Category Archives: Guest Blogger

Guest Blogger, Special

CMLE Mini Grant Report: Stearns History Museum


This is a guest post written by Jessie Storlien, Archivist at the Stearns History Museum. Need a mini-grant to help purchase new materials or help fund a program? Apply now!

Collections that are benefiting from the new boxes.

As a result of purchasing these materials, can you identify and explain a few things you can use/apply to your work or practice?

The Research Center in the Stearns History Museum is currently processing a large influx of archival materials that have arrived within the last year.

The items include documents, photos, audio-visual materials, ephemera, and other archival materials. The collections range from the St. Cloud Herberger’s department store and the Rausch family of Cold Spring to Kollmann Monumental Works and the Herbrandson family of Brooten, among many other documents that have been collected or donated to the Archives.

The shipment arrives! A finished box in front.

Acid-free, lignin-free archival boxes allow us to properly store and preserve these materials. Since purchasing the boxes we have begun organizing and processing the new materials. The boxes help us continue to preserve and store 2D archival materials in a publicly accessible retrieval system.

This grant supports Stearns History Museum’s mission to connect people to the power of history and culture by collecting, preserving, and interpreting its historical and cultural resources. The storage boxes allow for improved access to our collections by staff and the audiences we serve.

Box tops, flattened boxes, and a finished box.

What were your favorite takeaways or new things learned?
There are many factors in creating accessibility in a library. Space, shelving, and storage containers all play an important part in processing and organizing new materials and collections.

The storage boxes Stearns History Museum ordered using the money we received from CMLE will allow us to continue making accessibility and conservation a priority at our organization by giving us a place to properly store processed collections. When stored in an ideal environment, collections are preserved for future generations of families and researchers.

Conference, Guest Blogger

Student-Powered Conference Report: Neil Andruschak

Connections – Logan’s (LFCS student) keynote presentation

This is a guest post written by Neil Andruschak, Digital Learning Specialist at Little Falls Community Schools. Need a mini-grant to help purchase new materials or help fund a program? Apply now!

A group of central Minnesota educators (MidMN EDU) put together the 2nd annual Student Powered Conference – A MidMN EDU Event on the morning of February 6th at the Sartell Community Center.

Logan, a Little Falls Community High School student, gave the opening keynote presentation and he knocked everybody’s socks off with a great talk about “Connections” and how important student-adult connections can be at school and how those connections can change your life in positive and dramatic ways.

Following the keynote, there were 3 breakout sessions (with 4 rooms and poster sessions in the gym) for students to choose from. All main and poster sessions were led by student presenters.

Elementary Art Educator Internship – Emily’s (LFCS student) poster session

To wrap up the morning, we had a get up and get moving activity that generated a lot of laughs and fun.

Last year was a great success with middle school students as our “beta testers” and this year we have opened the conference up for students grades 4-12. The range of presenters signed up was all the way from 4th through 12th grade. In addition, we had a number of students just attending. They were not required to present. We had a great turnout and are expecting even bigger numbers next year!

The requested grant funds covered Little Falls Community Schools transportation and our share of the building rental. Thank you for supporting unique, personalized learning opportunities for Central Minnesota students!


Conference, Guest Blogger

Report from the Student-Powered Conference: Amanda Holstrom

This is a guest post written by Amanda Holstrom, Instructional Technology Specialist and Apple Teacher at Sartell Middle School. Need a mini-grant to help purchase new materials or help fund a program? Apply now!

At the Student Powered Conference, Sauk Rapids, Sartell, Little Falls, St. Cloud, and Albany students got together to share their ideas and learn from each other. Logan, a senior from Little Falls, presented the opening session, discussing his path into coding and how it has changed his career options and his high school coursework. He set the tone for the day to be open to learning new things and sharing knowledge.

The students ran the show, creating and presenting their knowledge and
passions. Some of the student led sessions covered topics on Astronomy, How to Become an Author, Breakout Boxes, Coding, Virtual Reality in the classroom and more. These sessions offered the Tech Team students the opportunity to learn and experience education in a way that is not available in every district in central Minnesota.

Students that attended these sessions took the ideas presented to them
back to their schools to discuss as a tech team how we can implement this type of learning into our curriculum. Our Tech team decided to focus on bringing more VR/AR (Virtual Reality/Augmented Reality) options into our school. The students looked into finding VR experiences that covered topics they were currently learning and shared them with their teachers. Another group of students is learning about Merge Cubes and what they can create using CoSpacesEDU to show our staff how education can reach beyond the classroom.

