YA Author Panel April 22

YA Panel FlyerThe Mira Costa Library Club is pleased to announce a Young Adult Author Panel and Book Signing on Wednesday, April 22 from 3:30pm-5:00pm in the Library. Students, teachers, and community members are all invited. So, please, mark you calendar! Here’s the line up of authors:

  • Emily Wibberley. Debut Author Wibberley is one of Costa’s own! She is a Mira Costa graduate and recently graduated from Princeton University. Sacrificed, the first book in her planned The Last Oracle series, tells the story of Clio, a very  reluctant 15-year-old Oracle.
  • Gretchen McNeil. McNeil has authored several popular YA books. Her latest is Get Even, the first book in the Don’t Get Mad series, about an unlikely partnership of four very different girls who form a secret society, DGM (Don’t Get Mad) to expose and seek revenge on bullies at their school.
  • Robin Benway. Benway’s latest book, Going Rogue, is the second featuring teenaged spy and safecracker Maggie Silver. Her next book, Emmy & Oliver, is coming out this June.

Books will be available for purchase from {pages} a bookstore, our local Manhattan Beach independent book seller, during the event. To assure getting the books you want, you can order copies in advance at this link.

Many thanks to Library Club member Colette Grubman for initiating this activity and inviting the authors.

Event Flyer

2012-2013 Year in Review

Please enjoy this short video, made with a fun tool called PowToon, with highlights of the 2013-2014 year in the library. Click the icon at the bottom right to view it in full-screen for better visibility: (If you are on a mobile device, this Flash file may not load. Get the Puffin Browser to enable Flash on your iPad, iPhone, or other mobile device.)

I love PowToon as a video-making tool, but it doesn’t allow for embedding live links in the videos. Here are links to more information on some of the topics in the video:

Geek Squad

Calculus Assignment | Calculus Student Work

Disease Project Pathfinder | Student Work Examples

Self-Paced Plagiarism & Copyright Lesson 

MackinVIA ebooks

Digital Literacy Family Night

Mrs. Lofton’s Recent Presentations

California School Library Association

Flickr page for photos of student art and more

Free Family Digital Literacy Night

Please join us in the Mira Costa Library on Thursday evening, May 23, for a Family Digital Literacy Night. Jane Lofton, Mira Costa High Teacher Librarian, will be sharing information with parents and students.

 Family Digital Literacy Night Flyer

Link to Flyer

The evening, which is appropriate for students from all grades, will include discussion of digital literacy topics, including:

  • BALANCE — Maintaining a healthy balance between work and play, online and offline activities.
  • ETHICAL USE — Helping kids understand the consequences of ethical choices they make online.
  • PRIVACY — Protecting personal information and maintaining privacy.
  • RELATIONSHIPS — Engaging in safe and healthy relationship with technology as a tool.
  • REPUTATION — A positive online reputation that will contribute to future success.
  • ONLINE SECURITY — Good habits for securing hardware and software.
The evening will also include a free pizza dinner, sponsored by Verizon.

Please contact Jane Lofton with any questions, and RSVP by May 20 using this form link.

Digital Literacy Webinars in Progress

 

Digital Literacy Webinar Series

Come join us in the Mira Costa library for a series of Digital Literacy Webinars now in progress each Thursday afternoon from 3:30 PM – 4:10 PM until June 13. This series, which focuses on a different aspect of digital literacy each week, is sponsored by the California Department of Education, California School Library Association, and CTAP.

April 25 – California’s Education Vision
State Superintendent’s Office
Craig Cheslog, Chief Advisor to the SPI

May 2 – Privacy Protection
State Attorney General’s Office
Joanne McNabb, Education and Outreach

May 9 – College Readiness
California Higher Education
Annette Marines, Instructional Librarian UCSB
Christina Cichetti, Educational Specialist UCR
Lesley Farmer, Media Leadership, CSULB

May 16 – Digital Citizens
Governor’s Digital Literacy Executive Order
California Technology Agency
Brenda Kempster, iCalifornia

May 23 – Curriculum and Assessment
Common Core and Digital Literacy
Tom Adams, CDE Director of Curriculum

May 30 – Intellectual Property and Copyright
Communication and Creative Industries
Jill Lesser, Executive Director
Center for Copyright Information

June 6 – Best Practices Around California
County Offices of Education
Elementary, Middle, and High School
Dennis Deets CTAP Director
Glenn Warren, CSLA Vice President

June 13 – Digital Citizens and Bullying Prevention
California State Parent Teacher Association
Brian Bonner, VP of Parent Involvement

To attend at the Mira Costa Library, please RSVP at bit.ly/dlwebinarsmbusd or contact Jane Lofton with any questions.

Celebrate Your Love of Reading!

Read Across AmericaDid you know that March 2 is “Read Across America Day,” honoring Dr. Seuss’s Birthday, and March 6 is “World Read Aloud Day“? Both days celebrate our love of reading and the privilege of being literate and having access to great books.

Please celebrate these events at your Mira Costa High School Library by sharing one of our favorite books with us. Come to the library any day between March 1 and March 6, and have Mrs. Lofton photograph you with one of your favorite books. Your photo will be uploaded to the library Flickr site, and you will be entered in a drawing to win a bookstore gift certificate and be featured in a READ poster.

Both students and staff are invited to participate. So, please join us with a great book!

(Image mashup adapted from: http://funny-things-are-everywhere.tumblr.com/ & http://belamifilm.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/03/usa-flag-map.png)

Banned Books Week Celebration & Contest September 30 – October 6

Banned Books Week: Celebrating the Freedom to Read has been observed during the last week of September each year since 1982. This annual event, sponsored by the American Library Association, reminds Americans not to take this precious democratic freedom for granted.

Banned Books Week emphasizes the freedom to choose or the freedom to express one’s opinion even if that opinion might be considered unorthodox or unpopular and the importance of ensuring the availability of those unorthodox or unpopular viewpoints to all who wish to read them.

Please check these links for more information about Banned Books Week:

American Library Association Banned Books Week Announcement

Banned Books Week: Celebrating 30 Years of Liberating Literature interactive  timeline display

Books Challenged or Banned in 2010-2011 by Robert Doyle

And view this great video (link)


Please visit the Mira Costa Library to see our Banned Books Week Display, and participate in our Banned Books Week Contest. The contest requires you to answer 14 easy questions about frequently banned or challenged books. You can download a copy of the contest form here. Submissions are due by Wednesday, October 10. Check the links above to help you with clues.

 

SCIBA Dinner

The highlight of my “Ski Week” vacation was the SCIBA (Southern California Independent Booksellers Association) Annual Children’s Books and Literacy Dinner on Saturday, February 26, which I attended along with all the MBUSD media specialists from MBMS and our five elementary schools. Julie Jones, Debby Kalenik, Yukari Matsuyama, Chris Primm, Barbara Siegemund-Broka, Heidi Snively,  and I got to hear authors Cecil Castellucci, Judy Blundell, Brandon Mull, Andrew Smith, and Dr. Cuthbert Soup speak; and meet with and get books signed by many others. Our group was very lucky to have acclaimed author Eve Bunting sitting at our table. I also was able to chat with and get books signed by authors Sherry Shahan, Andrew Smith, Judy Blundell, and Lauren Kate. I brought home a large stack of books I will be doing my best to devore myself and add to our library collection as quickly as possible. I know Mira Costa students will enjoy them!

Thanks very much to Yukari for taking many of the photos in this slideshow.