Chickamauga Elementary School media specialist Marie Sikes is building an interactive school library this year through a new e-books online program. Five hundred titles of virtual books, 25 of which are interactive, are available to the students online.
Chickamauga Elementary School media specialist Marie Sikes teaches sign language to students. She shows the sign for library by forming an “L” with her hands and making a circle motion. Next she read “Can’t Sleep Without Sheep” to students. She asked students to name the characters in the book and the setting after she reads the book to them.“The way the kids are on tablets using technology, if you don’t move forward with technology, then you move backward,” said Sikes, although noting that there are still 7,000 hardback books also available to students on the library’s shelves. “The good thing about it is the books never disappear. I have a whole cart of books in the back that are damaged. You lose a lot of physical books in a library.”
Students can view the entire book and read related book reviews online. Through the school’s e-book site, students can also write short reviews on the books they read. The e-books can be accessed by the school’s students and teachers via a computer, iPad, Android or iPhone.
“I started e-books because I wanted students to use a computer,” said Sikes. “The interactive books are awesome. They have tests to go with them and the books read to the kids.”
Unfortunately, though, popular books like “Harry Potter” and “Diary of a Wimpy Kid” are not available through e-books, she said.