VarsityTutors - New Site added to Practice Tests

A new link has been added to the Practice Test Sites list.  The new site is called VarsityTutors.  The site has practice tests for the Accuplacer, ACT, SAT, AP exams and a variety of other exams. The Practice Test Sites list is located in the right-hand column of this webpage.

Direct links to ACT Questions of the Day have also been set up for English, Reading, Math and Science for you to use, look for the subject icons above the Practice Test Sites list.  Click on the icons and they will bring you to the Question of the Day for that subject area.

  

Once on the VarsityTutors site, you can create your own account and keep track of your testing progress.  It is a free practice test site.  Each type of exam has practice tests, flashcards and questions of the day.

YALSA Book Award Winners

YALSA (Young Adult Library Services Association) a division of the American Library Association has announced its 2014 Best Lists for Young Adult Literature. 

The Michael L. Printz Award is an award for a book that exemplifies literary excellence in young adult literature.  The award went to Midwinterblood by Marcus Sedgwick and the Honor Books are: Eleanor & Park by Rainbow Rowell, Kingdom of Little Wounds by Susann Cokal, Maggot Moon by Sally Gardner, and Navigating Early by Clare Vanderpool. 

The Edwards Award which recognizes an author for his/her body of work went to Markus Zusak for The Book Thief, Fighting Ruben Wolfe, Getting the Girl, and I Am the Messenger.  The YALSA Award for Excellence in Nonfiction went to The Nazi Hunters: How a Team of Spies and Survivors Captured the World's Most Notorious Nazi written by Neal Bascomb. 

The Alex Awards are given to ten books written for adults that have special appeal to young adults, ages 12 through 18.  This year’s winners are: Brewster by Mark Slouka, The Death of Bees by Lisa O’Donnell, Golden boy: a novel by Abigail Tarttelin, Help for the Haunted by John Searles, Lexicon: a novel by Max Barry, Lives of Tao by Wesley Chu, Mother, mother: a novel by Koren Zailckas, Relish by Lucy Knisley, The Sea of Tranquility: a novel by Katja Millay, and The Universe Versus Alex Woods by Gavin Extence.

For a complete listing of these awards and also lists of current and previous years’ lists for: Best Fiction for Young Adults, Quick Picks for Reluctant Readers, Great Graphic Novels, Outstanding Books for the College Bound, Popular Paperbacks for Young Adults and lists for Amazing Audiobooks and Fabulous Films go to this website link: http://www.ala.org/yalsa/booklistsawards/booklistsbook.

There is also an App that can be downloaded YALSA’s Teen Book Finder for your phone or iPad. http://www.ala.org/yalsa/products/teenbookfinder

Apps for the Library

Follettshelf and Gale eBook Apps

There are now two apps that you can download to either your iphone or ipad that you can you to access information quickly.The Follett Digital Reader app will give you quick access to the Follettshelf of ebooks.  The Access My Library School Edition will give you access to all of the ebooks that we have in the Gale Virtual Reference Library.


Access My Library                                                                                      
Click the following link for more information.
http://www.gale.cengage.com/apps/aml/SchoolStudent/

You can download from the link on the Gale page or go directly to the App Store.


Follett Digital Reader                                                                                                         

Click the following link for more information.
http://www.aboutfollettebooks.com/app-shelf.cfm

You can download from the link on the Follett page or go directly to the App Store.

 
Use the same logins and passwords that you would regularly use when entering these two sites from the media center webpage.  If you do not remember the passwords see the librarian for them.

 

 

Great Gatsby Prom Information

Great Gatsby Prom Link




Click on the link to go to Ashley Readers Webpage. You will find information about this year's prom and also links on clothing, hairstyles and makeup of the 1920s. There are also links on the music of the 1920s.

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.