Reading Ravens have a Published Author!

Our very own Michelle Powell has written a book! Our library has a few copies of her new Remember Me Always and we're circulating them around the club right now, so we can discuss after spring break. See Savannah or Gaelan or Michelle for details on how to borrow the book, or you can purchase your own copy here!

DH Hill Library Trip

During their junior year, students head to DH Hill Library for their Composition Research Paper. Last week, Mr. League's AP Language and Composition class went for the afternoon.

Searching for books in the catalog before we go, students go into the stacks, find books using the Library of Congress Classification System, and have a few hours to read and take notes to answer their research questions!

41 Students Raise Almost $3000 for Charity during Read-a-thon

Bringing their own pillows, blankets and chairs, and wearing pajamas or sweats, Middle & Upper School students were ready to read in the school library, almost non-stop, for 7 hours. Ravenscroft's annual Read-a-thon was on Friday, Jan. 8 from 3:30-10:30 pm. Now in its third year, the Read-a-thon began with Gaelan Bergstrom '16 who was inspired by one of her favorite authors, Patrick Rothfuss, and his passion for giving back.

As a sophomore, Gaelan read on Rothfuss's blog about his charity, Worldbuilders, which raises money for Heifer International. After some research and with the desire to make a difference, Gaelan proposed a read-a-thon to the US Book Club (Reading Ravens). She has led the planning and coordination over the past three years. This year, 41 students (Reading Ravens, MS Battle of the Books and non-book club members from the Upper School) came together to read and raised over $3000 for charity! The money raised will go to a specific fund with Heifer International to support girls' education in developing countries.

Participants brought in snacks to share during their breaks (a 5 minute break every hour) as well as lasagna for their 30 minute dinner break. Prizes were awarded for most donors on the sponsor sheet, most money collected and most avid reader.

"I am very proud of what we've been able to accomplish and that I have been able to find students who love reading just as much as I do," said Gaelan.



from http://www.ravenscroft.org/cf_news/view.cfm?newsid=3650

3rd Annual Read-A-Thon

Our Read-A-Thon is essentially a reading marathon to benefit a charity by asking participants to find sponsors to donate in honor of the readers.  Most importantly, it’s super fun!  Imagine snuggling up in sweats with a cozy blanket and a steamy mug of tea reading a great book on a chilly January evening in the library with all your friends.  Plus, it's for a great cause!

This year we will be donating to Heifer International. We are raising money to fund girls education in developing countries. It cost $275 to fund a girl’s education and we are going to try to help at least ten young women. To read more about how educating and empowering girls helps families and communities click here.   

The Read-A-Thon will be on January 8, 2016, the first Friday after we come back from Winter Break.  Mark your calendars for 3:30 to 10:30, or any time in between.  We'll be serving dinner and plenty of snacks.  This is a great way to get community service hours (take note, seniors!) because you get 1/2 hour per 1 hour of reading, plus 1/2 hour per sponsor (to be counted as a sponsor they have to have donated at least $5), and up to two hours for bringing in food according to the CSB guidelines (1 hr/homemade, .5 hr/store bought).  Hours for reading and sponsors only count if you raise $35 or more.  That could be upwards of 5-6 hours just by reading.  AWESOME!

You can sign up by first signing our informal roster here and then go here to print out a sponsorsheet or see me, Gaelan Bergstrom, or Mrs. Thrash for a copy.

We can't wait to see you there!  Come help us get our goal of 50 readers and $3,000!  You'll definitely want to be at this year's Read-A-Thon.  It's going to be a blast, and for a great cause!

From, Gaelan Bergstrom, Megan Boericke, and Haley Murdoch

Mockingjay Part 2 - Movie Trip!

Update - our group, there was a Peeta/Gale debate, but overall, we give Mockingjay 2 "Thumbs Up!"

4:00 PM on Friday, November 20th @ Six Forks Cinema

All Upper School students welcome!

