WEBVTT
00:00:30.056 --> 00:00:33.438
Hello everybody and welcome to another great episode of my EdTech Life.
00:00:33.438 --> 00:00:42.290
Thank you so much for joining us on this wonderful day and, wherever it is that you're joining us from around the world, thank you, as always, for your continued support.
00:00:42.290 --> 00:00:45.710
I would like to announce that today is a very special day.
00:00:45.710 --> 00:00:49.451
We have just hit 100,000 downloads.
00:00:49.451 --> 00:00:52.509
So thank you, each and every single one of you.
00:00:52.509 --> 00:01:09.572
All our listeners and especially our amazing guests who have come on here, have shared their stories, shared their journeys, their expertise, and, again, we do what we do for you so we can bring you these amazing conversations, so we can continue to grow in the education landscape.
00:01:09.572 --> 00:01:22.781
So thank you so much for all of that support, and I am excited to celebrate this milestone, too, with a wonderful creator and somebody that is truly inspiring, who's been on the show before and is doing some phenomenal work.
00:01:22.781 --> 00:01:26.371
So I would love to welcome to the show today Katie Fielding.
00:01:26.371 --> 00:01:27.924
Katie, how are you doing today?
00:01:28.484 --> 00:01:30.269
Good, I'm excited to celebrate with you.
00:01:30.269 --> 00:01:33.243
It's been a few years since I've been here and I'm so proud of you.
00:01:33.885 --> 00:01:41.105
Thank you so much, katie, and yes, it has been a couple of years, I think the last time you told me, I think it was four years.
00:01:41.606 --> 00:01:44.551
Yeah, yeah, four years in May, I think, yep, yes.
00:01:44.831 --> 00:01:45.793
Four years in May.
00:01:45.793 --> 00:01:48.055
So this is amazing just to have you back on.
00:01:48.055 --> 00:02:02.543
And of course you know, at that time you were sharing your wonderful inspirational story, the work that you were doing, obviously through COVID, and being able to help so many educators, not only in your area but really globally, you know, with the resources that you were putting out.
00:02:02.543 --> 00:02:14.099
And then, of course, you're sharing your inspirational story too, as well, and now you are in a new role and I am excited to have you on here so you can tell us a little bit more about that new role.
00:02:14.099 --> 00:02:26.191
So, katie, for our audience members who are not familiar with your work just yet, can you give us a little bit of an introduction and what your context is within the education space?
00:02:26.191 --> 00:02:27.032
Sure?
00:02:27.112 --> 00:02:27.514
of course.
00:02:27.514 --> 00:02:31.840
So I was a teacher and then I was a tech coach and then I was a STEM specialist.
00:02:31.840 --> 00:02:45.330
So I had 20 years in the K-12 space and then this summer I joined Book Creator as the educational content manager, which means that I get to do really fun content creation all the time.
00:02:45.330 --> 00:03:06.943
So a little bit of curriculum creation, a lot of marketing creation and it's just a lot of fun and a great extension of a lot of the work that I was doing before as a consultant, advocating and presenting to teachers about accessibility, which, as a disabled person, is a huge passion of mine, which, as a disabled person is a huge passion of mine, exactly, and you know it's amazing.
00:03:06.962 --> 00:03:33.340
Just what I love about your journey is the various lenses that you have seen the education space in you know, as a teacher, in the classroom, and then, of course, with all those three specialties, and then the professional development, which I know with professional development, it has to be something that is good, something that is engaging and innovative, because as teachers, you know that those are some of the things that where we go and find those gems that we can go sprinkle into our classroom.
00:03:33.340 --> 00:03:50.710
And again, following your work for years and I've had the honor of meeting you at ISTE, I think that was what maybe two years ago in Philadelphia in person and then got to briefly see you at TCEA because you were running, yeah, and then you were running too because you had a session.
00:03:50.810 --> 00:03:53.943
But I must say that TCEA was wonderful.
00:03:53.943 --> 00:03:59.993
This year that I saw the book creator booth was like a whole different thing.
00:03:59.993 --> 00:04:24.173
I mean, you can barely walk through that little section because everybody was surrounding the book creator booth, which is fantastic, which also is a testament to the work that you all are doing, in that you're engaging so many educators and they're finding the value in those tools and I think you know, with your expertise and like you mentioned, what you get to do now and really creating and still advocating and bringing your passions together.
