All posts by Angie

School and Rural Libraries, Check Out This Grant Opportunity!

Do you work in a school library? Do you work in a rural library? Listen up!!

We know our members all across our twelve counties are doing fantastic work in their libraries. Now think about how many more awesome things you could be doing if you had more money!! IMLS can potentially help you with their new grant program. They are accepting applications now through Feb. 25th 2019.

Find more information below and if you want to apply, please remember that CMLE is absolutely here to help you with the process! 

“The Institute of Museum and Library Services has launched a new special initiative, Accelerating Promising Practices for Small Libraries (APP), and is accepting grant applications now through February 25, 2019.

This new funding opportunity is designed specifically to strengthen the ability of small and rural libraries, archives, and related organizations to serve their communities, and awards sizes range from $10,000 to $50,000.”

There are three categories of these APP grants:

  • Transforming School Library Practice – School libraries support learning and the development of critical thinking, creativity, and collaboration skills. IMLS is interested in furthering how school library professionals can serve as integral instructional partners to classroom teachers. Grant projects could include programs and services that prepare students for success in college, career, and life, or foster early, digital, information, health, financial, media, civic, and other types of literacies.
  • Community Memory – This project category centers on engaging local communities in the collection, documentation, and preservation of their local histories, experiences, and identities.
  • Digital Inclusion – This category focuses on projects that support the role libraries play in promoting digital literacy, providing internet access, and enabling community engagement through civic data and civic technology.

Read more about the grant here. If you’re interested in learning more, IMLS is offering FREE pre-application webinars to answer questions with program staff. They will be recorded to access at any time. Find out more here.

Breakfast with Books Event

This event coming up in February sounds really fun and would be perfectly suited to our members! You will get to chat with authors and illustrators, play trivia, hear some Book Talks, win door prizes, plus enjoy a sit-down breakfast!

Tickets to the event do include 4 CEU hours. As a reminder, if you need a scholarship to attend an event like this, apply now!

Check out their website and take a look at all the authors and illustrators that will be in attendance!

Are you a Minnesota educator, librarian, bookseller, or publishing professional? You’re invited to join us at Books for Breakfast, celebrating its 25th anniversary!

On Saturday, February 2, 2019, from 8:00 am to 12:30 pm, at the Rush Creek Golf Club in Maple Grove, Minnesota, we’ll gather to learn, greet old and new friends, and enjoy a morning of books, books, books!

Our theme this year is “My Reading Community, Our Reading Community,” based on the six books writen by Lisa Bullard and illustrated by Christine M. Schneider, Renée Kurilla, Paula Becker, and Holli Conger (Lerner Publishing Group).

Red Wagon Books will be selling books. Authors and illustrators will be available to sign your books from 12:00 to 12:30 pm. Please support the Breakfast by purchasing your books at the event.

You may buy as many tickets as you like: bring your colleagues! Seating capacity is limited, so we suggest you buy your tickets soon.

AASL Recommended Apps: RelationShapes

In June, the American Association of School Librarians (AASL) announced their Best Apps for Teaching and Learning 2018. The apps encourage qualities such as creativity and collaboration and encourage discovery and curiosity.

The app Relationshapes makes it fun and easy for young kids to work on their visual-spatial skills. The brightly-colored app has eight levels of progressively more challenging activities and a multi-touch interface for teachers or parents to join students in activities.

“Open-ended play gives young children opportunities to practice problem-solving and experience visual-spatial reasoning. Geared towards early childhood, RelationShapes allows young users to move and resize shapes on one side of an axis, then create a matching image on the other side. After each level, new shapes and stickers are unlocked to create fun pictures.”

Platform: iOS, Android
Grades: Preschool – Elementary School
Cost: FREE

Teachers With Apps has this very detailed article about Relationshapes that explores several activities and explains the benefits for young students. In this article about spatial learning and STEM, Relationshapes is mentioned as well as several other apps that provide students with a good foundation knowledge that will help them understand STEM concepts in the future.

Postcard Party Dec. 18th

Library advocacy can seem intimidating, but it is so important, and can actually be fun when you participate with other library people!

Join us on Tuesday, December 18th from 3 – 5pm at the Local Blend in St. Joe. We will be writing out postcards full of library information, stories, and facts to send to stakeholders. We supply the postcards and postage!

We hold Library Advocacy Postcard Parties to spread the word to school boards, city councils, principals, legislators, and other stakeholders about why libraries are so valuable!

Join us for a cup of coffee or some other warm treat to chat about your library and do some advocacy work. Hoping to see you there!

AASL Recommended Apps: Pixie

In June, the American Association of School Librarians (AASL) announced their Best Apps for Teaching and Learning 2018. The apps encourage qualities such as creativity and collaboration and encourage discovery and curiosity.

The app Pixie is a great way to let students incorporate creativity into almost any subject! The app has a number of different tools students can use to demonstrate their knowledge.

“Imagine your students creating their very own digital stories, nonfiction pages, comics or podcasts with little instruction. Pixie is an authoring tool students can use to share ideas, imagination, and understanding through a combination of text, original artwork, voice narration, and images. Students can use Pixie’s paint tools, text options, clip art, and voice recording to develop storybooks, curriculum projects, videos, and so much more.”

Platform: iOS , Android 
Grades: All
Cost: $9.99

This post from Class Tech Tips gives a quick overview of the app and discusses the online version of the app, called Wixie, which could also be a useful classroom tool. This page from Creative Educator has multiple different lessons that use Pixie in the subjects of language arts, math, science, and social studies.

Watch this video to see Pixie in action!