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Tuesday Teacher Tips Sept 17 - Enlight for eBooks, Magazine Round-up, Blendspaces & Kid President


New App for Follett Shelf eBooks


Look for the Enlight app
in your device's app store
If you have been having trouble with your current Follett Reader app, it may be because Follett released a new app for eBook content called Follett Enlight.  Search for it in the app store on your device, and be sure to download it. 

You will need to enter your Follett shelf URL the first time you log in.

Enlight works in much the same way as the TextFlow app for smartphones and the Follett Digital Reader that was previously used for tablets.  Check out our FollettShelf eBooks page by clicking [here] for more information.
Odyssey, Dig, and Jack & Jill – magazine Round-Up
In an attempt to bring some new nonfiction selections monthly to our library, we are now subscribing to a number of new publications that may be of interest to you in the classroom.
Odyssey—is a science publication by Cobblestone geared towards Intermediate students.  This month’s issue focuses on music and why it is so important to us.  It includes articles about brain research and music, music and emotion, music in nature and much more. Graphics and photos are engaging and would be excellent in discussions of text features.  You can find teacher guides at the magazine’s website [here].
Can't wait for the kids to dig into these!
Dig—is an archeology magazine, also published by Cobblestone and geared towards Intermediate students.  This month’s issue also includes articles about music and different cultures through time.  There is also an interesting article about DNA and the Aztecs and Hagia Sophia.  Issues also feature projects—in this issue, learn how to make your own reed. Check out the website [here].
Jack and Jill—is a magazine for “Cool Kids ages 7-12”.  It includes reader submitted writing, stories, puzzles, craft ideas,  and fun feature articles.  This month, the magazine is featuring Extreme Pumpkin Carving, legendary creatures and vampires vs. zombies.  This could be a fun publication to submit student writing to. Check out the website [here].
What magazine subscriptions do your students or teachers find the most engaging?

Blendspace—helping you to curate resources for students to use in research


Have you made the decision to move towards Flipping lessons or Project Based Learning, but don’t quite know the best way to share resources with your students?  Give Blendspace a try. Click [here] to see the website.
This is the workspace.  Icons on the right let you access content.
Blendspace, formerly called EdCanvas, is an easy way to drop and load resources into a grid that students can clearly navigate through.  You can load those teacher centered PowerPoints onto Google Drive, and easily embed them directly into a square, embed YouTube videos, and websites all from a nifty side panel of choices.  The site is so easy to use, I was creating lessons in a matter of minutes.
One of the best things about it is that sharing is made easy. You can generate a link, embed code, share to Edmodo, Facebook or Twitter, or even generate a QR code without going to another site.
You can even add a quiz as a formative assessment to make sure students caught on to key ideas.
Take things one step further by inviting others to collaborate or by creating a class and inviting your students to create their own lessons with online resources.
Check out an example of how I’m using it with 5th grade [here]
Kid President Rocks!
You might not need a pep talk this early in the year.  But, when you do, Soulpancake’s Kid President is here to get you through the day. 
As Kid President says it’s time to be awesome—YOLO!



Watch the video [here]


This is also a fun one to share with your students;)
What inspires you to be AWESOME?!








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