Weekend Reads

The Rest of Us Just Live Here by Patrick Ness

Sometimes the characters you read about seem so exceptional and perfect. This novel, the newest by Patrick Ness, is about everyone else. The kids who aren't hunting the vampires, the kids who aren't trying to stop the impending apocalypse, the kids who are just busy leading every day lives with every day problems. The story is told by Mikey, an 18-year-old boy who is riddled with tics brought on by the anxiety of graduation and unrequited love. He has four people in the world who he loves: his sisters Mel and Meredith, his friend Jared and Henna, who is his both his friend and the object of his affection. What is a little confusing about this book is that each chapter begins with a (very brief) synopsis of what the "indie" kids are doing (the ones who are fighting vampires/preventing the apocalypse).

While I really enjoyed the main plot of the book, I felt like the whole indie kids subplot was very slow-starting and, because of this, confusing. Something was clearly going on but it wasn't until the middle of the book that it was really clearly addressed. Have you ever listened to books on CD and skipped one of the discs? So you know the names of everyone and kind of get the plot but it all seems so off? That's how I felt at the beginning of the book. Though Ness brought it all together by the end, I definitely spent the first few chapters trying to figure out what I'd missed. Despite that, I have to reiterate that I really liked the main plot, the characters and the "realness" that Ness captured and portrayed. 

Find it in Fiction under F NES

The Shift: One Nurse, Twelve Hours, Four Patients' Lives by Theresa Brown, RN

Nurses have hard jobs. They work long hours, have immense responsibility for the lives of their patients, and have to make a million decisions each and every time they walk through the doors of their facility. Brown takes her readers through one shift, but focuses not only on the experience of the nurse but also on the lives of the patients the nurse is treating. The resulting story is harrowing and uplifting at the same time, filled with the successes and set backs that a nurse and her patients experience all in one day.

Find it in Nonfiction under 616 BRO

Magnus Chase and the Gods of Asgard by Rick Riordan

For a long time, the world has been focused on Greek and Roman mythology - I can remember learning about Zeus and Hera and Diana and Ceres as a young student and being fascinated by the stories. Rick Riordan capitalized on that through the two Percy Jackson series, which led Percy and his friends first through and exploration of the Greek mythology in Percy Jackson & The Olympians and then did a Greek/Roman mashup in The Heros of Olympus. 

As far as ancient mythologies go, though, it seems that the fervor for Greco-Roman stories are fading and the Norse legends are coming to the forefront. Riordan adds his contribution to the new wave of Northern Germanic-inspired tales with Magnus Chase and the Gods of Asgard. Expect the same light-hearted, fast-paced and humorous escapades that appeared throughout both Percy Jackson series. 

Find it in Fiction under F RIO

Digital Resources: Screencastomatic

A screenshot from a student's screencast about a map
of Washington

Flipping instruction is a hot topic in education today. The basic premise is that rather than provide students with instruction during class time and then asking them to apply what they've learned on their own, teachers record their instruction, students take notes on that instruction at the own pace and on their own time, and then application happens while teachers and students are together and students can get the guidance they need in order to be successful. Although a lot of presentation software has build-in recording capabilities, it can limit presenters to just one program as they record. Screencastomatic does exactly what it says: it captures what is on your screen automatically in order to broadcast it. All you need to use this software is web access and a microphone; you can give your lecture as you move through slides or through different programs and Screencastomatic will put it all together and publish it as either a .MP4, .AVI or .FLV file that you can then post wherever is convenient. The paid upgrade allows you to do a lot more with your recordings (such as edit them, publish them in other formats, etc.), but the free software is definitely sufficient for an entry-level or occasional user.

