Reading Bowl Students are Recognized

Recently at the April 14th Liberty County Board of Education Meeting students and coaches from each school were recognized as part of the good news portion of the meeting.

As in years past all of the elementary, middle, and high schools in Liberty County had a student team participate in the county level bowl.

The first and second place winners were able to advance to the Southern Region Helen Ruffin Reading Bowl. Joseph Martin Elementary, Waldo Pafford Elementary, Lewis Frasier Middle, Midway Middle, Liberty County High, and Bradwell Institute all advanced to the the regional bowl this year.

The competition was very stiff at the regional level only Joseph Martin Elementary, Midway Middle, and Liberty County High School were able to advance to the Division II Helen Ruffin Reading Bowl. Midway Middle and Liberty County High School were recognized for participation, and Joseph Martin Elementary earned second place.

The reading lists for next year's bowl have already been released. Several copies of each book have been ordered at all of the schools, and students have already started to read!

You can see the reading list for next year's bowls at the HRRB home page. Click on the title of this posting to go to the page.

Teen Tech Week in Liberty County!

The Young Adult Library Services Association has sponsored a national event known as Teen Tech Week since 2007. The primary goal of the week is to demonstrate to teens that the library or media center is an important piece of the technology puzzle.
During the week of March 6-8, high schools in Liberty County scheduled special events and contests to utilize technology with students. The events scheduled helped teens and teachers to hone their technology skills and have a lot of fun along the way!

Several classes scheduled time in the media center to learn how to transform digital images into interactive learning tools using Microsoft Excel with the help of Nikki Lukkarinen, a media specialist at Bradwell Institute. Teachers and students were taught how to add roll-over labels to maps and diagrams in a fun and fast paced technology workshop.

Miriam Hudson, a media specialist at Bradwell Institute, taught several groups of teens and teachers how to use Microsoft’s Photostory. It is a free picture editing presentation software that enables users to import digital pictures, add panning effects, text, transitions, music, and narration. Teens and teachers enjoyed seeing their photographs come to life during the workshop.

Teen Tech Week at Bradwell Institute culminated in a unique use of technology. Mrs. Lukkarinen worked with the physical education classes to infuse gaming technology- Wii’s Just Dance 2. Teens and teachers had the chance to exercise their gaming skills and their bodies at the same time.

At Liberty County High School and Bradwell Institute a bingo game was played in which the students picked up a player’s card from the media center which listed several different activities that had to be completed using a computer or other forms of technology. Each activity completed had to be verified with either a teacher’s or a media specialist’s signature. The winner at Liberty High was Aaron Place, who received a Panther flash drive.

Both Liberty and Bradwell offered the challenge of a Technology Trivia quiz as well. Students were given a list of approximately 20 questions to answer about the history of technology, acronyms, people related to the field, etc. They were allowed to use any means necessary to find the answers – other than asking an adult – as in encyclopedias, reference books, etc., as well as online. Liberty’s winner was Daneisha Norman, who received a Panther flash drive.