Tag Archives: Edutopia

Academic, General, Public, School Media Specialist, Special

English language-learners can benefit from blogging

Recently, Edutopia published Blogging for English-Language Learners, a post by Rusul Alrubail about how blogging can have a positive effect on students who are learning the English language.  After highlighting the benefits, Alrubail provides tips on how to start blogging in these environments – for students and classrooms.  She also provides some links to other resources for getting started.  She stresses that, before having students blog, the instructor should explain the benefits.  “This will inform how they learn through it,” she explains.  “When students understand the benefits of the process, they become engaged and active in their own learning.”

ELL

Image credit: http://tinyurl.com/m34ernh @Rebezuniga CC:BY
Academic, General, Public, School Media Specialist, Special

From the Director: A message of gratitude

ThanksgivingHow do you practice gratitude in your personal life and at your work setting? About this time of year, I am always reminded to slow down, be thankful, and even express my gratitude to others! I am thinking about incorporating more deliberate steps for gratitude in my daily life, so I was intrigued by the following blog post.

According to our friends at Edutopia, “our ability to feel gratitude is a muscle of sorts — it’s a habit our minds can develop — we just need practice.” And according to Elena Aguilar, here’s the thing… “Our brains need to feel gratitude in order for us to want to be at work. Our brains are like Teflon for positive experiences and like Velcro with negative experiences. This means the negative comments, interactions, professional development (PD) workshops, and so on, cling to our brains. But if we spend a few minutes in appreciation, recalling those fulfilling moments in a day or encounters with supportive parents, or the segments in workshops when we felt we were learning, our brains create new links between neurons.” There are very deliberate steps we can take to exercise our “gratitude muscle” and they are included in Elena’s blog post .  Please don’t be put off by the title being specific to schools…these strategies would work in any library/worksite.

So, I will go first…..

I appreciate engaged library staff (like you) who continue to use our services and engage in our programming. Whether you are reading and/or commenting on our weekly blog posts, liking our Facebook page, retweeting our Tweets, writing book reviews or other blog posts, suggesting ideas for programming, applying for scholarships, participating in our Quick Question Polls, or attending our events, you are the heart of what we define as resource sharing!

CMLE staff  are thankful for the opportunity to serve your needs, and to work with you to increase the capacity of all types of libraries in Central Minnesota! It is our privilege to work with talented and engaged library staff and we thank you for the opportunity!

Gratitude Programming Tip: We suggested this tip last year, and several libraries really loved it, as it is very easy to do. Use a whiteboard in the library with a “What are you thankful for?” heading, then sit back, and observe a showplace of thanks not just for this week, but consider continuing this through the new year. Please consider taking a close up picture of your whiteboard and sharing it with CMLE! Let the gratitude begin!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Patricia Post, CMLE Director

Image credit: http://tinyurl.com/kdkqc9m, licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 2.0
Academic, General, Public, School Media Specialist, Special

How Much Technology? Striking the Right Balance

Image by Mosi. Retrieved from Flickr. Used under Creative Commons' licensing.
Image by Mosi. Retrieved from Flickr. Used under Creative Commons’ licensing.

Many schools are laying plans now for some sort of staff development activities over the summer, many dealing with tech integration. School media specialists can play an important role in helping teachers understand how technology can enrich their subject expertise, and help plan and provide learning activities that engage students. The linked article discusses the right balance between teaching and tech integration, and also shares three (not 30) valued, multifaceted tech tools. Edutopia provides the details and finer points at Finding the Right Balance with Technology in the Classroom

Academic, Check this out:, General, Public, School Media Specialist, Special

The Art of Appreciation

In honor of Thanksgiving, I would like to highlight an Edutopia article titled, Gratitude Can Fuel School Transformation. According to author Elena Aguilar neuroscience suggests that, “Our brains need to feel gratitude in order for us to want to be at work.”  She further illustrates how the brain grabs hold of negative comments and interactions. Conversely, the retention of supportive moments and compliments is a muscle that needs to be worked and flexed to stay strong, “to create new links between neurons.”

Aguilar suggests becoming a trailblazer in your schools. She provides several ways to practice both giving and receiving appreciation.  In keeping with this idea of appreciation, CMLE would like to go first in a Message of Thanks from the Director.

Image by Celestine Chua. Retrieved from Flickr. Used under Creative Commons' licensing.
Image by Celestine Chua. Retrieved from Flickr. Used under Creative Commons’ licensing.

 

Academic, Check this out:, General, Public, School Media Specialist, Special

Educational Trends: Why Edcamp?

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EdcampTake control of your learning!

The Edcamp Foundation was formed in December 2011 to assist teachers and other stakeholders in organizing edcamps. The vision of the Edcamp Foundation is to “promote organic, participant-driven professional development for K-12 educators worldwide.”

What is an edcamp?  It is a low-cost/free user-generated conference designed to promote professional development for K-12 educators. Edcamps operate without keynote speakers or vendor booths. Sessions are planned the day of the event, as participants volunteer to be presenters on a topic of their choosing.  This process encourages attendees to join or lead a peer conversation that meets their professional needs and/or interests.  Technology is a common area of interest along with pedagogy and practical examples in instructional use of modern tools. If you would like to learn more about edcamps, Edutopia recently posted an article (April 2013) titled, Why Edcamps? It provides additional information regarding the basic structure outlined in the edcamp model and highlights what makes these events unique to other conferences. Click here to read the full article.

Would you like to participate? Educamp is coming to the Twin Cities on October 12th.  Click here to learn more about this Minnesota event.

If you have participated in one of the more than 250 edcamp events that have occurred over the last 3 years; we would like to hear from you.  Feel free to share your experience with our followers in the comment section below!