Upcoming Holiday & Observances with Teaching Resources - August 2021

This year marks the 20th anniversary of September 11th. On that date, multiple airplanes were hijacked and flown into American landmarks. Two crashed into the World Trade Center's Twin Towers in New York City. A third hit the Pentagon just outside Washington D.C. The fourth plane crashed in a field in Shanksville, Pennsylvania. The ERS Library has many resources available for those interested in learning more about this tragedy. 

Digital resources available on the ERS Portals include:

Learn 360, Grades 3-5, "Freedom Tower"

Learn 360, Grades 9-12, "What Happened on September 11th?"

World Book Kids: "September 11th Terrorist Attacks"

Titles available in our circulating collection include:

SLJ Summit 2021: In Community -- FREE event

Join School Library Journal on Thursday, October 28 for SLJ Summit: In Community. Beyond geography, community can mean a lot of things. We all work and live in the context of community, and the fact of our interdependence—how all aspects of our lives, our very fates, rely on how we function together—has never been made more apparent than in our shared experience of the pandemic.

Date: Thursday, October 28

Time: 6:00 AM - 2:00 PM PST

Cost: FREE

MacKids School & Library: "Winter 2022 Preview -- FREE Event

 

Join MacKids School & Library for their exciting Winter 2022 Preview!

MacKids School & Library will preview their Winter 2022 list of titles, including picture books, chapter books, middle grade, and young adult titles from all of their imprints at Macmillan Children's Publishing Group. Special guests include Lizz Huerta, young adult debut author of The Lost Dreamer, and Gary Paulsen, three-time Newbery Honor winner and author of the upcoming middle-grade novel Northwind. Register to receive digital review copies of The Lost Dreamer and Northwind, plus access to their Winter 2022 featured titles.

Can't make the date? Register for Booklist's upcoming webinars and we'll send you the archive after the event!

Technology Tips - August 2021

                                                                                                          by Steve Woods, Instructional Technology Specialist

These days we’re all busy, and discovering ways to learn how to do our job better adds additional time, as we search the Internet for good content to read, watch, or listen to. Wouldn’t it be great to have continuing education topics conveniently arrive in our inbox? Enter podcasts.

What’s a Podcast?

In the distant past, information was shared via radio, broadcast on the same day of the week and time. This ongoing and reliable series of topics was known as serialized content. Today, podcasts are short, recorded broadcasts on various topics, and rather than broadcasted live, they are digitally recorded and saved to a “channel” of casts by the same author(s). If you register to follow the podcasts, you’ll be alerted by email or through the app or website -- another form of serialized content.

How do I find great content to follow?

Here is where Google Podcasts shines. Located using the 9-dot apps menu at the upper right corner of most Google products, Podcasts is a single click away. You can also visit podcasts.google.com to find their main page.

As with all Google products, there’s a built-in search tool. Type in “education” and click the Enter or Return button on your keyboard, or try a more specific term such as “social-emotional learning” or “school library” to see a host of ongoing podcasts on these topics from great broadcasters.

To learn more about a particular podcaster, click on the name of the podcast. You will land on a page in Google Podcasts devoted to the host. Along with a podcast logo, title and description, you’ll see a list of current podcasts by the author(s). Click on the play button to listen in, and if you like what you’re hearing, you’ll also find a Subscribe button for that podcast. 

Where do I find all of the new content from providers I’ve followed?

Great question. Whenever you’d like to see new episodes from all of the podcasts you’ve subscribed to, go back to Google Podcasts and click on the Subscriptions button on the left-hand side. You’ll have all of the new content episodes in one easy-to-find location, all within a single click on your mouse.

On the run? Google Podcasts is a free download for mobile devices running Apple’s iOS or Android. Log in with your Google account, plug your phone into your car and listen to your favorite content while you focus on your drive.

JLG: Fueling Young Minds & Bodies webinar

Do you ever wonder what happens inside your body after you eat? Take a journey through the digestive system and get a better picture of how what you eat affects you. Helping kids understand how the different systems in their bodies work from a young age can teach them how to take care of themselves and encourage them to make wise choices as they get older, all while having fun and a laugh.

Join Junior Library Guild (JLG) Thursday, August 19 at 3pm ET as they sit down with Dr. Jennifer Gardy in honor of August’s Kids Eat Right Month. They’ll be chatting all about her new book, It Takes Guts, the importance of educating our kids about eating well, and how we can best prepare them as they go back to school.

New Items in the ERS Library Collection - August 2021

(click to play video)

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.