This is a guest post written by Amanda Holstrom, Instructional Technology Specialist at Sartell Middle School. Do you need a scholarship to attend a conference or participate in professional development?  Apply today!

This year at Impact Education I was excited to learn about the many ways to merge learning and technology especially focusing on storytelling and student voice and choice.

Carl Hooker’s session “21 Things Every 21st Century Educator Should Try”. This session focused mainly on helping students curate and share their learning with others, using digital tools to convey their message. This type of approach in the classroom allows students to see their learning and it makes the content more impactful for students. I appreciated that Carl used everyday apps in ways that allowed students to express their learning. Some of the apps and ideas that Carl covered were: stop motion videos, creating infographics and virtual learning environments.

Carl focused on setting the stage for learners and getting out of their way being mindful of not accidentally putting limits on student learning by restraining their creativity.

Stop motion videos offer students a quick way to animate their learning while using both digital and tactile materials to create a product that can be shared with others.

Infographics were another component that I had not thought of as being such a strong learning vehicle. Allowing students to create beautiful and intriguing signage encourages them to invest in their learning, sharing their knowledge and passion for artistic design.

Student-created virtual learning environments are something that we are slowly implementing in classrooms this year and I was encouraged that other educators are finding success with this approach.

Since Impact Education, I have been working with our science team to implement virtual learning using CoSpaces. We started by taking a current assignment and adding on the option to create their learning on a Merge Cube which is an add on in CoSpaces. The first experience with CoSpaces led to another challenge: students have been asked to create a learning environment to reteach their peers about a science topic that has already been covered this year.

Students have worked hard to add in both the content but have risen to the challenge of making the learning highly immersive. I can’t wait to see what they come up with next.

It’s Oscar season!! If you are interested in movies, this is the time to dig in and watch the nominees.

Where do those movie ideas come from? A bunch of them come from books! (Taking a bow, because libraries are full of books and movies; so we are clearly awesome!!)

Each year, there is a category at the Oscars for Writing (Adapted Screenplay), and usually these are screenplays adapted from books. If all these millions are being spent to make and promote the movie, probably the underlying book was pretty good too!

So this week we will be admiring the books that serve as the inspiration for the 2020 Oscar nominations in this award. You have time to check out one or two – or to set up a cool display on movie material – before you find out the winner!

Each week we assemble a collection – a bouquet, if you will – of books you can read for yourself, or use to build into a display in your library. As always, the books we link to have info from Amazon.com. If you click a link and then buy anything at all from Amazon, we get a small percent of their profits from your sale. Yay!!! Thanks!!! We really appreciate the assistance! 💕😊

I Heard You Paint Houses: Frank “The Irishman” Sheeran & Closing the Case on Jimmy Hoffa, by Charles Brandt. This is the basis of the movie The Irishman.

Caging Skies, by Christine Leunens This book is the basis of the movie JoJo Rabbit.

Batman: The Killing Joke Delux, by Alan Moore. This graphic novel is loosely the basis of the movie Joker.

Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott. Unsurprisingly, the movie Little Women is based on this classic book!

The Pope (Oberon Modern Plays), by Anthony McCarten . This play is the basis for the movie The Two Popes.

Welcome back to Season Six of Linking Our Libraries!

Check out our full show notes page here, to get links to other resources and links to the books we shared this week.

This week we look at a skill every library needs to be using: marketing. Fundamentally, our jobs in libraries are all about connecting our materials, programs, and services with our community members. Marketing tools can give you a good strategy for making that happen.

We have two Guest Hosts this week: Kate Wallace and Matt Klimkhammer, from the St Cloud Technical and Community College. Welcome!

You probably have noticed one of the most common things we say here: We are impressed by our members!

One of our main goals here at CMLE is to build relationships across our members, and to show everyone the cool things happening in all the libraries. (And I’ll tell you a secret: EVERY library has something cool happening!!! I’ve been in libraries across the entire country, and there is always something interesting to admire!)

