President's Column
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As fall changes the landscape around us, so does our work. This is the time when we settle in and get into the instruction piece of our work. We want our students to be lifelong learners, here is your opportunity to practice what you preach. I hope you will consider attending our annual conference: Enter Here and Learn, Oct 31-Nov 2 in Lansing. It looks like a great program, whether you are into books, technology, or interested in the Common Core, there is something for everyone. Gregg Dionne, from MDE will be leading our general meeting this year on our vital role in the Common Core. Don't miss Will Richardson's
three hour session. This is a first for MAME, designing a session open to guests. What better time for your administrators to see what we do, than attending this session along with you? We are always looking for ways to let others know what we do. This can be a great advocacy piece for School Librarians. I sent the information to every administrator in my district inviting them to attend.
Lots is going on behind the scenes of MAME too. The MACUL SIGMS had their first meeting and are busy at work editing the bylaws, creating a webpage, putting together a budget and designing programs. Watch for more news as SIGMS develops. The SL21 committee is revising the document, adding measurements and a bibliography to make it more comprehensive.
Take a look at the MAME website. The 2013 Board of Directors meetings are on the website. Get them on your calendar! Julie Harris is doing a phenomenal job at tweaking and updating. There is lots of great information gathered in one location for you to use.
I hope this finds you enjoying the start of a great year and looking forward to new adventures. Make your Media Center the place where all "Enter Here and Learn." See you in Lansing!
Sue Lay, MAME President |
Great Sessions at MAME 39
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Sched.org makes it easy to see what is available!
We have great sessions for you at this year's conference, and we've posted them on the MAME website (www.mimame.org) . This year, you can see the sessions available and there is no need to download and print them. You can view the entire program schedule right online, and there is a mobile app available for iPhone, Android, and Blackberry phones. Visit MAME website's annual conference page and see how Sched.org can help you view, sort, and organize the sessions you want to attend.
Clicking on Schedule will give you several options for viewing sessions available.
- Simple gives you a listing of presentations listed by day and time.
- Expanded presents a list of each program, along with a summary, speaker names, time, interest level and strand or strands.
- Grid arranges the programs by location, day and time. Nicely visual.
- Venue lists all programs by day, location and time.
- My Sched gives you options for creating your own schedule in various formats.
Visit this great organizer on our website to explore what is available and create your schedule for this fantastic conference!
by Karen Becknell
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Common Core Sessions at MAME 39
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 Prepare Students for Meeting the Common Core State Standards - It's What We Do!
Our work is more meaningful than ever with the increased focus on reading, writing, and research skills that the common core stresses. To get ideas for integrating your program with the new standards, attend the many sessions on Common Core at this year's MAME annual conference!
The Vital Role of Media Specialists in Transitioning to the Common Core
presented by Gregg Dionne and Brandy Archer of the Michigan Dept. of Ed.
School librarians are a vital resource for schools transitioning to the Common Core and for teachers looking to match digital instruction to upcoming online assessments. Discover resources that you can support your school with to assist students in meeting career and college-ready expectations.
Booktalks that Blend the Common Core with Creativity
Presented by Media Specialist Marsha Lambert
Traditional booktalks featuring middle school favorites, student produced book trailers, and collaborative reading-focused activities tied to the Common Core will be shared.
Cindy & Lynn's Best Books of 2012: Non-Fiction, Graphic Novels, and Picture Books
Presented by Cindy Dobrez and Lynn Rutan
In this session, Cindy and Lynn continue their valuable book reviews and discussion featuring non-fiction, graphic novels, and picture books for older readers. This year, they'll give tie-ins to the Common Core Standards and the focus on informational text in order to provide students with a wide range of reading experiences aside from a required textbook.
Dig Deeper into MeL with Primary Sources
Presented by Suzanne Robinson, MCLS
The Common Core standards for Literacy in History/Social Studies 6-12 require students to cite specific textual evidence to support analysis of primary and secondary sources. The Michigan eLibrary (MeL) provides a variety of primary sources which can engage your students, help them develop higher level critical thinking skills, and assist them with new ways to apply knowledge. Come dig a little deeper into MeL and find a wide variety of local, national, and international sources for all time periods!
ELA Common Core Integration: Working Together to Accomplish More
Presented by Kim Wesner and Michelle Gresham
In this session, Kim and Michelle share their student research unit which addresses several of the ELA Common Core standards. Students research a topic using electronic and print sources, write arguments to support their claims, and present their findings in an oral speech using Prezi for their visuals. They'll share all the details of the lesson so you can tailor it to your own classroom needs with ease.
