#GlobalMakerDay Is Coming Up On October 24....Here Are Resources (Collection, Books and More) For You!

There is something exciting to celebrate in October that is focused around making.

It is called #GlobalMakerDay and will be held on October 24 virtually with others around the world in YouTube Live (live Google Hangout).

This amazing group of educators, who are passionate about creativity, global connections and our students, have worked very hard at bringing together this very special day for all of us.

On this day we will be able to watch makers discuss different projects like coding, 3D printing and designs, art lessons, collaborative learning spaces and so much more.

Each session will be 30 minutes long and the super fun part....each session will include a maker challenge for your students to participate in as they solve problems through creativity and play.

The Maker Challenges will be posted one week before #GlobalMakerDay.

Also, in this awesome Buncee from their site, we will find the scheduled times and they will soon post the challenges and presenters too.  

Oh....and just like the robot says, Tweet your pictures and videos of what is happening in your library and classroom throughout the day to #GlobalMakerDay.  

You can register for #GlobalMakerDay here.

I brought together these resources and a few more things, like the Makerspace! Makerspace! Makerspace! Collection, in a brand new #GlobalMakerDay Collection that you can visit and use too.

I included the Virtual Vendor Hall participants, Bloxels, CoSpaces, Easy Blog and World of Making,  in the #GlobalMaker Day Collection. 

And a big list of Makerspace books in the #GlobalMakerDay Titlewave List that are perfect for the day....and all year long for our makers.  

You will find the #GlobalMakerDay Collection here.

Thank you to the amazing group of educators and friends who put so much time and love in this wonderful event.  

I can't wait for #GlobalMakerDay and I hope all of you sign up to participate too. 

Create Fairy Tale Buncee's With These Beautiful Backgrounds and Stickers

Every time I go to Buncee, I find something special and new.  Brianna does the same thing.

Yesterday, she saw all of the beautiful new fairytale stickers and created...

this amazing fairy tale with her sticker, Sancho and looks like her childhood horse, Roman.  

You will find Fairy Tale Backgrounds and... 

lots and lots of fantastic Fairy Tale Stickers.  

Just think of all of the wonderful fairy tales that you and your students will create in Buncee too. 

Check Out This New YouTube Channel....THUMBNAILS....Art Class, Simplified By Emily Valenza

Today, my friend Joyce Valenza shared two very special YouTube Channels on her School Library Journal blog, The NeverEnding Search in this post. 

I was excited to read more about Heather Moorefield Lang's new YouTube project, Research Xpress.  I will be sharing more about this work next week on my blog. 

Today I want to share THUMBNAILS....A new YouTube project from Joyce's daughter and amazing art teacher, Emily Valenza.  

On THUMPNAILS, Emily has created short lessons for her students, colleagues and all of us to use with our students and personally too.  They are amazing and Emily is such a wonderful artist and teacher.

I just love how Emily has created the videos and I know you and your students will as well.

These are also perfect for setting up at a station or on a computer or laptop in your Makerspace for students to use when creating.

Even to send home as a QR code or link.

You can subscribe to THUMBNAILS....Art Class, Simplified with Emily Valenza here too.

10 Ways To Use Buncee With Global Read Aloud!

In just a few days on October 2, Global Read Aloud kicks off its eighth year. 

In 2010, my friend Pernille Ripp started GRA with 150 participants as they read The Little Prince.  It has now grown to over a million young people around the world reading the same books together for six weeks.

It is one of our favorite literacy events and it is one of my favorite events of the year too!  

This week as I was pulling together the Global Read Aloud Collection by Destiny, I found so many terrific resources.

You will have to check it out the GRA Collection here.  I promise you will love all of the resources included in this Collection, which you can share with anyone too. 

I thought about all of the ways we could use these resources with our students during Global Read Aloud. 

One in particular digital tool and app that stood out in particular is Buncee.  This amazing creation and presentation tool would be perfect for GRA in so many ways.  

As you are planning for, check out 7 ways you can use Buncee for Global Read Aloud. 

1. Use Buncee as a way to celebrate and share the Global Read Aloud information.  

I added tiny images of each book cover and these can easily be linked to a website, book trailer, author interview and more.  

You will find a link to this Buncee here.  Feel free to make a copy and modify it for your GRA announcement. 

2. By adding a QR Code, which can be done right in Buncee, you can turn this into an interactive poster to hang up around the school.  All they have to do is scan this QR to pull up the Buncee GRA announcement on their phone or device.  

3.  Use your GRA Buncee announcement and send it out as an RSVP.  

For example, in the RSVP invitation above, I invited everyone to come to the library on October 2, 2017 to kick off Global Read Aloud.  This is a special way to start the six weeks of celebrating read aloud as a school and community.  

It is very simple to take any Buncee and turn it into a RSVP.  You will find this feature under Share in the right hand corner.  

4. You can use Buncee to introduce the different books that have been selected for this year.

The picture book study is focused on Mem Fox so I started there.

With lots of video retellings online, I found a beautiful one for Hattie and the Fox and pulled it into my Buncee by selecting Import URL when adding media to my project.

5. After listening to one of the books, either in person or through a video you add to the Buncee, students can use the Video feature in Buncee to read and record themselves.

6. Students can use stickers, animations, text and more assets to retell any of the Global Read Aloud stories.

They can share these with others looking for similarities and differences between everyones Buncee. 

7. With the Assessment features in Buncee...

Multiple Choice and Free Response Question, you can give students directions on what you would like them to do in their Buncee. 

For example, in the one above for Hattie and the Fox, students are asked to retell the story using stickers, animations and other things.  

