Enclosed is this month's free newsletter for SIRS Discoverer® subscribers. This newsletter is designed to help teachers, librarians, and administrators stay informed about the latest changes to their subscription(s), while providing classroom resources and giving tips for using their ProQuest CSA solutions in a variety of settings.
Our product development team is constantly reviewing customer feedback and making changes to our learning resources to meet your needs. Several updates to our SIRS family of products were recently completed and we wanted to bring them to your attention.
Current Events
Our editorial team updates our SIRS products every day with new articles and resources.
Here's a short list of the timeliest and most topical articles added to your product this month. Publication dates may vary due to the editorial selection process.
When asked what their favorite websites are, most Internet users agree –- online search tools like Google are popular destinations.
Faced with a nearly limitless number of websites, it’s more critical than ever for researchers to carefully consider how they choose to utilize their limited time and energy tracking down information online.
Which brings us to this month’s podcast from ProQuest CSA - a practical guide to objectively comparing online search engines like Google to its subscription research cousins, including eLibrary, SIRS, and ProQuest CSA. This is one podcast you want to share with your fellow teachers, librarians, and administrators!
Discoverer now offers political cartoons geared for the younger researcher, from noteworthy sources including Junior Scholastic, Scholastic News, New York Times Upfront and Current Events.
Students can learn how to read and decipher political cartoons, as well as understand the writing devices employed in them (satire, irony, metaphor, etc.). In a hurry? The quickest route to all of our political cartoons is Database Features, Activities, Editorial Cartoons.
Here's just a few timely examples to get you started:
Travel -- with Discoverer! We provide map activities geared for the younger researcher, from noteworthy sources including Scholastic News, Junior Scholastic, and Current Events.
With these new resources, your young students will learn how to read and decipher varied types of maps, and answer discussion questions based on their observations.
Visit a sampling of the following articles to learn more:
Tens of thousands of students mine SIRS resources for the latest information on the leading issues of the day. To provide the most pertinent and safe content, SIRS Editors carefully research topics and issues each day to find age-appropriate materials that bring students to a better understanding of the topics taught in schools and classrooms across the U.S. and Canada.
Be sure to take a peek at some of SIRS Discoverer’s most searched topics and issues over the past 60 days, including:
School Uniforms
Egypt
Smoking
Dogs
Presidents
Global Warming
Endangered Animals
Cloning
Steroids
Civil War
Try Spring training, ProQuest CSA-style! In April we’re offering more courses starting at more times, and have reduced your time commitment to just 30-40 minutes each! Download the list of available courses and get online today.
Our product trainers are standing by to help you get the most out of your subscription -- and learn more about our other digital learning resources! We offer a wide variety of online training sessions each month.
Plus, all attendees can easily obtain a Certificate of Attendance (right) for any of our online courses! The certificate documents the course name, amount of class time, date, and verifies attendance. You can use the certificate to document attendance in the class and submit it along with the additional documentation your school district requires for continuing education credits.
Be sure to tell your trainer you’d like to receive a certificate via email at the start of each class. They’ll be glad to help!
You can download three ready-to-print versions of forthcoming training dates and times in PDF format.
Our training sessions cover after-school hours within several time zones. Best of all, there's no cost to participate. All you need is a computer with Internet access, a phone, and one hour.
What kinds of poetry are most popular with students?
April is National Poetry Month. Reading and writing poetry is a fundamental skill required by state standards in English Language Arts. So, April is a great time to focus on this genre and let students read and write poetry for enjoyment.
Activity: The following subjects provide students and teachers with a variety of information about poets, poetry, and also with poems. Click the Subject search option and type “poetry” in the Search box to get the list of links to the subjects below.
Notice that some of the subjects provide themes for writing poetry. After reading poems about different themes, students should be able to compose simple poems that reflect one these themes. Here are some examples from the listing of subjects that students may enjoy:
Humorous poetry
Nature in poetry
Poetry and music
Poetry and science
Poetry for children
Poetry slams
Poetry, Modern
Poetry, Technique
Poetry, Themes, motives
Poetry, Therapeutic use
An alternative way for teachers to provide classroom examples of poems for students to read and study is to print selected poems and make copies for classroom use.
Click the Fiction link on the right side of the Search page.
Click the Poetry link.
Click the Sort by Lexiles link on the results page to get poems with appropriate reading levels for your students.
CultureGrams can help you broaden your students' understanding of the world and its peoples. The World Edition includes 190+ country profiles, written for junior high students and older. CultureGrams also has a Kids Edition, Provinces Edition, and a States Edition, geared for upper elementary students. These editions include kid-friendly profiles of 70+ countries, all 50 states (including Washington, D.C.), and the Canadian provinces.
CultureGrams goes beyond mere facts and figures to deliver an insider's perspective on daily life and culture, including the history, customs, and lifestyles of the world's people.
Finland: Did You Know?
