It's Here... 25 Days of Sticking Together With Ideas and Inspiration From Our StickTogether Ambassadors!

Happy Holidays, friends.  

We are so excited to share something very special for the month of December with all of you.  In the 25 Days of Sticking Together With Ideas and Inspiration From Our StickTogether Ambassadors choice board, you will find 50 amazing and creative ideas for using everything StickTogether. 

In the choice board that you will find here. just click on each day of the week throughout December and one or two ideas will be revealed.   

Look at the ideas we have shared so far....

Day 1 from StickTogether Community Leader and Director of Digital Marketing and Owner of Engaged Media Solutions, Brianna Cua, 

Day 2 from Sylvia Stein, Founder and Creator of StickTogether; and...

today on Day 3 from Stephanie Galvan Russell who is a teacher librarian in Austin, Texas. 

We hope that you enjoy sticking together throughout December and can't wait to hear from you will bring these ideas and projects to your students, teachers and community too. 

The December Virtual Stickerboard Calendar Is Here and Filled With So Many New Stickerboards!

The December Virtual Stickerboard Calendar from our friends at StickTogether is here and filled with so many new Virtual Stickerboards! 

Every month, StickTogether creates a wonderful calendar that shows special events throughout the month. And the BEST part...they have created a monthly Virtual StickTogether Sticker Board Gallery to go along with these special events and celebrations!  

You will find the December Virtual Stickerboard Calendar here.

You will find out more about Virtual Stickerboards and how to use them with your students here.

Once you click on Create a Virtual Stickerboard, go to the December 2023 Gallery here

This gallery has all of the Virtual Stickerboards that correspond with the days on the new StickTogether Virtual Stickerboard Calendar. 

You can read all about the NEW Virtual Stickerboard subscription experience here.

Have fun using the December Virtual Stickerboards with your students and community as we get ready for a brand new school year, friends. 

Turn The December 2023 PebbleGo & PebbleGo Next Monthly Holiday Calendar Into An Interactive Research Choice Board For Your Students & Teachers!

 

Our friends at Capstone create these super fun PebbleGo and PebbleGo Next Holiday Calendars each month. 

In this post, I share more about the PebbleGo Monthly Calendars. 

I love making paper copies of these to share with our teachers and kids. 

They hang them up in their classrooms and hang them in our library too. I also share them online through social media and as an image in Google Classroom or Seesaw. 

The teachers even use the PebbleGo Calendars for mini research opportunities throughout each week. The students use PebbleGo Create to share what they learn throughout the month with the calendars. 

Here is the PebbleGo and PebbleGo Next December 2023 Holidays Calendar. 

Earlier this year, when I was sharing the calendars with teachers and students, I thought....Hey, this would be really fun in a choice board! 

So, I opened up a Google Slide, uploaded the PebbleGo December 2023 Holidays Calendar, and added a little chalk board with text over the top.  

Then I went through the calendar and found every special day in PebbleGo and PebbleGo Next.  

For example, the first day of Hanukkah is on December 7. The PebbleGo article about Hanukkah is perfect for this special event. 

I went to PebbleGo and found the article. I grabbed the link, as shown in the image above. 

I took that link and added a linked text box around each special date. 

Now, when the kids click on a holiday, it will take them directly to that PebbleGo article.  

If you want to use the template to create your own, you will find the Google Slide here to make a copy and add links to the PebbleGo and PebbleGo Next articles. 

And to make it a choice board, just Publish to the web, as shown in this image above. 

You will share that Published Link with your students.  

I love sharing these interactive PebbleGo and PebbleGo Next Holiday Calendars with our students and teachers. They love learning all about these special days that are highlighted each month too.

I will have the December 2023 PebbleGo and PebbleGo Next ready to go for the month. I hope you will find ways to use it with your students and teachers. 

It's Here, Friends...Our December Choice Boards!

It's here, friends!  Our December Choice Board where reading, learning, making, coding, technology and music can take you on adventures all month long. 

This month, the choice board is filled with so many new and exciting things!  I can't wait to share it with our students, teachers and families, and all of you. 

You will find Our December Choice Board here to make a copy to use with your students and school community.  This is the published link to share with your students. 

With the monthly choice board, I do include other choice boards and special holidays and celebrations. 

On Our December Choice Board, you will find Our Holiday Choice Boards Collection. You will find the links to this in this post. 

