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.

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)

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!

Congratulations! The Top 10 schools using Sora Audiobooks via the ERS Library are...

1. Alta Vista Elementary School

2. Valley Life Charter Schools

3. Sequoia Union Elementary School

4. Richgrove Elementary School

5. Oak Valley Union Elementary School

6. Lindsay High School

7. Grace Christian School

8. Terra Bella Elementary School

9. Lakeside Union Elementary School

10. Woodlake Valley Middle School

If you and your students haven’t downloaded the Sora Audiobooks app and logged into the ERS Library collection, this summer is a great time to get started. A PDF with student-friendly instructions for accessing Sora via a tablet or smartphone is available, as is this instructional video for teachers.

Upcoming Holiday & Observances w/ Teaching Resources - May 2021

With the 2020-2021 school year almost over, we encourage you to remind your students the ERS Portal online resources are available to them all summer long!

If you need a reminder of your student portal login(s), please contact library@ersconnect.org.

We have multiple resources for digital books, as well as online encyclopedias, streaming video providers, and more!

Engage your students in summer reading, with year-round access to Sora Audiobooks and MackinVIA eBooks!

(Access to these resources is part of your district’s/site’s annual ERS Library Media Services Agreement.)

	Whether listening for class or for fun, Sora's audiobook reader makes it easy, with powerful listening tools, professional narration, and syncing of your listening progress across devices so you can always pick up right where you left off.* Using Sora on your smartphone, tablet, or Internet enabled device  Getting Started with Sora
MackinVIA, named 2019 Product of the Year, is a multi-award-winning, digital content management system, providing easy access to eBooks, read-alongs, audiobooks, databases, and videos.*  Using MackinVIA on your smartphone, tablet, or Internet enabled device
These resources are also available through the ERS Library Student Portals: www.erslibrary.org
Log in with the User ID & Password for your ERS Portal (Educators), Teen Portal (Grades 9-12) or Kids Portal (Grades TK-8) account. Then follow the directions in the “Using Sora…” or “Using MackinVIA…” links above.
*If you don’t see these digital books in your ERS Portal content, please email library@ersconnect.org.

Sync Audiobooks celebrates 12 years of FREE audiobook downloads for teens!

(Additional titles available in June, July & August)

SYNC Audiobooks for Teens returns for a 12th season of free audiobook downloads to keep for individuals ages 13 and up! AudioFile Magazine has hosted this program all these years to encourage the development of new listeners during middle- and high-school summer vacation periods. Listening to audiobooks has been demonstrated to increase literacy capacity in highly skilled bookworms as well as those who don’t identify themselves as readers, to provide opportunities to deepen capacity for empathy, and to offer exposure to a wide variety of genres, voices, and expressive styles.

This year, the SYNC season runs for 14 weeks, from April 29 through August 4, for a total of 28 titles, all available to participants worldwide. SYNC titles will be delivered via OverDrive’s Sora app, compatible with all types of computers, tablets, and smartphones. Once downloaded during each title’s single week of availability, the audiobook remains the participant’s, with no due date. A few subtle changes in SYNC’s website have been made; however, if you are a longtime SYNC fan, these changes will seem more cosmetic than practical compared with your past experience.

SYNC’s website is currently up and running, providing teachers, library staff, group leaders, and anyone else who might find them useful with access to a toolkit that includes a suite of posters, as well as Frequently Asked Questions with guiding answers. The full list of titles, publishers, and date ranges for each pair of free titles all can be found on the site. Please encourage others who work with the targeted audience of teens of middle and high school ages to review basic procedural steps before the season opens.

This year’s SYNC title collection includes dramas, autobiographies, fantasies, thrillers, romances, and much more. Participants will be offered many #OwnVoices audiobooks, a classic tale from China, an artist’s tour of a career in professional art, some often-requested humor, and collections of short stories. Performance styles include single narration, author narration, full-cast performances, and dual performer deliveries. Some of the audiobooks have a run time under two hours, of particular appeal to brand-new listeners, and others run as long as 12 hours and more.

Join an ERS Library staff member for an information packed 15 minute tour!

Got 15 minutes? The ERS Library staff would love to give you a quick tour of the varied services we provide the teachers and educational staff of our contracting school districts (in other words… you!).

