Twilight is the 2007-2008 Georgia Peach Book Award Winner

The results of the 2007-2008 Georgia Peach Book Award for teen readers are in. This year’s winner is a Creekview High favorite, Twilight by Stephenie Meyer! This book had the most votes in the past 4 years! The 2007-2008 Honor Book Winners are also Grizzly favorites, I’d Tell You I Love You, But Then I’d Have to Kill You by Ally Carter and Peeps by Scott Westerfeld. All three winners will receive hand-blown peach trophies by Lillie Glass Company from Georgia Library Media Association. GLMA would like to thank all the schools and public libraries that voted. They had over 80 libraries respond this year, the most ever!

A Shout-Out to Kwout

Blatant Bibliophile Blog via kwout

Have you ever wished you could copy a screenshot of just part of a web page? Not only that, have you ever wanted to make that part you copied look all cool and smooth and neat, copying just exactly the part of the page you wanted, with groovy, sleek, rounded edges? Well, then you need Kwout! Kwout is so simple to use. And I am all about the simple. Kwout is an easy way to quote a part of a web page with an image map. All you have to do is add the Kwout bookmarklet to your image browser (just right click and then click on “Add to Favorites.” The easy-to-follow directions are right on the Kwout home page. Then all you do is go to the page you want to quote or copy a screenshot from, then click on the Kwout bookmark (click on “Favorites” and then “Kwout,” highlight the area of the page you wish to copy, click on “Cut Out,”make a few selections, but only if you’re in the mood, copy the code, and then embed it into your web page or blog. The code embeds easily into WordPress, which is not a common occurrence. Sorry, WordPress, but you know it’s the truth. We love you, but your embedding skills need a little polishing.

Spring On Down to the Library for Some New Books!

The moment you have been waiting for (since the last time you were waiting for it!) is here! The latest shipment of new books has arrived at The Unquiet Library. Do not let anything stand in your way! Get yourself down to the media center “stat” as the medical peeps say, and check out your favorite book, or books by your favorite author. We also have great new nonfiction books, too, like books to help you prepare for those ever-fun-and-exciting AP exams! I get goose bumps just thinking about them, don’t you?

Good Vibrations!

Have you tried NetVibes yet? It is tres cool! Like Pageflakes and iGoogle, you can create your own home page, complete with widgets and RSS feeds from news, entertainment, and blogs; there’s also social networking, fun, and sports. Click here to see ours! You can also convert to their new update, Ginger, quickly and easily. Try it and see!

What’s Wrong with Cheating?

According to a recent article in School Library Journal, a huge percentage of high school students–95%!!!–say they have cheated at some point in school. Their definitions of cheating ranged from allowing other students to copy their homework to cheating on tests. The statistics come from Donald McCabe, a professor of management and global business at Rutgers University. McCabe has been surveying college students for eighteen years and high school students for six years. His high school results come from surveys of 24,000 students in 70,000 schools. Sixty-four percent of students report serious cheating on tests, including copying from someone else, helping someone else cheat, or using cheat notes. Fifty-eight percent of students admitted plagiarizing. Many students were caught cheating primarily because they bragged about their skill at beating the system. Why do students cheat? Have you ever cheated? Is cheating unfair to other students, or are you only cheating yourself?

Ice, Ice, Baby!

“Spy Guy” by Zuri, Lauren, Fabio, Jordan, and Navin

“Frankenstein Monster”  by ET, Carlie, Kyndall, Ben S., and Jordan D.

“Rocket Man” by Jonathan N., Donevan D., Greg H., Zach M.

“Death by Vanity” by Nicole P., Trianna B., Lauren N., and Brittney R.

“Marry Me?” Kelsey S., Megan L., Haley P., and James K.

“Elasticity” by Miranda E., Lindsey T., Shannon S., and Nikki K.

“Maria Chillin'” by Maria, Kortnee, Portia, Sarah, and Heather

Mirror, mirror, on the wall, who’s the coolest art teacher of them all? It has got to be our own Ms. McCloskey. And her art students. This week, their contribution is three-dimensional tape sculpture. Check out their first three fabulous contributions. For more information on tape sculpture, and instructions on how to create your own, you can go to TapeSculpture.org. OK, you know that they’re not using live objects in the website’s demonstrations, right? Don’t try taping up live babies to make a sculpture. That is a DOLL, not a baby. Real babies do not survive taping. Our students used members of their group as molds for their creations, and they did a fantastic job! Kudos to all our great Creekview artists, and Ms. McCloskey, the world’s greatest art teacher!

Are you a Web 2.0 junky? Are you addicted to all things Web 2.0? Well, this website called Go2Web2.0 that I stole from Mrs. Franchini at Sequoyah is the Internet drug you’ve been looking for. If you are addicted to Web 2.0, or just the Internet in general, there is enough “stuff” here on this WEb 2.0 directory to keep you occupied for the rest of your life. Literally. You can type in a tag or topic in which you are interested, or just sort by date or by name. Once you click on a specific site, you get a brief description of the website, and the list scrolls down so you can see more sites. If you like the description of a website, you can click on it and proceed to use it. If not, hey, there are quadrillions more to try. Literally.

Are You The Type for TypoGenerator?

Have you tried TypoGenerator? If not, then you are definitely not in the cool. Typo Generator lets you make wild graphics with letters and numbers; then you can save them as picture files to upload to your blogs, social networking sites like MySpace or FaceBook, or other websites. Just type in the letters and/or numbers you want to use, then click on “Generate New.” Don’t like what you see? Then check “Destroy” to change the text style, colors, and/or background. Then check “Try Again.” You can try again all day and all night if you have the stamina. Once you’re satisfied, just right click on your graphic to save it as a picture file, then upload it to your desired location. Voila! You have a beautarific design like the one you see in front of you! Some kinda fun, huh?

This Month in History

Sure you knew that St. Patrick’s Day is March 17, but did you know that a lot of other interesting events happened in March? No? Well, then you need to check out Awesome Stories. The March issue of their newsletter has all kinds of exciting information about fascinating historical events that happened in March, including the Boston Massacre, the fall of the Alamo, the writing of our national anthem, The Star Spangled Banner, the assassination of Tsar Nicholas II and his family which launched the Russian Revolution, the Battle of Iwo Jima in World War II, the death of Beethoven caused by lead poisoning, the invention of Coca-Cola, the world’s worst airline disaster, and more. If any of the pages on the website ask you for a password, you can register for your own for free, or you can use the school’s website, creekviewhs.

Check Out The Unquiet Library’s New Flip Camera

Click here to see our video on TeacherTube that we made with our cool new Flip camera! You can check it out to make quick effortless videos and quickly upload them to your computer without cables, or even display them on your TV!