SLJ Shake Up Your Shelves: Diversify Your Book Collection! -- Free Webinar

SHAKE UP YOUR SHELVES! Join award-winning teacher and author Donalyn Miller, educator Autumn Allen, and Newbery Award Medalist Erin Entrada Kelly for an hour-long FREE webinar and get practical tips and approaches for diversifying your book collection!

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With diverse books, teachers and librarians can help young people better understand themselves and others. This hour-long FREE webinar will give you practical strategies for looking critically at the books you’re sharing with your students plus tips for SHAKING UP YOUR SHELVES by retiring titles that are outdated and by adding titles that reflect the experiences of more underrepresented groups.

Event Date and Time: Monday, May 3, 2021 | 1:00 PM-2:00 PM PST 

Presenters:

Donalyn Miller, Award-winning teacher, Author, & Staff Developer

Autumn Allen, Educator and Children’s Literature Specialist

Erin Entrada Kelly, Newbery Award Medalist

SLJ Picture Book Palooza -- Free virtual event!

School Library Journal is hosting this first time event on Thursday, July 15 (7:00am-2:00pm PST). It promises to be a fun-filled day & registration is FREE!

 

Got 15 minutes? session recording

If you haven't had a chance to attend our popular "Got 15 minutes?" virtual tour of the ERS Library resources available to you, you're in luck! We now have a session recording to share. Please enjoy the video below. Questions or requests can be directed to library@ersconnect.org.

Direct link to video for our email subscribers.

Upcoming Holidays & Observances w/ Teaching Resources - April 2021

May is Asian American and Pacific Heritage Month. During this month we recognize the contributions and influences of Asian/Pacific Americans to the history, culture, and success of the United States.

On the ERS Portal, TeachingBooks has put together a list of Asian/Pacific American Literature, including resources to support using these titles with your students. The ERS Library has many of these available for check out and delivery to your school site via the Follett Destiny Online Library Catalog.

3,304 new books have arrived at the ERS Library -- How will you incorporate these kits into your 2021-22 lesson plans?

Click image below to view a full list of our new Class Book Kits & Themed Book Kits. 

Learn360 has returned to the ERS Portal! Now with exclusive K-12 educational content from PBS.

 Click image below to go directly to the ERS Portal.

SLJ Webinar: Grant Writing for School Librarians

 Click image to visit registration page.

New Items in the ERS Library Circulating Collection - April 2021

Click on the book covers below to view additional TeachingBooks.net resources for these titles:

A message from Debra Lockwood, ERS Library Media Supervisor

 

Spring activities are in full bloom at the ERS Library!

Our staff has fully returned to the library after nine months of alternating working from home one day with working in the library the next.

We continue to carefully curate and deliver print/digital resources as requested by educators participating in our CheckThisOut! Multimedia Kit Service. If you would like to join the hundreds of teachers who already take advantage of CheckThisOut!, check your school email on July 1 for the 2021-22 sign up link.

For educators who prefer to reserve their own materials via the library’s online Follett Destiny catalog, our 2020-21 weekly school delivery service continues through Thursday, June 3. staff members travel over 600 miles each week delivering print materials and STEM kits to educators across Tulare and Kings Counties.

In addition to school deliveries, our curbside services remain an option for those who need materials before their next delivery day. Contact us for details!

The ERS Library staff has been working on an exciting new project this spring. Through the Tulare County Office of Education’s Readership Grant, the ERS Library received funds to purchase over 3,000 new books for classroom kits. I worked alongside ELA consultants, Tammy Milligan, and Jenean Bray, to identify culturally relevant and diverse titles for classroom book kits. We chose exciting new titles like Merci Suarez Changes Gears by Meg Medina, Before the Ever After by Jacqueline Woodson, and Each Tiny Spark by Pablo Cartaya. We also worked diligently to identify book titles to include in grade level specific themed book kits. One of the many themed kits we created has books where the main character demonstrates courage, tenacity, and perseverance. Titles in this kit for grades 4-6 are Land of the Cranes by Aida Salazar, Runs with Courage by Joan M. Wolf, As Brave as You by Jason Reynolds, Turtle in Paradise by Jennifer Holm, and Louisiana’s Way Home by Kate DiCamillo. Titles for grades 7-8 include Monday’s Not Coming by Tiffany D. Jackson, The Stars Beneath Our Feet by David Barclay Moore, Amal Unbound by Aisha Saeed, Everything Sad is Untrue by Daniel Nayeri, The Canyon's Edge by Dusti Bowling, and The Great Jeff by Tony Abbott. Themed kits include 6 copies of each title to encourage small groups of students to read the same book and then participate in a classroom wide discussion around the books’ theme. The ERS Library team is very excited to offer these wonderful new classroom book kits to our contracting educators.

Our team looks forward to fulfilling your educational resource needs. Please contact us with any questions or requests – library@ersconnect.org or (559) 651-3031. We wish you all a “Happy April” and hope you & your students take a moment to celebrate that it is both School Library Month & National Poetry Month.

Virtual Event: Dia del los Niños 2021

Sunday, April 25th is Visalia's annual Dia de los Niños celebration, which will be virtual for 2021. To register your child (ages 5-17) for a free event bag, click on the flyer below.