Library Visits

You must have a school ID and a library pass signed by your teacher to check out books or use the computers.

Monday, March 31, 2014

Boston Public Library eCards

I just wanted to remind everyone that students (as well as parents and teachers) can apply for and recieve an "eCard" to Boston Public Library. This card would allow you to access any electronic resource through BPL including ebooks and databases.

Please click here to access a presentation on how to sign up for a card.


Thursday, March 27, 2014

The library will be closed Friday March 28th

The HSC Library will be closed on Friday, March 28th (tomorrow). Ms. D apologizes for the inconvenience.

Students and teachers can still access the Gale Databases, the catalog, and ebooks during this time. Use our Research link to access those!




Tuesday, March 25, 2014

New books!


This is what 24 boxes of new books looks like. There are over 500 books in these boxes! Keep an eye out for the new books as they are put into our catalog and onto our shelves. 

Friday, March 21, 2014

Library Word of the Week

With ELA MCAS wrapping up today (well, Monday for our make-up day), I found a great word for putting things off. Sometimes, we can't put things off until tomorrow or later, but that doesn't mean we don't try to. 

Perendinate




Definition: To put something off until the day after tomorrow; to remain at college for unusually long time.
Pronunciation: puh-REN-di-nayt
Synonyms: Procrastinate, filibuster (legislative lexicon), dillydally, stall.
Origin:
Perendinate derives from the Latin perendie- literally meaning on the day after tomorrow
Why this word?
  • Procrastinate- to defer something for tomorrow (If considering its definition literally).
  • Perendinate- to defer for an indefinite amount of time.
Why procrastinate when you can perendinate?
You can’t repudiate the fact that you never procrastinate/procrastinated. Everyone does/did at some point in their life. It’s a habit that requires enormous amount of travail to get rid off.
Talking about its existence on Internet, the chic word procrastinate has started to corrode. It is losing its sheen. It is following the backwash of awesome. You know it is being overused, right? Rarely do I see anything being called great, beautiful or sweet. Awesome pilot, awesome Dentist, awesome student- Everything has to be awesome nowadays.
While I’m not saying it’s incorrect to use it to evince extraordinary things, I think it’s just being redundantly overused.
Keeping aside my rant anent the overuse of the word, the second definition of this word is awesome at so many levels. Oops. Did I just use awesome?
How to use the word perendinate in sentence?
When you are not sure about the time till you are deferring some piece of work, use perendinate.
“Boss to employee: I suggest you not to perendinate if you want to keep your job; I gave you those assignment days ago”.
“The more time I spent at Morehouse, the more I realized that perendination wasn’t really out of the ordinary”.
- See more at: http://unusedwords.com/2013/12/06/perendinate/#sthash.qAaiuqIo.dpuf

Wednesday, March 19, 2014

Ms. D just finished reading .... Avalon High


So very cheesy and a rather predictable novel. Meg Cabot is known for her teen romances and this is no exception. It was a fun read due to all the King Arthur and Camelot references. I'm a fan of Mists of Avalon, so I picked up on some of the allusions, but not all of them (who knew King Arthur had a dog?). If you're a fan of romance, give this a try. There is an interesting subplot that kept me guessing, so I would love to see if other people felt the same way. 

What should I read next? 

Tuesday, March 18, 2014

Fantastic New Resource: Discovery Ed!

All Springfield teachers and students now have access to Discovery Ed. Log in as you would to a computer. Discovery Ed provides videos, help with lesson plans, and other useful things for classes of all grades and subjects.


For example, this wonderful and slightly cheesy video on libraries!

Modern Research Skills for Secondary Students: Research 101: Mastering the Library CLEARVUE & SVE,  2001. Full Video. Discovery Education. Web. 18 March 2014. <http://www.discoveryeducation.com/>.

Please let me know if you have any questions!

Monday, March 17, 2014

Ms. D just finished reading .... Whip It


This was a fun, quick read. Bliss has a strong personality and doesn't fit in her small Texan town. When she finds roller derby, she also finds that she is not alone. 