Finnish soldiers on skis fought against the Russians during the Winter War. The Finns were dressed all in white, so they were hard to see in the snow. The Finnish troops were known throughout the world for their bravery.
About a hundred years ago, Finnish women gave birth to their babies in saunas.
Reindeer steak is prepared for special meals.
Language
Finnish is one of the hardest languages to learn. Each Finnish word has about 15 forms, depending on how it is used in a sentence. For 93 percent of Finns, it is their first language. Others first learn Swedish or Sami (pronounced “SAW-me”) at home. But in school, all Finns eventually learn the two official languages, Swedish and Finnish. Many people, especially kids, speak English as well. So, many Finns can understand at least three languages.
Independence
Soon after independence, civil war began in Finland. It only lasted two years, but it was very bitter. Peace didn’t last long, either. The Soviet Union (of which Russia had become a part) attacked Finland twice during World War II. Some Finns today remember fighting for their country’s freedom. Because their freedom is so new, Finland’s Independence Day is celebrated in a reverent way. People light candles and visit the graves of those who died for their country.
Sauna
Almost every Finnish home and apartment has a sauna, or steam bath. The sauna is a place for cleansing the body, relaxing, and socializing. It’s usually a small wooden room with wooden benches around the sides. Hot stones are placed on a heater. The family sits on the benches and pours water over the hot stones. This creates steam, which makes people sweat. Those in the sauna sometimes hit themselves on the back with birch tree branches to clean themselves. After sitting in a sauna, people cool off by jumping into a cold shower, lake, or pile of snow.
To find out more about CultureGrams, connect to our website today.
Each month, our SKS WebSelect™ and Discoverer WebFind™ editorial teams scour the Internet for top-quality sites that help teachers teach and students learn. Although no Internet site can supplant a quality research database, these vetted resources offer unique resources that are sure to be of interest.
"James Arthur Wood, Jr., began collecting original cartoon art as a childhood hobby....The Art Wood Collection of Cartoon and Caricature contains more than 36,000 original cartoon drawings and is a jewel among the Library's special collections, illuminating his astounding lifetime legacy of American creativity." (LOC) View 102 drawings from the collection. The cartoons are divided into the following sections: Illustration, Political Illustrations, Caricature, Animation, Gag & Single Panel, Cartoons, and Comic Strips.
"U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's site for kids [provides] lots of fun and interesting things to read and do to learn about the environment." (EPA) Learn about protecting our plants and animals, recycling garbage, providing clean drinking water and clean air, and other ways kids and adults can help the environment. Also, play games and do art activities.
Inside the Cell
Organization: National Institute of General Medical Sciences
"This educational booklet about cell biology speaks directly to readers by vividly describing the processes occurring within their bodies. It also shrinks readers down to 0.5 micrometers so they can explore the cell and its organelles close-up. The booklet features cutting-edge cell biology research and techniques. It includes review questions at the end of each chapter and a glossary." (NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF GENERAL MEDICAL SCIENCES) This book is available online as an HTML or PDF version.
What features of your SIRS subscription do you and your students find the most useful? Have you recently used or are you planning to use SIRS as part of an assignment or student research project? How do you and other curriculum leaders in your institution use your ProQuest CSA educational resources?
Share your experiences with peers working in schools across the country and around the world--through an upcoming Product News Bulletin! We're waiting to hear from you. Please send your ideas and stories to: tim.mclain@il.proquest.com
If we choose your submission, we'll contact you for additional information and permission to use your story in a future issue.
FORWARD TO A COLLEAGUE + EMAIL SERVICE INFORMATION
Increase the usage of your digital learning resources! Our forward to a friend service makes it easy to instantly send this product bulletin--and all the great ideas and information it contains--to others in your subscribing institution with a click of your mouse.
Also, be sure to encourage them to sign up for our SIRS, CultureGrams, ProQuest, ProQuest Historical Newspapers, eLibrary, eLibrary Curriculum Edition, and additional enewsletters as appropriate.
ProQuest offers a growing family of K-12 classroom-focused,
subscription-based online research tools. Many of these education solutions offer reading level-linked
(lexile) content, support
21st-century information
literacy skills, and help schools differentiate instruction across all curriculum areas.
Learn more about all of our tools here, tap into our training resources and videos, and don't miss our new eLibrary research tool (more). We also have a pair of special resource pages just for teachers (with lesson plans) and librarians.
Your SIRS license agreement gives us permission to send you email about product upgrades, special offers, and new services. If you'd like to discontinue receiving these messages, you may unsubscribe. If you have any questions or are having difficulty, please send email to Tim McLain. Thanks for your interest in SIRS and ProQuest CSA!
Discoverer now offers political cartoons geared for the younger researcher, from noteworthy sources including Junior Scholastic, Scholastic News, New York Times Upfront and Current Events.
Travel -- with Discoverer! We provide map activities geared for the younger researcher, from noteworthy sources including Scholastic News, Junior Scholastic, and Current Events.
Finland: Did You Know?
