Mackin Educational Resources: Digital Learning Platforms & Library Services with Jennifer McCarty Plucker, Ed.D.

Discover how Mackin Educational Resources partners with educators to provide comprehensive support for classroom and library resources. In this episode, Jennifer McCarty Plucker, Ed.D., Director of Learning and Development at Mackin reveals invaluable free services and tools available to educators, including:

➡️Access to a catalog of over 3 million titles

➡️Expert help with curating classroom resources and text sets

➡️Free Storyteller Spotlight events featuring authors like Jeff Kinney

➡️Technical support for processing, barcoding, and labeling

➡️Digital integration through MackinVIA and MackinVision platforms

➡️Makerspace resources and hands-on learning materials

➡️Collection analysis services

➡️Family engagement resources

Perfect for teachers, librarians, and education leaders looking to save time and money while enhancing student engagement. Learn how Mackin's "let's find a way to yes" approach helps educators build diverse, standards-aligned collections that serve all learners.

Drawing on foundational research from John T. Guthrie and real classroom experience, this episode offers you practical solutions for getting quality materials into students' hands. Whether you're managing a school library, building classroom collections, or supporting family literacy initiatives, you'll discover tools and strategies you can implement right away.

Episode Mentions: 

• S3 E39: Using Inquiry to Inspire Lifelong Readers with Dr. Jennifer McCarty Plucker
• Engagement With Young Adult Literature: Outcomes and Processes by Gay Ivey, Peter H. Johnston 20 March 2013 https://doi.org/10.1002/rrq.46 or https://ila.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1002/rrq.46
• Teens Choosing to Read by Gay Ivey and Peter Johnston https://a.co/d/e4K9Q5s
• Mackin website and catalog: www.mackin.com
• Library Custom List Request form: https://search.mackin.com/list-request
• Classroom Custom Book List Request form: https://home.mackin.com/classroom/classroom-custom-book-list-request/
• Storyteller Spotlight: https://home.mackin.com/resources/storyteller-spotlight/ 
• To Reach Jen: jenniferplucker.com or MackinLearning.com

Jen’s Other Recommended Resources:

• Link to blog writing: https://mackinlearning.com/author/jennifer-mp/
• Link to order  Inspiring Lifelong Readers https://a.co/d/9xIeTUK
• Baiting the Reading Hook: https://ascd.org/el/articles/baiting-the-reading-hook

#EdChat #SchoolLibrary#LibraryLife #LibraryResources #Librarians #SchoolLibrarians #LibraryLove #Literacy #ReadingCommunity #LiteracyMatters  #EdTech #DigitalLearning #ELearning #TechInEd #ClassroomLibrary #TextSets #MakerSpace #ClassroomResources #TeachingResources #BookLists #MackinEd #MackinVIA #MackinResources #StorytellerSpotlight

When teachers, coaches, administrators, and families grow together, schools change. Students get engaged, get support, and get the chance to thrive. 

Transcript

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[00:00:00] Olivia: Hi there, I'm so happy you're here. Here's what you'll gain by listening to the very last second of this conversation with Jennifer McCarty Plucker. In this episode, Jen and I discuss how Mackin Educational Resources partners with educators to provide comprehensive support for classroom and library resources;  Mackin is amazing.

[00:00:20] Olivia: You'll learn about how they offer extensive free services, how they provide comprehensive solutions beyond just books, they can handle technical aspects for you like barcoding and labeling. They offer digital integration. And Mackin has classroom specialists. They can help you curate resources aligned to specific standards.

[00:00:47] Olivia: They can help you create multi-level text sets. And facilitate collaboration between classroom teachers and librarians to maximize resource utilization. Stay with us. I am so excited to have you join our conversation. This is Schoolutions: Coaching and Teaching Strategies, the podcast that extends education beyond the classroom, a show that offers educators and caregivers strategies to try right away and ensure every student receives the inspiration and support they need to thrive.

