New year means time to learn about new things. I was lucky enough to be involved with the formation of a literacy resource that was created a few years ago. It's called Bookelicious. When I heard what it was called, of course I was immediately interested! Bookelicious is a free online site, that's right I said free! The site focuses on connecting kids to books they want to read. One way they connect kids to books is through the use of "bookmojis." What's a bookmoji?! Remember when bitmojis became popular? People created their avatar version of themselves and used their bitmoji with lots of things. A bookmoji is similar...teachers and students can create their avatar and they include all kinds of their interests with it. For example, maybe you are someone who likes camping, ice hockey, and anything with unicorns. Once you select your likes and interests, Bookelicious then uses that information to find books that match you. Kids have so much fun creating their bookmojis, then the technology on the site works its magic to constantly be recommending books to kids based off of their interests. They Bookelicious is not a site where kids go to read the books, it's a site to build wish lists or to order books. One way I have used it in the past is to help kids build lists for summer reading. Kids add to their list and then they can print out a list or share it with parents. They can either look for the books at the public library or parents and teachers can order books through the site. I love that they create tons of themes that you can search books that way. The site also regularly changes their book topics that they are focused on. For example, right now when you go to the site it talks about how later this month is National Hat Day. When you click on the mascot Jazzy, the dog, it will take you to a curated list of books all having something to do with hats. They also have different collections you can search. You can search by grade, by interest, by collection, by theme. All kinds of ways to search books! Bookelicious also provides regular free professional development sessions. These are virtual events that usually happen in the evening. I have attended some that are with authors. It's so great to be able to connect with the different authors and learn more about their books and their writing. They also do various professional development topics related to literacy. Anyone can sign up and listen in! Denise, Brianna and I are part of something called The Principal's Clubhouse that is hosted by Bookelicious. We meet monthly and talk about literacy leadership in our schools. There are people from all over the country and we always get lots of great ideas from these meetings. And sometimes we win free books! Last week's meeting, both Brianna and I won some books by the author Jasmine Warga! I encourage you all to check out Bookelicious, create a free account, play around with creating your own bookmoji. If it's something you want to do with your class, we can talk to the tech team about adding it to Clever. And maybe we can do the fun idea that I learned from another principal...a guess the teacher bookmoji contest! Bookelicious is a new tool that can help us continue to foster a love of reading with our students. Check it out and get book-matched today! Information from the Inspired Learning Day Planning Committee: Inspired Learning Design Challenge Announcement The Inspired Learning Planning Team is excited to announce the MURSD Inspired Learning Design Challenge on Thursday, February 9th. Students will have the opportunity to take on the Zip Line Challenge, which will allow them to explore, apply, and reflect on their personal connection to the MURSD Portrait of a Learner through a hands-on, collaborative STEM challenge. Additional details will be shared in the coming weeks, including scheduling, student groupings, and a complete educator implementation plan. The team has been working hard to finalize the shared features of the challenge and plan for its success, meeting for the second time this past Friday to continue this important work. If you would like to get involved with implementing the Inspired Learning Design Challenge, please reach out to a member of the Inspired Learning Planning Committee at your school. We are grateful for your support and look forward to an engaging and enriching experience for our students!
Clough Team Members Brianna Zalusky Evan Hanson Memorial Team Members Lauren Chuk Amy Henderson Molly Smith Miscoe Team Members Nick Cuomo Maria Desruisseaux Chris Massey Nipmuc Team Members John Clements Shelley Cook Leigh-ann Miklavic Mary Anne Moran
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