Get VOOKS For FREE All Teachers & Librarians...Storybooks Brought To Life!

Vooks is such a wonderful place for librarians, teachers, families and most of all, our readers. 

As shared on the Vooks site...Storybooks Brought To Life! 

Vooks is an entire library of storybooks brought to life with beautiful animation, read-aloud narration, engaging music and sound, and read-along text. We're educational, safe, and ad-free screen time that inspires a lifelong love of reading!

You can search any of the books to watch. At the bottom under Activities, you will find the amazing activities too. 

Look at this one for Earth Yay! that will be fun to use for Earth Day in April. 

And the great news...VOOKS is always free for teachers!  You can find the link here.

Not only are there so many wonderful books to share with your students, there are Beyond the Book Activities and Resources here too. 

I can't wait to hear which books in VOOKS is your favorite!  

Don't forget to mark them as your favorite with the little heart so they show up in the handy little spot called Your Favorites. 

You will find VOOKS here, friends. 

Join Us For The Upcoming StickTogether Webinar On April 11...Creating Curricular Connections With StickTogether & Other Digital Resources!

 

Finding ways to enhance and support teaching and learning is so important for teachers and librarians. It not only makes learning engaging and meaningful, it brings fun to our learners too. In this special StickTogether webinar, learn how to create curricular connections using StickTogether and other digital resources such as eBooks, digital tools like PebbleGo Create, MERGE, Google Slides, Canva, The Achievery, WeVideo, DoInk and so much more.

Join Shannon McClintock Miller, Brianna Cua, and Heather Fox on April 11, 2023 at 4:00pm CST to learn how to create curricular connections with StickTogether and other digital resources.

All attendees will be given access to a very special Virtual Gallery! Three attendees will be entered to win an webinar exclusive Sticker Poster kit.

You can register for this FREE webinar here.  

The recording and resources will be sent out after the webinar to everyone who registers too. 

Meet Your Hosts

Shannon McClintock Miller serves as the District Teacher Librarian and Innovation Director at Van Meter Community School District in Iowa. She is also the Future Ready Librarians Spokesperson working with the Alliance of Excellent Education in Washington DC.  Shannon is an avid blogger at, The Library Voice, writing, speaking and consulting on librarianship, education and students around the world. You will find her on Twitter and Instagram at @shannonmmiller.

Brianna Cua is the owner of Engaged Media Solutions, a full-service digital marketing consulting company. She is also the Director of Digital Marketing and Brand Communications for StickTogether. You will find her on Twitter and Instagram at @BriannaMCua.

Heather Fox is the Elementary Librarian at Amana Elementary in Iowa.  She loves finding ways to inspire reading, creativity and learning with her library and throughout the school community.

9 LIVE Author Read-Alouds In April From Our Friends At Storyvoice!

 

I love the live author events that our friends at Storyvoice.  

Today, they shared nine new ones coming up in April. WOW...They are going to be awesome! 

You can join all of these with students and teachers FREE at this link. Make sure you share these with others in your school community too. 

Watch Our Novel Effect + StickTogether Webinar....Innovative Storytelling: Building Connections with Novel Effect and SitckTogether!

 

This week, we hosted an awesome new webinar with our friends at Novel Effect and StickTogether. 

Brianna, Kathi and I had so much fun in this webinar. We are excited to share it with all of you. 

You will find the recording of our webinar here.  At the end of the webinar, you will find the certificate of participation. 

And here are the slides from our webinar too. 

Enjoy, friends. Please reach out if you have any questions. Our contact information is available in the slides.

Enhance Your Curriculum With Engaging Lessons & Videos Using The Special April Achievery Calendar...And For Your Chance To Win!

 

I am so excited to share something NEW to enhance your curriculum with engaging lessons and videos using the special monthly choice board calendar created with The Achievery.

In the April 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 new 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 lesson. Please note that to access the lessons directly from the calendar, you need to be logged into your Achievery account first.

3. Share how you are using the lessons on social media with hashtag #FRS_Achievery and earn a chance to win a $25 gift card from Amazon. We can't wait to see your ideas, friends. 

3 Winners will be announced on May 2! 

April is our first calendar.  We will be sharing this wonderful resource from The Achievery and Future Ready Schools every month.  

We can't wait to share them with all of you. And remember this is a great resource to share with others within your school and network. The Achievery is FREE for all teachers, students and families. 

Join Us For The Future Ready Librarians Spring Summit....Branding Your Future Ready Library!

              

We are excited to announce our Future Ready Librarians Spring Summit coming up on April 1, 2023 at 11:00am-1:00pm EST.  This time the theme is Branding Your Future Ready Library. 
 