[00:01:22] Olivia: I am Olivia Wahl and I am so happy to have Dr. Jennifer McCarty Plucker back as a guest on Schoolutions: Coaching and Teaching Strategies. If you have not already tuned in to our last conversation, I will put a link to Season 3, Episode 39. I had the gift of interviewing Jen about her amazing book, Inspiring Lifelong Readers.

[00:01:47] Olivia: And that will give you just some background on what matters most to Jen. Our conversation today is going to focus on how Mackin plays an invaluable role in providing resources for teachers, librarians, caregivers alike. And right now, Jen currently serves as the director of learning and development as a proposal writer and a literacy consultant at Mackin Educational Resources.

[00:02:15] Olivia: So Jen, I am so happy to have you back as a guest. 

[00:02:19] Jennifer: I'm so honored to be back. It's, I love spending time with you and you do such great work. 

[00:02:24] Olivia: So thanks for having me. Well, it's an honor. Um, I wanted to kick off by just asking you for a nugget of research or a researcher that connects to the topic we're going to be talking about today.

[00:02:36] Jennifer: Sure. So the, the research that I lean on, um, the most is really foundational research from John T. Guthrie, um, and this book gets used a lot, Engaging Adolescents in Reading. It's, uh, uh, some would maybe consider it an oldie, but a goodie, but I consider it foundational. He really is the leading researcher when it comes to the principles of engagement and motivation for our young people.

[00:03:06] Jennifer: But I also will add, um, Peter Johnston and Gay Ivey did a study back, back in, I, I don't, it was published in, um, Reading Research Quarterly in 2013. About a study, they did with eighth graders, uh, in a mid-Atlantic town, and they challenged teachers. They came alongside teachers, challenged teachers to, just for a year, just let go of the whole class novels, and let's give kids highly engaging texts, um, things that they want to read, and let's see what happens.

[00:03:43] Jennifer: And, and what happened. Because after a year of that, not only did they accomplish their language arts standards, not only did the reading scores go up, but they, the students experience these incredible tangential benefits that come when they're engaged as readers and when they're reading and talking and thinking about their reading.

[00:04:07] Jennifer: Like, better relationships, peer-to-peer, agency, uh, curiosity. Um, and I could go on and on, um, and then I just learned, I didn't realize they published a book with Teachers College Press last year. It's called, let me get this right, Teens Choosing to Read. It's in my Amazon cart right now because I just learned about it this weekend.

[00:04:32] Jennifer: Um, so I'll be reading that. But it, all of that guides, um, the work that I do and, and really is a part of today's conversation. Thank you for your time 

[00:04:42] Olivia: Well, thank you for that. And I love starting off with the research and researchers because then that is the connective thread throughout our conversation and you and I, um, since our conversation have become close and we've talked often about how Mackin itself, um, you know, we don't want to push a vendor through this conversation, but something you said to me, it just kept lingering after our first conversation.

[00:05:10] Olivia: Around how, when you were in the classroom, you needed help with curating resources, tech sets. And someone said, Oh, reach out to Mackin. And you did, and they provided so many different services for you as a teacher. Some of them were free. And the most important thing you shared is they truly cared about you.

[00:05:34] Olivia: And so I want to start our conversation with what do you love because now you are working for Mackin. What do you love most about your role with them? 

[00:05:45] Jennifer: Uh, well, that's it. I absolutely love working alongside other librarians and teachers. for a for purpose family-owned company who really, their mission is to get high quality, authentic resources into the hands of teachers who ultimately, and librarians, who ultimately get it in the hands of students.

[00:06:11] Jennifer: Um, and then I'll just add that we also work with hands on materials, so we've got a makerspace division. That was started about eight years ago or so that really care about getting those circuitry and robotics and the highest quality resources in the hands of teachers so that it can be, we can do the project-based learning.

[00:06:36] Jennifer: We can do the inquiry. We can reach students who don't yet see themselves as readers. Um, and, and we can broaden that definition of literacy and learning to engage all kinds. And, and then marrying that with literacy has been, uh, so fun to watch and fun to see the creativity. I mean, we know educators are, and librarians have this brilliance and to see that in, um, really is the fabric of a company.

