ATo
serve students and classes better, the KSS Library now has 2 mobile
computing centres for classes needing computers for their research
projects. The teacher-librarians, Smith and Bede, provide collaboration
and direct instruction on a range of lessons and skills. Students with
Resource Periods now also have greater access and computer support in
the Library.
Grade 10 Orientations concluding
All Grade 10 students participate in an orientation of Library
facility and services through English and Social Studies
classes.Students learn about new reading materials, online research
quest and many other skills and activities to assist in their academic
inquiry.
15th Annual Student Leadership Conference
Find Your Inner Hero - Be A Super Leader
Oct 22nd to 25th, 2009
Kelowna Secondary School, Kelowna, BC
"Heroes are just ordinary people doing extraordinary things."
The
focus of this conference is about brining more of ourselves out for the
world to enjoy and experience. Deep within each of us, lies our inner
hero just waiting to be unleashed.....
WHO ... Students and Advisors from ACROSS BC (BCASAA member schools only)
WHAT
... B.C.S.L.C. 2009, hosted by School District #23 (Central Okanagan)
in partnership with BC Association of Student Activity Advisors (BCASAA)
WHERE ... KSS
WHEN ... October 22-25, 2009
Your Teacher-librarians attending a BC Library Conference in Richmond
Mr. Smith, one of the KSS Library faculty is attending sessions with
teacher-librarians from all over BC. He will be on a panel to discuss
the role of school libraries in the 21stC. Mrs. Bede is atttending
workshops on teen literacy at UVIC. Mrs.Bede and Mr. Smith are
chairing the 2010 BC Teacher-librarians Conference at Kelowna Secondary
October 2010. www.cotla.sd23.bc.ca/2010
Book Clubs, Lit Circles and finding that perfect new book to read.
Create a new book club or join in a reading group. Book club
members receive special library privileges and get priority on all new
releases. Some English classes are also engaged in 'Lit Circles' units
that are similar to recreational book clubs. Join in the discussion and
power-up your brain by reading.
Wired for Sex, Lies and Power Trips: IT'S A TEEN'S WORLD
Explores the impact the internet is having on teens attitudes towards sex. CBC Passionate Eye. Issues such as 'feminism' and the challenge of growing up with today's media hype. Internet, rap and cultural pressures...
Kids today are active players in a sexually-charged popular culture, fuelled by media and personal technology. But at what cost? Whether it's posting sexy photos and raunchy video on the net, ass-grabbing in the school hallway or spreading explicit gossip that shatters high school lives, harassment is commonplace, even acceptable.(cbc)
"...You know the joke? Women's rights!" (teen)
"...They keep doing it even if you say no or stop 'cause they think you're joking so it gets kind of difficult to tell them to stop. Kelsie, 15" ( teen)
It's a Teen's World: wired for sex, lies and power trips is also a three part radio series on Ideas. Listen to CBC Radio One, September 30, October 7 and 14 at 9 pm. Read more on the Ideas website..
Five Ways to Use Mind-Mapping Tools in the Newsroom(classroom)
PBS's Mediashift columnist, Roland Legrand, August 10, 2009.
The online mind-mapping service called MindMeister is considered the right tool needed for non-linear thinking in the newsroom, why not the classroom? As Wikipedia explains,
a mind map is a diagram used to represent words, ideas, tasks, or other
items linked to and arranged around a central key word or idea. Mind
maps are used to generate, visualize, structure, and classify ideas,
and as an aid in study, organization, problem-solving, decision-making,
and writing. Image by SayKaty via Flickr Creative Commons.
My review...
Some very nice features but making some of the visual elements behave was awkward. The 'sharing' feature could be very powerful. Like all good tools, it takes some upfront investment before the real utility can be exploited. For those people who have used Inspiration, you may find this web 2.0 app less powerful. Good effort Mindmeister.
A must listen program tonight...CBC Ideas- John Ralston Saul
Originally aired in April
Embargo until July
New Arrival in September
This lecture 'We are a Metis Nation' at UBC this year was perhaps the most articulate interpretation of Canada's relationship with arboriginal people. Incredible!