The Future Ready Librarians® summit is a FREE, live, virtual, interactive, high-quality professional learning experience for librarians interested in learning, growing, and expanding their professional practice through collaboration and networking with like-minded colleagues from across the country. This interactive online event will help librarians ground their practice in the research-based Future Ready Librarians® Framework and define new ways in which they can lead, teach, and support learning in their schools. Leveraging the active Future Ready Librarians® community, the live summit is designed around authentic problems of practice identified by librarians.
 
This summit will give you a chance to pose questions and share ideas with other librarians and library leaders. Learn and interact with both administrators and librarians about lessons learned and best practices. 

Key questions include:
 
Why does brand matter to your library and practice?
How do patrons perceive your brand?
How do you tell your story to build your brand?
What tools and resources can you use to build and share your brand?
 
Register today – It’s free - https://futureready.link/apr1

Find The Special Digital Learning Day Webinar, Connecting Students To Learning Through Digital Tools, Here.

 

We celebrated Digital Learning Day on March 15th with one of the BEST webinars! 

On this special webinar, Connecting Students to Learning Through Digital Tools, I welcomed...

• BreakoutEDU, @breakoutEDU
• MERGE Edu, @mergeedu
• News Literacy Project, @NewsLitProject 
• StickTogether, @byStickTogether
• Novel Effect, @Novel_Effect
• Scratch, @scratch
• Boddle, @BoddleLearning
• PebbleGo Create, @Buncee
• Follett, @FollettLearning
• Sphero, @Sphero
• The Achievery,  @ATTimpact, #TheAchievery

You can watch the webinar here. 

In the webinar, I shared the Digital Learning Day Webinar Collection by Destiny filled with all of the slides, links and resources our amazing guests shared.  You can use this as a place to find everything you need for bringing these digital tools and resources to your school and libraries. 

I also created this Padlet for anyone to share digital tools, ideas and resources for making connections and personalizing learning for ALL students every day, everywhere. Please feel free to share on our Padlet and use it too. 

A Choice Board For Ramadan with PebbleGo, Capstone eBooks, Crafts, StickTogether & More!

 

Ramadan is celebrated March 22 to April 21, 2023. I put together a choice board as a place for our students to read, listen, create and collaborate as they learn about Ramadan. 

First, I added the PebbleGo article about Ramadan. 

I also added two Capstone Interactive eBooks that our students can read and listen to about Ramadan.

It's always fun to add a few places for our students to create like these two crafts they can do at school or even at home with their families. 

Finally, I couldn't wait to add StickTogether to our Ramadan choice board!  

In the March Virtual Stickerboard Gallery, you will find three choices for Ramadan. 

I took one of these images and created a special Ramadan Virtual Stickerboard for everyone at our school to collaborate on together. 

I set it so each student can put on 10 stickers each day. I will keep an eye on them and when they finish one, I will start another Virtual Stickerboard with one of the other Ramadan images. 

And I am so excited for the last activity on the choice board! 

Our students can create their own Ramadan lantern in the StickTogether Pixel Art site. This is FREE for everyone to use and you can find it here to use with your students too.  

If you'd like to make a copy of the Ramadan choice board, you will find the link here. 

Once you make a copy and make your changes, go to Edit and click on Publish to the Web. That is the link you will share with your students. 

Don't Miss This Upcoming Round Table Discussion With Adam Phyall and Future Ready Schools...Demystifying Artificial Intelligence (A.I.)

 

We all have questions about the role artificial intelligence will play in education.  On March 28, 2023, join Adam Phyall, Director of Professional Learning at Future Ready Schools for the Future Ready Leaders Round Table Discussion. 

As shared in the invite, 

With the rise of technology, it’s becoming increasingly important for younger generations to understand the basics of AI and its impact on our society. However, the subject of A.I. can be complex and intimidating for many, which is why we’ve gathered a group of experts to discuss how we can make AI more accessible and understandable for K-12 educators. Through this discussion, we hope to provide insights and perspectives on how to introduce AI in a way that is engaging, interactive, and purposeful.

 We explore the benefits, challenges, and strategies for teaching with A.I. in the classroom. 

Join Dr. Adam Phyall for a round table discussion about demystifying artificial intelligence. As a group, we will talk about:

1. How the use of A.I. tools like ChatGPT can impact student learning? 
2. What ways have you leveraged the use of A.I. in your district?
3. How do you determine which A.I. tools to regulate in your environment?
4. What are potential privacy and data concerns around using A.I. tools?

We are going to actually talk about it,  lean in, share, and collaborate on how we can leverage A.I. to support personalized learning and student success.

You can register here for this free webinar.  

7 Virtual Stickerboards To Share & Create With Your Students To Celebrate St. Patrick's Day!

 

It's St. Patrick's Day! 

