Gift-giving ideas for teens

By Krista McKenzie

You have five best friends, a boyfriend/girlfriend, your parents and your little brothers/sisters  – and this is just the must-buy-for list! This is such an expensive time of year. You meant to save a little money from your paycheck, but you thought you had more time. Now it’s only days until gift giving and you have no gifts! What do you do if you have little or no cash and too many to give to?

Here are some gift-giving ideas for teens:

The do-it-yourself gift: What are your talents? Think about how you can incorporate them into your gift. For example, if you are musically inclined, why not prepare a song to sing for your boyfriend/girlfriend? If you are good at cooking, your little brother might be more than pleased to receive a chocolate cake or a tin full of cookies just for him for Christmas. Can you sew? Take scraps of old clothing and create a new purse or an awesome scarf for your best friend. Or, if you have lots of old clothes lying around, use them to create a new wallet or backpack or even a new shirt. Or, how about a gift for your guy friend who likes metal-studded belts? You can create one yourself with a simple belt and some metal bolts that you have in your garage. Your friends will appreciate the gift because it is one of a kind and comes from you! There are thousands of craft project ideas online and in your local library. And, they don’t take that long to make!

Services in kind: These are always excellent gifts for parents or siblings. Do your parents have certain chores that they don’t like doing? Make them coupons that they can submit to you for doing that chore. For example, a coupon for one trash takeout or for doing one load of laundry. Just that little bit of help would be appreciated by your parents.

Customized gifts: Nothing is more special than a gift that is personalized for the person you are making it for. Create a scrapbook of pictures of you and your friends; put in quotes and memories about fun times you have had. Or, create a CD or an mp3 list of all your friend’s favorite songs. Create a custom bracelet or necklace with lettering or engraving. Anything that is specific to your relationship with your friend will be cherished.

Gathered gifts: It is amazing what kinds of things you can find. Many stores offer coupons for services or food. Most of these can be found online and printed. You can create a booklet of coupons you have gathered for all your friends’ favorite places or services. Also, don’t be afraid to go to the thrift store. There are some amazing gifts that you can find that are inexpensive and will be loved by your friends and family.

The collected basket gift: One of my favorite things to make for friends when I have little or no money is a themed gift basket. For my female friends who love doing their nails, I might take a basket and put several bottles of inexpensive nail polish, some remover, a nail grooming kit and some nail decals in it. For guys who love watching action movies at home, I might buy a movie and include several bags of popcorn and some of their favorite candy snacks and drinks. Many of these things we have around the house anyway, because we spend time with our friends or enjoy them ourselves.

Gift giving doesn’t have to be expensive or time consuming. Just think about what you and your friends like to do and what you have at your fingertips to use.

Krista McKenzie is a children’s specialist and reference librarian at the Ruth Enlow Library in Garrett County, M.D. This article was posted on the YALSA blog.

Rico takes checkered flag at ZB Mario Kart Championship

THE FIELD: Racers who competed in the ZB Library's second annual ZB Mario Kart Championship, with Rico (win), Schred17 (place), Stargirl (show) and McKenna (fourth place) in the front row.

Erik Gonzales of Zion won the second annual ZB Mario Kart Championship at the ZB Library on Nov. 14. Also known as “Rico” in the local Wii racing community, Gonzales emerged as champion from a field of 19 racers to claim the title.

Rico broke the stranglehold that the Lyons racing family had on the event. In the first year, Lyons racers McKenna, Evan (“Schred17″) and Kyra (“Stargirl”) swept the top three places.

This year, the Lyons’ had to settle for second (Schred17), third (Stargirl) and fourth (McKenna) places as Rico breezed to a 10-point winning margin in the finals. Rico placed fourth in points in the quarterfinal round behind the Lyons racers and second in the semifinals behind Schred17.

FAST HEAT: Rico (left) and Schred17 (third left) battle with the Young&Reckless and Arriez (right) in the semifinal round. Schred17 won the round, but Rico won the final and the 2nd ZB Mario Kart Championship.

McKenna, the defending champ, needed to win a raceoff against Diego Lopez to qualify for the finals, where Rico held off the Lyons racers to win the championship and a $25 Visa gift card. Schred17 won a $15 gift card to a local coffee house, Stargirl received a 6-use ZB Library video rental card and McKenna won a ZB Library video rental gift certificate.

RACE CROWD: As the racers perform on the stage, racing fans keep a close eye on the race.

Young adults have power in the community

Do you realize that when you start attending high school, you rise in status in the community? You become a “young adult,” and with that comes a little bit of influence. Your voice carries some weight. Why? Because you are on the verge of becoming a voter. You’re a voter in waiting. In a short time, you will be voting for the members of your school’s board, in addition to your city, township – and library - government. A local voter has real power, because in more instances than you might realize, local elections can turn on a couple of votes.

