Category Archives: School Media Specialist

“Collaboration is a key concept in the successful education of young adolescents, as identified in the following characteristic from AMLE’s foundational document This We Believe: Keys to Educating Young Adolescents: Courageous, collaborative leaders make a difference by putting their knowledge and beliefs into action.

This broad concept includes collaboration between teams, collaboration between a team and exploratory, collaboration with parents, collaboration with community agencies, collaboration with another school, and collaboration within the student body.

The Association for Middle Level Education Foundation Fund Committee is awarding two $2,000 Collaboration Mini-Grants in 2017 to middle grades educators who have taken leadership roles in developing collaborative projects both within and outside of schools. Recipients of this grant will receive funds to enhance an existing collaborative program or to institute a proposed program, and they will be invited present about their collaborative project at a concurrent session at the AMLE Annual Conference. In addition, recipients will be recognized at the Annual Conference. Attendance at the conference will be at the expense of the school and may not be funded by monies from this grant.

Application Information

Eligibility
Any professional member or school that has been an AMLE school member for at least 12 months may apply.

Criteria
Provide a narrative summary of the project or program in not more than three pages. Narrative should include:

Groups or individuals involved in the collaboration
A description of the collaborative process used to design the program, including how students were involved in its development
A timeline for implementation
Desired outcomes for students in both academic and social/emotional domains
How the project will be sustained in the future
How this project will benefit your school, your staff, and your students
For projects currently in existence, also include:
- How long the project has been in place
- How it changed since initiated
- Observed student outcomes, both academic and social/emotional

Also include:

A budget summary detailing how the grant money will be used
A letter of support from the school’s principal
Pictures, articles, or artifacts that illustrate the project (not required)

Submission
Each year, applications must be submitted electronically to AMLE no later than April 15. Submissions should be sent to info@amle.org.

Collaboration Mini-Grant Application”

Continue reading Association for Middle Level Education offers a Grant →

Books, General, Public, School Media Specialist

What teen magazines are you offering?

March 22, 2017 Mary Jordan

A library person recently asked about the most popular teen/YA magazines. There were a lot of answers, so we are sharing them with you here. Feel free to add in some of the magazines that are popular in your library!

Teen Vogue
Alternative Press
Game Informer
Girl’s Life
Mad
Otaku USA
Seventeen
Transworld Skateboarding
J-14 (formerly Twist)
Otaku USA
Game Informer
Rolling Stone
Sports Illustrated
Cicada
Sesi
Justine
X-Box the Official Magazine
Scholastic Art

A few comic suggestions

Avengers
Batman
Spiderman
Star Wars
Superman
Teen Titans
Ultimates
X-men

Policies, School Media Specialist

A School Librarian Caught In The Middle of Student Privacy Extremes

March 22, 2017 Mary Jordan

From the Electronic Frontier Foundation:

As a school librarian at a small K-12 district in Illinois, Angela K. is at the center of a battle of extremes in educational technology and student privacy.

On one side, her district is careful and privacy-conscious when it comes to technology, with key administrators who take extreme caution with ID numbers, logins, and any other potentially identifying information required to use online services. On the other side, the district has enough technology “cheerleaders” driving adoption forward that now students as young as second grade are using Google’s G Suite for Education.

In search of a middle ground that serves students, Angela is asking hard, fundamental questions. “We can use technology to do this, but should we? Is it giving us the same results as something non-technological?” Angela asked. “We need to see the big picture. How do we take advantage of these tools while keeping information private and being aware of what we might be giving away?”

School librarians are uniquely positioned to navigate this middle ground and advocate for privacy, both within the school library itself and in larger school- or district-wide conversations about technology. Often, school librarians are the only staff members trained as educators, privacy specialists, and technologists, bringing not only the skills but a professional mandate to lead their communities in digital privacy and intellectual freedom. On top of that, librarians have trusted relationships across the student privacy stakeholder chain, from working directly with students to training teachers to negotiating with technology vendors.

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Books, Children's services, School Media Specialist

AASL Position Statements on ESSA

March 21, 2017 Mary Jordan

AASL Position Statements

With the implementation of the Every Student Succeeds Act moving forward, it is critically important that school boards and administrators understand what it takes to have an effective school library program. AASL’s official position statements can help us as we advocate. If components are missing, these statements from the only national organization focused on the school library profession can begin the conversation.

School librarians transform student learning, and every child deserves the services of a certified school librarian and an effective school library program.

Continue reading AASL Position Statements on ESSA →

Programs, School Media Specialist

Oyster River Middle School Bridge Club takes over Library

March 20, 2017 Mary Jordan

Check out this article on a fun library program!

“DURHAM — Friday afternoons at a school often resembles the likes of an abandoned building. Eager to start their weekends, staff and students vacate the building at the sound of the dismissal bell, leaving the building silent. However, this is not the case for Oyster River Middle School.

Though the halls are empty and the parking lot barren, one will hear the buzz of discussion and laughter emanating from the ORMS library every Friday afternoon.

For the past five years, the ORMS Bridge Club has taken over the library on Friday afternoons. Run entirely by parents and volunteers, the club has become one of the school’s most popular after school activities. Students in grades five through eight flock the library each Friday afternoon, pushing off the start of the weekend for just a few more hours of fun at school.

The club is run by Lisa Allison and her husband, Nate. Though their son now attends high school, the Allisons return to ORMS every Friday to teach new generations the game of bridge.

“My parents taught me to play bridge when I was seven or eight years old,” said Lisa Allison. “I was not a good player by any means, but I had fun.”

Allison continued to play bridge well into her adult years. When her son was a toddler, she joined a parent group and began to teach and play bridge with other parents while their children socialized and played. Once her son was old enough to attend school, Allison joined the American Contract Bridge League and began to play duplicate bridge for Master Points. As her passion for bridge grew, Allison wanted to share the game with younger generations in hopes of getting the game alive and relevant.

When her son entered 5th grade in 2011, Allison partnered with another parent to start a Bridge Club at ORMS. Though they began with only four members — the minimum required to play bridge — the club has grown exponentially. For the 2016-2017 school year, Bridge Club has nearly 60 students on its roster.”

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Central Minnesota Libraries Exchange