The Healey Touch

The Healey Touch
Originally uploaded by Pesky Library

Fortunately for us, Mrs. Healey is coming out of retirement occasionally to fill in some of our away hours. Our students and our display spaces are both happy to see her. Stay tuned during October to see her creations.

Take My Advice

Just hours after poet laureate Billy Collins encouraged us to leave "footprints" in the margins, this senior was observed filling her book with notes. Mr. Collins suggested that we gain more from our reading when we interact with the words that we read. His comments agree with those that the Governor's Academy faculty heard during the opening of school. Ann Larsen, of the Landmark School, spoke to us about the value of handwritten notes over typed notes. She stated that more learning occurs when the act of handwriting is employed. While she did not specifically advocating writing in books, she explained the advantages of two column notes, using one side for notes and the other for questions, clarification, and reflection. It is well-known in academic circles that metacognition, or reflection on one's learning, enhances comprehension and retention. We hope to catch many more students leaving their footprints in the library (but not the library books, please!)

Common Book Signing with Billy Collins

Common Book Signing with Billy Collins
Originally uploaded by Pesky Library

On Thursday, the Governor's Academy community experienced a special treat in the visit of poet Billy Collins to the school. His reading evoked laughter, sighs, nods of agreement and feelings of satisfaction in the audience.

He gave a special piece of advice to students, when discussing a poem in which he quotes from the pencil writing in the margins of Catcher in the Rye words he knows must have been written by a beautiful young girl, and which left him smitten for the summer ("Marginalia," Sailing Alone Around the Room). He suggested that students give up their uncritical and indiscriminate highlighting with bright yellow or, worse, pink lines, and instead return to making comments, criticism and praise in pencil notes which then become an addendum to the content of the book. These can become something for other readers to enjoy!

The Electronic Classroom

The Electronic Classroom
Originally uploaded by Pesky Library

Mr. Nelson’s sophomore European history students have been researching Renaissance artists and comparing their techniques with those of medieval artists. Today students met in the electronic classroom to share the results of their research with each other. Groups of three or four students presented their findings orally with the aid of PowerPoint slides.

One-on-One Junior History Thesis Assistance

One-on-One Junior History Thesis Assistance
Originally uploaded by Pesky Library

After visiting the History Fair, each junior meets one-on-one with a librarian. They receive a little red bag containing note cards, highlighter, and other helpful supplies. They enroll in a special Moodle class that contains links to the most useful online resources for their project and hints for beginning their research. Each student receives individualized, topic-specific help to ensure that they begin their research on the proper foot. They examine the library’s holdings to ensure that they will have enough resources and learn to find and request additional resources through interlibrary loan. More importantly, they’ve made a connection with a librarian whom they can contact for extra help any time they need extra guidance with the research process.

2008 - 2009 Luncheon Seminars on Teaching and Learning Begin

Last Friday was the kickoff for the academy's 2008 - 2009 Luncheon Seminars on Teaching and Learning. These luncheons are held in the library and are conducted by various faculty. We started this year with a presentation by the English department to prepare us for Thursday's visit by Billy Collins, our Common Book author. Teachers shared different Collins poems and initiated discussions. They also shared how their students reacted to his poetry, appreciating the humor and everyday images, the way he leads us to a zinger at the poem's end. We were fascinated by the different approach each teacher took in presenting poetry to the students in the classroom. Karen Gold shared a site she used successfully with her students, Billy Collins Action Poetry, animations of different poems with the poet's voice providing the recitation. Another wonderful collegial experience!

Ethical Dilemma: File Sharing or Illegal Downloads?

Ethical Dilemma: File Sharing: File Sharing or Illegal Downloads?
Originally uploaded by Pesky Library

To encourage ethical behavior in regard to information literacy, the library provides a variety of materials to help students make informed choices throughout their lives. Having grown up in Generation Y, today’s students have never known a world without the Internet. They are just beginning to understand that everything that can be downloaded isn’t free. As they enter their professional lives, the importance of having their achievements recognized monetarily will become evident. For many today, the instant gratification that can be achieved with BitTorrent or other peer-to-peer file sharing programs is enticing. Yet students must be aware of the legal and ethical aspects of acquiring another person’s intellectual property without remuneration. Two recent newspaper articles are included in our display to help students become more aware of the current ramifications for illegally downloading music. They can also be read online at: Maine law students challenge recording industry’s lawsuits and Free Music Downloads without the Legal Peril.

Hispanic Heritage Month

Hispanic Heritage Month
Originally uploaded by Pesky Library

Between September 15 and October 15 we celebrate Hispanic Heritage Month. Immigrants from Paraguay, El Salvador, Venezuela, Costa Rica, Mexico, Peru, Puerto Rico, Spain, Argentina, Chile, Honduras, Panama, Nicaragua, Uruguay, Colombia, Bolivia, Ecuador, Cuba, Guatemala and the Dominican Republic and their culture and heritage are honored by this Congressional designation. The month begins on September 15 because five of these countries, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras and Nicaragua celebrate their independence from Spain on that day. In addition, Mexico celebrates independence on September 16 and Chile on September 18.

