The 2020 AASL Best Digital Tools Collection by Destiny!

One of the BEST things that is announced each year are the Best Digital Tools from AASL.  

This years list is once again amazing and I can't wait to learn, use and share them in the upcoming school year with our students, teachers and community. 

As I get ready to share these, I brought them together in a Collection by Destiny so we can keep them easily in one place and tie them into our library collection and resources too.  I also added the AASL site and achieve of the past winners in this Collection. 

You will find the 2020 AASL Best Digital Tools Collection by Destiny here.  Feel free to use as it is and make a copy to add your own resources and elements too. 

Future Ready Librarians® Creating Return To Learn Plans For Your Library Webinar Recording, Slides and Resources Are LIVE & Found Here, Friends

Today, I was honored to host the new Future Ready Librarians® webinar, Creating Return To Learn Plans For Your Library. 

I was joined my special guests, 

• Martha Bongiorno, President-Elect of the Georgia Library Media Association and Middle School Library Media Specialist, Fulton County Schools (GA)
• Liz Wiemann-Doll, 4-8th Grade Teacher Librarian, Pen Argyl Area School District (PA)
• Kim Habruner Borden, Elementary Librarian, Plainfield Elementary School, Pen Argyl (PA)
• Mary Manee – K-6 Library Clerk Woodrow Wilson Elementary, Corona Norco Unified School District (CA) 

As shared on the Future Ready site, 

Returning to school this fall is guaranteed to look very different and in many districts and schools, the plans are yet to be determined. Future Ready Librarians are leading beyond the library and collaborating working with schools and district leaders to support school and district’s vision and strategic plan for digital learning and fosters a culture of collaboration and innovation to empower teachers and learners. Future Ready Librarians are creating plans that support learning on campus and online. These plans are grounded in the Future Ready Librarians framework and support personalized student centered learning.

The guests discussed and shared:

• Return to learn plans and reopening guidelines being created and shared by state and local organizations
• The return to learning plans being created by librarians and schools
• How the plans were created and who was involved
• How the return to learn plans will be shared with the school community and beyond
• Next steps and how you can lead from the library in the reopening guidelines and return to learn plans for your district too!

Don’t miss out on the opportunity to learn from others and be inspired to lead from your library by supporting the creation of a return to the library plan. 

You will find the recording of our webinar here. 

Our slides can be found here, which includes links to all of the resources we shared including...

...the Reopening and Return to Learn Plans for Upcoming School Year Padlet.  Please feel free to continue to add to this as you create and gather resources for your library and school community. 

Thank you for joining us, friends.  As always, it is a honor to share and connect with all of you.  

Week 10 of Virtual Camp Adventure....It's All About Furry Critters!

It's time for Week 10 of Our Virtual Camp Adventure!  

This week, we are focusing on the topic of Furry Critters!  When you go to the special website, you will find the choice board for Week 10.  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.

And just wait until your students see this adorable craft created by one of our seniors at Van Meter, Daelynn Coppinger. You will find it here.

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

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

Students and families will find another special Collection by Destiny for additional...

...Summer Reading and Learning Programs here and on the Week 10 Choice Board.

In the Week 10 choice board, they will find the Week 10 of Virtual Camp Adventure...Game and Sports Buncee filled with Capstone Interactive eBooks that everyone has free access to at home.

You will find all of the Buncees of Capstone eBooks for each week here on this special Virtual Camp Adventure Buncee Board.

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 10th week of Virtual Camp Adventure. Let's see what happens when they learn about and celebrate FURRY CRITTERS! 

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

Let's Plan Together How To Connect For Global LIVE Virtual Pop-In Storytimes, Friends!

Hi friends,

Let's figure out how we could make Global LIVE Virtual Pop-In Storytimes work between our libraries and communities.

I started a Google Doc but we need to figure out the best way to keep this organized and easy to manage for all of us that want to participate.

What ideas do you have? What is the best way we can organize this?  How should we keep a schedule?  What would be easy for all of us to keep track of and manage?  

Let's share our comments and ideas here and see what we can come up with together. 

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We Are Putting Our Library On Wheels To Make BOOKHUB Deliveries, Promote Library Programming, Bring Fun and More!