[00:07:09] Jennifer: That isn't owned by educators. The company is owned by a family who just cares deeply about librarians and teachers and, um, supporting that work. Yeah. And then of course, when I have the opportunity to come alongside a team of brilliant ELA teachers who just want to make some of these shifts. Because they want the engagement, and they want the agency, and they want the joy in the classroom.

[00:07:40] Jennifer: Uh, I, I get to do some heavy lifting, um, and, and work with a company that will do heavy lifting, so that teacher's time can really be devoted to, um, The focus on their students and then the creativity that they bring to the table when we're designing inquiry units of study, for example. 

[00:08:04] Olivia: So it's interesting, this is a perfect segue because I was in high school learning labs a couple of weeks ago and we were talking about the amount of planning it takes to Really have students engaged in the classroom, um, and give them the variety of text choices and topics and have everything go seamlessly, as seamlessly as possible, um, when children are in front of you.

[00:08:30] Olivia: And so I just heard you say, like, you can do some of the heavy lifting for teachers to help them because I always found when I had my own class and as a coach. I find that tracking the resources down is a huge time consumption. So, let's, let's pretend that I am a teacher or I am a librarian. What is my first step to reach out to Mackin?

[00:09:00] Jennifer: So, um, the, the best way, Uh, is to fill out a custom request form. We have one that is very specific for librarians and one that is specific for the classroom. If you're looking for classroom libraries or text sets or you just want titles aligned to some standards, um, that's the classroom side. And then we have the library side and, and I can send you links to put in the show notes.

[00:09:26] Jennifer: Wonderful. But if it's, if that's. If you just need a contact, you can email Mackin at Mackin. com with just, in general, what is your request? And ideally, our team wants to have a conversation and really have a sense of what is it that you're working on. Um, and you can do that. The request form allows you to do that, but you'll probably get connected with someone who will ask some questions.

[00:09:57] Jennifer: For Because it's through that listening that, you know, we talk about what do we do first? We listen. Yeah. Who are your kids? What's your goal? What are you working on? And then we take that information and we do the research. Um, we do have an incredibly robust online catalog. It's free to register to get into it.

[00:10:21] Jennifer: It feels a little bit like living inside Amazon for educators. But we work with 18,000 publishers, 3 million titles. It's overwhelming. Yes. To get in there. And we have some pre-made title lists. We've got this great advanced search. But like you said, Olivia. There's who's got the time, right? And when I was leading the work in a district, I wanted teachers to be engaged in the process.

[00:10:53] Jennifer: I wanted them to have ownership. To be fair, we were doing whole class novels, so they knew our whole class novels. They had no idea what had been published and what was out there. The team at Mackin meets with publishers. They're studying what's being released, they're looking at reviews. We have the data on what are some of the best-selling, most well-received texts out there.

[00:11:23] Jennifer: And we can then take that 4 million, 4 million titles and just curate it down to a much more manageable list. 

[00:11:33] Olivia: Right. 

[00:11:34] Jennifer: And then teams of teachers can come in around that team, around that text set, online. And they can go title by title and preview it and read the full reviews. We have the full-text reviews right there.

[00:11:48] Jennifer: We have the interest levels. We have the, I mean, the metadata is rich, but it's helpful to have a starting point. And then the system allows for notes. So a team of teacher can leave notes for each other. Oh, really? Wait, that's so cool. Yeah. And then there, the classroom specialist here at Mackin, who is a teacher.

[00:12:11] Jennifer: Can see those notes as well, and they can see, okay, well, this is a title that, or they want more titles like this, or maybe they're seeing a note that, you know, our, um, Arabic speaking English learners are, are not represented, and, and then it, it allows the classroom specialist to go back into the 4 million titles, and to curate it even better.

[00:12:40] Olivia: That's incredible. Wow. 

[00:12:41] Jennifer: And we had, we had a phenomenal experience when I was working with a team of science teachers who were wanting to deemphasize the textbook a little bit and bring in multiple perspectives around what they were studying. And so working on a cell division unit, they could, gave the classroom specialists, these are the science standards.