00:04:24.173 --> 00:04:28.653
I think that that's a great fit and so I'm excited to dive in a little bit more into that.
00:04:28.653 --> 00:04:43.764
So for our audience members that you know weren't able to make it to TCEA or get to see all the wonderful stuff that you guys were doing in the booth, can you tell us a little bit about what Book Creator is and you know how it could be used in the classroom?
00:04:44.286 --> 00:04:52.531
Yeah, so we like to say that we're the most inclusive tool for creativity and demonstrating learning for K-12.
00:04:52.531 --> 00:04:55.584
So we're blank kind of canvas.
00:04:55.584 --> 00:04:59.153
Students can make books, but you don't always have to think of it as a book.
00:04:59.153 --> 00:05:04.507
You could think of it as a digital activity, and so it can be a blank canvas.
00:05:04.507 --> 00:05:12.091
But we also have tons of templates that students and teachers can start from, or teachers can make their own templates and assign them to their students.
00:05:12.699 --> 00:05:16.471
So it has a book-like format which is really familiar for people.
00:05:16.471 --> 00:05:26.413
But we have so many inclusive accessibility features and we just launched one really this week I'll be glad to show you, which is text-to-speech in PDF.
00:05:26.413 --> 00:05:37.470
So now when you add a PDF to your book, it will read that PDF aloud to a student, which we know can be a really nice way to elevate that PDF that maybe you printed out before.
00:05:37.470 --> 00:05:48.230
But now it can be more inclusive and accessible to a student because they can have it read to them and then they can respond in the best way for them, either with text or audio or video.
00:05:48.994 --> 00:06:13.966
It's wonderful and we'll definitely get into that because I'm really excited for you to share some of those features because, like I mentioned, many educators out there and I saw the number there at the booth and I know that there were many people that were doing presentations, including yourself book creators so I know that we have some audience members that maybe have heard of it, maybe kind of dipped their toes a little bit, but maybe after today, when they get to see a little bit more of what can be done, they'll definitely just dive right in.
00:06:13.966 --> 00:06:35.690
But before we get into that, I think that you described Book Creator in a very good way, which is just a multimodal learning tool, which I absolutely love because I know currently many times in the classrooms we'll see that and there's nothing wrong with this because I know that it could still be effective depending on the classroom and, of course, with the teacher engagement too.
00:06:35.690 --> 00:06:39.108
It's a teacher-centered this allows.
00:06:39.108 --> 00:06:42.620
What I like is that it's a little bit more student-centered.
00:06:42.620 --> 00:06:57.201
Or you can partner up and then the students are able to share their learning process, share their thinking, whether it's through speaking, whether it's through uploading, whether it's through creating something within the book itself, uploading images.
00:06:57.201 --> 00:07:10.730
So there is a myriad of ways that the students can show mastery of the concept, and I think that's something that is very beneficial and very needed, and I think that there is some new tech that is out there.
00:07:10.730 --> 00:07:32.132
Obviously, you know everybody's buzzing about AI, but sometimes just to kind of reel it back in and just get back into just the basics of it, in that sense of just allowing the student to share their thought process in a way that is creative and it's engaging and also inclusive, I mean it's fantastic, and that's the one thing that I do love.
00:07:32.211 --> 00:07:43.963
As I was flipping through some of the pages of the books that I had created, one of the things I do want to highlight is one of the most read books at my district was when I was doing the Google Level 1, level 2 certification.
00:07:43.963 --> 00:07:48.749
So I created it using Book Creator, and so the teachers would just go view the book.
00:07:48.749 --> 00:08:06.803
They go like, ok, chapter 1, we're talking about spreadsheets, chapter 2, we're talking about this, and so it was a fun way to present the material and still engage my audience, which in this case, was my teachers, with the video format and the speaking and all of that great stuff.
00:08:06.803 --> 00:08:09.370
So that, I think, is very, very exciting.
00:08:09.370 --> 00:08:15.430
So now I know you mentioned there is that new feature which I think is fantastic, with PDFs.
00:08:15.430 --> 00:08:27.213
So what I would love to do now is, if you don't mind, let me go ahead and just share your screen so you can kind of give us an overview of what Book Creator is and what it's doing and some of the tools that are there.
