Virtual Author Visits

Each year, our students look forward to author visits. Author visits take a lot of planning and coordination, but the results are lasting and worthwhile. When we have an author visit, that author’s books are checked out for the rest of the year.

Author visits encourage reading for pleasure, motivate reluctant readers, improve writing skills, and support classroom learning. Visiting authors also share their creative process with students, which often inspires our young learners to make their own books.

At the beginning of this year, the prospect of hosting an author seemed impossible due to covid restrictions. We were unable to host authors in person or hold assemblies. An additional concern was including students who are learning at home. So, Microsoft Teams came to the rescue! Teams is the perfect platform for virtual author visits.

FoxTale Book Shoppe, a local bookstore, connected us to the authors and handled book sales. Our first virtual visit was with author Ridley Pearson and illustrator Ile Gonzalez, who teamed up to create the DC Comics Super Sons series. Then we hosted author Sherri Rinker, who writes popular picture books for children, including Goodnight Goodnight Construction Site. 

After setting up the dates and times, I immediately put in a request to have my amazing Instructional Technology Specialist, Kristen Brooks, help with the calls. We set up a practice call, and she also helped on the day of the virtual visits. Kristen is a Teams expert and thought about many things that could go wrong and how we could prevent problems. 

We connected with the authors about 15 to 30 minutes before the actual calls. Kristen showed the authors how to share their presentations and answered any questions they had. When the calls started, I introduced the authors while Kristen let classes and students in and made sure everyone was on mute. During the presentations, Kristen admitted latecomers and I muted them. It was very helpful to have two people working together on this with the large number of attendees.

These authors were fun and engaging. Our students loved participating in an event that made it feel like a normal school year. And our remote learners were also able to participate without leaving home.  Ridley joined us from Idaho, Ile from Mexico, and Sherri from Chicago. Teams allowed us the benefit of making this connection without the expense of travel.

We are already working on plans for our next author visit. Through Teams, we can connect with anyone, anywhere in the world!