Big news, teachers: registration for the Scholastic Summer Reading Challenge is officially open! If you want to keep your students reading this summer, this is THE program that will make it happen.
Here's what you can do to get in on all the action (and if you need a refresher on the program, you can find it here):
- Go to our Summer Reading Challenge website and click "REGISTER students." You'll be taken to our Educator landing page, where you can click "Register My Class" to get started. (Remember, in order to do so you must have a valid Educator Account with us at Scholastic. Don't have one? Click "Register" in the upper right-hand corner of the website, complete the registration process, and return to the Educator landing page.)
- Once you click "Register My Class," you'll be taken to your Educator Dashboard. Here you can view your educator profile and add your students into our system (one class or multiple classes) via a mass import (up to 100 students) or manually. You'll see that the system has generated usernames and passwords for your students—these are their student accounts, and they'll need them on May 5 once the program officially opens for kids.
- Have questions about registration? We've got a handy "How To" PDF on the website in our Teaching Resources section that walks you through the process.
Once your bulk registration process is over, take a look around. There are a ton of new features and resources this year:
- New messaging to parents: You can send parents pre-scheduled emails with the click of a button in your Educator Dashboard. These emails contain program information, reminders to motivate their kids to keep reading during the summer months, and links to free resources to help them stay on task with their kids.
- New Teaching Resources for your class: you'll find free printables for students, like a reading pledge, reading log, booklists for all ages, a reading certificate, and more (resources are available in English and Spanish).
- A Reading Under the Stars theme: This year, we've integrated an awesome new space theme— not only do we have star and space-themed booklists and high-tech, interactive constellations on the website, we also have videos and resources from a NASA Astronaut and a Planetary Scientist. As kids read this summer, they'll unlock constellations along the way. You can teach students how to find each of the 12 constellations with this Star Guide.
- New teacher sweepstakes and school-wide prizes: Teachers can enter our sweepstakes for a chance to win a classroom library and 250 extra Reading Club bonus points! Plus, the two schools whose students have collectively read the most minutes this summer will win a visit from David Shannon (winning elementary school) and Gordon Korman (winning middle school).
Remember, kids can officially begin logging minutes on May 5, 2014, at 9am EST!
And be sure to SAVE THE DATE for Wednesday, April 16th, 2014. We're hosting a Google+ Hangout with Pam Allyn and a panel of educators. RSVP for "Stopping the Summer Slide: a Summer Reading Roundtable" here.
Also, keep an eye on our social media channels (@ScholasticTeach & on Facebook)—we'll be hosting giveaways and chats for teachers, and we'll be sharing free resources, tips, articles, and more at #summerreading.
What are you waiting for?! Register your students today.
