Upcoming Holidays & Observances w/ Teaching Resources - September 2020

National Hispanic Heritage Month is celebrated September 15 to October 15. During this month-long event we celebrate the countless contributions of more than 60 million Hispanic Americans to culture and society in the United States. Educators can use this opportunity to elevate the history of this holiday and remember the important contributions of Hispanic Americans. The ERS Library and ERS Portal can help support this topic with print and digital resources. You can reserve print and realia materials using Follett Destiny in the ERS portal. The ERS Library staff delivers to school sites weekly using precautionary measures. Don’t know your school’s delivery day? Click here.

Books available from the ERS Library collection include:

Discovery Education has short, high impact, relevant videos to support learning during National Hispanic Heritage Month. Click the links below to be taken directly to grade level appropriate videos you can use with your students.

            Grades K-2                         Grades 3-5                        Grades 6-8                         Grades 9-12

Apple Education: Everyone Can Create

                                                                                                         by Doug Cairns, Instructional Technology Specialist

Apple Education’s “Everyone Can Create” Project Guides are designed for grades K-12, allowing students to add their own creativity to projects that span all subject areas. While the focus is on using Apple products, the Project Guides can be translated for use with other services and devices. Best of all, Apple provides this content free of charge!

The projects in the Everyone Can Create guides teach students to develop and communicate ideas through video, photography, music, and drawing. And they help ignite creativity by giving teachers fun and meaningful ways to bring these skills into any lesson, at any grade level.

Apple, on why creativity matters: “After 40 years working alongside educators, we’ve seen — and research has shown — that creative expression leads to deeper student engagement. And when students are more engaged, they take more ownership of their learning. Students become better problem solvers, communicators, and collaborators. They explore more and experiment more. They tell richer stories and find their own unique voices. They stretch their imaginations and make connections they might not otherwise make — and carry all these skills through everything they’ll do in school. And beyond.”

Click here to view Apple Education’s “Everyone Can Create” Project Guides

Student feedback on Apple "Everyone Can Create":

 

Free Webinar: Digital Learning App Smash for Future Ready Librarians®

As students across the country return to learning, everything looks different from classrooms, buses, lunchrooms, playgrounds and, of course, libraries. The ways students and teachers access information, and the ways in which librarians support them, have evolved. One thing has become evident—we must find engaging, creative, and meaningful ways to engage and connect our students to learning more than ever.

During this new fast-paced and fun event, twenty Future Ready Librarians® will share twenty digital tools and how they use them with their students to create amazing experiences in face-to-face, virtual, and blended learning environments. You won’t want to miss as they share these digital tools and outline how they are used and how they support us as Future Ready Librarians®.

It’s going to be an exciting hour filled with sharing, networking, and collaborating!

Click Here to Register

Guests

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

For questions about the webinar, contact Lia Dossin.

New Books in the ERS Library - September 2020

Reserve these titles and more in our Follett Destiny online catalog. Visit www.erslibrary.org.

Did You Know? September 2020 | Peekapak: SEL Tools & Upcoming Training

Are you looking for Social Emotional Learning tools to use with your students? If so, check out Peekapak, ERS Library’s fantastic SEL digital resource for grades TK-5. Peekapak features scaffolded lessons that could be used for an entire school-wide SEL program. In addition, Peekapak has leveled eBooks, study units for each book containing lesson plans, teacher resources and activities. You will also want your students to experience Peekaville, the online game world where students interact with characters from Peekapak’s eBooks. Relatable characters like Leo, Ines and Cody, will help your students learn valuable lessons about emotions and social behavior.

Responding to the overwhelming need students have to understand and process their emotions and feelings these days, educators at Peekapak have created an entire unit of lesson plans and resources specifically dealing with the COVID-19 pandemic. Peekaflu, a COVID-19 like virus has invaded Peekaville, and is front and center in the eBook, “Back to School with the Peekaflu”. The book features a back-to-school story, but in this story all the Peekaville characters are wearing masks and working through their emotions and feelings during a turbulent time. Peekaville characters wonder why they have to wear masks and why the school and the library are closed and why their favorite public events and activities are canceled. It makes Cody, in particular, feel angry and a little scared. Over the course of eight lessons, the Peekaville characters learn to understand their emotions and in turn help students learn to understand the emotions they are experiencing. If you have not yet enjoyed the benefits of Peekapak or Peekaville, today may be the day. 

I’ll be conducting a training for this digital resource on Thursday, September 10 from 3:00-4:00 pm.

I hope you can join me!