A variety of high-quality recorded webinars are available to help library staff learn about storytime techniques, early literacy, and other topics in library service to young children and their caring adults. All the webinars gathered here are free and available for on-demand viewing:
https://www.ohreadytoread.org/recorded-webinars
The Schoenbaum Family Center at the Ohio State University will host a Summer Institute on the theme "Achieving Quality: Best Practices in Early Childhood." This one-day conference offers high-quality professional development for early childhood educators, practitioners and administrators who work with young children, specifically those from birth to age five. The Schoenbaum Family Center is reaching out to children's librarians as part of this audience.
The Public Library of Youngstown and Mahoning County presents a new Kindergarten Readiness Workshop with Saroj Ghoting:
“Strengthening School Readiness Support to Families and the Community through the Public Library”
The workshop is funded by an LSTA grant and is open to any Ohio librarian, with attendance at each session limited to 30.
The State Library of Ohio and the Choose to Read Ohio Advisory Council are pleased to announce that The Day You Begin by Jacqueline Woodson, illustrated by Rafael López, has been selected as the fourth annual Choose to Read Ohio (CTRO) “Floyd’s Pick” title, in memory of children’s literature expert, advocate, and librarian Floyd Dickman.
Ohio Ready to Read presents its FREE hands-on early literacy training workshop! Open to all Ohio public library workers, the next Early Literacy 101 workshops are scheduled:
Boost the early literacy skills of the children who attend your storytimes! This self-paced course is built on research about how young children learn.
Dr. Laura Justice, the director of the Schoenbaum Family Center and Crane Center for Early Childhood Research and Policy at the Ohio State University. is facilitating a Literacy for Librarians workshop on Monday, October 29 from 12:30 - 3:00 pm in Columbus.
Join Dr. David Gonzalez on Saturday, October 20 for an educational “Playshop” based on his personally-developed Confluence Model Curriculum: “The Four Rivers of Storytelling.”
As children head back to school, the Ohio Department of Job and Family Services (ODJFS) and Ohio Department of Education (ODE) remind parents to visit ChildCareSearch.Ohio.gov when searching for before- and after-school care for their children. Families can search for child care providers by county, city, zip code, program type and Step Up To Quality rating.
Are you looking for tips, techniques, and best practices for planning and producing online/virtual storytimes? Two recordings from webinars originally presented in summer 2020 are now available for free, anytime viewing via the Self-Paced Online Courses and Recorded Webinars page of the ORTR website! One is from the Ohio Library Council and the other is from WebJunction.
Find more self-paced learning opportunities for early childhood programming: ohreadytoread.org/recorded-webinars
COSI Connects provides engaging STEAM content daily through videos, documents, and hands-on science that students, teachers, and families can use at home. Content is tied directly to State of Ohio Learning Standards.
COSI Connects is for families and children anywhere in Ohio. It is free, and membership is not required. Activities are available for all age groups from early childhood through adults, and you may browse by age group to find just the early childhood activities.
The State Library of Ohio is pleased to announce the launch of the Day By Day Ohio Family Literacy Calendar website. Day By Day Ohio is a tool that families, caregivers, educators, and librarians can use at home, at the library, on the go, and in the classroom. With a perpetual calendar featuring songs, activities, book suggestions, and videos, Day By Day Ohio offers resources to further develop early literacy skills that help young children prepare for, and to do better in, school. Children enjoy fun, positive learning experiences like Day by Day Ohio that support school success and, ultimately, lifelong learning. Share Day By Day Ohio with families and community organizations: http://DayByDayOH.org.
Every Child Ready to Read (ECRR), a national parent/caregiver outreach initiative, empowers public library workers to share early literacy knowledge with the caring adults in young children's lives. It was first rolled out in 2004, and is very familiar to children's services specialists. But what if you're a new children's librarian or specialist and you're hearing about ECRR for the first time? You've come to the right place!
           