Welcome back!

Welcome back to the 2008-2009 school year.

I hope you had some fun and were able to relax this summer. I sure did!

Here's a picture of me at the ocean near Oysterville, WA at the end of June. I went with my husband and some friends from church and we had a great time playing on the beach, sight seeing, and just enjoying the different view. I also worked on some classes for my master's degree, went to the Ellensburg Jazz Festival, visited the Spokane area, helped my middle daughter move,and just hung out at home.

What did you do? If any CHS student finds this blog during school, please tell me what you did this summer and I'll give you Smarties!!

Mrs. Hightower

Have a great summer!

Well, school is over and summer is finally here. I hope you have a wonderful vacation. See you on August 27th and remember: Keep reading this summer! Drop by your local public library and check out a book. You can even order books through their website: http://www.ncrl.org/. Have you tried audio books? They are another way to keep up your reading. Hastings also has a summer reading program, so whatever you do - READ!

New Books!

We received new books recently including some graphic novels. Students seem to enjoy these 148 page adaptations and are checking them out a lot. The titles include: Anna Sewell's Black Beauty, Bram Stoker's Dracula, Jack London's The Call of the Wild, L. Frank Baum's The Wizard of Ox, Mary Shelley's Frankenstein, Stephen Crane's The Red Badge of Courage, William Shakespeare's Macbeth and Robert Louis Stevenson's Treasure Island. There's still time to check one out and read it before the end of school.

All books need to be back to the library by June 2, 2008. If you need them longer, talk to Mrs. Hightower.

Poem in your pocket

April is National Poetry Month. To celebrate, the Academy of American Poets post a lot of ideas on their website:

http://poets.org/page.php/prmID/406

You even can upload poems to your mobile device at:

http://poets.org/m/by_occasion.php

Have some fun and put a poem in your pocket today!

have your heard of Glogster?

Hey, I just learned of a free, online poster making website that is fun and easy to do. Here is a link to one I made for an example:
http://lindakay.glogster.com/glog/

Take a look and see if you want to make your own!

Inspiration at school!

We have new software in the library called Inspiration. It's a program that helps you organize your thoughts in a very visual way. A few classes have used it, but I think more students will be taking advantage of Inspiration on their own. If you have trouble getting started writing papers, getting your notes organized, or just thinking about what to do on a writing assignment, why don't you give it a try. With one little click you go from a graphic organizer to a outline that you can download to a Word document and continue on writing. All thirty of the library computers have it loaded and the icon is on your desktop. Begin with Inspiration on your next assigment and you'll find how much fun it is.

Evergreen Young Adult Book Award

Have you read any of these ten books? They are this year's nominees for the Evergreen Young Adult Book Award. To be eligible to vote, just read at least two of these books and return you ballot to Mrs. Hightower by March 14. You can read more about each book - just look at the display in the library. I predict Twilight will win this year, but you never know how students will vote. Take the challenge and read some new books this year and don't forget to vote!