Happy Christmas and Safe Travels

As another school year draws to a close, Barkly College Library Staff would like to wish you all a wonderful Christmas and a safe and happy New Year.

We may be posting during the holidays, but we won't make any promises.

Have an fantastic break and let's do it all again next year.

Shelagh and Carrie

Holiday Reading

 
Some suggested holiday reading for students and staff:

‘Kitchen God’s Wife’ by Amy Tan                Family

‘Obernewtyn’ by Isobelle Carmody             Fantasy – 1^st in series

‘100 Philosophers’ by Peter King                Non-Fiction

‘Go Ask Alice’ by Anonymous                      Diary (Teenagers & Drugs)

‘Soul Music’ by Terry Pratchett                 Fantasy/Humour

‘Back on Track’ by Margaret Clark          Diary (of a Street Kid)

‘Michael Sweeny’s Method’ by Sean Condon            Humour/Teenager

‘Circles of Stone’ by Pamela Rushby              Fantasy/Time Travel

‘Blood Brother’ by Malcolm Rose                   Futuristic Mystery

‘Beka Cooper: Terrier’ by Tamora Pierce    Fantasy

‘Blue Water High’ by Shelley Birse                Love (and Surfing)

‘Posse’ by Kate Welshman                  Issues

‘Thyla’ by Kate Gordon                       Horror/Fantasy/History

‘Inheritance’ by Christopher Paolini               Fantasy – 4^th in series

‘The Virals’ by Kathy Reichs                  Mystery/Sci-fi/Thriller


If none of these appeal – go and see Sam & Kara at the Public Library – they will be happy to help you find what you want.

 Hope you all enjoy a nice relaxing holiday READING!

The Future of the Book?

The Bright Ideas blog finds and shares a huge range of book and library based ideas that are out there on the internet that we may not always stumble upon by ourselves.  The latest one may give us an indication of where books could take us in the future.  Interactivity is the key to most of the ideas shown on the link below.
 
With projects like Pirates (paper board game using smartphones), the book that disappears (a book you have 20 minutes to read before the pages turn black) and Balloon (an Ipad virtual reality pop up book), there are lots of lovely ideas to explore.  Check it all out on the link below – then click back over to the Bright Ideas blog to see what else they have found.  The link is in our blog list on the sidebar. This blog is worth checking out regularly as they find some amazing sites and ideas.
 

 http://www.volumique.com/en/

2012 - National Year of Reading

Next year, 2012, has been declared the National Year of Reading. Isn’t that awesome? No? Do I hear some student voices grumbling about ‘how boring, what do we need that for?’ ‘How does that help my football career?’ ‘Who cares?’

Well, you may be surprised. One of the ambassadors for the National Year of Reading is Jarred Ilet – who is the CEO of the NT Thunder AFL team and the guy who is the director of the Intensity Sports magazine. Jarred used to attend Tennant Creek Primary School, so he was one of ours. Jarred says: “Reading is an essential skill that I utilise everyday in training as a Fire Fighter, editing as part of my duties with Intensity Sports Magazine and knowing the game plan for the Territory Thunder Football Club.The knowledge, skills and confidence I have gained through reading has led to amazing opportunities in my life. Get involved in the National Year of Reading as it will give you the power and control of what you want to do in your life.”

Another ambassador for the Year of Reading is the Melbourne Football Club. These guys are already football heroes – maybe they know something you haven’t learnt yet??
Check out the website: http://www.love2read.org.au/ambassadors.cfm  and see what they all say.

Staff - given that 2012 is the National Year of Reading, one suggestion that has come up on various Library online forums is to set the staff and students a challenge to read for 2012 seconds each day, or at least once or twice a week, as a block session. You could have them work out how long 2012 seconds is (its 33.5 minutes) and chart the number of times they are able to do this.
Maybe do it for a month, or a term, and those who can show they made it 75% of the time get a certificate or other acknowledgement. Or schedule the last Friday afternoon of every month (or similar) to be a school-wide read-in of 2012 seconds.....or....any other suggestions? What do you think? Anyone interested in giving this idea a go?

Last few weeks

Final run of the year!

There are only a few weeks left of the school year for 2011. I have asked all teachers and students to hand back the resources that they have borrowed. I am proud to say that this year a lot more books have been borrowed and I had some excited students waiting for the release of the second book in the Lorien series by Pittacus Lore.
Something new that has happened in the Library in the last couple of days is the new display shelves for the magazines have arrived and have been installed. They make the library look a whole lot better and personally, I love new stuff. The display shelves have already increased usage of the magazines and newspapers.
Next year is gearing up to be just as busy as this one. I will be running multiple PD's for staff about how to use digital cameras, eBooks, iPads, projectors and interactive whiteboards. We are such a fortunate school and the resources that we have should be used properly to assist in maximising student outcomes and achievements.

Australian Apprenticeships NT visit

Mr Pat Organ talking with students about apprenticeships

Today in the library, Mr Pat Organ from Australian Apprenticeships NT came for a visit to talk to students about apprenticeships. Lots of interesting questions were asked and answered and students seemed eager to participate in the discussion. It is amazing that although we live in outback Australia (the last frontier as I have heard many people call it), students here still have many opportunities offered to them that could make them become very successful adults. Well done to all students for your listening skills and asking intelligent and important questions. I hope that you got as much as possible out of this apprenticeship meeting and I look forward to hearing from some of you, the things that you have learnt.

