A brand new library arrived at Eugene College and Career Options (ECCO) in early February! Principal Paula Nolan invested funds to create a library for ECCO students as they had no access to books for pleasure reading outside of the Eugene Public Library. The new library is filled with diverse, high-interest, engaging books, that students and staff can check out whenever they are on campus and it looks awesome!

As students and staff observed the unboxing and shelving of the books, they were thrilled to learn all the new books would be available for them to check out on a regular basis!

Be sure to drop in the next time you visit the Ed Center and check out ECCO's beautiful new library!

In March we get to celebrate National Reading Month! We kick off the month by celebrating Read Across America! This year's theme is "Celebrate a Nation of Diverse Readers". Join the fun as we celebrate reading and diverse books! Read Across America Day is March 2nd. You can read more about it here.

Celebrate all week long with the choice board below that highlights the theme, "Reading is For Everyone" with ebooks for each day that connect to one theme. All the ebooks are available through Capstone for free! If you would like to adapt the calendar (see slide seven) to highlight specific themes for your school or classroom, click here for a link to edit and make it your own.

Have a great celebration!

The North Texas Teen Book Festival is an awesome celebration of great books and authors and it's free for teachers and students!

"School Day @NTTBF is a free day of engaging middle grade and YA author programming for educators and young people in schools everywhere. No matter where you and your students are across the globe, or whether learners are face to face or virtual, we invite you to join us at School Day@NTTBF."

Find out all the details on their website! It's a great event for teachers AND students. So be sure to share it. Educator resources can be found here. Check out the full list of authors and panels.

Let's celebrate the amazing accomplishments of women in history. Check out the book collections and resources on the choice board.

Register here and celebrate the strength and power of women and girls everywhere with the annual "Strong Women and Girls" webinar. This free, one-hour program will feature titles for both youth and adult readers that showcase the contributions, accomplishments, and challenges of all women and girls. Participants will also hear from Kate Kelly, author of Ordinary Equality: the Fearless Women and Queer Popel who Sharped the U.S. Constitution and Equal Right Amendment.

For those of you digging deep into research, the Library of Congress offers primary resources and tools for classroom use. Their website offers steps to getting started with helpful instructions and video tutorials that make accessing primary documents easy. If you need help, high school teachers and students can contact their librarians for assistance.

Middle and elementary schools beginning research can find all our databases and resources to get you started in this choice board.

There are two monthly challenges in Beanstack this month. Celebrate Women's History Month by reading stories about inspiring change-makers, bold leaders, and creators. Readers can also choose to join the Read Across America challenge (K-2) or the Read and Ride Across America (grade 3-5).

Beanstack is an easy way for students to track minutes spent reading. Teachers can create goals for students, their classes, and compete against other classes. Principals can set school-wide goals and celebrate school-wide! Log in via Clever. Need help getting started? Contact Amy Page (page_a@4j.lane.edu).

Congratulations to Gilham Elementary for logging 19,108 minutes!! They read the most minutes for the month of February! Keep up the great reading!

Celebrate college basketball's March Madness with reading! March Book Madness is a fun way to engage students in reading new books from genres they may not normally read. It's easy to participate. There are brackets for all ages: pictures books, middle grade, and young adult. Students don't have to read all the books to participate, they can just vote on the book they want to win. You can even read the books together as a class. Brackets start with the Sweet Sixteen and at the end of each week, students or classes place their votes, and the next week, the Elite Eight will be revealed, then the Final Four until the final two books remain.

The theme this year is "Turning Points". Most of the books are available in Sora, our district digital collection, log in with your 4J username and password.

Check out the website for brackets, voting, and more! Have fun!

Makerspaces are an awesome way to promote critical thinking and collaboration, as well as incorporate engineering and design. A makerspace can be as simple as an origami craft or as techy as programming a mircro:bit into a remote-controlled burglar alarm. 4J has some pretty cool robotics kits that will soon be available for check out!

Get a head start learning about these fun tech tools on our new Robotics and Coding website courtesy of Justin Huntley. If you don't know anything about robotics or are a bit intimidated by it all, never fear! Kellyclare Gardner and Nicholas Hadley are developing some lesson plans and many super helpful tools to get students programming robots in no time! Keep an eye out in the weekly Library Connection for notice on when these tools become available for check out.

If you're not quite ready for robotics and coding, but would like to get a makerspace started in your library or classroom, check out the makerspace ideas below to get started with activities that require minimal supplies and start making today!

Students and staff have access to awesome books to celebrate Women's History Month in our district digital collection. K-5 readers can find books in the choice board below (remember to log your reading in Beanstack, log in via Clever). Find books that feature amazing women in history for all ages in our district digital collection, log in with your 4J username and password.

March is here and so is the new choice board! There is plenty to explore!

Email: page_a@4j.lane.edu
Website: https://wakelet.com/@AmyPage5788
Location: 200 North Monroe Street, Eugene, OR, USA
Phone: 541-790-7765
Twitter: @Libraryhupla