Thank you all for your continued efforts to support our students and teachers with distance learning. You are bridging the gap for many of our students who are navigating learning from home. Please continue to offer story time for your students and direct them to authors who are sharing their stories virtually. To view a working list of virtual read alouds, click here. This list is being updated daily. Please feel free to add any additional helpful information.

Mark your calendar for our next Google Meet: Monday, April 20, 2020 @ 11am. Use this link: http://tinyaps.com/?distancelearnMediaSpecialistsMeeting to join our Media Specialist Meeting.

Atlanta Public Schools Teachers,

As you all have been engaging in distance learning with your students, we are aware that you are using Google Meet, Zoom and/or Microsoft Teams to engage with your students face to face.

For those of you that are utilizing Zoom, we want to share some ways to make your Zoom meetings more secure.

Here are nine tips to help make your Zoom meeting more secure!

1. Turn on your waiting room.
1. Upon clicking on your Zoom link meeting, participants will be placed in a "waiting room." This feature allows you to individually approve participants into your Zoom meeting.
2. Don't use your personal meeting ID for Public Meetings.
1. ALWAYS schedule a new meeting so that a NEW meeting ID will be generated!
3. Master the Security Menu.
1. All of your security menu options are located under the security "button."
2. Here you are able to:
1. lock your meeting
2. enable the waiting room
3. manage participants
4. Control screen sharing.
1. Decide if you want others in the meeting to be able to share their screens. You can control this from either the screen sharing menu or the security menu.
5. Disable the private chat feature.
1. If the chat feature becomes too distracting, you are able to disable it.
6. Mute participants.
1. You can mute/unmute all participants at one time with the click of a button.
2. You can also control whether or not participants are able to unmute themselves.
7. Turn off annotation.
1. So that participants are not able to annotate the screen during the meeting, you have the ability to turn this feature off for all participants.
8. Make someone a co-host.
1. If you have a co-teacher, make them a co-host. This provides some assistance in managing the Zoom meeting and monitoring comments so you can easily respond to student's questions.
9. Remove participants.
1. If for some reason you should need to remove a participant from your meeting, simply click on their name and then click on "remove."

Here is a quick video to walk you through some of these steps: https://youtu.be/rrMTsKZ1y7c

Below are some additional resources from the Zoom website that may be of assistance:

Tips and Tricks for Teachers Educating Using Zoom

Best practices for Securing Your Virtual Classroom (Blog)

Comprehensive Guide to Educating Through Zoom

Education Guide: Getting Started with Zoom

One of our favorite authors, Jason Reynolds, was recently named the National Ambassador for Young People's Literature. His goal is to reach as many young people as possible. With distance learning in place, he began a biweekly video series called, "Write. Right. Rite." The idea is that this initiative will inspire young people to tell their own stories. Share the video below with your students to help inspire their writing. This resource would also be great to share with ELA teachers as they are encouraging students to continue developing writing skills from home. Follow Jason on Instagram at @JasonReynolds83.

To access the APS eBook shelf, students should log into MyBackpack. Select the eBooks tile. From here, all apps are accessible for student use.

To access apps requiring username/password, use the following credentials:

TumbleBook Library/Cloud

Username: atlantaps

Password: books

Big Timber Books

Username: atlantaps

Password: readmore

To access APS eResources, students should log into MyBackpack. Select the eResources tile. From here, all apps are accessible for student use.

To access apps requiring username/password, use the following credentials:

World Almanac (Elem, Middle & HS) - no additional log in required

Vocabulary.com - no additional log in required

National Geographic Kids: Password: readmore

Infobits - Password: readmore

Learn360: no additional log in required

Britannica Image Quest - no additional log in required

Blooms Literature - no additional log in required

If you are an Atlanta Public Schools student or employee you already have access to dozens of resources, including online databases, eBooks, eAudiobooks, streaming videos, as well as hundreds of thousands of books available at libraries throughout the city of Atlanta and Fulton County. If you are an APS student, all you need is your student username and your lunch code to get started. If you are an APS employee, have your Employee ID ready and click here to get started.

Employee Access

Username: Your Lawson Number

Pin: Changeme

Student Access

Username: Network user name (what students use to log into MyBackpack)

Pin: Lunch number

Please note: The following apps require the creation of a username/password:

Mango languages, Hoopla, Learning Express Library, rb Digital, and Universal Class.

Help APS reach 10 million minutes of independent reading by logging all of your minutes into Beanstack! How many badges have you earned?

APS Student Log In: https://www.beanstack.com/race2read

Select your school

Username: Network Username (My Backpack Log In)

Password: race2read

Non student/Non homeroom teacher log in

Create an account by visiting https://race2read.beanstack.org/reader365

Thanks to the generosity of Renaissance, MyOn is now accessible for all APS students. MyOn provides eBooks of various levels. Some highlights on MyOn include:

• News articles available M-F. Articles are reviewed by a child psychologist prior to being shared with students when reporting on sensitive topics;
• Maps showing where news stories take place;
• Comprehension questions at the end of news articles
• Ability for teachers to assign books to students;
• Additional book suggestions at the end of news articles;
• MyOn news (and other books) available in three languages: English, French & Spanish.

How can your students access MyOn?

• Students in grades 1-12 simply log into MyBackpack and select MyOn

• Students in APS PreK & Kindergarten:

www.myon.com

School name: APS Early Reading

student username: student

student password: books

• Students outside of APS:

www.myon.com

School name: Get Georgia Reading

student username: yourcounty (e.g. fultoncounty)

student password: read

Believe it or not, its time to start gearing up for the 2021 HRRB! While the Dekalb HRRB steering committee has not released the official titles, the Georgia Children's Book Award Nominees have been announced. Historically, these are the exact titles that are included in the HRRB list.

Even though the Fulton County Public Library System is closed, many of the titles are available digitally. View the image below to locate available books. This could be a great start for your HRRB team!

Patrice Laird-Walker, Ed.S

Media Services Coordinator

plwalker@atlanta.k12.ga.us

404.802.1565

Jennifer Saunders, Ed.S.

Media Specialist At-Large

jsaunders@atlanta.k12.ga.us

404.802.1529

Click here to request support

Website: https://www.atlantapublicschools.us/library-media-services
Location: 130 Trinity Avenue Southwest, Atlanta, GA, USA
Twitter: @apsmediaserv