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Category Archives: Professional Development
Librarian and Teacher Resources for NITA’S FOOD SIGNS
I’m so excited to share with you these resources for using Nita’s Food Signs in the classroom or storytime!
Nita’s Food Signs Teacher/Librarian Guide (printable .pdf)
Video Demonstration of the Signs in the Book:
Nita’s Food Signs Storytime with Author Kathy MacMillan (in Spoken English with Closed Captions)
Nita’s Food Signs Storytime with Author Kathy MacMillan (in American Sign Language)
More Resources for Signing with Young Children:
Little Hands Signing Storytime & Craft Ideas
Little Hands and Big Hands: Children and Adults Signing Together
Resources for Signing with Babies and Young Children
Resources for Signing in Storytime or the Classroom
Hear This!: Use That Microphone, Already
It happens again and again: a speaker is asked to use a microphone, and they say, “Oh, I don’t need it. I have a [teacher/pastor/camp counselor/fill-in-the-blank supposedly loud profession] voice.” (I even had a clergy member at my own parent’s funeral try to pull this!)
But guess what? It has nothing to do with how loud you (supposedly) are, and everything to do with your audience’s comfort and access. Some people can hear high sounds, some low, and some need you to use the microphone to help drown out background noise. And just because people can hear you when you shout “Can you hear me?” at the top of your voice, that doesn’t mean that they can comfortably listen to you for five or ten or sixty minutes when your voice, tone, and pitch go up and down in the course of normal speaking.
Meet the Teaching Artist
I recently did an interview with WritingWorkshops.com, where I talked about some of my favorite writing resources, the best writing advice I ever got, and what picture book writers can expect from my upcoming online Picture Book Revision workshop.
Meet the Teaching Artist: Picture Book Revision with Kathy MacMillan
Picture Book Revision Workshop (3-week online workshop)
Webinar Recordings Available for Purchase
Learn on your own schedule with these recorded webinars, available now!
You will receive recording access information by email within 24 hours of order. You will have access to the recording for 30 days.
For Writers
You’ve got the idea, you’ve got the drive, and you’ve got the willingness to work to get your book in print. But where do you start? Kathy MacMillan, Compton Crook Award finalist and author of more than two dozen traditionally published fiction and nonfiction books for children, breaks down the bewildering world of publishing, from writing and revision to submission and publication and the realities of life after publication.
Sale! $35.00 $20.00
No matter your genre, a rich palette of details brings the world of your story to life. Compton Crook Award Finalist and author of fiction and nonfiction for children, teens, and adults Kathy MacMillan shows how to focus on the specifics you need at each stage of the writing process to build your characters’ world without ever losing sight of the story at its heart.
Manuscript critiques and coaching calls also available!
For Librarians and Educators
Learn basic American Sign Language vocabulary and how to use it in storytime with these lively sessions that teach themed vocabulary while demonstrating storytime activities and best practices for signing with young children. Each webinar focuses on a vocabulary theme and follows a demo storytime with language and culture notes to help you present American Sign Language to hearing audiences in context. $35.00 per recording.
One-on-one coaching calls also available.