Young adult programming, collections, events and other resources are offered here at the Zion-Benton Public Library. In an effort to connect even more, ZBTHS/ZBPL Youth Advisory Board were surveyed earlier this year as to what they’d like to see here. The following is a list of suggestions:

• Anime DVDs
• Manga and anime drawing books
• “Giant Book of Manga”
• Display of popular and new young adult titles
• Complete manga series
• Online DVDs
• New parts of “The A List” and “The It Girl”
• Complete series of “My Name is Alice”
• “Shadow Kiss” by Richelle Mead
• “Fashionistas” by Chloe Walsh
• Chess club

These YAs had to be asked to make suggestions, because YAs don’t know they can make requests. They can. Every one of these suggestions has been followed, seriously considered or will be seriously considered, because the views of young adults hold sway in the community, not only at the library but at all public organizations.  So express yourself. Use the library as a meeting place to get involved in the community. If you can’t find an organization you want to join, start one — right here at the library. Send us an email or call us at 847-872-4680, ext. 174, and we’ll help your group organize. It costs you nothing, and you have all the information resources you’ll need.

Make your voice heard in the community. You have the power.

Access a universe of knowledge with active reading

Just going through the motions in doing Zion-Benton Township High School’s summer reading assignment is not going to get your mind right in preparing for the 2009-10 school year. To get out of the blocks right off the bat, students need to use active reading techniques to keep brain synapses popping at peak efficiency.

Active reading is the key, which is why as part of the assignment’s directives, students should highlight, underline or take notes when they come across key passages in the book. Active reading is becoming actively involved with the book you are reading. Drawing out the important and interesting points in a book is the essence of reading comprehension and the key in accessing the portal to a universe of knowledge.

The first step in preparing for active reading is to have a dictionary at hand to define unfamiliar terms. You must know what the words you’re reading mean to enter the portal. When you begin reading, summarize the text, ask questions, give assent and even protest vehemently on an ongoing basis. Active reading is engaging in a mind dialogue with the author. Read each sentence carefully and then determine “what it says” and “what it does.” Describe the main idea of each paragraph in your own words.

Tips for active reading

Underline or highlight sentences, paragraphs and passages. Look for key information or passages that you like reading that “speak” to you. Don’t concern yourself with what other readers would and wouldn’t highlight. Read for yourself, and you’ll think for yourself. Pick out what you think are the most important parts of what you are reading.

Take notes – highlighting is good, but taking notes, actually writing down the words of selected passages, both improves memory and clarifies the themes of the book.

Note key words, headlines and sections. Record the main headings as you read. Use one or two keywords for each point. When you don’t want to mark the text, keep a folder of notes you make while reading. Performing active reading by making notes will maintain your concentration and enhance your understanding by making these stories come alive in your mind, transporting you to another dimension of acquired knowledge.

Ask questions and make connections. In preparing to read note questions you want the author to answer. While you’re reading, note questions which the author raises. Ask yourself questions about things that confuse you. Find common ground with you and your life. Does what you are reading remind you of something? Something that once happened to you? Of someone you know?  

A pause refreshes your vision

Pause occasionally and guess what might happen next. Predicting is a skill. To develop a skill you have to practice. Good readers stop often and check their predictions as they read.

Pause  once in a while to determine what you know, what you think you know and what has changed about what you thought you knew. Make inferences – take something you know; connect it with something you already know.

Pause every so often to evaluate, make judgments and think critically about what you’re reading. Take notes as you read to have the facts support your evaluations. Compare and contrast characters, setting, events, themes and ideas. 

Pause for the cause of drawing conclusions. Put information together to figure themes out. When you make conclusions, you fuse all the information together to decide what the story means.  You take all the facts you have read and make conclusions.

Let the writing flow from the book to your mind. Think of your mind as a sponge, soaking in the themes and emotions of the book. As you read, you gather information. As you gather information your brain is busy evaluating, making connections, checking predictions and adjusting predictions if needed.

Summer reading preserves sticky mind

Reading skills for school-age readers often deteriorate during the summer because the mind doesn’t get adequate exercise. While most kids view summertime as an opportunity to think about anything other than school, it’s not a good idea to let their brains veg out all summer.

Research shows that on average, students who go academically unchallenged during the summer will “forget” approximately 20 percent of what they have mastered in the previous school year. Keeping your brain fit by reading promotes memory and increases learning ability.

That’s why at Zion-Benton Township High School, summer reading is assigned for every class. All 2009-10 students are requires to read one of these assigned books before the start of the school year:

Incoming freshmen

•  Zee-Bees (Robert E. Osmon): true story of local history encourages incoming freshmen to become part of the larger Zion-Benton community.
• Survival of the Sickest (Sharon Moalem): examines how disease has helped mankind survive short-term environmental threats by privileging deadly dieases.
• Please Stop Laughing At Me (Jodee Blanco): explores the issue of bullying and its underlying psychological effects and long-term ramifications.
• Dreams From My Father (Barack Obama): traces the personal history of the current U.S. president.

