ERS Portal Featured Resource: World Book

Great news – you and your students have FREE access to World Book Online from any internet-connected device in the classroom, at home, or on the go.

World Book Online supports your curriculum with a wide variety of content and features that span all subjects and grade levels! Collaboration is made easier and faster with Google Classroom and Microsoft OneDrive integration. World Book’s range of topics and features provides users of all ages, abilities, and interests a place to explore in a safe, trusted environment. Each product is designed for a target age group, so the word choice, amount of content, and navigation are age appropriate. Each resource builds upon the previous, to grow with students as they move through school.

Log into the ERS Portals to access these World Book resources:

Early Learning - Resources to help preschoolers and children in the early grades grasp critical childhood themes. 

• Video Tutorials (7 videos, 3-8 min. each)

Kids - Engaging content, features, and tools developed especially for young students in elementary school. 

• Video Tutorials (10 videos, 2-8 min. each)

Student - Meet the research needs of students in middle school with thousands of articles and multimedia. 

• Video Tutorials (16 videos, 1-5 min. each)

Advanced - A powerful reference tool designed for high school students and adults, including a citation builder. 

• Video Tutorials (11 videos, 1-4 min. each)

Discover - Support struggling high school or adult readers with a differentiated database. 

• Video Tutorials (9 videos, 1-4 min. each)

Timelines - Hundreds of customizable, interactive timelines of important events throughout history. 

• Video Tutorials (9 videos, 2-4 min. each)

Enciclopedia Estudiantil Hallazgos - An ideal reference tool for those learning Spanish and ELL students. Allow students to toggle between Spanish and English text. 

• Video Tutorials (3 videos, 2-4 min. each)

ERS Portal Featured Resource: TeachingBooks

TeachingBooks is a dynamic K–12 reading and library service that strives to deepen everyone's connections to the books they are reading. Provided by the California State Library and available on the ERS Portals, TeachingBooks brings to life the books enjoyed by your community with hundreds of thousands of engaging video, audio, and online resources.

Within this resource:

• Search for resources about a book, author/illustrator, or subject.
• Explore the resources, including Meet-the-Author interviews, Read-along Book Recordings, Leveled Lesson Plans, Video Book Trailers, Literature-based Vocabulary Lists, and more.
• Instantly connect all your students to audio, video, and other digital materials that bring books to life with QR Code flyers, widgets, and more.
• Browse 293,012 unique resources by grade level, genre, and cultural area.
• Discover special collections, including the Diverse Books Collection, Meet-the-Author and Illustrator Original Resources Collection, or the Hands-Free Book Browsing Collection.
• Integrate with Clever, Canvas, Classlink, Google Classroom, and more.

Video Tutorials:

TeachingBooks Introductory Video (3:00)

ERS Portal Featured Resource: Gale Databases

 

Gale, a Cengage Company, is a global provider of research and learning resources. Thanks to the ERS Library and California State Library, you and your students have FREE access to several of their databases via the ERS Portals. Connect to these fantastic resources with any internet-enabled device in the classroom, at home, or on the go.    Gale’s mission is to help students succeed in school and in life by connecting them to the curriculum-aligned digital content they need to become lifelong learners. Log into the ERS Portals to access these Gale databases: Grades 9-12 A cross-curricular research tool supporting science, social studies, current events, and language arts classes. Its informed, differing views present each side of an issue and help students develop information literacy, critical thinking skills, and the confidence to draw their own valid conclusions.   Opposing Viewpoints Resource Guide  Grades 9-12 Provides forty mental health and wellness eBooks with guidance for students, teachers, and counselors. Many titles include suggestions regarding professional help: where to go and how to find additional information, letting our students know they are never alone.   Cameron’s Collection Student Flyer Locate the folder for your district, then school site.
PROVIDED COURTESY OF THE CALIFORNIA STATE LIBRARY
Grades K-8 Gale's National Geographic Kids is designed to take children on amazing adventures in science, nature, wildlife, culture, geography, archaeology, and space. Users can access videos, pictures, and eBooks from National Geographic Kids, as well as every page of National Geographic Kids magazine. National Geographic Kids Tip Sheet	Grades 7-12 Gale Interactive: Science is a highly visual online learning tool that takes visual-spatial learning to the next level by bringing the lab to the classroom. High-value, rich-media digital content is paired with interactive 3D models to deliver a virtual laboratory simulation experience for students in middle school and high school grades. Science Tip Sheet

