Skype A Scientist LIVE...Amazing Events For Remote and Summer Learning!

One of my favorite places to find virtual connections for our students and teachers is with Skype a Scientist. 

As they state on their site, 

Skype a Scientist s a group of 5000+ scientists who are available to video chat into your classroom and have an open discussions with your class.  The goal of the program s for students to have positive experiences with scientists and form a personal connection with someone working in a scientific field.  

You can read how it works here. 

Every month, they have been putting together the Skype a Scientist LIVE calendar which is filled with special events our students and families can be part of. 

On this page, you will find the Skype a Scientist LIVE calendar for June.  When you get to this page, scroll down to find all of the events with a description and link to each session. 

Take a look at a few for June....

And one of the best parts!  They have an awesome Skype A Scientist YouTube Channel where you can find... 

...so many wonderful connections with scientists of all kinds.  

They are also offering their services for families.  You will find that information here. 

Over the last few years, our students and teachers have loved the connections we have made and information we have learned through our connections with scientists. Thank you Skype a Scientist for bringing us such engaging and educational connections with scientists.  We can't wait for even more! 

Week 2 of Virtual Camp Adventure! Let's Go To The Farm!

It's time for Week 2 of Our Virtual Camp Adventure!  

This week, we are focusing on the topic of On The Farm. When you go to the special website, 

you will find the choice board for Week 1.  You can also find it here.  

On this special choice board, you will find places for your students and families to explore as they read, draw, play, cook, create music, exercise, focus on social emotional learning and more.

On the website, I also created a Collection by Destiny for the Virtual Camp Adventure that you will find....

 ...here.  I will add each weeks choice board and other resources including the Google Site, bookmark, flyer and more.

In the Week 2 choice board, they will find the Week 2 of Virtual Camp Adventure Buncee filled with Capstone Interactive eBooks that everyone has free access to at home.

I shared this with my students and families in a variety of places including email, our library Facebook and other social media, the library website and I even changed the header on our Destiny Discover.  I will do that each week.

I hope you share this with your students and families for a fun second week of Virtual Camp Adventure. Let's see what happens when they go to the farm! 

And if you'd like to make changes to the choice board, you will find an editable copy here.

A Handy New Way For Students To Search Digital Only In Destiny!

Our school is out for the summer, as many schools are, as others are continuing to learn remotely at homes with their families and teachers online and in other wonderful ways. 

One thing I have been thinking a lot about is how to organize our Destiny Discover to direct our readers to the eResources we have in our collection at Van Meter.  

Last week, I wrote about how we can now make the homepage a place to personalize this experience for our community by adding messages, news, pictures, special Collections by Destiny, highlighted events and so much more.  

You can read the post about how I did this here. 

I am excited to share that as of this week, we can also direct our community to only search online resources, and not the physical collection.

I was very thankful for this choice, because as our students are at home searching for things to read and use for research and projects, it can be confusing, and often times disappointing for them, to see the physical books too.  And families can feel that way too.

Let me show you how easy it is to make this an option in your Destiny Discover.

You will need to login to your Destiny Discover and go to Admin over in the navigation bar on the left hand side.

 Under Display Options, you will click on Digital Only and it will bring up this screen....

...where you will check the box next to Show a Digital Tab instead of the Book Tab and click Save. 

Now when students and families click on Search Options, 

 

and click on Format, 

 only eBook and Audiobook/Recorded Sound are options.

As well as when they type a search into the search box, 

the only tabs that are available are Digital, Collections and Websites.  They will not be able to search the physical books anymore with the Digital Only feature selected.  

Again, this is such a helpful option during remote learning and also throughout the summer as our readers finds things to read and listen to throughout these months too. 

My Symbaloo Webinar Recording and All Resources Are Live! You Will Find Them Here, Friends!

Yesterday,  I had so much fun presenting, Using Symbaloo for Remote Learning, Summer Reading and Beyond. 

I presented this webinar with Bryan Hurtado, from Symbaloo.  He did an amazing job at explaining the in's and out's of Symbaloo, while I shared the importance of curation and how Symbaloo helps me, as a teacher librarian, within our district throughout the year, especially now as we think about remote learning and summer reading.

On this page from the Symbaloo Blog, you will find the recording of our webinar and...

...additional resources we shared, including the...

 ...Google Slides presentation...

....and the special new space for Symbaloo Webspace for  Future Ready Librarians that you can follow here.

This is just a beginning for the Future Ready Librarian Webspace, as we fill it together with resources, collaboration and conversations around Future Ready Librarians and education.

After you look through the resources and watch the webinar, please let me know what questions you have and how I can help you.  I love Symbaloo and the difference it has made for my community. 

Join me on June 4th for the NEW Future Ready Librarian Webinar....Building Strong Partnerships With School and District Leaders!

I am excited to share a new Future Ready Librarian webinar coming up on June 4, 2020....Future Ready Librarians®: Building Strong Partnerships With School and District Leaders. 

Future Ready Librarians® lead beyond the library, collaborating not only with teacher colleagues, but with building and district leaders to prepare future ready learners. Creating exciting and dynamic opportunities for future ready learners requires shared leadership among librarians, instructional coaches, principals, technology leaders, and district administrators.

During this unprecedented time when students are learning from home, one of the most important partnerships is the one between librarians and administrators. 

On June 4, 2020 at 4:00pm EST, 

Traci Chun, Teacher Librarian, Vancouver Public Schools (WA)
Jeremy Tortora, Associate Principal and Athletic Director, Vancouver Public Schools (WA)
Mark Ray, Future Ready Librarians® Lead
Deron Durflinger, Superintendent, Van Meter Community School District (IA) 
and myself, Shannon McClintock Miller, Future Ready Librarians® Spokesperson and K–12 District Teacher Librarian, Van Meter Community School District (IA),

will explain how librarians and administrators can work together to benefit students and teachers and ensure continuity of learning.

