Category Archives: General

South Jr. High students learn teamwork, respect from video game creation

teamwork 5How often do you hear about video games having a positive affect on young people?

Well, it definitely had a favorable impact on a group of sixth – eighth graders at South Jr. High School, when they became creators of their own video game. The project was a collaboration involving students and teachers from South Jr. High working with an SCSU professor.

The game is titled “Save My Dragon,” and the students drew all the characters, backgrounds, and items in the game. They took inspiration from trees, clothing, nature in their backyards and the buildings in the Twin Cities. The students even created the soundtrack for the game, using recording sticks and instruments.

The article explores how the students faced challenges when it came to agreeing on artwork, and how the experience taught them to respect the ideas of others and take constructive criticism. The end result was a feeling of school pride, and the feeling that they had accomplished this game creation as a team.

Image credit: http://tinyurl.com/mg6qkck, licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 2.0

 

A boatload of book lists!

sunset sailingWe didn’t want you to have to worry about running out of reading material this summer, so we have compiled a boatload of book lists in the hope that the biggest problem you’ll run into is choosing what to read first! The lists are diverse, featuring everything from YA, famous authors recommending obscure books, and books about food (including cookbooks). Now you can sail off into the sunset with your new favorite book.

 21 brilliant books you’ve never heard of

Books to help young people struggling with mental health issues

Book winners from the International Association of Culinary Professionals

June 2016 reading list from Library Reads

YALSA booklists (look in the left frame for booklists)

Books read and recommended by successful people

From the recent Book Expo of America: this list of the best children’s books

Bonnaroo reading list

 

Image credit: https://unsplash.com/ (Armando Castillejos), licensed under CC0 1.0

CMLE Weekly Review: 5/26/2016

This issue of the Weekly Review recaps our blog posts from May 20 – May 25, 2016.

CMLE Updates: State & Regional News
– Recap of Minitex ILL Conference More
– In case you missed it – Nuts & Bolts Workshop recap More
– CMLE Board President’s message More
– End of session legislative updates More

Upcoming Events and Registration Information
– Need a variety of professional development options? More

Tech Bits and Ideas
– Best antivirus tools of 2016 More
– Capturing the school year in review on video More

Resources You Can Use
– Children’s Choice book award winners More
– Summer reading list for teens More
– Coming soon – National Week of Making! More
– Just in time: free gardening ebooks More

Food For Thought
– A love story: food, cooking, and the public library More
– Advice for dealing with end of the year burnout More

Just For Fun
– 10 impressive book-themed cakes! More

Summer reading list for teens

Are students asking you for titles to read this summer? Recently, we did a post about the YALSA top ten nominees list. Here are some more titles to suggest to your students, from YALSA’s 2016 Best of the Best awards. Tip: Ask your students if they have a public library card in order to keep them reading all summer long!

YALSA 2016 Top Ten Best Fiction for Young Adults (see the other categories and winners here)

simon vs.

Simon vs. the Homo Sapiens Agenda by Becky Albertall
 six of crows   Six of Crows by Bardugo, Leigh
bunker diaryThe Bunker Diary by Kevin Brooks
  audacity   Audacity by Melanie Crowder 
  shadowshaperShadowshaper by Daniel José Older         
x a novel X: A Novel by Ilyasah Shabazz and Kekla Magoon
boy in the black suitThe Boy in the Black Suit by Jason Reynolds

bone gap

 

Bone Gap by Laura Ruby
challenger deep
Challenger Deep by Neal Shusterman

more happy than

 

More Happy than Not by Adam Silvera

 

Capture the school year in review on video

Sticking to the scriptWhat better way to sum up the school year than with an interactive video summary? Lucky for us Richard Byrne of FreeTech4Teachers.com wrote about and created a how-to video to show us how!

In the blog post, Byrne mentions that you can use YouTube’s photo slideshow tool, Stupeflix or Animoto to create audio slideshow videos. But Byrne seems most excited about Wideo. With that tool, you can insert interactive buttons into each frame of your video and the buttons can link to any webpage allowing users to click on them when watching your video.

Check out the video below or read the whole blog post now:

Image credit: http://tinyurl.com/nptavrl, licensed under CC BY-NC 2.0