The 25 Days Of Digital Tools and Ideas From Future Ready Librarians® Kicks Off Today With Capstone Connect For Day 1!

It's December 1st and time for a very special month of learning and collaborating together as we kick off The 25 Days of Digital Tools and Ideas from Future Ready Librarians®. 

 

For the first 25 days in December, I will be sharing 25 digital tools, along with ideas and resources to go with each, all shared by wonderful Future Ready Librarians from around the country. 

As shared on the note card, Click on the card that goes with each day in December to find a digital tool, idea and video. 

Let's give it a try!  

I click on Card 1 since it is December 1.  

Up pops the slide for Day 1. 

I am the first one to kick off the fun by sharing Capstone Connect.  On each day, we will be sharing the app description, uses as a Future Ready Librarian and Ideas for Using With Students. There will be pictures of ideas and lots of links to be shared each day. 

In the upper right hand corner of each slide, there will be a short 2-3 minute video from the special guest sharing that digital tool.  To open the video full screen, just double click on it. This will bring everything together and leave you with lots of ideas to use the digital tool within your school and library too. 

You will also find the video here. 

As you learn on Day 1, we would love to hear how you use or would use Capstone Connect.  Feel free to add to the post in the Future Ready Librarian Facebook page or on Twitter or Instagram using #FutureReadyLibs or #FutureReady.

As we add more and more days and slides, just click on the red house in the right hand corner of every slide.  That will take you back to...

...this front page where you can easily click on any of the days as they are being added throughout the month.  And it will be a great way to follow lots of amazing Future Ready Librarians too! 

Last year, I used each day to learn more about the digital tool being shared that day.  It was also fun to try them out myself and with our students and teachers.  I can't wait to do the same thing this December too. 

You will find The 25 Days of Digital Tools and Ideas from Future Ready Librarians® choice board here.  

I hope you join us for The 25 Days of Digital Tools and Ideas, friends.  It will be a great month of learning, creating and sharing with others.  Check back here on my blog daily. 

It's Almost Time For The 25 Days of Digital Tools and Ideas From Future Ready Librarians....We Kick It Off December 1st, Friends!

It's almost time for The 25 Days of Digital Tools and Ideas From Future Ready Librarians! 

On December 1, we kick off this special event for 25 days.  We started this tradition last year after our 1st Annual Future Ready Librarians® Digital Learning App Smash and will continue it this year as we just hosted the...

....2nd Annual Digital Learning App Smash.  

Each day, I will be sharing one of the digital tools as shared by our amazing guest speakers from the webinar.  The video clip of each person presenting during the webinar, will also be shared on the slide in the upper right hand corner as shown in the image above. 

Last year, I used each day to learn more about the digital tool being shared that day.  It was also fun to try them out myself and with our students and teachers.  I can't wait to do the same thing this December too. 

I hope you join us for The 25 Days of Digital Tools and Ideas, friends.  It will be a great month of learning, creating and sharing with others.  Check back here on my blog starting December 1st. 

Storyvoice...A NEW Place To Watch Live Author Events! And Tomorrow...Join Peter H. Reynolds As He Shares Our Table!

 

There is a new place to go for LIVE author events that I am so excited to join from our classrooms and from the library.  It's called Storyvoice. 

Tomorrow, on November 30 at 11:00am EST, we will kick it off with the Holiday Read-Aloud Special with Peter H. Reynolds as he shares his new book, Our Table. 

You will find the link for this event here.  When it is time for the event, just open that link to join. 

Throughtout December, there are three more events including Max Amato, 

Kelly Fernandez and...

...Kevin Sherry. 

You will find all of these events and more information about Storyvoice here.

You can watch from a computer or from a phone or tablet. Read about that here too. 

Adding Special MerryMakers Friends To Our You've Been Book'd Bags!

We are adding something new and special to our monthly You've Been Book'd Bags at our school. 

Last month when I was getting the holiday book list ready, I added one of my favorite Hanukkah stories, Goodnight Bubbala, to the list.

As shared online, 

In the small blue room there was a bubbala... So begins a delightful twist on the classic bedtime book! Readers, young and old, will be captivated by the Jewish charm of Goodnight Bubbala by Sheryl Haft, illustrated by Jill Weber. This matching plush bunny is dressed ready for bed in warm red pajamas with snowflake details. With soft plush fur and snuggly "shmatta" blanket this is an endearing gift set – perfect for bedtime, new parents, baby showers, first birthdays, and Hanukkah!