Where: www.screencastomatic.com

Cost: Free (with paid upgrades)

What: Web-based screen capturing software

Students! Try Screencastomatic if you want to...

create personal videos for YouTube

record a presentation (rather than present it live in class)

Teachers! Try Screencastomatic if you want to...

flip instruction

create videos of presentations for a class page or YouTube

create a tool that students can use to follow step-by-step instructions

Make Shop Monday: An Interview with Samantha Betykefer, Gianna Cicero, Kayla Gray and Julia Libbon

Happy Monday! For the next few weeks, Make Shop Monday is going to focus on makers from Ms. Raitano's 8th grade English class. This post is the third in our series. Throughout September, Ms. Raitano's class undertook an advertising unit. For this project, students were asked to come up with a product to sell, design and make that product, then create an advertising campaign that encouraged their classmates to purchase their product. We are going to feature several student-created companies and the products they developed. This week we will hear from Samantha Betykefer, Gianna Cicero, Kayla Gray and Julia Libbon. 

Avonworth Resource Center: What product did your group decide to make?

We made a chap stick pencil which is a 3D printed clip attached to a pencil and you can put a chap stick of your choice in the clip.

 ARC: How did you decide to make it?

We couldn't decide what invention we wanted to make so we thought of a few things we hate and not having chap stick at all times was one of them.

ARC: Did you run into any issues during your design process?

Yes.  Our design didn't work at first. We messed up the measurements on our first prototype of our clip and it didn't fit he pencil and chap stick.

ARC: Why should someone buy this product?

Our product helps you in both beauty and writing. It saves you hassle of not having chap stick when you need it and you're writing.

This concludes our Grade 8 Advertising Project Maker series. Thanks for reading - stay tuned to this space for more on the makers of Avonworth!

Weekend Reads

Today we are featuring a two guest posts from students here at Avonworth Middle + High School. The first review comes from 7th grade student Spencer Hall and the second comes from Lainey Hilyard, a 9th grade student. Thanks to both of them for their contribution!

Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand (reviewed by Spencer Hall) 

Atlas Shrugged is slow paced at the start, but if you read it further it has tons of interesting things. This is a book based around philosophy. Even though that may seem boring it is an action packed book. Also, it is filled with twists and turns in the plot. This means that you have to be a skilled reader to complete it because so much is happening. Not to give away anything is hard when this book is a mystery until you read it - such as "Who is John Galt?" Speaking of which this book is so famous that people who have read it have named their company John Galt Inc. As long as you like action, sci-fi, and/or mystery you will love this book.

Find it in Classics under F RAN

Throne of Glass by Sarah J. Maas (reviewed by Lainey Hilyard) 

Celaena Sardothien was the best of the best. She was great at what she did, which was being a top class, assassin blood thirsty and cocky. She was betrayed, and captured brought into the biggest and most highly guarded prison in the country. The land of Endovier a land where magic was abolished and history and people alike destroyed with it. But when Celaena gets a second chance at life instead of rotting in a cage to compete with others to become the kings assassin and earn their freedom. This book is mainly third person limited but it all revolves around Celaena's travels and challenges to re-earn her freedom. This made the book enjoyable and thrilling - Maas's description of the world and the characters was interesting and she did a good job creating a detailed and fascinating world. Will there be love or will there be death?

Find it in Fiction under F MAA

I Will Plant You a Lilac Tree by Laura Hillman

Laura Hillman (born Hannelore Wolff) was away at school in Berlin in the spring of 1942. It was while she was there that she got a letter from her mother. Her father had been arrested and taken to a concentration camp. Within six weeks he was killed, cremated and returned to his family in an urn. When another letter came telling Hannelore that her mother and brothers were facing a similar fate, Hannelore decided that she would return home and face the coming horror with her family to help them be strong. Hannelore eventually met Oskar Schindler, the man who would eventually save 1100 Jews by employing them away from the concentration camp. Although it seemed that Schindler would deliver her rescue like he had for so many others, it turned out to not be that simple. This memoir, like so many others written by Holocaust survivors, is harrowing. What she endured is unimaginable, but the story she tells is important and moving. 