We will discuss...

• current and future needs of students and schools during the pandemic;
• opportunities for new or sustained collaboration between librarians and administrators;
• stories and examples of partnership and collaboration; and
  strategies for effectively engaging and partnering with teachers and administrators.

Collaborative leadership is the key to success. Join us to learn how you can foster a relationship with your administrators.

You can register for the free webinar here.  It will be recorded and shared, along with the resources, afterwards too. 

Week 1 of Virtual Camp Adventure! Let's See Where Imagination Will Take Them!

It's time to kick off our Virtual Camp Adventure!  

This week, we are focusing on the topic of Imagination. When you go to the special website, 

you will find the choice board for Week 1.  You can also find it here.  

On this special choice board, you will find places for your students and families to explore as they read, draw, play, cook, create music, stay healthy and more.

On the website, I also created a Collection by Destiny for the Virtual Camp Adventure that you will find....

 ...here.  I will add each weeks choice board and other resources including the Google Site, bookmark, flyer and more.

In the Week 1 choice board, they will find the Week 1 of Virtual Camp Adventure Buncee filled with Capstone Interactive eBooks that everyone has free access to at home.

I shared this with my students and families in a variety of places including email, our library Facebook and other social media, the library website and I even changed the header on our Destiny Discover.  I will do that each week. 

I hope you share this with your students and families for a fun first week of Virtual Camp Adventure. Let's see where their imaginations will take them! 

And if you'd like to make changes to the choice board, you will find an editable copy here.

NEW Webinar....Using Symbaloo for Remote Learning, Summer Reading and Beyond

As you know, I love using Symbaloo for curating, organizing and sharing resources with our students, teachers and families. I also love using Symbaloo for professional development opportunities with educators and Future Ready Librarians around the world. 

On May 27, 2020, please join me as I share how I use Symbaloo to create inclusive online learning and reading environments for my school community throughout the year and summer learning months, and how Symbaloo is an essential part of our remote learning plan too. 

And I am excited that Bryan Hurtado, from Symbaloo, will be joining me to show us the ins and outs of creating and managing within Symbaloo.  This will be super helpful for beginners to advanced users....I know I will learn a lot from him during the webinar too. 

I can't wait to share what you need to use Symbaloo within your library and school.  In fact,  at the end of the webinar I will be sharing the NEW Future Ready Librarian Symbaloo work space where we can all connect, share and learn together. 

You will find the registration here where you can sign up for the webinar. 

If you have any questions, join the discussion at #SymbalooRemoteLearning on Twitter and tag me @shannonmmiller too.  I can't wait to see all of you and hear how you use Symbaloo too. 

It's Time For The 12-Week Virtual Camp Adventure! Your Students & Families Can Join Us Too!

One thing I love about the summertime is finding special and fun ways for students and families to stay connected to reading, learning and creative experiences throughout the summer. 

I am excited to announce that this summer, I have created Our Virtual Camp Adventure....Where reading, learning and creating can take you on adventures all summer long! 

Each week starting May 25, there will be a new choice board,

like the one we created for Children's Book Week, filled with reading and learning adventures. You will find that one here too. 

There will be eBooks like Capstone Interactive, research using PebbleGo and PebbleGo Next, writing, arts and crafts, STEAM, cooking, exercise and games, social emotional learning, music, virtual field trips and other fun and meaningful experiences!

Each week will also include resources and extensions in Collections by Destiny, You've Been Book'd Buncee's, Symbaloo's and more.

I will be using the new Virtual Camp Adventure site to share each weeks choice board and resources. You will find it here.  This is what you can share with your students and families.

You will find this poster here...

...and the bookmark/banner here. 

Everything included each week will be available to everyone throughout the summer.

We can't wait to see where reading and learning will take us on this adventure all summer long. We hope you will join us too! 

Join Over 80 Educators and Librarians For The Indiana Connected Educators LIVE Virtual Conference!

With the summer right around the corner, it's time to get ready for our own learning as librarians and educators.  And I have just the virtual event for you! 

On July 20-24, you can join the Indiana Connected Educators LIVE virtual conference with over 80 EdTech leaders, 40 authors and 90 hours of big ideas, resources, connecting and inspiration delivered from your laptop , all completely FREE! 

I am very honored and excited to be part of this conference and can't wait to learn alongside all of you with so many amazing educators and librarians who inspire be daily. 

You can register here. 

We can't wait to see you in July and in the meantime, please follow along at #INConnectED.

It's going to be an amazing week, friends!

Our Recording and Resources From Last Week's Follett Webinar Are Here, Friends!

On May 14, my colleague and friend, Tracy Ferguson, and myself, presented a brand new Follett webinar, When Teachers Collaborate...Bringing Extended Expertise to Your Teaching and Students.  

We had an amazing time sharing research, tools, resources and lots of ideas about collaboration throughout the school year while we are together at school and throughout this time during remote learning. 

You will now find the recording of our webinar and links to all of the resources we shared here too.

A Fun Way To Celebrate With PebbleGo Throughout the Year....PebbleGo Holiday Calendars!

As a librarian and teacher, I love following and tying in special holidays and events throughout the year.

And as I get ready for summer reading and learning, this is super important too. 

One place I go to find these calendars is to the Promotional Materials page on PebbleGo. 

Here you will find all of the calendars from the beginning of the year, which are fun to look at while planning throughout the year.

And today when I looked, I was excited to find the NEW calendar for June 2020 Holidays. 

I will be incorporating these into the virtual summer reading and learning camp I am planning for our students.  You will find them on Capstone's PebbleGo site here to use too.