Tag Archives: News

School Media Specialist

Children’s Literature Workshop Recap: A CMLE Scholarship

The following was submitted by a CMLE scholarship recipient.

 Submitted by: Jenny Hill, St. Michael Elementary School Media Specialist

On June 25th and 26th, I had the privilege of attending the 33rd annual Children’s Literature Workshop thanks to a generous scholarship from Central Minnesota Libraries Exchange.  This year, the conference changed venues and was held on campus at St. Cloud State University instead of the Holiday Inn as it has in the past.  The conference featured two key note speakers, Jacqueline Briggs Martin, author of the Caldecott Award winning book Snowflake Bentley and MN Newbery Honor winner Margi  Preus who wrote The Heart of a Samuri.

My favorite part about attending conferences such as these is gaining the opportunity to hear authors talk about the creative writing process.  Martin stressed that writing is challenging for everyone—it’s just that authors don’t mind doing the work.  Preus agreed.  She shared her beliefs that she herself is not a good writer, but she is good at rewriting and loves the work she does as an author.  This reminded me of what MN author John Coy wrote in his 2012-2013 Maud Hart Lovelace nominated book Top of the Order.   “The word RE VISION is a very simple word with two parts…it means to see again” (2009, p. 144).  I was reminded after hearing these authors speak that much of the work of writing is that of re-visioning:  examining stories from multiple angles until a story comes into focus.

Another thing I enjoy about the Children’s Literature Workshop is having the opportunity to learn from presenters during break-out sessions.  This year I attended a session about Google Lit-Trips.  I hope to project Google Earth on my SMART board in the media center this year to help students gain a stronger sense of the setting of their books.

I also attended a session on the award winning books of 2012 including Jack Gantos’ Newbery winner, Dead End in Norvelt, and Chris Raschka’s book A Ball for Daisy, which won the Caldecott.  I aim to promote this books this year on our school news broadcast during a segment that I created called Book Talk Tuesday.

 Finally, I attended a session where I learned how to create text sets, or groupings of books around a similar theme or genre.  I think that grouping texts in this way, whether through displays in the school library media center or through lists of recommended titles, will help readers discover their next great book!

Want to attend the Children’s Literature Workshop next summer?  It will be held on June 17th and 18th at SCSU!

Academic, General, Public, School Media Specialist, Special

Library Technology Conference Summary: A CMLE Scholarship

The following was submitted by a CMLE scholarship recipient.

 Submitted by: Laura Mackenthun, Sauk Rapids-Rice Middle School Media Specialist

With the help of a scholarship from CMLE, I was able to attend The Library Technology Conference at Macalaster College on March 14 and 15.  As a middle school media specialist, I found this conference filled with opportunities to discover ways to consider and implement technologies for use with students and staff.  Furthermore, because this conference was intended for people from all library types, it also provided an opportunity I don’t have often–and that is to consider how my media center and the students with whom I work today are part of a bigger system of libraries, information technology, and media literacy.

The keynote speakers Andrew McLaughlin, Chad Mairn, and Larry Johnson (I’d suggest doing some research on these speakers and their thoughts!)  provided “big picture” views of technology and how the world may look in years to come.  Our library patrons–of any age and from any library type—live in a world filled with technology.  People are active consumers, users and creators of technology, technology is more accessible, and technology has potential beyond what we can envision.

The conference sessions provided opportunities to learn how information literacy is being taught, new technology tools for use in libraries, and online safety.

The balance of “big picture” thinking and “day to day” practical information that this conference presented was definitely valuable.  I came back to working with my middle school students and staff with ideas to implement and investigate further.

School Media Specialist

TIES Conference Summary: A CMLE Scholarship

The following was submitted by a CMLE scholarship recipient.

 Submitted by: Deborah Disher, Holdingford Media Specialist

 The place to be on December 12 & 13th was the TIES Conference at the Hyatt Hotel in downtown Minneapolis.  Here you would have found 3,100 educators learning about new technology and what others are doing in their classrooms and districts.  I have attended TIES for more years than I would like to admit too, but it never fails to give me new ideas, renew my passion for technology, and motivate me to share ideas with staff and students.  This year was no exception.

 One of the most interesting things that seemed to come up in many sessions was that of a “flipped classroom”.  Where teachers tape their presentation and post to the web and students then listen to the presentations as homework.  During class time students do what would normally have been assigned as homework and the teacher is there to assist them.  Class time can also be used to go more in-depth.  I can see this being very beneficial, especially in math classes.  What a different way to think of teaching!  

 I attended a session on staff training that gave me some new ideas.  One idea I liked was what they called, “Speed Geeking”. During “Speed Geeking”, staff will spend ten minutes at different stations being introduced to some new tool.  After offering a “Speed Geeking” program it’s a good idea to offer a period of time for post-session discussion. During the post-session discussion, questions can be asked of staff attendees about what they learned, what they liked, whether the format of the class effective, and suggestions for improvement.  Later on, a follow-up can be done, asking if staff is using what they learned and if they need further help, advice, or assistance.

