| From the President... |
Here we are in the lovely month of May, with all sorts of promises for a lovely spring and a glorious summer. As we leave blustery April behind, I want to acknowledge that some MAME members have been busy this past month! Here's a brief recap: Teri Terry joined me in representing MAME at the Michigan Joint Education Conference Committee meeting. MIJEC (http://www.mijec.org/) is a group of seventeen professional organizations who have created a venue to showcase the unique skills and contributions various groups and individuals bring when working in collaboration to educate students. Seven MAME members submitted over ten proposals! Be sure to attend the conference (Holt High School, June 24th) to learn about innovative cross-curricular opportunities. Nancy Larsen, our dedicated Vice President of Continuing Education, has been working with Barb LaBeau from GVSU to finalize plans for the MAME Summer Technology Camp (Holland, August 5th & 6th). In addition to setting up an exciting slate of activities and coordinating SBCEUs for this event, Nancy has also been working with Evelyn Freeman to put the finishing details on the MAME Summer Academy (July 7th). Liz Lewis has spent hours ironing out registration details, so be sure to check our home page. Kristin Fontichiaro, Tim Staal, and Judy Hauser all contributed to the April issue of the "REMC Connected Superintendent", which was devoted to promoting and advocating library media programs and 21st Century skills. Many members report that they have shared this with their principals and administrators, creating awareness and appreciation and a strong stream of positive feedback. A group of MAME members, including Cindy Kleinheksel, Melissa White, Barb LaBeau, and George Grimes met with Cheryl Mase and Nancy Robertson from the Library of Michigan to work on establishing Quality Service Measures for School Libraries. Be sure to watch for updates on this exciting project, which will provide a vehicle to evaluate, improve, and validate library media programs across the state. Lynn Gordon, Karen Lemmons, and Roger Ashley all attended the AASL Region III meeting in Springfield, Illinois. These regional meetings are the protocol AASL uses to collect information, listen to concerns, identify issues, determine priorities, and coordinate the energies of library media specialists across the nation when determining future activities and mandates. These three insured that MAME's voice will be heard at the national level. As media positions have been threatened across the state, many media specialists have provided courageous and eloquent testimony to school boards and district administrators, enumerating our many contributions. Our hearts go out to those members who have lost their positions, despite valiant efforts, and our hope remains strong that other positions will be saved. Several MAME members have stepped up to assume positions of leadership. At the May Board meeting I plan to ask for approval for the following appointments: Marketing Chair, Connie Harrison; Government Relations Liaison, Ann Hahn; new Media Spectrum editor Karen Villegas, and Felicia Redinger, representative for Region 20. Additionally, Judy Hauser is finalizing a slate of officers for 2010 and beyond, and should have it ready soon to present to the membership for final approval.
As you can see, there are all sorts of exciting things going on! I invite everyone to join in, and explore possibilities for participation. We are always looking for additional initiatives, and value fresh ideas and shiny new faces. I also extend my sincere gratitude to all of our members who selflessly donate their time and considerable expertise to MAME. We can and do make a profound difference.
....Kathleen McBroom |
| Meet Tim Staal - MAME's new Executive Director |
I would like to take this opportunity to introduce myself to those of you who are unfamiliar with me. I have been in involved in K12 education as teacher, media specialist, and administrator for the last 32 years, beginning as the librarian (K-12) in a small school district in Iowa. I then began my career at Jenison Public Schools near Grand Rapids as the Junior High Librarian. I have remained at Jenison since then, working as media specialist, Computer Coordinator, Gifted and Talented Teacher and most recently, Director of Media and Information Technology. I have also served as adjunct faculty with Grand Valley State University, teaching a variety of courses in educational technology.
I have been a member of MAME since 1978, and have been involved as a regional rep, worked on conference committees, and been a presenter at multiple conferences as well as pre-conference workshops and the MAME leadership academy. I am also a proud past recipient of the MAME Ruby Brown Award for Individual Excellence. I have also been quite involved in MACUL, presenting, working on committees, and serving as a Special Interest Group Director, MACUL Board Member and President.
I am proud of our organization, thankful for the great leadership of our past, hopeful for our future and excited to help MAME move forward in these "interesting times". As I think about the future of both our profession and our organization, here are several things that I really believe we need to keep our focus on to remain successful and continue to help educate our students:
1. Reading is fundamental. Kids need to read and we always need to find ways to help our students love to read. If our kids don't love to read and read well, they will be hampered in any other endeavor.
2. Integration is important. We need to continue to integrate all kinds of technology into our media centers in order to help our students develop the 21st century skills they will need in their lives. We and they need to be able to find, access, manipulate and produce information in a variety of formats. We and they need to be able to determine which information can best meet our needs and solve our problems. We and they need to have the skills to learn new things, solve new problems, and deal ethically with new situations.
3. Collaboration is key. We need to work with each other, fellow educators, other educational organizations, and other groups outside of education to ensure that our organization remains strong, our members have jobs, and most importantly, our students receive the services they need and deserve.
I am looking forward to the challenges and joys ahead.
....Tim Staal |
| AASL Region 3 Meeting |
President-Elect Lynn Gordon reports on the AASL Region 3 Meeting, held last month in Springfield, IL.
Key points:
Illinois has completed statewide library benchmarks and linked them to state curriculum standards as well as the new AASL standards. It is called I-SAIL (Illinois Standards Aligned Instruction for Libraries). Can be found by "googling" ISAIL.
