Online Support: Working with Teachers, Schools

Everyone is scrambling to catch up with an ever-evolving news cycle where the world beneath our feet seems to radically shift by the hour. Schools are closed or closing. We’re all supposed to stay indoors. We’re not sure how best to respond.

As an author of children’s books, familiar with speaking to large groups at school visits, I haven’t figured out my best response to all of this just yet. But I do expect to offer up some Youtube content, book talks, readings — I’m not really sure at this time what would be most helpful. There’s a learning curve, most certainly. 

Illustration by R.W. Alley from Jigsaw Jones: The Case of the Hat Burglar.

If you are interested in anything like that, or in something more interactive with readers, please feel free to contact me at jamespreller@aol.com and hopefully I can provide some support for meaningful, book-centered learning. 

My inclination is that this would be free or low cost, depending on the time and effort required. I’ll keep posting as this concept develops. Please don’t hesitate to write to me with your thoughts, questions, ideas. I’ve never used Zoom before, but my wife has, and it sounds user-friendly. Most important of all, please take this virus seriously. Stay home. Hunker down. Read, think, reflect. Take long walks. We’ll get through this. 

3 comments

  1. Denise Lukingbeal says:

    Jimmy,

    Loved your post. Our district is getting Zoom soon. I’ll look into it when that happens so my students can benefit from one of their all time favorite authors! U r simply the best🎵💕!

    Your friend,

    Denise Lukingbeal

    • jimmy says:

      Denise, thanks. I’d be happy to do something with you. On this subject, I’m still a little confused. I see a lot of authors racing to read aloud stories on different apps. Some of it looks like . . . self-promotion to me. I wonder how necessary it is? Does the world need me to read aloud a Jigsaw Jones book? I honestly don’t know.

      • Denise says:

        No, the world is just glad your books are out there…and they are in a ton of kids hands now who are reading them in their new set up “classrooms” or having family members reading with them.

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