In this startlingly original vision of Canada, thinker John Ralston Saul unveils 3 founding myths. Saul argues that the famous "peace, order, and good government" that supposedly defines Canada is a distortion of the country's true nature. Every single document before the BNA Act, he points out, used the phrase "peace, welfare, and good government," demonstrating that the well-being of its citizenry was paramount. He also argues that Canada is a Métis nation, heavily influenced and shaped by aboriginal ideas: egalitarianism, a proper balance between individual and group, and a penchant for negotiation over violence are all aboriginal values that Canada absorbed. Another obstacle to progress, Saul argues, is that Canada has an increasingly ineffective elite, a colonial non-intellectual business elite that doesn't believe in Canada. It is critical that we recognize these aspects of the country in order to rethink its future.(Mosaicbooks.ca) KSS Catalogue
Study more at Novelist>login 'ksslibrary' 'owls'
BORIGINALS AND NEW CANADIANS: THE MISSING CONVERSATION CD
The words, "We are a Metis nation" John Ralston Saul's recent book, A Fair Country.
In the 2009 UBC-Laurier Institution Multiculturalism Lecture, he argues that aboriginal values have fundamentally shaped the character of Canadian society.
Download and listen to podcast from KSS Library in July
Embargo CBC Podcast July 13 - Aboriginals and New Canadians: The Missing Conversation by John Ralston Saul
Wordnik is not a traditional dictionary (in fact, we've seriously
considered not calling Wordnik a dictionary at all). If you have a
suggestion for a better word than "dictionary" to describe Wordnik,
please send it our way! Wordnik wants to be a place for all the words, and everything known about them.
Traditional
dictionaries make you wait until they've found what they consider to be
"enough" information about a word before they will show it to you.
Wordnik knows you don't want to wait—if you're interested in a word,
we're interested too!
Our goal is to show you as much
information as possible, just as fast as we can find it, for every word
in English, and to give you a place where you can make your own
opinions about words known.
By "information," we don't just mean traditional definitions (although we have plenty of those)!
A few years back, Dove cosmetics won awards at Cannes film festival for their radical exposure of 'Photoshop' marketing-" Evolution of Beauty" where truth is obscured by digital tools in order to sell a product. It underscores the massive campaign against consumers rights and corporate integrity. We see no immediate casualties with this onslaught so we back other causes like animal rights, etc. The sophistication of modern media marketing needs young people to rebel. Buy used! Reduce cosmetics! Acquire a skeptical approach to material goods! Improve our society one VISA charge at a time- Al Smith
The new invisible Web: on searching wikis and tweets and blogs and more May 4, 2009 SLJ
Joey Valenza, Neverendingsearch, blogs a recent phenomenon that is driving information experts and IS librarians mad. Web 2.0 is inadvertantly filtering content of web queries......a should read for anyone designing or using new services like Facebook, Twitter , etc.
"...Face it. We are faced with a new invisible
Web. These days, when we search, we miss so much of the stuff that
appears in new Web formats. the Web 2.0 stuff.
For years I told my students that searching Google alone, they missed a huge part of the invisible web that was reachable through databases and through valuable portals (American Memory and Oyez, for instance), best searched with their own interfaces.
Young's work is characterized by deeply personal lyrics, distinctive guitar work, and signature falsetto tenor singing voice. Although he accompanies himself on several different instruments—including piano and harmonica—his claw-hammer acoustic guitar style and often idiosyncratic electric guitar soloing are the linchpins of a sometimes ragged, sometimes polished sound. Although Young has experimented widely with differing music styles, including swing, jazz, rockabilly, blues, and electronic music throughout a varied career, his best known work usually falls into either of two distinct styles: folk-esque acousticrock ("Heart of Gold", "Harvest Moon" and "Old Man") and electric-charged hard rock (like "Cinnamon Girl", "Rockin' in the Free World" and "Hey Hey, My My (Into the Black)"). In recent years, Young has adopted elements from newer styles like industrial, alternative country and grunge. Young's profound influence on the latter caused some to dub him "the godfather of grunge".