Find it in Biographies under B HILLMAN

Digital Resources: Kahoot

DISCLAIMER: I am a very competitive person. When I play, I play to win. I will abstain from games and other forms of competition just because of my intense need to win. So when put into a situation where I have to play a game, all bets are off. This was the situation I found myself in this past summer at a professional development workshop when the speaker introduced Kahoot. I was immediately hooked. It's fast paced, it's completely customizable and it's highly competitive. The graphic behind the text on the sign up page is a kid at a computer screen praying as he waits for the results to be announced and then celebrating when they are. That moment of suspense really makes this quiz/game generator different from many of the others. It's also great because students can play on any web-enabled device, so if you don't have enough laptops/tablets/Chromebooks/etc. to go around, you can supplement what you have with what the kids have (assuming, of course, that your school allows for such things) AND kids don't have to sign up for an account, so you can avoid that hassle and just start playing! There are also public Kahoots, so students can play without you having to design anything at all; all you need to do is find the appropriate quiz and get kids started. You can also gather data into a Excel spreadsheet to see what students got right or wrong (although students enter their own nicknames so be sure to set a clear nickname policy in advance!

A screenshot from a popular public Kahoot - you can preview
gamesand play practice rounds before rolling them out!

Kahoot is designed to be a quick, fun and engaging game rather than a data-creating assessment. The countdown feature (where players get more points for answering more quickly) doesn't encourage deep thinking about individual questions; rather Kahoot seeks to spark initial engagement and enthusiasm. Kahoot is easy enough to use for students to create their own sessions, so there is an opportunity to use the tool to a more rigorous end.

Where: www.kahoot.com

Cost: Free 

What: Quiz/Game platform

Students! Try Kahoot if you want to...

create a fun quiz for your friends to try

develop a study tool for a group

include an engaging game in a presentation

Teachers! Try Kahoot if you want to...

include an element of competition in your lesson

create an engaging opening activity

have students create fun quizzes for each other

Make Shop Monday: An Interview with Will Lugalia and Jesse Hinterliter

Happy Monday! For the next few weeks, Make Shop Monday is going to focus on makers from Ms. Raitano's 8th grade English class. This post is the second in our series. Throughout September, Ms. Raitano's class undertook an advertising unit. For this project, students were asked to come up with a product to sell, design and make that product, then create an advertising campaign that encouraged their classmates to purchase their product. We are going to feature several student-created companies and the products they developed. This week we will hear from Will Lugalia and Jesse Hinterliter. 

Avonworth Resource Center: What product did your group decide to make?

Will: We made the remember4Ever

Jesse: [It's] a ring that makes sure you always know what to do

WL: To use it you have to take off the protection covering write what you have to do the put the cover back. 

 

ARC: How did you decide to make it?

WL: We made it because we wanted to help people remember things.

JH: We tried to find a plastic material that you could easily write on and wipe off with ease. 

ARC: How did you construct your actual prototype?

JH: We realized that what your writing would smear so we added a plastic cover for protection

WL: We used a water bottle duck tape and a milk jug and we cut a price of the water bottle and taped the ends together then we cut a slip in the water bottle then we put a piece of the milk over it.

ARC: Why should someone buy this product?

WL: Because it will help them remember what they have to do

JH: You should buy the Remember4Ever for your reminder on the go!

Stay tuned for more products from AMS English 8! Thanks Will and Jesse!

Weekend Reads

Rocket Boys by Homer H. Hickam, Jr.

NASA engineer Homer Hickam grew up in Coalwood, West Virginia. Set in the 1950's and early 60's, Hickam tells his story of the rocket building club he was a member of as a boy. He was inspired to build rockets after being inspired by the launch of Sputnik, the Russian rocket launched on October 4 1957. This was a time of great concern and animosity towards Russia, as well as a time when the scientific horizon was expanding quickly. Anything seemed possible - which led Homer and his friends to go buy some explosives and almost burning down his mother's fence. Rocket Boys is technically a biography, but is really considered a memoir because 1. Hickam admits to taking some "liberties" with the actual events and 2. rather than being a retrospective of his life and career, Hickam focuses on  a very small period of time and builds a beautiful story from it. 

