Welcome to the 2023-24 school year! This means that 2020 is even further behind us. That is something to celebrate! Looking forward, I hope to inspire and encourage you to seek out opportunities to collaborate with your DCHS Library Media Center team. A school library can offer so much more than a place to "chill" (but we love that, too!). We would love to work with you to enhance your content curriculum with activities in the library that support student learning.

The purpose of this edition of Beecher Feature is to share with you just a few nuggets that may entice you to explore the possibilities! READ ON!

One of the newest members in the resource pool, this database is especially for you, the teacher. We had a soft launch in May of 2023 for those early adopters who are comfortable with the learn as you click style. Next, we offered a two hour training in mid June and had several attend. Even better? The entire session was recorded so you may watch it at your leisure and make notes of any additional support you may need. Don't worry though, there are more training opportunities in the works during our SLC/PD time.

Your access point for Gale for Educators is in Canvas and, the student resources in the Gale database collection (they are FAB!) are linked there, too. Full Canvas integration, folks! That's right - we aim to please!

Ask around and you'll hear about the BreakoutEDU platform and lock boxes that have been used to really dial up student engagement in the library. At this time, only 12 of our 30 teacher licenses are in use. If you would like to check out the options on the platform, email Mrs. Beecher for the BreakoutEDU platform invite. From there, you will create your own credentials.

BreakoutEDU platform allows for teachers to create their own classes. This helps in assigning and monitoring digital games. Digital games are great for eLearning days, too! In addition to the digital games, the BreakoutEDU platform offers a nice variety of kit required games. Use the filters to narrow to the subject and age level best for you and your students. As for the kits, your school library has acquired 18 of them! Each kit comes with the blacklight flashlight, locks, invisible ink, cipher wheel decoders.....lots of cool stuff! Students use these cool tools to work through content driven puzzles. If you have never seen a class experience a BreakoutEDU activity when solving problems with equations, geography, poetry, chemical formulas......the list goes on and on.....then you are missing out. It is quite a treat.

The other soft launch we had in May of 2023 (because I'm crazy!) is Beanstack. Beanstack is a platform designed for library and classroom teachers to motivate students (ahem....and adults) to read. We all know that enticing a teen to read is not an easy task, especially when we have today's technology competing against us. So, we are going to harness to power of apps and social media to engage our students in reading for pleasure. Here is the added bonus (the cool part): as students read for pleasure more, their reading skills are growing - it is so stealthy! The skills transfer to reading in the curricular areas - it is a win/win! Readers may use the Beanstack app, or their web platform to log books, post reviews, log reading minutes, and connect with other readers. This is done though our reading challenges. We had a soft launch DC May Reading Challenge that helped us test the waters, and a DC Summer Reading Challenge to keep the momentum going. We have had 22 active staff readers this summer! Curious about our top five staff book loggers? Check out the standings below!

Top Book Loggers to Date

Final results of our staff summer reading will be forthcoming - stay tuned!

1. Renee Knoop
2. Melissa Scheetz
3. Alexander Bodine
4. Christine Mullis
5. Shelby Burks
6. Courtney Rogge

Below you find a video (just under seven minutes) that is designed to give a quick overview of the teacher experience. For your convenience, see the video table of contents listed below so you can go directly to information you think you may need first.

• Introduction 0 - 1:05
• Log for an entire class 1:06 - 1:52
• Look up an individual student 1:53 - 2:35
• Access challenge tools; create and manage your own class challenges 2:37 - 3:12
• View the reader experience 3:13 - 3:48
• View insights 3:50 - 4:56
• Use reports 5:30 - end

I KNOW....change is hard - but we are educators and we have experience in rolling with the tides, eh? So settle in and get ready to pivot - We will no longer use the Axis 360 platform for ebooks and audio books. We are transitioning to SORA, which is the OverDrive platform used in schools.

FAQ: Wait, Beecher! I thought the Libby app was the OverDrive platform! What gives?

Answer: Yes, yes....you are correct - Libby is a product of OverDrive used by public libraries - ours included. Remember, we are a Shared System member (a branch with benefits) of the Indianapolis Public Library, so I know many of you (myself included) use Libby, often, to read adult materials. (Stop it - not "ADUUUULLLT" materials.....you know what I mean.) SORA is the reading platform (app and website) that schools use to access eBooks and audiobooks from OverDrive. The public library equivalent of Sora is the Libby app. OverDrive is the vender (owner/provider) of Sora and Libby.

By using Sora, we'll gain access to more materials for our students (and us!) with the added benefit of ensuring our students have access to materials that are age-appropriate. So, if you would like to read Fifty Shades of Gray, use Libby. You won't find it in Sora.

I hope we have piqued your interest about just a few of the possibilities offered in the #SchoolLibrary at DCHS. We would love to host your class for research, silent sustained reading, station work, MakerSpace, BakerSpace (yes, that's a thing!), or just a simple change of scenery. Reach out to learn more.

The library website hosts commonly used links and access to resources we provide. Check it out!