In those 15 minutes, you’ll get an overview of our unique curation service, CheckThisOut! -- loved by many Tulare & Kings County educators, learn how you and your students can access our online ERS Portals, take a quick look at the standards-aligned digital resources available in those Portals, and find out how to sign up for Bookmarked!, so you can stay up-to-date on everything ERS Library. Got 15 minutes? We’d love to share them with you!

Sessions occur Tuesday/Wednesday/Thursday from 3:15pm – 3:30pm beginning March 9. 

Register here.

Greetings and...

 

Did You Know? - December 2020

 

When you are looking to pass along fun and exciting resources to your students, don’t forget about TumbleBookLibrary, for TK-6^th grade, and TeenBookCloud, for grades 7-12. Both these dynamic literacy-based resources are available to your students through the ERS Portal.

TumbleBookLibrary features a variety of different kinds of eBooks and audiobooks. Story Books are read aloud, semi-animated, and feature text that change color as it is read which allow emergent readers to follow along. Story Books also feature music and sound effects. Read Alongs are narrated chapter books that feature color changing highlighted text beneficial for both emergent readers and independent readers. eBooks are full-length chapter books for grades 2-6. There are also Graphic Novels, Nonfiction, National Geographic Videos, Puzzles and Games, and 

                                                                            Language Learning modules. Many books allow the reader to create a 

                                                                            book report or quiz themselves on the books content.

TeenBookCloud, support students in 7-12th grade, and is organized by Fiction, Nonfiction, Drama and Poetry, Graphic Novels, and AP English. Fiction is further divided into Middle School Fiction and Teen Fiction. Helpful sections include Hi/Lo Fiction and books for older readers written at a lower reading level. Enhanced eBooks are also available, featuring audiobooks with highlighted text so readers can follow along. 

There is a world of exciting digital books at your fingertips with TumbleBookLibrary and TeenBookCloud, available through the ERS Portal!

Did You Know? - August 2020

Welcome back! The ERS Library staff returned to the office on Monday, August 3 after working from home since March. The library staff made a quick pivot in our support for schools, conducting virtual “Drop-In” Learning Sessions throughout April, May and well into June. Over 360 educators from across Tulare & Kings Counties attended our “Drop-In” Learning sessions. Each 50-minute session provided an opportunity to learn about our many standards-aligned digital resources in the ERS Portal including Discovery Education, ABC-CLIO, World Book Online, ProQuest, TeachingBooks, TumbleBooks, TeenBookCloud, Opposing Viewpoints and Peekapak! Many of you attended these sessions and we valued the opportunity to serve you in a new and unique way! 

For those who did not have the opportunity to attend, we will be scheduling new sessions starting this month. An informational email with a schedule of sessions will be emailed to educators at contracting school sites.   

In this complex information and digital world, we want to introduce you to new resources for both teaching and interacting with your classes, whether virtual or in the classroom. We’ve added two new resources this year – MackinVIA ebooks and Sora audiobooks – we are excited to share these with you.  

Just like you, we’re learning and growing as we meet new challenges daily. If you need assistance please do not hesitate to contact us at library@ersconnect.org. We are here to support you!

P.S. Beginning Tuesday, August 11 delivery and pick up of library materials will resume to schools open for delivery.

eLibrary cards now available from the Tulare County Library

Educators, are you looking for a way to expand your teen students’ access to eBooks, audiobooks and information resources for schoolwork? 

The Tulare County Library is now allowing young adults, ages 13+, the option to apply for an elibrary card online!  Students with elibrary cards have access to a variety of digital resources including HelpNow an online tutoring service for English & Spanish speaking students. HelpNow provides feedback on assignments with a writing lab, test prep, tutorials and space for online study groups. Multiple Gale in Context resources are available for middle and high school students. Gale provides access to grade appropriate magazine, newspaper articles, videos and primary source documents. In addition students can utilize the test prep program to prepare for common high school tests including SAT, ACT & PSAT. There is so much for teens to explore under the list of Tulare County Library’s digital resources.

elibrary cards are valid for 6 months from date of issue. Prior to expiration of the elibrary card, students will need to visit a physical branch of the Tulare County Library system to verify their information. Once they have verified their information the card will be valid indefinitely. Share this information with your 13+ students and encourage them to apply here today!