Here are some helpful links to get you ready for Fall studying.
Free Foreign Language Programs
Mango Languages
This free and easy program will help any student learn how to read and speak many different languages. All you need is your library card and pin number, and you can access this program from home!
Web German Languages– A set of links to free foreign language resources, not just German.
Free Algebra/Trig/Calc Tutorials
Patrick’s Just Math Tutorials
This is a no-frills video tutorial site. Simply scroll down through the options until you come to the examples you need. For example, Patrick explains how to solve a simple quadratic equation.
MathWorld — An encyclopedia of mathematical terms, equations, and formulas, complete with full descriptions and examples.
Last Friday, SRSLY held a big volunteer party at Pierce Park. Teens and adults who had volunteered over the course of 2010 were honored with free food and some nifty prizes! (I won a fleece pullover)
This year Chelsea District Library has supported SRSLY in many ways. In March, we teamed up with the organization to create a message for parents about the dangers of supplying alcohol at house parties.
This Fall, SRSLY and Chelsea are teaming up again for SRSLY Book Blast Tuesday, November 30, 6-7:30pm. We will be discussing Crank, by Ellen Hopkins, and if you sign up early, you will receive a free copy of the book!
Birmingham, Michigan is hosting the Elmore Leonard Literary Arts and Film Festival in November, and as part of the festivities, teens have been invited to enter a Crime and Mystery Fiction Short Story Contest! PRIZES:
1st place $250
2nd place $100
3rd place $50
No entry fee
Submissions accepted from August 15-October 1
1st place winner of the contest will be invited to the Gala celebrating Elmore Leonard’s life and achievements on Saturday night, November 13.
RULES FOR SUBMISSIONS:
- Writer must be ages 13-18 and currently enrolled in school.
- The submission must be the writer’s own original, unpublished work.
- Submit entry as a Word attachment using the Withoutabox link below.
- Submission must be in a mystery or crime genre and mention a metro Detroit area landmark, building, or locale.
- Format: Double-spaced, 12 pt. font, Times New Roman. Include your name, email, phone, school name and school’s address at the top of the submission.
- Only one submission per person. Submissions may be no longer than 2,000 words.
DEADLINES:
Friday, October 1 – Submission deadline.
Sunday, October 31 – The winners will be announced here.
JUDGING CRITERIA:
1. Does the piece meet the mystery / crime genre?
2. Does it mention a significant metro Detroit area landmark, building, or locale?
3. Does it go beyond the story length of 2,000 words?
4. Does it have its own style?
5. Does the piece have few grammar and spelling mistakes?
6. Does the piece develop a compelling story and interesting characters?
7. Does the piece use only the appropriate amount of mature subject matter?
Eighth grader Molly Williams has just lost her father in a car accident, and her mother has become withdrawn. Molly wants to make herself known to the kids at school for something other than her father’s death. So she decides to join the baseball team. The “boys’” baseball team.
Agnes and Honey have grown up together in the Mount Blessing religious community led by charismatic Emmanuel. But where Agnes is devoted, even emulating those she reads about in The Way of the Saints, Honey is desperate for a way out.
Maggie Wishnick is not happy about starting a new school her senior year, especially ritzy Berkeley Prep on Manhattan’s Upper East Side–that is, until the most exclusive clique asks Maggie to join their secret society.
During the last days of the Trujillo dictatorship in the Dominican Republic, three young women, members of a conservative, pious Catholic family, who had become committed to the revolutionary overthrow of the regime, were ambushed and assassinated as they drove back from visiting their jailed husbands. Thus martyred, the Mirabal sisters have become mythical figures in their country, where they are known as las mariposas (the butterflies), from their underground code names.
A mashup, for the uninitiated, is a clever combination of two (or more) media sources to create something new and enjoyable in it’s own right. A popular mashup-type is the movie trailer mashup, taking film footage and audio footage from completely different movies, and making them track together, reshaping a film to be something entirely different from the original. This can change the mood that usually makes you laugh, or get totally creeped out. A good example of a creepy mashup is Sleepless in Seattle, re-cut as a horror movie.
Did you ever think Dumb and Dumber would make a good thriller?
I have been really surprised by the number of amazing Inception mashups that keep popping up on the internet. Some movies seem to lend themselves well to this format. Some of the best versions include Monsters, Inc.
Want to trying making your own mashup? Here are some helpful hints.
Author Pete Hautman recently posted on his blog regarding the uninviting of Ellen Hopkins to the Teen Lit Fest in Humble, Texas. Pete was planning on attending the event, but after he heard that Ellen was asked not to come because “Apparently “several” parents were disturbed by the content of Ellen’s books, and objected to having her at the festival,” he was furious enough to announce that he would not attend. Melissa de la Cruz, Matt de la Pena and Tara Lynn Childs have also decided not to attend.
Pete explained his reasoning this way:
Over the past fifteen years of visiting schools and libraries I have been “uninvited” on two occasions. It is a terrible thing to be told by educators that your life’s work is “inappropriate” for its intended audience. In both cases, I did nothing. I didn’t want to further embarrass the librarians who had invited me – they were already mortified. I just wanted to leave a sour experience behind and get on with the next thing.
I now believe that was a mistake. The political and philosophical problem of censorship, in all its forms, harms all of us, and each of us has a responsibility to fight it. I cannot help but think that those same people who objected to Ellen Hopkins’ work might find some of my books equally disturbing.
In Manila when I was growing up, LOTS of books and movies were ROUTINELY censored. It was part of life. Could we get X book? Nope. Censored! Were we going to get X Hollywood movie? Not a chance. Censored! We had to sneak in racy soap operas, vampire flicks, horror through an underground video network–we watched them on Betamax (or my parents did). The movies we were allowed to see were mostly pablum. (Did anyone see Electric Dreams? When I was in seventh grade we loved this movie. The one with Giorgio Moroder’s theme song? Together in Electric Dreams? No? Just us? Okay. Those were the kinds of movies we were allowed to watch: The love story between a man, a woman and a computer.) When I moved to America, I was happy to discover that you could watch ANYTHING here. Censorship was NOT a way of life. The freedom was dizzying.
Ellen’s books are provocative and challenging. They talk about subjects that some find uncomfortable: drug addiction, incest, teen prostitution. They also talk about love and friendship and family and they are filled with poetry (they are made of poetry). I am constantly surprised and upset and moved by these books. [...] I want every kid to be able to decide whether they want to read Ellen’s books or my books, or anyone’s books. Kids should be able to choose. (Parents can choose not to let their kids read something, and that’s fine. They can also choose not to let their kids go hear someone speak, but you can’t ruin it for other people’s kids whose parents decided THEY can hear a speaker or read a book.)
Curious to know more about the novels of Ellen Hopkins? The Chelsea District Library owns copies of all of her books. The library will be hosting the SRSLY Book Blast in November, discussing Ellen Hopkin’s book Crank. You can sign up for this program and get a free copy of the book!
Here are some helpful links to get you ready for Fall studying.