In the library this month we are celebrating Julia Alvarez, who was born in the United States and raised in the Dominican Republic. Her family’s history and the history of the Dominican Republic weave through her stories. She tells about living under the dictatorship of Trujillo in the 1950s (In the Time of the Butterflies) and being an immigrant to the United States (How the Garcia Girls Lost Their Accents), just to name a few of her stories. Pick up one of her books today.

(Still) Nifty at Fifty and Counting (Hoops, That is!)

We are celebrating the end of summer with a salute to the 50th anniversary of the hula hoop. Although hoops have a long history (in ancient Greece they were used for exercise,) it was in 1958 that Wham-O began to mass market hula hoops in America. The first summer they sold over 100 million. Remembering hooping from my childhood, I wondered how popular it still is. Apparently, VERY! I found directions on how to hula hoop at a hooping Internet site, amazing YouTube videos, and step-by-step directions on how to make my own hoop.
Our display invites you to give the hoop a whirl around your hips. Mr. Nelson was the first to demonstrate how hooping’s done. Students and staff were awed by his prowess.

Mr Quigley

Mr Quigley
Originally uploaded by Pesky Library

New to the Pesky Library year, Mr. Bill Quigley’s office on the second floor is open Sunday through Friday (hours are posted in the library) for students who desire writing assistance. He is available to help with grammar and composition, organization and ideas, and the creative aspects of writing. He says he is also interested in speaking with those who are simply “peckish for a good word soufflé.”




To welcome Mr. Quigley and direct students to other writing aids, the first floor display area includes books on writing from the Pesky Library collection. A list of the book titles in the display is available on the Pesky Library’s flickr page.

Moving Along

Welcome to the library
Originally uploaded by Pesky Library

Although the welcome sign is still out, we are gearing up for our first major academic project - the junior United States History thesis. As students begin thinking of possible topics, they browse our "history fair." We pull books and DVDs on people, events, and time periods to give a flavor to possible topics. We also have a class on our virtual Elmstreet site with lists of possible thesis ideas. This thesis paper is a graduation requirement. We want students to be captivated and intrigued by the position they have chosen to argue or defend.

Freshmen Bags

Freshmen Bags
Originally uploaded by Pesky Library

One box down and another nearly empty... We welcome the freshmen with bags of supplies - notecards for the first vocabulary assignment, a highlighter for close reading, post-its for annotations, a glue stick for projects, and a Pesky pen and pencil. We close the bag with a giant clip (to hold their notecards together) and a Moo card with details on how to connect to the library's virtual resources. We enjoy meeting and chatting with the students we will spend the next four years supporting.

Native Voices

Native Voices
Originally uploaded by Pesky Library

Maybe you grew up thinking of Native Americans as people who lived hundreds of years ago. Maybe you think of Native cultures and civilizations as outdated or incompatible with the modern world. Although you would be correct in remembering that many Native civilizations were nearly eradicated, it is also true that many Nations continue to exist and coexist with the earth and other civilizations in autonomous and indigenous ways. Authors of these books and stories tell how Native American young people are learning to navigate two cultures – their tribal culture and 21st century Western culture. These stories remind us that there are Native Americans and Native civilizations living all around us, in cities and in small towns, on the reservations and in neighborhoods nearby. Native Americans exist outside of your history books. Pick up these stories and read about how the civilizations and nations of the first Americans continue.

Faculty Common Book Summer 08

Faculty Common Book Summer 08
Originally uploaded by Pesky Library

This summer the faculty’s common reading book was “Taking it Personally: Racism in the Classroom from Kindergarten to College” by Ann Berlak and Sekani Moyenda. Several days before the students arrived, the entire faculty met to discuss their impressions of the book. As part of a multicultural campus and world, faculty members made a commitment to keeping an open conversation about race and to ensuring that all our students are aware of the ways that racism devalues and demoralizes its victims. To learn more about this new addition to the Pesky Library visit our "new books site" on Library Thing.

Master Moody's Pupils

Master Moody's Pupils
Originally uploaded by Pesky Library

We welcome our current students with a display of some of the academy's early students - Edward Preble (USS Constitution), Theophilus Parsons (Essex Result), Rufus King (signer of Constitution), Samuel Osgood (first Postmaster), and Samuel Phillips (founder of Phillips Andover and Exeter.) All these alums studied under Master Moody in the Little Red Schoolhouse. During his tenure, he educated 526 boys, eleven who served in the new House of Representatives and five in the Senate. You can read more about this remarkable man and his students in John Ragle's Governor Dummer Academy History available in the library.

Welcome, Willkommen, Foon ying, Huan ying, Oso oseyo, Irashaimasu, Dobro pozhalovat', Yin dee, Hoan ging di lai kao!

New Student Orientation
Originally uploaded by Pesky Library

New students toured the Pesky library on Friday. They came from all over the United States as well as Bermuda, Germany, China, South Korea, Japan, Russia, Thailand, and Taiwan.
They learned how to access the campus network and use Classrooms on Elm Street, Governor’s online classroom management software. They discovered the many resources available in the library including books, newspapers, magazines and DVDs and the many online resources available both in the library and from their home computers. We’re thrilled to have such a friendly and energetic group of students join us this year!