Grades 9-12 Empowers learners to critically analyze and understand important topics and events within Earth systems, global change, pollution, populations, and more. Updated daily, this resource offers nearly 400 topic, state, and province pages across the science, social studies, and humanities curriculum. Environmental Studies Tip Sheet

ERS Portal Featured Resource: ABC-CLIO (grades 7-12)

ABC-CLIO is an all-in-one curriculum solution featuring four social science subject areas: American History, American Government, World History: Ancient & Medieval, and World History: The Modern Era. More than 1,800 videos give students context that primes them to explore new concepts more deeply while providing tools for their research and inquiry. Self-assessment quizzes enable students to assess their comprehension of essential concepts and direct students to resources to review when questions are answered incorrectly. In addition to scaffolded inquiry activities for a variety of learning levels, the text-to-speech tool transforms all resources into a read-along for students who read below grade level or who learn best through listening; the translate tool offers translation of all resources into 12 languages. The Academic Success Corner features a helpful video series that gives students easy-to-follow steps for strengthening their writing, reading, research, and critical thinking skills. The research list tool allows educators to build customized lists of articles, essays, and primary and secondary sources to use in class and to assign to students. [Video] How to use ABC-CLIO Databases (3:48) [Video] ABC-CLIO Database Presentation (14:17)

ERS Portal Featured Resource: myPeekaville/Peekapak (grades K-5)

With ready-to-teach resources that support social-emotional learning (SEL) & ELA development, myPeekaville's CASEL-aligned stories, lessons, and learning games help you keep SEL engaging wherever learning happens. Students build resilience, mindfulness, and self-regulation skills to help them process challenging situations. Teachers receive access to various analytical insights into student activity and progress in myPeekaville. 

myPeekaville/Peekapak incorporates literacy-based and game-based learning to engage students and reinforce what they've learned during class. Students gain agency by creating personalized avatars and customizing their experience in an immersive world. In myPeekaville, students check in daily by selecting how they're feeling, providing teachers with a heatmap of student sentiment data. 

All the Peekapak stories are available within myPeekaville. Visit the digital library to gain access to every book. Students can actively practice their reading, writing, and vocabulary skills while playing.

[PDF] Getting Started Guide for Educators

[Video] Learning How to Use Peekapak (7:42)

[Video] Introducing myPeekaville to Students (5:55)

ERS Portal Featured Resource: Sora Audiobooks

Sora audiobooks are now available from the ERS Library! Whether your K-12 students are listening for class or for fun, Sora's audiobook reader makes it easy with powerful listening tools, professional narration, and syncing of their listening progress across devices so they can always pick up right where they left off. You’ll find Sora on all the ERS Portals, or use the student-friendly instructions below to add the Sora app to your cell phone or tablet.

Within this easy, beautiful audiobook player:

• Swipe on the book jacket to jump backward or forward, or use the seek bar to go to a specific spot.
• Customize the sleep timer for a certain amount of time or the end of the current chapter.
• Increase narration speeds up to 3x.
• Add bookmarks, notes, and highlights.

Instructions:

Student-friendly Instructions

Using Sora (Help Center)

Video Tutorials:

Instructional Video for Teachers (1:44)

Getting Started with Sora Information Page

NOTE: If your school does not appear in the Sora app dropdown, please contact your district Technology administrator to ask that they finalize the necessary Google authentication with Doug Cairns (doug.cairns@tcoe.org), ERS Library Instructional Technology Specialist.

ERS Portal Feature Resource: Learn360

Learn360 Plus Classroom Video on Demand is the ultimate streaming resource for K-12 educational communities! Use your ERS Portal login to explore this fantastic resource. Your students also have access via the ERS Library’s Kids Portal or Teen Portal.

