Monday, February 28, 2022

Celebrate Day 2 Of Our "Reading Is For Everyone" Celebration...Let's Celebrate Our Favorite Books!

It's Day 2 of Reading Is For Everyone Week, friends! 

We love celebrating Read Across America every year.  It is such a special way to celebrating reading and so many special books.  This year, it is on March 2, 2022.  You can learn more here on the NEA site. 

At our school, and at schools around the country, we celebrate Read Across America all week long by celebrating how Reading Is For Everyone. 
On February 28-March 4, we celebrate Reading Is For Everyone with special themed days each week. 

There is a fun activity for our kids tied to each day including dressing up in a favorite hat, in their favorite shirt, in their jammies and more. You can find the calendar above here.  Feel free to make a copy to change up for your school community. 
I also worked with my friends at Capstone to bring together 58 special Capstone Interactive eBooks for the Celebrate Reading Is For Everyone choice board collection. 

For each of the day, there are special books that go along with the daily theme. 
And today it is Let's Celebrate Our Favorite Books! 

There is something for every reader. 

You will find the link to share with students here.  And if you need to make a copy, you can do that here with this link. 

We hope this will help make your special reading week extra special too. 

Just Released...A Future Ready Guide For Supporting Students!

 

The Student Health and Wellness Guide, based upon the Future Ready Framework and in partnership with GoGuardian, has been released! 

As shared on the All4Ed site, 
A Future Ready Guide for supporting students has been released!  This guide will help you personalize your approach to keep student health and well-being at the core of your ongoing progress and planning. 
The Future Ready Framework is used as a road map to create a systemic approach to implementing a student health and well-being program across your school district. The framework keeps learners at the center, and encourages districts to address each of the seven key categories, called “gears,” in order to ensure fidelity of implementation on your transformation journey. You might also want to use the FRS SMART Goal guide to clearly define your needs, set measurable and empathetic goals, plan for equitable student success, reflect on desired outcomes, and celebrate team successes along the way.

For this guide we have embedded modern learning science into the gears of the Future Ready Framework. You will be provided research, questions to consider, resources, and exemplars around student health and well-being that can be both explored and applied.
There are also helpful Exemplars at the bottom of the page. 

You will find the Student Health and Wellness Guide here on the All4Ed site, friends. 



Sunday, February 27, 2022

Check Out The Amazing Line Up Of March Flipgrid Live Events, Friends!

It's almost March a time for a brand new month of amazing Flipgrid Live Events.  This month there is quite a lineup and something for everyone. 

Check them out...


You will find all of these Flipgrid Live Events here where you can register for them too. 

A Special New Historical Picture Book...Revolutionary Prudence Wright...Leading the Minute Women in the Fight for Independence

 

Today on my blog, I have a very special new book to share with all of you.  It is called Revolutionary Prudence Wright...Leading the Minute Women in the Fight for Independence. 

Beth Anderson is the author and....

...my dear friend, Susan Reagan is the illustrator. 

They came together with Calkins Creek/Astra Books for Young Readers to create and publish the "first-ever picture book about female Revolutionary War activist Prudence Wright, who rallied the first and only group of “minute women” to fight the British, changing history in the process", as shared on Beth's website. 

It goes onto share...

Prudence Wright had a spark of independence.

Annoyed when the British king held back freedoms in colonial Massachusetts, feisty and fearless Prudence had enough. She said no! to British goods, determined to rely on her resourcefulness and ingenuity to get by. And when British troops continued to threaten the lives of her family and community, she assembled and led the “minute women” of Pepperell to break free of tradition.

This untold story of a courageous and brave woman from the Revolutionary War continues to inspire today.

As I watched this wonderful book trailer for their book earlier this year, I couldn't wait to hold and read the actual book. 
Susan's beautiful and detailed illustrations brought Beth's riveting and inspiring narrative about Prudence Wright to life. 
                             

The story will draw all readers in and truly inspire them to want to know more about this historical event and amazing woman. 
The Author's Research Note and Illustrator's Note will help guide the readers and conversation, along with the....
...Discussion Guide found here on Beth's site. 