00:08:27.213 --> 00:08:29.540
So here we go Great.
00:08:29.600 --> 00:08:30.564
So this is Book Creator.
00:08:30.564 --> 00:08:37.131
This is one of my library, and something that you just mentioned that I kind of love using Book Creator for is presenting.
00:08:37.131 --> 00:08:38.761
So I love.
00:08:38.761 --> 00:08:50.313
You know, I used to use a Google slide or maybe another presentation tool, but now when I present with Book Creator, I have all of my like attendees at my presenting session join my library.
00:08:50.313 --> 00:08:57.472
All they have to do is join with the code and then I get like an instant attendance list of everyone who's come to my presentation session.
00:08:57.472 --> 00:09:03.100
So that's a really nice feature that you know other presentation tools don't automatically give you.
00:09:03.100 --> 00:09:06.892
So if someone joins my library, I get like kind of a point of contact for them, which is nice.
00:09:07.539 --> 00:09:12.047
But if I'm at my library here, of course it's creating books.
00:09:12.047 --> 00:09:29.672
Every new book has three pages, and the newest thing that we launched this week is text-to-speech for PDFs, and so you'll see our import PDF button is now highlighted because we really want to feature that, and if you come in here and you look for a PDF on your computer, I'm going to pull this one.
00:09:29.672 --> 00:09:38.730
You can come in, you can pick the size that's best based on that PDF, and now I can right click on it and select scan for text.
00:09:38.730 --> 00:09:44.625
I'm going to say current page only, and now it can be read aloud, so I'll see.
00:09:44.625 --> 00:09:45.746
Now it can be read aloud, so I'll see.
00:09:45.746 --> 00:09:47.130
Now the speaker button down here.
00:09:50.440 --> 00:09:51.562
I can identify three big reinforcers.
00:09:52.123 --> 00:10:05.207
So now I can have that whole PDF read to me and I've had some people on socials be like, oh, I don't like that voice If they have a different voice, and all you have to do is come up into read mode the play button in the top right and go into the gear.
00:10:05.207 --> 00:10:07.320
You can select a different voices.
00:10:07.320 --> 00:10:11.851
So I can go into those English voices and I can look for, you know, another English voice.
00:10:11.851 --> 00:10:13.947
If I'm Australian, I could choose Catherine.
00:10:13.947 --> 00:10:18.524
Fred I don't know if I like Fred's voice Gordon All right, maybe I'll go with that.
00:10:18.524 --> 00:10:22.365
Kathy Okay, all right, I'll go with her, I'll go with Kathy.
00:10:22.365 --> 00:10:23.927
Okay, all right, I'll go with her.
00:10:23.927 --> 00:10:34.456
So now if I go back into edit mode and I click on this again, I can have it read by Kathy.
00:10:36.039 --> 00:10:44.336
That is fantastic, and I think that is something that is so useful because I think, like for the most part, I know within my district, our content specialists.
00:10:44.456 --> 00:10:47.783
What they do, or content coordinators, I should say.
00:10:47.783 --> 00:11:02.289
What they do is they create a lot of activities for the teachers to share with students, and for the most part, the delivery is always going to be a PDF, and I know that we have tools that you know students can work with PDFs and so on.
00:11:02.289 --> 00:11:19.789
But just the fact that you can also bring it in into Book Creator and also be read and be read nicely and clearly too as well, depending on the voice type that you like I think that takes that to that next level, because within Book Creator, like you mentioned, there's so many other things that you would be able to do Like.
00:11:19.789 --> 00:11:40.395
So, for example, I would be imagining, too, that in looking at this PDF and getting read to me as a student, I would also have the ability to vote like record my answer using my voice and just pop it into one of those boxes instead of necessarily having to type anything in, which would be just something great for accessibility as well.
00:11:40.395 --> 00:11:41.177
You're right.
00:11:41.756 --> 00:11:44.047
Yeah, exactly, so I can just click start recording.
00:11:44.047 --> 00:11:50.105
Well, derek, yeah, exactly, so I can just click start recording.
00:11:50.105 --> 00:11:55.918
If I'm thinking about the different types of forces pushing and pulling, I can think about a potential energy, the response.
00:11:55.918 --> 00:11:58.785
So that can then be a response here.
