Library & Digital Resources

• Books in Spanish, Russian, Arabic, Bosnian, Chinese, Vietnamese
• 16 Creative Ways to use PebbleGo Next in the Classroom
• Ebooks and Iowa's Goldie's History Kits
• Intellectual Freedom
• Bowling Sets
• OneClick Update
• Professional Learning: Readings (Artificial Intelligence and more)

Direct link to the newsletter: https://www.smore.com/4mytb

To support students and their families, we created annotated lists of K-12 books available for checkout from the Heartland AEA library. While many of the digital resources we provide are read-aloud or translated, there's nothing quite like a book in the hands of a reader. You are welcome to share with teachers.

• Spanish Language -- 697 titles
• Bilingual Spanish/English -- 169 titles
• Russian -- 24 titles
• Arabic -- 35 titles
• Bosnian -- 91 titles
• Chinese -- 24 titles
• Vietnamese -- 20 titles

Photo source: Pride in Reading. Photography. Britannica ImageQuest, Encyclopædia Britannica, 25 May 2016.
quest.eb.com/search/139_1932810/1/139_1932810/cite. Accessed 9 Jan 2023.

You might want to share this blog article this with the fourth grade teachers and try some of the activities and lessons. Have you used these?

• Random Article Wheel
• Quick Match Game in Biographies

Iowa AEAs are collaborating with the State Historical Society of Iowa to bring ebooks and audiobooks that are part of Goldie's History Kits. These digital kits are for K-5 educators to help meet the Iowa Core Standards for Social Studies and Literacy. The kits were created with a grant from the Library of Congress to encourage students to develop deeper connections to Iowa's history. Read more and access digital resources for Goldie's History Kits at https://iowaculture.gov/history/education/educator-resources/goldies-history-kits

The ebooks and audiobooks are loaded to the Mackin VIA elementary school collections. There are a few titles (*) that are also in the middle school collections.

All the Way to America: The Story of a Big Italian Family and a Little Shovel / Dan Yaccarino

Belle, the Last Mule at Gee's Bend: A Civil Rights Story / Calvin Alexander Ramsey

Born and Bred in the Great Depression / Jonah Winter

Bunnybear / Andrea Loney

Camping Trip that Changed America: Theodore Roosevelt, John Muir, and Our National Parks / Barb Rosenstock

Constitution Decoded: A Guide to the Document that Shapes Our Nation / Katie Kennedy

Day You Begin / Jacqueline Woodson

Digging a Hole to Heaven: Coal Miner Boys / S.D. Nelson *

Equality's Call: The Story of Voting Rights in America / Deborah Diesen

First Step: How One Girl Put Segregation on Trial / Susan Goodman

Freedom's School / Lesa Cline-Ransom

Fry Bread: A Native American Family Story / Kevin Noble Maillard

Green Green: A Community Gardening Story / Marie Lamba

Hike / Alison Farrell

I Can Pick Up Litter / Mari Schuh

Industrial Giants / Debra Housel *

Industrial Revolution / Debra Housel *

John Deere, That's Who! / Tracy Nelson Maurer

Just Ask!: Be Different, Be Brave, Be You / Sonia Sotomayor (ebook and audiobook)

Kid Who Changed the World / Andy Andrews

La Frontera : El Viaje con Papa - My Journey with Papa / Alfredo Alva

Lion, King, and Coin / Jeong-Hee Nam

Mother Jones and Her Army of Mill Children / Jonah Winter

Native American History for Kids: With 21 Activities / Karen Bush Gibson *

Officer Buckle and Gloria / Peggy Rathmann

Patchwork Bike / Maxine Beneba Clarke

People Shall Continue / Simon Ortiz *

Rudy Rides the Rails: A Depression Era Story / Dandi Daley Mackall

School Days Then and Now / Bobbie Kalman

Star People: A Lakota Story / S.D. Nelson

Teddy: The Remarkable Tale of a President, a Cartoonist, a Toymaker, and a Bear / James Sage