 I am anxiously awaiting our next staff development days so that we can try “Speed Geeking”. I also plan to setup up some after school sessions to share some of the other great ideas I learned.  All in all, the conference was great and I would encourage anyone who has never attended to try it next year.

School Media Specialist

TIES Conference Summary: A CMLE Scholarship

The following was submitted by a CMLE scholarship recipient.

 Submitted by: Mark Krueger, North Junior High School (St. Cloud) Media Specialist

 The TIES Conference 2012 was an excellent conference.  There were many great sessions to take part in.  It seemed like the focus was mostly on mobile devices and less on interactive whiteboards.  In past years interactive whiteboards were a major focus and drive of education.  Such devices that were discussed in many sessions were iPods and iPads.  One main session that I went to was Tips and Tricks of Mac OS and iOS for iPads.  There were many tools that were discussed, such as using Preview as an interactive tool.  They also discussed mini tips on ease of use of both operating systems. 

 I also went to a session called How to Use iPods in ELL Classrooms.  This was informative because it allowed me to see what other schools with large ELL populations are doing with mobile devices.  Some schools are using iPods as tools for reading fluency by using specific apps that record student’s voices as they read, and then the student can play the recording to hear their own reading of the passage. Teachers use these recordings to modify their teaching and will have students read the passages again later to see their progress.  Teachers also have used the iPods and the recording feature to make a slideshow with students narrating the text for the pictures to create a story.  These were just a couple of the ways that iPods were used with the ELL students.

 Overall, I thought TIES 2012 was worth the trip.  It is always a good experience to meet with other professionals in the area of education and technology.  It is also a great time to talk with vendors about individual school needs.  For example, I talked with numerous vendors for multiple hours about what they have that could contribute to my school’s success.  Such tools include projectors, document cameras, and iPad carts.  I would recommend the TIES conference in the future for any teacher or media specialist interested in technology and education.

School Media Specialist

TIES Conference Highlights: A CMLE Scholarship

The following was submitted by a CMLE scholarship recipient.

 Submitted by: Nancy Lorentz, Becker High School Media Specialist

 TIES was once again an outstanding conference.  The biggest problem at TIES is choosing from the many truly awesome sessions–but we did our best.   I tried to attend as many sessions as possible on managing iOS devices, since Becker High School (BHS) is a 1:1 iPad school.

iPad 1:1 session

The school that presented during this session, located in South St. Paul, has 32 charging carts and are using Mobile Device Management (MDM) systems (Casper and Filewave).  This school’s situation is not really similar to ours at Becker High School.  We did our entire rollout with two staff members and seven students, and the management since the rollout has fallen to me and four student TA’s.  Things that I did learn are that we need some syncing carts–hopefully one per grade level and some kind of MDM so that all of my time is not spent managing the iPads.  I also found out that the Volume Pricing Program in iTunes now takes credit cards, making it easier to purchase large numbers of apps.  The fact that this school has had 150 damaged iPads out of 800 made me feel better about our 35 or so broken iPads out of 850–even though they purchased much more expensive cases than we did!  We’re hoping the Lion Servers that we purchased will do much of the management that we need.

Apple iOS 5 session

 This session was focused on the management of the iPads–which were not designed for mass deployment/management.  Apple is working to improve management of multiple devices for schools, and between the iPhone Configuration Utility and the Lion Server, we hope that we will be able to push out apps, update apps, and allow us to change settings.  I feel that we are ahead of the game, but still have a lot to learn about managing the 900 iPads in my building.

Braincasting – Using Brain Research in Presentations

 The presenter gave us several ideas about how to help teachers improve their presentations by using widgets that are free and available on the internet.  He talked about how teachers should be teaching differently with a data projector.  The use of images is key because “words can only recall images we’ve seen.”  Brain research also indicates that the use of color and student participation in the presentation is important to keep their attention.  The presenter should be anchored to the left of the screen, use a clicker so you can move around the room and NEVER read to them from the screen.  Be careful of the fonts you use, how many words you put on a slide (6 x 6 Rule) and include pictures or video of your students or of people they know.  I look forward to incorporating these ideas for an upcoming staff development session.

Using iOS for Higher Order Thinking

 Presented by a 4th grade teacher, this session had some really useful tips and examples of students using mobile devices in the classroom.  Using a combination of paid and free apps, his students were able to write their own ePub books, to create ePubs with video teaching their future selves what they needed to remember for the science MCAs in 5th grade (a brilliant idea which I immediately shared with my curriculum director).  He also showed some very quick ways that comprehension can be quickly determined by students answering a question on the iPad and showing the teacher their answer on the iPad. I also shared this idea with my staff.