In Learn360, teachers, students, and parents can access more than 191,500 media resources from any Internet-enabled device. Engaging landing pages make it easy to find videos, interactives, printables, audio content, STEM lessons & more. Landing pages can be filtered by grade level (all grades, elementary, or middle/high.) The enhanced, state-of-the-art platform makes it a powerful tool for flipped classrooms, blended instruction, project-based learning, and 1:1 environments. Resources are curated from more than 560 top educational providers, including an exclusive partnership with PBS, which delivers access to 2000+ licensed K-12 educational videos.

Created for middle and high schools, Classroom Video on Demand (CVoD) provides unlimited access to thousands of videos for all content areas. Video content is correlated to Common Core, national, state, IB Organization, C3 Framework for Social Studies, AASL, College Board AP, national STEM, and Next Generation Science Standards, as well as 21st Century Skills. Notable series include Globe Trekker, Live from Shakespeare’s Globe, Job & Skills Evaluation, America—The Story of Us, Filthy Cities, A Concise Biography, and many more! 

ADDITIONAL RESOURCES:

[Video] Learn360 New Platform Overview (18:19)

[Video] Using Google Classroom with Learn360 (3:27)

Learn360 Overview (PDF)

Classroom Video on Demand Fact Sheet (PDF)

Holidays & Observances with Teaching Resources! - May 2022

May is National Inventor’s Month. This month we recognize the curiosity, imagination and contributions inventors have made to the nation and the world. Every inventor has brought something into this world that we didn’t know we needed. From medical advancements to fuel efficient homes, inventors and innovators are working hard to create the next big thing. The ERS Library has digital resources and materials for check-out on many inventors.

From Learn360:

Grades: 3-5 Thomas Edison

Grades: 6-8, 9-12 Famous Americans: Famous Inventors and Inventions

In the ERS Library Collection:

Upcoming Holidays & Observances with Teaching Resources - March 2022

April is National Poetry Month, first celebrated in 1996 by the Academy of American Poets. Over the years, National Poetry Month has become the largest literary celebration in the world, with tens of millions of readers, students, K–12 teachers, librarians, booksellers, publishers, families, and—of course—poets, marking poetry's important place in our lives. The ERS Library is excited to provide poetry study resources to contracting educators via our circulating library collection and the ERS Portal's digital content.

You can also visit https://poets.org/national-poetry-month for more ways to celebrate, including a free 2022 National Poetry Month poster!

Learn360 Resources:

How to Write a Poem (Grades K-5)               Poetry (Grades 6-12)

Circulating Collection Titles (reserve via Follett Destiny Online Library Catalog):

Upcoming Holidays & Observances w/ Teaching Resources - January 2022

February is African American History Month, also known as Black History Month. We honor and recognize African Americans' past and present -- people, events, and accomplishments -- during this time. 

The ERS Library has both circulating and online resources available for contracting school educators to support teaching Black History Month!

Learn360 on the ERS Portal:

Grades PreK-2: Corretta Scott King and the Martin Luther King Jr. Legacy

Grades 3-5: Rosa Parks and the Montgomery Bus Boycott

Grades 6-8, 9-12: Rosa Parks: African Americans Who Left Their Stamp on History

Reserve for delivery via Follett Destiny:

Did You Know? - December 2021

ABC-CLIO is one of my favorite resources in the ERS Portal. It's a phenomenal place to start any journey into history on virtually any topic. Whether dealing with American Government, American History, or World History (Ancient to Modern), ABC-CLIO has the articles and resources your students will return to as they move through upper elementary grades, junior high, high school, and beyond.

Each reference article has a topic library, meaning anything you search for will return a selection of other topics to explore. Each topic library is further divided into sections such as Reference Articles, Biographies, Glossary Terms, Photos & Illustrations, Cultural Documents, and Video content. Researchers can also save, email, print, copy a link, create citations at the click of a button (in multiple citation styles), add to their Research Lists, Listen and even Translate.