This zesty parody of one of America’s favorite picture books offers a very different bedtime routine: one that is full of family exuberance and love. Instead of whispers of “hush,” this bedtime includes dancing and kvelling, and of course, noshing—because this little bunny is a Jewish bunny, and this joyous book celebrates the Jewish values of cherishing your loved ones, expressing gratitude, and being generous.

You can also listen to the author, Sheryl Haft, read it on Brightly Storytime Together here. 

As I was looking online for a little more information about the book, I found that our friends at MerryMakers have a Goodnight Bubbala Bunny available! 

I thought, Why not add the Goodnight Bubbala Bunny with the book to the You've Been Book'd bag? The kids would LOVE this! 

And guess what?  

They did!  The first graders who got the Goodnight Bubbala bag first were so happy and excited.  I can't wait to hear what the other teachers and students say after sharing the book and bunny too. 

You will find Goodnight Bubbala here on the MerryMakers site.

And this is just a start as I plan to add more of the MerryMakers friends and books to our You've Been Book'd program.  

You've Been Virtually Book'd For The Holidays....A Special Program and List I Use Within Our Destiny Discover Each Month

 

It's December and such a wonderful time to celebrate all of the special holidays and traditions. 

For December, I put together a choice board filled with 14 new and favorite print and eBooks from our Destiny Discover that I can't wait to share with our students and teachers at my school.  

I will be sharing these print books in our You've Been Book'd bags this month, but I have also created a choice board for everyone to use.  

This is how I set up this choice board for my school community. 

First, I created the choice board in a Google Slide.  I added the covers of the 14 eBooks I included in this choice board. 

Second, I went to our Destiny Discover and...

...grabbed the links to each eBook.  

This is easy to do.  You just search for the eBook, click on the three little dots next to Open, and this drop down menu will appear. 

Click on Share and the link to the book will pop up. That is the url to share in the choice boards. 

Take the copied link and add it to the book cover.  

When every book cover is linked, you are ready to share the choice board. 

Go to File and down to Publish to the web.  

This will give you a link to share with the students and teachers.  

When they click on that published link, the You've Been Virtually Book'd With These Picture Books will pop up and all of the eBooks can be read from there. 

I am excited about this list of 14 special new eBooks I put together in Titlewave.  In this choice board, you can click on any book cover to view and find the full book list from Titlewave there too. 

Have fun learning about and celebrating all of these special holidays and traditions with your students and teachers, friends. 

A Choice Board For Learning More About Hanukkah

 

Hanukkah is observed for eight days starting from November 28 to December 6, 2021. We will use this choice board at our school to learn about Hanukkah through PebbleGo and PebbleGo Next articles, Capstone Interactive eBooks, songs, coloring Hanukkah art in an Art Coloring Book from Google and a S.T.E.M. Challenge from our friends at Maker Maven.

You will find the link to share with your students here.

If your students use devices, here is the QR code they can scan that will take them directly to the choice board too. 

Join The 2021 Gingerbread STEM Community Global Makerspace Project This Holiday Season...Details and a NEW Choice Board Here!

One of my favorite holiday projects every year is the....

...Gingerbread STEM Community Global Makerspace Project brought to us by... 

...the amazing Dyane Smokorowski and Micah Brown. I always get so excited when Dyane shares this wonderful global Makerspace project with all of us. 

There are lots of fun ways to participate in this project with all ages.  You will find the 2021 Gingerbread STEM Community Global Makerspace Project site here.

In the past, we have created gingerbread houses out of different art and recycled materials; 

built and wrote about gingerbread houses in Buncee...

...that we shared here in this Buncee Board; 

...and even used Tinkercad to design and build virtual gingerbread houses that the students then viewed in augmented reality using the Merge Object Viewer app. 

To help our students build background knowledge and learn more about gingerbread houses, I put together this Gingerbread Choice Board.  On this choice board, there is a video of the History of Gingerbread; a link with over 50 super cool gingerbread houses for inspiration and ideas; The Gingerbread Man from Capstone; How to Draw a Gingerbread House from Art Hub for Kids; and four different places to create gingerbread houses and gingerbread cookies online. 

