Infographics

An Infographic is a visual presentation of information, it can be a diagram, a chart or a pictorial representation.  You can create one to use in a presentation or print out and post it to a display board.  Located in the right-hand column of the webpage you will find an Infographic Livebinder.   Click on the binder and you will find information about how to create an infographic, a number of different types of tools for you to use, links to already created infographics and also links to data sources to gather statistical information to make your own infographic.

Easel.ly, visual.ly, and Piktochart are the easiest tools to use to create your own infographic.  Click on the Data Sources for statistical information to use in your development.  If you would like to use an infographic already created click on the tab Infographics, just remember to cite your source if you use someone else's creation. 

SAT and ACT Test Practice

A list of links to different test prep locations have been added to the right-hand side of the webpage.  Some links are to free online quizzes, question of the day sites, and one is to a downloadable workbook.  Make use of them to prepare before taking either the ACT or SAT.  The tutor.com link is part of Homework Help so you may need to use the password for that program to get into it.

There are additional testing information sites located on the 300 Social Sciences Dewey page at the top of the website.

Change for OPAC

The library software program has changed.  We are now using Destiny.  When you click on the icon to bring you to opac you will notice a few changes in the format, but it works pretty much in the same way that you are used to, it is only a little bit more graphic.  It will come up in Basic search and then you have the option of doing a Power search which is another word for Advanced search which we are used to using.  The visual search right now is organized for Elementary students, we may change and edit it later for ourselves.

If you go to the left-hand column and click on Destiny Quest, you will get an even more graphic search station.  I am still setting this up and in the future you will be able to save your searches, more information on this will be coming.

Library Book Club

We will be having our first meeting on Tuesday, September 11th in the media center after school. The club is open to all grade levels. We will be discussing which books we will be reading and what other types of activities we want to include at the meetings.

Voting Now Open!

Vote for Yalsa's Top Ten Teen Favorites for 2012
Voting is now taking place and will end on September 15th.

Click on the link below and pick your favorite 3 of the 25 books that have been nominated by other teens. For more information on the titles nominated go to the Ashley Readers blog
.
Vote Here

All votes will be compiled and the top 10 favorites will be announced during Teen Read Week, October 14-20.

How to Avoid Plagiarism : PaperRater.com

Would you like a way to check your paper for plagiarism before you turn it in to your teacher?  How about getting it proofread and graded before you give it to her or him?

PaperRater.com allows you to submit your research paper, and also your works cited page and it will analyze your paper for writing style, correct grammar and plagiarism mistakes.  It will also give you a grade.  Keep in mind that it is grading your sentence structure, spelling and writing style, not so much the content and your arguments in the paper.

If you would like to improve the grade PaperRater gives you, make the suggested corrections and resubmit your paper to see if you have improved your writing.  Then turn in that revised research paper to your teacher with confidence!

Don't forget to tell them what school grade you are in before you submit. PaperRater will also make suggestions for essays, speeches and book reports among other types of writing.  See the tools listed at the bottom of their page if you would only like to check for plagiarism.

There is a permanent link to PaperRater.com in the right-hand column of this webpage and also on the Research Guidelines page.  A link to Easybib has also been added directly under it.

Also check out the link to Vocabulary Builder every day to help improve your writing.  They give a number of new words used in real sentences, so that you can learn them by association besides definition.

Changes to the Webpage

A few changes have been made to the setup of the Media Center webpage to help you with your research. 

1. We now have 3 eBook Shelves for you to use : FollettShelf, Gale Virtual Reference Library, and NC WiseOwl ebooks.  Check at the Circ Desk for passwords.

2. More Direct Links -- to the databases we have available to us from NC Wiseowl have been placed in the left-hand column of this page.  You can use the same passwords that you have been using with NC WiseOwl.

3. Ten Dewey Decimal Pages  -- located at the top of the webpage.  Each page has reliable website links that you can use for research.

We will be adding more website links throughout the year, if you come across any that you find helpful, let us know and we will add them to the list. 

Finding Dulcinea --  has Web Guides that provide resources on thousands of topics. The Beyond the Headlines section takes news stories and current events and provides answers to the questions that most media sources neglect.

Encyclopedia Britannica Online -- contains articles, videos, interactives and also current events.

Grolier Online Passport -- contains an online version of The New Book of Popular Science, Lands and People, Amazing Animals of the World and Encyclopedia Americana.  If it asks for a login and password when you sign in, they will both be the same word.

The Homework Help and Khan Academy links have been moved to the right-hand column of this page.

All resources are still available for use from home or school, if you don't have the passwords, stop by the library to pick them up.