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Virtual Author Visits in Your Library or Classroom

DIRECTIONS FOR AUTHORS ~ DIRECTIONS FOR TEACHERS & LIBRARIANS

It all started when author Mona Kerby visited Grandview Library in 2008 to talk to 2nd graders about her book Owney, The Mail Pouch Pooch. In 2009, Ms. Kerby visited the class via Skype. The children and their teachers cheered when Ms. Kerby "appeared" on the Smart Board. Ms. Kerby talked about Owney and the process she went through to research, write, and publish the book. Several of the children asked Ms. Kerby questions and the whole group enjoyed waving at and thanking Ms. Kerby for "visiting". The mission of the Skype an Author Network is to provide K-12 teachers and librarians with a way to connect authors, books, and young readers through virtual visits. Wouldn't it be great to invite authors into your classroom or library to video chat with students before, during, and/or after reading their books? We are growing a list of authors who want to make that connection with you via Skype. Visit our Skype Overview page to learn more about Skype.

Click Here to Read Success Stories

Martha Rodriguez- May 2013

Martha helped the students aspire towards becoming authors themselves. Every single student was actively engaged in her Q & A session and her fun writing activities that sparked the students’ imaginations.

This was her second year of visiting our school and each time the students love to hear from her. They always comment on how much they enjoy her books. We are so fortunate to have found such a wonderful author to help our third graders with their author study project by Skyping with us from Florida to Hawaii. She enriched our students’ learning with her wealth of ideas and inspiration.

Thank you Martha!Laurel Taylor, Library Media Specialist/Tech Coordinator JK-6

Bruce Hale - March 2013

Bruce Hale - Great Oaks Elementary 1

Last week we had a Skype visit with Bruce Hale and he was fantastic. I loved the way he engaged the students. It was almost like he was in the room. The students felt like he was there and had a great time interacting with him. He shared a Slideshow with me to show students so they could see what he was talking about and how he became a writer. He was funny, entertaining and very informative. The students loved that he drew pictures as well. My son was in the audience and he even tried to draw Chet Bruce Hale - Great Oaks Elementary 2

Gecko the next day after watching Bruce.

I highly recommend him to any school. He was so easy to work with, so kind and so on target. He was as good with Kindergarten as he was with the older grades and he saw every grade except 5th because we could not fit it in their schedule. I would certainly have him again. Way to go Bruce!

Clarissa Grindle, Librarian
Great Oaks Elementary
Round Rock Independent School District

Marsha Diane Arnold - February 2013

In celebration of Lily's new adventure, I'm offering a special price for Skype visits if booked by the first day of spring, March 20th. For those who take advantage of the Lily Special, I will Skype with your class or school for a "song". Just $90 for 45 minutes to 1 hour, which can include a slideshow, reading a story with your students, showing them around my office, answering questions, and more! Email me at marshaoak@mac.com to book today.

Lily's App is Here

Newsletter

Lisa Ard - February 2013

"I can't thank you enough for taking the time to speak with our fifth graders. We had over one hundred 10 and 11 year-olds in attendance, all of whom had been anticipating your visit for weeks, since we began reading Fright Flight.

I wish you could have heard the discussions we had after the session. The students were inspired with a new excitement for writing as they shared their favorite piece of advice from you.

I overheard a couple of students discussing how they were going to buy little notebooks over the weekend, so that they could start recording their ideas. When students are able to learn from an expert in a field, it takes their learning to a new level. Thank you for seeing the value in that and taking the time to help develop young writers."

Michele Colebrook,
5th grade teacher, Timberline Elementary

Dear Marsha,

You are such a delightful person! The children just beamed during our follow-up conversation. They just couldn't believe that they were actually talking to you! I am confident that we made a memory for them that will have an impact for years to come! Thank you for sharing your experience with us. Perhaps we can do it again next year! I will be in touch.

Please continue Skyping! Our students may never experience talking to a published author without this kind of opportunity as we are unable to afford the fees that are incurred when an author has to travel to be here. It is truly invaluable. I appreciate your willingness to participate in this type of experience to expose our students to the wonderful world of reading and writing.

