This is a guest post written by Erin Stock, Media Secretary at Foley High School Media Center. Read about past mini grants on our page.

 Thank you Central Minnesota Libraries Exchange for the opportunity and award of your $300 Mini Grant. The purchase of a Cricut Maker was made possible by you and the Foley High School Media Center now has its first makerspace!

Our High School Principal made an announcement last week to our staff that we now have a Cricut Maker in the Media Center and WOW! The excitement from the staff has been incredible. They are anxious to get started making new displays for bulletin boards, displaying inspiring messages within their classrooms and having more professional looking signage around our building. All of which can be done with our new Cricut Maker.

 I personally had not used a Cricut Maker prior to receiving the grant but knew what the machine’s capabilities were. Learning the basic operations of the Cricut Maker has been my main goal thus far.

Secondly, my goal is to produce a few demonstrative pieces which would include a 3 dimensional greeting card, wall art made from vinyl (that will adhere to a cement wall) and perhaps a decorative piece such as the globe picture submitted with my original application.

Ultimately leading to the main goal of sharing what I have learned to make an educator’s life a little easier, classrooms look a little sweeter and provide students with a collaborative space that fosters creativity & instills confidence and pride in what they can dream and achieve! Thank you CMLE for this wonderful opportunity!