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!

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.

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.

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.

Did You Know? - March 2021

 

TeenBookCloud, for middle school through high school, is just as rich in content as its elementary-level companion, TumbleBookLibrary! You’ll find Middle School fiction and YA/Teen fiction at all reading levels, from hi/lo fiction for students at a lower reading level all the way to books for AP English. The AP section is divided into time periods, that include Ancient Works such as Homer’s Odyssey and The Divine Comedy through centuries of classic literature, all the way up to the present day. Drama and Poetry features Greek plays, the complete works of Shakespeare, and works by Emily Dickinson, Robert Frost and Walt Whitman, among many others. Graphic novels include a biography of the Beatles, tales of Excalibur and King Arthur, and mystery and fantasy stories, enhanced eBooks and audio books featuring text read-aloud features, are available as well.

And that’s just Fiction! Nonfiction is divided into the following categories: History, Civics, Science, and a General area featuring content and articles from sources such as the New Yorker and Scientific American. There is also a section of Common Core supporting materials, featuring primary source documents such as Supreme Court decisions and MLK Jr’s Letter ‘From A Birmingham Jail.’

If your students are looking for something to read direct them to TeenBookCloud on the ERS Portal for a wide variety of choices and options.

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? - 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!

Did You Know? - October 2020

 

The ERS Library staff is proud to introduce MackinVIA, our new eBook resource available in the

ERS Portal to contracting schools! This new resource is accessible on any internet-enabled device and features both multi-user titles, which may be read by multiple students at once, and single-user titles that students can check out for three weeks. Titles can also be renewed. If not renewed, at the end of the checkout period, the eBook will automatically be returned.

MackinVIA is divided into searchable categories including Math, Language Arts, Historical Fiction, Graphic Novels, Technology and Transportation, and more. Searches can be done by author, title, subject, interest grade level, reading grade level, AR/Lexile/Guided Reading, and language, among others. Free databases, such as DK’s Find Out! and Youngzine, which provides current news articles written for and by school-age children, are also included. And when a search on any topic occurs, MackinVIA finds appropriate websites to match the query!

For students and teachers to access MackinVIA, as well as Sora, our new audiobook resource, contracting school administrators should have their IT Specialist contact the ERS Library <library@ersconnect.org>. Our Instructional Technology staff will coach the IT Specialist through the Google authentication process. Once Google authentication is complete students and teachers can begin enjoying a variety eBooks and audiobooks!

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.