Einstein's Theory of Relativity---the parts of interest to a librarian

 One of our wonderful physics teachers spoke with a family who donated a limited edition of Einstein's Theory of Relativity. It's in the original German, and it came in plastic wrapping. 

While the family told us that they wanted us to share with our students, we were still hesitant to open the wrap and remove it from mint condition. Yesterday was the day.



The students were suitably impressed.

Academic Team Semifinals

Fun with the Manatee County Academic Team in Orlando! We made it to the semifinals, and came thisclose to being in the final top six of the 39 Florida teams represented. 

"Warming up" for our match

In numbers, while we spent three days visiting three theme parks, the number of questions encountered is much more impressive. Even with free theme park passes, the boys chose to spend almost eight hours reviewing five sets of questions, about 385 in total. 

Practice was actually pretty fun...better than the Reading Room for sure.

During their three rounds, they faced 195 individual and 90 team questions. Five of the boys buzzed in to earn the team positive points. Even more impressive, we earned 30 of 30 points for the final team sheet in the second round. Good luck to them the rest of senior year and in college. I'm confident they'll all be successful.

Cleaned up for the awards banquet

Book Fort Request

I was surprised to have two students ask to make a book fort for an article in the school newspaper. 

I'll keep checking http://www.ssesgauntlet.org/ until I learn more...

Academic Team Press

Front page of the local newspaper, the Bradenton Herald! 

I'm proud of these boys. They've worked hard in all their classes, and they've earned the right to represent Manatee County at the state competition. We head to Orlando next Thursday.

http://www.bradenton.com/2013/04/10/4475630/manatee-county-students-prepare.html

My thoughts on differences in print and digital copies of the paper. 
Digital copies are easier to share. More photos can be included in the digital gallery, and they've gotten some excellent photos. (You can see each boy's "thinking face.") 
However, there's a mysterious something about being one of the few stories above the fold on a print edition. Limited space makes the focus seem like a more valuable commodity. 
 
Thoughts?

What a Friday...

Seniors won Harlem Shake. Congrats to 2013 for your library video!

This is a day of silliness: advisory breakfast, movie time, indoor field day, cookout, and faculty-student basketball game. 

Cheesy poof-shaving cream contest. Junior Senior tie.

Mission to Mars. Don't remember the winner. This game was the pinnacle of my elementary gym experience. I was excited to see it resurrected here in Florida.

One day of rain and check out the field behind the library. Yes, that's a downed tree.

Harlem Shake Spirit Preview

And we're back!
Senior Harlem Shake in the Library.