All posts by John

Recommended App: Think Like Churchill

October 12, 2015 John

Recently, the American Association of School Librarians (AASL) came out with their 25 Best Apps for Teaching & Learning for 2015. The apps were chosen because they foster innovation, creativity, active participation, and collaboration.

What better historical figure to have students see events through than Winston Churchill. The app lets readers select from six pivotal events from the life of the Winston Churchill. “At the end of each story, readers are asked to weigh options and make decisions based on what they think is the right.” AASL points out that “Think Like Churchill is perfect for role playing and decision making in middle school or high school history classes.”

The app costs $3.99 for iOS devices and recommended for Middle and High School students. Check out the app’s preview video below:

General

Prepare to groan, 50 amazing puns

October 9, 2015 John

Did you hear a groan? Well it was probably from one of the pun compitions (yes, there are such a thing) from around the globe. Mental Floss recently did a list of 50 amazing puns from past pun competitions. Check out the full list now!

Can’t wait? Check out the video below from the 2014 Great Durham Pun Championship about High School.

Data Walls – Create a transparent library environment

October 9, 2015 John 4 Comments

Fresh from the ITEM conference, CMLE has learned from Library Girl the power of data! Actually, the power of sharing your data with users in order to tell your story. Rather than just tell people, or worse yet not telling anyone, display your data, and your story, for the world to see. Library Girl, who was a keynote at this years ITEM conference, advocates for the power of transparency. She posts her library’s data, what she is doing, how she’s doing it, and who she is working with too. What happened when she put her data on the wall for the world to see?

“Within minutes of the data going up, students were coming in to the library asking questions: They wanted to know more about the number of books that were circulated, what the busiest time of day was.”

She also talks about teachers seeing it as well as parents. Remember, you can take your data beyond the wall too! Social media is a great tool for telling your story and creating a transparent library environment.

Academic, Special, and Public Libraries can use this idea too! How are you telling your story? Share your data and create a transparent library!

Read Library Girl’s Data Wall blogs Part 1 or Part 2 now!

Books for Reluctant Readers Ages 12 to 13

October 9, 2015 John

At CMLE we’ve talked about reluctant readers before. We’ve even held a Reluctant Reader Event! Knowing that you can’t ever have too many book titles, here is a list from BookRiot for those reluctant readers ages 12 to 13. The list has 61 books so there’s something for everyone.

Check out the BookRiot list now!

Have your own reluctant reader book suggestions? Add them to CMLE’s ever growing list now!

Minnesota joins the Open Textbook Library movement

October 7, 2015 John

Did you hear that scream of joy from students across the state of Minnesota? Did the Vikings win? The Gophers? Maybe… Or maybe it was because of the recent announcement that Minnesota has joined the Open Text Book movement! This is part of the Open Textbook Library, a website that pulls together open access books in one place. “Those are not books we’re creating,” said David Ernst, chief information officer at the University of Minnesota’s College of Education. “Open textbooks have been published for years. We’re just putting them in one place.”

Ernst explained further: “The students can save thousands of dollars on the cost of their education, and professors and instructors can easily customize the books to their lesson plans without worrying about infringing on copyrighted material.” As the Open Textbook Library website explains, the “Open textbooks are real, complete textbooks licensed so teachers and students can freely use, adapt, and distribute the material.” CMLE has talked about Open Textbooks before. No longer a fad, open textbooks are a way to help students keep a little more money in their pockets without taking away from the quality of their education.

Read the whole article now or check out the Open Textbook Library.

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