ProQuest Resources... The Uncommon Core!
Presented by Deb Bergeron of ProQuest
If you are still fighting the Google battle, learn how to help your students and patrons make safe, reliable curriculum connections with ProQuest, ELibrary, and SIRS. Find quality, authoritative, informational texts that your students may need to complete assignments related to Common Core standards and view research from a teacher and student perspective. In addition, check out the newest collaboration tools recently added to both SIRS and ELibrary; these new enhancements make it easy for students to use web 2.0 tools to manage their own research. Visual mapping, text to speech, essential questions and standards correlations make the research process more relevant for both teachers and students.
Marine Lures: Hook Teachers on Media Resources Presented by Cathy Marine and Susan Pickering
Two school media specialists and an author/retired media director pool their expertise to provide helpful marine science resources and exciting learning activities. You'll get ideas for topics, resources, and activities for students to engage in investigative learning about the importance of the earth's seas and the oceans' ecosystems. Activities will focus on non-fiction reading and writing using books, articles, simulations, and distance learning opportunities that will lure teachers and their classes to the media center. Lists of topics, books, websites and distance learning materials will be provided so you can begin these great science activities in your media center aimed at meeting Common Core standards.
Teachers + Media Specialist = Success!
Presented by Beverley Rannow
Collaboration is the emphasis of three research projects in Otsego Middle School: a 6th grade health project and 7th and 8th grade ELA projects. In this session, Beverly will share her unit, planning sheet, instruction pieces, student research planning sheet, project guideline sheets, rubrics, and pathfinders posted on her Media Center web page. Common Core standards are identified for each project and finished project samples will be displayed.
See these and all the sessions being offered on our MAME Conference page hosted by Sched.org, where you can see the schedule of sessions for both conference days. Sched.org allows you to see sessions by strand or by time and day, and allows you to "create" your own schedule for the conference and download it to your smart phone! Go to mimame.org's conference page to access it and read all about this year's great conference!
by Julie Harris
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| Lesson Swap | |
 The September/October issue of Knowledge Quest (AASL Journal) arrived this week. The theme is participatory culture and learning. As I read the article by Susan D. Ballard, 2012-13 AASL President, I was inspired and motivated. As I read more articles, I quite honestly got depressed. I was reading about great librarians doing great things with their programs, things I used to do back in the day when I was full-time at one school with a flexible schedule. In a matter of two short years, my ideal situation disappeared. Budget cuts hit my district. I now have two school libraries serving more than twice as many staff and students and have a totally fixed schedule. It sure must be nice to be in an ideal situation, but these ideas are impossible under my circumstances. In short, I went into pity party mode. A few days later an "aha moment" hit me in the middle of the night. You know, those moments when you have to get up and write the idea down or there is no way you'll get back to sleep. The idea was embarrassingly simple yet profound. Why not? So, my circumstance isn't ideal, why should that stop me from doing everything in my power to create a participatory culture in my school library programs? I filled several sticky notes on how to get started on my new goal. A line from Judy Sierra's book, Wild About Books, played over in my mind, "We can do it ourselves, we can check out the books, we can put them on shelves" is spoken by the zoo animals. The next day I threw out my 4th grade lesson plan. The students came in and sat down in their assigned seats like they always do. I looked at them and said, "Here's the deal guys, I need some help running this place (pointing to the overflowing carts of books waiting to be shelved) so as of right now I am waving my magic wand and making you all honorary librarians." I was nervous as I waited for their reaction, fearing the worst of possible moans and groans. The class was ecstatic; some even bounced up and down in their chairs and clapped. Really. I did a quick review of a fiction book location lesson and then had the students shelving books (as I was checking them) and straightening shelves. It was awesome; authentic learning was taking place and we were all having fun. And, at the end of that class, the fiction section looked great! Students wanted to know what else they could do. They were empowered and I could almost see their ownership of the library grow before my eyes. My list of ideas continues to grow, and I am once again excited about this awesome profession. Times may be tough and circumstances may not be ideal, but that just means we need to be a bit more creative as we move toward a more participatory culture in our programs. If you don't receive Knowledge Quest, I highly recommend getting your hands on a copy of the September/October issue. By: Lori Minnard October Elementary Lesson  As the whirlwind of the beginning of school winds down, all students have been down to visit the media center, first book check-out has occurred, and all the new students have their new library cards, the Halloween season comes to Willow Woods Elementary School with the yearly Monster Match Project. Started four years ago with schools in Texas, this project has participants from second to fifth grade becoming "Young Frankensteins" for a few weeks. Although the program has been scaled back a bit, this activity has students engaged in writing directions, building their monster, working collaboratively in small groups, and finally Skyping with a partner class to see how closely each monster is to the original.
