Book Week 2022

You Are A Reader. Read, Lead, Succeed!

Book Week this year has moved from a pandemic induced online modality to a hybrid modality this year, with online activities accessible through the website and Life Skills sessions, as well as in-person learning activities, in open-air spaces. 

Here is the rundown of the activities:

• Author Talks

• Art and Storytelling Workshop

• Creative Writing Exhibition Challenge

• Videos of Book Talks

• Secondary Students Reading to Primary Students

• Dress up as a character Day

• And much more!

  
  

Author Talks

We were privileged to have the participation of three local, distinguished authors during Book Week 2022. 

Mr. Stephen Lang, our school Director spoke to the 6th and 9th-grade students about his new poems which were inspired by Salvadoran culture and Monseñor Romero.

Mr. Matt O'Brien, spoke to the 11th-grade students about his experiences as a writer and provided the students with some important tips on being young writers today.

Mrs. Mirella Wollants, a parent member of our ABC  community, spoke to us about her experiences as an author and offered advice for aspiring young authors today. This interview can be accessed via this link to our LRC Youtube Channel.

(Photo of interview)

Art and Storytelling Workshop

We were very excited to work closely with the Art Department this year on the Art and Storytelling workshop, in which the students worked with various techniques including sketching and watercolour painting as they illustrated certain scenes from Salvadoran literature. For this activity the following texts were chosen:

• The poem Barrilete by Claudia Lars
• The short story La pileta sin chorro y la canastiada by Salvador Salazar Arrué also known as Salarrué

In extending this activity further it was decided that we would also include the 5th-grade students as one of the many exciting steps in their 5th/6th-grade induction to  Secondary. The students were very excited to join the Secondary school librarians for a period along with their regular class teachers as they engaged in this wonderful activity, which brings Art and Spanish literature together.

Here is a selection of some of the pictures from the activity. Do please, navigate to our Flickr album to view more. 

Next Steps in the 5th/6th induction to Secondary School  

The entire 5th-grade class was invited to reserve and check out books from the Secondary school library. This opened up many new collections of wonderful reading material for them, and by offering them their first glimpses of the LRC collections they will have full access to the next school year. 

The launch of the 5th Grade Super Readers programme is the next step in this process.  This has been on hold up until now due to the Covid-19 pandemic.  Super Readers is an extension program for students in the 5th grade who would benefit the most from early access to book collections which are at the top of their reading levels and within their areas of interest. 

Creative Writing Exhibition Challenge

The Winner is...

Congratulations to Marianna Valladares in 10th grade for her poem about labels.

Secondary Student Readers enthusiastically signed up to read to the younger students in the Primary school during their study periods this week. This was a wonderful experience in sharing the love of literature with others.

Dress up as a Character Day

Students in both Primary and Secondary were invited to dress up as their favourite book characters. In doing so they also supported the school scholarship fund by donating $1 each. 

Please check out our LRC Book Week Website for more information on the week's events.

Semana de la Tierra 2022

En el LRC estamos celebrando la semana de la Tierra y hemos preparado diferentes retos para proteger nuestro planeta. El tema de este año es "invertir en nuestro planeta".

Los estudiantes están participando en diferentes actividades y retos para ayudar a solucionar el cambio climático, contaminación, entre otros.

Encontrará más información en nuestra página web Earth Week 2022.

Mensaje por parte de los estudiantes

LRC Librarians Working with the Salvadoran Library Association

 This year, our librarian from the Learning Resource Center LRC, Judith de Méndez, is part of the new board of directors of ABES in the position of secretary in the period 2022-2024. Hilda Gómez belongs to the School Libraries commission and Melissa Hernández is in the Training and Professional Development Commission.

As librarians, we value professional development opportunities, as well as the chance to share good practices and create links with our colleagues.

English

Judith Mendez

LRC Head Librarian

Newly appointed to the position of secretary for the 

Salvadoran Librarian Association for 2022-2024. 

In her new role Judith will be responsible for

• Communications for the Association

• Extending all the certifications that are requested of the Association

• Produce and circulate updates and newsletters.

Spanish

Judith Mendez

Bibliotecario jefe de LRC

Recién nombrado en el cargo de secretario de la

Asociación Salvadoreña de Bibliotecarios para 2022-2024.

En su nuevo cargo, Judith será responsable de

• Ser el órgano de comunicación de la Asociación

• Extender todas las certificaciones que son solicitadas a la Asociación

• Hacer y enviar convocatorias a los miembros para las diferentes sesiones.

English

Hilda Gómez

LRC Librarian

Hilda belongs to the School Libraries commission. 