This was a quick visit to the Becker Primary School. I was there to drop off a VR kit for them to use with their K-2 students, and despite the fact that I arrived at a difficult time – while Cindy was getting ready to teach a class in the library – she showed me around their great resources. And it was so neat!!

Sorry, this pictures is all out of proportion. But you can see the space the students have, the kid-friendly sized shelves, and all those nice books available!!

A look at the really cute shelves- and all the other nice things available here for the kids! It’s important in any library, especially in a school library, to make things colorful and attractive. And look what a nice job they are doing here! Art everywhere!! I love this!!

And look at this! The little display area is cute on its own – nice chairs, good books. And behind it is an area for kids to work with staff on a more individual basis. Providing this kind of space for a more personalized learning experience is so good! Libraries are here to help people connect with information in all kinds of ways – and it’s great to see that happening here. Other libraries could use this model for a pretty inexpensive way to provide quality service.

I have to tell you, my heart melted right about here! LIllian Nelson was a teacher here for 40 years, and was apparently very interested in encouraging good literacy skills! So on a regular basis, the library changes over the theme of the bulletin board, and the students and teachers contribute their own reading progress. How adorable is this!!! I just loved it! And again – something you could do in your own library. (Connecting with your users, no matter where you are, is always going to be a good idea!)

Displays are a key element in any library! And this poster has a great idea: 20 minutes of reading every day makes a huge difference in the vocabulary kids develop, and in their own reading skills. Getting started off on the right foot with reading can make so many things easier down the road – it’s priority skills every school library should be working to encourage.

And I used to work in bookstores, so I’ve heard a million times: the cover art sells the book. Setting up this cute display with the books faced out will help them to move along faster. Combining them with these cute toys really attracts kids attention to them! Are you setting up regular displays in your library? It’s a good way to keep your books “fresh” in the minds of your patrons!

(Remember: a perfect collection development policy would have every single book checked out, and in the hands of happy readers! None of us are ever going to get there, exactly; but a book in every hand should be your goal.)

I was on my way out the door, after having such a nice time, and saw this out in hallway. It’s probably pretty obvious by now: I have a huge love of libraries, of all sort, and the amazing value they bring to people’s lives. Showing this kind of research, about a very specific and concrete way your library can make an impact in the life of a kid, is really powerful.

Library work can feel frustrating on a day-to-day basis, and it’s hard to see the impact you are making. But know that the resources you are providing – the books, the materials, the programs, the services – they may be the only access your students have to this stuff. Helping kids to get started well in school, and then to keep building on that for themselves, can make an enormous difference in the life of that kid. And their parents. And their future kids. You probably won’t see all the ripples you are putting out into the world have these big effects; but you can see the big pictures in a better community for everyone.

Yes, really. That book you put into the hands of a kid today? It can mean a shift to a better life for a dozen people around her.

Your work matters. Libraries are important. Hang on to that idea on the days when everything is hard!

We know three are a lot of crafters who work in libraries. And of course, crafting is a great type of program to do in any type of library! Each week we are sharing links to a craft that you might want to try in your library – or work on it yourself. (Hint: we would love to see photos when you are done!!)

This would be a good project if you want something pretty quick to do in the library, or for crafters who feel a little less skilled in doing complicated projects.

You can find the full instructions here.

For these extremely cute garlands of butterflies you do not need anything too complicated:

• butterfly punch
• scissors
• large sheet of poster board that matches your window trim
• old magazines
• double-sided tape
• transparent tape
• fishing line
• measuring tape
• yardstick or straight edge

If you do not already have a butterfly punch, here is one set of three from Amazon.com. (As always, if you buy anything from one of our Amazon links, Amazon will give us a small percent of their profits. Thanks!)

If you wanted to speed up this craft, you could punch out a bunch of butterflies in advance. Or, let the participants spend time with a stack of old magazines, having fun punching out their own color choices!

In the middle of winter, when it’s so cold outside, it’s good to have some crafting that reminds us of warmer weather and sunshine ahead. Enjoy your own butterflies!