We have all been working on fun and creative ways to get books to our readers when school starts this fall.  I have loved following along with all of you to see what you are doing in libraries, classrooms and virtually within your communities too. 

As we go back to school at Van Meter, we will be delivering books to the students in their classrooms after they order them online in Destiny or with the...

...BOOKHUB program I put together.  

You can read all about BOOKHUB and find the forms, links and information here in this post. 

As we "shop" for the books in the library and gather them together for each student, we will deliver them to the classrooms by putting them in the library crates outside of the classroom doors. We have used these for several years as it gives students a place to put their books they want to return to the library when they get to school in the morning.  Mrs. Hockenberry (Diana) comes by and picks them up as school starts. 

I created a BOOKHUB sign for each class and we will hang them on the crate. We can't wait to leave the "Special delivery from your library" outside of their classrooms each week. 

We will be putting together the orders and delivering them on Mondays to each classroom.  We will pick up all of the books each Friday.  Once the books come back to the library, we will make sure to quarantine them for the recommended time by setting up stations at the library tables. 

As we set up the process of how we would deliver the BOOKHUB orders to the classrooms, we also needed a special way to put our library on wheels to not only make deliveries but to bring fun and excitement to our library program, services and resources. 

Here are some instructions and links to the materials to do this for your students, teachers and communities too. 

Diana and I went online to look for a new cart.  We need one where we can organize and separate books and materials, and one that has big magnetic ends where we can create mini library displays, like our bulletin boards they'd usually see in and outside of the library. 

We were super excited to find this cart on Amazon and ordered it in black to go along with our BOOKHUB theme and lots of other color combinations.

The first thing we will add it the giant BOOKHUB DELIVERY poster we had made that fits right into the spot on one side. 

I also ordered magnetic letters.  I ordered these in white and...

...jumbo ones. 

My family helped me think of other things that would make the BOOKHUB DELIVERY cart extra fun.  We thought of lights, reflectors, a bike horn and a couple magnetic boxes to start.  

I made a BOOKHUB DELIVERY flag for each grade level...

...and laminated them to stand up in the slots of the cart. 

Next, it was time to create some fun on each end of the BOOKHUB DELIVERY cart. 

One end is to display a few new books each week, to promote DESTINYFLIX and as a place to hold bookmarks and tickets to give the students and teachers. 

DESTINYFLIX is a place for our students to see what's next to read in our virtual library so I wanted to display...

...a poster of the virtual choice board they will find online.  These posters will be posted in each classrooms and...

...we have bookmarks that take them to DESTINYFLIX through a QR code. 

One of the magnetic boxes will hold the DESTINYFLIX and other Destiny bookmarks throughout the year.  We will be doing a lot of marketing and instruction around Destiny as this will take our students to all of our digital resources, Collections by Destiny and more.  

You can read all about DESTINYFLIX and find the templates here in this post.  

The other end of the bookcart will be to promote our LIVE Virtual Pop-In Storytimes we will be hosting from the library twice a day.

We will give students and teachers a preview of the books we will be sharing by taking bookcovers and using this magnetic adhesive tape on the back.

There are LIVE Virtual Pop-In Storytimes tickets to share with our students so...

...I have made a spot for these in another magnetic box. 

You will find each bookmark here.  Feel free to use and make changes. 

We hope the BOOKHUB DELIVERY cart and BOOKHUB LIBRARIES bring our students lots of happiness, fun and reading love all year long. 

Posters will go up in the classrooms, we will be sharing on social and our library website and we even have...

 ...adorable stickers being made by StickerMule we can pass out to students to...

...get them excited and happy about our library, books and reading throughout the year. 

You will find the Google Slides that I worked in to make these images here, the BOOKHUB LIBRARY signs for each grade level here and the grade level flags here. 

Feel free to make a copy and use them to make your very own BOOKHUB DELIVERY cart pictures, posters, stickers and more too. 

Fran Manushkin Joins Us For A Very Special Capstone Virtual Book Club....Join It Here, Friends

I am excited to share the second interview in our NEW Capstone Virtual Book Club. 

This time I had the honor to talk with my dear friend and amazing author and storyteller, Fran Manushkin. 

As shared on the Capstone site,  Fran is the author of the Katie Woo and Pedro series and many other popular picture books. 

To kick off our time together, Fran read her book, Super Paramedic, from her Katie Woo's Neighborhood series. 