Resource Link

Resource Link is a blog that I visit regularly and read the post. I find that they are very interesting, not just for library staff, but for educators as well. This week they have put up a blog post about Twitter, and it's uses to teachers. Being that we live in an isolated location, this is just another tool that educators in the Barkly District can use to educate our young people.

http://resourcelinkbce.wordpress.com/

Week One, Term 4

So, we are finally in term four and lots has been planned for students in the school for the next ten weeks. There is a new display up in the library promoting the fantasy section of our fiction collection. Thank you so much to all who helped me colour in the dragon and troll, they look fantastic!

This term, Shelagh is out of the office on study leave and I am looking forward to tending to the library and its special patrons. I am planning on contributing more programs to the library that should keep me (and Shelagh when she gets back) on our toes.

The construction group have now finished their vet courses and they are now back in the class room, year 12's are madly rushing to get things finished and meet deadlines and after that, they are headed over to Cambodia to do some volunteer work. The year 7's are going on a camp next week and the year 11 students are still away in Canberra on their study tour, learning a little bit more about our country and its fascinating history.

Summer is here early and this week is really heating up. We are expected to hit a top of 38 degrees celcuis sometime today. So I will be pulling out the chess boards and inviting students and staff in to play some epic battles agaist one another. There are other board games that are available in the library also, and they will be out on the library floor all week.

This term is definitely going to be a challenge, but even more so, it is going to be fun!

Websites of interest

While surfing the Web, and checking out the scoop.it links that we follow, I came across some interesting websites that may be of interest - and some use – to others. Take a look.

http://www.pearltrees.com/

Pearltrees is nothing less than a reinvention of how we organize the web. The service provides a completely unique and visual experience to saving your favorite websites, organizing what you find interesting, and even seeing what others are saying about specific web destinations. Pearltrees is a great way to organize, discover and share the stuff you like on the web.

http://www.readwritethink.org/files/resources/interactives/essaymap/

Many students are reluctant to plan – especially when it comes to schoolwork - and this means they sit staring at a blank page for ages when you ask them to write an essay. Graphic organisers are a great way to get them started, and an interactive online one will probably appeal even more. This looks like a nice one – and you can print them out afterwards, so they have a record of their plans.

Check them out and see what you think.

I will be on six months leave starting from Monday, but Carrie will continue to post and keep this blog running – and I will post every so often as well. By the time I return, I hope to have lots of new ideas about ensuring our libraries here at Barkly College continue to be the hub of the school.

Book Review: Shift

Author:  Em Bailey

Shift is a psychological thriller that shifts between two possible worlds. 

It is about a teenage girl named Olive who has just turned her life around; she ditched her old friends and her old life. Now she goes to school, goes to work and hangs out with her best friend Ami like a good girl - but when a new girl, Miranda, comes to her town, she threatens to turn her life back around again.  

 I loved this book even though it’s really high on the creepiness factor.

Reviewed by Emma Vipond

Year 8

Sports Day

On Friday, Barkly College celebrated our annual Sports carnival, with lots of friendly competition between the Houses. 

There were lots of students and staff with red, green and blue costumes and warpaint, including painted hair and nails just to make sure that everyone knows which team they were supporting.

The red team, Stuart, won the day - which was no suprise to those of us in the know.  (Any guesses as to which team we belong to?)

Go Stuart!

Book Review: The Virals

In this story, we meet Tori, Temperance Brennan’s great-niece who has just moved to an isolated island of the coast of South Carolina.  The island only houses about 10 other families who all work on nearby Loggerhead Island.

The friends she makes here are all smart kids who love science and adventure but often are not part of the popular crowd.  Together they find themselves on the adventure of their lives!  It all starts with an old, illegible dog tag they find while exploring Loggerhead which leads them to dead bodies, a kidnapped wolfdog with a deadly virus, breaking and entering and running from people with guns that are out to kill them.

As if that isn’t enough, they all catch the virus from the wolfdog, and it is not just a simple flu.  The virus changes them – alters their DNA – forever.

Some parts of the story are a little bit of a stretch, but if you just let that go, you are in for an absolute roller-coaster ride of a story.  Tori is the star of the story, but the others – Hi, Ben and Shelton are well developed characters and each has their own personalities that contribute to the plot.  And if you like dogs at all, Coop will just steal your heart. He is adorable.

The Virals, as they call themselves, have a battle in front of them although they have some unexpected secret weapons.  The twists and turns keep you on your toes and you are never sure just what is coming next.

This book crosses a lot of genres – science-fiction, adventure, suspense and fantasy – but manages to cover them all extremely well.

The second one in the series is due to be released at the beginning of November– and I can thoroughly recommend this book to anyone – teen or adult – who likes a great mystery or action story.  The sci-fi and the fantasy are just a bonus as far as I am concerned.

Shelagh Walsh

Library Technician

Barkly College

Book Review: All I Ever Wanted

Author: Vikki Wakefield

'Rule Number One:

I will not turn out like my mother.

Mim wants to be anywhere but home- in a dead suburb and with a mother who won't get off the couch.

She's set herself rules to live by, but she's starting to break them.

In nine days she'll turn seventeen. What she doesn't know is that her life is about to change forever. and when it does, the same things will look entirely different.'

This book is so descriptively written that the author literally takes you into the life of 16 year old Mim who struggles with her 'depressive surroundings' and her turbulent relationship with her mother.

Follow her journey as she sets out on a quest to better her life with surprising outcomes. A must read for teenagers. I can thoroughly recommend this book.

Helen Majewski

Support Staff