All posts by cmleguestblogger

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CMLE Mini Grant: Stearns History Museum Family History Conference

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Note from CMLE: We are currently in the process of updating our mini grant policies and procedures. We will make an announcement on our site and newsletter when we are ready to begin reviewing applications again!

This is a guest post from Steve Penick, archivist at Stearns History Museum.

Family History Conference Mini Grant; Stearns History Museum, St. Cloud, Minnesota

The Family History Conference:  Growing for Generations was held on September 19, 2020 cohosted by the Stearns History Museum and the St. Cloud Area Genealogists.  Originally scheduled for last April, the arrival of Covid-19 postponed our program that lead to the decision in holding a virtual conference.

Thanks to the Central Minnesota Library Exchange, the $300 Mini Grant paid for our keynote presenter Kim Ashford and one breakout speaker.  Fifty-seven attendees enjoyed 12 different sessions on various topics.  They included:  ethnic topics, research road trips, online sources, using social media for genealogy, newspaper research, digitizing, and strategies in writing your family story.  Afterward, attendees communicated their experiences about the quality programming, and for the most part, limited technical issues throughout the day.  Yea!

An online format provided some advantages for those attending the conference.  Most sessions were recorded, offering the flexibility for attendees to view them for a limited time afterward. While an in-person conference offers opportunities for socializing and networking, participants had chances to meet and greet before sessions began or during lunchtime.  Speaking of lunch, several online exhibits rotated through the noon hour slideshow highlighting our two organizations and the work that they do.  

We look forward to our next conference whether it be virtual or in-person.  Until then, keep researching!

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CMLE Mini Grant: Keva Planks at Kimball Elementary

This is a guest post from Amy Serbus, Media Assistant at Kimball Elementary School. Read more reports from CMLE Mini Grants on our page.

We have received our Keva Planks that were awarded to us through your mini grant program last spring and we are LOVING them!  With COVID, it has definitely been a challenge introducing this very popular resource into our school as we must clean or close them after each use.  It is absolutely worth those challenges though as they are constantly being requested by both students and staff!

In the media center, we have the KEVA Planks open for free, creative time and they have quickly become the most popular STEAM item on the shelves!  We have had students use the planks to  build towers, make incredible “domino” trails, and play “Jenga” in small“, socially-distanced groups. 

We also check the planks out to teachers for use in their classrooms.  Our first-grade students used the planks to reinforce their reading lessons by spelling out their names and their vocabulary words for the week.  They also used the planks during their math time by making shapes and patterns.  Several older grades have plans to use them for building structures during their science lessons to demonstrate concepts like gravity, force and balance.  The possibilities are endless in how Keva Planks can be used and we are excited to see how they evolve.

We are so grateful to Central Minnesota Library Exchange for making it possible for us to purchase this wonderful resource that will enrich our entire student body in so many ways!  

Thank you so very much for your generosity and for everything you do for libraries in your community!

Kimball Elementary School

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CMLE Guest Post: Join Me in Building Inclusive Collections

Guest Post by Jenny Hill, Ed.D. St. Cloud State University

I was recently reading a book about library media centers where the question was posed: When you walk into a media center, who does space the belong to, the media specialist, or the students (Wools & Coatney, 2018)? 

This is a convicting question and that makes me stop and think.  Media specialists may be the program administrators, but space needs to belong to the kids!  

That leads me to another question: who are our students?

As demographics continue to shift in our schools, I find that the 1990 work of Dr. Rudine Sims Bishop, often referred to as “the mother of multicultural literature,” still rings true today.  In her classic essay, Mirrors, Windows, and Sliding Glass Doors, Dr. Bishop outlines the need for kids to have access to books that reflect who they are; mirrors; provide perspective into another’s world: windows; and provide a way for students to enter into another’s context: sliding glass doors.

Twitter seems to be echoing this idea in 2020 with hashtags such as #WeNeedDiverseBooks  #DiverseReads and #OwnVoices.

We all want to develop inclusive collections, but how can this be accomplished?

School Library Journal is hosting a series of webinars this fall called Equity in Action: Building Diverse Collections.  There are three parts being held virtually on Tuesday, October 20th, Tuesday, October 27th, and Tuesday, November 10th which include topics such as:

  • What is a diverse and inclusive collection?
  • Collection Management Strategies to Enact Change at Your Library
  • Equity Work Is a Marathon, Not a Sprint
  • Conducting a Diversity Audit of Your Collections
  • Stereotypes, Tropes, and Cultural Appropriation: A Collection Development Deep Dive

Registration costs about $300 and self-paced options online are available if you cannot attend the live sessions.  More registration information can be found here.