We wanted to share this book to highlight all of the wonderful ways health care workers help everyone, especially right now during the pandemic.  This would be the perfect way to open up a conversation with our young readers and even have your students and children make posters and cards to give to health care workers to say thanks. 

We then talked about writing, being an author, Katie Woo and Pedro, her cats and much more.  It was so much fun!  

You will find the recording of the book club above. 

I also wanted to include this sweet little book trailer for Katie Woo and...

...the Reading is for Everyone poster from Capstone where Pedro and Katie are included.  You will find it here. 

We hope you enjoy the second in our series and join us for the next Capstone Virtual Book Club coming up in August.  

Thank you, Fran for being part of the Capstone Virtual Book Club.  Please join us again. 

Oh, and you will find and can subscribe to all of our Virtual Book Clubs here. 

Join Us On July 23 for the Newsela Summer Sessions Virtual PD Event

This week on July 23, 2020, I am excited to be part of the Newsela Summer Sessions, a virtual professional learning event for educators.

 I have the honor of giving the keynote at the end of the day and will join....

...an amazing line up of others focusing on the upcoming year and best practices around using Newsela with our students, teachers and school community. 

You can sign up for this free event here.  We hope to see you there....it's going to be an awesome day! 

Future Ready Librarians® Creating Return To Learn Plans For Your Library....Join Us On July 29, Friends

Returning to school this fall is guaranteed to look very different and in many districts and schools, the plans are yet to be determined. Future Ready Librarians® are leading beyond the library and collaborating working with schools and district leaders to support school and district’s vision and strategic plan for digital learning and fosters a culture of collaboration and innovation to empower teachers and learners. Future Ready Librarians are creating plans that support learning on campus and online. These plans are grounded in the Future Ready Librarians framework and support personalized student centered learning.

On July 29, 2020 at 11:00am CST, we will be hosting a new webinar to discuss Future Ready Librarians® creating return to learn plans for your library. 

Our guests will include: 

• Martha Bongiorno, President-Elect of the Georgia Library Media Association and Middle School Library Media Specialist, Fulton County Schools (Metro Atlanta)
• Kim Habruner Borden, Elementary Librarian, Plainfield Elementary School, Pen Argyl (PA)
• Liz Wiemann-Doll, 4-8th Grade Teacher Librarian,Pen Argyl Area School District (PA)
• Mary Manee, K-6 Library Clerk Woodrow Wilson Elementary, Corona Norco Unified School District.(CA)
• Shannon McClintock Miller, Future Ready Librarian Spokesperson, K–12 District Teacher Librarian, Van Meter Community School (IA) (@shannonmmiller) 

The guests will discuss and share:

• Return to learn plans and reopening guidelines being created and shared by state and local organizations
• The return to learning plans being created by librarians and schools
• How the plans were created and who was involved
• How the return to learn plans will be shared with the school community and beyond
• Next steps and how you can lead from the library in the reopening guidelines and return to learn plans for your district too!

We have been sharing our plans on this Padlet, which will be discussed during the webinar.  If you have plans and resources to share, please feel free to add so we can include these in the webinar and a new Collection by Destiny too. 

Don’t miss out on the opportunity to learn from others and be inspired to lead from your library by supporting the creation of a return to learn plans for the library. 

You can register for the webinar here.  The recording and resources will be shared with all who register afterwards too. 

Week 9 of Virtual Camp Adventure....It's Games and Sports!

It's time for Week 9 of Our Virtual Camp Adventure!  

This week, we are focusing on the topic of Games and Sports!  When you go to the special website, you will find the choice board for Week 9.  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 add each weeks choice board and other resources including the Google Site, bookmark, flyer and more. 

Students and families will find another special Collection by Destiny for additional...

...Summer Reading and Learning Programs here and on the Week 9 Choice Board as circled in the picture above.

In the Week 8 choice board, they will find the Week 9 of Virtual Camp Adventure...Game and Sports Buncee filled with Capstone Interactive eBooks that everyone has free access to at home.

You will find all of the Buncees of Capstone eBooks for each week here on this special Virtual Camp Adventure Buncee Board.

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 ninth week of Virtual Camp Adventure. Let's see what happens when they learn about and celebrate GAMES AND SPORTS! 

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