After they have completed their Buncee, they are to use the Free Response Question to write a review on Hattie and the Fox too.

8. This could also be done with the Record feature in Buncee.  You could ask the students to record themselves sharing a review too.

9. Students can use Buncee as their Global Read Aloud Journal.

You could create a Buncee to be used as a template and they could all add to their copy.  Or just have them create their very own Buncee GRA Journal, perhaps using something like The Wild Robot Buncee Journal above.

Each week they could add to their Buncee creating a very cool archive and story.  They could even add photos and videos of each week.

10.  At the end of Global Read Aloud, your class or school can create a giant collaborative Global Read Aloud Scrapbook.  Every student could create a page for the Buncee and then use the....

Stitching feature to bring all of the Buncee's together into one story. 

What a wonderful memory for all of the students and something very special to share with your community and the world too.

Remember....Buncee's can be shared with anyone, not just students within your school community.  

This is a GLOBAL read aloud, so think about who you can connect your students with around the world.  

Buncee is definitely a powerful and engaging digital tool to use within your school and community, but also throughout the world as a global connector.  It will bring so much to your Global Read Aloud in so many ways this year.  

I can't wait to see how you use Buncee too!  

Register For The Next Future Ready Librarian Webinar On October 17, 2017

On October 17, please join me for the next Future Ready Librarian webinar at 4:00pm EST as we talk about Building Instructional Partnerships with...

Suzanna Panter, Dawn Baughman and Charmaine Norton from Tacoma Public Schools in Washington and....

Becky Calzada, Sandy Liptak and Zandra Lopez from Leander Indeptendent School District in Texas.

You can register here for this free one hour webinar sponsored by the Alliance for Excellent Education and Follett.

The recording will be shared afterwards and you will get a certificate of participate too.

We hope to see you there.

Win A Skype Visit With John Green!

John Green is one of my all time favorite authors.  He was a favorite in my library too. 

My daughter Brianna who was also a student of mine just posted this picture on Instagram today sharing that she was rereading Looking For Alaska by John Green in honor of Banned Books Week.

His books have definitely made an impact my life and so many others too.

In fact, next weekend at the School Library Journal Summit in Nashville, John is one of the speakers.

I can't tell you how excited I am about that!  

We are also getting ready for his long awaited new book, Turtles All The Way Down, which goes on sale October 10, 2017.

Today, our friends at Follett announced something very SUPER special to go along with this exciting publishing event!

You can win a Skype with John Green by participating in the new contest!  All you have to do is create a John Green library display for a chance to win.

Once you have created your display, you will send pictures of your school library display to pubsubmit@follett.com with the subject Turtles by 1/31/2018 to enter.

You can get the contest details here too.

To give you a little inspiration and ideas, I brought together a Collection by Destiny all about John Green and his work.  There are quotes, book display ideas, his website and of course more details about his new book.

I included the Follett Contest too.

You will the John Green Contest Collection here.

Have fun and remember to get your students involved in this one as you create the display.  They will have amazing ideas for one of their favorite authors too. 

Term and Conditions of the contest. 

My First Time Visiting Students As An Author....I Went To Texas Virtually Today!

Today was a very special day!  

It was the first time I shared my new books as an author with a group of students. 

My friend Kelly Shelton, who is an elementary librarian in Fort Worth, Texas, asked me if I would connect and read to her students.

I didn't even hesitate...of course I would!

We planned to meet over Google Hangout and after a few little bumps connecting this morning, Kelly had the great idea to project her phone using...

an ELMO.  I love showing this because you have to be creative and calm when trouble shooting.... even during Google Hangout and Skype connections.  :) 

Another teacher Kim Rivera was sharing tweets and pictures so it was wonderful seeing all of their students together ready to read and sing...

Staying Safe Online, one of my new Library Skills Series with Cantata Learning.

I played Staying Safe Online in the background and held up my book as the students sang along. 

Afterwards they asked a few amazing questions.

It was really fun to talk to them about the process of writing a book, especially sharing what it was like working with all of the people who are part of that process.  

I loved being able to get a couple pictures of them too....

and a view of where I was at home in Iowa.

I just wanted to share a little bit about Staying Safe Online and the other books from the Library Skills Series with all of you too.

Staying Safe Online teaches our youngest learners all about the online world and what they need to know to stay safe online and be productive, engaging digital citizens.   

Not only will they learn along with the adorable animal characters created by illustrator Kathryn Durst, they will sing along with Emily Arrow, who wrote and sang the music for Staying Safe Online and the other three books in this series, 

Library Skills.  

Click above to listen to Staying Safe Online.  

I just love how Emily took this story and made it into such a sweet and catchy tune for all of our young learners to sing as they learn how to stay safe online and practice their digital citizen skills.   

I know you will love it too!  

As you are singing along with your students, you will find the music.... 

...and lyrics in the back of the book and also on the Cantata Learning site. 

There is a CD in the back of the book (in fact, in all of the Cantata Learning books) or...

...the QR codes, which is on the back of the book and inside the book, can be scanned to go to the music....

...on the Cantata Learning site too.  

The music can be streamed, download and there is even an instrumental version of Staying Safe Online too. 

You will find Staying Safe Online here. 

Staying Safe Online is perfect to use when teaching your students simple digital citizenship skills and as you kick off another year.  

I hope you love reading and singing it just as much as I do.  

You will find it on the Capstone site here. 

And now it is even available as an eBook! 

I had the BEST time with Kelly, the teachers and most of all of these children in Texas.  It truly made my day.  Thank you so much for having me visit.  

I can't wait until next time.  If you are interested in connecting online with your students, please let me know.  I would love to connect with all of you too.