In this role Hilda is responsible for: 

• technical support

• mapping school libraries on Google Maps

• creating forms

• librarian training

• establishing relationships with other commissions.

Spanish

Hilda Gómez

Bibliotecaria LRC

Hilda pertenece a la comisión de Bibliotecas Escolares.

En este rol, Hilda es la responsable de:

• soporte técnico

• realizar mapeo de bibliotecas escolares con Google Maps

• crear formularios

• capacitaciones para los bibliotecarios

• establecer relaciones con otras comisiones.

English

Melissa Hernandez

LRC Library Assistant

Melissa belongs to the Training and Professional Development Commission.

In this role, Melissa is responsible for 

• Overseeing professional development 

         for all the librarians that belong to ABES

• Seeking out professionals to can carry out workshops, webinars and conferences

• Searching for strategic alliances that offer opportunities to librarians

Spanish 

Melissa Hernandez

Asistente Bibliotecaria de LRC

Melissa pertenece a la comisión de Capacitación y Desarrollo Profesional.

En este rol, Melissa es responsable de

• Supervisión del desarrollo profesional para todos los bibliotecarios que pertenecen a ABES

• Búsqueda de profesionales que puedan realizar talleres, webinars y conferencias en el rubro bibliotecario.

• Búsqueda de alianzas estratégicas que brinde oportunidades a bibliotecarios.

Illustrating a Story

 En el mes de abril estaremos celebrando la semana del libro y por esta razón la Red de Bibliotecas y Colegios IB hemos realizado el taller: Ilustrando una historia, impartido por Angélica Hernández, encargada de Arte la ABC.

Estuvimos ilustrando el poema “Barrilete” de Claudia Lars y el cuento de “La pileta sin chorro y la canastiada”, del escritor salvadoreño Salvador Salazar Arrué mejor conocido como Salarrué. 

Los participantes del taller quedamos fascinados con las técnicas simples de la ilustración básica y dejamos volar nuestra imaginación en donde la historia se convierte en un mundo fantástico y cada uno plasmó su creatividad en lienzos pintados con acuarelas.

La finalidad del taller es lograr que cada uno de los bibliotecarios de las diferentes escuelas que conforman la Red puedan replicar la actividad con la comunidad educativa y de esta forma promover la lectura a través del dibujo y la ilustración.

Más fotos en Flickr

Video: https://youtu.be/zjuiSJ0cJQA

La Academia Británica Cuscatleca en conjunto con la Asociación de Bibliotecarios de El Salvador han unido esfuerzos para ayudar en la formación profesional al gremio bibliotecario del país, a través de la realización de talleres, cursos y conferencias, entre otros.

Como bibliotecarias siempre estamos buscando el desarrollo profesional al igual que compartir buenas prácticas y crear puentes que ayuden al crecimiento de todos nuestros colegas en el país.

We will be celebrating Book Week during the month of April. In anticipation of this celebration, the IB Schools and Libraries Network carried out the workshop: Illustrating a Story, given by Angélica Hernández, Head of Art at the ABC.

During the session, the librarians worked on illustrations of the poem "Barrilete" by Claudia Lars and the story of “La Pileta sin Chorro y la Canastiada”, by Salvadoran writer Salvador Salazar Arrué, better known as Salarrué. 

The workshop participants were fascinated by the simple techniques of basic illustration they learned and were able to let their imaginations run wild, to a place where stories become fantastic worlds, each captured through creativity using watercolours on the canvas.

The purpose of the workshop was to ensure that each of the librarians from the different schools that make up the Network can replicate the activity with their educational community during Book Week, and thus promote reading through drawing and illustration.

More photos on Flickr

The Academy Britanica Cuscatleca, together with the Librarians Association of El Salvador have joined forces to help in the professional training of the country's library group, through workshops, courses and conferences, among others.

As librarians, we value professional development opportunities, as well as the chance to share good practices and create links with our colleagues.

Brain Awareness Week 2022!

It was Brain Awareness Week this week!  The LRC prepared several activities for the community which we would like to share with you.

This year we celebrated Brain Week with a variety of activities including riddles, physical and mental exercises, as well as a display of our collection of books related to the brain. 

Displays were also put up outside of the LRC which sported many brain teasers and challenges. On many occasions, we observed groups of students trying to work them out while on breaks. Student enthusiasm was so contagious that one of our students, Simón Jarma even created his own puzzle which was placed outside the LRC for other students to view and answer.

During the week an additional activity was also carried out in conjunction with the PE Department in which12th grade students participated in a Yoga class. They enjoyed the activity very much and in doing so became more aware of how Yoga helps the mind and body. 

