A Collection by Destiny & Symbaloo Full of Resources For Poetry Month!

April is Poetry Month...one of the best times of the year for libraries, classroom, students, writing, sharing, creating and fun!  

In just a few days, I will be announcing a very special Global Poetry Project with lots of friends from around the world.  As you get ready for this announcement and Poetry Month, please check out the wonderful resources and share them with your students, teachers and community too. 

I have put together the Poetry, Poetry, Poetry Symbaloo that we will start sharing with our community this week and throughout the month of April.

This Symbaloo is part of the Van Meter School Poetry, Poetry, Poetry Collection by Destiny, which contains lots of resources for both our students and teachers.  Our Collection even contains books and eBooks, which is one of my favorite resources to bring into Collections. 

And here is a public Poetry, Poetry, Poetry Collection by Destiny, that all of you can use or even make a copy too.

Don't miss checking out all of these wonderful poetry books that are part of the Poetry Month Titlewave List that our friends at Follett put together for us.  There were so many that I enjoyed reading about and added to my library list for Poetry Month. 

Please let me know if you would like to collaborate and add things to the Collection.  Or just drop me a note and I can add them as well. 

Happy Poetry Month, friends.  I can't wait to see how you and your students celebrate and all the poetry that you create too! 

A Stamp & Place For A Quick Write During Our Skype In The Classroom Events!

We use Skype in the Classroom often at our school.

We Skype with authors, illustrators, experts of all kinds, and other classrooms and libraries full of kids, librarians and teachers from around the world. In fact, this week as we go back to school from being on spring break, we have a Mystery Skype with our 3rd graders; a Skype with author Doreen Cronin and our 2nd graders; a Skype with our first graders and the zoo in Toledo, Ohio; and a few others.

During these special virtual events, I like to remind our students to think about questions, comments or even things they are thinking about during the Skype.

In a recent Skype after giving each one of the kids a sticky note, I thought....

Why not make a stamp to add to the top of each sticky note that reminds them, This is what I was thinking during our Skype. 

So, I went to Amazon where I have found personalized stamps very reasonably priced before and ordered one that said,

This is what I was thinking during our Skype. 

Now, as we get ready for all of these Skype's this week and throughout the year, we can quickly stamp, or have the kids stamp, at the top of the sticky note to give them the perfect place for a little quick write of reflections and questions during these amazing events.  

I can't wait to see how this will liven up our conversations and make our Skype in the Classroom events even more engaging and meaningful.  I will be sure to let all of you how it goes too! 

You can order a stamp like this here. 

Introducing Follett MyDestiny!

Earlier this month, Follett made a very exciting announcement that will adapt to the needs of every student as they introduced Follett MyDestiny. 

Follett MyDestiny combines a library of over 40,000 eBooks from a variety of publishers and more than 750,000 open educational resources with artificial intelligence to meet our students where they are, and take them to a place where they can reach their potential and thrive. 

As shared in the Follett press release, MyDestiny leverages machine-learning capabilities to allow users to easily locate recommended content, all aligned to national and individual state standards. 

MyDestiny is a powerful platform that can adapt to the needs of every student, connecting them 24/7 with a repository of relevant and vetted content,” said Nader Qaimari, president, Follett School Solutions. “As student learning continues to evolve, they need access to engaging materials that help enhance their understanding, boost their motivation, and allow them to study more efficiently.

MyDestiny is also a powerful tool for teachers as it allows them to build effective and engaging lesson within minutes, giving them valuable time to interact and support their students.  Teachers can address students' needs immediately and track their comprehension and growth, making a difference in every classroom and school community. 

You can learn more about MyDestiny in this video and by visiting...

...Follett MyDestiny here.