Incoming 12th Graders

Incoming 12th graders check out your summer reading music video and podcast. When you're finished watching, tell me what book you will read this summer.

Cool Down with a Good Book!

We are pleased to present the 2009 Summer Reading Lists. Each student is required to select a book from the appropriate grade-level list below. If you are having trouble choosing a book, ask a parent, teacher, librarian or the English department chair for help. The Mepham High School Website has pamphlets and our next post will have podcasts with short summaries to help make your selection easier. The titles below are linked to Amazon.com for more information.

Incoming 9th Grade Summer Reading List:

The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian by Sherman Alexie
The Alchemist by Paul Coelho

Driver's Ed by Caroline B. Cooney
Breathing Underwater by Alex Flinn

Things Change by Patrick Jones

Green Angel by Alice Hoffman

Incoming 10th Grade Summer Reading List:

Feed by M.T. Anderson

A Northern Light by Jennifer Donnelly

The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time by Mark Haddon

Handle with Care by Jodi Picoult

Touching the Void by Joe Simpson
American Born Chinese by Gene Luen Yang

Incoming 11th Grade Summer Reading List:

Twisted by Laurie Halse Anderson

Loves Music, Loves to Dance by Mary Higgins Clark

Whale Talk by Chris Crutcher

Playing for Pizza by John Grisham

Black Girl / White Girl by Joyce Carol Oates

The Dive from Clausen's Pier by Ann Packer

How to Read Literature Like a Professor* by Thomas C. Foster

The Kite Runner* by Khaled Hosseini

*Only required for E3 AP English students at Mepham High School

Incoming 12th Grade Summer Reading List:

For One More Day by Mitch Albom

Water for Elephants by Sara Gruen

A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini

The Host by Stephenie Meyer
The Last Lecture by Randy Pausch

Cat's Cradle by Kurt Vonnegut

Freakonomics*by Steven D. Levitt and Stephen J. Dubner
The Grapes of Wrath* by John Steinbeck

*Only required for E4 AP English students at Mepham High School

How to Create a Screencast

What is Jing? View this video then view this video (click on the link that says, "Watch a video to see how") for a much better explanation.

If you want to look at other ways to use screencasts in your class, take a look at this one and this one that I created last summer.

If you have any questions, just ask Stu... or email me. Good luck!

Did Internet Kill the Radio Star?

They said television killed the radio. Now they are saying that the Internet has killed television. It is true that you can watch TV now on your computer, just look at hulu. It's great when your DVR cuts off the last two minutes of your favorite program. You can also listen to radio, not your traditional radio, but a new kind of radio. Pandora Internet Radio allows you to type in the name of your

favorite artist, song, or composer and Pandora will create an online

radio station featuring that particular music and others songs like it. Users can create 100 different unique online stations for their listening pleasure, but they do need to create an account first. Try it out and report back your thoughts, comments, and suggestions.

Happy Memorial Day!

Image Source

We Still Do Books

The Disreputable History of Frankie Landau-Banks
by E. Lockhart
Call #: FIC / LOCKHART
© 2008
Frankie Landau-Banks attempts to take over a secret, all-male society at her exclusive prep school, and her antics with the group soon draw some unlikely attention and have unexpected consequences that could change her life forever.


The Hunger Games
by Suzanne Collins
Call #: FIC / COLLINS
© 2008
Sixteen-year-old Katniss Everdeen accidentally becomes a contender in the annual Hunger Games, a grave competition hosted by the Capitol where young boys and girls are pitted against one another in a televised fight to the death.

What's an Airliner?

We just received two SMART™ Airliners™ in our school! What’s this new technology all about? The Airliner wireless slate interacts with your SMART Board from 52 feet away. The tethered pen and wireless mouse allows teachers and students to control software applications, write notes, and highlight information in digital ink, then display it on the SMART Board. So why bother to use the Airliner? Teachers can teach from anywhere in the room. Never turn your back on the class again. Students Can interact with the SMART Board from their seats. This is ideal to embrace students in the learning process who are physically unable to reach the SMART Board.