November News NHS Library

by Karee Bednar

Joined Oct 2015
Published Books 1

TECHNOLOGY TIP: Setting up your Google Drive Client

What is the Google Drive client? I see my students have it available on their devices; can I also use it?

The Google Drive client installed on your computer communicates with Google Drive online to cause updates on one side (either on your computer or online) to be updated to the other so they both normally contain the same data. If something happens to your computer, all files stored in your Drive client are automatically backed up in your Google Drive online.

2

How do you set up my Google Drive client?

Go to your Windows 8 Start Screen and click on the Google Drive icon (Green background with gold, blue, and green triangular icon).
Sign in to your Google account ([email protected] and password).
Navigate through windows clicking the Next & Done buttons.
The files and folders from your Google Drive online will now appear in your client Drive window.

3

Can I work on my Google Drive files offline (without an internet connection)? Will I be able to sync up the documents I worked on offline with the older version of those documents?

Yes, you can work offline and have those documents you worked on sync up with the older versions.

How do you do that?

You can set up your Drive files to be available offline by going to Drive online, click on the Gear, choose settings, and click the Offline check box so the check mark is visible.

4

Is the H: drive going away?

For now, it is not going away, BUT there are advantages to moving your documents over to the Google Drive (G: drive) client or at least backing them up on your G: drive occasionally.

All of your files would be accessible at school, at home, and on any mobile device with the Google Drive.
You have 1 terabyte of file space on the Google Drive online (1 terabyte = 1,000 gigabyte), slightly more than you have on your computer and H: drive.

Please see any of the library staff for help with setting this up.

5

NEW BOOKS

Our Endless Numbered Days by Claire Fuller

Peggy Hillcoat is eight years old when her survivalist father, James, takes her from their home in London to a remote hut in the woods and tells her that the rest of the world has been destroyed. Deep in the wilderness, Peggy and James make a life for themselves. They repair the hut, bathe in water from the river, hunt and gather food in the summers and almost starve in the harsh winters. They mark their days only by the sun and the seasons. When Peggy finds a pair of boots in the forest and begins a search for their owner, she unwittingly unravels the series of events that brought her to the woods and, in doing so, discovers the strength she needs to go back to the home and mother she thought she’d lost.

6

November News NHS Library by Karee Bednar - Ourboox.com

Ghost Boy: the miraculous escape of a misdiagnosed boy trapped inside his own body

In January 1988, Martin Pistorius, aged twelve, fell inexplicably sick. Ghost Boy is the story of his return to life through the power of love and faith. In these pages, readers see a parent’s resilience, the consequences of misdiagnosis, abuse at the hands of cruel caretakers, and the unthinkable duration of Martin’s mental alertness betrayed by his lifeless body.

8

We Never Asked for Wings by Vanessa Diffenbaugh

We Never Asked for Wings is the immigrant story of Letty Espinoza, a single mother who hasn’t had to act like a mother a day in her life. Her two children, Alex and Luna, have been faithfully cared for by Letty’s mother, up until she abandons them in the middle of the night to seek out her husband in Mexico. Distraught, Letty leaves the children unattended just as abruptly to drunkenly drive after her mother in a fruitless effort to get her to return. Return she doesn’t, and Letty is forced to confront parenthood under the umbrella of poverty and illegal immigration. VERDICT In this novel about hope and working toward a better life despite self-placed obstacles.

10

The Wright Brothers by David McCullough

David McCullough, two-time winner of the Pulitzer Prize, tells the surprising, profoundly American story of Wilbur and Orville Wright. Far more than a couple of unschooled Dayton bicycle mechanics who happened to hit on success, they were men of exceptional courage and determination, and of far-ranging intellectual interests and ceaseless curiosity, much of which they attributed to their upbringing.

12

The Martian by Andy Weir

Astronaut Mark Watney is stranded and completely alone on Mars, with no way to even signal Earth that he’s alive, but Mark isn’t ready to give up and drawing on his engineering skills and determination, he faces each obstacle with resourcefulness, but will it be enough for him to survive?

14

The Old Farmer’s Almanac 2016

The 2016 edition of the classic annual guide to astronomical and sky sightings, weather forecasts, planting tables, gardening tips, and other ideas and advice on a variety of topics.

16

Have You Seen These Websites & Tools?

Mathematics has never been so colorful

The World of Mathematics

Dive into a colourful and engaging world, discovering some of the most exciting and curious mathematical ideas. Using interactive games, animations and countless illustrations, advanced mathematics becomes accessible to both children and adults.

Topics range from fractals to infinity, prime numbers, game theory, group theory and quantum mechanics.

18

Duolingo/ Learn Spanish, French, German, Portuguese, Italian and English FOR FREE

Learn languages completely free, without ads or hidden charges. It’s fun, easy, and scientifically proven.

19

Duolingo is such a fun program, easy to follow instructions, comprehensive programming, and a great community of fellow language learners. Consistency is key, practicing will get you everywhere.

20

www.dotstorming.com

A real-time group brainstorming and decision making app

What is Dotstorming?

Dotstorming takes the process of dot voting online to allow groups of people to collaborate on a topic.

21

Step 1 – Create a Dotstorming board

Step 2 – Invite participants

Step 3 – Add your ideas

Step 4 – Vote on the ideas you like

22

Beyondpad

Data driven note taking – easy and efficient way to organize, structure and keep track of notes the way you want. Keep it simple or take it to the next level – advanced data management with unique type, tagging, templating, filtering and other features.

Trackers

This unique templating feature in Beyondpad will allow you to create your own forms for tracking things that are important to you. Track your time spent on a project, expenses, fitness and much more.

23

Tags

It’s much more that usual #tags. In Beyondpad you can tag notes and trackers, and even tag other tags and create folder like structure for neat filtering magic. Even notes can become tags and you can link to them. Tags have plenty of unique features to explore, you should check them out.

Boards and lists

More natural way for managing related notes like to-do lists or project tasks. Lists are set of tags that act as filters. By drag notes across lists notes will change their tags accordingly.

Notes

Text notes, checklists, links, numbers and timers – we have them! In trackers Beyondpad also gives you combo boxes and dropdowns. More items to come like image, date, calendar and map.

24

Idea

Idea behind Beyondpad is to unify notes and data – to bridge the gap that should have not exist in the first place. Everything – numbers, dates, locations, time etc. and even casual notes and checklists are data and separation between these things arises from specialised tools (note taking, calendars, to-do, timers and other apps) and compromises between two things, usability and features. I believe that you can have both usability (ease of use) and features without compromise and without fragmenting domain of casual data.

Future

Whether it’s a meeting to attend, expenses to track, to-do list or a place you want to visit, don’t reach for a calendar, spreadsheet, separate note application or a map to note it. Beyondpad will give you unified solution to keep and manage all kind of data notes including calendar entries and location data in one place.

That’s not all, Beyondpad will provide you with insights and reports on your data. For example, time spent on a tracked project or expenses this month.

25

VIDEO SITES TO CHECK OUT

Free Documentaries: On Free Documentaries, “the truth is free,” with a variety of documentary films available for streaming.

Internet Archive

Collection of more than two-hundred thousand free historical videos, many academic.

NeoK12

Aggregator of high-quality educational videos from around the Web.

27

Futures Channel

High quality multimedia content ideal for use in the classroom.

Big Think

Video interviews with 600+ thought leaders in a range of fields.

The Living Room Candidate: From the Museum of the Moving Image, The Living Room Candidate features presidential campaign commercials from 1952 to 2008.

28