WHS InfoTech Team Newsletter

Jan.-Feb. 2023

Hello! Please let us know how we can help or just stop by to say hello.

 

This newsletter contains information about upcoming events, access to resources, and suggestions for things to listen to or read.  Check it out!

Resource of the Month

Issues & Controversies

New Database!

"Featuring a dynamic design and a wealth of features, Issues & Controversies helps researchers understand today’s crucial issues by exploring hundreds of hot topics in politics, government, business, society, education, and popular culture. Our "Issue and Article" pages make it simple to see all of the available content in one place; thousands of editorials and opinions from renowned newspaper sources via NewsEdge keep researchers on top of trending topics; and our enhanced navigation and search results and improved organization and taxonomy give users an intuitive and user-friendly research experience.

 

Updated weekly, with an extensive backfile, Issues & Controversies offers in-depth articles—each presenting both sides of an issue clearly, coherently, and without bias—made to inspire thought-provoking debates. Its straightforward presentation of the key facts, arguments, history, and current context of today’s most important and timely issues makes the database an ideal resource for research papers, debate preparation, and persuasive writing assignments. The articles are written by our own expert writers and editors, and each article includes a full range of supporting materials."

 

Click on the image above to access the database.

Click on the button below to browse the issues. See a librarian for login information.

Issues

Event of the Month

The Geography of Books

Want a good book challenge? This year, try to read books that take place in every state!

 

"This 50 States Book Challenge of books set in each state of the United States of America is the perfect reading challenge for avid readers looking to expand their horizons and track the states about which they read at the same time."

 

If you're not feeling that ambitious, stop by the library and put a dot on the state in which the book you are currently reading takes place.

 

Tell your students to stop by and participate, too!

Tech Resource of the Month

Lego Spike Prime Kits!

From Christine Hesler:

 

"Legos - Let’s Build Together…

 

We would like to catch you up to speed on the DOE Computer Science Mobile Learning Kits. These kits have arrived in our schools in the form of Lego Kits. We have a couple of class sets for each school. They will need to be checked out via your Instructional Technology Leader.

We have begun PD for teachers across the district so you can get a feel for what the Lego Kits will be about. We would like to begin the integration of Computer Science into our core curriculum classes as this is the original intent of the grant.

Each Lego Unit has integrated standards from the following areas; Science, Technology, Engineering, Math, and ELA.

This is an exciting opportunity for our students, K-12. RSU14’s three technology integrators are ready to connect with you and your students.

A few FAQs:

  • Do I need to do this on my own?

    • No - in fact, when you sign up for the Lego Kit experience - a tech integrator will be in your room to do the first 2-3 lessons (or more). This will help you experience the SOPs and process of building and coding.

  • Do I need to create lessons?

    • Nope - the Lego Apps have created step-by-step instructions for each build at all grade levels.

  • I do not have experience with Legos or coding. Can I still do this?

    • Yes! The integrators will be walking your students through this process while you watch and participate yourself. Your role is to also make connections with the content you are teaching and the Lego experience.

  • Who do I connect with if I have questions?

    • Suzanna Stevens - Richey Vickers - Tammy Lorenzatti

  • How do I schedule a time to have the Lego experience in my classroom?

    • Google Form

Want to see some in action? - View below

  • Grade 4 Build - Ferris Wheel

  • Gr. 4 Build - Swing"

 

Click on the image above to access Spike Lego.

Click on the button below to learn more about it!

Spike Lego

Ebook to Borrow

The Underground Railroad

by Colson Whitehead

"Cora is a slave on a cotton plantation in Georgia. Life is hell for all the slaves, but especially bad for Cora; an outcast even among her fellow Africans, she is coming into womanhood--where even greater pain awaits. When Caesar, a recent arrival from Virginia, tells her about the Underground Railroad, they decide to take a terrifying risk and escape. Matters do not go as planned--Cora kills a young white boy who tries to capture her. Though they manage to find a station and head north, they are being hunted.

In Whitehead's ingenious conception, the Underground Railroad is no mere metaphor--engineers and conductors operate a secret network of tracks and tunnels beneath the Southern soil. Cora and Caesar's first stop is South Carolina, in a city that initially seems like a haven. But the city's placid surface masks an insidious scheme designed for its black denizens. And even worse: Ridgeway, the relentless slave catcher, is close on their heels. Forced to flee again, Cora embarks on a harrowing flight, state by state, seeking true freedom.