Find it in Biographies in B HICKAM

I Am Princess X by Cherie Priest

May and Libby were more than just best friends; they were also co-creators and an awesome art team. The girls had been creating the world of Princess X, a princess who lived in a haunted house and carried a katana blade like a ninja, from the time they were nine until they were twelve. When Libby's mom drives off of a bridge and Libby's body isn't recovered, May loses her only friend. It's a loss that is twice as hard to take when May discovers that all of Libby's Princess X archive has been destroyed as well. So when Princess X starts appearing in May's life again, it's not just a reminder of her lost friend, but shocking and mysterious. This book is mainly a standard narrative, but there are illustrations and comic panels throughout. The jarring losses that May suffers is reflected in the tone at the beginning of the book, and Princess X is a princess that any little girl can look up to.

Find it in Fiction under F PRI

Change-Up: A Mystery at the World Series by John Feinstein

This October is a bittersweet time for us Pirates fans. While we are (still!) excited about how well our Buccos did this year we already miss having them to cheer on. Why not find a book that combines baseball with a mystery (a natural selection for this spooky time of year!) Stevie and Susan Carol are teen journalists who are covering the World Series. Everyone is excited when Norbert Doyle, a career minor league pitcher, manages a no-hitter in Game 2. When Stevie begins to research Doyle for a feature story, he starts to discover things that make him question what he (or anyone) really knows about Norbert Doyle. 

Find it in Fiction under F FEI

Digital Resources: Duolingo

Before I became a teacher, I worked for Operation Smile, an awesome international nonprofit organization that provides reconstructive surgeries for kids in developing countries. I organized educational workshops and conferences for medical care providers (nurses, doctors, speech language pathologists, etc.) and foundation staff around the world. I always tried to learn a few words in the native language of the countries I visited (usually things like hello, thank you, excuse me, you're welcome) to make my trips easier. I studied French in high school and college, but a lot of my travels took me to Spanish-speaking countries so I invested in a VERY pricey copy of Rosetta Stone to try and learn enough Spanish to communicate with my colleagues in a language they were comfortable with. If I had had Duolingo, I could have saved money AND taken my studies with me wherever I went on an easy-to-carry tablet (although this was the early 2000's so CDs and laptops were as portable as things got).

The launch page for Duolingo - as students complete assginments
they earn lingots (which they can spend in the lingot store)
and the images go from grayscale to color. You can even add
fluency information to your LinkedIn profile!

As great as Duolingo is for individual students, they've recently rolled out features that make it suitable for classroom use. Teachers can set up classrooms and track their students' progress through the Duolingo activities. These activities can be great for reviewing vocabulary concepts, gamifying instruction (Duolingo offers points for completing activities; if you earn enough points you receive a "lingot" which you can use to purchase additional language packs such as idioms and situation-specific phrases), as warm-ups or even as summer or winter break work. Duolingo's graphics and ease-of-use makes it a natural fit for students of any age. It makes learning a new language (or brushing up on a previously-learned one) easy and fun.

Where: www.duolingo.com (available on the web or as an app on iOS and Android)

Cost: Free (for both the student activities and the classroom portal)

What: Web-based language instruction

Students! Try Duolingo if you want to...

independently learn a new language

prepare for international travel by knowing a few key words and phrases

practice a language you are in the process learning

Teachers! Try Duolingo if you want to...

gamify your language instruction

assign self-directed work for students over breaks or when you have a sub

introduce a game-like element to your instruction

Make Shop Monday: An Interview with Natalie Marshall

Happy Monday! For the next few weeks, Make Shop Monday posts are going to focus on makers from Ms. Raitano's 8th grade English class. Ms. Raitano's class embarked on an advertising unit in September. For this project, students were asked to come up with a product to sell, design and make that product, then create an advertising campaign that encouraged their classmates to purchase their product. We are going to feature several student-created companies and the products they developed. First up is Natalie Marshall whose company made a dual-liquid bottle!

