Summer Reading: WEIRD!

It’s almost summer reading time again!    And for this year, we’ve got a fun idea for you to show off your summer travels & reading destinations! Or just wacky & creative reading position! Think of it as —READING XTREME! Our “Weirdest Reading Destination” contest & challenge invites you to take a picture of you reading in an strange, odd, fun, exotic, silly, preposterous, or even WEIRD place or position!

Are you reading on the sand “Downy Ochen, hon?”(for non-Baltimoreans that’s on our Chesapeake Bay Eastern Shore of Ocean City MD, & Fenwick, Bethany, Dewey, & or Reohoboth beach DE!) Are you reading in a camping tent? On the top of the Empire State building or Eiffel Tower? Are you reading on a trampoline? While skateboarding? (watch out!)  Are you reading on a bench outside MHMS with the yellow Angry Bird plushy friend? Oh no, that’s Alex!  Or are you reading upside down while eating an apple?! Oops! Nope, that’s Maya!  YAY! You don’t need to travel far to be creative because you can read ANYWhere!

Send your picture to Ms. Jones’s summer email at gwynethanne@gmail (dot) com giving your name, grade, location, & book title! Coolest pics will win an iTunes gift card, be featured on THIS BLOG,  & a get bundle full of  Advanced Reader Copy (ARC) paperback books! (Only valid for registered MHMS students incoming 6th, and rising 7th & 8th graders)

Summer Reading Lists Are Below!

You can download our summer reading list PDF’s from our MHMS Learning Wiki! Or Click on the PDF’s below

2012 Summer Reading Lists

Summer Reading for Middle School Peeps
 Final MS 2012 Summer Reading.pdf

Summer Reading List for Short Fries (Grades 4-5)
 Final 4-5 2012 Summer Reading.PDF

Summer Reading List for Parents & Teachers
 Final Adult 2012 Summer Reading.PDF

Download FREE Bookmarks!

external image 7295363290_73b5d57d6d.jpg

 Summer_Reading_Bookmarks12.doc

Visit our A+Partners & Good Friends at the Howard County Library for their Summer Reading Game!

June Jamboree Pics!

Credits:

So, I got the idea of the title of this blog from the movie: Ghostbusters II– a Classic!
Peter Venkman: “Next week on “World of the Psychic”. Hairless cats… weird”.

“Weirdest Reading Destination”  idea inspired (and totally pilfrered!) from the London Public Library! Who kindly put the picture at left on Flickr Creative Commons!

Thank you!

Follow them on Twitter @londonlibrary!!!!

QR Code Quest Scavenger Hunt – Part DEUX!

It has been a busy & exciting year at the Daring MHMS School Library! So busy, I sometimes can’t find the time to blog about all the cool stuff we do – now it’s time to catch up. We updated & improved our QR Code Quest Scavenger Hunt lesson this year & used it again with our AWEsome ESOL kids & 6th graders.

Improved worksheet and graphic clues!
I blogged about this lesson last year and upon reflection found that I needed to make the scavenger hunt questions simpler & the clues more graphic. (click photo at left to see a larger size) In doing so, I also had the chance to (finally!) make an avatar for my long time (20 years!) amazingly long suffering (she has to put up with me! LOL) angel of an assistant Mrs. Black! After I created it on Go!Animate Character Creator (Comic World) I then Photoshopped it adding the University of Maryland Terps logo onto her cute red t-shirt because she’s a U of M alum & a super fan!
This lesson is an example of how you can use mobile media in your school, classroom, or library. I can easily see how you could adapt this to say a SCIENCE! class, math class, or just about any subject area! The QR codes are included in the last pages of the lesson so you can see how they work. Also, don’t forget my favourite FREE & platform friendly QR Code reader is inigma.

Download the new QR Code Quest Scavenger hunt lesson & worksheets by clicking the lesson header below to get to the lesson wikipage below!


QR Voice adds a super neat new addition to the QR TEXT message. Just make sure the kids have the sound up on their mobile devices OR BETTER YET… next to the QR code station have a pair of computer speakers (or headphones if you fear the ruckus) that kids can plug into so the QR voice message can be clearly heard. Question 9 features our favourite fuzzy friends the Angry Birds! Learning where the important physical parts of our library was the main objective for this lesson, as well as introducing library vocabulary words. It’s a super fucn way to teach new kids, 6th graders, and my ESOL kids how to locate important parts of our library including the circulation desk, return book drop, reference & encyclopedias, and our magazines.  I was really bummed that one of our favourite and most popular magazine Shonin Jump has ceased printing a hard copy.Our other  popular magazines are Twist, Teen Vogue, & of course Sports Illustrated.
At the end of the class when we had some time left over I handed over my iPad & we played Angry Birds & Plants vs. Zombies together!


A few last QR tips
Unless you’re making a QR Text message using Kaywa using a URL shortener like my faourite Bit.ly makes for a prettier & easier to scan code. For more teacher tips read this posting on my professional blog.

See below for ALL the pictures of our AWESOME kids doing this activity. We had a visitor to our class that day, an ESOL instructional specialist from my district board – so that’s the guy in the background with the camera. Photos are by him and my awesome partner in teaching Mrs. Linda Potsiadlo our AMAZING ESOL teacher. I mean, this chick rocks & I love working with her!


For Chuckles!

For all that my kids LOVE QR Codes, mobile media, & tech — they GO CRAZY for Scratch N Sniff bookmarks from Highsmith!

Resources:




And a final PSA from my dear friend & super fan, Miss Critter Sharpe!

Follow her on Twitter: @CritterShapre

A Shout Out to Our Library Peeps!*

We here at the MHMS Daring School Library have the most AWEsome media helpers!  They apply for the job, interview with Mrs. Black, and are assigned a day where they come in during Seminar to check in books, shelve, and help students find books & audio that appeals to them!  Without them, we would have a hard time meeting all the needs of our customers….our kids! (and teachers, too!)  Click the photos below for larger sizes to view or download!

A super thanks to the awesome kids at MHMS for being wonderfully generous, talented, smart, & fun people to work with!!!!

Visit the MHMS Daring School Media Helper Wikipage, too!

Here’s a flashback!

Our media helpers from 2003! Serious pic ….then NOT so serious!

I bet some of these kids are prolly graduated from college now!!!

*Yeah…. I said peeps! I’m old school & proud of it!