You will also find the 12 Days of Making With Capstone Interactive choice board filled with eBooks and activities around the different making topics.  You will find the link to this choice board here.

With Hour of Code coming up on December 5, I included several great activities and...

...the Elementary Coding Choice Boards found here. 

There is also Our Virtual Makerspace found here and...

... the Let's Take A Trip Around The World Buncee found here. 

I create most of my choice boards in Google Slides and Buncee. With each choice board in Google Slides, I share this with our students and teachers by publishing it to the web. 

In the image above, you can see how to do this by clicking on Share and Publish to the Web. 

The Publish to the Web window pops up that will direct you to publish to the web. It will give you a link that you will copy to share with students and teachers through Google Classroom, Seesaw and any other place you want to share this like social media and through QR codes. 

You will find Our December Choice Board here to make a copy to use with your students and school community.  This is the published link to share with your students. 

Please let me know if you have any questions or need help sharing and creating choice boards.  

I hope the monthly and special choice boards will give you and your students special opportunities for reading, learning, creating, collaborating and having fun all year long. 

The December Achievery Calendar Is Here! And Find Out How You Can Join Us For An Opportunity To Be An Achievery Ambassador!

I am so excited to share the December 2023 Achievery Calendar with all of you!  This is a wonderful resource to enhance your curriculum with engaging lessons and videos using the special monthly choice board calendar created with The Achievery.

In the December 2023 Achievery Calendar, you will find it filled with videos and lessons that link to special events throughout the month.  These are for all ages, kindergarten through 12th grade, in a wide variety of topics.  There is something for everyone in The Achievery. 

The Achievery Calendar is the perfect way to find special ways to bring the videos and lessons to your students and community all year long. 

Here is how it works! 

1. Create a FREE Achievery account at futureready.link/achievery 

2. Click on the image to directly access the video and lesson. Please note that to access the lessons directly from the calendar, you need to be logged into your Achievery account first.

3. Use these videos and lesson with your students. There is something for ALL grade levels and content areas. 

We will be sharing theses calendars from The Achievery and Future Ready Schools every month.  

This is a great resource to share as we go back to school with others within your school and network. The Achievery is FREE for all teachers, students and families. 

As a champion of digital learning, Future Ready Schools is proud to collaborate with The Achievery. We're building a community of innovative educators who are committed to using high-quality digital learning tools to support more equitable, more engaging student learning experiences. 

As educators, we all want to help our students develop a love of learning and explore their passions. That's why we wanted to let you know about the Achievery Ambassadors Program, a free professional learning community.

The Achievery is a digital learning platform that connects students to high-quality learning through stories that spark curiosity. The Achievery Ambassadors program is designed for educators who are passionate about inspiring students to explore their interests and pursue their dreams.

As an Achievery Ambassador, you will have access to:

• Professional development and training on using The Achievery platform in the classroom.
• Opportunities to connect with other educators and share best practices.
• Exclusive resources and content to help you inspire and engage your students.
• And much more!

Whether you are a teacher, media specialist, or instructional coach, The Achievery Ambassadors program is a great way to enhance your teaching and help your students explore their passions.

You can learn more and apply here today. 

I hope you will join us for this special opportunity. 

The December Capstone Holiday Calendar and Book List Is Filled With Special Books and Events, Friends! You Will Find It Here.

It's almost December and time for a new set of books on the December Capstone Holiday Calendar.  I love using these calendars to highlight books each month from our collection. 

It's a great way to celebrate and learn about topics that tie into our curriculum including important historical events, and other special events that our kids love to learn and read about throughout the year. 

You will find the Capstone December Holiday Calendar here, along with the other months too. 

And here is the December Book List where you will find the links to the books on CapstonePub.com.

When the Capstone Holiday Calendar comes out each year, I go through and mark the books we have in our library collection, and add the books to my list that I'd like to order for my collection each month too.

You can read all about the 2023-24 Capstone Holiday Calendar Poster here, friends. 

Here Is A Collection Of The 2023 Best Books Lists, Friends. Find The Link To This Collection & Learn How To Create One Too.

 

I love this time of year when all of the Best Books lists are announced.  I always bring them together in a Collection by Destiny and started the 2023 Best Books Collection today.  You can find it here. I will continue to add to it as I find more and more of the Best Books lists. 

