Check It Out: Student Edition
September's Gone, Mountaineers!
It feels like the school year's just begun, yet we're already in the thick of it!
Our first fall missive has arrived, dropping crisp as October leaves. Though you are, at present, more basic than pleather boots, this slappin' 'sletter is tailor-made to jazz up your inbox.
Hop to it! Let's spruce up your Gmail with a little pumpkin spice pizazz. By the bottom of the page, we'll have you feeling cozier than a knockoff hoodie. Your boo could never!
Oh, and might we suggest using the convenient Table of Contents on the left-hand side as you go? Wander on, but don't lose the trail!
We'd make an autumnal pun, but pride goeth before the fall.
Yes, there's a lot of verbiage on this page. Don't be prickly—read on!
We're celebrating Hispanic Heritage Month!
Each year, Americans observe National Hispanic Heritage Month from September 15 to October 15, by celebrating the histories, cultures and contributions of American citizens whose ancestors came from Spain, Mexico, the Caribbean and Central and South America.
In the LMC, we mark the occasion as we do all such festivities: with a cornucopia of content! Visit our resource page, peruse the volumes in our reading room, and avail yourself of all the marvelous materials your library offers!
Sidebar: A Note on Nomenclature
Using "Hispanic," "Latino," "Latina," "Latinx," etc.
When semantic strife strikes, your Library Media Specialists are happy to free you from the fray.
Hispanic refers to a person who is from, or a descendant of someone who is from, a Spanish-speaking country.
Latino/a or Latinx refers to a person who is from, or a descendant of someone who is from, a country in Latin America.
It's that simple!
What's Happening in the Makerspace?
During lunch, the Mountaineer Makerspace strives to stoke student creativity! Here's what's on deck this October.
Toothpick Highrise
10/2/23 to 10/6/23
Two toothpicks are standing on the corner when they notice a hedgehog rushing down the street. "Gee whiz," one says to the other, "I didn't realize the buses ran this late."
Whether you're bustling after that bus or struggling to extract a lump of leafy green from your incisors, building a toothpick highrise is a surefire way to meet your pointed needs!
Coming Out Coloring Pages!
10/9/23 to 10/13/23
Searching for an iconic duo to headline LGBTQ+ History Month? Our candidate combines a week of coloring with National Coming Out Day, observed on Wednesday, October 11th. We call it Coming Out Coloring, and all are invited to join the fun!
Coming out in order to live openly isn’t something done once. It’s a decision made every single day of our lives. Every coming out experience is unique and must be navigated in the way most comfortable for the individual. Whether it's for the first time ever or the first time today, coming out can be an arduous journey. It is also a brave decision to live authentically.
Whether you call that pigmented piece of paraffin a "kran," "cray-ohn," "cray-ahn," or "crown," you're encouraged to smudge one with gusto as we celebrate the beauty and diversity of our Mountaineer family.
We're doing it together—and in the most vibrant hues!
(Language borrowed and adapted from Human Rights Campaign. Visit their site for more information on all things LGBTQ+!)
Spooky Paint & Sip!
10/16/23 to 10/20/23
With Hallowe'en on the horizon, it's time to shake the spirit, slurp a Capri Sun, and slosh acrylic on canvas! Just imagine the possibilities:
- A haunted house with friendly ghosts peeking out of the windows
- A jack-o-lantern with a silly face and a candle inside
- A black cat with glowing eyes and a witch hat
- A skeleton wearing a suit and tie
- A spider web with colorful beads
- A graveyard with funny tombstones and flowers
- A vampire bat hanging upside down from a branch
- A mummy wrapped in toilet paper and holding a sign that says "Boo!"
- A zombie hand holding a paintbrush and a palette
- A Frankenstein monster with a flower in his hand and a smile on his face
Whatever you opt to depict, you'll bound to have a ghoul time painting it! Stop the the LMC to sign up and guarantee yourself a spot!
Wire Sculpture!
10/23/23 to 10/27/23
However one opts to spend time in the Mountaineer Makerspace, we're eager to make it worthwire.
This week, we're worming our way into the wild world of wire sculptures. Stay in school, come unspool as you bend, fold, mutilate, and spindle your way to a unique work of art.
LMC Volunteers Wanted!
It’s the West Orange High School Library Media Center’s great pleasure to announce the formal relaunch of our Volunteer Program! This program offers students the opportunity to assist their learning community through the LMC; earn hours to satisfy volunteer requirements; serve as leaders among their peers; regularly visit and make use of countless library resources; and foster a love of active citizenship and lifelong learning in themselves and others.