And I just love the Precision Paper...Crafts and Foldables for Revolutionary Prudence Wright activity here.
Students will love exploring these paper folding activities....

....and making connections within Susan's illustrations too. 

I am very excited to bring this to school tomorrow and share it with our students and teachers in the library and classrooms.  It will be a great addition to our historical picture books and is perfect to share right now as we celebrate Women's History Month in March. 

You will find places to purchase this special new book here.  

It's Time To Share All Of The Reading Your Students Did During The Biblionasium Winter "Olympics" Reading Challenge!

                      

Our friends at Biblionasium hosted the Winter "Olympics" Reading Challenge in February. This was such a fun way for students to celebrate the Winter Olympics while reading in books, eBooks, podcasts, audio books and more. The details are shared on the Biblionasium blog here.

By the end of this week, Biblionasium will choose the top three schools whose students logged the most reading minutes in February. 

So, make sure your students have all of their logging done by February 28, 2022. 

It sure was fun celebrating reading with our students! I hope all of you did too. 

The NEW PebbleGo March 2022 Holidays Calendar Is Here and Ready To Use For Research, Learning, Creating and More!

 

It's March this week and time for the NEW PebbleGo March 2022 Holidays Calendar!  

Every month our friends at Capstone create and share a calendar full of fun holidays and the PebbleGo articles related to that day.  
In March, we celebrate National Pig Day, International Women's Day, St. Patrick's Day, Butterfly and so much more.  

And look at just a few of the PebbleGo articles that can be paired up with these days....
...throughout the month of March. 


I love sharing these calendars with our teachers each month.  They can be used as a whole class or even given to students to practice their research skills throughout the month by locating and reading the articles in PebbleGo and PebbleGo Next. 

And now we can take these fun monthly research opportunities one step further with PebbleGo Create. I will show you how to do this in the next post, friends. 

Saturday, February 26, 2022

3 NEW Virtual Sticker Boards For Women's History Month From Our Friends At StickTogether!

 

Women's History Month is almost there and I am excited about...
...3 NEW Virtual StickTogether Sticker Boards to add to our activities, learning and celebrations throughout the month. 

You will find these and more here

To learn more about how virtual StickTogether sticker boards work, check out this post, friends.  You can use them to celebrate Women's History Month with your students and teachers too. 



Friday, February 25, 2022

Register Today For The Upcoming Follett March Webinar, Marketing Your Library...Creative Ways To Share Your Awesomeness!

 

I am so excited to share that the registration is open for my upcoming Follett Community webinar, Marketing Your Library...Creative Ways To Share Your Awesomeness! 

You can join us on March 24, 2022 at 4:00pm CST for this exciting hour of learning, sharing and fun. 

As shared online, 

Now is the time for librarians to lead, and leadership takes strategy and courage! As you look for innovative ways to share the story and voice of your library – including the voice of your students – with the rest of your school and district, you’ll uncover allies and skills you didn’t realize you possess. With creative advocacy and branding, you can bring your library story to life while leading within your school community and throughout the world like never before. 


In this motivating and lively session, Shannon McClintock Miller will share advocacy and branding ideas and strategies designed to empower you to share your own library story, goals, and vision in memorable, effective, and valuable ways. Miller discusses the why and the how of library advocacy and branding, all while exploring her own journey and what’s worked in her library and district. She’ll share specific resources and examples you can use to help communicate your story. 


In this webinar, you learn:


  • The importance of sharing the story and work of your library program
  • What it means to create a brand and marketing plan for your library program
  • Various creative tools and methods to share your awesomeness
  • New knowledge and tools to advocate for and successfully brand your library program - within your community and throughout the world
  • How to bring the voices of your students into the mix, too

And don't worry...it will be recorded, along with all of the resources shared during the webinar, and shared with all of you. 

Thursday, February 24, 2022

Join Us For The Upcoming Future Ready Librarian Webinar, Being Prepared for Selection Policy Concerns. Register Here Today, Friends.