The LRC team had the opportunity to interview students who were involved in this activity so that we could all learn more about their experience participating in Yoga during Brain Week. We have included the links to these interviews, the activities as well as our photo gallery below.

Thank you to Mrs. Cecilia Hernández and her team for their support, as well as the participation of everyone else involved.

As always, we cordially invite you to stay tuned to our social networks to stay abreast of the many activities we carry out each week.

LRC Social Media

• FB

• Youtube

• TW

• IG

• Blog

Photos and videos

Spanish

¡Esta semana fue la Semana de Concientización sobre el Cerebro! El LRC preparó

varias actividades para la comunidad educativa que nos gustaría compartir con ustedes.

Este año 2022 celebramos Brain Week con muchas actividades entre ellas: acertijos,

ejercicios físicos y mentales, nuestro display con la colección de libros

relacionados al cerebro, etc.

En muchas ocasiones, observamos grupos de estudiantes tratando de resolverlos durante sus brakes. El entusiasmo de los estudiantes de secundaria contagió de tal manera que el estudiante Simón Jarma, creó su propio acertijo que fue colocado a las afueras del LRC para que así cualquier estudiante lo pudiese responder.

Adicionalmente se realizó una actividad en conjunto con el Departamento de PE con

estudiantes de 12th que participaron en la clase de Yoga. Disfrutaron mucho

de la actividad y al hacerlo se volvieron más conscientes de cómo el Yoga ayuda

a la mente y al cuerpo.

El equipo de LRC tuvo la oportunidad de entrevistar a los estudiantes que participaron en esta actividad para que todos pudiéramos aprender más sobre su experiencia participando en Yoga durante la Semana del Cerebro. Hemos incluido los enlaces a estas entrevistas, las actividades y nuestra galería de fotos a continuación.

Agradecemos el apoyo recibido de parte de Mrs. Cecilia Hernández y su equipo

por su apoyo, así como la participación de todos los involucrados.

Como siempre, los invitamos cordialmente a estar atentos a nuestras redes sociales

para estar al tanto de las múltiples actividades que realizamos cada semana.

LRC Social Media

• FB

• Youtube

• TW

• IG

• Blog

Fotos y videos

Mini Maker STEAM Fest Challenges

 Prior to the Christmas Holidays, we launched our Mini Maker STEAM Fest Challenges. This activity marks the first step on the path to STEAM Fest 2022, which will take place later in the school year.

In the end, several students submitted their work for this activity.  We received quite a variety of projects, many of which were developed based on ideas taken from the Science Buddies website, while others were innovations the students designed and developed. themselves. 

At the ABC we very much value student choice,  agency and endeavour so it was fitting that we recognise and highlight the work of the students who not only engaged in various challenges over the past 2 months but also shared their final projects with us. 

On February 11th, each of these students were asked to visit the LRC, where they received a special, quite unexpected prize and a thank you from the organisers for taking part and for sharing their work. They can now choose whether to use their prizes to explore their favourite books or invest in further STEAM challenges at the Libreria Internacional.

Please do visit the STEAM Fest Mini Maker Challenge page for further details on this activity.

Building Empathy

 

Building Empathy

Our 6th-grade students are currently working on an MYP (Middle Years Programme)unit that focuses on three ATLs (Approaches to Learning), one of which is Practicing Collaboration Skills: Practice Empathy. 

The unit sets out to teach this ATL across a wide variety of experiences, one of which was a practical activity done these past two weeks. 

The Statement of Inquiry for the unit is The creative development of innovative products designed to function for an individual's needs, can help lessen inequalities. Through the inquiry process, students will be researching designing, developing and testing their 3D solutions for mobility challenges. It can be difficult for students to understand these challenges if they have never experienced them so we set out to give them a few mobility challenges of their own.

This is what two students had to say about that experience.

"This activity made us see how people with disabilities struggle to do things that for us are not complicated but for them are very challenging. It also made us feel disappointed because sometimes we make jokes about those topics when it is a very serious issue. What we did see was how disabled people lived their normal lives. We did this through some “games” which helped us understand what people felt.

We felt very stressed and frustrated because we couldn't do simple things like write our name or even get a cup. We think that we did this activity because it was going to be fun and to reflect on how people with disabilities live their normal lives. This made us feel guilty because we sometimes complain about little things when people with disabilities wish to have legs, arms or other parts of the human body. We hope you reflect on these issues and think about how people live their lives missing a part of their bodies that make their life complicated. 

The question we have to ask you is what would you do if you were them? "

Thanks.

By Gabriel Cañenguez and Adriana Guzmán