Also included is an Academic Success Corner, highlighting various areas of information skills such as Researching, Writing, Reading, Critical Thinking, Working with Primary Sources, and Information Literacy. For example, when students click on Reading, they'll see videos on topics such as looking for meaning, active vs. passive voice, making and using inferences, and highlighting, annotating, and notetaking. That's just under Reading! The breadth of content is impressive.

We're proud to help make researching all history and social science content quick and easy by hosting ABC-CLIO in the ERS Portal. I guarantee that you'll learn something new if you log in yourself!

Upcoming Holidays & Observances with Teaching Resources - December 2021

December 15 is "Bill of Rights Day," commemorating the ratification of the first ten amendments to the U.S. Constitution. It's an important day to celebrate America's Constitution and the framework of our society. The Bill of Rights is displayed in The Rotunda of the National Archives Building in Washington, D.C., as a reminder to all Americans of their constitutional freedoms.

The ERS Library has books available for check out via the Follett Destiny Online Catalog: 

For streaming video content on this topic, visit Learn360:

Bill of Rights: Grades 6-8, 9-12

Constitutional Amendments 1-5, Grades 3-5

Constitutional Amendments 6-10, Grades 3-5

Did You Know? - November 2021

Britannica School/Escolar is available through the ERS Portal and provided to all California schools by the California State Library. This is a fantastic opportunity for students and teachers alike because Britannica is packed with content!

 

Britannica School is the go-to site for K-12 research to build essential information literacy skills, differentiate instruction, and support STEM education. Students can toggle between 3 reading levels on each article, have articles read aloud, and use Merriam-Webster’s double click dictionary to hear words pronounced and read their definitions in English or Spanish. Each article can also be translated into over 80 other languages. In addition to articles, students have access to videos, images, primary source documents, and ebooks.

 

Britannica Escolar is the leading knowledge-building resource, universally trusted for accurate and age-appropriate content in Spanish, made for native Spanish speakers, bilingual students, and students learning Spanish. Spanish speakers write all Escolar articles, and when you click “Listen” on any Spanish article, the recording is by an actual Spanish speaker, not a robot.

 

Now Britannica also has its own free Google Chrome extension: Britannica Insights. Information pulled from Britannica School appears on the right side of the screen for every Google search, ensuring that students learn from a reliable and fact-checked source.

Log in to the ERS Portal, or visit britannicalearn.com, for tutorials and to sign up for their blog.

Upcoming Holidays & Observances with Teaching Resources - November 2021

November is Picture Book Month. During this month, we pay tribute to the importance of picture books in the classroom. Picture books are building blocks that promote literacy, vocabulary, sentence structure, comprehension, and many additional skills. The ERS Library has hundreds of picture books available for check out via the Follett Destiny Online Catalog, including:

The ERS Portal contains ebook and audiobooks versions of many picture books in multiple applications:

 

Sora     MackinVIA     Learn360 Audiobooks     TumblebookLibrary (K-6)

#TreeOfGratitude Challenge 2021

Original post from Peekapak, an ERS Portal Vendor:

We are excited to announce that our #TreeofGratitude Challenge is back for November 2021! This challenge is easy to get involved with, and is open to ALL, and includes two Grand Prizes of a $100 Amazon Gift Cards or a Peekapak character cutout!

What is the #TreeofGratitude Challenge?

The #TreeofGratitude Challenge is a yearly tradition Peekapak hosts for it’s educator community based on the tradition that happens in Peekaville, where upon the first snowfall, the residents of Peekaville gather around the tree to write messages of gratitude onto tags and hang them up on the tree. This tradition allows us to take a step back and look at all the things we have to be thankful for, whether it be the good times or the bad. Check out the book The Peekapak Pals and the Tree of Gratitude, to see where this tradition starts!

How to Enter: Gratitude Tags

In order to participate, have your students create gratitude tags. To do this, have students write down and/or draw any one person, place or thing they are grateful for. You are more than welcome to print and use this tag or create your own!