 

Our next Future Ready Librarian webinar, Being Prepared for Selection Policy Concerns, is coming up on March 30, 2022 at 4:00pm EST. 

As shared online, 

This webinar will help you understand strategies for being prepared in case of a book challenge, including preparing policies, planning ahead, communicating and practicing scenarios.

During the webinar the guests will discuss:

  1. What is the impact of the current environment on library selection policies and programming?
  2. What do you need to do to be prepared?
  3. How can communication be improved?
  4. Who are important stakeholders?

Guests:

  • Becky Calzada, library coordinator, Leander ISD (TX)
  • Carolyn Foote, Retired district librarian, Consultant, #FReadom fighter and White House Champion of Change, Austin, (TX)

Moderator:

  • Shannon McClintock Miller, Future Ready Librarians Spokesperson, K-12 District Teacher Librarian, Van Meter Community School (IA) (@shannonmmiller)

Don't worry if you can't make it at that time. It will be recorded and shared, along with the resources and certificate of participation. 

Hope to see you there, friends. 


A Choice Board For St. Patrick's Day!

                

It's almost March and that means one of my favorite holidays, St. Patrick's Day.  This one will join other special events in March including Women's History Month, Read Across America, National Crayon Day and the beginning of spring. 

As I put all of these together, I wanted to share the choice board for St. Patrick's Day. 

You will find the one above that includes PebbleGo here to share with your students.  They will have to login to PebbleGo but everything else is open. If you would like to make edits, you will find the link here.

I also put together one without PebbleGo. Your students can use this link and if you want to make changes you can make a copy here

Later today, I will share the March Choice Board which will include this one for St. Patrick's Day.  I can't wait to share it...and I sure can't wait to share it with our kids! 

Let's Celebrate Women's History Month With This Choice Board, PebbleGo and PebbleGo Next!

In March, we will celebrate Women's History Month and the accomplishments of amazing women.  

As a teacher librarian, I love bringing together all of the books we have in our library about women in a special display for our teachers and students to read and discuss. I collaborate with the teachers to bring experiences to our students around Women's History Month.  I look for women to bring to our students through Zoom and Skype.  

And, one of my favorite things to do is to bring together online resources to give our students, teachers and families a place to celebrate Women's History Month as they learn, create, collaborate and explore great women throughout history. 

As I work on all of these resources and ideas, there are lots of places to look.  
I like to start with PebbleGo and...
...PebbleGo Next.  They are filled with amazing biographies about women our students will enjoy learning about and celebrating during Women's History Month. 
On the choice board I included images of PebbleGo and PebbleGo Next.   

You will find the Let's Celebrate Women's History Month Choice Board here to make changes and share with your students and teachers. 

I will be sharing more around Women's History Month soon, including ways to use PebbleGo Create! 

Let me know if there are other resources I should include here too. 

It's Time For Our March Choice Boards, Friends! You Will Find Everything You Need Here In This Post.

March is right around the corner, friends.  I have put together Our March Choice Boards to share with all of you.  

March has a few special celebrations and events. I shared those in the March Choice Board too. 

Let's start with Our March Choice Board.  You will find it here to share with students.  If you want to make changes, you can make a copy here

Within the March Choice Board, there are several other choice boards.  I am going to include these in the list below. I hope this is helpful if you are wanting to change some things around or make additions. 
Let's start with the Learn about and celebrate special events in March column. 
Let's Celebrate National Crayon Day post here.
Let's Celebrate Women's History Month post here.
Let's Celebrate St. Patrick's Day post here
Celebrate Reading Is For Everyone for Read Across America post here. We are so excited about this program.
Take A Virtual Field Trip Around the World post here

And just as a reminder, remember to share it with your students by Publishing it to the web and sharing that link.  It will just show the slide when you share it that way. 

Please let me know if you have any questions or need help.  I am always happy to share and help you in any way. 

Have fun getting ready for March with your learners at school and for those learning virtually too.