All posts by Angie

Books, CMLE, General

Happy Reading! Join us in our Goodreads groups!

New month, new books!

If you’ve been reading along each month with our Goodreads book groups, we hope you have been enjoying the selections, and learning great things to help further your professional life! If you are just joining us, fantastic! Here are the books we are reading for the month of February:

For the CMLE Librarian Professionals group, we are reading People Skills: How to Assert Yourself, Listen to Others, and Resolve Conflicts by Robert Bolton.

This book addresses several different communication problems and offers solutions, in order to build more meaningful relationships. We will learn how to listen better and how to handle ourselves effectively during conflict!

For our CMLE Librarians Enjoying Books group, we continue with our theme of books about librarians with this mystery: Books Can Be Deceiving by Jenn McKinlay

Read about the mystery taking place at the Briar Creek Public Library when a body is found and the librarian’s friend is named as a suspect!

Happy February reading!

General, School Media Specialist

AASL Recommended Apps: Content Creation: Plotagon

plotagonIn June 2016, the American Association of School Librarians (AASL) announced their 25 Best Apps for Teaching and Learning. The apps encourage qualities such as innovation and active participation, and are user-friendly.

Plotagon is an app that features tons of options for the user to draw on when telling a story. Users can craft their story by using different locations, emotions, postures, sound effects, and music. Dialogue can be created using computer voices or the user can record their own. The characters can be reused, and stories can include multiple scenes. This app could be a good one to use when crafting debates. Plotagon Education gives teachers more control over the accounts and digital space and helps to protect student privacy.

This article from The Learning Counsel includes several examples of teachers that have used Plotagon in their own classrooms. Check out the Plotagon Blog for lots of great suggestions and news.

Cost: Free
Level: Elementary, Middle, and High School
Platforms: iOS

Check out their video:

Books, Public, School Media Specialist

Looking forward to Teen Lit Con 2017!

Do you like YA literature, or encouraging young adult readers? Start planning ahead, because Teen Lit Con 2017 is coming up! On Saturday, May 6th from 10am to 4pm at Sibley High School in Mendota Heights, both authors and teens will assemble to share their love of books and reading!

The event is free and open to the public! They will have different sessions, an exhibit hall, and many different author signings. To get a feel for the conference, check out last year’s event.

Some of the authors that will be at Teen Lit Con 2017 include:

Jay Asher, author of Thirteen Reasons Why

Meg Medina, author of Burn Baby Burn

J.M. Lee: Shadows of the Dark Crystal

 

Communication, General, Public, Resources, School Media Specialist

ALA 2017 Youth Media Award Winners

It’s award season! On Monday, Jan. 23rd, ALA announced the top books, video and audio books for children and young adults. Some of the awards announced include: Caldecott, Coretta Scott King, Newbery and Printz awards. Check out our previous article about Minnesota author Kelly Barnhill’s win of the Newbery award!

See below for a few examples of awards and winners!
Continue reading ALA 2017 Youth Media Award Winners →