They are starting a "clearinghouse" for lesson plans to address those benchmarks. This can be found at http://isail.wikidot.com/
Association Dues:
Out of all of the states in our region, we have the lowest association dues for active members. The next lowest is $60.00 and the highest is $80.00 (which is the membership for the Indiana Library Association, a multi-library membership).
Partnership for 21st Century Skills:
This website provides updates on the 21st Century Skills states and their work to "revise standards, create assessments and implement 21st century skills professional development programs." As of right now, there are 10 states that qualify as P21 Leadership States.
http://21stcenturyskills.org/index.php
Concerns:
One of the directives of the Region meetings is to bring any concerns to the AASL Board of Directors. A concern that Region III drafted was very similar to one that we've discussed in the past: the need for formal outreach to teacher and administrator education programs.
This concern will be brought to the AASL meeting at ALA this summer, which is comprised of representatives from school library/media associations nationwide. |
| Happenings in Michigan media centers... |
Elizabeth Van Pate, Media Specialist in Mancelona Public Schools, was chosen as this year's OPIE (Outstanding Person in Education) for our district.
Otsego Middle School has been doing a reading challenge called "Battle of the Books" for the last 7 years. The grades compete against each other to see which grade can read the most pages. We have a trophy for the winning grade. The winning STRIVE (homeroom) for each grade wins a treat, the highest readers for each grade win a Barnes & Noble gift certificate, and the next 25 students with the highest number of pages read win a bottle of Propel. Every student who reads 100 pages can win a magnet and every student who reads 300 pages can win a bag of Skittles. This year we had 54% participation. Incidently, the 7th grade won this year!
....Beverley Rannow  Book Cheer at Otsego Middle School
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| Michael Sullivan at this summer's Mahoney Workshop |
Michael Sullivan, popular keynote speaker from last year's MAME conference, is the speaker at this year's Mahoney Children's Workshop.
"Connecting Boys with Books: a day with Michael Sullivan" will take place Tuesday, August 25 at the Escanaba Public Library, Thursday August 27 at the West Branch District Library, and Friday August 28 at the Hastings Public Library.
Early-bird registration has already begun for the one-day workshop. For more information, contact Jolee Hamlin, Youth Services Contractor
Library of Michigan
702 W Kalamazoo
Lansing, MI 48915
The Mahoney Children's Workshops are made possible through the support of the Alice C. Mahoney Fund administered by the Library of Michigan Foundation. These workshops are intended to provide convenient, low-cost, and high quality professional development experiences for youth librarians in regions of Michigan where these opportunities are not as readily available. |
| Media Matters! Editors
MAME Executive Director
Database Manager
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| Call for Programs Notice |
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MAME 36 - We Make a Difference! |
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Presenters needed!
Share your successful programs, collaborations and projects!
Examples of technology integration and reading curriculum connections will show how you make a difference and help others make a difference too!
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| Save the Date! |
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Three MAME-sponsored professional development opportunities on the horizon:
Summer Institute
July 7 - Ingham ISD
Summer Academy
Aug 5 & 6
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MAME 36: "We Make a Difference"
October 21 - 23, 2009 Grand Traverse Resort
Registration information and more available on the MAME website |
| MAME Partners in Michigan Joint Educational Conference |
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MAME is a partner organization in this year's Joint Educational Conference, "Connecting Twenty-first Century Learning," which will be held June 24 at Holt High School, near Lansing. The purpose of the conference is to "establish widespread use of highly relevant integrated curriculum in Michigan schools." The cost for the 1-day conference is $49 for members of any of the parterning or sponsoring organizations (includes lunch).
A total of .05 SB-CEU's will be available.
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| Our Readers Write... |
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End of the Year:
WRITE AN ANNUAL REPORT! It is easy enough to do and will be an advocacy tool to your principal, your Superintendent and your Board of Ed. Use colorful pie charts, graphs or visuals and FEW WORDS. Bulleted lists of huge accomplishments (not your ordinary job description tasks) are a good way to shorten we verbose types. Leave them with a one or two sentence uplifting, forward-thinking statement: what do you want to tackle next? Relate it to what the district or school is facing as an issue! Follett's TitleWise makes a great start for charts. Your circulation system has a report function to condense a year of circulations into a page, and be sure to add the statistics of class visits, individual visits (if you don't log them now, do it come fall!) and track %change over time--the Delta.
Heck, once you create one, you only need import the new stats and build new bullets upon the old! It really only takes a few minutes after the stats are collected. Amaze and Astound your Administration.
Things to think about regarding our jobs:
How many media specialists are on Public Library Boards?
I think it would be a hoot to get us all together for a drink at our conference and chat about our Boards!
Respond to my home email address and I will get a gang together: annettehaley@att.net
Questions for thought:
Who belongs to AAUW (American Association of University Women)--who work for equity and educational opportunities for women
Google at MAME:
The MAME website now has a Google calendar. MAME events, other library events and holidays will be listed. Please send any suggestions for calendar items to Judy Hauser.
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| Upcoming MAME Events |
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May 2: MAME Bd meeting, Lansing
May 31: MAME Award nominations due |
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July 7: Summer Institute: Ingham ISD
August 5 & 6: MAME Summer Academy: GVSU Holland Campus
October 21 - 23: MAME 36 Conference: Grand Traverse Resort | |
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