Don’t let your brain go to mush this Summer – holiday reading, MOOCs and more!

PC_blue caveThis summer holiday is longer than ever and the opportunities to stretch yourselves, learn new skills and escape into a good book are vast. We look forward to all your entries to this year’s Extreme Reading Photo Competition too!

For non-fiction reading suggestions don’t forget the Top Ten Reads (especially beneficial for those of you in 5th and 6th form and a chance to develop your knowledge of the subjects you are passionate about in Preparation for A levels and IB)

For fiction remember Mr Wayman’s (Head of English)Wellington 100 book suggestions. An eclectic mix of classic and contemporary fiction.

There are masses of reading ideas on the Lovereading4kids website including suggestions by age and theme and helpful additional information about authors. It is particularly useful for finding out about recently published books. For adults try lovereading.co.uk

The Carnegie Medal – awarded each year by school librarians for an outstanding children’s book is a good source of  contemporary fiction suggestions for young people from 10 – 16.

MOOCs (Massive Open Online Courses)

MOOCS enable all of us to dip into free online courses and to try new things. Have an explore of the big course providers below:

Twitter

Don’t overlook Twitter as a brilliant source of links, blogs, websites, quizzes and information. It is a fascinating source for enrichment and learning. Choose who you follow carefully and follow your passions.

Here are a couple of my favourites:

Open Culture  @openculture The best FREE cultural & educational media on the web. Features free courses, movies, audio books, eBooks & thought-provoking daily posts. 

I always find unusual, obscure and fascinating things I didn’t know on this website.

Brainpickings@brainpickings (also @brainpicker) from Maria Popover

Youtube Try these channels for awesome science:

Did you hear Alain de Botton at the Festival of Education? He gave a very interesting talk about the things we don’t educate young people in. Have a watch of the videos in his School of Life youtube channel.  Thought-provoking and challenging!

If you are curious about Medicine and Science why not visit the Wellcome Collection in London. It’s free and fascinating. It also has plenty of information and research online plus an images collection here

If you are a Geography fan or just keen to improve your chances in the inter-house quizzes try these Geography Games

News – The Conversation Here’s what their website says about them:

‘The Conversation is a collaboration between editors and academics to provide informed news analysis and commentary that’s free to read and republish.’

10 Ways we are different

The Conversation provides readers with a free high-grade and trusted information service.

We are quite different to anything else in the media for the following reasons:

  1. In a world of misinformation and spin, The Conversation contributes to healthy democratic discourse by injecting facts and evidence into the public arena.
  2. All our content is sourced from university scholars and researchers who have deep expertise in their subject.
  3. We are committed to responsible and ethical journalism, with a strict Editorial Charter and codes of conduct. Errors are corrected promptly.
  4. We are transparent, with every author disclosing their expertise, funding, and conflicts of interest.
  5. We are a global knowledge project, with 60 staff based in the UK, US and in Australia working with more than 23,000 specialist scholars and researchers. Our aim is to have editors in every part of the world.
  6. All our content is free to read and republish under Creative Commons while the rest of the media charges for re-publication.
  7. We believe in the free flow of information. We disseminate our content to more than 12,000 sites worldwide. That gives our content a global reach of 23 million readers a month, and growing.
  8. To avoid commercial conflict we don’t carry advertising pop-ups or annoying autoplay.
  9. In the UK, we rely on the support of universities, research institutes, SAGE and Wellcome Trust, as well as other foundations. In Australia, we rely on the support of universities, research institutes (inc CSIRO), corporates such as the Commonwealth Bank of Australia, as well as foundations and reader donations. In Africa, we rely on the support of major foundations and corporates, as well as the National Research Foundation. In the US, we rely on the support of major foundations.
  10. We are a not-for-profit organisation serving the public good.

If you support these aims, please help us to continue and improve our service. Stephen Khan, Editor.

 

Reading for Pleasure – enthusing your children!

Many thanks to the lovely keen parents who attended our talk in the Library this morning. We could talk for hours about reading for pleasure but it was really interesting to hear what works for you.