Our next step to share what we learned is at Education Done Differently at Sartell Middle School in April. The Sabre Tech Team will be presenting alongside other staff and students on the ways we have changed the way we educate our students.

Conference, Guest Blogger

Report from the Student-Powered Conference: Audrey Thornborrow

This is a guest post written by Audrey Thornborrow, Technology Integrationist/Instructional Coach at Mississippi Heights Elementary School. Need a mini grant to purchase materials or fund a program? Apply here!

“That was amazing!”

“Can I go again next year?”

“This is the coolest thing we’ve done all year!”

These are just a few of the exclamations I heard from students as we left the 2019 Student Powered Conference which was hosted by a group of Central Minnesota technology integrationists/instructional coaches (MidMN EDU). The conference took place at the Sartell Community Center.

The whole day is truly powered by the students. Sure, the adults get them bussed there, make sure the projectors are working, and order the donuts, but the day wouldn’t be successful without the hard work from the students.

Our day started off with a keynote from a senior from Little Falls High School. He spoke about connections and how making connections with different people can open up doors of possibilities in your life. He did an amazing job and was so brave to get up in front of over 200 kids to share his message.

After the keynote we had 3 different time slots for different sessions such as How to Solve the Rubiks Cube, Art Internships, 3D Printing in the Medical Field, Breakout EDU, Cookie Decorating, and my favorite Cyber Bullying.


The Cyber Bullying session was a very powerful session because Nolan, a 4th grader at MHES, stood in front of a large group of students and told his story about his experience with be bullied, how it felt, and gave concrete ideas on how students can help stop or prevent bullying in their school. His peers were so respectful and kind. They asked great questions, offered positive feedback and gave Nolan a standing ovation along with hugs, fist bumps, and high fives. After his session, Nolan told me he felt like his favorite book character. He said, “my favorite character was rich, and famous, but most of all he was love, and that’s how I feel right now. Loved.”

We are so thankful to CMLE and their generosity for providing funding for the Sartell Community Center. Without your generosity, this magnificent day would not have been possible.


Conference, Guest Blogger

TIES Conference 2018 and Game Changer: Amy Moe

This is a guest post written by Amy Moe, Instructional Technology Specialist at Pine Meadow Elementary. Do you need a scholarship to attend a conference?  Apply today! 

TIES 2018 & GAME CHANGER: Book Access for All Kids by Donalyn Miller by Amy Moe

With the assistance of CMLE, I was able to attend TIES this year.  It was my goal to find sessions that would allow me to enhance the initiatives and tech tools we currently use at our school.  For example, our district tech team is reading BOLD School: Blended Learning that Works.  I attended a session called “Blending and Techifying Instruction”.  The presenter shared ways to offer a mixture of face-to-face instruction and digital tools through station rotation, the flipped classroom, and/or individualized instruction.  Each option had a similar format that gave students direct instruction, practice, application of higher order thinking skills, and extension opportunities. These are viable options for our upper elementary classrooms.  

I also attended a session on utilizing formative assessments.  Formative assessments help teachers see into students thinking and gauge their learning.  It guides instruction and offers feedback. Attending this session reaffirmed my efforts in introducing staff to the advantages of using platforms such as Seesaw, Nearpod, and the Google Suite.  Student engagement increases throughout the lessons with interactive slides at the beginning, middle and end of a lesson.

After my two days at TIES, I traveled to Custom Ed Solutions in Champlin to hear renowned author, Donalyn Miller, speak about her latest book: Game Changer: Book Access for All Kids.  Donalyn focused on three key areas: time, access, and book choice.  

TIME: Students should have at least 20 minutes of independent reading time a day.  She claims this is vital because it provides an authentic opportunity to synthesize.  

ACCESS: Students need access to current and diverse book collections through their school and classroom libraries.  This is easy to achieve during the school year, but summer months are a challenge. We need to be creative in finding funding to get books in the hands of our most at-risk, struggling readers.  

CHOICE: Students should be given ownership in finding books that interest them.  This task can be difficult so students need to be taught how to find books.  This can be accomplished through book talks, preview stacks, book trailers, and read alouds.