All posts by cmleguestblogger

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CMLE, Guest Blogger, School Media Specialist, Services

Mary Berning CMLE Mini Grant Report: Author Visit

Tracy Nelson Maurer sharing her presentation with students.

This is a guest post from Mary Berning, District Library Media Specialist at Chisago Lakes Area Schools. Need a Mini Grant to purchase materials or try an interesting new program at your library? Apply today!

Who loves author visits? Students at Taylors Falls Elementary, that’s who!

Students participating in activities.

As part of this year’s I Love to Read month festivities, students met author Tracy Nelson Maurer. Tracy is the author of over a hundred books including Noah Webster’s Fighting Words and John Deere, That’s Who!, which won the 2018 American Farm Bureau Foundation for Agriculture Book of the Year. Tracy presented three sessions. She shared props and photos with the students; she talked about being a writer. Kindergarten and first graders enjoyed listening to her read and sang a song about John Deere with her. Second through fifth graders learned how she became a writer, how she conducts research, and about the revision process. At the end of each session, Tracy gave students time to ask questions.

It was a fun and valuable learning experience for all! Thanks to CMLE for funding part of Tracy’s visit.

Watch this very fast, very cute video of students singing along:

Books, Guest Blogger, School Media Specialist

CMLE Mini Grant Report: Jenny McNew Digital Citizenship Books

This is a guest post from Jenny McNew, Media Specialist at Talahi Community School. Need a Mini Grant to purchase materials or try an interesting new program at your library? Apply today! 

As technology use begins at a younger age and the opportunity for kids to leave a permanent digital footprint while using technology increases, teaching students about digital citizenship is more important than it has ever been.  

As a Media Specialist, one of my many jobs is to help kids learn about digital citizenship. This important skill was difficult to teach in context as the exposure to some situations may not have presented itself to kids yet.

Enter the picture book.

Picture books present digital citizenship skills in an engaging manner. These skills cannot be taught in a single class and it is important to begin to teach students how to behave in a digital community since they spend much of their time online. This skill is as important as teaching students to behave face to face.

Through a CMLE mini grant I was able to purchase some wonderful picture books to help us teach the concepts of digital citizenship. Whether we were reading about spending time on technology in books like, Tek: The Modern Cave Boy by Patrick McDonnell, or Once Upon a Time Online: Happily Ever After is Only a Click Away by David Bedford, When Charlie McButton Lost Power by Suzanne Collins, or Unplugged by Steve Anthony, these books reinforce that kids need to find balance when using technology. Getting away from it is as powerful as using it.

Some of the books likeThe Technology Tail: A Digital Footprint Story by Julia Cook and The Internet is Like a Puddle by Shona Innes remind us how important it is to remember Internet safety and not share our personal information and how wrong cyberbullying is. These books brought much buzz and excitement to students as we shared and discussed this information.

Guest Blogger, Materials, School Media Specialist

CMLE Mini Grant Report: Jill Schmitt Osmo Kits

Osmo kits in action!

This is a guest post from Jill Schmitt, Tech Integrationist at Holdingford Public Schools. Need a Mini Grant to purchase materials or try an interesting new program at your library? Apply today! 

At Holdingford Elementary School we are continually looking for ways to engage students in higher order thinking skills. Though this can be done in a multitude of ways, we know that students are especially motivated when technology is involved! We are keenly aware of the potential negative effects of too much screen time on brain development and try to make sure we are providing quality, purposeful instruction through the use of devices. After exploring a variety of tools, we decided to give Osmo kits a try and couldn’t be happier with the results!

With the help of a generous mini-grant from CMLE, we purchased several Osmo kits focusing on numbers, letters, and shapes. Initially, we believed the use of these apps would be beneficial for primary students as they navigate the concepts of print, decoding, and problem-solving. However, we quickly discovered that our older students could appreciate the shapes app to develop spatial reasoning skills. More importantly, our students were eager to collaborate with classmates to solve problems and communicate results leading to deeper learning for all.

A huge thank you to the CMLE for making these learning opportunities possible at Holdingford Elementary School!

Guest Blogger, Special

CMLE Mini Grant Report: Stearns History Museum


This is a guest post written by Jessie Storlien, Archivist at the Stearns History Museum. Need a mini-grant to help purchase new materials or help fund a program? Apply now!

Collections that are benefiting from the new boxes.

As a result of purchasing these materials, can you identify and explain a few things you can use/apply to your work or practice?

The Research Center in the Stearns History Museum is currently processing a large influx of archival materials that have arrived within the last year.

The items include documents, photos, audio-visual materials, ephemera, and other archival materials. The collections range from the St. Cloud Herberger’s department store and the Rausch family of Cold Spring to Kollmann Monumental Works and the Herbrandson family of Brooten, among many other documents that have been collected or donated to the Archives.

The shipment arrives! A finished box in front.

Acid-free, lignin-free archival boxes allow us to properly store and preserve these materials. Since purchasing the boxes we have begun organizing and processing the new materials. The boxes help us continue to preserve and store 2D archival materials in a publicly accessible retrieval system.

This grant supports Stearns History Museum’s mission to connect people to the power of history and culture by collecting, preserving, and interpreting its historical and cultural resources. The storage boxes allow for improved access to our collections by staff and the audiences we serve.

Box tops, flattened boxes, and a finished box.

What were your favorite takeaways or new things learned?
There are many factors in creating accessibility in a library. Space, shelving, and storage containers all play an important part in processing and organizing new materials and collections.

The storage boxes Stearns History Museum ordered using the money we received from CMLE will allow us to continue making accessibility and conservation a priority at our organization by giving us a place to properly store processed collections. When stored in an ideal environment, collections are preserved for future generations of families and researchers.

Conference, Guest Blogger

Student-Powered Conference Report: Neil Andruschak

Connections – Logan’s (LFCS student) keynote presentation

This is a guest post written by Neil Andruschak, Digital Learning Specialist at Little Falls Community Schools. Need a mini-grant to help purchase new materials or help fund a program? Apply now!

A group of central Minnesota educators (MidMN EDU) put together the 2nd annual Student Powered Conference – A MidMN EDU Event on the morning of February 6th at the Sartell Community Center.

Logan, a Little Falls Community High School student, gave the opening keynote presentation and he knocked everybody’s socks off with a great talk about “Connections” and how important student-adult connections can be at school and how those connections can change your life in positive and dramatic ways.

Following the keynote, there were 3 breakout sessions (with 4 rooms and poster sessions in the gym) for students to choose from. All main and poster sessions were led by student presenters.

Elementary Art Educator Internship – Emily’s (LFCS student) poster session

To wrap up the morning, we had a get up and get moving activity that generated a lot of laughs and fun.

Last year was a great success with middle school students as our “beta testers” and this year we have opened the conference up for students grades 4-12. The range of presenters signed up was all the way from 4th through 12th grade. In addition, we had a number of students just attending. They were not required to present. We had a great turnout and are expecting even bigger numbers next year!

The requested grant funds covered Little Falls Community Schools transportation and our share of the building rental. Thank you for supporting unique, personalized learning opportunities for Central Minnesota students!