The first iteration of Natalie's
group's design

Avonworth Resource Center: What product did your group decide to make?

Natalie: Our group made a dual water bottle. This bottle can hold two different drinks at the same time while only having to carry one bottle.

ARC: How did you decide to make it?

NM: We decided to make it because a lot of times we want to take two drinks to sports or school but it is just too much to carry with everything else. This bottle fixes that problem.

After adapting it to stand
on its own

 ARC: Did you have to change your plan before you produced your final product?

NM: We did have to tweak our plans a little when we were making our product. Our bottle could not stand on its own because it is two water bottles glued to each other. So, we had to make a cup holder so that it could sit anywhere.

ARC: Why should someone buy this product?

NM: Someone should buy this product because it will fix your everyday problem of having to choose one drink out of a million choices and makes it easier to carry two drinks.

Stay tuned for more products from AMS English 8! Thanks to Natalie and her group (as well as to Ms. Raitano for her help with this article!)

Weekend Reads

School for Sidekicks by Kelly McCullough

Evan Quick wants to be a superhero. Not in the typical young-boy-dreaming sort of way either; he wants to be a real, bonafide hero (known as a Mask). When his class is attacked by supervillians during a field trip, Evan saves the day and ultimately rescues one of his favorite superheros, Captain Commanding. When he wakes up after the battle, he finds himself at the Academy for Metahuman Operatives - with a history that has been rewritten to put Captain Commanding in the hero's position instead of Evan. Life at the Academy is hard - but Evan works hard to realize his dream of becoming a Mask. This book is funny and fast-paced. McCullough's characters are witty and the plot moves smoothly. This is a fun read and a great choice to pick up for this weekend!

Find it in Fiction under F MCC

The Mostly True Story of Jack by Kelly Barnhill

In The Mostly True Story of Jack, Kelly Barnhill does a masterful job of enticing readers to learn more - more about Hazelwood, more about Aunt Mabel and Uncle Clive and more about Jack. She does this by giving readers just enough information to reveal a mystery, but never enough to spoil the surprises she has waiting later in the novel. Jack seems like a normal boy, although he is often looked past or forgotten, and until he arrives in Hazelwood to spend some time with his aunt and uncle, his life is unremarkable except for its lonliness. What Jack discovers about himself and his family is beyond his comprehension; he isn't one to believe in fairy tales - until, that is, he can no longer deny what is right in front of him. I love the structure of Barnhill's writing; it's suspenseful and well-developed. She reveals things slowly, and by making her main character (Jack) unaware of the magic that surrounds him, she controls the pace of the story beautifully

Find it in Fiction under F BAR

Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children by Ransom Riggs

Since it's October, many students are looking for a spooky and mysterious book. Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children is both. Jacob Portman has grown up listening to the stories of his grandfather - stories of children with odd features and uncommon abilities. His father dismisses them as fairy tales, but Jacob believes - at least, he does for a long time. His grandfather's stories were accompanied by warnings of terrible monsters who hunted the children, and who hunted him. When Grandpa Portman dies under mysterious circumstances, Jacob does not handle it well. Grandpa's last instructions lead Jacob to a remote island off the coast of Wales; what he finds there changes his life (and his understanding of his grandfather) forever.

Find it in Fiction under F RIG

Digital Resources: Tinkercad

3D printing and design is awesome. Asking students to take into account the third plane is a huge challenge, and watching them create things that they can use and while working through the process of iteration and revision is awesome. The biggest stumbling block, in my opinion, has always been the software. It wasn't very easy to use and most of them (that I looked into anyways) had a pretty steep learning curve. This is problematic for the classroom teacher who would like to include this kind of making in a non-tech or non-design based classroom. Most teachers don't have time to learn complicated software with limited practical application to the majority of their curriculum, and the time it would take for students to learn the software would also be significant. The end result? Teachers and students were not able to easily design and make 3D pieces without a co-teacher or a huge (and usually unmanageable) time investment.

