All posts by cmleguestblogger

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School Media Specialist

CMLE Mini Grant: Branches Series Books

This is a guest post from Doug Asquith, Media and Digital Learning Specialist at Dassel Elementary Media Center. Need a Mini Grant to purchase materials or try an interesting new program at your library? Apply today! 

I am honestly humbled and excited by this CMLE mini-grant getting accepted.  We at the Dassel Elementary Media Center have other Branches stories on our shelves, but this grant will allow us to expand and round out our collection to even genres and student interests at Dassel Elementary. 

These books fill a need for high-interest low-level books in our Media Center. Seeing students take the leap from leveled readers and picture books to books that look like, to quote a first-grader, “big kid books” brings a level of excitement to their faces as they begin to dive into the wonderful worlds created by these books. 

If the students enjoy what they have read, it is now easier to recommend students to either the next book in the series or other books in the same genre as the book they read.

Also because of the Branches mark teachers, particularly our SPED department, feel better about recommending these books to their students as the teacher has a better idea of the general reading level just by glancing at the cover of the book. 

The next step for us at Dassel Elementary is to keep an eye out as more books are released in each series. Again, thank you CMLE for this mini-grant and helping Dassel Elementary grow readers with Branches.

Conference, Guest Blogger

Impact Education 2019 Conference Scholarship: Amy Moe

This is a guest post written by Amy Moe, Instructional Technology Specialist at Pine Meadow Elementary. Do you need a scholarship to attend a conference or participate in professional development?  Apply today!

I was able to attend the Impact Education Conference with support from CMLE. This was beneficial for me as an instructional technology specialist. The sessions available covered a wide variety of programs, implementation and tools. There are three programs and/or tools that will be beneficial to try within my district. 

Keyboarding-This is a hot button topic in my district due to consistency among grade levels and continuity between buildings as well as the ability to track student progress. New ELA standards that are forthcoming will also play a role in the tools or programs needed. I attended a session from Keyboarding.com to compare it to the program we currently use (Typing Club). It will be interesting to pilot with a classroom or two to see how it teaches kids to use home row keys and not to “peck”. They gave out cute little bobble head chickens as a reminder. 

Applied Digital Skills via Google-I think this would be good to integrate with keyboarding. These project-based activities could be put in after certain levels of keyboarding are met that introduce students to Google Docs, Google Slides, and so on. These activities practice real-life skills such as researching and creating presentations and complement digital skills taught such as coding and digital citizenship. I feel our staff would benefit from a few of the courses as well! 

Seesaw-I LOVE Seesaw and have been using in my school for the last 5 years or so. I am a Seesaw Ambassador but learn something new each time I attend a session at this conference. This time was no different. We learned how to “FLIP” the lesson for a small group situation such as math stations. Teachers can record video directions with modeling and print a QR code for students to scan. AMAZING! There were also great networking opportunities to see how other classroom teachers and specialty areas use Seesaw.

A great big thank you to the gals at CMLE for seeing the importance of allowing individuals to attend this conference. 

Check it Out:, Conference, Guest Blogger

Impact Education 2019 Conference Scholarship: Ryan Hiltner

This is a guest post written by Ryan Hiltner, ITS at Sartell High School. Do you need a scholarship to attend a conference or participate in professional development?  Apply today!

The Impact Education Conference is a great opportunity to not only learn new things but to network with other professionals at a variety of different levels.

This year I tried to focus on that networking part. I spent time talking with other Technology Integrationist from different districts throughout the state. I also had the chance to talk with teachers and principals from different schools to get a variety of perspectives on how technology is being used in their schools. I really enjoy this network piece as it helps with questions that I have at the time but also gives me a network to fall back on later in the year.

This year I went to some sessions by leaders from different parts of the country. These people are well known in education and have a large presence on social media and have produced books.

One of the sessions dealt with creating an entrepreneurial course in school. We are starting to look at producing and creating items for people in the general public in a few areas in Sartell and this session was great to get more background knowledge.

The conference also gave out books from different educators this year and I am excited to dig into mine soon.

I am grateful for the opportunity to attend this conference! Thanks to CMLE for allowing me to go and connect with other passionate educators and better my practice!


Conference, Guest Blogger

Impact Education 2019 Conference Scholarship: Jenny McNew


This is a guest post written by Jenny McNew, Media Specialist at Talahi Community School. Do you need a scholarship to attend a conference or participate in professional development?  Apply today!