[00:13:07] Jennifer: We're looking for a lot of non fiction trade books. We need multiple reading levels. But if you've got some fiction you can throw in there for engagement, please do that. And then, we also have e books. And so, we want some digital options. Um, and it was, even that was overwhelming. Like, I don't know, do I want multi user, single user, subscription, two, perpetual, I don't know what any of it means.

[00:13:37] Jennifer: I don't know. The classroom specialist was able to say, here's what I recommend, and why do I recommend it? Because I've seen it work in other districts, because I've studied it, and because I know what books are going to resonate with eighth graders. Um, and honestly, all of that was, we, there was no obligation to buy the book.

[00:14:04] Jennifer: Did we? Of course we did, because not only were they helping us with that. Mackin also helped us figure out labels for the books and containment and, oh yeah, also we'd like barcodes on it because we want to be able to check it out, come on, and check it into a different classroom. And I'm not a librarian, so I don't know how to do that.

[00:14:28] Jennifer: Well, Mackin has librarians, so they figured all that out for us. So that I didn't have to bring in National Honor Society students to label books. I'd much rather have National Honor Society students volunteer their time in the community reading with elementary students. Oh, I love it. Yeah. Honestly, it was, they were such a partner.

[00:14:55] Jennifer: Um, that it's now why I work here. I, had no intention of leaving public education. I love being a teacher. Um, but there was an opportunity to bring even more of a district level educator lens to a company, um, and also give and, and have an impact in a different way. You just named so many assets of what Mackin can do for teachers.

[00:15:28] Olivia: And it's incredible, just the barcodes alone, I have served with so many school districts that, that is, they get the books and that's exciting, but the books stay in boxes way too long because they have to be coded and labeled and so they don't get lost. So the fact that Mackin can provide that service is mind-blowing to me.

[00:15:52] Olivia: For those of you that don't understand the time saver that is, um, that's incredible and I love that you just said, you know, sometimes our honor society or caregiver volunteers do that work, but their time is better spent. Yeah. Right. Um, so that is, that offers so many different glimpses and possibilities.

[00:16:16] Jennifer: Let me add one more unintended benefit that came, um, by doing the work, it, it was this authentic opportunity to bring the librarians together with classroom teachers for the curation of the resources, but also around the logistics. And so, um, it was an authentic project that brought us together where I was learning.

[00:16:41] Jennifer: That some teachers felt bad asking the librarians. They're so busy, they have so much to do, I don't want to ask. And the librarians are like, why don't they ask? That's what we do, that's what we love to do. Um, and it allowed us to come together. 

[00:16:56] Olivia: I, I also, I appreciate too the supplemental. The, the idea of supplementing textbook and so going to the science, I am so jazzed because I have learning labs coming up in two weeks with one focused with science and another a social studies focus.

[00:17:14] Olivia: And so I can't wait to share that this is a possibility because you also just said that it's a possibility. The classroom specialist could hear some standards, and one of the districts I'm serving is working on prioritizing standards for their PLC work, um, and so this could not come at a better time.

[00:17:31] Olivia: And, um, yeah, that's just so exciting. 

[00:17:33] Jennifer: Yeah. 

[00:17:33] Olivia: Um, I also know that Mackin has some digital resources. You mentioned the makerspace, and then I also wanted to talk Mackin vision and then correct me if I'm mispronouncing, but is it MackinV-I-A or MackinVIA. Okay. So, and there's, Via and MackinVision. Can you describe what those provide?

[00:17:58] Jennifer: Sure. So Mac and Via is our digital platform, um, that was developed really with, with teachers in mind. Um, it certainly serves in, in the library as well, but it, it's a house is how I think of it. And within it, all of your eBooks, databases, um, outside links to open educational resources. So videos, um, articles, those kinds of things.

[00:18:25] Jennifer: Uh, audio books. It all kind of lives in one house, um, so that students have just one access point. They're not going to, um, you know, I know in a lot of cases they're going to their library homepage and they've got to go here for ProQuest and they've got to go here for an ebook and they're going to go over here for another, um, subscription service.