That Is My Dream! / Langston Hughes

U.S. Industrial Revolution / Robert Grayson *

This Is the Rope: A Story From the Great Migration / Jacqueline Woodson (ebook and audiobook)

This Promise of Change: One Girl's Story in the Fight for School Equality / Jo Ann Allen Boyce *

Through My Eyes / Ruby Bridges *

Toys and Games Then and Now / Bobbie Kalman

When We Were Alone / David Robertson

Yo Prometo Lealtad / Pat Mora

Mesquaki Culture photo for 1st grade from https://iowaculture.gov/history/education/educator-resources/goldies-history-kits

Just like the Tinker vs. Des Moines Independent Community Schools case, Iowa has been a leader in establishing various freedoms we all enjoy.

"Though not exactly well-known as a local folk hero in central Iowa, Library Director Forrest Spaulding—the man in the painting—wrote the anti-censorship document that the Des Moines Public Library adopted as policy and that directly evolved into the 1939 version of ALA Library Bill of Rights. Spaulding wrote the pre-ALA version partially out of his concerned reaction to what he saw the totalitarian governments of Europe doing in the 1930s, but even before drafting the bill, intellectual freedom issues had been passing through Spaulding’s professional environment for 20 years."

Quote and photo source: https://www.oif.ala.org/forrest-spaulding-drafter-of-the-original-library-bill-of-rights/

Here's something a little different. The Heartland AEA library has bowling sets for checkout. It includes weighted pins, one ball, a 20' bowling carpet/mat, and a copy of a bowling curriculum. #256744

Most districts have moved to having students and teachers access the digital resources provided by Heartland AEA through OneClick. We are still reaching out to a few remaining districts to schedule the first step of syncing users with the technology director and the last step of rolling out the school launchpads.

Here are a few numbers that tell some exciting stories!

• There’s about a 240%+ increase in OneClick usage.
• As of 2:30 on January 9, there were 498 logins just today.
• BookFLIX is one of the most popular apps. It looks like the average time per session is 14 min.
• One elementary school used BookFLIX for 364 hours from November 13 to December 12. I don’t know whether that would be considered high or low usage, but it does support the literacy goal of providing students access to “print”.

Just a reminder of why Iowa is moving to OneClick:

• OneClick provides greater security and easier access to digital content.
• Some vendors are concerned about security and discourage use of generic school usernames/passwords.
• Some vendors require usernames/passwords be changed annually, which can be done easily in OneClick.
• One access point to the digital content.
• No cost to schools.
• Heartland AEA creates launchpads for each school with the apps listed below.
• Users can organize apps in folders.
• Compatible if you are already using ClassLink or Clever.
• QuickCard QR codes are provided for elementary students to log in.

You may have read about college and high school students using AI when writing papers. Here are a few articles with background information, pros/cons, and some think-abouts.

How Teachers Can Harness ChatGPT for Good

What is ChatGPT and How Is It Used in Education?

Don't Ban ChatGPT. Use It as a Teaching Tool

Teachers Sound Off on ChatGPT: The New AI Tool That Can Write Students' Essays for Them

What is ChatGPT and How Can You Use It?

ChatGPT Is Being Used By So Many People That Its Servers Are Struggling to Keep Up

The Future of the High School Essay: We Talk to 4 Teachers, 2 Experts, and 1 AI Chatbot

A College Student Wrote an App That Can Tell Whether AI Wrote an Essay

Can Anti-Plagiarism Tools Detect When AI Chatbots Write Student Essays?

Podcast. What ChatGPT Will Mean for Education

Image source: Young boy (age 5) contemplates what to write/draw on a piece of paper. Photo. Britannica ImageQuest, Encyclopædia Britannica, 25 May 2016.

quest.eb.com/search/167_3990831/1/167_3990831/cite. Accessed 9 Jan 2023.

Boston's Revolutionary Pledge: A School Library for Every Student by 2026. SLJ.
PW's 2022 People of the Year: The Defenders

Click here for the index to earlier issues.