Library & Digital Resources

Once again, this issue is all about planning and sharing (for summer and fall).

• Tales2Go Summer Listening Site
• New Pebble Go Articles
• Pebble Go Summer Activities Guide
• New Look and New Functions: AEA Scout
  
• ClassLink OneClick
• Book Rotation Service
• 2020-21 Iowa School Library Survey Pandemic Report

Tales2Go created a special Summer Listening site featuring new titles, or trending or requested audiobooks. It's a browsable format that is sure to catch your interest.

Use the same username/password you use for the regular Tales2Go digital content.

Listening to stories is one of the easiest (and most fun!) ways to avoid the summer slide. Hearing that sophisticated, fluent language helps all of us build our vocabularies and improves our comprehension skills.

In addition to the K-12 audiobook titles, the Summer Listening site includes grown-up titles. You might want to share this with your professional learning team--these audiobooks are also unlimited, simultaneous use. Here are a few titles:

• Preventing Bullying in School: A Social and Emotional Approach to Prevention & Early Intervention
• Personality: What Makes You the Way You Are
• WHOLE: What Teachers Need to Help Students Thrive
• Why Learn History: (When It’s Already on Your Phone)
• Get Sh*t Done: The Ultimate Guide to Productivity, Procrastination & Profitability
• The Future Leader: 9 Skills and Mindsets to Succeed in the Next Decade
• What Science Tells Us about Autism Spectrum Disorder: Making the Right Choices for Your Child
• Hate Inc.: Why Today’s Media Makes Us Despise One Another
• The Hobbit

72 new articles were added in April.

ANIMALS

Airedale Terriers

Australiam Shepherds

Basset Hounds

Beagles

Bernese Mountain Dogs

Bloodhounds

Boston Terriers

Bull Terriers

Cardigan Welsh Corgis

Dalmations

French Bulldogs

German Shorthaired Pointers

Great Danes

Greyhounds

Miniature Pinschers

Pomeranians

Rat Terriers

Rottweilers

Scottish Terriers

Shetland Sheepdogs

Shiba Inu

Siberian Huskies

Spanish Water Dogs

Saint Bernards

Weimaraners

BIOGRAPHIES

BTS

Bubba Wallace

Chadwick Boseman

Chester Nez

Declan Farmer

Doris "Dorie" Miller

Faith Spotted Eagle

Jacoby Ellsbury

John Herrington

John Lewis

Joseph Medicine Crow

Kim Ng

Lisa Gelobter

Marco Rubio

Mindy Kaling

Peggy Flanagan

Rose Hollermann

Susie King Taylor

Suzan Shown Harjo

SCIENCE

Algorithms

Artificial Intelligence

Computer Privacy

Computer Security

Cyberbullying

Data

Debugging

Digital Citizenship

Digital Devices

Loops

My Digital Footprint

Sequences

Understanding Media

Variables

SOCIAL STUDIES

Civil Rights

Earth Day

Easter

Halloween

Hmong New Year

Holi

Immigration

Passover

Patriot Day

Pride Month

Racial Segregation

Rosh Hashanah

Yom Kippur

Download your free copy of the PebbleGo Summer Activities Guide to help make this a summer filled with reading, learning, and fun for your students!

Iowa AEAs updated AEA Scout in April with a new fresh look, improved functions and tools, new filters, and SPEED! Take a look at the short how-to videos on the new functions.

Here's a brief walk-through example. Search for topics like CRISPR or mRNA. Limit to full-text. Sort by Date and Apply Filters. I chose to sort by oldest results first which came back with articles from the early 1990s. Double click on the icon to open the article.

In View mode you can

• read the article
• get the citation
• copy the hyperlink
• keyword search
• change size
• view table of contents
• select text and get translate and speech and more
• add to my folders

If you add that article to a folder or subfolder, you can do all of the above plus

• annotate
• highlight text
• add notes
• add links in notes

Plus there are features to print, save to Google Drive and Classroom, and save to OneDrive. You can drag/drop resources to folders. Organize folders your way.

That's not all! The log in process to AEA Scout will change this summer.

• The school code that students use the first time they log in will not be required.
• Teachers will be able to log in with more than one email account (think of the teacher librarian who works in more than one district).

W A I T! There's more!

ClassLink OneClick is coming to Iowa schools. The Iowa AEAs purchased a version of ClassLink that creates a dashboard for each district/school and includes an app link to AEA Scout plus the other digital content resources provided by Heartland AEA. See the next article.

Earlier we mentioned the new service from the AEAs called ClassLink OneClick. As a reminder, ClassLink is a single sign-on launch site for quick access to online resources and applications for students and teachers alike. And best of all, your students and teachers get free access through the AEAs. Curriculum coordinators and tech coordinators have also been introduced to ClassLink OneClick.

In a nutshell, what does it do?
Imagine what looks like an iPad screen, where you click on the icons and it not only goes to those online sites, but it automatically logs you in. That's ClassLink OneClick... saving your students and teachers valuable time, spent less on getting into learning resources and more on actually using them.

Why is it important? It's all about the user.

Student data privacy and security is enhanced considerably with ClassLink OneClick. No more posting usernames/passwords in the classroom.

Access is improved. Students are used to seeing an iPad-type interface to find resources and the AEAs want to make it easy and engaging for students to access BookFLIX, Britannica, Mackin VIA, Tales2Go and more.

Updates. When new resources are purchased, your district's access is automatically updated. Teacher resources such as AEA Learning Online will be readily available.

What is free, and what is not free?
ClassLink (the company) has developed a version of their product specially for Iowa. All students and teachers not only receive access to the online resources and applications that the AEAs provided at their first login, but they also have the ability to add their own applications and customize their dashboard as well. In this regard, they get the full functionality of ClassLink OneClick.

What is not free for schools, is the administrative access on the back end. This means that districts cannot utilize the system for rostering, account provisioning, file management, analytics, nor for mass customizations of their own groups and apps. If districts would like, they can purchase ClassLink on their own to add those features and have their own internal control. AEA applications will then be available on your own ClassLink.

How does it work for primary grade students?
A cool feature is the QuickCard (their version of a QR code). This means a student can display the QR code at their device's camera, saving them significant time over having to type a login to actually login. This is an optional feature for districts.

How much training is required for teachers?
If we said "none", you might not believe us. But that is pretty close. It is as intuitive as anything we have seen or delivered. Simply login with your school's Google Apps or Microsoft account and then click on the icons. If there are applications where ClassLink OneClick does not know your login already (like a personal account you may have set up earlier), you might need to enter it one time. But then it is saved for every future time you launch the application.

What if we license ClassLink on our own?

Your district can still utilize AEA applications. Just let us know and we can help you set up AEA apps within your own ClassLink tenant.

What if we use Symbaloo or the free version of Clever?

There are lots of possibilities that the AEA can work through with your district.

Next steps.

Heartland AEA will be reaching out to each district.

Teachers in the Heartland AEA service area can register to receive about 25 books (fiction and non-fiction) every six weeks during the school year.

• Return the book rotation box, and another selection is automatically sent.
• Books are on-level and one grade above and one grade level below reading level.
• Book rotation supplements your school library resources and provides a rotating classroom collection.

Register.

The 2020 Iowa School Library Survey was revised to include a section to document and understand how Iowa teacher librarians adapted services and programs during the pandemic. We wanted to get this report to you before the end of the school year. Over 470 responded to the survey with their stories. Iowa teacher librarians were creative as they listened to the school community needs during the pandemic and developed programs, services, and activities that helped to engage and encourage students in a variety of learning environments.

Click here for the index to earlier issues from April 2019 to May 10, 2021.