If you do decide to attend, I would love to connect with you throughout the process and beyond to see if we can work together to implement some of the strategies presented so you can build a more inclusive collection in your schools. E-mail me at: jchill@stcloudstate.edu

References:

Reading Rockets. (2020).  A video interview with Rudine Sims Bishop, Ph. D.  https://www.readingrockets.org/teaching/experts/rudine-sims-bishop

Woolls, B. & Coatney, S. (2018).  The school library media manager. 6th ed. Santa Barbara, CA: Libraries Unlimited.

Guest Blogger, School Media Specialist

CMLE Scholarship Report: What’s New in Children’s Literature Workshop

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This is a guest post from Gara Goldenstein, Media Specialist at Jacobson Elementary in Rush City, MN. Read more CMLE scholarship reports here.

 I attended the What’s New in Children’s Literature workshop through BER. This workshop highlighted books published in 2019.

Jonathon Hunt was the presenter and he did a fantastic job!  It was a little different as we attended through Zoom.  I was worried about how effective it would be attending using Zoom.  I was pleasantly surprised at how well it went!

A website I was introduced to is the ALA Best Websites for Teaching & Learning.  There is also the Best Apps for Teaching & Learning website.  These are great resources to find technology to enhance your teaching.

One app I highly recommend is Novel Effect. It is free and it will play sound effects as you read a picture book.  The really cool thing for students is the app listens for key words so it will work no matter what speed the book is read. 

One discussion that I found interesting was the benefits of having large print books.  They especially recommend this for struggling readers.  It is easier for them to physically track the words and leads to large gains in comprehension.  I haven’t seen many children’s books offered in large print, but it’s something I will be looking for!

Here’s my list of top 10 book recommendations.  It was super hard to narrow this down!!

  1. Look Both Ways: A Tale Told in Ten Blocks by Jason Reynolds (gr 4-7) Short stories of students walking home from school.
  2. Pay Attention, Carter Jones by Gary D. Schmidt (gr 4-7) His family inherits a snooty British butler!  Humorous!
  3. Fly by Mark Teague (K-3) A baby bird wants to use a variety of methods of transportation, except it’s wings!
  4. Beneath the Bed and Other Scary Stories by Max Brailler (K-3) Acorn Scholastic book – beginning chapter book
  5. Monstrous: The Lore, The Gore, And Science Behind Your Favorite Monsters (Gr 5-8) Great infographics!
  6. Monkey and Cake series by Drew Daywalt (K-3) Great for those beginning readers! Very humorous!
  7. Five Minutes by Liz Garton Scanlon and Audrey Vernick ( K-3) How 5 minutes sometimes seems long, sometimes short.
  8. Torpedoed by Deborah Heiligman ( Gr 5-8) WWII setting. A ship leaves London bringing children to Canada.  It is torpedoed by a German submarine.
  9. How to Two by David Soman (K-3) Focuses on how to play on a playground.  Also a counting book.
  10. Dear Sweet Pea by Julie Murphy (Gr 4-7) A girl’s parents get divorced but her dad moves in just down the street!

Thank you so much for the scholarship that provided me the opportunity to attend this workshop!  This workshop is offered every year and I highly recommend it!

Guest Blogger

CMLE Mini Grant Report: Talahi Community School WeDoLego 2.0

This is a guest post from Jenny McNew, School Media Specialist at Talahi Community School. Read more reports from CMLE Mini Grants on our page.

Students at Talahi Community School love building with Legos and after a year of not being able to use a great product because of old technology we are once again able to have a great experience working with our Lego WeDo kits.

We have 30 of the old WeDo kits but they require a usb connection with a computer program downloaded to run the software. We no longer have computers that would run the program but with a mini-grant from CMLE we were able to purchase the Lego WeDo 2.0 hubs, motors and sensors.

Students are once again able to build with the Legos and make their creations move using the Lego WeDo 2.0 app on our iPads. This app uses a bluetooth connection to drive the sensors and turn the motors.

It was so much fun to watch the students’ eyes light up as they made their creations move. Through this process, students were able to see that sometimes we need to think outside the box and with some creative thinking we can take something that may no longer work and make it work in a different way.

Thank you CMLE for bringing the fun back to our Legos!