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Friday, September 20, 2019

Falling Back into the Swing of the School Routine!

Tech Tip of the Week:

Are you tired of logging in to Google? Then stop! Here is a tutorial that will show you how to create separate Chrome profiles so that you never have to log in again! Just toggle between profiles to switch from personal to school accounts. It's easy! Also, let's give a shout out to Justin for helping us out with this video!


Sharpening Research Skills:

Is Geography Destiny? 

Freshmen students in Global I are delving into the Essential Question: Is Geography Destiny? They conducted case studies on countries to draw conclusions about geography's influence on the success of a nation as well as the impact of institutions on a country's success. Teacher Librarians co-taught with social studies teachers. Students learned how to access databases, use GapMinder, which provides statistics about global development, and properly create citations in a bibliography. Students shared findings and thoughts about the impact of geography on a country's success or failure.






Who was the greatest absolute ruler? 

Sophomores in Global II are studying Absolutism. They are tackling the Essential Question: Who was the greatest absolute ruler? Teacher Librarians are co-teaching in classes as students are learning how to use keywords more effectively and how to use a variety of sources, going beyond the use of reference materials.





Booktalks: 

Sophomores participated in booktalks to choose an independent reading book and to keep a list of titles on deck. Students discussed which books seemed to be a good fit for them. Students are exploring how knowledge of text structure can improve a reader's comprehension.










Open Doors at Open House: 

Parents Welcome! Parents visited the library during Open House to explore all the library has to offer. Highlights included checking out out the library book collection, exploring the Makerspace and learning about how Teacher Librarians and the Tech Integrator collaborate with teachers to deliver the curriculum.





Making in the Makerspace: 

Growth Mindset 

Students in Mr. McAteer's sophomore English classes have been delving into the concept of a growth mindset and how to represent that idea. Students shared ideas about Growth Mindset vs. a Fixed Mindset via different mediums, such as 3D depictions, podcasts, and videos.











Teddy Roosevelt's Square Deal 

Juniors in U.S. History portrayed aspects of the Square Deal's goal of the conservation of nature, control of corporations and consumer protection.






3D Printing 

Students come in during lunch and after school to use the makerspace.


Friday, September 6, 2019

Happy New Year (2019-2020)!

Freshman Orientation
What a great start to the new year! Our team, comprised of Ms. Sheehan, our "new" Technology Integrator Ms. Hernberg (the English department's loss is our gain!) and Ms. Luhtala, hit the ground running on day one by walking the freshmen through a whirlwind of introductions to NCHS technologies including
  • PowerSchool
  • the BYOD network
  • Schoology
  • @ncps-k12.org email
  • Printing
  • Mobile phone policy
  • Library services
    • the nchslibrary.info website
    • texting the library
    • 80% of our time is spent help students learn how to learn
    • Data has shown that students who use library services perform better on research projects
    • The NCHS research model
    • Getting feedback on projects BEFORE the teacher sees them - a chance to revise and improve work
    • Booktalks
    • Makerspace




What is Schoology

We also shared a video about our new learning management system, Schoology with all students during Connections on  day one.





Schoology Tutorials:

As we create Schoology tutorials for students, we are adding them to a shared folder in Schoology so that teachers can upload them to their courses as needed. 



We encourage all members of our learning community to suggest topics for upcoming tutorials. Please use the form below to provide feedback.




Social and Emotional Wellness
To support our district's efforts to promote community-wide social and emotional learning, the library is happy to offer the print, digital and audiobooks authored by featured speakers who will/have present(ed) to parent and teacher audiences in New Canaan over the past three years.


Booktalks
Ms. Sheehan has been rocking the booktalks! Over 200 students will have borrow NCHS library books by the end of next week.



Book Club
Our book club meets on Wednesday, September 11 at 6:00PM in the high school library. It's a Bring your Own Book event so students are invited to bring any book they enjoyed reading. Our club set up a Schoology group to connect and discuss our upcoming selections. Please reach out to our club president Julia Carpi or Ms. Sheehan or Ms. Luhtala if you wish to be included in the group. RSVPs are required (so we can order the correct number of pizzas).