00:11:58.785 --> 00:12:21.931
But if my student let's say they were a newcomer, a Spanish speaker, and they wrote they spoke that in Spanish, but I'm a science teacher and I don't speak Spanish I could easily add a transcript to whatever they said in their home language and then, after I transcribed that, it takes just a moment.
00:12:23.553 --> 00:12:24.514
This is fantastic.
00:12:24.799 --> 00:12:27.346
I could then translate it so I could bring it to English.
00:12:27.346 --> 00:12:33.004
In this case, I'm going to go to Spanish because I spoke in English, but now I have that exact audio.
00:12:33.004 --> 00:12:36.533
What the student said or what I said can be easily translated.
00:12:36.533 --> 00:12:51.765
So yeah, the accessibility features and the potential to really build and reduce barriers in our classroom, to really build and reduce barriers in our classroom, to reduce the barriers and start those relationship building things from day one with a multilingual newcomer, are really empowering.
00:12:52.308 --> 00:13:10.214
Yeah, no, I agree with you, and I know I think last episode, the episode because this is episode 315, episode 314, I had a gentleman here, you know, from Pocket Talk, and he mentioned something that's very important is like you mentioned too is highlighting that relationship aspect.
00:13:10.519 --> 00:13:24.469
I mean, what I get to see too here and I know it's not just in my area but pretty much in the whole of the United States too, when you get new students that are coming in, whatever nationality that may be in, I mean they're leaving their home behind, their culture behind.
00:13:24.469 --> 00:13:25.230
They're coming in.
00:13:25.230 --> 00:13:30.551
Now, you know, as a teacher, it adds a stressor to the teacher as well.
00:13:30.551 --> 00:13:35.333
It adds a stressor to the student as well in having that barrier to that language.
00:13:35.333 --> 00:13:46.806
But the fact that now, through Book Creator, the student can go ahead and speak the answer in their native language and it still shows that they have mastery of that content or you know, explaining the thought process.
00:13:46.806 --> 00:14:09.730
The teacher now can also listen to that and be able to see okay, although the language may not be the same, the content is there or the thought process is there, and I think that's something that is fabulous too to have, because now the student kind of has a relief of anxiety and I've heard that happen many times here, even with our district.
00:14:09.770 --> 00:14:17.513
With something like tools that are able to translate, just that stress level goes down and now the learning can take place, that engagement.
00:14:17.513 --> 00:15:01.572
And so what I want to add too is even here in Texas I know we have what is called the TELPIS testing, where our students which is very kind of difficult in a way students have to speak for 45 seconds and they're giving a prompt or they're giving a picture, and if students don't get to practice their speaking skills, that could be very difficult, because now you have to carry on a conversation for 45 seconds, and if you don't hit those 45 seconds, it doesn't matter if you use proper vocabulary or if everything was pronounced correctly, because it's not 45 seconds it's like nope, sorry, you don't get to pass on or maybe exit the program or show any growth.
00:15:02.100 --> 00:15:15.426
So having this tool available is something that is fantastic, because now the students can really dive in and practice, and I think that would be something that's very beneficial, and it is being beneficial to the classroom, so I absolutely love that.
00:15:16.220 --> 00:15:34.807
Yeah, with the four domains of language reading, writing, listening and speaking students can do all of those things in Book Creator with the audio and video features so you can have a you could record something and have them do a listening exercise where they can record something and do that speaking or a language piece.
00:15:34.807 --> 00:15:46.259
The possibilities are totally here, especially for those students, those WIDA Telbus, I think in they have another name in California for their testing.
00:15:46.259 --> 00:15:50.056
But, yeah, lots of options for that, perfect.
00:15:50.264 --> 00:15:55.945
Now I do see here too, like I do want to show our audience members this, because I know you pulled this up, the All About Me journal.
00:15:55.945 --> 00:16:01.157
So tell me a little bit about this and what the students are going to be able to find through this, and the teachers as well.
00:16:01.498 --> 00:16:03.272
Yeah, so this is in our Discover area.
00:16:03.272 --> 00:16:14.764
So if you're on your teacher dashboard and you click on Discover, you're going to find all of our remixable book, and this one's right here under Getting Started, and it is a journal that we've made just for newcomer students.
00:16:14.764 --> 00:16:22.470
So if you do have that new multilingual learner in your class, what I would do if I was the classroom still is I'd remix this book.
