Social Media and the LCHave you seen the SJP Learning C o m m o n s o n I n s t a g r a m o r Pinterest? We are building a social media presence. The SJP LC Pinterest boards have nearly 100 followers. Join the crowd and discover some great ideas for using technology in the classroom, peruse book suggestions, or giggle over the cute library cats photos. In addi t ion to mainta in ing the Pinterest page, periodically, I post photos of what is happening in the

LC on our newly created Instagram page. Become a follower (@sjplearningcommons) and keep up with research across the curriculum, after school clubs, the AEC, and Virtual High School.

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What are You Reading?

Mrs. Walkins is reading: The Handmaid and the Carpenter by Elizabeth Berg

Every Christmas season, there are a few favorite books I pull off my shelves to re-read. One is a YA novel by Caroline B. Cooney called What Child is This. In Cooney’s heart-warming story about a Christmas miracle, three well-meaning teens help to save a lost foster child on Christmas Eve. I also enjoy reading Rosamunde Pilcher’s Winter Solstice every December. This bestseller welcomes readers into one of Rosamunde Pilcher’s q u i r k y S c o t t i s h v i l l a g e s a t Christmastime, where her well-drawn characters help each other o v e r c o m e h e a r t b r e a k a n d loneliness. Now, I am reading The

Handmaid and the Carpenter, a touching por-trayal of the m a r r i a g e o f M a r y a n d J o s e p h , i n -c l u d i n g t h e birth of Jesus in B e t h l e h e m . Elizabeth Berg d o e s a w o n -

derful job of capturing the Biblical culture and recreating the ancient world in which her characters lived. Mary is a spirited and independent woman and her husband is a strict but kind man who truly loves his wife. I especially appreciated Mary's belief that there are miracles happening every day all around us.

NOTES FROM THE LCRead, Imagine, Discover and Learn!

Hermione conducts a lab for her VHS class, AP Physycs I.

What’s New in Our Collection

Ms. Gipson has assigned some outside reading to her seniors in Anatomy and Physiology. As part of their mid-term exam they will read and write about a current non-fiction book pertaining to the field of health and medicine. If you are interested in the ethics of medical research, epidemiology, forensic anthropology, the intricacies of mental health or the scientific and personal challenges faced by medical professionals, borrow one of these new titles: The Ghost Map by Steven Johnson; What Doctors Feel:  How Emotions Affect the Practice of Medicine by Danielle Ofri; The Story of the Human Body by Daniel Lieberman; Complications:  A Surgeon’s Notes on an Imperfect Science by Atul Gawande; The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot; The Hot Zone by Richard Preston; The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down by Anne Fadiman; Beyond the Body Farm: A Legendary Bone Detective by Bill Bass; The Man Who Mistook His Wife For A Hat: And Other Clinical Tales by Oliver Sacks; The Deadly Dinner Party and Other Medical Detective Stories by Jonathan A. Edlow M.D.

After School in the LC

The Newspaper staff and High School Quiz Show team have been holding regular meetings after school in the Collaboration Café. The HSQS team has been reviewing study guides and playing Jeopardy games created from those guides to expand their general knowledge and cultural literacy. In the past two weeks the

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Advice from the AEC

SJP Students with Dyslexia: The Tedious Task of Note-taking and Two Alternatives

Many times as teachers we find ourselves wondering why a student isn’t taking accurate or legible notes. Motivation can play a factor, as students need to “buy in” and put in the effort. However, dyslexia is real and identified in close to 10% of our student population.

According to the International Dyslexia Association, dyslexia is a language-based learning disability that is neurological in origin. In addition to having challenges with reading, students typically have difficulty with skills such as spelling, written expression and pronouncing words. For many of our students, processing language is slow. Students zone out just from the fatigue of trying to "translate" meaning and keep up.

Alternative 1 Prior to the lesson, provide access to lecture notes/Powerpoints on Google classroom, or another format, and require that students add their own abbreviated notes to stay engaged. Alternative 2 Allow AEC LP students to quickly snap an iPad photo of the board, insert the photo into the Notability APP, so that they can add additional notes as the lecture continues. Photos of notes can be organized by classroom for reference in study or after school. Strategy Instruction Think about benefiting the entire “audience” by taking time in class to teach and review a note-taking strategy, such as The 2 Column Cornell Note-taking System. Provide students with examples of how to paraphrase and abbreviate. Reviewing note-taking in the context of your lesson is much more effective than teaching a strategy in isolation outside of the classroom.

Students in Ms. Beach’s ESL I class make oral presentations in the Writing Center.

kids have reviewed some of Shakespeare’s plays, as well as classic American and British novels. Over the break, each team member will create a Jeopardy game on a topic in which they are particularly well-versed.

The Newspaper staff recently received gratifying results from the Columbia Scholastic Press Association’s critique of our paper, The TIE. We earned Bronze Medal status. The judge reviewed all aspects of the publication from the masthead, bylines and captions to our coverage, journalistic conventions and layout and design. In addition to rating each element of the paper, the judge provided helpful commentary and advice. The judge commended us for founding the paper and for “showing significant improvement over the course of the year.” Congratulations to our student journalists!

What’s Happening in the Book Club?Our last two meetings have centered around Jane Austen. In November, we gathered in the Collaboration Cafe to talk about Northanger Abbey , Jane Austen’s lighthearted take on the gothic novels that were so popular in her day. Some of us are curious to read Mrs. Radcliffe’s Mysteries of Udolpho to see if it is as enthralling as Catherine Morland claims.

At our most recent meeting on December 14, the club talked about contemporary fiction inspired by Jane Austen’s life and work. We each read a different book and shared our impressions with the group. If you are a Janeite, try one of these titles the next time you are looking for something good to read: Bridget Jones’ Diary by Helen Fielding , The Missing Manuscript of Jane Austen by Syrie James, An Assembly Such as This by Pamela Aidan, Pies and Prejudice by , Jane and the Wandering Eye by Heather Vogel Frederick , Prom and Prejudice by Elizabeth Eulberg , or Cassandra’s Sister by Veronica Bennett . To learn more about these and other Jane-inspired novels, take a look at the Librarian’s Blog on the Learning Commons website.

We will each read a biography of someone we admire for our upcoming meeting in January.

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Freshmen, Annie and Makael decorate a gingerbread house in the Collaboration Cafe. Come up to the LC to see the results of their artistic efforts!