Young has directed (or co-directed) a number of films using the pseudonym Bernard Shakey, including Journey Through the Past (1973), Rust Never Sleeps (1979), Human Highway (1982), Greendale (2003), and CSNY Déjà Vu (2008). He is currently working on a documentary about electric car technology, tentatively titled Linc/Volt. The project involves a 1959 Lincoln Continental converted to hybrid technology, which Young plans to drive to Washington, DC as an example to lawmakers there.[2]
He is also an outspoken advocate for environmental issues and small farmers, having co-founded in 1985 the benefit concertFarm Aid, and in 1986 helped found The Bridge School,[3] and its annual supporting Bridge School Benefit concerts, together with his wife Pegi (in this, Young's involvement stems at least partially from the fact that both of his sons have cerebral palsy and his daughter, like Young himself, has epilepsy).
Although Young sings as frequently about U.S. legends and myths (Pocahontas, space stations, and the settlement of the American West)[4] as he does about his native country, he remains a Canadian citizen and has never wanted to relinquish his Canadian citizenship. He has lived in the U.S. for "so long" and has stated he has "got just as much right to vote in them (American elections) as anybody else."[5] ( WIKI )
There's colors on the street Red, white and blue People shufflin' their feet People sleepin' in their shoes But there's a warnin' sign on the road ahead There's a lot of people sayin' we'd be better off dead Don't feel like Satan, but I am to them So I try to forget it, any way I can.
Keep on rockin' in the free world, Keep on rockin' in the free world Keep on rockin' in the free world, Keep on rockin' in the free world.
I see a woman in the night With a baby in her hand Under an old street light Near a garbage can Now she puts the kid away, and she's gone to get a hit She hates her life, and what she's done to it There's one more kid that will never go to school Never get to fall in love, never get to be cool.
Keep on rockin' in the free world, Keep on rockin' in the free world Keep on rockin' in the free world, Keep on rockin' in the free world.
We got a thousand points of light For the homeless man We got a kinder, gentler, Machine gun hand We got department stores and toilet paper Got styrofoam boxes for the ozone layer Got a man of the people, says keep hope alive Got fuel to burn, got roads to drive.
Keep on rockin' in the free world, Keep on rockin' in the free world Keep on rockin' in the free world, Keep on rockin' in the free world.
Children who fidget with their hands in class learn more quickly than those who stay still, say researchers.
Psychologists found that children who could move their hands around freely were better at learning than pupils who were not allowed to move.
They believe that hand movements and gestures can help children to think, speak and learn.
The research on primary school children was carried out by academics at the University of Hertfordshire.
The study examined the differences in learning when children were able to move around their hands and when they were forced to keep their hands still - by putting them into a pair of mittens attached to the table.
Hand to mouth
The psychologists found that when children were able to move their hands they were more likely to be able to find the correct answer - particularly when it was a case of trying to recall a word on "the tip of their tongue".
“ Far from restricting children from moving their hands, if teachers encouraged more fidgeting in class they might find children actually learn more ” Karen Pine, University of Hertfordshire
The children, aged six to eight, had been asked to name objects in pictures - and the researchers found that using their hands to gesture helped children to "find the right word".
"People often think we gesture to help others understand what we are saying. But in fact gestures help us find the right words," said researcher Karen Pine.
"We also know they can help children think and are important for problem solving and speaking.
"Therefore, far from restricting children from moving their hands, if teachers encouraged more fidgeting in class they might find children actually learn more," said Dr Pine.
"Children who fidget in class can be an annoyance for teachers. Many cope by telling children to sit on their hands or keep absolutely still in class, but our research has shown that they need their hands free so that they can gesture."
The research, by Dr Pine, Hannah Bird and Liz Kirk, was funded by the Economic and Social Research Council....( BBC)