TIES Conference Summary: Katherine Vinje Stark: A CMLE Scholarship

The following post was submitted by CMLE scholarship recipient Katherine Vinje Stark, Instructional Technology Specialist, at Pine Meadow Elementary in Sartell.

Left to right: Katy VinjeStark, Amanda Holstrom, Paul Moe

Reflection on TIES Conference

The TIES 2016 Conference was a success. It fulfilled my expectations in that I went with the hope of more tools for our 21st century learners, including maker spaces and to feel better equipped for more job embedded professional development in our school. The keynote speaker on Monday could not have stated better, “Do not postpone joy.” Too often we are stuck in the rush of life and forget that we need to have those joyful moments if not extended periods of time to truly soak it all in and learn. If we are joyful we can retain so much more and if we make learning joyful, we are putting everyone first.

The first session I attended was to get to know and exchange experiences with other tech coaches in the Midwest. This session helped me gauge where we are at here in Sartell and I felt that we are on track. We were able to share philosophies and missions of districts and bring back feedback/ideas to ours. This was a great takeaway as it helped me get a feel for a support group in the area as well.

Another very valuable session was on flipped professional development. A school district in Wisconsin started to flip their professional development after they noticed teachers were very disengaged. They talked about PD and how teachers need: active engagement, voice, choice, collaboration, effective use of time, teacher centered meetings, meaningful application to take back with them and put into practice, modeling, teacher leadership, and a personalized agenda. I definitely feel that I can put this into practice here at Pine Meadow Elementary. I’m excited to start the conversation with my administration.

This is a very brief summary of what I soaked in. Thank you so much for supporting our library by allowing me to attend and become more in awe and wonder as to how we can get our maker space up and running (fresh maker ideas were out yesterday helping to embed STEM and language arts) as well as continue to educate our teachers, students and community.

 

TIES Conference Summary: Amanda Holstrom: A CMLE Scholarship

The following post was submitted by CMLE scholarship recipient Amanda Holstrom, Instructional Technology Specialist at Sartell Middle School.

At TIES this year I was exposed to many great things and returned with more ideas than I can count. The two things that come to mind as great takeaways are: the importance of giving children choice and maker spaces are not just for technology gadgets. Buddy Berry talked about surprise and delight with education including giving children the choice to find their own educational path. This thinking amplifies the needs for free learning and exploration in schools. The session on Makers Spaces opened my eyes to the importance of incorporating non-tech items into the Learning Lab. This need was highlighted over and over again throughout the presentation. Maker Spaces are about making, not just working with electronics.

In our Learning Lab this year we have done many robotics and coding items that take some level of patience and background knowledge. I plan to incorporate crocheting into our Learning Lab and link it with coding to provide that needed background knowledge. Reading a crochet patterns is a “code” that needs to be followed in order to reach a desired end. I feel that bringing that into our Learning Lab will teach and highlight a skill many do not have as well as provide background knowledge for those not experienced with coding. By bridging this gap in our lab I hope to reach more diverse students with the desire to learn hands on and gravitate towards our space. I am very excited to see what other ideas we come up with to add to our space that are non-tech. I think the students will be excited to build and take things home.

Guest Blogger: Networking For Fun (And a Job!)

networking = chatting with interesting people!

 

(Today’s Guest Blogger is Dorice Moylan, Reference & Instruction Librarian at the Frederick S. Pardee Management Library, Boston University Questrom School of Business)

Networking is necessary, not just at the start of your career, but throughout it. There are many levels but it can be as easy as being yourself.

When it comes to your job search, whether your first professional position after library school, or any search after that, networking is an important aspect. Visions of large hotel function rooms with eager faces and stacks of business cards come to mind, from networking sessions that I attended years ago when starting my personal training business. This environment isn’t ideal for many people, and can be pretty unproductive when the only thing in common between attendees is that everyone is starting their own small business of some type.

Four Resources To Improve Your Library’s Accessibility

Accessible is not Optional!

 

CMLE Guest Blogger: Carli Spina

Accessibility for individuals with disabilities is an important topic for any library. Not only is this a legal requirement for virtually all libraries, but it is also important to ensure that our libraries are welcoming and inclusive for all members of the community. This is particularly important when considering the way you offer your online materials. The four resources below make accessibility improvements approachable, no matter the staffing level of your library or the level of technical experience that you have.

1. ARL’s Web Accessibility Toolkit – Though created and maintained by the Association of Research Libraries, this toolkit has resources that will be useful to those working in any kind of library. The toolkit includes definitions and background information as well as best practices and a step-by-step process for fostering accessibility at your library. In addition, it has a resources section that includes a detailed page on best practices and resources for adding captions to your library’s video content.
2. WAVE (Web Accessibility Evaluation Tool) – WebAIM offers a wide array of web accessibility tools, information, and resources, but if I had to pick just one to recommend, it would be WAVE. This tool makes it simple to do a quick accessibility test of any website for which you have the URL. The resulting report provides detailed information in a way that is easy to read. While this tool might not catch every single potential problem on your site, it is an excellent way to find particularly troublesome issues.
3. Contrast Checker – One frequently overlooked aspect of accessibility is color contrast. This is important not only to those who are colorblind, but also for users who have low vision or are reading in low light. But, despite the fact that contrast is important to a large number of users, it is frequently ignored in the name of design aesthetics. This tool will not only allow you to check specific colors to ensure that they meet accessibility standards but will also let you save and share color pairs that work well (or poorly).
4. The Principles of Universal Design poster by NC State University College of Design – This resource moves a bit beyond basic accessibility to the concept of Universal Design, which is design that is “usable by all people, to the greatest extent possible, without adaptation or specialized design.” The poster sets forth the seven principles that are central to Universal Design and offers multiple examples for each principle. Implementing these principles will not only help to make your library more accessible, but will also make it welcoming for the widest possible range of users from those who are in a rush or have their hands full to those for whom English is not their first language and beyond. This poster is a great crash course on the topic and will almost certainly spark ideas for ways to make your library more inclusive.

I hope these resources will help you to improve your library’s accessibility and introduce you to new tools that will streamline your processes. If you have any questions, let me know in the comments or contact me on Twitter where I’m @CarliSpina.

 

We want YOU! To Guest Blog!

This could you you! The fame! The fortune! The recognition from your peers!! It could all be yours!

CMLE members, and other devoted readers, we want you!!

We want your ideas! We want your experiences! We want to know what is going on in your corner of the library world!!

As part of our commitment to reach out to members across the system, to connect everyone together, and to help all our members to be successful, Guest Blogging is already playing a role in sharing information. As library people, we all benefit from sharing information.

So, let’s have it!!

You are the expert in your area. You have valuable information to share. You may have a great, inspiring, and heartwarming story of patron services that will bring a tear to the eye of everyone who reads it. You may have a story of funding gone so wrong that we shudder in our nightmares just thinking about it.

More realistically – you probably have an interesting service. Or a new piece of art. Or some thoughts about a new database or encyclopedia.

Whatever.

We want to hear it! Your colleagues also want to hear it! So make your voice heard!!

Email us at CMLE Headquarters, and we will send you some guidelines on creating a Guest Blog. Or, just go nuts, bang away at the keyboard for a few minutes, and proudly send us the results!!

(Can you tell this is not a high-stress activity?? It’s really not.)

Questions? Thoughts? Want to just share an idea and get us to do the heavy lifting of writing it up? Any of these are possible!

Get on this today!!! We want to hear from you – and are sitting by the computer, excitedly waiting for you 🙂