You will find the Gingerbread Choice Board to share with your students here.  If you want to make edits, you can make a copy here.

The sky is the limit and I can't wait to see how everyone celebrates, creates and connects this year in the 2021 Gingerbread STEM Community Global Makerspace Project. 

Holiday Hugs...A Special Project For Your Students & Community To Be Part Of This Holiday Season!

 

One of my favorite projects during the holiday season is Holiday Hugs from our friends at Buncee by Capstone.  This wonderful project is such a special way for our students to spread a little cheer to children who are spending their holiday in the hospital. This year, all the Buncees will be shared with Children’s Minnesota, a non-profit system of children’s hospitals. 

And this year, Capstone has pledged that for every give Buncees added to the Holiday Hugs Buncee Board, they will donate one book to Children's Minnesota, for up to 500 books!  

You can read all about how Holiday Hugs started on the Buncee Blog here. 

And this is how you get involved in Holiday Hugs too...

• Create your own Holiday Hug Buncee
• Add your Buncee to the official Holiday Hugs Buncee Board
• Be sure to submit your Buncee’s before the official cut off date, December 15th

I hope you join us in creating Holiday Hugs, friends. 

Join Us For The 3rd Annual Future Ready Librarians® Fireside Chat On December 8th, Friends

 

In this final Future Ready Librarians® webinar of 2021, Shannon McClintock Miller has invited a few special guests to join her as they share the top things that have happened within libraries and education this year. 

During this fun and fast paced hour, Shannon and guests will talk about the hot topics around libraries and within education from 2021 including books and books banning, technology, diversity, SEL and more.  

When we look at our framework as Future Ready Librarians®, we tie this essential work into the wedges of leading from the library including Leading from the Library, Advocates for Student Privacy, Leading Literacy, Empowering Students as Creator and others.

Shannon McClintock Miller, Future Ready Librarians®Spokesperson, Preschool–12 District Teacher Librarian and Innovation Director, Van Meter Community School (IA)(@shannonmmiller) (moderator)

Mark Ray, Future Ready Librarians® Advisor (@_TeacherX)

Len Bryan, Campus Librarian, Spring Branch ISD (TX) (lenbryan25)

Bill Bass, Innovation Coordinator for Instructional Technology, Information, and Library Media, Parkway Schools (MO) (@billbass)

Josh Stumpenhorst, Learning Commons Director, Naperville Community Unit School District 203 (IL) (@stumpteacher)

This chat promises to be a wonderful hour to celebrate our work from 2021 and think about what we can do in the new year. 

You can register for the Future Ready Librarians® Fireside Chat here. 

A Little Virtual StickTogether Surprise For The Holiday! You Can Make One For Your Students With This Template Too!

 

With one more day of school before our Thanksgiving holiday, I made a special virtual StickTogether stickerboard for all of our teachers to do with their students today.  Our kids love working on the virtual stickerboards together and get super excited when the image is revealed. 

Here is how I create the virtual StickTogether stickerboard posters like the one above. 

First, go to letstick.to/redeem and click on Redeem my sticker code if you have one to use or Go to shop if you need to purchase a sticker code. 

Redeem your sticker code by pasting the unique code you received. 

Next, Select an artwork which is the image the players will build together in the stickerboard. Remember, it won't be revealed to them until it is finished. 

There are a a few for Thanksgiving including a Turkey and Give Thanks. That is the one I picked for all of them I made for our teachers and students. 

I also love the Fall Harvest and Fall Barn for this time of year. 

Once you select the artwork, it will ask you to give it a Project Title and add Your Name.  You will save that and select I am sure. 

Now your stickerboard is ready! 

You just Copy the Link and take it to...

...the Google Slide where I created the choice board to share with each classroom. I made a copy to add the unique code for each teacher. 

You will find a copy of the Thanksgiving StickTogether Google Slide here. 

You can hyperlink the copied code to the turkey where it says Click Here. 

Once you have the code added, click on Edit and go to Publish to the web. Click on Publish and that will give you...

...a link to share with your teachers.  

They can share this published link to the Google Slide in their students Google Classroom or on Seesaw. When they click on that link...

....it will take to them straight to the virtual stickerboard.  Students can then add stickers to the board together to complete the image. 

Happy Holidays, friends.  I hope you have a wonderful week with your family and friends.