A prototype design for a 6th grade project

Tinkercad is a great solution for this problem. The software is simple - maybe too simple for a lot of sophisticated applications, but perfect for the casual user or as an accessible entry into designing 3D objects. This web-based program also comes with a series of "lessons" - perfect for any new user to begin to understand the various aspects of 3D design. All of the objects created in the lessons are printable, so the designs can become the first things the user creates and prints. I really love the Chess Piece lesson. It emphasizes the necessity of considering the Z plane during the design process (this was the hardest lesson for me!) and emphasizes the idea that a piece can look perfect in the X and Y plans while being completely wrong in the Z. Tinkercad can be used as a great introduction to 3D design and printing, or can be used as the main design software in the classroom (depending on the project). 

Where: www.tinkercad.com

Cost: Free

What: Web-based 3D design software

Students! Try Tinkercad if you want to...

design 3D models

learn the basics of 3D modeling

want to design things for Minecraft (they have an exporting tool specifically for this!!)

Teachers! Try Tinkercad f you want to...

figure out the whole 3D modeling/printing thing but are too intimidated by more technical products

have an easy way to incorporate 3D modeling or printing in your classroom with minimal software instruction
want to give students tools to work with prototyping/iteration/design principles

Weekend Reads

Very in Pieces by Megan Frazer Blakemore

Veronica (aka Very) Sayles-Woodruff is the dependable one in all of her relationships. Her mother calls her "Smart One" (and never anything else) and relies on her to be constant, her sister is flighty and wild and her boyfriend takes her good nature for granted. On top of this, she is losing her Nonnie, the grandmother who was bright and rebellious. As Very enters her senior year, she wants to finally shake things up and stop doing the "shoulds" and start doing the things she wants to. Very is an admirable character and this realistic fiction novel speaks to anyone who wants to be more than what they seem or what they are expected to be.

Find it in Fiction under F BLA

Breakaway by Alex Morgan

Alex Morgan was on the soccer field starting at age five. By age eight, she decided that soccer was what she wanted to commit the rest of her life to. She was a driven and talented young lady, and those qualities led her through a successful high school, college and beyond. One part memoir and one part advice column, Morgan describes her life and journey but also suggests how to use some of the things she learned along the way as well. Morgan fought hard to achieve her dreams, and experienced some set backs along the way; her story might be one that resonates most with young athletes, but can be inspiring for young people who have dreams that lie outside of practice fields and stadiums as well.

Find it in Biographies under B MORGAN

Half Bad by Sally Green

Sally Green introduces us to Nathan, the main character of the Half Bad trilogy, in a very dark and twisted setting. Nathan is, for reasons we do not yet understand, in a cage and essentially being tortured. Green's use of the second person helps to establish sympathy for this character who is clearly perceived without sympathy by the other people in his world. Green switches between first and second person throughout Half Bad, and as she does so we learn about who Nathan is and the circumstances that led him to his cage. Half Bad is set in an England that is home to witches. These witches are either White or Black; Nathan is a "half code" or the son of a White Witch mother and a Black Witch father. Nathan's father isn't just any Black Witch - he is the most powerful and feared Black Witch of them all. Although Nathan is raised by his White Witch family to believe that Black Witches are bad, his experiences lead him to believe otherwise.

This novel has some very difficult moments, but I especially love how Green uses Nathan to force readers to consider the in-between. It would be easy to paint one group as "good" and one group as "bad" but Green really shades her characters in gray. No one (not even Nathan) is just good or just bad, and the evil things that they do aren't justified but they are contextualized, which is a refreshing position to see in the YA world.

Find it in Fiction under F GRE