There are so many ways to create, collaborate and communicate! So many ways to share the books you're reading with others. Today, I would like to recommend Goodreads.
Just go to www.goodreads.com and set up a free account. All you need is an email address and password. On this site you can organize your books onto shelves: read, to-read, currently reading, and more! You can rate, review, and find out what others are saying about the stories you're enjoying. Just like with that other social networking site that starts with an "F" and ends in "book", you can make friends, create and join discussion groups, and play games. Additionally, you can find some of your favorite authors on Goodreads as well including some of this year's Gateway authors! Find Maggie Stiefvater, K. L. Going, Allen Zadoff and others. Follow their reviews, read their blogs, or even request a friendship!
When you set up your profile, you can link your Goodreads account to the "F"-book site and also to Twitter (if you have accounts already) so that any updates you make on Goodreads will automatically post to those pages.
One more feature of Goodreads is the giveaways. Enter to win free copies of newly published books, some autographed! I recently won a copy of Ashes!
Monday, January 9, 2012
11-12 Gateway Nominees
You are hereby invited to take a little quiz over this year's Gateway Nominees. Your comments about these books are welcome. You can also sign up for a free Zondle account at www.zondle.com and start creating your own games over your own topics. Easily embed them in a blog or webpage . . . just like I did here!
Friday, March 11, 2011
Good Times!
The Gateway Voting Party was a success. Nearly 300 students came to the cafeteria during 4th block on Wednesday, votes in hand, and put away 70 large pizzas and nine giant chocolate cakes purchased with funds provided by Glendale's PTSA and our business partners at Chase Bank. Thanks to Mr. Gardner and Mr. Spark for collecting ballots at the door, Ms. Bockelman, Ms. Helfrecht and Ms. Baxley for serving up the cake, our two Chase volunteers for keeping the pizza coming, and to Ms. Eggelston for sorting ballots to make the counting so much easier! Thanks, too, to Mudducks Pizza and Pasta Express for giving us good deals on the really yummy food.
More thanks to you, Glendale's Gateway readers, for participating in the program and to our wonderful Communication Arts teachers for promoting it in their classes.
And the winner (at Glendale) was: The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins.
Be sure you visit our Website at www.ghslib.org and look for the Gateway Party pictures. While you're at it, why not stop by the library and get a copy of one of next year's nominees?
More thanks to you, Glendale's Gateway readers, for participating in the program and to our wonderful Communication Arts teachers for promoting it in their classes.
And the winner (at Glendale) was: The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins.
Be sure you visit our Website at www.ghslib.org and look for the Gateway Party pictures. While you're at it, why not stop by the library and get a copy of one of next year's nominees?
Friday, February 25, 2011
Future Falcons!
Hi, Future Falcons. If you're here to find your homework assignment you're on the right track. The directions will be posted here some time after 4:00 today. Look for a new link to appear in the left hand sidebar under Non-stop Flights. It will read "Future Falcons First Homework Assignment" and clicking it will take you where you need to be.
In the meantime, snoop around all our pages and have some fun.
See you after 4:00!
Mrs. Foltz
In the meantime, snoop around all our pages and have some fun.
See you after 4:00!
Mrs. Foltz
Thursday, February 17, 2011
Welcome, English I Classes
Thank you for visiting Falcons Off the Shelf. As you get oriented, please remember:
There are Non-stop Flight links in the left sidebar to take you directly to pages you will be using. Specifically, your assignments will take you to Mrs. Moore's English I Book Clubs page and the Falcons Face Off page today.
From any page you can click on the link reading "Take Me Back to Falcons Off the Shelf" and you will end up here.
First, you will visit the English I Book Clubs page and follow the directions in the first post to express and defend your opinion of a Gateway nominee. Second, you may visit any page on the blog and contribute. Consider going to the Falcons Face Off page and find the directions for composing your own battle between some of the Greek gods and goddesses you've been studying or other characters of your choice.
You are encouraged to visit all pages of this site. You will find book reviews, book trailers, as well as many opportunities for you to publish your own creative works (class assignments or individual projects you've done on your own) for everyone to see!
