Tuesday Tips: January 10, 2023

 TECH TIP:  AP and SAT Test Prep 

 As part of the library's Databases, there is now Peterson's Test Prep for both the AP and SAT tests.  This is a free, self-paced course to prepare for these tests.  Both include practice tests.   

You must access these through the link on the library's database page, as this authenticates you as being on our account.  You then create your free account to log in and this will save your progress throughout the courses.  I will be reaching out to AP and the 11th grade English teachers to set up a time to show this to your students.  

BOOK TIP:  All My Rage by Sabaa Tahir

   All My Rage by Sabaa Tahir won this year's National Book Award for Young Adult literature.  It is an amazing book, epic in nature, but yet thoughtful and realistic in its portrayal of teens and immigrants.  It follows two Pakistani families, through decades, as they seek the American dream.  Sal and Noor are about to graduate from high school, but there are family demands on them.  Demands that cause a crushing loss.  Beautifully written.  A great audiobook, too, with multi-voice narration.

Tuesday Tips: January 3, 2023

 TECH TIP:  Animate Audio from Adobe Express

Animate from Adobe Express is a fun tool to quickly animate your audio recordings.  You choose the character, background and video size.  Then, all you do is record your narration.  The more expression you put in your voice, the more the character moves.  This could be a good tool for students to do quick narrations of character sketches, scientific concepts, reviews, etc.  It works on Chromebooks, too!  The file downloads, and they could then add it to their Google Drive to share with you.  Here's my quick example:

BOOK TIP:  The Winners by Fredrik Backman

   I'm a HUGE FAN of Fredrik Backman and have loved all his books.  The Winners is the final book in the Beartown trilogy.  If you have not read them yet, go and get Beartown, which is book one.  You will fall hopelessly in love with his characters and the town of Beartown.  The Winners is a lot of book at 688 pages, but I devoured it over vacation and it left me full AND empty at the same time.  It also left me in tears, but boy, did I enjoy it.  Backman's writing is so poignant it left me re-reading passages just to admire them:  "What is life, other than moments? What is laughter, other than a small victory over sorrow? A single moment, just one, when everything inside us isn't broken."