3 Things from the NVHS LMC #5

Too Busy for Time for Time Management

Everyone in the education world knows how valuable time is in their work and life. A new study confirms that people who value time over money are happier (but of course money is great too.) Of course, our students need to know how to maximize their time as well. Lisa Johnson from the Tech Chef blog has a post with resources she used to teach students about time management.

Thanks for the Books, Volume Reading Committee 

The district's Volume Reading Committee has a done something awesome. They have given all of the district LMC's a one time gift of money to purchase books to help add a bunch of new books for our collections. We will be soliciting your feedback in the near future about materials that might support your independent reading assignments.

Lincoln Award: Nyxia

A group of teenagers with troubled pasts have been selected for a mission to a faraway planet where they will help mine an amazing mineral called Nyxia. On the way there, their numbers will dwindle as they face a series of competitions to determine who will be part of the final crew. If they make it all the way, they will receive lifelong financial security for them and their families. But the competition can be deadly and the corporation sponsoring the trip has some secrets they want to keep hidden at any cost.

3 Things from the NVHS LMC #4 - Happy Birthday to Dr. Fuhrer Edition

Back to the Basics 

From Edutopia, Fundamentals of Classroom Management is a list of resources aimed at new teachers, but it looks like they have some useful information for any teacher. Also from Edutopia, an article from a few years ago suggests a simple strategy for asking better questions to students. Finally, Jennifer Gonzalez from the Cult of Pedagogy podcast recently did an episode / blog post about what to do you when you want some answers, but you get nothing but crickets in response. 

Google Drive Learns New Tricks

Google Slides and Docs have a few tricks up their virtual sleeves. Say you want to hide a slide during a presentation because you want to temporarily hide an answer. When in presentation mode, press the B key for a black screen, W for a blank white one. You can also set up automatic timings on a Slides presentation and have it loop in  kiosk mode. It might be helpful for student festival or rotation directions during group work. Just click the gear icon at the bottom of the screen when in presentation mode. In Docs, go into the Tools menu and click Word Count. You can display a live word count as you type. Great for typing up announcements or other places where you have a word or character limit.

We are 204: With the Fire on High

Emoni Santiago's life course seems pretty set in stone. She is a high school senior with a toddler to raise and she has to help her grandmother pay the bills. Emoni is such an instinctively good cook that her cooking skills seem like magic, but she thinks her own dream of being a chef will never happen. That is until her school starts a new culinary arts class. Taking the class is one thing, but she will never be able to afford the culinary two week trip to Spain to work in a real professional kitchen. And getting to know the cute new boy that keeps trying to get her attention is definitely off limits. But maybe this is her real chance for a better future for both her and her daughter. Here is the book trailer on YouTube.

3 Things from the NVHS LMC #3

Oops! I Forgot to Bring and / or Charge My Chromebook

Just a quick reminder that we have a limited number of Chromebooks for students whose device is being repaired. For that reason, and because of a directive from the CEC, we do nott lend out Chromebooks to kids who forget their device at home. For students who forget to charge their Chromebooks, we have a few chargers on hand for kids to checkout and use in the LMC Unfortunately, because of high demand (and forgetful adolescents), we don’t allow them to leave the room. We do have 12 desktop computers in the LMC. When we distribute the devices or talk to parents, we suggest students develop a habit of putting their bookbag and Chromebook in the same spot every night and make sure to plug it in. A recent NY Times article discussed how to help teenagers remember to bring their stuff to school. Worth a read.

Interesting Articles: Swipe Left or Right on Tech?

There is a scientific debate on teens, screens, and mental health. Mindshift has a nice summary. A new research study says that if you want to take a mental break, then put down the cellphone. Researchers have found a way to tell if students are really just Christmas-treeing a test on a computer. Want to know how many books you could get through in a year if you just quit checking your social media account? Omni Calculator can give you an idea.

Gale PowerSearch: Topic Finder

Are you looking for more information on a current topic? Would you like your students to bring in articles to support your curriculum? Try searching all of our Gale Databases with Power Search . The topic finder also helps you narrow down a search by clicking on other terms related to your search

3 Things from the NVHS LMC #1

Update Those Chromebooks (Please Pass It On)

One of the best things students can do to improve the security of their Chromebook and fix possible problems is to update the operating system. It isn’t hard to do and it takes about 2 minutes (or less). Here is a useful slide that Lance created a while back. Please share it with your students and encourage them to update whenever their computer tells them have a new update.

New LMC Databases from Cengage Gale

We have added Cengage Gale’s U.S. History in Context and World History in Context to our lineup of LMC databases. We have several other databases from the same company, so if you know how to use one of them,  you will figure out the other ones really quickly. Plus, there is a special interface called Gale PowerSearch that allows you to search most of them all at once. All of our Gale databases are integrated with Google, so you can send material to Google Drive or Google Classroom.

New Reading Lists: Lincoln Award & We are 204

Every year, we like to promote the Lincoln Award Nominees list. The list is put together by a committee of high school librarians and high school students from across the state. Last year, we also worked with the other high school LMC Directors to create the first We are 204 list, a districtwide list that promotes titles that reflect the district’s diversity. Both lists have great books for high school students. We will be introducing a title a week, but here are both lists in case you are curious: Lincoln Award / We are 204.

3 Things from the NVHS LMC #2

Breaking News: Differentiated Reading for Your Classroom

Newsela is a website that has a library of articles that you can assign to students. Any article can be changed to a variety of reading levels so that you can meet the needs who read at lower or high levels in the same class. Many of the articles also come with a comprehension quiz. Since the district pays for the PRO version, login using the Google button and district account. Their Educator's guide shows you how to do cool stuff like syncing your Google Classroom roster with Newsela so you can assign and track student progress.

Free Stuff Alert!

Why are people always trying to give teachers free stuff? Marketing, I guess. But who cares? It's free stuff! If you are an audiobook fan, Libro.fm gives away a few e-audiobook titles away to educators every month. The meditation and mindfulness app Calm is offering free premium access to educators right now. Download some free  Growth Mindset posters from the We are Teachers website. 

Lincoln Award: Sadie by Courtney Summers

After Sadie's younger sister Mattie is murdered and the police investigation goes nowhere, Sadie decides to take matters into her own hands. She vows to find the killer and take revenge, but she has ended up missing herself.The narrative shifts between Sadie and that of a podcast that is investigating what happened to Sadie and her sister. The publisher created a real podcast to go along with the story too.