We're going to leave the school at 3:40 PM from a mini-bus at Rhondas. You can meet us there, follow us, or ride on the minibus, sign up at the link below so we'll have room. Tickets are $6.50 and you can buy them when you get there.

Afterwards, Have your parents pick you up from the theater. Six Forks Cinema, behind ChickFilA and KMart on Six Forks Road. OR ride the bus back to school after the movie in time for the Championship Football Game!

Please RSVP if you’re interested in seeing “Mockingjay” with us!

Questions: see Gaelan Bergstrom, Haley Murdoch, Megan Boericke, or Mrs. Thrash

See the Trailer here! 

Quidditch Booth

Our Quidditch Booth at Fall Roundup was again a success. Thanks to Cory for organizing and leading! We're inspiring a new generation of Potter Fans!

Freshman Seminar @YourLibrary

Chase and Cais demonstrate how to approach a teacher in the hall.

Welcome aboard, Freshmen! This fall we've added a new feature to our Study Hall time. Students meet in the back of the library with Mrs. Thrash once a week to discuss issues for students new to Ravenscroft Upper School. Topics include advocating for yourself, getting involved with on-campus activities, and proper use of library resources! 

"Lord of the Flies" - a fall read for all freshmen!

Join Book Club!

Megan, Haley, and Gaelan want to welcome you to join our club! We meet Wednesdays at lunch in room 196.

This fall we will be discussion Throne of Glass and The Statistical Probability of Love at First Sight.

During the school year, we discuss books at lunch, run a Quidditch booth at Fall Roundup, go see movies after school, and have a winter Read-A-Thon!

Books find a Home!

From our donation last year, kids at an Elementary School in Shanghai were lucky to get lots of books! Yunxin has been tutoring them via Skype for two years, and they were so excited to get terrific books when she brought them over the summer.

Start saving more books for our January 9th Read-A-Thon!

Book Fair April 20-23

This week in Book Club, we made posters to promote the Book Fair. Come by next week to Richards Hall to get your required summer reading AND other fun books!

Also, we will have a dress down day in support of the book fair on Wednesday, April 21. Bring $5 for your advisor that morning.

Trip to NCSU!

Ravens Doing Research on the 8th Floor

Just some books on the shelf!

Learning Commons!

Room to Read Read-A-Thon

After school on Friday, January 9th, 51 Middle and Upper School students read for 271 hours and raised $2775 for Room to Read. It was lots of fun for a terrific cause! Thanks to Chloe and Gaelan for all their hard work!

Read-A-Thon for Room to Read

On January 9th, the first Friday back from break, we will be hosting the second annual Read-a-Thon from 3:30 - 10:30 PM in the Library and Technology Center to raise money for Room to Read. They spend 85.8% of their charity budget to building libraries and delivering services. They got an overall score of 93.69 out of 100 on Charity Navigator! Over your holiday break, track down and or email all relatives and friends to raise at least $25 (hopefully much more). Our goal is to raise $4,000 this year! There will be prizes for the most money and most sponsors. 

Click here to create an account and make your online campaign. Let us know if you need help!

On Friday, January 9th, remember to bring your favorite books, pillows, blankets, and PJs!  See this spreadsheet to sign up to READ and to bring food and drink.  At 6 PM we'll have Lasagna in the PA Room.  If you have any questions email Chloe or Gaelan. 

Finally, we will also be collecting children’s books so that Yunxin can bring to a school in China. Here are some pictures from our donation last summer, they’re absolutely adorable!

Gaelan Bergstrom

11th Grade

The Hobbit - Friday, December 19th after Exams

Join us for the final movie installment of The Hobbit: The Battle of Five Armies on Friday, December 19th after your last exam before our holiday break.

We will meet in Rhonda's cafe at 11 AM to ride two minibuses to Marbles Museum. The movie starts at 1 PM, but we want to arrive early enough to get in line for good seats in the IMAX auditorium. See http://www.imaxraleigh.org/ for details.