00:16:22.470 --> 00:16:23.974
That's how you get your own copy of it.
00:16:23.974 --> 00:16:38.336
I'd put it in my library and then I would make this book about me, the teacher, and I would then be able to translate this whole book into their home language and that student and their family can meet me and get to know me as a teacher.
00:16:38.336 --> 00:16:50.201
And then I can make another copy of it for them to complete in their home language and once they've filled it in, I can translate it back to English and I can get to know them from day or week one.
00:16:50.201 --> 00:16:52.126
So that relationship building.
00:16:52.126 --> 00:16:57.948
This reduces that language barrier and we can start getting to know each other and building that teacher-student relationship.
00:16:58.991 --> 00:17:02.926
Again, I'm going to go ahead and just add a little something here.
00:17:03.586 --> 00:17:05.250
When I was still in the classroom.
00:17:05.250 --> 00:17:11.539
They didn't have this before or just these types of tools for that accessibility.
00:17:11.539 --> 00:17:31.449
And I would constantly, in the demographic area that I lived, and especially here in deep South Texas, in the Rio Grande Valley, and because we're so close to Mexico, you know there's a lot of manufacturing, so we would get students that come in from Korea because their parents were working in the manufacturing, or they would come in from Israel, they would come in from Japan.
00:17:31.449 --> 00:18:17.046
So sometimes middle of the semester, middle of the year, you would get a new student that comes in and again, like we were talking about, kind of immersed in a new culture, immersed in a new language, and for me and I was just having a discussion with one of my colleagues and talking about the accessibility and how we can do better and something like Book Creator being able to help out is that, without wanting to single out the student, I was already, you know, singling them out in the sense that I would have to sit them close to me because I had the iPad and then it was just Google Translate Can you type in, and then me wait and listen, and then, of course, having to take care of all the other students and you know, just making sure that I'm doing my service to help them out and also my other students.
00:18:17.125 --> 00:18:24.569
But now what I love here is the fact that what you just shared is now I can share who I am as a teacher.
00:18:24.650 --> 00:18:26.626
You know philosophies, your little rule like.
00:18:26.626 --> 00:18:44.575
You know classroom procedures, things of that sort that now the family gets to listen to in their language and then they can comfortably go ahead and create something in their language and then I can listen to it, and now I feel like I wouldn't have to kind of pull all those students together right next to my desk.
00:18:44.575 --> 00:18:52.345
They can also work with each other, communicating next to each other, you know, even in the think-pair-share activity, and they can go back and forth.
00:18:52.345 --> 00:19:02.574
And I think that that is something that we need to see more because again, going back, it's student getting singled out Like it's not fun as it is.
00:19:02.574 --> 00:19:18.345
They already have that additional stress, and so now it's a great way for them to build relationships, not only with you as a teacher but with the students, and they can still collaborate and, you know, fill, you know create those projects together, even though they may be speaking a different language.
00:19:18.345 --> 00:19:23.917
But Book Creator helps break that break down that language barrier and I absolutely love that.
00:19:23.959 --> 00:19:27.459
That's fantastic Break that break down that language barrier and I absolutely love that.
00:19:27.459 --> 00:19:27.881
That's fantastic.
00:19:27.881 --> 00:19:42.628
Yeah, when my last year was in school, we had a lot of the students from the Afghan airlift.
00:19:42.628 --> 00:19:43.872
One of those people quickly left and you know, I had a student.
00:19:43.872 --> 00:19:44.814
She was like, oh, they're not going to have mine.
00:19:44.814 --> 00:19:45.454
No, miss, like they don't have it.
00:19:45.454 --> 00:19:46.336
And then I was like, well, let's just look.
00:19:46.336 --> 00:19:47.239
And so you know, I was like, let's take a look.
00:19:47.239 --> 00:19:47.901
And then she was like she saw it.
00:19:47.901 --> 00:19:48.181
She saw Urdu.
00:19:48.181 --> 00:20:03.067
And she was like like so excited that her language is there and she could do the assignment that everyone in the class was doing in her newcomer class, like, and she had just gotten there and she was like empowered and she felt good about what she was doing and that was really rewarding for me as the tech coach at that time.
00:20:03.728 --> 00:20:04.848
That is fantastic.
