on views of your flyer (it's not an educational site and the purpose is to maximize views of your flyer for publicity purposes) - most of the badges are innocent enough - a "cupcake" badge for getting 1,000 views of a business flyer, a "globetrotter" badge for having views from 5 different countries ... I just wish they didn't have the "double-martini" badge for visits to an event flyer.
Although that may prevent me from sharing the site with students, I am still trying it out for my own purposes. I think it may be a more appealing and interactive way to send out my newsletter (You can enable or disable comments) and could also be used as a presentation tool instead of PowerPoint. Let me know what your thoughts are!
Staff Reading Suggestions
The Invisible Bridge by Julie Orringer (for history buffs)
“Paris, 1937. Andras Lévi, a Hungarian-Jewish architecture student, arrives from Budapest with a scholarship, a single suitcase, and a mysterious letter he has promised to deliver to C. Morgenstern on the rue de Sévigné. As he falls into a complicated relationship with the letter’s recipient, he becomes privy to a secret history that will alter the course of his own life. Meanwhile, as his elder brother takes up medical studies in Modena and their younger brother leaves school for the stage, Europe’s unfolding tragedy sends each of their lives into terrifying uncertainty. At the end of Andras’s second summer in Paris, all of Europe erupts in a cataclysm of war. -- Publisher's description.”
Love Anthony by Lisa Genova
“Two women meet by accident on a Nantucket beach and are drawn into a friendship. Olivia is a young mother whose eight-year-old severely autistic son has recently died. She comes to the island in a trial separation to try and make sense of the tragedy of her Anthony's short life. Beth, a stay-at-home mother of three, is also recently separated after discovering her husband's long-term infidelity.”
Book Annotations from CLAMS - http://clamsnet.org
If you've read a good book lately, please send me the title and author!
Bourne Middle School Media Center
Email: lweeks@bourne.k12.ma.us
Website: http://www.bourne.k12.ma.us/webpages/lweeks/?school=1441
Phone: 508-759-0690 . 307