This year I attended the Impact Education (formerly TIES) in Minneapolis using a scholarship from CMLE.

My 2 days of sessions came with an added bonus of being able to attend for 3 days. On Sunday we could choose extended learning opportunities with keynote Justice Alan Page. Justice Page spoke of his passion for truth and justice. The principal that introduced him told of the journey of a school committed to his legacy and the renaming of a middle school in Minneapolis as his namesake.

On Monday keynote Angela Maiers founder of Choose2 Matter reminds us all to “Be Brave” and find our “Brave” as we empower students and ourselves.

Jimmy Casas was dynamic and brought a wealth of experiences and kept it real as he spoke to us about remembering the “why” of the reasons we became educators in the first place because we are passionate about kids. The message was clear. Relax and recharge and take care of yourself so you can be the best you for students.  

This conference which has evolved from a Tech conference to a learning conference did not disappoint.

There are truly so many educators out there with a wealth of expertise that are making learning fun for kids. This year with a change in student population at my school to a preK-2 focus I was looking for very specific things. Can I just say Kindergarten teachers are AMAZING! There are some great people out there to follow. A couple of SeeSaw experts I enjoyed are people I would encourage you to follow on Twitter @MrsGadKey and @KSzajiner. SeeSaw is such a great tool to connect home to school and help kids be accountable for their learning. This kindergarten teacher was so enthusiastic! @KinderNuggets_1 uses coding, VR and AR in Kindergarten in ways I never dreamed of. I’ve already purchased my Curiscope tee-shirt and can’t wait to try it out on my students.

Our second grade is piloting a 2 to 1 Chromebook setting and I attended a session on all the great accessibility tips and tricks available. The knowledge gained will help me coach these two classrooms and will benefit both teachers and students.

An after-hours tour of Flipgrid in downtown Minneapolis completed my second day of the conference. It has been amazing to watch this company grow in the last couple years. They currently host 3 ½ years of video! I was sent home with a Flipgrid recording pod for my students to use. This conference is such an amazing opportunity especially for those of us who live in Minnesota. A big THANK YOU to CMLE for making it possible for me to attend.

Conference, Guest Blogger

ISTE Conference 2019 Conference Report

CMLE scholarship recipient Jenny Hill at the ISTE Conference.

This is a guest post written by Jenny Hill Ed.D. Assistant Professor of Teacher Development (Library Media emphasis) at SCSU. Do you need a scholarship to attend a conference or participate in professional development?  Apply today! 

Imagine a 5-day buffet of information, technology, and innovation that is continually being refilled by the hour with the world’s experts, educators, and practitioners.  Thanks to a generous scholarship from Central Minnesota Libraries Exchange (CMLE), I was able to attend the 2019 International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE) conference held in Philadelphia, PA.

With nearly 20,000 people in attendance and approximately 2,000 sessions to choose from, it’s hard to know where to start!  One area of interest I had was looking at makerspaces for libraries. Makerspaces, according to Redina (2015, n.p.) are “place[s] where students can gather to create, invent, tinker, explore and discover using a variety of tools and materials.”  They have appeared in library spaces as early as 2011 (Mann, 2018) and support standards outlined by both the American Association of School Librarians and the International Society for Technology in Education. According to a recent 2017-1018 survey, librarians and media specialists are one of the top educators who are mainly responsible for implementing makerspaces in their school or district. 

When designing a makerspace, one good question to ask students is, “can you create something that demonstrates your understanding?”  If the answer is yes, then the sky is the limit! Objects can be made with high-tech materials such as 3D-printers and laser cutters or as simple as cardboard and duct tape.  Makerspaces are also being used to help kids solve real world problems. One media center even developed a “Read and Feed” where elementary students had access to both a little library and a food shelf on their campus.  Watch their inspirational story here: https://youtu.be/sCtjmWfIjG4

Other highlights of my time at ISTE included visiting the NASA play ground where I tried on virtual reality goggles for the first time: we don’t quite have Star Trek’s hollow deck figured out yet, but we are getting close!  I also enjoying hearing TED speaker Danielle Fienberg, head of photography at PIXAR share how computer science education impacted her career, and of course, meeting Brain Pop’s Moby!  I hope you can attend next year when the ISTE conference is held in Anaheim, CA.

Jenny Hill
Assistant Professor, SCSU
jchill@stcloudstate.edu
@Bibliophile84