Tuesday, April 29, 2025

It's Here, Friends....Our May Choice Board!

                  

It's here, friends!  Our May 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 the Our May Choice Board here to share with students.  And if you would like to make changes or additions, you can make a copy to edit here.
There are also several choice boards embedded.  

Under the Learn about celebrate special events in May column, there are two including...
...the Cinco de Mayo Choice Board that you will find here in this post and...
...Star Wars Day...May the 4th Be With You Choice Board that you will find here in this post
Under the Read column, I have created a choice board for Children's Book Week on May 5-11, 2025.  You will find it here in this post

I hope you and your students have a wonderful May and lots of fun exploring all of the choice boards this month.   

A Fun Way To Show How Many Books Are Still Checked Out! You Will Find The Template To Copy and Use Here, Friends.

                

It's almost the end of the school year and time to get our books back to the library.  

To make it fun for our readers, I put a little twist on the book counter we use throughout the year. You can read all about our digital book counter here.

For this one, I created a place to show how many books we still have checked out.  
You can find the one with three columns here to make a copy
You can find the one with four columns here to make a copy
And to make this super easy and quick to do every day, we can go to the NEW Destiny Library Dashboard to find the data we need.  

In the image above, you will see the number of books still out under Checkouts.  I love how easy this is to find this data every day. 

You can read about the Destiny Library Dashboard, and a few of my favorite new Destiny 21.0 features, here in this post from my blog
Once you have the data and you are ready to share, just go to File, Share and Publish to the Web. 
We will share this with our teachers and students everyday, and we can even make little posters by printing the image too. 

Sign Up For Early Access To Socrait and Get A FREE Starbucks Coffee!

 

As educators, our days are packed — from planning and collaboration to grading and managing daily classroom and library activities. It can be overwhelming.

That’s why I’m thrilled to introduce Socrait, our new AI-powered class assistant designed to lighten the load and bring joy to our workday.

I’m so excited to bring it to my school and begin using it in both the classroom and the library. I truly believe it’s going to make a meaningful difference in how we work, teach, and connect with students.

Want to give it a try?

You can sign up and try it too!  Sign up here to get early access to download.  



Monday, April 28, 2025

Join Us On May 7th for the Future Ready Librarians Webinar, The Summer Bookshelf: Professional and Personal Reads That Inspire.

 

Friends, we are so excited for our upcoming Future Ready Librarians webinar, The Summer Bookshelf: Professional and Personal Reads That Inspire.  
This one is on May 7th at 5:00-6:00pm EST with a special lineup of library and education leaders, and a few authors too. 

As shared online, 

Summer is a season of renewal—for both personal growth and professional learning. In this special roundtable session, Future Ready Librarians from across the country will come together to share how they use the summer months to grow, recharge, and get inspired for the year ahead. From must-read books and favorite podcasts to impactful professional development opportunities and creative self-care routines, this conversation will offer a wide range of ideas to spark your own summer plans.

Whether you’re diving into your “to be read” pile, attending conferences, or just taking time to reflect and refocus, this session is designed to celebrate the many ways librarians continue to lead, learn, and grow—even when school is out.

Join us for a lively and inspiring exchange of ideas, and walk away with a list of resources, reads, and routines to fuel your summer!

You can register today, friends. We can't wait for this conversation and for you to join us.

The May Activity Journal From Book Creator Is Here and Ready To Remix For Your Kids Too!

One of my favorite monthly activities to share with our teachers and students are the monthly activity book journals from Book Creator.  These special books are filled with amazing activities for each day of the month. 

The May Activity Book Journal is packed with fun tasks for ...
...National Space Day, 
National Teacher's Day, 
World Baking Day, National Be A Millionaire Day, and more. 

You can find the May Activity Book Journal here, where you can remix and share with your students too.
At the end of the May Activity Book Journal you will find all of the Monthly Activity Journals too. 

Get Book Creator here today, friends. 

The May PebbleGo Calendar Is Here! Turn It Into A Choice Board Too.

 

The NEW May 2025 PebbleGo and PebbleGo Next Monthly Holiday Calendar is here!  I love these calendars that our friends at Capstone share 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. 
Last 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 May 2025 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, Space Day is on May 2, so they have the Space PebbleGo article featured. I went to PebbleGo and found the article in PebbleGo.

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.  

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 am excited to have the May 2025 PebbleGo and PebbleGo Next ready to go for the month. I hope you will find ways to use it with your students and teachers this month, and all throughout the school year too. 

Sunday, April 27, 2025

The Recording and Resources Are Live From The Future Ready Librarians April 2025 Webinar

 

Last week, we kicked off the 2025 Future Ready Librarians Webinar Series, Innovation, Collaboration and Impact. 

In this first one, my amazing friends and librarians, Melissa Corey and Amanda Hunt joined me for Curating Library Collections for Literacy and a Love of Reading. It was so much fun and I left with tons of ideas and inspiration for my library and school too. 

Visit our 2025 Future Ready Librarians Webinar Series website to register for the entire series. 



Friday, April 25, 2025

Big News! 27 New PebbleGo Articles Are LIVE This Week, Friends!

