All posts by Kate

General, Public, School Media Specialist

Top Ten Things I Took Away from the Fall MEMO Conference: A CMLE Scholarship

The following report was submitted by a CMLE Scholarship recipient.

Submitted by: Debbie Disher, Holdingford High School and Elementary Media Centers

Balance is a matter of perspective and is temporary.  We need to embrace the ups and downs and the wobbles.

Data collecting library statistics doesn’t have to be that difficult.  Start simple!  Do it on a monthly basis and then it won’t be so overwhelming at the end of the year.

“Real Men Read” program really can be done and doesn’t require special things.  Using a regular digital camera, PhotoShop Elements or other editing software, a poster size printer (or a local print shop) and some willing men.  I am now in the process of working with our photography teacher to have students do these as an assignment.

Things to consider with ebook readers:  batteries, how to circulate, cataloging, siding audio with electronic text can be done.  Great River Regional Library just started using overdrive.

Who will be responsible for teaching social networking ethics to students if we don’t teach it at school?

Web 2.0 tools that I need to take another look at included:  Library Thing, Shelfari, and Polldaddy.

Thanks to the conference I am going to try to be a better blog follower.  Plans to pursue:  The Ubiquitous Librarian (Brian Mathews), Techno Tuesday (Cathy Nelson), The Unquiet Librarian (Buffy Hamilton).

Kelly Tenkely has a new Bloom’s Taxonomy visual that looks really neat.  http://ilearntechnology.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2010/08/Screen-shot-2010-08-31-at-11.36.54-AM.png

Two Youtube videos worth sharing with staff:  Infowhelm and Information Fluency and A Vision of K-12 Students Today.

Great statistics were given in the session 21st Century Learner.  Such as:  A higher percentage of adults admit to sending and receiving text messages while driving than teenagers.  Another thought that was shared is that our children are growing up in a world of filled with multimedia messages, yet they receive little if any training on evaluating and understanding these messages.

All in all, a great conference with many excellent sessions.  Now to take the time to put some of these ideas in motion.

Academic, General, Public, School Media Specialist, Special

A good time was had by all!

The CMLE/MEMO Fall Annual Meeting & Workshop took place at the St. Cloud Country Club on November 4, 2010. It was a fun, yet educational event for our members and their guests. Throughout the course of the evening we had about 50 attendees, and we were so happy to see each of you!

Evaluations of the event show that it was a success, with nearly all attendees reporting that they loved the author as well as the Five in Fifty presentations. The author for the evening was Catherine Friend, who gave a fantastic and funny presentation on writing, publishing and several of her most memorable experiences on the farm.  The Five in Fifty presentations were short, ten minute presentations on technology and resources, given by CMLE members, and CMLE staff.  It seems that everyone loves these quick, yet informative sessions! Many thanks to our presenters!!

Academic, General, Public, School Media Specialist, Special

Registration is now open for the CMLE/MEMO Annual Fall Meeting and Workshop!

The CMLE/MEMO Annual Fall Meeting and Workshop will take place on Thursday, November 4, 2010. The event will be held at the St. Cloud Country Club.

Register online … http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/cmleregistration now! The deadline for registration is October 29, 2010.

Here’s what you can expect…

1:30   CMLE Governing Board Meeting (optional)

4:00   Opening remarks

4:30   Five in Fifty: Five 10 minute presentations on new ideas in library programming and technology. Presentations will be coming from a variety of library types and topics will range from mind mapping tools to apps for the iPod Touch to literary resources and sites for children.

5:30   Cash bar, book sales, book signing

6:00   Dinner: An Italian buffet featuring a Caesar salad and garlic bread sticks to start, as well as your choice from two pastas, two meats and two sauces. Cake for dessert! Yum!

6:45   Author Catherine Friend:

 

c_friendCatherine Friend is the author of six books for children, and five books for adults. Catherine received the Minnesota Book Award for General Nonfiction in 2009 for her book The Compassionate Carnivore. Her book, Hit by a Farm, also received high praise from the Minneapolis Star Tribune, the New York Times, and Lavender.  Her children’s book, The Perfect Nest, was recognized by the Wall Street Journal as one of five best ‘read alouds’. Currently, Catherine is writing two additional books – one for children titled Barn Boot Blues, and one for adults titled Sheepish – which is a loose sequel to Hit by a Farm. Check out Catherine’s website at www.catherinefriend.com for more information.

7:45   East Central MEMO Regional Meeting: Even if you are not a current MEMO member, all are welcome to sit in on this brief meeting to plan the Spring MEMO/CMLE Meeting. Come with your ideas for topics and/or locations.

 

Hope to see you there!

Academic, General, Public, School Media Specialist

Education Nation

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NBC is launching a discussion, starting Monday, September 27th, on the topic of education in the United States. The mission statement for the week long segment is:

“Education Nation seeks to engage the public, through thoughtful dialogue, in pursuit of the shared goal of providing every American with an opportunity to pursue the best education in the world.”

Key political figures, decision makers, educators, parents, students, and the general public will come together to discuss all aspects of education (positive and negative), and determine why, in a nation that is founded on democracy, our students continue to fall behind.

Special events include a television interview with President Obama, a special appearance by Collin Powell and his wife Alma Powell, and an education summit with attendees such as U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan, and New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg.

Multi-media coverage of the event will occur on the Nightly News, the Today Show, Meet the Press, MSNBC, ivillage.com, EducationNation.com, and several other news outlets.   

For more information please go to http://www.educationnation.com/.