Top Ten Shakespeare Stories

Top Ten Shakespeare stories was a book were they put some of Shakespeare’s most famous plays made into funny stories . Most of his stories where deadly and cruel yet they were very humorous. Some of his most famous stories were included but summarized in funny tales. These included Hamlet , A Midsummers Night’s Dream , King Lear, and Romeo and Juliet. The book also included various facts about Shakespeare.

Our opinion of the book:

We as a group thought that the book was very interesting and gave us a better insight on the reality of his stories. Our favorite story was King Lear , we enjoyed the eye gouging , stabbing , poisoning , and the jokes! We were very grateful to have the opportunity to read this hilarious book !

Kayla Davis, Lauryn Green , Infinaty Kirksey ,  Aniyah Burr , Lauren white.

Memories of Vietnam (by Ellen Weiss)

           

 Over half a million U.S soldiers were sent to fight in Vietnam. It was undergoing a long civil war. Did Americans belong there? But before you decide, consider what the people who were there had to say. There are letters from American soldiers in this book that will allow you to experience the war up close and personal.

                        Aaliyah Arnolds’s opinion:  my opinion is this book was very informative and interesting!

                        Mckenzie Goodwin’s opinion: this book is interesting and talks about paddies

                        Cierra love’s opinion: I liked this book a lot and it talks about paddies

                        Sha’ Miarer Jackson’s opinion: the book was very inspiring .

Book trailer bonanza!

HMS Library aides have been working very hard over the past few weeks to design and produce creative book trailers, which are short videos created to persuade someone to read a book.

It was a project on which we collaborated with students from Rock Quarry Middle School. RQMS designed a rubric which served as the guide for both schools' book trailer projects. The end result we are working toward is building a nice selection of book trailers that can be used to enhance the school libraries of both schools.

It has been an awesome learning experience in which we have learned about everything from the realities of local network filtering, using video equipment, converting video files to another format required by our production software, and fighting learning/working with video streaming resources. The students have learned an awful lot about video production, and I am so very proud of them!

One highlight of this project was that students were able to have a video conference session via Skype. They talked about their books and some tips they learned while working on the project, which made it even more real and meaningful for the kids at both HMS and RQMS. We hope to work on more projects in the future with Rock Quarry Middle School!

Posted below are some of the students' books trailers. We hope you enjoy them!

Braydie - Big Nate
Lizzie and Erica - Divergent
Andrew and Chandler - Guiness Book of World Records
Seth - 39 Clues
Bryant - Among the Free
Raylen - The Outsiders
Aaron - The Giver
JT - Percy Jackson
Kyle and Steven - Graceling
Kaylin and Roxie - Hunger Games
Casey, Dallas, and Emma - Letters from Rifka (sources are cited in the description of the video)

Teen Read Week

Students at Hueytown Middle School are working hard to get ready for Teen Read Week 2013! Be on the lookout for posts written by students explaining the significance of Teen Read Week as well as digital resources created by library aides to promote this library event.

Check out our Tackks!

Library aides have been using Tackk to create digital posters on a book of their choice. I am so proud of their work, attention to detail, and creativity. Library aides ROCK!

*We are going to work on updating these with proper citations. :)

Erica: The Pretties

Lizzy: Divergent

Bryant: Among the Free

Ashlyn: Out of My Mind

Raylen: Catching Fire

Bailey: Criss Cross

Aaron: Out of My Mind

JT: Percy Jackson and the Olympians

Dallas: Island of the Blue Dolphins

Emma: Hunger Games

Steven: Saving Zasha

Casey: The Hobbit

Kyle: Hatchet

Kaylin: A Christmas Carol

Roxie: Hunger Games

Luke: Diary of a Wimpy Kid

Seth: Killer Pizza by the Slice

McKenzie: The Giver

Book Fair Week

It has been Fall Book Fair week at Hueytown Middle. For those of you who have visited and purchased items (especially parents who shopped on Tuesday night!), thank you so much! Every cent we are able to raise through book fair helps purchase much-needed print and electronic resources for our students and teachers.

I've received better feedback from students on this book fair than any other I've had! There have been numerous award-winning books available as well as several super popular new series. I love knowing what you guys like, so please keep the feedback coming!

This week's blog assignment

You have all drawn topics for your March display in the library. You should be using library time to conduct research on your topic, and begin building your display. Use one book or web resource from your research and comment below with a summary. To receive full credit for your post, copy and paste the items below and complete all fields. Use Citation Machine to format your source citation.

Name (First name, Last initial only):
Period:
Title:
Summary:
Source (Use Citation Machine, then copy and paste in your source):

Interpreting the author's symbolism

I have loved reading all your posts! Your thoughts about Out of My Mind have been solid, and I hope you are continuing to enjoy the book. Your assignment for this week includes two parts.

1. How is Melody like Ollie?
(If you don't know who Ollie is, read Chapter 8.)

2. We all know what happened to Ollie. Do you think this is the author's way of foreshadowing? Why or why not?

Scholastic Book Wizard

Use the book wizard widget to the right to search for great books to read this summer! Just type in the title of a book you already like, click search, and then click on "Bookalike" to retrieve a list of works that you would enjoy. Check it out today!