Category Archives: Services

CMLE, Guest Blogger, School Media Specialist, Services

Mary Berning CMLE Mini Grant Report: Author Visit

Tracy Nelson Maurer sharing her presentation with students.

This is a guest post from Mary Berning, District Library Media Specialist at Chisago Lakes Area Schools. Need a Mini Grant to purchase materials or try an interesting new program at your library? Apply today!

Who loves author visits? Students at Taylors Falls Elementary, that’s who!

Students participating in activities.

As part of this year’s I Love to Read month festivities, students met author Tracy Nelson Maurer. Tracy is the author of over a hundred books including Noah Webster’s Fighting Words and John Deere, That’s Who!, which won the 2018 American Farm Bureau Foundation for Agriculture Book of the Year. Tracy presented three sessions. She shared props and photos with the students; she talked about being a writer. Kindergarten and first graders enjoyed listening to her read and sang a song about John Deere with her. Second through fifth graders learned how she became a writer, how she conducts research, and about the revision process. At the end of each session, Tracy gave students time to ask questions.

It was a fun and valuable learning experience for all! Thanks to CMLE for funding part of Tracy’s visit.

Watch this very fast, very cute video of students singing along:

CMLE, Services

CMLE Services: Reports from Mini Grants and Scholarships now all in one place!

Are you thinking about applying for one of our scholarships or mini grants? We encourage you to take advantage of these services, since we know many of our members have budgets that do not allow for trying new programs or participating in professional development opportunities!

We’ve compiled past reports from our members who have received our mini grants and/or scholarships into two pages, one for mini grants and one for scholarships, so you can browse through them for inspiration!

For our mini grants, we can help you purchase materials, help fund a program for your community, add features to your makerspace, and more! Read more about our mini grant service or find the application here.

Our scholarships are to help fund professional development for our members, and have helped members attend conferences or participate in webinars. Read more about our scholarship service or find the application here.

If you have questions about any of our services, please email us at admin@cmle.org!

Conference, Guest Blogger, Services

TIES 2018 Conference: Ryan Hiltner

This is a guest post written by Ryan Hiltner, Instructional Technology Specialist and Apple Teacher at Sartell High School. Do you need a scholarship to attend a conference?  Apply today! 

This year I attended the TIES conference in Minneapolis for two days. It is with the generosity of the Central Minnesota Libraries Exchange that I was able to learn so much that I can bring back to my school district.   

While attending various sessions by educators from all of the conference pedagogy and tools were discussed. Some of the items I took back from the conference can be used in individual classrooms and other items can be used as an entire district.

I was also able to showcase some of the work that the teachers in Sartell are doing by presenting two different sessions on Digital Breakouts and Implementation of Google Slides for more than just Presentations.  

One of my favorite sessions was a session on student and teacher feedback. The focus was on getting rid of that red pen and giving feedback online instead. This allows the people involved to give audio and video feedback and be able to start a continuous dialogue. By working with digital feedback there is also an immediate response when the feedback is given. Students are no longer required to wait until the next day to get that feedback.

The conference was once again an insightful two days and I appreciate being able to attend.

 

Conference, Guest Blogger, Services

TIES 2018: Rachel Miller

This is a guest post written by Rachel Miller, Instructional Technology Specialist at Sartell Middle School. Do you need a scholarship to attend a conference?  Apply today! 

This year was the second time I attended the TIES conference, but it was my first time attending as an Instructional Technology Specialist focused on supporting teachers in their technology integration journeys, as opposed to attending as a classroom teacher. As such, my favorite takeaways from this conference were those that I knew I could share with my colleagues for use in their classrooms.

I attended sessions that might be of interest to the language arts teachers in my building, including sessions on podcasting, engagement tools, and media literacies. I’m excited to further explore and encourage the use of PearDeck in the classroom to increase student interaction while using slideshows. It was a tool that I was vaguely familiar with before attending TIES, but I had not had extensive experience with it. The work time provided during the session allowed me to explore the tool in a much deeper way. I am excited to use it and introduce it to teachers!

In thinking about how to apply lessons and concepts learned at TIES to my work, I am aware that I need to fight the urge to immediately share new ideas with colleagues. Instead, I will strategically try to incorporate ideas and strategies through conversation and planning in order to best meet staff where they are at currently. Overall, I found this conference to be rewarding and energizing for my own professional development.

I am grateful to the Central Minnesota Libraries Exchange for their support of my professional endeavors!



Services

TIES 2018 Scholarship: Jason Menth

This is a guest post written by Jason Menth, STEM Integrationist at Talahi Community School. Do you need a scholarship to attend a conference?  Apply today! 

Once again the TIES conference at the Hyatt Hotel in Minneapolis didn’t disappoint. Thanks to a CMLE scholarship, I was able to attend two days of influential keynote speakers, learn from amazing educators from around the country, and make new connections.

My role as a STEM Integrationist at Talahi Community Elementary School in St. Cloud is dependent on my knowledge and skills of current best practices. Though TIES is recognized as technology in education, there are many sessions to attend that inform all areas of education. For example, I attended sessions on the design thinking process, STEM infused learning centers, personalized professional development, problem-based learning, and innovated approaches to learning.

My goal in my position is to bring real-life problem-based learning and application for our students. I often connect with our school’s media specialist to pair the best stories, be it fiction or non-fiction to bridge the learning and help make connections with our students. We’re also fortunate enough to have our school’s makerspace in our library. Students follow the engineering design thinking process to tinker and build a community project for our school.

Two of my favorite sessions were on the design thinking process and problem-based learning. Books and other forms of media such as presentations and video are vital to demonstrate the design thinking process and learn the necessary background knowledge to real life problems that need to be solved. Since attending the conference I’ve already reimagined our makerspace and ordered new books to help promote the design thinking process and bring real-life learning inside the walls of our school.

Luckily, I also got to present at TIES in their makerspace playground. I was able to share our engineering design process and project-based learning our students do at Talahi. The compliments and discussions were so positive that I know what we’re doing at our school is contributing to student success.

I can’t thank CMLE enough for approving my request to attend this conference. CMLE connected me with so many educators that will advance my practice and bring forth new learning for our students and staff.