Thank you again for such a lovely conversation!
Carla Laney
Manning Early Childhood Center
Manning, South Carolina

Professor Marilyn Arnone & Curiosity Creek shares her delightful Nature Booktalks

Wouldn't they make great ticklers for a Skype Visit!
If you've written a children's picture book with a nature theme,
let me know mailto:sachauncey@gmail.com.
Professor Arnone may be interested in creating a talk for your book!

Our goal is to set up a network of authors who are willing to participate in Skype conversations with students in classrooms and libraries. This wiki provides a page for each author who joins the network. Our author template ensures consistency of content and keeps things simple for authors, teachers, and librarians. The author pages provide procedural and contact information. Take a look at Mona Kerby's page as an example.

Arrangements for Skype visits are initiated via email and/or phone between the author and the teacher and/or librarian.

Authors offer two types of visits:

No Charge - Meet the Author Visits - 10 to 15 minutes
In-Depth Visits - Time and fee determined by each author

Next Steps
Once you are comfortable with "Skyping" you can try additional web-based technologies to enhance your visits, for example:

UStream TV - Listen to David McCullough
A Whole New Learning Experience - read and be sure to watch the video in this post
Scriblink - Interactive white board - great for sharing illustration demos.
Google Lit Trips - A Different Way to Read Great Literature! This site is an experiment in teaching great literature in a very different way. Using Google Earth, students discover where in the world the greatest road trip stories of all time took place... and so much more!
Skype Blog - Find out how others are using Skype. Here's an author example ...

The possibilities for collaboration are many. If you have used other tools during your sessions, please start a "Discussion" to share with all of our members.

Authors Who are Interested May Email
sachauncey@gmail.com OR rkerby@mcdaniel.edu

Pinterest Experiment

FREE SKYPE TOURS
OF NEWS ROOM!

Illustrators & Author Illustrators
Click to Visit

Jewish Books Page
Click to Visit

Education Week
Web Conferencing...

Writer on the Side
Interview

Skype An Author
Columbia News Service

Author/Illustrator Mike Artell
Shares a Skype Visit

Enjoy More
Video Clips Here

sachauncey	Latest page update: made by sachauncey , Friday, 10:37 PM EDT (about this update About This Update Edited by sachauncey view changes - complete history)
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,RichardDavison	LIKING THE INFORMATION HERE	0	Oct 6 2012, 9:47 AM EDT by ,RichardDavison
	Thread started: Oct 6 2012, 9:47 AM EDT Watch Thank you very much for sharing this wonderful information here. You are helping others with experiences you have had and they are great ones. This only makes us all better and allows us to reach a much wider audience, anywhere in the world almost. Best regards and huge, appreciative thoughts. 2 out of 2 found this valuable. Do you find this valuable? Do you? Keyword tags: authoring digital education illustrating libraries literacy media centers publishing reading schools skype skyping writing Post reply
ESSBLibraries	Big thank you to Natasha Wing!	0	Jun 28 2012, 10:53 AM EDT by ESSBLibraries
	Thread started: Jun 28 2012, 10:53 AM EDT Watch Big thank you to the author Natasha Wing who Skyped with our younger students during our Bookfest week at the end of April 2012 at Shigawake-Port Daniel School in eastern Quebec, CA! Our students and teachers really appreciated her respect of the Quebec culture. Our younger students always enjoy her holiday books. And our students’ favorite book is “How to raise a dinosaur”, a cute fun book. After her presentation, many younger students asked for “How to raise a dinosaur” in the library. Thank you again Natasha and have a nice summer! 1 out of 1 found this valuable. Do you find this valuable? Do you? Keyword tags: Canada Natasha Wing Skype an author Post reply
ESSBLibraries	Big thank you to Marsha Diane Arnold!	0	Jun 28 2012, 10:49 AM EDT by ESSBLibraries
	Thread started: Jun 28 2012, 10:49 AM EDT Watch Big thank you to the author Marsha Diane Arnold who Skyped with our students during our Bookfest week at the end of April 2012 at Shigawake-Port Daniel School in eastern Quebec, CA! Our students and teachers really appreciated that Marsha spent her valuable time with us. Our students and teachers like her multicultural books very much especially “Heart of a tiger” which is a great book and we have learned a lot from it. The activity and discussion generated after we read the book also helped our grade 6 students prepare their provincial exam. Thanks again Marsha and have a nice summer! Do you find this valuable? Keyword tags: Canada Marsha Arnold Skype an anthor Post reply

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