All posts by Angie

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Shop Amazon? You Can Support CMLE!

A very busy shopping time of year approaches! Want to make a positive contribution to your community without spending any extra money?

Do your Amazon shopping through this link and Amazon will donate a small portion of the money earned to CMLE! This money allows us to continue to support our members, especially through scholarships and mini grants. (Also, we never see who or what is ordered).

Click our links anywhere we have book information (like in our Book Bouquet articles) or just visit Amazon from our site. Anything you buy during that visit to Amazon will be counted toward our total. Amazon will not tell us who you are, but they will give us a small percentage of the total profit they make on your purchase.

Thank you for your support! We love working to strengthen our library community and these funds allow us to continue doing just that!

Check it Out:

CMLE Shop Now Open

Stickers and pop sockets available!

We are excited to have another way our awesome members and library community can participate in and support the work we’re doing!

Our shop has many colors of stickers and a Reading With Libraries pop socket available to purchase. We are hoping to expand over time and offer more choices!

Check it out and rock some CMLE swag this winter! We always appreciate your support! ❤💕😊

Preview:

Advocacy, CMLE

Mail Some Library Advocacy Postcards With CMLE!

Join us on Dec. 4th!

CMLE works to support all of our library members and that means telling legislators, principals, School Board Members, and other important stakeholders about all the amazing work YOU are doing in your library!

One of the ways we do this is by hosting postcard parties! We provide the postcards and postage and give you ideas of what to say in your message. But our main message is: all types of libraries are important and need funding and support!

Join us on Wednesday, Dec. 4th from 3-5pm to write your own messages of library support! We will be working at the Local Blend coffee shop in St. Joe.

If you’ve come to past Postcard Parties, you know they are fun and casual events, just a gathering of library supporters getting together to write to stakeholders about the necessity of supporting libraries!

Any questions, send me an email at ajordan @ cmle.org (no spaces).
Mark your calendars and we’ll see you there!

School Media Specialist, Tech

AASL Recommended Apps: PBS Kids Scratch JR.

The American Association of School Librarians (AASL) announced their picks for Best Apps for Teaching & Learning 2019. “Apps recognized foster the qualities of innovation, creativity, active participation, and collaboration and are user friendly to encourage a community of learners to explore and discover. “

If you are interested in the best apps for your library, media center, or classroom, you can read our 2019 series here or find all past apps discussed in our archives.

“PBS KIDS ScratchJr is a creative coding app where learners can create their own interactive stories, games, and animations by snapping together colorful programming blocks to make their favorite characters move, jump, dance, and sing. Learners are empowered to solve problems, design their own projects, demonstrate knowledge and develop computational thinking skills that are foundational for later academic success.”

Platform: iOS & Android 
Grades: K-2
Cost: FREE

The PBS website has this page of five lesson plans to use with the app. Coder Kids has this great article with more details about the pros and cons of using the app and includes several projects. Finally, this video shows you how to use the app to create a race and a maze game.

Watch this video to see the app in action:

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AASL Recommended Apps: Object Viewer for Merge Cube

The American Association of School Librarians (AASL) announced their picks for Best Apps for Teaching & Learning 2019. “Apps recognized foster the qualities of innovation, creativity, active participation, and collaboration and are user friendly to encourage a community of learners to explore and discover. “

“With Object Viewer from Merge Cube, students and teachers can convert their 3D designs into augmented reality (virtual) objects they can hold and preview on the MERGE Cube. Students can also preview their creations prior to 3D printing to ensure accuracy. Teachers can use Object Viewer to convert 3D models from popular libraries such as Google Poly and Remix 3D into virtual objects to illustrate complex topics and bring lesson plans to life.”

*Just a note that when you reserve a VR kit from CMLE, you also gain access to technology similar to Merge Cube. Our VR kits include AR technology called the ARCube, which you can learn more about here. Reserve your kit today!

Platform: iOS & Android
Cost:  Free, but need to purchase the Cube
Grades: All

The Merge website has a ton of information for educators, including ways to incorporate the Cube into STEM projects and makerspaces. The Grantwood Digital Learning site has this article sharing ideas for using the Merge Cube in your classrooms as well as other integrations to try with the app. This article from ISTE shares other ways to use the app in your classroom.

This video (2:50) shows a few examples of using the Object Viewer with the Merge Cube:

If you are interested in the best apps for your library, media center, or classroom, you can read our 2019 series here or find all past apps discussed in our archives.