Volunteer opportunities are now open to students enrolled for the 2023-2024 school year. The packet linked below contains everything you need to know about volunteering.
Mountaineer Book Club
Do you love reading? Are you interested in books? Perhaps you enjoy the occasional snack?
Whether you read like a porcupine playing leapfrog (slowly and carefully) or regard literature as you would a balding porcupine (struggling to see the point), the Mountaineer Book Club welcomes you to its October meetings!
The team's assembling in the LMC Computer Lab on October 11th and October 25th—quill you join them? Literacy preferred but not mandatory; see Mrs. Binns for more details!
BCCLS Up, Buttercup!
How do I pronounce that acronym?
As you would the word "buckles."
And what, now, is BCCLS?
BCCLS is a consortium of 77 public libraries in northern New Jersey. By county, there are 62 in Bergen, 10 in Essex, 4 in Hudson, and 1 in Passaic.
The West Orange Public Library is one of the ten in Essex County.
What's a consortium?
In this instance, a consortium is a group of libraries that share resources. It's a means of reducing costs while simultaneously increasing offerings.
Long story short, if you're a member of one library in the consortium, you can borrow materials (both online and in-person) from every other library. Those libraries will also ship items you're after to your home library in West Orange.
Amazing! What does it cost?
For West Orange High School students, not a dime!
How do I join?
Ordinarily, signing up for a public library card requires a bit of legwork. Specifically, students must "bring a copy of their birth certificate, school ID card, or report card in addition to their parent or guardian's valid photo ID and proof of residency" to the West Orange Public Library, as "library cards are issued on site by our staff."
That sounds hard.
Awww, we know, baby birds. You have it so rough, so we're gonna make it a little bit easier.
Mrs. Binns and Mr. Thompson, indefatigable in our quest to bring high-quality information resources to all sentient beings, have negotiated a pretty slick deal for any Mountaineer who desires a truly seamless sign-up experience.
All you need to do is complete the one-page form linked below (and available as a hard copy in the LMC), have your caretaker sign it, and drop it off the next time you visit your favorite librarians. A library card opening every door in the BBCLS system will be waiting for you within a few weeks!
Resource Spotlight: EBSCO Explora Secondary Schools
EBSCO's Explora is a general reference database perfect for the sort of questions you typically Google. Think of it like Wikipedia, but with footnote links that actually work.
Its interface is designed specifically for high school students according to their needs and search abilities. This interface is graphically rich and provides access to easy-to-understand materials. It also includes topic overviews that provide students with a starting point for research and 60,000 top videos from the Associated Press.
Click here or on either photo to give Explora a whirl!
Not Funny, Not Long
How do you make a porcupine float?
Two scoops of ice cream, some root beer, and a very brave porcupine.
From the Stacks
Being a pair of wholly organic, non-GMO, sustainably sourced recommended reads.
Mrs. Binns suggests...
Lahore, Pakistan. Then.
Misbah is a dreamer and storyteller, newly married to Toufiq in an arranged match. After their young life is shaken by tragedy, they come to the United States and open the Cloud’s Rest Inn Motel, hoping for a new start.
Juniper, California. Now.
Salahudin and Noor are more than best friends; they are family. Growing up as outcasts in the small desert town of Juniper, California, they understand each other the way no one else does. Until The Fight, which destroys their bond with the swift fury of a star exploding.
Now, Sal scrambles to run the family motel as his mother, Misbah’s, health fails and his grieving father loses himself to alcoholism. Noor, meanwhile, walks a harrowing tightrope: working at her wrathful uncle’s liquor store while hiding the fact that she’s applying to college so she can escape him—and Juniper—forever.
When Sal’s attempts to save the motel spiral out of control, he and Noor must ask themselves what friendship is worth—and what it takes to defeat the monsters in their pasts and the ones in their midst.
Mr. Thompson suggests...
Abolition Geography brings together Gilmore's essays, articles and interviews from over the past two decades. One of the foremost contemporary theorists and activists in movements for prison abolition and social justice, Gilmore's essays comprise searing analyses of the origins of mass incarceration and racial violence.
This collection reveals her to be a major theorist of the state, which she shows has today morphed into an 'anti-state state' organizing the abandonment of racialized and exploited populations. Countering these new formations of power, Gilmore presents us with a powerful model for the radical articulation of scholarship and activism, and a novel way of asking ourselves the question: 'What is to be done?'