Your younger brothers and sisters at Glendale's feeder schools are also invited to participate. So, please be sure to show them Falcons Off the Shelf when you go home tonight.
In a few weeks, you will be writing book reviews which will be published on our site. I am anxious to start showing off some of your work!
If you have any ideas of things you'd like to do on Falcons Off the Shelf, or any suggestions for extracurricular library activities or events, please talk to me. I'm excited about getting to know you and helping you find new ways to use Web 2.0 to express yourself. Or, as we say at Falcons Off the Shelf, "Connect! Create! Celebrate!"
Have fun!
Mrs. Foltz
There are Non-stop Flight links in the left sidebar to take you directly to pages you will be using. Specifically, your assignments will take you to Mrs. Moore's English I Book Clubs page and the Falcons Face Off page today.
From any page you can click on the link reading "Take Me Back to Falcons Off the Shelf" and you will end up here.
First, you will visit the English I Book Clubs page and follow the directions in the first post to express and defend your opinion of a Gateway nominee. Second, you may visit any page on the blog and contribute. Consider going to the Falcons Face Off page and find the directions for composing your own battle between some of the Greek gods and goddesses you've been studying or other characters of your choice.
You are encouraged to visit all pages of this site. You will find book reviews, book trailers, as well as many opportunities for you to publish your own creative works (class assignments or individual projects you've done on your own) for everyone to see!
Your younger brothers and sisters at Glendale's feeder schools are also invited to participate. So, please be sure to show them Falcons Off the Shelf when you go home tonight.
In a few weeks, you will be writing book reviews which will be published on our site. I am anxious to start showing off some of your work!
If you have any ideas of things you'd like to do on Falcons Off the Shelf, or any suggestions for extracurricular library activities or events, please talk to me. I'm excited about getting to know you and helping you find new ways to use Web 2.0 to express yourself. Or, as we say at Falcons Off the Shelf, "Connect! Create! Celebrate!"
Have fun!
Mrs. Foltz
Wednesday, February 9, 2011
Tell Us, Please, What's Great About Your School's Library?
I shared with you my memories of Bingham Elementary's library and why it was so special to me. Now, tell us, please, what's great about your school's library? What will you remember about it when you're all grown up? Or, if you're a parent or teacher looking back, what do you remember fondly?
Remembering Bingham's Library
I attended elementary school at Bingham. Back then, our school library was in a tiny little room at the end of the first grade wing and was run by some PTA mothers. We visited once a week for check outs, but we didn't have lessons like students do today. There were no book displays, no flashy bulletin boards and certainly no computers. Just some metal shelves and a tile floor. We whispered in libraries back then, too.
If you walked into a library like that today, you'd probably think it was awful. But, the thing that draws me to a library in 2011 is the same thing that drew me there when I was ten. Books.
I like to read my favorites over and over again. I always have. In fact, the first book I ever wanted to read again was one I found at Bingham's library. I checked it out many, many times! It was Mary Mapes Dodge's Hans Brinker and the Silver Skates.
Since then I've found several more books that I've chosen to read again and again, but when I think back on my Bingham days, I remember looking for that red book on the shelf, writing my name on the card from the pocket in the back, watching the volunteer stamp the due date inside, and knowing I had in my hands a real treasure. It's a sweet memory to me, Bingham's Library.
If you walked into a library like that today, you'd probably think it was awful. But, the thing that draws me to a library in 2011 is the same thing that drew me there when I was ten. Books.
I like to read my favorites over and over again. I always have. In fact, the first book I ever wanted to read again was one I found at Bingham's library. I checked it out many, many times! It was Mary Mapes Dodge's Hans Brinker and the Silver Skates.
Since then I've found several more books that I've chosen to read again and again, but when I think back on my Bingham days, I remember looking for that red book on the shelf, writing my name on the card from the pocket in the back, watching the volunteer stamp the due date inside, and knowing I had in my hands a real treasure. It's a sweet memory to me, Bingham's Library.
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