Technology Tip - November 2020

                                                                                                          by Steve Woods, Instructional Technology Specialist

Educational Resource Services is proud to present World Book Early Learning, a new online resource for PreK-3 teachers and students..
 
The World Book Early Learning’s easy to use interface is broken up into educational videos, games, stories and activities, as well as the all-new category of Basics for your youngest learners. When you choose an activity type, you’ll see a scrolling bar with sub-categories of resources, allowing you to navigate deeper into topics of interest.
 
Choose the Games button and you’ll find matching, tracing, concentration, and true or false based games. Positive verbal and music feedback is provided throughout each interactive game, to keep younger students excited and interested. 
 
Video categories include animals, dinosaurs, nature, transportation, colors, numbers, weather and more. Videos are short and often narrated to help explain what is being viewed.
 
Stories include fairy tales, rhymes, my body, people at work, animal homes, and even stories in Español. A speaker icon in every story allows emerging readers the ability to hear the words sounded out, as well as the story read aloud to them.
 
The Activities button will lead you to a very long list of downloadable pages with activities involving coloring, tracing, solving mazes and connecting the dots, all in support of the other categories of learning.
 
The new Basics category, specially designed for Pre-Kindergarten students, includes letter practice, early literacy and counting based resources. Students can practice their mouse skills while drawing letters of the alphabet and hearing words that begin with that letter.
 
If you are a K-3 teacher, you can access World Book Early Learning by visiting the ERS Portal and logging in using your credentials. Students will access World Book Early Learning through the ERS Kids Portal with your site's student login. Click on the resource icon, and you're in! Please let us know your thoughts on this great new educational tool!

New Items in the ERS Library's Circulating Collection - November 2020

		Click on each book image to view resources from TeachingBooks.com

Did You Know? - November 2020

 

We live in very interesting times that challenge the social and emotional well-being of our students! With most schools still closed, students, especially teens, can feel depressed and alone. We have a resource in the ERS Portal that provides access to mental health eBooks for students, teachers, and counselors who are dealing with depression and anxiety issues.

Cameron’s Collection, from Gale, features forty eBooks designed to promote mental health and wellness among high school students. Many titles in this collection have chapters that include suggestions regarding professional help: where to go and how to find additional information, reassuring our students they are never alone. Students can highlight, take notes right in the eBook, and look up unfamiliar words. Access is easy and provides privacy and anonymity by not requiring a login. Titles include:

• “Anxiety and Panic Attacks”
• “Coping with Social Media Anxiety”
• “Teens Talk About Family Issues”
• “Teens Talk About Leadership and Activism”
• “Teens Talk About Learning Disabilities and Differences”
• “Coping With Breakups and Jealousy” 

There are an additional 17 titles in the Camp Cameron collection available to our K-12 schools. These eBooks for younger students feature titles such as:

• “The Peace Dragon”
• “Getting Your Zzzzs”
• “Winning By Working”
• “How We Communicate” 

If you are at a high school or K-12 campus, contact the ERS Library team and request a “How-To Access” PDF for your campus that can be shared with students. To see the complete list of mental health titles, log in to the ERSPortal and click on Cameron’s Collection!

Join the Junior Library Guild "Aggie Morton Mystery Party"!

November 17 | 3p.m. ET  (12p.m. PST)

Was Agatha Christie a sleuth even as a child? According to Marthe Jocelyn's fun mystery series for middle-grade readers, she certainly was! Inspired by the imagined life of Agatha Christie as a child, Jocelyn's Aggie Morton, Mystery Queen is perfect for young detectives everywhere. 
 
Join Junior Library Guild on Tuesday, November 17 at 3pm ET for a party celebrating young Aggie by solving a virtual mystery with your friends online! Plus, stick around for a reading by audiobook narrator Sarah English and a live Q&A with the author. 
 
Register today and download the clues so you can solve the mystery before the big event! Then, make sure you tune in to the webcast to see if your sleuthing skills solved the case.

CLICK HERE TO REGISTER