Tag Archives: school

Check this out:, Communication, General, School Media Specialist, Visits

A visit to Kimball High School

A visit to Kimball High School library reveals a library dedicated to helping student patrons, and thinking about the future of libraries! Library Media Specialist Lori Miller showed me around her library; and then we had a chance to sit down and chat with some other technology staffers to talk about libraries and the future. That is one of the really fun parts about these visits – talking with colleagues about libraries is just great! And CMLE is here to help our members to be successful; so we are always available to talk about library history, present, and future.

book-display

Of course libraries are more than “just” books (as if that would be bad!); but our foundation is always books – the original technology for reading! Never needs charging or refreshing; and having a paper copy means you never worry about losing your license to the content. So the books are important. The bookshelves are neatly arranged, have cool posters on the end-caps to draw in prospective readers (it worked on me!), and the display of books makes them easily accessible and ready to grab – always a benefit when considering circulation stats! Continue reading A visit to Kimball High School →

Academic, General, School Media Specialist

Schools: The Myth of Having Summers Off

Lake St. Peter [2]If you work in a school then you’ve likely heard the remark: “Must be nice having summers off.” The perception will likely never change but Heather Wolpert-Gawron of Edutopia is here to spread the word that teachers are yearlong learners themselves, besides working at a school.

Her list of 9 Education-Related Summer Tasks will seem like a to-do list for some, but for others, it might help spread the word that everyone who works at a school doesn’t simply have their summers off:

1. We work summer school.
2. We attend department and curriculum meetings.
3. We improve on our curriculum.
4. We curate and develop libraries of new lessons.
5. We learn the new technology or curriculum programs purchased by our schools.
6. We write, blog, or comment.
7. We continue our own professional development or help run others.
8. We set up our classroom environments for the next year.
9. I heal and recharge my batteries.

Image credit: http://tinyurl.com/m76uwdw, licensed under CC BY-SA 2.0
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

Lessons Learned with iPad Deployment

Image by LJR.MIKE. Retrieved from Flickr. Used under Creative Common's license.
Image by LJR.MIKE. Retrieved from Flickr. Used under Creative Commons’ license.

Are your school administrators all geeked up about rolling out a 1:1 initiative in your school in a hurry? As an information professional, it may prove helpful for you to be familiar with  what works and when to take pause…..

Joyce Valenza was the keynote speaker at the October 5th  Saturday morning portion of the  MEMO Conference. Within her presentation, she alluded to the problems encountered in Los Angeles’ failed iPad roll-out. A murmur of an undefined sort rippled  through the room, which made me wonder if I was the only person who had not read or heard about this news item. Armed with my trusty iPad, I immediately Googled it, and sure enough, the news had only hit the social media circuit on October 2nd, which made me feel slightly better, as I had joined the MEMO Conference on October 3rd.

According to Mind/Shift, “There’s an incredible litany of problems here that reads like a primer on what NOT to do with a major deployment of technology in a school district, “ and I couldn’t agree more. Although the story is about the nation’s second largest public school district, the lessons apply well in most settings.

Read from an insider’s viewpoint what went wrong with a $1 billion plan to give one iPad to every single student ($500 million for devices, plus an additional $500 million for internet infrastructure upgrades, raised through construction bonds).  Some of the comments to this blog post are as valuable as the story itself, which is so often the case! Feel free to exercise your right to comment here too….

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

So What Are Students Reading?

Image by John-Morgan. Retrieved from Flickr. Used under Creative Common's licensing.
Image by John-Morgan. Retrieved from Flickr. Used under Creative Commons’ licensing.

Renaissance Learning has recently released the fifth edition of What Kids Are Reading: The Book Reading Habits of Students in American Schools.  This information was gathered from students in grades 1-12.  Results from this research have been made available online in both a summary format, as well as the full report.

In addition, the website provides a host of other resources including:

  • Report inforgraphic in PDF
  • Top 40 list of Accelerated Reading (AR) books selected by students
  • Top 25 Spanish Books
  • Required high school reading from 1907 to 2012
  • Caldecott and Newbery award winners, 1922 to Present

And, much more. Click here to enter the Renaissance Learning website to view the report findings and additional resources.