 

Bigs news, friends !  There were 27 NEW PebbleGo articles released this week. 
The new articles can be found in the Animals, Biographies, Science and Social Studies PebbleGo modules in both English and Spanish.  

Our kids will be soooo excited for these!

You can check out pebblego.com today. 


Thursday, April 24, 2025

Have Fun In The Sun With PebbleGo....A Special Summer Activity For Your Students!

 

With summer right around the corner, I have been looking for special summer activities for our students and families.  

I love when they use PebbleGo and PebbleGo Next at home and on-the-go. Today, our friends at Capstone shared a new activity perfect for the summer and our learners. 

You can print the Have Fun in the Sun with PebbleGo activity sheet for your students too. 

You've Been Book'd With Books About AI For Kids and Educators!

 

As we all learn more about and use AI, we are also looking for books featuring AI for our libraries and schools, and to learn from ourselves as educators. 

After attending the ASU-GSV conference this spring, I came home with a stack of AI book that I want to share with you.  

In this choice board, I brought together 24 books about AI.  You can go there to find the special AI Follett Content Titlewave list of books.  Or click on each book cover to see the individual titles too. 

Let me know if there are others to add to this Titlewave list, friends. I'd love to know what you are reading and sharing about AI too. 

Wednesday, April 23, 2025

How My Follett Content Rep Help Transform My Library-and My Journey as a Librarian

When I started my job 19 years ago as the teacher librarian at Van Meter Community School, one of my first visitors was my Follett Content representative, Judy Diedrichs. 

At the time, I had no idea how to be a librarian. I had a teacher degree, but had just started my masters in library science the same week I started my new job.  I remember looking around the two libraries in our building and thinking, There are a lot of old books in here. What do I do with these? How and where do I order new books? 

Then one day, Judy showed up in the library. I was so surprised someone came to our school to visit me and the library.  She had a bag of books and introduced herself as my Follett Content rep.  I remember her telling me how nice the library looked as my family and I had just painted it a cheery yellow. We talked and talked, and I confided in her that I didn't know where to start. 

We decided that as I was looking for new books to order for our K-12 library, first we needed to weed through a lot of books to make room and freshen up the collection.  Since I had just started my job and graduate classes, I had a lot of questions about the entire process of weeding. That day, Judy volunteered to come and help me.  In fact, she came and helped me weed 100's of books from our collection and showed me the process of weeding, and what to do with the books.  It was so much fun! Wee had a lot of laughs finding books like Gardening For Homemakers. 
After we weeded and reorganized the library, it was time to order new books.  By having a dedicated sales representative like Judy working with me on this project, it made the navigation of content selection easier. She showed me how to find book reviews, create lists and pull together series. 

Our partnership wasn't just about sales to Judy, it was about student success, curriculum alignment, and making sure I was feeling confident about about our decisions too. She helped me streamline purchasing, making it more efficient and stress-free.  And ever since that first box of books came, I have been hooked on ordering our books from Judy and Follett Content. 
In addition to my relationship with Judy, there are several reasons Follett Content stands out above the rest.
Let's start with their commitment to exceptional service. It truly made a difference. 
I also can't say enough about the incredible range of titles Follett carries - including 80,000 FollettBound® Titles with a lifetime binding guarantee. These durable, high-quality books are a go-to for me and make a real impact on both oru collection and budget. 

I also appreciate the quick shipping turnaround, which ensures our books arrive when we need them. This also makes an impact in our classrooms since I am often ordering books for our teachers they need quickly to support the curriculum and their lessons. 

This year, Follett Content introduced the newly enhanced sales organization to deliver more personalized support. With so many changes happening across education and libraries, having a dedicated rep by our side helps us confidently navigage new challenges and opportunities.  
If you haven't connected with your Follett Content rep, I highly encourage you to reach out. They're more than just support-they're true partners in your work, and you'll quickly see the value they bring to your library and school community.  
Judy was the first trusted partner in my library journey.  She took the time to listen, understood my vision, and aligned with the unique goals of our district. I'm grateful for every conversation, very visit, and the many ways she's supported me over the years. 

And the best part? Along the way, Judy became a friend. 

Follett Content continues to make a meaningful difference-not just for us as librarians and educators, but for the students we serve every day. 

Monday, April 21, 2025

Keep Learning Alive All Summer Long With The Bright Ideas Summer Learning Resources For Students from Book Creator!

 

Today, I am excited to share the Resources for Students from the Bright Ideas Hub from Book Creator.

They’re packed with fun, creative activities to keep student minds growing all summer long! 

you will find 4 awesome books to use and share with your students. 
Reading Journals to prevent summer slide with engaging reading journal and resources.
Art Projects to spark creativity this summer with engaging digital art books for grades K-5. 
STEM Books to keep young minds engaged with exciting STEM challenges that inspire creativity and critical thinking.
And Monthly Journals that keep summer days engaging, rain or shine, with fun and interactive monthly journals for May, June, July and August. 

Get the Resources for Students today, friends 👉 https://hubs.ly/Q03gBJQ_