Category Archives: School Media Specialist

Communication, Resources, School Media Specialist

School and Rural Libraries, Check Out This Grant Opportunity!

Do you work in a school library? Do you work in a rural library? Listen up!!

We know our members all across our twelve counties are doing fantastic work in their libraries. Now think about how many more awesome things you could be doing if you had more money!! IMLS can potentially help you with their new grant program. They are accepting applications now through Feb. 25th 2019.

Find more information below and if you want to apply, please remember that CMLE is absolutely here to help you with the process! 

“The Institute of Museum and Library Services has launched a new special initiative, Accelerating Promising Practices for Small Libraries (APP), and is accepting grant applications now through February 25, 2019.

This new funding opportunity is designed specifically to strengthen the ability of small and rural libraries, archives, and related organizations to serve their communities, and awards sizes range from $10,000 to $50,000.”

There are three categories of these APP grants:

  • Transforming School Library Practice – School libraries support learning and the development of critical thinking, creativity, and collaboration skills. IMLS is interested in furthering how school library professionals can serve as integral instructional partners to classroom teachers. Grant projects could include programs and services that prepare students for success in college, career, and life, or foster early, digital, information, health, financial, media, civic, and other types of literacies.
  • Community Memory – This project category centers on engaging local communities in the collection, documentation, and preservation of their local histories, experiences, and identities.
  • Digital Inclusion – This category focuses on projects that support the role libraries play in promoting digital literacy, providing internet access, and enabling community engagement through civic data and civic technology.

Read more about the grant here. If you’re interested in learning more, IMLS is offering FREE pre-application webinars to answer questions with program staff. They will be recorded to access at any time. Find out more here.

School Media Specialist, Tech

AASL Recommended Apps: RelationShapes

In June, the American Association of School Librarians (AASL) announced their Best Apps for Teaching and Learning 2018. The apps encourage qualities such as creativity and collaboration and encourage discovery and curiosity.

The app Relationshapes makes it fun and easy for young kids to work on their visual-spatial skills. The brightly-colored app has eight levels of progressively more challenging activities and a multi-touch interface for teachers or parents to join students in activities.

“Open-ended play gives young children opportunities to practice problem-solving and experience visual-spatial reasoning. Geared towards early childhood, RelationShapes allows young users to move and resize shapes on one side of an axis, then create a matching image on the other side. After each level, new shapes and stickers are unlocked to create fun pictures.”

Platform: iOS, Android
Grades: Preschool – Elementary School
Cost: FREE

Teachers With Apps has this very detailed article about Relationshapes that explores several activities and explains the benefits for young students. In this article about spatial learning and STEM, Relationshapes is mentioned as well as several other apps that provide students with a good foundation knowledge that will help them understand STEM concepts in the future.

School Media Specialist, Tech

AASL Recommended Apps: Pixie

In June, the American Association of School Librarians (AASL) announced their Best Apps for Teaching and Learning 2018. The apps encourage qualities such as creativity and collaboration and encourage discovery and curiosity.

The app Pixie is a great way to let students incorporate creativity into almost any subject! The app has a number of different tools students can use to demonstrate their knowledge.

“Imagine your students creating their very own digital stories, nonfiction pages, comics or podcasts with little instruction. Pixie is an authoring tool students can use to share ideas, imagination, and understanding through a combination of text, original artwork, voice narration, and images. Students can use Pixie’s paint tools, text options, clip art, and voice recording to develop storybooks, curriculum projects, videos, and so much more.”

Platform: iOS , Android 
Grades: All
Cost: $9.99

This post from Class Tech Tips gives a quick overview of the app and discusses the online version of the app, called Wixie, which could also be a useful classroom tool. This page from Creative Educator has multiple different lessons that use Pixie in the subjects of language arts, math, science, and social studies.

Watch this video to see Pixie in action!

School Media Specialist, Tech

AASL Recommended Apps: Hopscotch

In June, the American Association of School Librarians (AASL) announced their Best Apps for Teaching and Learning 2018. The apps encourage qualities such as creativity and collaboration and encourage discovery and curiosity.

The app Hopscotch lets you enjoy the process of building games while learning the fundamentals of coding!

“Coding” may sound a bit dry and daunting to some newcomers, but those are the last things that come to mind while using Hopscotch. The app lets you have as much fun making games as playing them, and with its colorful, friendly interface and stacks of help and tutorials, kids (and grown-ups!) can build all kinds of apps—while learning the fundamentals of programming.”

Platform: iOS
Grades:Upper Elementary – Middle School
Cost: Free, has in-app purchases

Their website allows you to see and play games created by other users, which is pretty cool. They also have an Educator page which includes free lesson plans.

Fractus Learning has this article about the app that includes some specific ways to incorporate it into your teaching, and also links to further activities for educators to use.  This article from Teacher Cast gives several tips for teaching with the Hopscotch app.

Watch this very quick trailer to see some of the fun games you can play and create with the app:

Books, School Media Specialist

Upcoming Scholastic Book Fair in St. Cloud!

Everyone loves a book fair, and this is a special holiday warehouse sale that we wanted to make sure to share with our members! Some great discounts are definitely possible here, so check it out!

Holiday Inn Hotel and Suites St. Cloud
75 S. 37th Avenue
St. Cloud, MN 56301

December 3rd, 4th & 5th

11:00am – 7:00pm Monday

10:00am – 7:00pm Tuesday & Wednesday

“To thank our customers for being literacy leaders, I want to extend this personal invitation to shop our Buy One Get One Free Holiday Warehouse Sale coming to St. Cloud. This is an exclusive event open to teachers, librarians/media specialists, school personnel and administrators, as well as volunteers, so make sure to spread the word to your staff, students, volunteers and communities.”

We invite you to find a sale nearest you and get a coupon! http://registration.scholasticbookfairs.com/events/

  • Register to get a coupon for $10 off your purchase of $100 or more. (One coupon per person, per visit.)
  • We accept cash, credit cards, checks, purchase orders and Scholastic Dollars™. Title I and grants are welcome!
  • Scholastic Dollars purchases not eligible for BOGO pricing but coupon good for $25 off your Scholastic Dollars purchase of $100 or more.
  • If using a Purchase Order, bring a copy of it with you.
  • Tax-exempt organizations must provide a copy of tax-exempt document.