Welcome to the CMRLS Teacher’s Virtual Library Packet!
We have gathered here a few tools that we hope will help you and your students have a productive school year.
CMRLS serves the public libraries of Rankin, Scott, Simpson, and Smith Counties and offers anyone teaching in the four-county area a FREE Library Card. As a professional courtesy, CMRLS allows teachers up to NINE WEEKS, FINE FREE Check-out for classroom material that is checked-out on a Teacher’s Library Card. Just ask your Library staff to register you for a Teacher’s Library Card! You may also have a Library card for your personal use.
Teachers may also place research material from any of the CMRLS Libraries on reserve at their Library of choice for special class assignments. Material will be held at the circulation desk for all students in your class to use in the Library. Teachers who alert the Library of future assignments and deadlines can assure students of needed research materials. Unavailable material may be requested through Inter-Library Loan at no cost to the student.
Teachers with an online classroom computer may view a student’s choice for reading assignments through the CMRLS Online Catalog and give approval in the classroom. The student can then place a hold on the item with their own Library and PIN (Personal Identification Number). The student will be notified when the material is available to be picked up.
Useful Websites
Mississippi Department of Education
Forest Municipal School District
Simpson County School District
Mississippi Virtual Public School
Mississippi Virtual Community College
National Education Association-Tools & Ideas for Classroom Teachers
National Center for Education Statistics-Search for Public Schools
CMRLS Virtual Reference Collection-A collection of databases and websites for homework and reference help. The Virtual Reference Collection includes World Book Online, Explora for Primary School, Explora for Secondary School, and Explora for Educators; as well as MAGNOLIA databases of journals, periodicals, books, and newspapers. A list of links for the ACT, SAT, and other practice tests can be found here, also.
If you use Google Classroom, you may create assignments directly from Explora and other EBSCO products found in the MAGNOLIA databases. Click here for a short tutorial.
Contact your local library staff to schedule a classroom visit for help with any of the Virtual Reference Collection resources or to arrange one-on-one help for yourself.
PBS Resources for the Classroom-Pre K-13+
Kids @ USA.gov for Teachers K-8th grade
EDSITEment-The best of the humanities on the web.
Free iBooks for Students-Put primary sources in your students’ hands.
EduCORE-Tools for teaching the Common Core
Discovery Education-Free Teacher Resources
The Learning Network-Teaching & Learning with The New York Times
Tolerance.org-Teaching tolerance.
Just Books Read Aloud – More than 800 popular children’s books read aloud to you (free), with full-page pictures of the books.
KidLit.tv – Read aloud books, activities, and more.
Storyline Online – Site is sponsored by the Entertainment Industry Foundation; popular children’s books are read by members of SAG-AFTRA Foundation. Books also have activity guides.
Online Books Page – Listing over 2 million free books on the web; the website that provides access to books that are freely readable over the Internet. The site is hosted by the University of Pennsylvania Libraries.
Page by Page Books – Hundreds of classic books to read free.
Project Gutenberg – Offers over 53,000 free eBooks; choose among free epub books, free Kindle books, download them or read them online. No fee or registration is required.
Library of Congress Teacher Resource Page-Find Library of Congress lesson plans and more that meet Common Core standards, state content standards, and the standards of national organizations.
Mississippi Digital Library – The MDL provides an online portal for discovery and access to digital collections throughout the state.
Digital Public Library of America – A vast collection of openly available materials (from books to art to maps and more) from libraries, museums, and archives that are easily searched to be used by students, teachers, scholars, and the public.
Digital Collections: Library of Congress – Access online collections: view maps & photographs; read letters, diaries & newspapers; hear personal accounts of events; listen to sound recordings & watch historic films.
World Digital Library – Makes available on the Internet, free of charge and in multilingual format, significant primary materials from all countries and cultures.
National Science Teachers Association
Scholastic Current Events-News for your classroom.
Smithsonian Institute: Educators
Science.gov-Your gateway to US Federal Science
Virtual LRC-The Virtual Learning Resources Center indexes thousands of the best academic information websites, selected by teachers and library professionals worldwide, in order to provide to students and teachers current, valid information for school and university academic projects!
Infotrek.info-Academic Search Engine geared to High School students. Figment.com-Teaching tool for YA, read and write.
SmartTech-For interactive whiteboard.
PrometheanPlanet-Large community of whiteboard uses.
TeachEngineering – STEM Curriculum for K-12