Like the protagonist of Gulliver's Travels, Cora encounters different worlds at each stage of her journey--hers is an odyssey through time as well as space. As Whitehead brilliantly re-creates the unique terrors for black people in the pre-Civil War era, his narrative seamlessly weaves the saga of America from the brutal importation of Africans to the unfulfilled promises of the present day. The Underground Railroad is at once a kinetic adventure tale of one woman's ferocious will to escape the horrors of bondage and a shattering, powerful meditation on the history we all share. ~Goodreads 

 

Available on cloudLibrary. Select Windham/Raymond School District and log in with Google.

 

Click on the image above to access the Ebook.

Click on the button below to read a book review.

Book Review

Audiobook to Borrow

brown girl dreaming

by Jacqueline Woodson

"Jacqueline Woodson, one of today's finest writers, tells the moving story of her childhood in mesmerizing verse.

 

Raised in South Carolina and New York, Jacqueline Woodson, author of Brown Girl Dreaming, always felt halfway home in each place. In vivid poems, she shares what it was like to grow up as an African American in the 1960s and 1970s, living with the remnants of Jim Crow and her growing awareness of the Civil Rights movement.

Touching and powerful, each poem is both accessible and emotionally charged, each line a glimpse into a child’s soul as she searches for her place in the world. Woodson’s eloquent poetry also reflects the joy of finding her voice through writing stories, despite the fact that she struggled with reading as a child. Her love of stories inspired her and stayed with her, creating the first sparks of the gifted writer she was to become." ~Goodreads

 

Available on cloudLibrary. Log in with your Personal ID found in Infinite Campus.

 

Click on the image above to access the audiobook.

Click on the button below to read a book review.

Book Review

eMagazine to Borrow

The New Yorker

"The New Yorker is an American weekly magazine featuring journalism, commentary, criticism, essays, fiction, satire, cartoons, and poetry. Founded as a weekly in 1925, the magazine is published 47 times annually, with five of these issues covering two-week spans."

 

Sora now has digital magazines! Log in to the site by selecting Windham/Raymond School District RSU 14. There you will find a selection of magazines to borrow, ranging from children's to adult levels. All titles are available all of the time. No waiting!

 

Click on the image above to access The New Yorker magazine.

Click on the button below to access the Sora database of magazines, ebooks, and audiobooks.

Select Windham/Raymond School District and log in with Google.

Sora

ComicsPlus

Gaming Comics!

"A stunning graphic memoir recounting actor/author/activist George Takei's childhood imprisoned within American concentration camps during World War II. Experience the forces that shaped an American icon -- and America itself -- in this gripping tale of courage, country, loyalty, and love." ~Goodreads

 

"Comics Plus is a digital platform offering thousands of digital comics, graphic novels, and manga to readers, exclusively through school, public, and academic libraries. It is powered by LibraryPass." ~ComicsPlus

 

Check it out!

 

Click on the image above to access the library website.

To get to Comics Plus, hover over "Digital Books and Magazines" and click on "Comics Plus."

Email us for login information.

Staff Book Club

Our next Book Club is on Wednesday, February 15th, 2023 at 2:10 in the library.

 

The books we're reading are Big Magic: Creative Living Beyond Fear by Elizabeth Gilbert and The One-In-A-Million Boy by Monica Wood.

 

We hope to see some new faces and are looking forward to seeing familiar ones, too! 

 

Join us!

 

Click on the image above to order from Print: A Bookstore!

 

"Readers of all ages and walks of life have drawn inspiration and empowerment from Elizabeth Gilbert’s books for years. Gilbert offers insights into the mysterious nature of inspiration. She asks us to embrace our curiosity and let go of needless suffering. She shows us how to tackle what we most love and how to face down what we most fear. She discusses the attitudes, approaches, and habits we need in order to live our most creative lives.

 

Balancing between soulful spirituality and cheerful pragmatism, Gilbert encourages us to uncover the “strange jewels” that are hidden within each of us. Whether we are looking to write a book, make art, find new ways to address challenges in our work, embark on a dream long deferred, or simply infuse our everyday lives with more mindfulness and passion, Big Magic cracks open a world of wonder and joy." ~Goodreads

 
Book Review
 

Click on the image above to order from Print: A Bookstore!

 

"The story of your life never starts at the beginning. Don't they teach you anything at school?

So says 104-year-old Ona to the 11-year-old boy who's been sent to help her out every Saturday morning. As he refills the bird feeders and tidies the garden shed, Ona tells him about her long life, from first love to second chances. Soon she's confessing secrets she has kept hidden for decades.

One Saturday, the boy doesn't show up. Ona starts to think he's not so special after all, but then his father arrives on her doorstep, determined to finish his son's good deed. The boy's mother is not so far behind. Ona is set to discover that the world can surprise us at any age and that sometimes sharing a loss is the only way to find ourselves again.
” ~Goodreads

 
Book Review
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