
The Foran Learning Commons Lowdown
(Student Ed.) Tech Tidbits, Riveting Reads and Resources
The Lowdown's Mission
The Foran Learning Commons Lowdown (Student Ed.) is meant to provide Foran students and families with an insight into savvy digital tools or technology tips that will assist you with everyday academics, recommendations for meaningful literature and/or resources to support individual learning from our Teaching and Learning Commons.
BIG CHANGES ABOUNDING IN OUR TEACHING AND LEARNING COMMONS
KICK-OFF TO THE 22-23 SCHOOL YEAR!
Our Foran community is super excited to kick off the new school year with a brand new Teaching and Learning Commons! Our first phase of this project was completed late summer and has imbued our space with comfort and flexible seating accommodating all patron needs. The students and staff are thoroughly enjoying the new furniture! Book Talks have begun to inspire independent reading choices, book displays have been created and virtual author visits have taken place in honor of Banned Books Week! We have eagerly begun the school year with excitement and tons of fun learning experiences!
Narrow Down Your Email Inbox!
Use the FILTER option to minimize the amount of emails in your INBOX. We are all inundated by copious amounts of emails that flood our Inbox. A way to ensure you are consistently keeping on top of them while not getting stressed by the visible amount, is to use the Filter option to create Labels and organize your messages. Please see the video below that will walk you through the steps to having an organized INBOX!
Spooktacular Reads for October
White Smoke by Tiffany D. Jackson
Marigold is running from ghosts. The phantoms of her old life keep haunting her, but a move with her newly blended family from their small California beach town to the embattled Midwestern city of Cedarville might be the fresh start she needs. Her mom has accepted a new job with the Sterling Foundation that comes with a free house, one that Mari now has to share with her bratty ten-year-old stepsister, Piper.
The renovated picture-perfect home on Maple Street, sitting between dilapidated houses, surrounded by wary neighbors has its . . . secrets. That’s only half the problem: household items vanish, doors open on their own, lights turn off, shadows walk past rooms, voices can be heard in the walls, and there’s a foul smell seeping through the vents only Mari seems to notice. Worse: Piper keeps talking about a friend who wants Mari gone.
But “running from ghosts” is just a metaphor, right?
As the house closes in, Mari learns that the danger isn’t limited to Maple Street. Cedarville has its secrets, too. And secrets always find their way through the cracks.
Goodreads.com
The Taking of Jake Livingston by Ryan Douglass
Jake Livingston is one of the only Black kids at St. Clair Prep, one of the others being his infinitely more popular older brother. It’s hard enough fitting in but to make matters worse and definitely more complicated, Jake can see the dead. In fact he sees the dead around him all the time. Most are harmless. Stuck in their death loops as they relive their deaths over and over again, they don’t interact often with people. But then Jake meets Sawyer. A troubled teen who shot and killed six kids at a local high school last year before taking his own life. Now a powerful, vengeful ghost, he has plans for his afterlife–plans that include Jake. Suddenly, everything Jake knows about ghosts and the rules to life itself go out the window as Sawyer begins haunting him and bodies turn up in his neighborhood. High school soon becomes a survival game–one Jake is not sure he’s going to win.
Goodreads.com
Sawkill Girls by Claire Legrand
Who are the Sawkill Girls?
Marion: the new girl. Awkward and plain, steady and dependable. Weighed down by tragedy and hungry for love she’s sure she’ll never find.
Zoey: the pariah. Luckless and lonely, hurting but hiding it. Aching with grief and dreaming of vanished girls. Maybe she’s broken—or maybe everyone else is.
Val: the queen bee. Gorgeous and privileged, ruthless and regal. Words like silk and eyes like knives, a heart made of secrets and a mouth full of lies.
Their stories come together on the island of Sawkill Rock, where gleaming horses graze in rolling pastures and cold waves crash against black cliffs. Where kids whisper the legend of an insidious monster at parties and around campfires.
Where girls have been disappearing for decades, stolen away by a ravenous evil no one has dared to fight… until now.
Goodreads.com
Looking For YOUR Help!
Our Teaching and Learning Commons is continuing to look for assistants to be a part of our TLC TEAM! If you enjoy marketing, organizing, books, quiet spaces, planning and/or technology, consider joining our TEAM! Check out the presentation which contains a video link to find out more about this amazing opportunity where you can receive school credit for volunteering your time to work in the library!
Student IT Assistance
If you're having issues with your Chromebook, your login information or additional district computer issues, please see the video below to find out how to submit an Incident IQ ticket for repair.
Some of October's Flipster Magazines to Take a Peek At!
Our magazine database, Flipster, is back! Log in with Password-foran, Username-#1lions to find out what magazines this database includes and access articles on any digital device! Go to our TLC Website to log in to Flipster or click the button below to be brought there.
We now have HGTV and Food Network!!
Logging Into Destiny
Destiny is our digital catalog database. If you are wondering if our TLC contains a specific read, you can log into Destiny to conduct a search. Please see the video below that will walk you through the process of how to login and navigate Destiny's features.
Jackie DeLoma
Email: jdeloma@milforded.org
Website: https://sites.google.com/milforded.org/foran-library/home
Location: Foran Library
Phone: 2320
Twitter: @foranlibrary