We were very pleased this week when 19 teachers responded early to our call for teacher Zoom hosts at our August 14th "Arts & Creativity" reading clubs!
Thus, to ensure we had plenty of time to recruit enough virtual readers, we opened our RSVP system early - and those reader spots are filling up very quickly!
If you have ever read with us at any of our prior reading clubs, please visit our home page at
www.readingtokids.org to see if there are open or new spots for you to submit your RSVP for our next Reading to Kids Virtual Reading Clubs on Saturday, August 14th.
(If you are signed up but can't attend after all, please
click here to cancel so someone else can take your place!)
We are
again limiting RSVPs for these virtual reading clubs only to returning
volunteers - people who have volunteered with us at least once before
at any of our previous face-to-face or virtual reading clubs.
We will continue to add more reader spots as more teachers decide to join us on August 14th.
If you check our website and find all reader spots are full today or any day over the next two weeks, please keep checking back so we'll have enough volunteers.
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HOW VIRTUAL READING CLUBS WORK
Because LAUSD has not yet determined when volunteer organizations can return to on-campus events, we continue to use Zoom for these virtual reading clubs.
The reading clubs will be hosted by participating teachers at each school
using their school Zoom accounts, but you will need your own Zoom account to
join the reading club. If you don’t already have a Zoom account, you can sign up
for a free, Basic account here:
https://zoom.us/pricing
IMPORTANT:
You will need to use Zoom from a desktop or laptop computer. The phone and
tablet versions of Zoom do not have the necessary features for our virtual
reading clubs.
Ideally, anyone who
volunteers for these virtual reading clubs will be comfortable using
Zoom. If you wish to test out your Zoom connectivity prior to the
reading clubs, we encourage you to email us at
info@readingtokids.org so we may do a brief test run with you before the
virtual reading clubs.
The Friday before the
reading clubs you will receive a link for a Zoom "check-in" session with your
Site Coordinators that will begin promptly at 9:00 a.m. that Saturday.
Click here to review the schedule for these virtual reading clubs.
Once you and your fellow
volunteers are checked in, that same Zoom session will have a Zoom Volunteer
Orientation / Virtual Reading Club Training that will start promptly at 9:15
a.m.
At 9:30 a.m. you and your
volunteer partner will leave that Site Coordinator session and then join the
teacher's Zoom session. The teacher will host the Zoom call and make you
co-hosts. The first 30 minutes will be for troubleshooting and a prep session
for just you and your reading partner and the teacher.
The kids will join that
same reading club Zoom session at 10:00 a.m., and it will likely go until 10:30
or 11:00, at the teacher's discretion.
After the reading clubs
end you will then rejoin your Site Coordinator's Zoom call for a brief wrap-up.
To screen share the book
you will be reading with the children, you will need Adobe Acrobat or the free
Adobe Reader from
https://get.adobe.com/reader.
We will provide you a PDF
of the read-aloud book so you can prepare for the reading clubs. You can see the
read-aloud book titles for this month at
https://readingtokids.org/Books/BooksMonth.php.
We will provide at the
above link activities and simple craft ideas the kids can do at home. You would
prepare to lead the kids in an activity and craft, though you may not actually
do a craft, depending upon how the Zoom session goes. The kids may just want to
talk to new faces!
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THANK YOU TO
THE ROSE HILLS FOUNDATION
We are very pleased to share that The Rose Hills Foundation has awarded us a two-year grant of $20,000 over our next two fiscal years!
Their funding helps us further our collective dedication to inspire the love of reading to the children at our partner schools. Thank you for your continued support, The Rose Hills Foundation, and we look forward to sharing our successes with you over the next two years!
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PLEASE HELP US FIND
BINGO PRIZE & AUCTION ITEMS
We're planning our next
Virtual Legendary Bingo on Zoom fundraiser for
October and need your help gathering
prizes for the bingo winners!
To help you get started, here is
information about Reading to Kids to share with
potential donors, as well as a
donation form for them to complete.
We especially enjoy awarding gift certificates,
gift bags, and
autographed items! Anything unique
is great, too!
If you work at or have a connection with products or
services to offer, please help us by asking for a donation
to our events.
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