As a derby girl (in training), I found this fairly realistic, although slightly grander than what I'm used to. Not every team is like this, and not every team has the kind of drama that Bliss finds herself dealing with. I guess everything is bigger in Texas! 

P.S. if you're interested in seeing my team, we'll be playing at Interskate South on June 1st against Hartford Area Roller Derby's Bedrockers. 



Friday, March 14, 2014

Library Word of the Week

ELA MCAS is next week Tues though Friday. The library will be closed for testing. Therefore, I bring you a sweet Word of the Week. 


Edulcorate



Definition: Make something sweeter in taste; alleviate the severity.
Pronunciation: edul-khu-rate
Synonyms: Dulcify, sweeten.
Origin:  This sweet word derives from the Latin word dulcor, referring to something that sweetness. Dulcet, remember? Both share the same dulcis root.
Why this word?
The first thing I did upon learning this word was adding it to my cell phone dictionary, for I was pretty sure that I’ll need this word quite a lot.
This word, along with evincing sweetening of things, could also be used as a replacement for words expressing strengthening of relations (words like appeasing, conciliating, pacifying et cetera).
For instance: after a minor brawl with your friends, when things start to move smoothly again, you could say things are now edulcorating between us. Same goes with the countries. The noun responsible for the sweetening of something is termed as an edulcorant. Russia acted as an edulcorant to edulcorate relations between America and Iran. Some common edulcorants: sugar, love, bon homie et cetera.
How to use the word edulcorate in a sentence?
Whenever animosity quenches, edulcoration comes into play.
“They are both working so hard to edulcorate their relationship. “
“I’d like you to edulcorate this vapid coffee.”
- See more at: http://unusedwords.com/2013/12/24/edulcorate/#sthash.BWCpqXzR.dpuf


Thursday, March 13, 2014

Ms D just finished reading... Asylum


Asylum is Madeleine Roux's first young adult novel and she does a very nice job. If you're already a fan of supernatural horror books (or movies), this book will hold no surprises. However, it is a fun read; very spooky. The characters sound realistic and there are some great photos from actual asylums inside (all with a sickly green tint): 


Take a browse through Asylum at HarperTeen: Click here to browse inside Asylum.

Friday, March 7, 2014

Library Word of the Week

Ms. D has been in MCAS land all week, so this week's Word of the Week will be seen on MCAS!

"Compare and Contrast" 

- What goes together and doesn't go together
- Find alike and not alike
- Find same and different


That may seem easy, but when you're in the middle of MCAS, everything might seem harder. Don't forget to utilize what you know and translate it into those long and short responses. Even a little bit of writing will help you score points.



Thursday, March 6, 2014

Ms. D just finished reading...

I read whenever I can. I love weird books, but I'll read pretty much anything that looks interesting.

I recently finished the second book in the "Finishing School" series by Gail Carriger:

Curtsies & Conspiracies

Great sequel, if you love character assassinations, werewolves, vampires, and a bit of romance, all in fantastic clothes. Third one due out later this year. 

The Commerce Library has the first book: Espionage & Etiquette. Check it out and let me know what you think. 

Wednesday, March 5, 2014

I should have known...

(excerpt from Campus Daze: Easing the Transition from High School to College)


  • To read more in high school and how to read faster. 
  • To write more in high school, and learn how to write better. 
  • That if you wait until vacation to catch up on your school work and sleep, you'll get neither and will ruin your vacation to boot. 
  • What it's like to be completely on my own, making all my own decisions. 
  • To take things as they come; not to get uptight before I know what's going on. 
  • That there is more the learning than what happens in the classroom or while reading. Learning also comes from what happens outside the classroom. 
  • The difference between genius and stupudity is that genius has its limits. 
Author: George Gibbs. 

This is a book we have in the library. There is some great advice about how to survive (and thrive!) your first year of college. 

(re-post of a post in Oct 2013)

Spring: Time for love, sports, and travel

Though the sky is still gray through the library skylights, the hope of spring is starting to peek though. Therefore, Ms. D has taken down her awesome zombie and plague display  and has put up a spring display.

SPRING! Time for love, sports, and travel!






As always, if you want to check out any of these books, please come see Ms. D and she can open the case for you.