We will eat together at Marbles Museum, you can bring your lunch or eat at the Pogo Cafe. $10 will get you a salad, or sandwich/burger with a side and a drink. http://www.pogoraleigh.com/

Sign up HERE to reserve your seat on the buses. We are also purchasing movie tickets on Wednesday, December 17 because the movie could sell out. If you are unsure of your plans, you could sign up for the ride and plan to buy tickets closer to the date.

Student Coordinator: Grace Berry

Chaperones: Ms. Kelly and Mrs. Thrash (cell 919-271-4131)

Hunger Games - Mockingjay Part 1

4:00 PM on Friday, November 21st @ Six Forks Cinema

All Upper School students welcome!

We're going to leave the school at 3:40 PM, so you'll have time to go to tutorial and get together all of your work for the weekend. You can meet us there, or follow us, or ride on the minibus, sign up at the link below so we'll have room. Tickets are $6.50 and you can buy them when you get there.

Please RSVP if you’re interested in seeing “Mockingjay” with us!

Have your parents pick you up from the theater. Six Forks Cinema, behind ChickFilA and KMart on Six Forks Road.

See the Trailer here! 

Questions: see Gaelan and Kristin or Mrs. Thrash

Update:

Thanks to all who came, we had a blast!

Books to China

We collected a few hundred books at our Read-a-thon. Yunxin took them to students at a school in China who were thrilled to choose a new book. Thanks to all who donated, and Yunxin for delivering them!

Two Clubs for Readers!

Come on out today at our Club Expo to find out more about the Order of the Croft and the Book Club.

Reading Ravens Book Club will read a variety of books and possibly go see a few openings of books turned into movies. Presidents this year are Chloe Pacyna and Mykayla Perry.

Order of the Croft is our Harry Potter Alliance Chapter, led by Sophie Raymer and Sage Battle.

Join us!

Pathfinders for Sophomores!

EasyBib - Start all of your projects here, by creating a new project, and adding all links to websites, ISBNs for books, and cut and pasted citations from Library Databases. See this video to see examples!

The Island of Dr. Moreau 

To find out more about Darwin and his theories of Evolution and Survival of the Fittest, you would want to look in some of our biographies and stories about his travels – call numbers 574-575. In our Databases – you are looking for reference articles on Social Darwinism from Encyclopedias or Biographies. Look in ABC Clio, Global Issues in Context or History Reference Center. Off campus, you’ll need our passwords given out in class.

Jekyll & Hyde

For more about Freud, psychoanalysis, and his personality theories of Id, Ego, and Super Ego, his books are in our Psychology section, 150.2. You will also find good articles on his work by looking for Freud in ABC Clio Database.

Karl Marx and his theories can be found in several areas, like 320.5 and 335, and also read the article about him and the links within that article in ABC Clio Database.

Divergent - Thursday, March 20

Join us as we see the film adaptation of Divergent by Veronica Roth on opening night, Thursday, March 20th

Meet at Six Forks Cinema at 7:30 for the 8 PM Showing. Pickup at 10:30 PM. Put your name on this Google Doc so we can be in touch about any updates or changes!

See you then!

Read-A-Thon Success!

It’s tough to find time to read, so Book Club Leaders gave students the opportunity to read quietly while building families around the world.  On Friday, January 10th from 3:30-11:30 PM, we gathered in the quiet reading area and our sponsors helped us raise at least $2600 for Heifer International ($ is still coming in from donors).

All funds will go to the WorldBuilder organization for Heifer, as promoted by one of our favorite authors, Patrick Rothfuss!  (The Name of the Wind series)  A heifer can go to a family in a developing country for only $500, offering the family milk and giving them hope for sustainability.

Thanks to coordinator Gaelan Bergstron and Book Club Presidents Chloe Pacyna and Mykayla Perry for putting this even together!  See more photos by Megan Boericke here.