Discovery Education: Back to School Webinars

Welcome Back to School 2021! 

Over the summer, Discovery Education released many enhancements to save teachers time and engage students with exciting new features and functionality! Register for one of the learning opportunities linked below to learn how your current Discovery Education Streaming service supports multiple learning modalities, new ways to spark curiosity amongst students, and more.  

Come and see all of the tools that are ready for you to dive in and explore, such as the redesigned Educator Supports tile and some of our most popular resources like Instructional Strategies, Studio Boards, and Current Events Channel. Each event features creative ways to save educators time and invigorate your instruction with ready-to-use materials while engaging your students. You won’t want to miss these sessions:  

DE Streaming: Back-to-School Webinars

September 11 -- 20th anniversary free digital poster exhibition

In commemoration of the 20th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks, the 9/11 Memorial & Museum is offering libraries a free digital poster exhibition, "September 11, 2001: The Day that Changed the World." September 11, 2001: The Day that Changed the World is a downloadable educational exhibition that presents the history of 9/11, its origins, and its ongoing implications. The exhibition explores the consequences of terrorism on individual lives and communities at the local, national, and international levels, and encourages critical thinking about the legacy of 9/11. Request your free download to receive: Digital downloads for 14 captivating posters, featuring archival photographs and images of artifacts from the Museum's permanent collection An invitation to free virtual training, including a live virtual tour of the Museum and information on how to use the Museum's online resources to supplement the exhibition Access to the 9/11 Primer, an online collection of resources for educators and online learners, to help you supplement the exhibition. NOTE: A limited number of printed poster sets are available to libraries with limited resources or technological barriers. Printed posters will be given away on a first-come, first-served basis and will be shipped, free of charge, to libraries. Printed poster requests must be received by August 6. Librarians and educators are eligible. Questions? Contact posterexhibition@911museum.org. Learn More and Request Posters

SLJ Teen Live! What's Next - Free Virtual Event

Join School Library Journal on Thursday, August 5, 2021 for their tenth annual SLJTeen Live! virtual event!

With hope on the horizon of an unprecedented, traumatic year, educators, librarians, and students are wondering: Where do we go from here?

So much of adolescence is preparing for the future—college, careers, adulthood, the next grade—and that's even tougher when no one knows what the future will look like. As we adjust to a new normal, we must move forward while remembering where we’ve come from. After a pandemic and amid continued tragedies of racist violence, teens and adults alike are called to heal and grow, to learn more, and to further conversations about history and justice. Through it all, books reflect and illuminate our lives, telling boundary-pushing stories that take publishing to the next level. As teens consider what comes after childhood, we all must think about what the future holds for students and storytelling.

The conference’s author panels and library programming sessions will help you support and engage teens in this new moment and beyond.

 

Event Hours: 6:00 AM PST - 2:00 PM PST

For more information and to register, visit https://www.slj.com/?event=slj-teen-live-whats-next.

Can't make the live date? No problem!

All the sessions will be archived, and the virtual environment will be accessible for three months.

The ERS Library's revolutionary CheckThisOut! service is back for its 6th year.

"One form, a school year's worth of educational classroom resources!"   Click Here to Sign Up!

Participation in CheckThisOut! (CTO!) is FREE and available to all staff at our contracting sites. Once you sign up, the ERS Library Team will begin curating monthly sets of materials especially for you and your students. These kits, which are based on criteria you select, will then be delivered to your campus (or via email if you select a "digital resources only" kit). Look the materials over, share them with your students, and use them to support your lessons. Four weeks later, place the kit back in your site's designated location and request a pickup. We'll deliver a new kit and pick up the old one.  Kits are available in August, September, October, November, January, February, March & April. December and May are PICKUP ONLY months; all materials need to be returned to the ERS Library before winter & summer breaks.

ERS Library Summer Hours + we have re-opened to the public!

ERS Library Hours

Monday - Friday

8:00am - 5:00pm

Curbside Services

9:00am - 4:00pm

Closed Monday, July 5 in observance of Independence Day.

Email: library@ersconnect.org

Phone (559) 651-3031

Effective June 17, Educational Resource Services and the ERS Library have re-opened to the public. 

If you are on staff at a contracting district/department or have an active Homeschool Family agreement, ERS Library materials can be checked out throughout the summer. 

Our Teacher Resource Center is ready for your poster printing, laminating, die-cutting, and button-making projects!

We hope to see you soon!

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!

Did You Know? - May 2021

 

It’s the end of the ’20-’21 school year! I don’t know about you, but for me it was simultaneously super slow and also one of the fastest years ever. Lots of new stuff to learn and do! Lots of things to get used to!

We, the library staff at ERS, were divided into cohorts from August through mid-March, and one cohort never physically saw the other during that time period. Only Debra remained in the office at (almost) all times. We communicated via Google Hangouts, email, and Zoom meetings, managing to not only prepare materials for delivery, but also to begin offering online, interpersonal trainings and short seminars as well. Debra, Kim and I held weekly Zoom sessions varying in length from 45 minutes to 15 minutes, and are continuing to try different approaches to best serve our teachers’ needs. Maria sends out videos to the teachers who attend, 

so that they can review the content again if they like.

We are currently offering virtual office hours from 3:15-3:45 every Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday. If you have any questions about the ERS Library, Teacher Resource Center or navigating the ERS Portal, pop in and say hi! More information can be found at www.erslibrary.org.

I’d also like to say a big thanks to Sara, who puts this blog together and maintains it every single week. We have learned a lot about what we can do as a team this year, whether in person or in the digital realm. I believe that all of us in the field of Education are constantly growing and finding new ways to serve our students, so here’s a pat on the back to us all. 

Happy Summer!

Technology Tips - May 2021

                                                                                                          by Steve Woods, Instructional Technology Specialist

How to Stay Tech Trendy During the Summer Our team knows how busy you are even (and sometimes especially) during the Summer, and we certainly believe that you deserve some well-earned "down" time during our warmer months. That said, you never know when a tech tool might emerge that could make next year even more effective, memorable, and downright fun. If you'd like to keep tabs on technology trends while away from the classroom, here are some simple ways to do so:
	Here are 25 podcasts to consider. It's also easy to locate more in the Podcasts App on iPhones and Google Podcasts for Android Devices. Search for EduTech or Educational Technology... and don't forget to subscribe to them!
	Keep up on educational blogs using an RSS reader. There are a host of technology trend setters who write at least once a month about their discoveries. Use their curiosity to your advantage! Here are 100 popular educational blogs. Simply scroll down to the eLearning and Technology sections, and you'll find a few dozen to choose from. You can also search for blogs on special search tools like BlogSearchEngine.org. Search your phone's app store for RSS (or Really Simple Syndication) readers to subscribe to your favorite blogs and have new posts delivered right to you.
	Create and keep in touch with a social media based Professional Learning Network. Twitter is great for this. Is your Twitter account full of cobwebs? Brush them off, update your photo and profile, and learn how to find fellow tech curious educators like yourself. Here's an article on using a variety of social media networks to develop your educational PLN... It's all about the hashtags!
	Play with fun educational technologies near you, by taking advantage of the ERS Library media contract your campus got for you! You can still check out a variety of STEM kits by logging into the ERS Library Multimedia Portal and learn how to use them at your own pace, stress-free. You just might have a lot of personal fun steering around Beebots, Spheros and Ozobots manually or via code, discover how to introduce your class to virtual reality, create electrical circuits, and much more.
	There are so many ways to keep that learning spark going during the Summer, while enjoying yourself as well. See you next school year!

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.