Incoming sophomores

•  The Pact (Sampson Davis, George Jenkins and Rameck Hunt): reflection on how forming positive relationships can help people make positive choices, even in difficult circumstances.
• Of Beetles and Angels (Mawi Asgedon): refugee story documents the struggles and successes of a young man’s journey from Ethiopia to Wheaton, Ill.

 

Incoming Juniors

•  My Forbidden Face (Latifa): narrative of a young woman growing up in 1996 Kabul, Afghanistan, when the Taliban takes political control of the city.
• Three Weeks with My Brother (Nicholas Sparks and Micah Sparks): two brothers rely on each other throughout their lives, including when tragedy strikes.

Incoming Seniors

•  Tuesdays With Morrie (Mitch Albom): a relationship between a student and his former teacher dying of ALS (Lou Gehrig’s Disease).
• Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance (Robert Pirsig): motorycles play a big role, but this book is also a philosophical look at human emotions and interaction.

Paying for college during a bad economy

The recent downturn in the economy has cut many college savings funds in half. Parents and college-bound kids are going to have to make some tough choices between now and next fall, and the toughest of those choices will be dealing with the financial reality that a large portion of their college funds are gone.

There are still options to fund a college education that don’t require assuming huge debts from student loans. Go here to find out how to go to college at minimum expense.

Fed stimulus provides summer jobs for YAs

Lake County residents ages 18-24 have the opportunity to land summer jobs, thanks to new federal stimulus funds. The Lake County Workforce Department received nearly $2 million from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 to put young adults to work this summer.
This funding will not only provide summer jobs to young adults, but it will also help local organizations by supplying them with summer help at no cost. Lake County is now recruiting workers and employers for the program, which will serve roughly 350 people this summer and another group during the summer of 2010.
Interested employers should send an email to jobcenter@lakecountyil.gov . Lake County Workforce Development is looking to allocate the $2 million in federal stimulus money to partner agencies that can provide summer employment. Lake County is seeking a variety of work sites in local government and non-profit organizations across the county to provide jobs. Lake County Workforce will recruit, screen and pay the workers.
This opportunity is open to Lake County residents ages 18-24 who meet the program’s low-income criteria. There are limited positions available in each community. Interested young adults in Winthrop Harbor, Zion and Beach Park should call the hotline at 847.377.3444 to add their name to the waiting list. Walk-in or mailed information will be accepted for waiting list placement at the Workforce Development office, 1 N. Genesee St., in Waukegan.
Individuals who call the hotline should leave the following information:
• Name
• Telephone Number
• City you live in
• Age
Participants chosen for the program will be contacted in April and May to begin processing paperwork. Please leave only one message on the hotline system.

Press Play @ ZB Library

Press Play is the theme of Teen Tech Week 2009, which will be celebrated March 8-14. Sponsored by the Young Adult Library Services Association (YALSA), Press Play @ the Library is about connecting teens with different technologies available through the library.

Teens can literally press play on digital devices such as mp3 players, DVD players, gaming controllers and more. Press Play @ the Library is about teens creating and sharing their own content for the fun of it, like videos, music, and digital artwork.

Play through games can be encouraged with tournaments, tech trivia contests, and video games. On Friday, March 13, the ZB Library and the Zion-Benton Township High School IMC are co-hosting all-day videogaming in the IMC. Open gaming will be available during the school day, and a special tournament fundraiser for the IMC Student Advisory Board will be held after school.

At the ZB Library, teens can “press play” on various digital devices to learn more about the world around them. They can press play to watch film documentaries, listen to an audiobook, get live online homework help through BrainFuse, learn a new language and more.

Teens, in order to gain the skills necessary to compete in the future job market, need access to digital and online information and trained professionals who can help them use these resources effectively, efficiently and ethically. Librarians and educators know this and work with teens on a regular basis to ensure they develop these skills. Teen Tech Week is a chance for libraries to throw open their physical & virtual doors and show their communities all the great things they’re doing for teens with technology.

Teens’ use of nonprint resources has increased dramatically in recent years. According to the Pew Internet and American Life Project, 71 percent of teens report that the Internet is their primary source for completing school projects. Yet multiple studies have shown that the majority of teens lack the critical thinking skills and technical expertise to use the Internet and other electronic resources effectively, which is where libraries can help. School and public libraries are trusted resources for accessing information, and librarians are the experts who can help teens develop the skills they need to use electronic resources effectively and efficiently.

Zee-Bee Teen Review: “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows”

By spetersen919

This  is Harry’s final fling as he finally goes after Voldemort and discovers some surprising facts along the way. I really enjoyed the book because of all the suspense and action that is presented in the book. I think that other teens would like reading this book because of all the things that Harry discovers about himself in the process of getting rid of the most powerful wizard of all time. All in all I give it a 5-star rating.