Here is an excellent piece of work done by a current S3 pupil when she was in S2. It is a very different book review of Un Lun Dun by China Miéville.
March 7, 2011
by Mrs Sinclair
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March 3, 2011
by Mrs Sinclair
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World Book Day
World Book Day is an annual celebration of books and reading. It is a national event with schools and libraries from across the UK running events. 2011 is the first your Stromness Academy Library has run an event as well as putting on a display. An informal book reading session was held during lunchti
me which around 15 pupils attended to listen to extracts of books being read.
Mrs Sinclair kicked off the session by reading from The White Mountains by John Chrisptopher. This is a book she first read at secondary school and it is one of the first books she remembers borrowing from the school library.
Three pupils also contributed by reading short extracts from books that they particularly enjoyed. They each gave a short overview of what the book was about, then read their chosen extract.
- Animal Farm by George Orwell
- Shooting Star by Martin Waddell
- The Chronicles of Avantia: First Hero by Adam Blade
Mrs Sinclair closed the session with a short reading from The Magic Engineer by L.E. Modesitt Jr. which is part of the Recluce saga, a sweeping series of books where Order magic and Chaos magic are set against each other.
The pupils enjoyed the event which was very relaxed.
Very sociable and fun
Very good, Beuy! Brill!
Good just to relax!
Staff also contributed by answering a short survey asking about current reading, favourite book(s) and most memorable children’s book.
Posters were put together and these were displayed in the library as well as individual posters being displayed on classroom doors. THinking about reading generated discussion in the classroom and much interest. To supplement library stock, books were borrowed from the Orkney Library & Archive so that staff selections were available for people to browse / borrow if interested.
February 22, 2011
by Mrs Sinclair
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New Displays
Currently, there are two new displays in the library.
During January S1 pupils carried out their Ancient Civilisations investigation for History. There is now a display of 1M’s work in the library along with some photographs of them hard at work in the library.
The Health & Wellbeing leaflet display (formerly Health Information Centre) has undergone a small revamp with leaflets recently being checked for accuracy and generally been given a tidy up. Books on Health & Wellbeing are also displayed next to the leaflet rack.
February 22, 2011
by Mrs Sinclair
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Book Fair
A book fair is running in the school library 21st to 25th February. There is a good selection of books and stationery for sale and any sales over £300 will give the school commission to spend on new books for the library. It is hoped that such a venture will encourage reading for pleasure.
February 17, 2011
by Mrs Sinclair
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What are we currently reading?
World Book Day is on Thursday 3rd March. To celebrate, the library will be putting on a display of covers of books that staff and pupils are reading or are favourite books.
To kick start this, here is what Mrs Sinclar, the librarian, is currently reading:
There will also be an informal event in the library at lunchtime on the 3rd, where people can read out short extracts from books.
January 7, 2011
by Mrs Sinclair
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Orkney Library & Archive
Today, on browsing the Orkney Library & Archive website, I discovered that they have some blogs available in addition to the Facebook page and Twitter feed, so it seemed right to share them here too.
and an online reading group blog:
Follow Orkney Library & Archive on:
and
December 22, 2010
by Mrs Sinclair
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The Graveyard Book Trailer Narrated by Neil Gaiman
Coming soon! Now available for borrowing!
[vodpod id=Video.1889403&w=425&h=350&fv=%26rel%3D0%26border%3D0%26]
The Graveyard Book Trailer Narrated by Neil Gaiman, posted with vodpod
December 14, 2010
by Mrs Sinclair
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Internet Exploration and Digital Publishing
Exploring the internet for specific information often leads one to being side tracked, yet, on many occasions a little gem of information or a link to an exciting online tool comes your way.
I very recently found one such website whilst browsing an excellent blog Heart of the School which recognises and promotes the role of the school library in learning and teaching. I was viewing the Christmas TV list which links films and television programmes on over Christmas to books. It was presented in such a way that it viewed like an online magazine, where one could actually turn virtual pages. Now this was rather impressive and got me thinking (baring in mind the work currently being carried out on a Reading Guide) that some library documents, and potentially newsletters, etc could be disemminated in this way as well as in the traditional paper-based ways.
Issuu is an online digital publishing platform which allows anybody to publish reports, magazines and many other types of document. Documents can be ‘broadcast’ to the world or kept private within the Issuu site itself. They can be embedded into web pages or set up as links so you can highlight them to those you want to see them.
As with many Web 2.0 tools (which include social networking sites, blogs, photo storage, etc and may well be the subject of a later post) you do have to be aware of internet safety issues, evaluating what you are using and reading and being careful about personal details.
So, here is the first attempt at publishing an online document in a visually interesting way. This is the ‘Library Guide’ which is available for staff and pupils in the library.
Enjoy! F.S.
December 3, 2010
by Mrs Sinclair
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A Snowy Week
It has been a long week of snow, with school closed to pupils at the start of the week. We now have made it back to as near normal as possible with all but a couple of busses not able to run due to ongoing bad road conditions in places. The snow by no means has gone and still means the landscape is looking crisp and clean and the sunrises spectacular.
Here are a few photos taken from the library and school this morning:
Sunrise from the Maths stair
Sunrise from Geography Classroom
Snow pink in the sunrise (from a library window)
November 9, 2010
by Mrs Sinclair
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Something Spooky is afoot!
Appropriately blurry ghostly photo as pupils 'dive' into the snacks which they had patiently stared at for a long time before I remembered to tell them they could help themselves!
The annual story telling event on or around Hallowe’en that has become ‘Spooky Happenings’ was held in the school library at lunchtime of Friday 29th October 2010. This event, started in 2006, is now in its 5th year of running and has become an established part of the library calendar. 25 pupils and one member of staff attended over the course of both lunches and partook of the snacks available and the ‘darkened’ atmosphere in the Reading Zone which once again was decorated for the occasion.
As last year, the event was kept informal and only advertised in the week running up to it. There are enough resources collated, now, so that there doesn’t need to be too much research to source ghost stories, meaning that, in theory, pupils shouldn’t necessarily be hearing or reading out the same ones every year. Although, having said those that had been to these events previously requested my own personal stories again which I was honoured to retell. Pupils also shared their own stories. FS