To submit your response and send us a photo of your classrooms response via twitter by tagging @Peekapak, giving us a follow on Twitter, and using the hashtag #TreeofGratitude. If you read the book, take a picture of you and/or your students reading for a bonus entry!

Then simply take a picture of your student’s tags, post your gratitude tags and tag us in your results!

Prizes!

The grand prizes will be two $100 Amazon gift cards or a character cut out of your favourite PeekapakCharacters!

On November 30th, 2021, when the challenge ends, we will be randomly picking 3 winners and will direct message or email you. (Please make sure that you are following us so we can message you for the prize).

We are so excited about this year’s Gratitude Challenge and are looking forward to hearing all your classroom’s great ideas on practicing gratitude this year!

With gratitude,

Ami & The Peekapak Team

Did You Know? - October 2021

We’re proud to introduce Learn360, our powerful, new streaming video resource for grades TK-12! Learn360 provides teachers, students, and parents access to more than 182,000+ digital resources, including educational tools, from any Internet-enabled device. Resources are curated from more than 560 top educational providers, including an exclusive partnership with PBS, delivering access to 2000+ PBS licensed K-12 educational videos.

At the top of the Learn360 page, you will see seven icons. Click on any of these to explore content within. You’ll see Audio content, including audiobooks, famous speeches, fun, and educational songs to learn with students, even music tracks and sound effects. The Games and Activities icon takes you to learning games for Language Arts, Mathematics, Sciences, and Social Studies, along with Math and Reading activities. Under the Printables tab, you’ll find over a thousand fact sheets covering such diverse topics as Health, Sports Rules, Women’s Studies, and History, the Multicultural Experience, U.S. Government, and more. Over a hundred Math activities in Algebra, Geometry, and Calculus are available, as well as thousands of fascinating science diagrams on all subjects, from Space and Astronomy to Animal Anatomy or Weather and Climate. Learn360 also features STEM Lessons and videos to support the curriculum.

There are also Printables from The Mailbox, which some teachers may remember using in print form, back when you photocopied worksheets and activities from the pages of a book! The Mailbox includes digital versions of reproducible teacher guides, easy to search for and print, covering all subjects, from Writing Prompts to Awards and Certificates or Holiday themed worksheets.

Such a wealth of information, and that’s barely scratching the surface! We’re excited about the streaming videos and digital resources provided through Learn360, and we hope you will be too!

Upcoming Holidays & Observances - September 2021

October 12 is Ada Lovelace Day, it’s an international celebration founded in 2009. Ada Lovelace was the first computer programmer. On this day we celebrate the achievements of women in STEM careers. Ada Lovelace Day also aims to increase the profile of women in STEM, elevate them as current role models who will encourage more girls to enter STEM-related careers, and support women already working in STEM. The ERS library has books available on the biography of Ada Lovelace and digital resources through the ERS Portal.

In Learn360 on the ERS Portal:

Health Care Technology: STEM Careers in Two Years

Advanced Hardware Manufacturing: STEM Job Shadowing

Careers in the Life Sciences

Resources from World Book Online on the ERS Portal:

World Book Kids, Ada Lovelace

World Book Student, Ada Lovelace

World Book Advanced, Ada Lovelace

Ada Lovelace books in the ERS Library's circulating collection:

Technology Tips - September 2021

                                                                                                          by Steve Woods, Instructional Technology Specialist

We understand the importance of keeping your students’ attention in class. Because of this, the expectation tends to be “keep the phones off and stowed.” As content and opportunities for content creation increase, it’s only natural to ask if now is the time for cell phones to make an appearance in classrooms and school libraries. 

Here are some examples of how cell phones can be a welcome educational tool in your learning spaces...

Ask your students to use iMovie or other video editing apps on their smartphones to create book trailers -- short videos highlighting a book's plot and characters in interesting ways. If you have a smaller space available, set it up with a green screen so students can schedule the space to create their content together -- a great alternative to book reports.