[00:18:51] Jennifer: This all lives within one and it's searchable. So if students are doing research and, and they want to be able to pull articles from multiple databases, it all lives right there. Brilliant. MackinVIA, again, it's free. The, the platform's free. And, and it's free to schools. You can do a one time, I don't speak technology, but.

[00:19:17] Jennifer: The one time that migration or integration where all of whatever digital stuff you already own, um, you can do that one time, bring it all in. And then, um, again, the hope is you'll trust us to help you pick the next set of digital resources to bring in. What I loved about Macia as a teacher, it is, um, it, I, ideally it's a partnership with your librarian, or if you don't have a librarian, it's your tech director.

[00:19:49] Jennifer: That Macia is a whole school resource. It's meant to serve your school. But then within Macia, I can be a group user. So let's take those science teachers again. They're working on these units, they're curating, they've got their bucket of books, so the print materials that are going to support that cell division unit, but they also have digital because text is podcasts and articles and video clips and all of that.

[00:20:20] Jennifer: They can create a group, um, within MackinVIA and they can give it a title and it's accessible then for every group of eighth graders, not just mine. Which was the challenge again that we had, okay, well, we're going to create a Google Drive folder, or I've got it in my Schoology. Right. But it isn't necessarily there shared. And again, authentically what we learned was, oh my gosh, Livi, you've got such great resources that I didn't even know you were using with your kids because we don't have any time to talk to each other. Yes. 

[00:20:57] Olivia: Oh, this is so good. 

[00:20:57] Jennifer: Yeah. It becomes this asynchronous place. And then again, the librarian can be adding in some things, um, when she discovers something and it can just go right there.

[00:21:10] Jennifer: That's amazing. And we know in the nonfiction realm, there's so many high quality multi user books available really affordably. And, and. Engaging, it really engaging text that I, so many times, I can't tell you how many times I've been here and I'm like, Oh, if only I'd known this when I was in the classroom.

[00:21:35] Olivia: Now share with us, what does MacinVision entail? So MacinVision is, 

[00:21:41] Jennifer: uh, brand new. We just launched it, um, in April of this year and it is a library and school resource management system. So it is a circulation. Uh, system, um, what I love about it, um, having experienced different check in, check out systems in schools.

[00:22:04] Jennifer: Um, a couple things that set it apart. One is, again, it's, it has embedded in it, the whole school resource management. So teachers can manage their classroom libraries within the system. If I am a speech coach and I want to manage the visual aid stands and the cases, if I have instruments as a music teacher, It has the capability to do that all within the system.

[00:22:41] Jennifer: The challenge with that, of course, is that can't become the librarian's job. Right. Um, and I think sometimes that can be a hesitation of, you know, I, I already have. I can't manage the laptops and the iPads and the, all the books. So, let's not do that to our librarians, let's instead get lots of people trained on how they can manage their resources that way and, um, and the other piece of it is there, there's two search interfaces.

[00:23:13] Jennifer: So there's the MacInVision, which, um, is sort of the everyone. But there's also MacInVision Star, which is, um, a visual interface. Uh, some would call that an elementary. Uh, when I look at it, I'm like, we need that visual interface K 12, because our English learners can pick and click, look at the pictures, find what they're looking for, and it is available.

[00:23:41] Jennifer: I think it really allows for more accessibility and more equity in. Um, searching for books and then of course it's robust. There's so many opportunities, um, for librarians in schools to customize that. Um, and we, we partnered with a company out of Australia, Softlink. Um, and, and we were using Oliver, which is in the UK and in Australia, New Zealand, 40 year history.

[00:24:12] Jennifer: So. The software is not brand new. It just is redeveloped and re envisioned for the U. S. market and we're the exclusives. 

[00:24:20] Olivia: I know when I think of Mackin, I think of school based educators, librarians, district wide. I also is a caregiver. I, I want to go there because I know for me, I love choosing books, um, and creating text sets for other families.

[00:24:41] Olivia: And I actually just had the gift of releasing an episode with Christa Núñez, um, at she and I have been conspiring for years. To craft beautiful tech sets that support her work with Khuba International and The Learning Farm, which is an outside community organization. Um, and so let's talk about how does Mackin provide services to caregivers perhaps, or those outside community organizations.

