East Rock Starts Fall Reading Challenge

Paula Daitzman, East Rock librarian, has kicked off  her  Principal's Fall Reading Challenge. Students receive a small pumpkin or haystack for each book read.

Clemente Students 'Vote' in the Library

The 5th and 6th grade bilingual class at Clemente casts votes for president in voting booths conceived by Juliet Sullivan, librarian, and Carina Ruotolo, Art teacher. Judy Goodrich, social studies teacher, created the ballots.

Cross Starts Book Club for Boys

Soraya Potter, librarian at Wilbur Cross High School, has started a book club just for boys. The first selection is Alex Cross by James Patterson. The culminating event will be a trip to the movies to see the film made from the book, in theatres now.

Ben Carson Book Club Starts at Columbus

CCFA's 3rd graders are participating in the Ben Carson Book Club by earning points and and handing in logs monthly,  which incorporate Dr Carson's "Think Big" philosophy into their lives. Dr. Ben Carson initiated this  book club to promote reading as  a key to academic and career success. 

New Librarian at Clemente

Juliet Sullivan, newly hired librarian at Clemente Leadership Academy, stands in front of her first bulletin board. Juliet is social studies certified and previously taught at John S. Martinez.

Juliet goes over expectations with a class of 3rd graders, her fourth class on the first day of school.

All librarians participated in a workshop at Metropolitan Business Academy on History Day, a research based competition. This year's them is Turning Points in History.

Emily Dunnack, head of education programs at the Connecticut Historical Society, was the presenter.

6-8 Book Bowl Survey 2012

Book Bowlers, please fill out this survey to let us know your thoughts on the 6-8 Book Bowl! Thanks.

Author to Visit for last Books 2.0 Book Club

                Ramin Ganeshram (right), author of the new young adult novel Stir It Up, will speak to high school students at the last district-wide book club of the year May 30 at Wilbur Cross High School.

                 Charline Cupole, chair of the committee organizing the event, created a website with information about the visit, opportunities for blogging about the book and rules for a digital competition.

                 Students at nine high schools in New Haven are preparing cooking videos for a contest similar to that featured in the book, which is based on a teenaged girl’s desire to have a cooking show on the Food Network. Each school is challenged to create a 2-3 minute video that demonstrates how to prepare a cultural dish.

                Students must create or find a recipe, make a video and submit the video and a typed recipe to their library media specialist by May 18. Videos will be viewed at the book club and a winner will be selected.

Celebrity Baker Reads Aloud at Brennan-Rogers

Celebrity baker and food artist Duff Goldman, owner of Charm City Cakes, read The Treasure Chest by Dominique Falda to second graders at Brennan-Rogers School in March. Goldman stars in the the Food Network show Ace of Cakes. See photos of some of Goldman's cakes here.

Pajama Night and Story Telling at Columbus

Columbus Family Academy held a Pajama Night on Jan. 25. Students and families had an opportunity to listen to a storyteller, Leeny DelSeamond, sponsored by Book Voyagers. At the end of the presentation students participated in a 10 minute “read in” with family and friends.

Roberto Clemente Celebrates Dr. Seuss Day

Library Media Specialist Kathy Parker incorporated an idea from pinterest.com, a virtual bulletin board of creative ideas from the public, to sweeten up her Dr. Seuss Day celebration. Watch an animoto of the day's events here.

Columbus Holds Pajama Night Read-In

Christopher Columbus Family Academy held a Pajama Night on Jan. 25. Students and families had an opportunity to listen to a storyteller, Leeny DelSeamond, sponsored by Book Voyagers. At the end of the presentation students participated in a “read in” in the library media center with family and friends.

Wexler LMS Helps Organize Talent Show and Book Giveaway

Read here about the Wexler Grant talent show. LMS Rose Ann Castiglione was on the committee that organized the event. She also was the backstage manager and gave a free book to all who entered!

Mauro Sheridan Board Displays Eighth Grade Reading

This bulletin board displays eighth grade book responses as part of the  Mauro Sheridan Literacy Committee family literacy activity for November called "We are Grateful for a Great Book" family literacy activity. For more information on family literacy activities at Mauro Sheridan click here.

Hooker LMS Holds Broad Tech Training for Teachers

Worthington Hooker LMS Beth Hart made technology the focus of  the Nov. 8 staff  development at her school. Teachers were able to learn about technology tools and websites they  could then incorporate into their teaching, use to improve communication with parents or students, or to have students use to demonstrate land share their  learning. Teachers were asked to select one or two skills to develop during the session that  included training on such tools as Photo Story, Prezi, Voicethread, Flip cameras, the school’s Vbrick system, Animoto, Google Lit  trips, animoto, word clouds and Skype. Hart facilitated the training in the library media center.

Daniels Library-Music Collaboration Casts 10 Students in Shubert Production

                 Ten students at John C. Daniels will perform in The Shubert Theatre’s The Wizard of Oz, thanks to the efforts of drama club co-advisors LMS TriciaMcGovern and Music Teacher Carmlyn Buleje,

                 Producers contacted Ms. Buleje about the openings for the muchkins. McGovern and Buleje chose ten members of the club to audition a song and dance routine before representatives from the theatre.





                 The students beat out three other local groups. “The ten were going to be taken as a group or not at all. They had to work together. That was huge. We didn’t have a lot of time to prepare. They only had about four hours over several days,” said McGovern, whose 12-year-old daughter Grace choreographed the routine.

To prepare for the show, the students meet after school two to three days a week for two hours and on Saturdays at the Wilson branch of the New Haven Free Public Library. The show runs Dec. 29 through Jan. 1.

Hooker Library Recognizes Volunteers

                 Worthington Hooker LMS Beth Hart held a party for volunteers Dec. 15, one of two she holds each year to recognize their efforts.

“I have eight volunteers who contribute about eight hours a week total, four at the lower school and four at the upper school.  I don't think I could manage the two-site challenge without them!  This is the 9th year for one of my volunteers, who started when her daughter was in kindergarten and who now is in 8th grade!” Beth said.

                 The next party will be in June. Beth gives her volunteers sweets, fruit, tea, coffee, cocoa and juice. This year she also gave them “Peace” book bags.

 

Volunteers (with their children) seen here at a party in their honor make are integral to the library media program at the upper and lower schools at Worthington Hooker.