00:20:04.848 --> 00:20:06.529
I love that, Katie.
00:20:06.529 --> 00:20:20.138
So if you don't mind, if we go back to book creator here as well then let me go ahead and ask you here, as a new teacher coming in, talk to me a little bit about what the libraries are, or the discovery.
00:20:20.138 --> 00:20:25.803
This is my first time after watching this show and I'm like, okay, I want to dive in.
00:20:25.803 --> 00:20:31.826
Where shall I go first?
00:20:31.846 --> 00:20:34.196
to go ahead and just kind of dip my toes in and start getting comfortable with Book Creator.
00:20:34.196 --> 00:20:37.327
First of all, you're just going to go to bookcreatorcom and you're going to click create a free account.
00:20:37.327 --> 00:20:41.116
So if you've never used before it is, you can get in for free.
00:20:41.116 --> 00:20:42.667
You can get started for free.
00:20:42.667 --> 00:20:46.577
With a free account, you can have one library with 40 books.
00:20:46.577 --> 00:20:55.075
So you'll see that I have a zillion library, because if you have a premium account you have unlimited libraries and you can have a thousand books.
00:20:55.075 --> 00:21:07.192
So the free account is really great, especially if you're an elementary teacher, we know that's a really great number you can get started with and then, after you use those 40 books, you can archive them and then you'll have 40 more.
00:21:07.192 --> 00:21:12.768
So we try and make it so that the free account is really usable.
00:21:12.768 --> 00:21:14.231
Our founder, dan Amos.
00:21:14.231 --> 00:21:25.171
He created Book Creator because he had a son with dyslexia and he wanted to find a way to help him like reading and like writing, and so that's why he created Book Creator.
00:21:25.171 --> 00:21:32.238
So we still want to make that available to a lot of students, despite a price barrier.
00:21:32.238 --> 00:21:36.092
So that's why we have the free account and we will keep it.
00:21:36.092 --> 00:21:44.224
But if you do want more bells and whistles and more libraries, then the premium account is for you, and then you're going to see your libraries.
00:21:44.224 --> 00:21:46.549
You can think of those as, like your classrooms.
00:21:46.549 --> 00:21:50.077
The discover section is where we have our remixable books.
00:21:50.726 --> 00:21:54.434
I'm going to highlight this one at the top middle, our March activity journal.
00:21:54.434 --> 00:21:57.008
This is a great starting point.
00:21:57.008 --> 00:22:07.657
Every month we put out one of these activity journals, and every day of the month there's a celebration or a recognition of something that's happening in the world or in the in the States.
00:22:07.657 --> 00:22:13.692
So, for instance, today is March 1st and so it's World Compliment Day.
00:22:13.692 --> 00:22:21.479
And so, fonz, I'm just going to compliment you, not on the postcard but in person, about how great this podcast has been for the education space.
00:22:21.479 --> 00:22:23.993
I've learned so much over listening the past few years.
00:22:23.993 --> 00:22:25.788
So kudos to you.
00:22:25.788 --> 00:22:34.938
So students can come in with their copy of the book and they can write a compliment card to someone, and every day in March they can have a different activity.
00:22:34.938 --> 00:22:37.127
So that's just one thing.
00:22:37.127 --> 00:22:38.592
A quick, quick win.
00:22:38.592 --> 00:22:40.076
You know that's great bell work.
00:22:40.076 --> 00:22:42.468
At the end you know you're done with your activity.
00:22:42.468 --> 00:22:44.250
Go work on your activity journal.
00:22:44.250 --> 00:22:48.980
Or, you know, coming in for the day a little, getting in seat work as you first get into class.
00:22:48.980 --> 00:22:51.310
That's a great one to go to.
00:22:52.605 --> 00:22:52.926
Okay.
00:22:52.926 --> 00:22:57.767
So, katie, let me get this straight, okay, and this is again just to clarify and then for all our audience members here too.
00:22:57.767 --> 00:23:09.960
So you're telling me that every month there is a book that will be put out just by book creator to, I mean, teacher can dive in, and let's say that maybe next month is her first month in April.
00:23:09.960 --> 00:23:13.616
They're going to find something there that they can go ahead and use for that whole month.
00:23:13.616 --> 00:23:14.220
Is that really?
00:23:14.220 --> 00:23:15.905
Am I understanding correctly?
