Tag Archives: Scholarship

Academic, General

MILE 2015: A CMLE Scholarship

Roxanne Backowski smaller sizeThe following post was submitted by CMLE scholarship recipient Roxanne Backowski, Library Technician at St. Cloud State University.

What were your favorite takeaways or new things learned?  As a result of attending this event, can you identify and explain a few things you can use/apply to your work or practice?

To say the least, Minnesota Library Association’s Institute for Leadership Excellence (MILE) was energizing and an enlightening experience. Before the conference, I took the Clifton Strength Finder Assessment and received a personalized report with my top five strengths (Harmony, Deliberative, Intellection, Input, and Learner).  Nikki Daniels, a conference presenter, took us through a more in-depth session on our strengths. I was able to apply the explanations of different types of strengths to my coworkers which has already helped my understanding of their work style. In addition, I have shared my top five strengths will my supervisor and even my family, so they can have a better understanding of me and how to capitalize on my strengths.  Learning about my strengths has made me more self-aware.  It has been difficult to accept that we are not supposed to focus on improving weaknesses or to waste energy attempting to be well-rounded people.  Rather, we are to improve and capitalize on our natural talents and strengths to be an effective leader.

Another takeaway from MILE was the importance of play. Barry Kudrowitz’s presentation on Facilitating Creativity through Humor and Play made me realize how much of a serious minded individual I can be.  We are more creative when we view an activity as play. I can apply this by changing my attitude toward work tasks–whether it be making a game out of scheduling students workers or attempting to generate creative ideas or solutions at a team meeting.

Some other tidbit takeaways I learned were about library advocacy and the power of telling stories about the value of a library, the plethora of leadership opportunities in MLA, the benefits of interviewing through panels, how to have difficult conversations with employees. I plan to try to gather stories as part of my everyday work, look into MLA increased involvement, and continue to work on articulating points to student workers.

Academic, General, Public, School Media Specialist, Special

CMLE Featured Service: Scholarships

More fall leaves...Are professional development funds tight in your work setting? Is the money to pay your registration to a conference in the budget, but there is no money for hotel or mileage, or  to pay a sub so you can be away from your workplace?

CMLE offers scholarships of up to $200 per fiscal year per individual for staff affiliated with  any type of  library in Aitkin, Benton, Chisago, Isanti, Kanabec, Mille Lacs, Morrison, Pine, Sherburne, Stearns, Todd and Wright counties in Central Minnesota. The scholarships can be used to attend workshops, conferences, library meetings or task forces, and other library-related activities to promote engagement and/or professional development. All expenses mentioned earlier are appropriate and we encourage you to use the scholarships even if it can’t cover all of the costs. And, if you use our scholarship to help with costs, feel free to mention to your administrator that you have used our program!

Need help paying for that  sub? CMLE scholarships come in very handy in settings that require your employer to pay for a “sub” while you are off enhancing your library skill sets. When you fill out the form, just indicate the amount you need to cover that expense. The ITEM (MEMO) Conference is coming up the first week in October and is in St. Cloud, the MLA Conference follows during the second week of October in Mankato. We would love to help you get there through the use of our scholarship program, but now is the time to apply!

We all owe it to ourselves to keep our skill sets sharp. Confidence and new energy often result when we  take time to invest in ourselves and spend time with our peers. CMLE would like to support you to that end. For all of the details and to apply for a scholarship, go to www.cmle.org/scholarships.asp. The application is quite simple and should take no more than 10 minutes if you know what you want to attend and have the event information in hand.

For more info on the ITEM and MLA conferences and links to registration, go to our Upcoming Library Events listing.

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

TIES Conference: CMLE Scholarship Recipient

The following post was submitted by CMLE scholarship recipient Debbie Disher,  Media Specialist at Holdingford Schools

TIES 2013 Conference – Fast Forward; Transforming Pedagogy with Technology

Deb Disher, Media Specialist
Deb Disher, Media Specialist

After missing last years TIES Conference I went to the December’s conference with great excitement and anticipation.  I was not disappointed.  I found myself in several great sessions covering technology and staff development.

One of the things that I took away from the conference was the need for me to change our staff development for technology.  Although I am always encouraging teachers that we need to change the way our classrooms operate, I realized that our staff development hasn’t changed that much.  In a session by Kriss Zajner he shared his passion for technology and how they are doing staff development in his district.  He shared how they are using Twitter, mini sessions, 15 minute sessions, continuous learning and sharing, etc.

Another great session was “IGNITE Technology – Enhanced Professional Development” presented by 4 different schools.  Some of the key points in this session included:

  • •making staff development fun
  • •making it about students and their achievement – not the software/hardware
  • •sharing not presenting
  • •make it comfortable – maybe a different location
  • •tech camps.

Because of these sessions we will be working on several changes for our technology staff development.  We plan to start some weekly introduction sessions, Tweeting and making staff development sessions fun.

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

CMLE Featured Service: Scholarships

CMLElogoFY11

Are professional development funds tight in your work setting? Did you know that CMLE offers scholarships of up to $200 per fiscal year per individual for staff affiliated with  any type of  library in Aitkin, Benton, Chisago, Isanti, Kanabec, Mille Lacs, Morrison, Pine, Sherburne, Stearns, Todd and Wright counties in Central Minnesota? The scholarships can be used to attend workshops, conferences, library meetings or task forces, and other library-related activities to promote professional development. CMLE scholarships also come in handy in settings that require your employer to pay for a “sub” while you are off enhancing your library skill sets. Past recipients of the scholarship program were able to use CMLE scholarships towards attendance at national library conferences such as ISTE, AASL, and ALA. Locally, members received scholarships for attending the Children’s Literature Workshop in St. Cloud, the TIES conference in the Twin Cities, the Library Technology Conference at Macalaster College, and for annual MEMO and MLA conferences too. Keep watching the Upcoming Events portion of our Weekly Review message for upcoming opportunities.

We all owe it to ourselves to keep our skill sets sharp. Confidence and engagement often result when we  take time to invest in ourselves. CMLE would like to support you to that end. For all of the details and to apply for a scholarship, go to www.cmle.org/scholarships.asp.