Let me show you how I made the Collection by Destiny.  You will find Collections up at the top of the page in your Destiny Discover. 

After clicking on Collections, click on Private and Create Collection, which is shown in the image above. 

You will put in the Title and Description of the Collection.  I made this Collection Public because I want anyone to be able to view and use this one. 

This is also the window where you can add an Image and Color. 

I create the images for my Collections in Canva.  If you create the size 600px x 400px it will fit perfectly. 

This is also where you can share by click on...

..that little share button to Share the Collection. For this one, I want anyone with the link to view the Collection. I can grab the link here and also share in Google Classroom or by email.  I can also add specific People to view and edit too. 

There are two ways to add resources to your Collections. You can click on the little + sign in the right hand corner. 

You can also add the Bookmarklet to your bookmark toolbar. This makes it so easy to add any URL to any of your collections. 

You will see in the image above how I found another list, clicked on Collections in my bookmark toolbar and added it to the growing Collection. 

Collections by Destiny are such a helpful way to curate and share resources for your students, teachers and professionally too. 

You've Been Virtually Book'd For Hour of Code Week, December 4-10, 2023....A Special Program and List I Use Within Our Destiny Discover & Library Each Month!

We are getting ready to celebrate Hour of Code Week, December 4-10, 2023. We will be collaborating on coding projects, bringing exciting activities to our students, and sharing lots of books and eBooks with coding topics and stories. 

In fact, one of the best parts of special days like this is sharing these books with all of our students and teachers within the library, classrooms and even at home. There are so many special ones that will inspire our kids, while bringing them ideas and fun. 

I brought together a list of 14 coding books that we have in our library collection. I also created a choice board with these books and linked them to our Destiny Discover so our students can find and read these special books from our library. 

Let me show you 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 books I included in the list.

Second, I went to our Destiny Discover and grabbed the links to each book. 

This is easy to do.  You just search for the book, click on the three little dots in the entry, 

and the drop down menu shown in the image above will appear. 

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

I love how I can also download the QR Code.  Isn't that cool? 

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 For Hour of Code Week, December 4-10, 2023 choice board will pop up. They can then click on each book cover to find them in our Destiny where they can read more about the book, find them in our library and even put them on reserve. 

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

If you want to make a copy to add your own Destiny Discover links from your library, click here. 

Our students and teachers will love these coding books that are part of our You've Been Virtually Book'd program.  And I love how we can keep this program going all year long!  It brings so much to our readers each and every month.

Building A NEW BOOK LIBRARY For Our Readers This Year. Find The Template and Directions For Destiny Discover Here, Friends.

 

I love sharing all of the new books we add to our library throughout the year.  Not only is it exciting for our students to see what is being added to our library collection, it is important for our teachers to know as these books support their curriculum, classroom and of course, their readers. 

This year, I wanted to create a virtual place where these new books can be featured. 

I did it in a choice board...

...and embedded it within our Destiny Discover. 

                          

There is a place for Picture Books, 

Early Readers, 

Chapter Books, 

                         

Nonfiction, and more. 

This is the template that I created for the New Book Library choice board. You can find a copy here to use for your library collection too. 

My library associate, Natasha, adds the book covers as she adds new books to Destiny. 

I also wanted to use this choice board as a place to tie in Destiny Discover. 

We did this by using the Share links for each book found in Destiny Discover. 

When you look up a book in Destiny Discover, you will see the three little dots on the right hand side as shown in the picture above.  Click on those...

...and this drop down menu pops up.  

Click on Share...

...and you will find all the ways you can share a book.  You can download a QR code, share a link and explore title details to Google Classroom (or One Drive). 

For the choice board, we grab the URL to Share...

...and take it over to the choice board to attach to the book cover.  

When it is clicked on in the choice board, it will take readers to the book in Destiny Discover where they can read more about the book, see if it is checked in or out, and even put a hold on the book.

If you want to use the template to create your own New Book Library choice board, remember to share the Published Link.  You find that by going to File, down to Publish to web, and sharing that published link. 

I then take that over to my Destiny Discover, 

go to Discovery Admin, 

...and add it to Featured Content.  You can add a screen shot of the choice board and hyperlink it to the published link. 

I am excited to watch our New Book Library grow this year.  I love how excited our readers are when I show them our New Book Library in Destiny.  This will be another place to support and grow the love of reading within our community.  One of my favorite things about being a librarian.