00:23:16.027 --> 00:23:18.132
You are understanding 100% correct.
00:23:18.132 --> 00:23:19.916
So every month we have it highlighted up here.
00:23:19.916 --> 00:23:21.971
That's where you'll find it really easily.
00:23:23.015 --> 00:23:23.798
That is fantastic.
00:23:23.798 --> 00:24:04.413
So for my educator, friends out there that have been kind of on the fence or maybe just kind of dipping your little fingertips and toes into the book creator, kind of water like, as you notice here Katie's just sharing what would be available for you every month as activities, things that you know, like she mentioned, either early morning, like kind of bell work, like welcome, or at the end of the day or maybe in between periods and things of that sort, and it's already built out for you and the students can go in there and go ahead and engage in that learning that sometimes you know it's great that they would have that independent learning time as well, and it doesn't necessarily have to tie in to the content at that given time, but they get to, you know, go ahead and work on something and be engaged.
00:24:04.413 --> 00:24:09.787
But I do notice here at the bottom tabs you do have it broken down also by you know some subjects.
00:24:09.787 --> 00:24:12.355
You know you have literacy, hela curriculum and so on.
00:24:12.355 --> 00:24:14.852
So tell us a little bit about that too as well.
00:24:15.354 --> 00:24:19.940
Yeah, so we have other templates and so we have it by content.
00:24:19.940 --> 00:24:32.921
So the student templates, these are the ones that are remixable on our Discover page, and so if you wanted to look for STEM, you could come in here and maybe you teach science and you use the 5e model, so this notebook template is going to be perfect for you.
00:24:32.921 --> 00:24:38.798
Again, you just click, remix this book, copy it into the library you want and then edit it.
00:24:38.798 --> 00:24:42.106
I would not give every student this whole book up front.
00:24:42.106 --> 00:24:44.270
I would, you know, give them a few pages.
00:24:44.351 --> 00:24:54.031
That's another great feature in Book Creator is like you can assign a book with five pages and then after you can add a page to their books as it goes.
00:24:54.031 --> 00:24:56.865
So it's a really great way to chunk the information for students.
00:24:56.865 --> 00:24:59.032
You know you don't have that kid running ahead.
00:24:59.032 --> 00:24:59.914
You don't give that kid.
00:24:59.914 --> 00:25:01.167
That feels kind.
00:25:01.167 --> 00:25:11.299
You can really manage the classroom experience and the pace by our copy to feature, which allows you to copy a page to students' books.
00:25:11.299 --> 00:25:28.617
So we have all different kinds of content that you can remix, and then further down we have like inspirational content, content that's been made by our community for different grades, and different content If you scroll down even further that you can explore to see what real teachers are doing with Book Creator in their classrooms.
00:25:29.506 --> 00:25:30.347
This is great.
00:25:30.347 --> 00:25:31.490
Yeah, this is wonderful.
00:25:31.490 --> 00:25:53.301
Now, katie, I want to ask you I know that we had previously talked before and you showed me one that I think that for a lot of teachers I mean it definitely just like blow their mind, and especially if they're, you know, kinder teachers working with you know learning the alphabet or learning letters and things that sort, and I think that that was fantastic because it includes, you know, the audio, it includes video and so on.
00:25:53.301 --> 00:25:59.328
So would you mind sharing that with me for the lower grade levels, because I think that that is something that they would absolutely love.
00:25:59.790 --> 00:26:06.270
I think like the core of our really good content is found under literacy, and you'll see we have some recent like text prep.
00:26:06.270 --> 00:26:15.336
Actually, we created these originally with the teaks in mind, so these are really great these fourth, fifth and third grade reading response practice.
00:26:15.336 --> 00:26:21.949
But if we're looking for even younger students, you're definitely going to want to check out our, our literacy content.
00:26:21.949 --> 00:26:49.577
I love this one, the vowels teams book, and so you'll see within this book a vowel team for every you know vowel team that little learners are learning and it goes through and it gives them opportunities to hear it, say it, find images that go with the vowel team, write it, so they're really doing like step-by-step learning of understanding these vowel teams, and so we have those for all the vowel teams.
00:26:49.577 --> 00:26:55.712
We also have a whole collection of the five pillars of literacy and content to support that too.
