Access to Books

Access to Books

There are most likely 1,500 books in my classroom library currently. I started collecting books even before I landed my first teaching job. Then I learned about opportunities like grant money, Donors Choose projects, Scholastic bonus points, teacher supply money, garage sales, used bookstores, and Goodwill. Giving students access to books has always been an important part of my teaching philosophy. My library is always expanded in order to include a little bit of everything.

Our Northwestern middle school library and public libraries are the best sources for finding what’s new. Who can afford to buy every new book they want to read? Owning books are wonderful, but borrowing books accomplishes the task of reading. Did you know that you can now borrow books and audiobooks digitally? FREE!!!!! Let me tell you how.

Visit the Wooster Public Library website and look for the link that takes you to their eMedia. From there you will find all the different apps that accept their eCard accounts to borrow materials. You can also use THIS LINK to go straight to the eCard sign-up page.

Once you have an account they will show you the card number and a pin. You can access your account and change the pin to a more common password that you can remember. They will also send this information in an email so that you have it. With these numbers, you can now log in to any of the apps listed. My suggestions would be Clevnet and Hoopla. Both of these offer eBooks and audiobooks.

A word on audiobooks

Students choosing to use audiobooks for reading at home is a valid use of their time. However, if they are choosing to do this for every book then they will not gain quality reading skills needed for high school and beyond. An audiobook is a good idea when students have chosen a particularly long book that they are truly enjoying. It can also be a good way to keep up with assigned pages if they have fallen behind. Audiobooks are a great option when reading in the car isn’t possible, but they have a long road trip. Not every audiobook is going to be engaging to students. The best practice for listening to an audiobook is to also follow along in the printed book.

Hopefully, these directions give you a new way to get the latest books for free. There are also a few apps that provide tutorial videos for a number of career opportunities. I was amazed at all the options listed on the Lynda.com app.

If these directions don’t get you what you need please let me know. Leave a comment or send me an email. I’d be happy to help!

Happy Reading (Listening)!

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