SERIOUS THANKS to our *47* for all they did for the big house library this year!!

We couldn't haven't done all we did without you help.

You made hard work way fun!!
 

Hey Students,
Need a new way to do another PowerPoint? Add your own voice to your visuals and turn it into a podcast with VoiceThread.com.  Your friends (and your teachers) can comment on your work with their computer's built-in mic or one you check out from me or Miss Helen here in the library. (Yes, you can checkout our headphone mics, really!) :) The VoiceThread above is an example I made for Ms. Robbins' English 9 Honors class.

This year at the Big House Library we did a first-time-ever public library card drive. We snuck a public library card application into students' registration packets get over the summer. So many students turned in forms; it was awesome! Petaluma's teen librarian Kate Keaton made more than 900 new public library cards and we've been passing them out all year!!!!! Now Casa students can access free databases with their public library card (and they're not the same as the ones on petadata.info). They can also check out books, magazines, DVDs and CDs, and download free audiobooks to their ipods, MP3 players, or home computers. All in all, the drive was a huge success and we've got high hopes for it for next year. :)

Have you ever heard of Simple Wikipedia? It's like regular Wikipedia; it's just easier to read. It's great for ELs and for most students since many Wikipedia entries on technical and academic topics are written at reading levels over their heads.

Most of us will admit that we regularly use Wikipedia, and teachers know for sure students do, too (even though we poo-poo it to them as a source). Yet few of us have ever edited a Wikipedia page, contributed content on an area of our own expertise, and shared it with the world. The same holds true for our students.

What a great way to teach so many things -- accuracy, authority, audience, and the powerful feeling of being a published author -- to have students contribute content to a real live Wikipedia page about something they're learning in your class or about something they already know.

If all of multiple people add to one entry, you've got the link to that entry to share with the world. If you edit multiple pages, you can combine those pages in a downloadable ebook and share that!

Here's a link to the book creator:
http://simple.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Special:Book&bookcmd=book_creator&referer=Main+Page

And here's a link to an example ebook:
http://simple.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Special:Book&bookcmd=download&collection_id=51c7cb56b5f77be4&writer=rl&return_to=Special:Book

If you are interested in using Simple Wikipedia here in the library/computer lab, please check our calendar and email Ms. Koval to schedule the time.  :)
 

 
This presentation is also online at:
http://www.slideshare.net/msannakoval/petaluma-secondary-librarians-presentation-to-the-school-board
 

 
Hello (konichiwa), welcome (kangei), and thank you (arigato) to the Japanese students who visited Casa today from Koma High School in Yamanashi Prefecture in Japan near Mount Fuji. It was fun to show them our library and take pictures of them with our students. Rumi and Yui said that our library is "good" but a "little loud." The girls said that their school's library also has many books, but only 2 computers, and just about as many magazines. :)  We wish them all a safe journey back home. Sayonara. :)

P.S. These photos are also on Facebook.
 

 
Every year around the birthday of Dr. Seuss, schools and libraries across the country bring together kids and teens to celebrate books and reading for Read Across America Day. This is the Big House Book Club's second year participating, and this year was even funner than last! :)

We went to 3 schools (Meadow School and Corona Creek), visited dozens of classrooms, read lots of books, and met hundreds of amazing kids -- all in 1 whirlwind day! It was tons of fun for everyone! :)

Thanks to Petaluma Transit, who let us ride the bus for free. Thanks to all the teachers who shared their classrooms with Casa's book clubbers. And thanks to all the school principals who allowed us to do this: Dr. Mahoney, Mr. Schwinn, Ms. Becker, and Ms. Scheele. :)

 
we seriously thank and proudly salute big house library tas and casa computer graphics students connor murphy and nathaniel gerdes for their hard work and stupendous design skills! :)

we also like to thank (again) mrs. backman and the M3 cluster for the iMac on which this masterpiece was mastermined. :)