All posts by Angie

Check it Out:

Join Reading With Libraries on Patreon!

You can help support our podcasts!

Do you have a book podcast you are particularly fond of listening to? Whether it’s for the book recommendations, themed beverages, or cheerful conversation, we hope one of those podcasts is Reading With Libraries! And we’d like to invite you to support our podcasts on Patreon!

Book club podcast

We’re currently in the middle of releasing Season Four of Reading With Libraries and we continue to learn about all different types of book genres. (For example, the upcoming episode this week is on Engineering Books!) We also create a library skills podcast called Linking Our Libraries and a mini book review podcast called Book Bites.

While we love sharing information with our listeners, each episode we create takes several hours of work. It’s a lot more than just chatting with cool book and library people.

Just a taste of the work that goes into our podcasts: we coordinate and schedule our fabulous guest hosts, research topics, write scripts, do sound editing, create graphics, and distribute the written and recorded content each week! We also pay fees to our excellent contract employee and online audio host.

Therefore, we’d like to invite you to share in the book group effort.

On Patreon, we have an assortment of different levels you can choose to support us with a monthly fee. And yes, they are book-related words, because you may have noticed: we’re pretty into books here!

Here are a few:

  • folio: $1 or more per month Our mushy, sincere thanks! Access to Discord chat with fellow book group members! And a postcard from Mary, Angie, and Official Office Dog Lady Grey!
  • octavo: $5 or more per month Everything from the folio level, plus we  mention you in an upcoming episode! 
  • monograph: $10 or more per month Everything from the octavo level, plus we send you a sticker!

We have more choices, including choices for organizations that want to get training sessions from us.

You really want to go to the website to check them all out, because Official Office Dog Lady Grey has a picture at each level – and I promise she’s the cutest thing you’ve seen on a library book group page all week!

Thank you for listening, and thank you for your support! ❤

School Media Specialist, Tech

AASL Recommended Apps: iCell

Explore cells with this informative app!

(Also called HudsonAlpha iCell)
Using the iCell app, “students can choose between animal, bacteria, or plant cell from the main screen. Explanatory text has three options: basic, intermediate, or advanced. Students can zoom in or out and can rotate cells for a 360-degree view of the cell. Basic text typically gives one or two short sentence descriptions of structures, intermediate gives longer descriptions with additional vocabulary, and advanced gives very detailed descriptions with challenging vocabulary.”

Platform: iOS, Android, Windows  
Cost: FREE
Grades: 5-12

The Tech Edvocate includes the app in their article on recommended tools for teaching biology. It’s also included in this STEM series sharing the best science apps for iPad. Finally, this review of the app from Emerging EdTech includes several instructional ideas for using the app in the classroom.


Check it Out:, School Media Specialist, Tech

Training in November for our FREE VR Device Loan Program!

If you are a school library member of CMLE, you can borrow VR kits for your school!

Come to our training event on Tuesday, Nov. 5th and learn how to use the headset devices!

📣🎆Have you heard the news? CMLE has VR kits to loan FOR FREE to our school library members! 🎉🎆

Apply here!

We’ll have a morning and afternoon training session with lunch in between so both sessions can eat. Please feel free to attend both sessions in order to get comfortable using the headsets and Portal.

Training will be held at our location: 570 1st St. SE St. Cloud MN 56304. We are inside the cmERDC building and have a large classroom to use.

The first session will be from 9am-12pm and the second from 1pm-3pm. CMLE will provide lunch from 12-1pm. (And if you’re here in the morning and have a book you’re reading that you’d like to tell us about, we will happily record a quick Book Bites podcast episode with you!)

If you can’t make it to the training, you can definitely still reserve the headsets for use at your school (provided you are a CMLE member school library) and you should still Apply Here!

At this training session, you will learn how to operate the devices, find lessons that line up with your curriculum, send the VR/AR content to the devices, and use the headsets effectively in your library, media center, or classroom.

Visit our page to find out more information about the VR kit loan program, including instructions and links to additional materials.

And if you apply ahead of time, you can definitely pick up your VR headset kit at this training event! You’ll get to keep the kit (each kit has 8 headsets) until schools close for winter break.

Please RSVP below if you plan to come to this training. Email any questions to vr@cmle.org 🙂

This program is funded in part with a grant from the Minnesota Department of Education using federal funding, CFDA 45.310 – Library Services and Technology Act, Grants to States Program (LS-00-19-0024-19). We would love you to send your thanks to @US_IMLS and with @MnDeptEd for providing this great program we can share with our members!

School Media Specialist, Tech

AASL Recommended Apps: Nearpod

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. “

“Nearpod is an app that helps you create interactive lessons in a 1:1 setting. Save prep time by easily importing existing lessons (pdfs, jpegs, ppts) and adding interactive features such as Virtual Field Trips, 3D Objects, Quizzes, Polls, Open Ended Questions, etc. Customize every lesson to meet the needs of your students.”

Platform: iOS & Android
Cost: FREE
Grades: All

Nearpod has a blog with many ideas for using the app in the classroom. This article from Apps in Class explains the app with more details specifically for teachers. Class Tech Tips goes through several ways to create interactive lessons, including one specifically focused on reading, in this article. Finally, Teach Beyond offers this intro to using the app with suggestions for ways to begin without getting overwhelmed.

Watch this video (2:37) to see how the app works:

https://youtu.be/g3GVkM_GVa4

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.

Check it Out:

This Week: Attend the They/Them Project with CMLE

This Wednesday! Join CMLE and attend the They Them Project Discussion on October 9th at 7pm, Gorecki 204C at the College of St. Ben’s.

Facilitator: Brent Dundore, Creator of the They/Them Project
Participants: Rue Ether, Oscar E. Menjivar and Mikko

The They/Them Project interviews individuals who currently use or previously used gender nonconforming pronouns. The project informs individuals about how words and actions affect the Trans+ community. Brent Dundore has taken photographs of the individuals he interviews. Those photographs will be on display at Alcuin Library.

If CMLE members would like to meet early and go to this event together, please RSVP below!