Check out the new eLibrary offered by Surrey Schools. The collection has over a 1000 titles and will continue to grow. To use the service from home, you will need a username and password: Visit us at the school library and we will give it to you!
In the meantime, you can browse the eLibrary. Simply visit our online catalog and click on the “FolletShelf” icon. Or search for FolletShelf through surreyschools.ca.
There should be other adults in the lives of our students who are role models when it comes to reading. Sadly, for many of the kids in our schools, there may not be any adults who demonstrate the value of reading in everyday life. It is essential that teachers show our students that reading is a vital aspect of what it means to be a lifelong learner.
From Donalyn Miller’s Four Steps to Creating A School-Wide Reading Culture:
We hope that children have reading role models at home, but many don’t. We must surround children with reading role models throughout the school day – not just in Language Arts class.
Showing children that adults choose to read a wide range of texts for a variety of purposes sends a strong message that reading is important after formal schooling ends. Sharing your own reading life with your students and staff reinforces that you believe reading enriches your life. As much as possible, you should participate in the reading initiatives at your school, not only as a school leader, but also as a reader! Ask students what they are reading… take their book suggestions and share what you enjoy about the books you read.
For many of us, SSR is the best opportunity for us to demonstrate that we are readers. Teachers need to put away the marking and pick up books, magazines or other reading materials to show that reading isn’t just we do to pass tests or assignments at school.
The family is where literacy begins. Parents, you can give your children the greatest gift by reading with them regularly. “Taking time every day to read or do a learning activity with children is crucial to a child’s development. Even just 15 minutes a day can improve a child’s literacy skills dramatically, and can help a parent improve their skills as well.” (ABC Life Literacy Canada)
For more information:
Reading is its own reward. But from time to time we like to give a little something more to those students who demonstrate a love of reading to the rest of the class during SSR. Teachers select students for Reading Rewards tickets, which earn them trips to the school library during class for warm beverages, some tasty treats, and some bonus silent reading in a warm, comfortable and festive atmosphere!
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Do you love reading and do you demonstrate that each day during SSR? Ask your teacher about Christmas Reading Rewards! You might be lucky enough to come down to the library this week for some tasty Holiday Treats, a warm drink, some Christmas music, and, best of all, some silent reading time!
Drop by to check out some of our new titles:
Thought provoking ideas from a wide variety of thinkers are brought together by editor John Brockman in Is the Internet Changing the Way You Think? In the opening essay, “The Bookless Library,” Nicholas Carr asserts:
As a technology, a book focuses our attention, isolates us from the myriad distractions that fill our everyday lives. A networked computer does precisely the opposite. It is designed to scatter our attention. It doesn’t shield us from environmental distractions; it adds to them. The words on a computer screen exist in a welter of contending stimuli.
Carr isn’t arguing that the internet is bad. We cannot dispute that the internet has given us huge advantages. However, those advantages come at a cost.
My own reading and thinking habits have shifted dramatically since I first logged on the Web fifteen years ago or so. I now do the bulk of my reading and researching on-line. And my brain has changed as a result. Event as I’ve become more adept at navigating the rapids of the Net, I have experienced a steady decay in my ability to sustain my attention… What the Net seems to be doing is chipping away my capacity for concentration and contemplation.
The computer age has not rendered the book obsolete. True, the future of paper publishing may be in doubt. The physical book is here for at least the short-term. In the long run maybe they will be completely replaced by e-books. That is not the point. Regardless of the format, we need books, more than ever. We need them for many reasons, not least as an antidote to the distracted, shallow thinking that is the product of so much of what people do on-line. We need long-form text, including fiction and non-fiction. We need to read things that require concentration, engagement and deep thinking.
Today is National School Library Day in Canada. Today we recognize the vital role of School Libraries in education. The Province of British Columbia has joined in, declaring that today is School Library Day with the following proclamation:
Drop Everything & Read is just eleven days away! National School Library Day is Monday, October 28.
As part of the celebration of school libraries, the BCTLA and the BCTF have issued the “DEAR Challenge” to EVERY PERSON in BRITISH COLUMBIA. All over the province, people are challenged to put down the work, turn off the TV, set aside the iPad,iPod or iPhone, pause the video games– you get the idea– and just read!
October is International School Library Month and Canadian Library Month. October 28 is National School Library Day. Be sure to stay posted for news and special events happening to celebrate your school library!
“Reading is a beautiful thing. Today.
Every day.
Read for twenty minutes.”
October is International School Library Month and Canadian Library Month. October 28 is National School Library Day and the day for the DEAR Challenge: Drop Everything and Read.
Check out the following for more info:
DEAR: Drop Everything and Read. The BCTLA and BCTF challenge everyone around the province of British Columbia to “Drop Everything and Read” on Monday, October 28.
At Lord Tweedsmuir Secondary School we students and teachers read every day during SSR. On the 28th we are challenging everyone in the building, including administrators, clerks, custodians, education assistants and visitors, to join with people from all over British Columbia to read for twenty minutes.
Even better, find twenty minutes to read every day!
Happy International School Library Month!
Check out our display of books related to libraries, books, literacy and more.
Lord Tweedsmuir Secondary School Library 