00:26:56.894 --> 00:27:07.455
That is fantastic and I know, like for my lower grade teachers, you know, I think that this is something that is wonderful, that is already there, again, as a supplement to what you are already doing.
00:27:07.455 --> 00:27:07.757
Great.
00:27:07.757 --> 00:27:17.538
So imagine you're doing this, your initial teach, you know you're going through it with your students, and then now you can go ahead and, you know, put open up a Chromebook or you can work on this together.
00:27:17.538 --> 00:27:34.154
You can either project it and then just have an engaging, colorful, editable classroom discussion and students can definitely, you know, continue their learning and be engaged, whether it's independent or through the help and support of a teacher, and I think that this is something that is fantastic, wow.
00:27:34.746 --> 00:27:34.987
All right.
00:27:35.027 --> 00:27:35.307
Katie.
00:27:35.307 --> 00:27:43.653
Next thing that I want to talk about, because I have been seeing this all over social media and I know it's been for the last couple of weeks.
00:27:43.653 --> 00:27:51.942
Now we're talking about Be an Author Month, which starts today, march 1st, when this episode will be released March 1st.
00:27:51.942 --> 00:27:58.066
So tell me a little bit about what Be an Author Month is and the competition that Book Creator is putting together.
00:27:58.547 --> 00:28:06.429
Yes, we started Be an Author Month a few years ago, with a celebration every March encouraging students to be creative and become authors.
00:28:06.429 --> 00:28:08.596
So we have a lot of exciting things happening.
00:28:08.596 --> 00:28:15.500
This year we have a competition where it's a personal narrative competition for students to tell their story.
00:28:15.500 --> 00:28:27.196
This is actually something I helped my L teachers do back when I was a tech coach, and using Book Creator to tell those newcomer story was really a powerful opportunity for them.
00:28:27.196 --> 00:28:31.873
But we want to give that to every kid in the world, and so every kid in the world can enter this.
00:28:32.505 --> 00:28:39.323
Every school can submit free books to represent their school and we have great prizes this year for students.
00:28:39.323 --> 00:28:47.332
But we really just want to encourage them to be creative storytellers and obviously students know themselves and they everyone has a unique story to share.
00:28:47.332 --> 00:29:07.612
I know that I've been empowered by sharing my own story, and so we want to again pass that along to students and empower them to share their stories and what they love, what their passions are, what they like helping people with their stories and what they love, what their passions are, what they like helping people with what you know gets them excited, what's been challenging for them.
00:29:07.612 --> 00:29:08.474
So, whatever angle they want to go at.
00:29:08.474 --> 00:29:09.680
We're really excited to read their narratives.
00:29:09.700 --> 00:29:10.482
That is fantastic.
00:29:10.482 --> 00:29:13.351
So let's go ahead and take a look at this here and tell us a little bit more.
00:29:13.351 --> 00:29:22.479
So, as a teacher diving in and I see this on social media, or after today, this afternoon, on Saturday I'm listening to the episode and I'm like, ok, I got to go here.
00:29:22.479 --> 00:29:30.156
Where can they find the information and what should they be able to follow that way they can enter their school or their class into this competition?
00:29:31.085 --> 00:29:34.395
Yeah, so you're going to find our Be An Author Month hub on our website.
00:29:34.395 --> 00:29:40.953
If you go to our website, you'll see a banner at the top that will get you to this page, and we have four main areas on this page.
00:29:40.953 --> 00:29:52.480
So information about the Tell your Story competition, and if you go on to this page, or from the competition page, I should say you're going to see all the rules, all the prizes.
00:29:52.480 --> 00:30:04.018
We have some really great prizes this year, so the winning kids are going to get a Kindle, colorsoft, their class is going to get a pizza party, we got swag and we'll get your book printed as well.
00:30:04.018 --> 00:30:05.240
So really fun things.
00:30:06.002 --> 00:30:11.414
To support teachers and helping their students submit entries, we've created a whole set of templates.
00:30:11.414 --> 00:30:22.213
So in these templates we have some for elementary and some for secondary, and all you need to do is again remix the book and assign it to students and it will help them.
00:30:22.213 --> 00:30:34.894
This one will be a planning book where they can plan their personal narrative, and the other book is the template that they can use to put their final story in and submit it, and teachers will be submitting those, to be clear.