Sora & TeachingBooks’ ISTE Schedule

Thanks for Visiting the Sora & TeachingBooks Teams at ISTE




We hope you enjoyed the ISTE Conference and learned more about Sora and TeachingBooks.  We've made our presentation slide decks available in case you missed one or want to revisit or share them with your colleagues.

Reach out if you have any questions or would like to discuss your students' reading needs further.

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Expand the session you are looking for and click on the "Download PDF" button to get a copy of the slides.

Sunday, June 23 MST

Presenter: Sara Gold

Librarian/New Business Coordinator, WiLS (WI)

Presenter: Peg Billing

Library Media Specialist, WiLS (WI)

Collaborate, Create, Curate: Building Statewide Digtal Collections for $1.65 a Student

Location: Bluebird Lobby-Table 34

The Wisconsin Schools Digital Library Consortium is a self-sustaining member funded digital library of ebooks, audiobooks, magazines and comics that serves over 365,000 school age students at the affordable cost of $1.65 per student. Learn how to replicate this model in your state from the ground up.

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Monday, June 24 MST

Presenter: Allison Staffin

District Supervisor of Curriculum & Instruction, Cherry Hill Township SD (NJ)

A Book for Every Reader: How One District Succeeds with Digital

Location: Room 605

Learn everything you didn’t know you needed to know about district-wide implementation of a digital reading platform. From curating content to managing budget, training staff and promoting across the district, you’ll get an inside look at successful strategies to get students reading ebooks and audiobooks at every grade level.

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Presenter: Erin Franks

Instructional Technology Specialist, Wayne County School District (GA)

Presenter: LaRae Thornton

Instructional Technology Specialist, Wayne County School District (GA)

The power of $1: The RESA District roadmap to reading success

Join educators from Wayne County School District to get insights and best practices into managing the RESA District shared collection, where participating schools pay just $1 per student to maximize digital reading access for all their learners.

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Presenter: Melanie Wood

Library Media Specialist, Parkway Schools (MO)

Building a community of readers: How one literacy campaign made a difference

Discover how how one Parkway school significantly increased reading engagement with just one literacy campaign. Hosted during Read Across America Week, Parkway took the concept of “building” a community of readers literally, turning the entire school into a bustling construction site. Find out how they used the Sora reading app as a cornerstone tool for this initiative, encouraging exploration of the digital library not only in school, but at home, too! The end result of this successful effort? A remarkable uptick in digital reading that has extended beyond the contest’s conclusion. You won’t want to miss how they pulled it off!

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Presenter: Carin Barrett

Teacher Librarian, Thompson R2-J School District (CO)

Simple ways digital creates differentiation and empowers lifelong readers

Discover how digital books can revolutionize the reading experience for students of all ages. With personalization and accessibility features to meet the needs of all readers, find out how ebooks and audiobooks can seamlessly fit into your students daily lives and enable them to build habits that will ultimately turn into a lifelong love of reading.

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Tuesday, June 25 MST

Presenter: Melanie Bowline

Librarian, Faith Lutheran Middle School & High School (NV)

Eye-popping promotional strategies to boost student readership

How do you spread the word about your digital library to students? Are you in need of a little inspo before the next school year? If so, you’ll definitely want to check out this quick primer on promotional strategies that bring the pizzazz. From Canva and book trailers to get kids hooked, to conversation-sparking collaborations and so much more, in just 15 minutes you’ll get new ideas that’ll have your students borrowing books like never before.

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Presenter: Meghan Terwillegar

Director of Digital Learning & Libraries, Highline Public Schools (WA)

Presenter: Aaron Boisjolie

Digital Learning Specialist, Highline Public Schools (WA)

Equity in action: How consortiums help create reading equity

One of the key benefits of a digital books is that they don’t need to be physically distributed - so its easier to establish a central shared collection from which schools across a district can benefit. Join Highline Public Schools (WA) for this quick primer on how a consortium can work in tandem with customized Advantage Plus collections at the school level to maximize budget and improve resource accessibility for staff and students.

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Presenter: Ashlee Georges

Media & Digital Learning Specialist, Dassel-Cokato Public School District 466 (MN)

Presenter: Anna Hertzog

Media & Digital Learning Specialist, Dassel-Cokato Public School District 466 (MN)

Presenter: Doug Asquith

Media & Digital Learning Specialist, Dassel-Cokato Public School District 466 (MN)

Quick tips to reach readers of all ages with digital books

Ready to get more readers than ever into your digital library? Then don’t miss this session with educators from Dassel-Cokato Public School District 466 (MN)! Chock full of easy promotional ideas you can start using right away, you’ll learn how to successfully tailor your outreach strategies to students at different grade levels, all the way up to high school. Plus, once students are in your collection, you’ll learn how you can use your school’s Advantage account in partnership with a district-wide shared collection to maximize student reading engagement.

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Wednesday, June 26 MST

Presenter: Nick Glass

Founder & Head, TeachingBooks

The Magic of Books & Resources Together: Sora-ing to New Heights with TeachingBooks

Need ideas to promote your digital ebook and audiobook collections? Experience how TeachingBooks’ resources bring books to life while connecting students to their favorite titles, authors, and genres. We’ll demonstrate a handful of book hooks, including…
  • Shelf Talker book trailers, featuring QR codes to title in Sora
  • Pairing a read-along audiobook excerpt in TeachingBooks
  • Book-related games, videos and activities in the Sora / TeachingBooks Extra
  • Download PDF

Presenter: Helen Robbins

District Instructional Librarian, St. Vrain Valley School District (CO)

Presenter: Jenny Seiler

Secondary ELA Coordinator, St. Vrain Valley School District (CO)

Reimagine Required Reading: Support Student Choice and Voice with Digital Books

Location: Bluebird Ballroom Lobby-Table 43

Want to create more curriculum reading engagement? Give students more choices! Join St. Vrain Valley School District (CO) educators for this crash course on using ebooks and audiobooks to empower middle and high school learners, including strategies to help them make decisions and tips for using unique-to-digital tools.

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