The program starts with each student picking a group name from the Jack O' Lantern to determine who they will be working with. Currently the groups are: zombies, witches/warlocks, ghosts, mummies, vampires, and werewolves. Each group is given a planning sheet which includes the group member names, name of the monster, "ingredients for the monster", and step-by-step directions on how the monster was created. An agreed upon list of materials between partner classrooms is established. We have decided to use mostly two-dimensional materials due to time constraints. Once the directions are finished each group member practices their keyboarding skills to type up the directions to send to the partner class. Directions can either be e-mailed to the partner teacher or a Wikispace can be set-up to exchange them. Once the directions are received the groups get to work building the new monster based on the directions. During an agreed upon meeting time the classrooms connect via Skype or district provided video conferencing equipment to compare the similarities and differences of each creation. "This project is really fun," said group members from the witches and warlock table. They followed up by saying they were really looking forward to meeting their partner school and see how closely the monsters matched. Although the media center can get a bit messy and louder than at other times of the year, the enthusiasm and effort of the groups is worth the mess and noise. By Lisa Kennedy, Media Specialist, Willow Woods Elementary School We would love to hear from you! Send your articles to: mediamatters.mame@gmail.com. |
Advocacy Article
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Common Core Thrusts Librarian into Leadership Role
A September 12th article from Education Week discusses the School Librarian's role with the Common Core Standards. A quote from the article: ""The common standards are the best opportunity we've had to take an instructional-leadership role in the schools and really to support every classroom teacher substantively," said Barbara Stripling, the president-elect of the American Library Association, and a professor of practice in library science at Syracuse University."
You can find an online copy of the article here . You can also find a copy of the article at Gale's Academic Onefile - one of the databases provided by MeL.
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Region & SIGS Corner
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Are You the Face of MAME?
Yes! We all represent MAME in our schools and districts--but you could be the face of MAME in your region as well. Region representatives share news from their area with the Board of Directors, and help guide the direction of our organization. At conference this year, be sure to stop by the Headquarters table to see who's representing MAME in your region. If your region is currently not represented, please consider taking a more active role in MAME as a region rep. Please contact Gwenn Marchesano at conference or at gmarchesano@mimame.org. The list of current representatives & vacancies is also on the MAME website at: http://www.mimame.org/region-information.html
Thank you!
Gwenn Marchesano
VP Regions & SIGs
Join MACUL SIGMS!
All MAME members are invited to join the new MACUL special interest group for school library media personnel, SIGMS. Officers for the new SIG are Erik Drake, Director; Cynthia Kleinheksel, Assistant Director; and Erica Trowbridge, Communications Officer.
Membership in MACUL and all SIGs is now free. MACUL members can join SIGMS at any time by visiting http://membership.macul.org/account/login.aspx?ReturnUrl=%2f.
[The SIG is currently called SIGlib on the MACUL membership form; but will soon be updated to be called SIGMS.]
SIGMS will be hosting a roundtable session at November's MAME conference in Lansing. Join us there to learn about and provide your feedback on what you'd like to see from SIGMS.
SIGMS is also planning a precon for the MACUL conference, and our first annual membership meeting will be on Thursday, March 21st, 5:15-6:00 pm at Cobo Center in Detroit. Please plan on joining us for those events. Watch for more details about both the precon and membership meeting at the MAME conference and with your MACUL conference registration materials.
As MAME members, the new SIGMS officers look forward to developing the collaborative relationship between MACUL and MAME to strengthen the school library media community in Michigan, and we need the support of the MAME membership. Please join SIGMS.
Erik Drake, MACUL SIGMS Director
Cynthia Kleinheksel, MACUL SIGMS Assistant Director
Erica Trowbridge, MACUL SIGMS Communications Officer.
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App of the Month!