Your students are TikToking, Instagramming, and YouTube-ing. Because of this, they are always searching for content. If you’ve spent any time on these platforms, you’ll find a lot of copy-cat content (dancing to songs, mouthing to movie clips, taking on less-than-advisable challenges, etc.) What makes a TikToker stand out? Unique and meaningful content. Have you considered hosting content brainstorming sessions for your young creators? Bring them together to talk and share ideas in a safe environment, and steer them to create meaningful messages that help them stand out as individuals.

Break out the QR codes! Did you know QR codes can link a scannable code to websites, blogs, book reviews, podcasts, movie trailers, author interviews, and more? All your students need is a webcam with an Internet connection to freely scan codes and view content. How about supplementing your books with TeachingBooks content, which is available through the ERS Portal? There are many free QR code generators online that will turn your URLs into codes. Download the code images, rename them, and print. QR codes can be put inside book covers, placed on posters, and anywhere else.  

   Extend this beyond the classroom by linking to online school surveys,  

   cafeteria lunch menus, the yearbook order form, and more.

Bring your students back to encyclopedias, dictionaries, and thesauri in your classroom and library. World Book Encyclopedia, ProQuest, and Encyclopedia Britannica are available through the ERS Portal and accessible on a student’s mobile device. These sites tend to have mobile-friendly versions available for performing research. Because so many libraries have limited research stations available, allowing students to use their phones brings many more opportunities.

Teachers and Librarians in middle and high schools may want to consider looking into Google and Apple podcast services. There are hundreds of educationally rich podcasts on science, math, English, and history by podcasters who bring content to life. The podcast apps are free, as well as almost all of the podcast episodes. If you find a wonderful podcast to share with your students, why not assign episodes and discuss them in class?

eBooks and Audiobooks! The ERS Portal contains eBooks and audiobooks from a variety of sources, including Sora and MackinVIA. All your school district needs to do is connect their district Google account to these services (we’ll help!), then students can access thousands of audio and ebooks through their mobile devices.

With these suggestions, perhaps it’s time to consider safe and effective strategies that make space for those tiny phone screens to appear in educational ways!

Hispanic Heritage Month Resources from Britannica Digital Learning

To help students explore the history and importance of Hispanic Heritage, Britannica’s Curriculum Expert Team has put together a few activities and resources for you and your students. Included are resources that discuss Hispanic Heritage, the history of Latin America, key achievements and contributions from both ancient civilizations and the modern-day world, and the importance of cultures and ethnic groups across Latin America.

Click here to get started!

Did You Know? - September 2021

Have you checked out our eBooks recently? In addition to our ever-growing print collection and new class novel/themed sets, we have added over 1,100 new eBooks to our ERS digital collection! These are available in the ERS Portal, both through our MackinVIA resource and, once you open MackinVIA, you will find the titles linked in our Follett Destiny online library catalog so you can search whichever way you like.

The 1,100 new titles, spread across all grade levels, feature both English and Spanish content. Primary grade eBook fiction includes such popular series titles as Pig in a Wig, Yasmin, Mercy Watson, Owl Diaries, and Rosie Revere. Primary grade nonfiction series includes I See Animals and Places in our Community. We have added new Spanish nonfiction series titles with topics ranging from Community Helpers to Animals to Math-related books in the Raton Matematico series.

 

Popular titles for higher grade levels include ten books from the classic fantasy Oz series, A Boy Called Bat, Efrén Divided, Clayton Byrd Goes Underground. Older-audience YA titles such as Monday’s Not Coming and The Poet X are also available. Be sure to check out our new nonfiction series like the History of Technology and Extreme Animals.

Recently added graphic novels such as Knights vs. Dinosaurs, El Deafo, the March series by John Lewis, New Kid, Max Axiom, Super Scientist, Hey Kiddo, Percy Jackson and the Lightning Thief, and The Infamous Ratsos round out our collection! 

The titles listed barely scratch the surface of this impressive collection, so be sure to take a look for yourself! If you need help getting into your MackinVIA account, please send an email to library@ersconnect.org.