Minitex’s Reference Outreach & Instruction team will be hosting a series of free webinars over the next few months. The first will be, How-To ‘Baloo: What Does it Take to Host a History Day Hullabaloo & What is the Impact on Student Success? Join Minitex and Presenter Jennifer Hootman next Tuesday, November 5, 2013 from 12:00 PM–1:00 PM (Central Time.)
Who Should Attend?
Any library staff or educator interested in learning more about History Day and library Hullabaloos.
MEMO and The Friends of The Saint Paul Public Library are providing free Minnesota Book Award materials for all MEMO members. Posters and bookmarks can be ordered online. Click here to request your materials.
Tip: Pass these on to your teachers and students; especially if they have incorporated a MN Book Award winner in their curriculum. For an additional cost, Honored Book Seals are also available.
Danielle Hartman, Literacy and technology integration specialist, provides tips and tricks to teach PreK-8 students vocabulary. Hartman emphasizes the importance of creating a fun and engaging environment for students. She stresses that the key is variety and outlines the following four activities for you to try in your lesson plan this month;
Additional details about each activity can be found in the full article, 4 Activities to Effectively Teach Vocabulary posted by Edudemic (August 2013.)
If you would like suggestions for apps, Edudemic published an article on 3 Vocabulary Apps for SAT Takers and Lifelong Learners (February 2013.)
Gaming programs are growing in some libraries across the United States. In ALA’s blog The Scoop, Brian Mayer wrote an article detailing how he facilitated game creation, with students, using classroom curriculum. Mayer is a gaming and library technology specialist at the Genesee Valley (N.Y.) Educational Partnership. When creating this game-based type of makerspace, he focuses on “…demonstrating concept understanding and mastery throughout the design process and in the finished product.” This work is accomplished in collaboration with classroom teachers and the school librarians. Find out more about how Mayer engages and empowers youth in Creating Game-Based Makerspaces, (July 2013.)
Note: Interested in incorporating games in your learning process? Read the related article, How to Gamify Your Classroom (October 2013), in which the author decodes how you can win students over in five simple levels.
Three years ago Jeffrey Schnapp, a faculty member at Harvard, began a library test kitchen engaging students in the School of Design to, “create a hybrid [library] space where analog and digital coexist.” Striving to identify new ways to interact with books and the “material soul” to blend into one library voice through design for both print and digital materials.
The “test kitchen” was set-up in the location of a former bookstore. Student projects were displayed using pop-up galleries in satellite locations, sharing with the campus community their projects, findings and design suggestions. Click here to read the full article published by Boston Globe, The Library Test Kitchen at Harvard written by Anne Gray Fischer (July 2013.)
Note: The Director of CMLE, Patricia Post, often writes under a subcategory called “Food for Thought” where she identifies articles that pertain to all librarians and library types. This week she highlights a lecture on libraries by Neil Gaiman. Consider these posts throughout the year to help feed the soul of your library.