[00:25:11] Olivia: So, um, a few different ways.

[00:25:14] Jennifer:  Uh, one of, probably the, the primary way that we support is by working with districts for, any of their take home initiatives. So if they've got take-home reading, we provide an activity book with highly engaging texts. Um, and, and we've got some pre made ones, but we also provide custom.

[00:25:35] Jennifer: We had this incredible opportunity to work with a Midwest district and they wanted to do some family engagement and they wanted hands-on learning with literacy. So, we partnered with KiwiCo, if, um, you're familiar, that's a, a subscription service that's really for, primarily for parents to subscribe to hands-on learning for their kids, um, and they get, like, a box a month and they do things from, like, froggy dissection to, uh, veg, vegetable garden to, um, catapult, basketball catapult.

[00:26:13] Jennifer: Um, we partnered with them and took one of those. Take home hands-on learning and then paired books with it in a backpack. Oh, that's awesome. It was so, our team had so much fun. We heard from the school district that the school board, when they were previewing it to decide, it was a competitive opportunity and They had so much fun with it.

[00:26:38] Jennifer: And then I heard from the communications director that, um, the kids and the families loved it. So we like getting creative. We like building, you know, these, whatever the goals are, we want to listen and come alongside. And then we do have a family literacies. literacy resources page on Mackin.com that provides activities, discussion guides, um, downloadable activity, journals, tips for, um, how to get your kids engaged in, in reading.

[00:27:13] Jennifer: Um, and then of course we do, we, we work with some different foundations and, um, nonprofit organizations that are working to get books in the hands They lean on us again for those, what are the books we should be given out and we provide those recommendations. 

[00:27:32] Olivia: So, you know, I guess I'll follow up and ask too, if I was Krista Nunez or if I was working with her in Cuba International, I don't know.

[00:27:43] Olivia: Could we reach out to Mackin? Of course. Which category, would it be just in the general inquiry, or would it be under the school or the library? Like, what's the best way? 

[00:27:53] Jennifer: Mackin at Mackin. com. Okay. We've got the, honestly, the best customer service around. Yeah. Um, I, I think it's rare that you get actual people to answer the phone.

[00:28:05] Jennifer: Right. Um, and we have really, really dedicated. Um, people who will get you the answer. We, you know, our live chat is monitored all day. Um, but they know, they like know the company and know who to get you to, and it won't take you long to get, to get to the right, the right person here. Um, 

[00:28:27] Olivia: well, and so Jen, the reason I adore you a little bit extra is because of your multiple lenses and perspectives of.

[00:28:36] Olivia: You know, yes, you are employed by Mackin right now, and you used Mackin as a company when you were in the classroom and when you were facilitating this work with a school district. So you have all of these lenses that you can offer perspective wise. Um, who, you know, at the company, you said it's family owned, which is, that strikes my heart as well.

[00:29:02] Olivia: Is there someone there or from your past or a school district that strikes you as like being really inspirational with this work? 

[00:29:12] Jennifer: Oh, that's a big question. Um, yeah, I mean, I guess I, I, I just have to go back to it. I'm inspired by team. And, um, I, I, about a year and a half ago, I was asked to. Lead a different division in the company in addition to leading professional development And it meant that I needed to pull back a little bit on My being out on the road and working with teachers and at first I was like, okay, I'll give a few months Yeah for this but I I really am I think I'm supposed to be working with teachers and And what I found was I, I thrive when I build a team and we were, we were figuring stuff out together.

[00:30:06] Jennifer: I hired some brilliant, brilliant people and, and to be able to use the, what I think I was really good at in the classroom, which was identifying the strengths and, and helping students shine. I'm now doing that with a team here and I'm seeing this synergy and These ways in which we can do even more to, um, reach kids and, and it's a different kind of an impact, but it's the same kind of work and I'm inspired every day by the, um, the company operates on a, let's find a way to yes.

[00:30:50] Jennifer: The customer comes to us and they've got this much of a budget, but they need Whatever, it's, okay, how can we, how can we do this and let's figure it out together. We've never done family engagement packs, but let's find a way and, and let's find the vendor partner who has the same mission as we do. And I'm inspired by that every day.