Our friends at StickTogether have 7 Virtual Stickerboards to help us celebrate! 

You will find them here on StickTogether's amazing new website.

Once you click on Create Virtual Stickerboard, you will find the St. Patrick's Virtual Stickerboards on the March 2023 page here.

Also, if virtual stickerboards are new to you, check out my blog post about how they work.  

We always have so much fun creating and collaborating on the Virtual Stickerboards. And one of the best parts...they are FREE for everyone. 

Happy St. Patrick's Day, friends.  Have a wonderful day celebrating. 

Celebrate Women's History Month With This Special Site From Our Friends At Capstone!

 

As we celebrate Women's History Month, our friends at Capstone have gathered together a special Women's History Month page on their site. 

As they shared, 

March is Women’s History Month, a month dedicated to celebrating the contributions of women throughout American history. The month also includes International Women’s Day on March 8th.

Join us in spotlighting prominent historic women—the familiar faces and those new to you. Authors Dr. Artika R. Tyner and Leticia Gonzales share their experience working on the First But Forgotten book series and why telling lesser-known stories is so important. We also have great book recommendations for Women’s History Month featuring strong girl characters who can help empower young girl readers, including a sneak peek at our forthcoming series Jina Jeong!  

You won't want to miss all of the featured Women's History Day books and authors including these wonderful articles...

...First But Forgotten...

...and Soaring in Style. 

I especially love 8 Book Series Featuring Strong Girl Characters! Our readers love all of these series and they are definitely my favorites too. 

In fact, you can even preview the new Jina Jeong series. 

Korean American author Carol Kim has created charming stories centered around a Korean American female character in the new Jina Jeong series for grades 1-3. Centering on stories of young children involved in local volunteerism may just inspire readers to become involved in their own communities and causes that are important to them! The series launches in August 2023 with four titles, but you can get a sneak peek at one of the titles now!

I am so excited for this one and can't wait to tell our students and teachers about Jina Jeong. 

You will find these things and more on Capstone's Women's History Month site here. 

A Choice Board For St. Patrick's Day! You Can Find Two Different Choices Here In This Post, Friends.

                  

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. 

The one above includes the PebbleGo article about St. Patrick's Day. 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. 

The March Choice Board includes the St. Patrick's Day Choice Board. You will find it here, friends.

A Special Discount For The StickTogether Pixel Art Packs For Digital Learning Day!

 

Our friends at StickTogether have a special introductory discount of 10% off Pixel Art Packs for Digital Learning Day. 

They shared in this StickTogether Twitter post, 

To celebrate #DigitalLearningDay we are offering an introductory discount of 10% off Pixel Art Packs!

Use code PIXELART10 to grab your Pixel Art Packs for Digital Learning Day on the StickTogether site here.... http://ow.ly/4wKW50N2kG4

Their amazing Pixel Art site is part of the...

...Let's Celebrate Digital Learning Day choice board collection that is for everyone to use on this special day with your students and school community. You will find the Digital Learning Day choice boards here.

Share Your Digital Tools, Ideas and Resources for Digital Learning Day Here On This Padlet, Friends!

 

During our Digital Learning Day webinar on March 15, 2023, I am hosting 10 special guests to share 10 digital tools for making connection and personalizing learning for all students every day, everywhere. 

To go along with our webinar, I created a Padlet for others to share their digital tools, ideas and resources too.  You will find it at bit.ly/DLDayPadlet

Feel free to share that with others as they share and learn about even more digital tools as we celebrate Digital Learning Day. 

10 Reasons We LOVE School Librarians! A New eSchool News Article From Our Friend, Britten Follett.

 

In this new article in eSchool News by Britten Follett, read about 10 reasons we love school librarians. 

There are so many wonderful reasons to share and celebrate, friends. You will find it here.

And remember to share it with others too...your administrators, teachers, families and students. It is a great way to spread the word and advocate for your role and importance too. 

Join Us On Digital Learning Day For This Very Special Webinar...Connecting Students to Learning Through Digital Tools! You Won't Want To Miss This One, Friends.

                  

Digital Learning Day is a celebration of the great things that happen in schools, classrooms, and libraries throughout the year. 

This year we are focusing on making intentional connections. Relationships and connections are the foundation of effective practices and support student engagement. We know connecting with students inside and outside of schools and libraries can sometimes be a struggle, so using high-quality, educator-approved digital tools is imperative.
 
Join us for the special Digital Learning Day webinar, Connecting Students To Learning Through Digital Tools, on March 15, 2023 at 6:00pm EST to learn about ten digital tools that help ensure we are making connections and personalizing learning for students every day, everywhere.

I will be sharing this special Collection by Destiny at the end of the webinar too which contains all of the video clips, resources and more. 

Register today at https://futureready.link/dldaytools