As students and teachers prepare for the new normal of learning and working from home, remember that Iowa’s AEAs provide a viable avenue for digital content for all Iowa students, teachers and families. Students and teachers are familiar with these vetted, age-appropriate and high-quality digital resources and use them in their daily work. These resources can be found in Library & Digital Resources on the Heartland AEA website. We are making changes to the website to make navigation easier for parents, yet familiar for students.
Use this link to the building-specific username/passwords to find your district’s username/password. You can copy/paste and share with educators and parents in your district. Please do not share the link.
Events are changing rapidly and some digital content vendors are allowing access without a username/password. As those changes are made the links to resources at the Heartland AEA pages will change on the backend. Students will click and be automatically connected. Link changes have been made to BookFLIX, TrueFLIX, ScienceFLIX, FreedomFLIX, NBC Learn, Culture Grams, Learn 360, TeachingBooks, SIRS, Tales 2 Go, Pebble Go, and Pebble Go Next. Not all vendors are willing, nor technically capable of changing their access at this time. We will continue to work with vendors to make access as easy as possible.
Additional information was sent to teacher librarians. They will be updated regularly on any changes.
*As a friendly reminder, do not publicly post or share usernames/passwords.
If you have any questions, contact Susan Schrader, Heartland AEA Director of Resources and Library Services.
MESSAGE FOR PARENTS
Here is some wording that you may want to share with parents. Add your school’s log in:
As students will be doing more learning and reading from home, there are abundant helpful resources for parents and students through your local Area Education Agency (AEA). Iowa’s AEAs provide a broad variety of digital content for students, teachers and families selected by Iowa educators. Students and teachers are familiar with these vetted, age-appropriate and high-quality digital resources and use them in their daily work. These resources can be found in the Library & Digital Resources on our website.
There are read-aloud ebooks, ebooks, digital audiobooks, videos, encyclopedias, articles, newspapers and more for our youngest and oldest learners.
The username/password that students use to access quality digital content at school <<insert building-specific username/password>>. Most require the username/password.
This just in! Some digital content vendors have waived the username/password so you may click on some resources and get right in.
*As a friendly reminder, do not publicly post or share usernames/passwords.
The Heartland AEA Library & Digital Resources Library & Digital Resources newsletter is now available. Make sure to follow the newsletter and share it with your colleagues! In this issue…
- Principals, Copyright and Reading Books Online & Sterling Publishing
- Free Booklist Access
- Free SLJ Access
- TeachingBooks Access
- Tales 2 Go Audiobook List
- What will you need?
Several book publishers have responded to the COVID-19 crisis by giving educators the right to read their books online to students and families and to post the video online. It’s a great way to stay connected. In normal times this is considered a public performance and runs contrary to copyright.
More publishers are coming on board each week. And, each publisher has their own rules. Here is the most recent, authoritative list and guidelines.
*New info: Here are some new publishers that announced a couple of days ago that are not in the link.
Abrams
HMH
Simon & Schuster
Macmillan
HarperCollins
Here’s what Sterling Publishing posted yesterday:
Here are the guidelines to follow:
- Please send your name, your library or school, and the title of the book you intend to read online to agochnauer@sterlingpublishing.com.
- Please say "All Rights Reserved, Sterling Publishing Co. Inc." at the beginning of a reading and add this language to any digital posting.
- Please tag us in any post about your reading:
- Twitter @sterlingkids
- Instagram @sterlingkids @sterlinglibrarymarketing
- Please be sure that videos posted to your school’s private platforms are deleted after a month. Please be sure that videos posted to social media are deleted after 24 hours.
- These recordings may not used in any commercial way.
Here’s a summary of what some authors are offering online.
So, what if you don’t have a stack of children’s books in your home office? Iowa’s AEA media directors are working with Mackin to identify the eligible ebooks Iowa schools currently have access to in MackinVIA. Give us a week or so to share that list of titles with you.
At Heartland AEA, we are primarily using the Zoom platform for virtual meetings. We recognize that not everyone is familiar with this technology. It’s our intent to support students and families in a meaningful way and to make access to technology as seamless as possible. Our technology team compiled tips when working with Zoom and invites you to share with families in your district.
The Iowa Board of Educational Examiners (BoEE) newsletter is now available and includes information about fingerprinting services, extensions, online application system and communicating with students.
Concern over this new virus can make children and families anxious. Helping children cope with anxiety requires providing accurate prevention information and facts without causing undue alarm. The National Association of School Psychologists and the National Association of School Nurses has provided guidance for teaching children positive preventive measures, talking with them about their fears, and giving them a sense of some control over their risk of infection can help reduce anxiety. Read the full guidance here.
The Iowa Department of Education has released new guidance for Iowa schools addressing federally mandated assessments, teacher preparation requirements and special education guidance for parents during school closures. In addition, they have updated the previously released Frequently Asked Questions guidance. The new and updated information covers a wide range of topics and each addition or update is identified in the document as “New” or “Updated.” This guidance is located on the COVID-19 Guidance and Information page on the DE website. All current guidance from the Iowa Department of Education can be found on this page.