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"apps of the month". If you would like to suggest an app, please email your idea to: Judy Hauser
judy.hauser@oakland.k12.mi.us Any app will be considered whether it is for productivity, utility, or fun
Word WarpBy MobilityWare  Free iPhone, iPod Touch Word Warp is a fast-paced game in which the user has 2 minutes to make as many words as possible out of 6 letters. As you enter a word it appears on a list if it is correct. There are several games out there similar to Word Warp, so it does not have to be this specific game you choose. This type of game is fun because you have to think fast and try to come up with several words in a short amount of time. It is also good for working on your vocabulary. This game would be fun for adults and young adults. |
Cheers & Tears
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 MAME Member, Judy Hauser Co-Authors AASL White Paper on Technology in Schools
Judy Hauser was asked in February by Carl Harvey (then AASL President) to chair a committee to write a white paper on technology in the schools. Judy worked with three other AASL members (Diane Cordell, Sue Eckhardt, Nancy McGriff) virtually and their final draft was accepted by the AASL Board the week of October 1st.
An ALA Press release about the white paper can be read
here. You can read or download the white paper at:
Thank you to Judy for chairing and co-authoring this important document!
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 Kathy Lester, Parker Middle School Librarian, won a grant from the Howell Education Foundation for a cart of 20 iPads to be checked out from the library for class use. The grant was written with a focus on use in Science and Math classes. The picture at the left shows some of the Parker Middle School Science teachers learning about the iPads at an in-service run by Kathy.
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 Tears...
Parchment Schools has eliminated Media positions and Amy Manley is the only librarian remaining in her district. She is expected to cover 5 libraries in the district while teaching elementary library skills full-time (33 classes a week). Amy reports that it warmed her heart when her High School Book Club contacted her via email because they wanted to start meeting again.
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Send Your News!
Tell us about your successes, your struggles, your amazing discoveries.
Email your newsletter editors, Lori and Kathy with stories that should be shared.
We'd love to hear from you!
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 How did you celebrate banned book week?
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MAME 39
Conference | |
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ENTER HERE
AND
LEARN
MAME 39
Annual
Conference
Radisson Hotel
Lansing, MI
Oct 31 - Nov 2, 2012
Information and registration forms available on the
MAME website!
SB-CEUs Available
There is still time to register!
Online registration ends October 19th.
Registration Form
Find it here
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Conference
Volunteers Needed
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| As we start the new school year, make sure you're saving the dates for our fall conference. Volunteers are still needed. Let me know if you can donate a couple of your conference hours to help the event run smoothly. No experience necessary.
Click here to sign up!
Gwenn Marchesano
gwenn2ns@gmail.com
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MAME
Membership
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| Renew your membership and encourage others to join!
MAME needs you and your colleagues!! Renew your own membership (as part of your conference registration or at the MAME website.)
Encourage friends who are not MAME members to join MAME!! Please share with them the 5 Good Reasons to Belong to MAME (find them here) and send them to the online registration.
You can also invite them to the MAME 39 conference. |
Order Your
MAME Swag!!
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| You can now order MAME logo and Conference logo clothing, cups, digital devices covers, and more online!
Go to:
www.cafepress.com/mimame
to see all of the great items to choose from to show off your MAME spirit!
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SL 21
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New SL21 Libraries Announced!
The Library of Michigan announced that seven additional school libraries have achieved SL21 status!
Congratulations to the following MAME Members:
Marsha Lambert
Marshall Middle School Learning Resource Center
Exemplary Status
Shannon Clark
Marshall High School Library Media Center
Exemplary Status
Lisa Brackel
Airport High School Library
Wagar Middle School Library
Qualified Status
Susan Williams
Central Elementary Library
North Elementary Library
Northwood Elementary Library
Qualified Status
The standards can be found at: www.michigan.gov/SL21.
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NJASL Advocacy
Video
|  | The New Jersey Association of School Librarians with funding provided by its advocacy partnership with LibraryLinkNJ produced a great advocacy video. This MUST see video is available on YouTube at this link.
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Upcoming Events
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January 25-29, 2013
ALA 2011 Midwinter Meeting Seattle, Washington Washington State Convention Center March 20-22, 2013
MACUL Conference
Detroit, Michigan
Cobo Center
June 27 - July 2, 2013
ALA 2012 Annual Conference Chicago, Illinois
June 24-27, 2012
iste 2013
San Antonio, Texas
San Antonio Convention Center
Open registration begins
October 1, 2012 |
What's on
Your Mind? |
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What great things are going on in your media center?
Has a journal article or book recently inspired you?
Found a shortcut, great website, new and improved techie tool?
...Or just have a funny story to share?
We love to hear from our readers! | |
Send your newsletter contributions to
Lori Minnard
and
Kathy Lester
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