[00:31:17] Olivia: Yeah. Yeah. I would say to, I want to circle back to what we said at the very beginning of this conversation. You inspire me and I do not want this to come across as a sales pitch. The reason I advocate and speak so highly of Mackin as a company is because teachers spend way too much of their own money out of their own pockets.

[00:31:44] Olivia: And if we are going to be spending money, because I'll be hard pressed to tell a teacher not to spend on children, um, then I want it to be used in a way that will benefit them and their children in the most. So I wanted to have you on as a guest again, because. All of the ways you just shared that Mackin can support.

[00:32:11] Olivia: So many of them are at no cost. And then I appreciate too, the way that Mackin works with, let's build trust. Let's, let's do this work and have these conversations, be responsive and super creative, um, based on what you need. And we'll go from there. And that, that's the relationship I want. 

[00:32:34] Jennifer: Can I give two more free things?

[00:32:36] Jennifer: One is it's free to register on Mackin.com. And if I know there are a lot of book lovers and educators and parents out there that like to browse and want to browse online, um, go to Mackin. com and browse the 3 million titles for free, build lists, nobody's going to come to you and say, You haven't purchased from your list.

[00:33:02] Jennifer: Yes. It's there for you. Um, and it's, it's robust. You can look at a list and do a summary and figure out which genres are missing. You can. Um, look and see which, how diverse is it? We have this incredible tagging system. Um, and, and for the librarians out there, if you don't know, we can also do a collection analysis for you.

[00:33:28] Jennifer: We will, you send your MARC records and we'll do that analysis. It's free. Um, so those are great. The other one is we do Storyteller Spotlight once a month. It's a webinar online where we invite an author in to talk about their book or books. And they do, they read a little bit from the book. And this is for this.

[00:33:53] Jennifer: This is for teachers. Join a, an author, live with their, your students. Oh, this is me. And they will read aloud. And then it is q and a with students. Come on. And my marketing director just gave me the number last when we had Jeff. I wanna find that number. Um, Jeff Kinney was on Storyteller Spotlight.

[00:34:19] Jennifer: Spotlight, and we had 32,000. 627 students attend. That's wonderful. It's free. I'm so excited. Okay. Storyteller Spotlight on Mackin.com, register your class. And if you can't join live, they're recorded. So watch them. It doesn't 

[00:34:39] Olivia: get better. So what a perfect way to wrap our conversation. I will make sure to tuck links to all of this goodness in the show notes.

[00:34:47] Olivia: Um, and John, just thank you for consistently persevering for the good of all. Um, and I appreciate, you know, it's really hard to step out of the classroom for, for both of us. It's all about kids. And I know that's a sacrifice, but it's also pay it forward in a way, because you're impacting the lives of so many children in your current role.

[00:35:14] Olivia: So, um, I thank you for that and for taking the time to have this conversation. And I thank you for the affirmation. We need those sometimes, right? Yeah, we sure do. All right. Well, thank you and take care, friend.

[00:35:30] Olivia: Schoolutions: Coaching and Teaching Strategies is created, produced, and edited by me, Olivia Wall. Thank you to my older son, Benjamin, who created the music that's playing in the background. You can follow and listen to Schoolutions wherever you get your podcasts, or subscribe to never miss an episode and watch on YouTube.

[00:35:50] Olivia: Thank you to my guest, Jennifer McCarty Plucker, for sharing about how Mackin Educational Resources partners with educators to provide comprehensive support for classroom and library resources. Now, I'd love to hear from you. Send me an email at schoolutionspodcast@gmail.com. Let me know how your school or district provides support for classroom and library resources.

[00:36:15] Olivia: What strategies do you have for saving teachers time and money while enhancing student engagement? Tune in every Monday for the best research-backed coaching and teaching strategies you can apply right away to better the lives of the children in your care. And stay tuned for my bonus episode every Friday, where I'll share how I applied what I learned from guests in schools that week.

[00:36:39] Olivia: See you then.