Here is our general philosophy on young people’s reading and some of the things we do to promote reading for pleasure:

  • Emphasise the importance of free choice in reading material
  • Offer a wide and varied book stock including fiction and non-fiction, print and e-books
  • Are never judgmental about young people’s choice of reading material
  • Acknowledge that reading the newspaper, the BBC News website, a comic, graphic novel, Sports magazine etc are all forms of reading for pleasure
  • The Rights of the Reader says it all!
  • Competitions – Extreme Reading Photo Comp, Get Caught Reading, World Book Day Opening Lines Competition, author visits
  • Tutorial book chats with the LibrariansPeer book recommendations – multiple copies and whole tutor group read and discuss
  • 3rd form book and follow up discussions
  • Carnegie Book Award Shadowing
  • Book Openers on the backs of toilet doors
  • ‘Book Chat’ – breaktime book club
  • ‘Currently Reading’ signs for staff – to start a reading conversation with pupils, staff and visitors.

What can you and your family do this summer holidays?

  • Share book recommendations with your children
  • Have a summer family reading club – each member of the family choose a book and all read everybody’s selection
  • Take part in the Extreme Reading Competition and tweet or email us your photos
  • Take the 6 Book Challenge
  • Listen to books and plays on the radio
  • Read that book lurking at the bottom of your TBR (to be read) pile!
  • Read a book before watching the film
  • Challenge your child to read a book outside their normal reading choices and read one of theirs!
  • Follow @welly_library and tweet us your book recommendations

We welcome all your suggestions and got some great inspiration from the parents this morning!

Are you incurably curious?

‘The free destination for the incurably curious’ and a must for students keen to study Medicine

After an interesting day visiting Westminster School Library and talking to other school librarians I made a quick dash to the Wellcome Collection before it closed at 6pm one Saturday last month. What a jaw-dropping place! You don’t have to be a budding medic to find this collection fascinating – it’s equally appealing to anyone interested in art or science too. The whole centre is free and you can wander in, take a leaflet to lead you on a trail, pick up an audio guide to dip into a range of exhibits which pique your interest or sit down and become absorbed in a book. Many of the galleries blend art and creativity in the exhibits alongside the medical information.

chromosomes (2)

Sock chromosomes!

I found myself engrossed in viewing a collection of tools for the amputation of limbs over the ages whilst listening to surgeons’ accounts of operations now and in the past on an audio guide.

experiences sign

Choose your experience and follow the trail. From ‘pulse racing’ to ‘toe curling’

 

I love the ethos of the Wellcome Collection. This sign in the Reading Room says it all.

wellcome sign

 

The reading room is a delight. As their website describes it:

‘Come and experience the new incarnation of our Reading Room. An innovative hybrid of gallery, library and events space, the Reading Room is designed to encourage you to indulge your curiosity and explore more than ever before.

With over a thousand books and 100 objects – including contemporary sculptures, paintings, medical artefacts and manuscripts – the room is an open invitation to dig a little deeper into what it means to be human.

Settle down with a book from our shelves on a comfy sofa, contemplate life quietly or strike up a conversation with a stranger. You will find plenty here to inspire you. Drop by to spark connections and new ideas.

Located on level 2, the Reading Room is open during gallery opening hours. Just come whenever you have a moment – you may even chance upon one of our pop-up Reading Room events.’

So much to learn and amaze and I didn’t even have time to explore the shop!

whole human genome

Browse the whole Human Genome!

 

Back to our school library:

Don’t forget we have a collection of physical books on medicine in the Library as well as a growing collection of e-books. Here’s the current medicine reading list of printed books in the Library.

medical books

Lower 6th: Why not try the 6 Book Reading Challenge during the long summer break? Fuel your curiosity and invigorate your intellect for your final school year. You could try reading the same book as a group of your friends and discussing your responses when you come back in September. More excellent science books on the Royal Society Winton Prize for Science website and the Wellcome Book Prize too.

The Wellcome Library is free to join and you can access their wide-range of resources and read fascinating blogs.

As an interested layperson here is my suggested recipe for a medical summer:

  • A trip: The Wellcome Collection
  • Read 6 books: From the Library or our e-book collection or public libraries, or bookshops or anywhere!
  • A lecture: Listen to The Reith Lectures by Dr Atul Gawande on The Future of Medicine (on Radio 4 iplayer)  ‘Surgeon and writer Atul Gawande explores the nature of fallibility and suggests that preventing avoidable mistakes is a key challenge for the future of medicine.’ (Radio 4 iplayer)

4 lectures on:

  • Why do doctors fail?
  • The century of the system
  • The problem of hubris
  • The idea of wellbeing
 We welcome your suggestions and recommendations for Library stock.