Our special guest storytellers enchanted our alumni keiki today!
Mahalo to Head of School Sarah Bakhiet, Seabury alum and K-2 teacher extraordinaire Annie Lowson Queirolo (and her daughter Daisy), and Seabury Sophomores Mikhaila and Patricia Sung for bringing such joy to the little ones!
A photo posted by Seabury Hall's Castle Library (@seaburylibrary) on
Here are some reactions to the experience. Profesora Mrs. Fuentes-Asato:
"I really enjoyed the Google hangout with Mariana Llanos. It was great to see my students so engaged and interested in knowing more about Tristán Lobo. I also enjoyed seeing them asking different kinds of questions to Mariana regarding her career, personal life, and hobbies.
I think this Google hangout was a great experience because we got to do something outside the classroom and it was different. It was neat to meet the author that we had been talking about for the last few days and to learn so much from her.
Even though Tristán Lobo is a story for kids, it had new vocabulary, expressions, and different past tenses, which made the lessons more meaningful and challenging, perfect for a high level Spanish class.
I highly recommend this to all the teachers." From some of los estudiantes: "I enjoyed listening to Mariana share her story with our classes-- it was a nice change in classroom setting and really nice to hear a native speaker speak over video chat. It was very different and I loved the idea of the video chat. I really enjoyed listening to her talk, her voice was so energetic and fluid. Overall, it was a great experience, meeting someone so passionate about what she does."--
Shayla
"I thought the visit went really well except for some technical glitches like the sound and the text on screen. But overall, it was really cool to have a Google hangout with a Spanish-speaking author who told us a story and then answered our questions afterwards." --Jesse
"I really enjoyed the visit because Mariana was very energetic and passionate about her books. It was nice to change up the normal classroom activities and have a bit of real world situations in having a conversation in Spanish with strangers. There were technical glitches, but that didn’t ruin the experience. It was really good practice for listening and speaking in Spanish which was very helpful and fun for me." --Ava
"I enjoyed meeting and listening to Mariana. Although it was occasionally hard to follow her Spanish speaking, it was a great experience and showed me that with more practice I could really be able to have a conversation with somebody in Spanish. She made me feel very comfortable and seemed very excited to help us practice our Spanish!" --Peyton
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We'll be purchasing more of Mariana's books, and you can too, either HERE (for an autographed copy) or on Mariana's website.
I was thrilled to facilitate Mariana's visit. Hopefully there will be more Google hangouts and author visits in our future! (◕‿◕✿)about.me[Subscribe] Cross-posted at mauilibrarian2 in Olinda.
"No, we are not celebrating that books are banned, we're celebrating that we read banned books." I found myself saying this more than a few times throughout Banned Books Week. "We're celebrating our freedom to read!"
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It was a great week of raising awareness!
Here are three cool things I learned:
1. Our students are astute readers and free thinkers. Listening to the two student discussions English department chair Mr. Alan Hodara facilitated, "The Hunger Games" and "Challenged Books at Seabury Hall", filled me with awe. Our students are extremely aware. And our English teachers are doing a fantastic job of sharpening students' analytic skills.
2. If you start a school-wide conversation about banned / challenged books, students will start looking for free reading, banned or not. Our students are busy! Discussing banned books seemed to help kids remember how much they love to read for pleasure. It was awesome to watch more kids than usual browsing the shelves, and borrowing. Librarian's delight. :) 3. Our Head of School GETS it! At the end of the week, our Head of School, Ms. Sarah Bakheit, dropped by the library to check out our banned book display. Her comment? "When I was in school, the fact that a book was banned was my SIGNAL to read it. " How cool is that? All in all, Banned Books Week at our school was a success! #makesmehappy Ms. Lindsay (◕‿◕✿) @mauilibrarian2 G+ [Cross-posted at mauilibrarian2 in Olinda.]
BookRiot came up with another fantastic reading list, this time for 14 to 15 year olds.
Here's another great book list, this one for ages 14 to 15. Not only for reluctant readers! (◕‿◕✿) #kidreads(here's...
Posted by Linda J. Lindsay on Tuesday, July 28, 2015
Maui author Toby Neal's visit to our school was all I hoped for and more!
Just got done speaking at Seabury Hall to a hundred or so students on "developing creativity." Yes, some yawns occurred,...
Posted by Toby Neal on Monday, April 20, 2015
Here's how I introduced Toby:
Author Toby Neal was raised on the island of Kauai, and now lives on Maui. She has written 9 books for adults in the "Lei Crime" series, which has sold 1/2 million copies worldwide. The books follow policewoman Lei Texeira as she solves crimes around the state. Toby is one of the most successful self-published authors in the state. She sells most of her books through Amazon and Hawaii Business Magazine has called her "Hawaii's Amazon queen". Toby is in private practice as a mental health therapist, so her well-drawn, complex characters in her books reflect her keen understanding of what makes people tick. Toby has just written Island Fire, which is her first Young Adult novel. It's a post-technology adventure set on the island of Lanai. It happens to be on sale on Amazon for 99 cents until April 28, so if you don't win a copy in our drawing today, you might want to download a copy. It's a great read! Toby is planning more in the series.
Toby's talk on "Developing Your Creativity" in our Creative Arts Center to over a hundred students was thought-provoking! (I learned that it's okay to be bored, to allow for creativity to come in.)
Afterwards, Toby met with our Middle School Book Clubbers and others in our Hawaiian Studies Room. Toby read to us from Island Fire ...
I loved this intimate venue! (And the chocolate chip funfetti cookies passed inspection. ☺) What a special opportunity for our students! Thank you so much, Toby! P. S. And about Island Fire? Highlyrecommended!
