January Teacher Newsletter

January 21, 2021

issue Nº

From Vanston Librarian Anna Waugh

News for Teachers

Viking Library Newsletter

The holiday fun was more than just decorations. Several English teachers brought their classes in for a Breakout EDU challenge about five different holidays around the world. While difficult, many groups succeeded and learned a lot along the way.Have an idea and want some help? Email Ms. Waugh to brainstorm.

What's been going on? A lot!

Around the library lately

Did you pop in to see the book tree designed by the Vanston library aides? It was a delight all season. National History Day projects brought students to the library for help with searching on databases for both primary and secondary sources. Visits to classrooms also helped them understand how to create and format an annotated bibliography.

Ms. Belt is leading a staff book study for us Vikings on the book Fostering Resilient Learners: Strategies for Creating a Trauma-Sensitive Classroom. This is not an easy task, yet she's doing it with passion and grace. Thank you for organizing this. First meeting is Jan. 27 after school in the library. Couldn't add it to your plate this semester? Jot the title down for future reading.

A shout out to all the teachers doing amazing things in and outside of the library. These days are making life a little harder for all of us, so thank you for continuing to be an incredible staff to work with, plan with, and inspire students with.

Staff Shoutouts

The Holiday Book Drive helped us collect more than 150 books for Shands Elementray students. Thank you to all the staff who contributed and encouraged students to help as well.

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New year, new books!

We have more than 200 new titles now available in the library. Need a recommendation for yourself or your student? Come talk to me or a library aide in the library! Have a middle grade or young adult book you're reading or have read and want to share it? Click here to post a short video on our Flipgrid page. Choose the genre under topics at the top left, record up to 90 seconds, and add the title and the author in the subject line of the video. Done! Drawings for new video reviews will be entered into a monthly drawing for a prize, so please share with students.

Britannica Image Quest

Did you know about this? Let's discuss!

Located in the Library: Images & Music folder, this database allows them to see a broader image selection with their searches. Plus they can download right to their Google Drive from the database.

Students love searching for images just using Google, but they do not always have permission to use them, or know how to cite them. Try having them use Britannica Image Quest for free images that have the credit information included with the photo.

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Now is the time to have your students track the pages they read on Read Squared. They can log in through the portal. Staff can also do this, but it will prompt you to sign in the first time. Username is your district username and all default passwords at misd1234, so please change it once you have logged in. Need help or would like Ms. Waugh to visit and help students with this in class, just let me know!Each student and staff member who tracks weekly will be entered into a drawing with a weekly winner, so get started now. Click here to be taken to the information page. Below is a video that shows you how to look up students and add pages for them.

As an example, search friendship in Google search, and see what pops up to the right.

Searching for more book recommendations? Look no further!TeachingBooks.net now has a Google Chrome extension. Just search the Chrome web store store for Teaching Books and add the extension. Then when searching Google, book recommendations will pop up.See a video on the next page for how to add the extension if you need help.

A New Resource!

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What helps you get through a tough day or week? My new mantra for my family has been We can do hard things. And so can you.

It's a new year, a fresh start. May you find your bliss this year.

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