International School Libraries Month Bookmark Exchange 2014

To celebrate International School Libraries Month 2014, our school has been paired up with the Agrupamento de Escolas N.º2 de Rio Tinto. Click on the image to see our fun messages to each other!

Sharing learning and hugs from Trinidad to Portugal and back again!

Habemus papam Franciscum!

  

When many of us returned home after J'ouvert, to discover that Pope Benedict the First had stepped down, our school as community reeled in shock. Many of us put off really considering what it meant for our Church until Ash Wednesday when the full impact of this decision really hit home.

In the library, we got to work creating an exhibit about the workings of the college of cardinals, the traditions of the conclave and the presumed papabile. And to make sure we got the most in depth and current information, we went online. It was the most blogged about event all month, even eclipsing Carnival! Our display took a lot of time to research, assemble and mount, but when it was done, judging on the duration of past conclaves, we figured that it would be up until the end of term...

So just imagine our shock, when at about 2 o'clock on only the second day, our Skype and Twitter accounts blew up with the news that there was smoke from the chimney of the Sistine chapel and... it was white! Teachers and students rushed to the library, checking for details on the desktops and their laptops and smartphones, while watching the television with baited breath.

This term our Form 1s have been looking at the importance of digital media in their lives. They've described it 'like air, all around , all the time and essential to our lives'! So this shouldn't have surprised us at all, but it still did... 

Check out video above from France24 and share the digital media reactions of the world!

Skype adventures 2012 #3

Wow! All around the world? What about 3 continents in one hour?

The library prefects had such a fantastic, fun and engaging afternoon @ our library!  Mystery skyping with Form 5s in Honduras, and playing Geography Detectives with Grade 3s in Illinois.

And then we  topped that off by connecting one of our prefects (a future empress of the world, because according to our motto, 'the geeks shall inherit the earth') with her new hero, Steve Hallowes , a Mathematics and Education specialist in South Africa. Our heads are just giddy from all the excitement!

Skype adventures #2

Holiday traditions in Greece on PhotoPeach

 
Form 1K were lucky enough to meet our new friends from Ms. Papaoiannou's and Ms Mantouni's classes in Athens. They created this lovely movie about how they celebrate Christmas in Greece. You'll find that somethings they do are very much like our customs, but somethings are very different. Enjoy and please don't forget to leave a comment after viewing!

Skype adventures 2012 #1

Country:- Portugal

On Friday, the Form 6s had an amazing Skype session with the students of the Agrupamento de Escolas de Figueiró dos Vinhos. We had prepared for the session by checking out the resources on the NALIS website and with that and their general knowledge, they were ready!
First they all introduced themselves and then each group shared about their country and culture, youth issues and education. The girls even showed them our Divali display in the library and then mentioned our school's upcoming Divali celebration complete with tassa drumming, sitar instrumentals,dancing and singing etc.
Our learners noticed that the Portuguese students seemed were somewhat surprised about our activities as we are a Roman Catholic school. There was a very lively exchange about what it means to live in a truly multicultural society!

Skype adventures 2

When our librarian, Ms. Heywood explained that as part of our International School Libraries Month (and Global Classroom) activities we were going to Skype with other students in classrooms and libraries in other countries, we were so excited.We could hardly wait because we were so eager to start!
We really wanted to see their school and to find out if what we saw in American television shows was actually the way they seemed. Our class got to meet lots of  students from the Holbrook High School in Arizona, U.S.A. and their librarian.
We had so much fun. We didn't know very much about their state and they didn't know much about Trinidad and Tobago, so we got a chance to share what we had learned about our country and culture in our 'T&T is me!' research projects.
There are lots of Native American students at this school and they belong to many different clans and they told us about some of their customs. They even tried to get us to say something in their language, but it was very difficult.Some of them spoke Spanish and we (well, mostly Melanie) were able to show them what we had learned in class!
We thought that it was very interesting and informative and a genius way to meet people in other countries. We really felt connected to the world. It was a great day and we can't wait to do it again!

Jade L.. Shanice L., Serena S. and Sarah-Marie C. (1K)

Skype adventures 1

Some of us had a chance to Skype with some students at the Biblioteca Escolar Henriques Noguiera in Torres Vedras, Portugal on Friday 18th November. It was a very interesting and exciting visit and we were able to share what we'd learnt about Trinidad! Then our new friends sent us a popplet to tell us more about their country. Click here to find out more about life in Portugal. Obrigado!

International School Libraries Month

We have Bookmark Buddies!
International School Library Month is celebrated in schools all over the world in October each year. The ISLM theme for 2011 is 'School Libraries Empower Learners for Life'. To celebrate this month, we had several different activities @ our library.

The Form 1s were delighted to find out that we had been chosen by 3 schools in Croatia; the 4th Elementary School, Bjelovar, the Grigor Vitez Elementary School, St. John Žabno, Josipa Jurja Strossmayera Elementary School, and 1 school from the town of Novouralsk, in the Sverdlovsk region, Russia in the Bookmark Exchange. 

We wondered why they had chosen us and all concluded that it had to be because Trinidad and Tobago is so special! So we decided to find out more about our wonderful country so we could show everyone just what makes us so different! We'll be sharing what we've learnt in Skype sessions with our new friends and right here on our blog, so keep posted!

Ms. Heywood