Tag Archives: News

News from the Region: Classroom Set of ‘The Chocolate War’ Needed

Does your school have a classroom set of The Chocolate War by Robert Cormier that you won’t be using around January 15th? As a cost savings measure, Paynesville School District is hoping to borrow the classroom set, or purchase it (at a reduced cost) from another school in the region.

Details:

  • Need a classroom set of 30, plus teacher’s activity guides (if available).
  • Needed for third quarter (around January 15th).
  • They are willing to arrange shipping or will pick them up & return them to your school.
  • If  loaning (rather than selling) the set to the Paynesville District, they will pay for any lost or damaged books.

Please contact Joan Nevitt (Media Specialist) directly at joan.nevitt@gmail.com, if you are able to assist them.

CMLE Discounts are Coming!

Have you been wondering why you have not seen the CMLE discounts yet? Are you wondering if our discounts might ever include e-books? Well, wonder no more! We listened to our members, and have taken the extra time and care to get e-book discounts this year too.

We have eleven book companies participating in the discount program this year, and seven of them are discounting e-books! Which ones will discount e-books? You will know within a week when you receive an email with all of the details including the special code you need to use in order to receive the discount. Drum roll please…..the eleven participating companies this year are:

Abdo, Baker & Taylor, Brodart, Follett, Gumdrop, Ingram, Mackin, Rainbow,

Sebco, Scholastic, and Usborne

“Like” CMLE on Facebook – Chance to Win a Prize!

Did you know? CMLE has a Facebook account! We think Facebook is a great way to connect informally with one another. And, it’s easy — no muss, no fuss! Check out what CMLE has been up to, and provide comments and feedback, all while cruising casually through Facebook. What’s easier than that?

If you work at a library or media center in CMLE’s 12-county region (Aitkin, Benton, Chisago, Isanti, Kanabec, Mille Lacs, Morrison, Pine, Sherburne, Stearns, Todd, and Wright), “Like” us by November 9, 2012 for a chance to win a free Flip Your Classroom book, by Jonathan Bergmann and Aaron Sams, (valued at $19.95, copyright 2012) or an Amazon gift card.

So, visit CMLE’s Facebook page today and click the “Like” button! The winner will be contacted via email after November 9th!

We’ve Learned: Staffing News and Updates from Around the Region

We’ve Learned… is designed to keep our readers informed about news concerning personnel in CMLE libraries/media centers. Please keep us informed of any “happenings” regarding staff members in your area so that we can include them in the next write-up! Happenings can include: changes in staffing, awards, honors… you get the idea!

  • Angie Kalthoff is the new Tech Integrationist for District 742 (St. Cloud)
  • Be sure to send CMLE updates from your school or district as well! Send us an email or post in the comments area. We’d love to share them!

MEMO Conference Highlights

Words cannot describe the boost of energy I received as a result of going to the MEMO Conference at the St. Cloud River’s Edge Conference Center last week. It was great connecting with so many of you from Central Minnesota. I wish we could find a way to get every media specialist in our twelve county region to the conference next year!

The rock star keynotes couldn’t have framed the theme any better. They included the bigger picture, but also sprinkled in great application ideas and enthusiasm too, which is a good blend for most. Shannon McClintock Miller, Kathy Schrock, Gail Lovely, and author Mary Amoto all added support, wisdom and practicality to the overall conference theme of Leading Change. The breakout sessions offered great variety, and you could just see the ideas percolating throughout the crowd. And finally, pairing a great lineup of authors with book lovers is always a match made in heaven, and the big smiles and armloads of books testified that the “matchmakers” got it right!

Kate Bessey, Julie Notsch, and I have been planning the Friday night Conference Cantina since March. We wanted the event to energize people and focus on fun and easy networking.  I think we got our wish…a cash bar and music, prize raffles, build your own taco bar, and team trivia led by the Trivia Ninjas kept things lively. Many tables had diverse age ranges, which served them well  in the trivia contest. I can attest to the fact that I did not know Honey Boo Boo when I needed to, but a youngster on our team did! The Schrock Superstars team won the trivia contest and received personalized candy bars and beads with winner medallions on them. Schrock proudly posted her beads on Twitter at pic.twitter.com/x5UY497r.  Finally, there were exciting moments of spontaneous chair dancing and debauchery, which was so much fun to see. I wouldn’t have changed a thing!

And, it was great to see Kathy Schrock and Gail Lovely proudly wearing their “brag swag” on Saturday, with keynote Mary Amato also including commentary about the great time she had in the Cantina. We have lots of requests to repeat this type of evening programming. Give us your ideas and thoughts when you fill out the conference evaluation at http://goo.gl/9TDBP

Trivia Ninja (Pete Nyblom)

Shrock Superstars

And yes, it is daunting to return to reality, but resist the temptation to allow yourself to be sucked into the madness before taking time for the reflective thinking. In this fast world we live in, it is easy to grasp the quick fix, the bandaid, the sound bite!

Dig deep to reflect on what you took away from the conference. I am firmly committed to doing some specific work around Social Reading and in using Good Reads, but also would like to try out a tweet chat to see if we might want to do that in our region around a topic. What was your takeaway or area of new understanding? Did you leave the conference committed to doing something new or different?