Mrs. Mowery's Update

Hello,

For the school year 2012-2013 I am taking a sabbatical.  Information regarding my classes, travels, book reviews, and interesting articles will be posted on my new blog, Notes from the Hiatusphere.
Since I am taking a number of great courses in technology including one on Google Apps for Education I will create a new website with numerous features for our Hooked-on-Books Club and HS Reading Olympics team. I will try to link everything together so that the information is easy to find. Should you wish to recommend any interesting item please email me at smowery@udsd.org.

I will see you back in September, 2013.  Have a great year!

Catherine Gilbert Murdock Talks to UD Students

Renowned young adult author, Catherine Gilbert Murdock visited our library media center last Thursday during our enhancement period to talk about her award-winning novels, The Dairy Queen series and her latest book, Wisdom's Kiss.  She discussed her writing career which began as a technical writer for industrial manuals.   She emphasized the importance of writing correct instructions so that the reader doesn't electrocute himself.  She also studied and tried screenwriting which she did not enjoy and finally found her passion writing for teens.  Her famous Dairy Queen book began as a dream that the author wanted to learn more about.  The novel became so famous that the publishers demanded three more. Her latest novel, Wisdom's Kiss is a romantic fantasy written in alternating chapters as a play, encyclopedia and diaries.  It is delightful and humorous. It is also receiving great reviews.  More information can be found at her website:

catherinemurdock.com

Teen Read Week

Lauren Kurtz, teen librarian at Upper Dublin Public Library, and I are teaming up to bring some fun and reading inspiration to the teens in our area during the week of October 24th. Our top program this year is Wrestlemania 28 Reading Challenge sponsored by the American Library Association. Teens who read 5 books or graphic novels during teen read week are eligible to enter a contest to attend the live televised event. Also granted is $2,000 for their school.

Also happening this week are the annual English class visits to read, drink coffee or hot chocolate, eat some sweets and learn about new books. Ms. Kurtz may also join in the fun.

More info at http://www.ala.org/ala/mgrps/divs/yalsa/teenreading/wrmc/wrmc.cfm

Tweet

My Side Of The Mountain

My Side Of The Mountain

Mrs. Lezczynski's classes made fabulous Animoto book trailers which can be found on the library wikispace under "Book Trailers." This is one example from Avani Patel.

What's new in young adult literature glog

This glogster presents some of the books presented on April 26th. My favorite book and the Printz Award-winning novel for teens is Ship Breaker.

Professional Library

In our new media center there is a new section specifically dedicated to professional literature for staff. Located here are the latest professional education journals and those that are subject-specific such as The English Journal. Beneath the journals are books dealing with teaching, educational technology, and the state of education. Please visit this new section, let us know what you think and make some suggestions.

Library on the Move...

Library on the Move... Watch the video made on Animoto

Goodreads.com

My Goodreads.com widget may be found at the bottom of the blog indicating the recent books I've read and my infrequent book reviews. At least I will add the stars!

One Giant Fall

Repurposing Books

Robin Wasserman YA Author Coming to UDHS

Celebrated young adult author Robin Wasserman will attend our "Literary Lunch" on Monday, October 18th from 10 until 11:45 in the high school library. In our somewhat informal setting she will discuss her books, The Seven Deadly Sins series, Hacking Harvard and her latest sci-fi series, Skinned. Students will question Ms. Wassserman about her high school days, her writing and publishing successes. Information about this marvelous young author can be found at her website, http://www.robinwasserman.com/.

eBook Summit

I will attend this virtual eBook summit on September 29th. This summit brings together the great information thinkers of the digital world. It should enlighten fellow librarians, administrators and teachers as to the huge shift in the world of publishing. Since we at Upper Dublin HS now have an online catalog with Destiny and many digital resources it is imperative that we continue to ride this wave to provide the best information possible to our students and to prepare them for the world they face now and in the future.

Kindles

After the UD Public Library was kind enough to let me borrow their new Kindle over a year ago and also upload a free book, The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society, I knew I had to bring this new technology to the high school library media center as soon as possible. Fortunately our special ed and reading teachers and I won a district grant for three new Kindles and the students are beginning to use them and compare their reading experiences with Kindles versus books. Since the price of these e-readers dropped drastically in July, we hope to receive 10 more of the newest Kindles as soon as they are available. Both staff and students will begin to see if they indeed enjoy reading great literature in this new format. They said the radio was dead when televisions went on the market, so here's to life with literature in both paper and on screens. Listen to Jeff Bezos discuss how Amazon hopes to improve the reading experience.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fAo0IfOCevA

Welcome to The Mowery Memos

I created this blog to pass along information that I receive to my faculty and student friends. My main interests include great books for teens and adults, creative ways to use the latest technology and media, and pressing issues that involve teens and education. My attempts to maintain a library newsletter, while also working in a bustling library media center, rapidly fell by the wayside wth my library "news" quickly becoming dated. It is my hope that this informational blog will allow me to share some new ideas and information. Please feel free to comment and share any good points you may have.