Progress is being made on the Fall conference. Kathy Lester, our President Elect, is putting together a fantastic slate of speakers and authors including David Smalls and Sarah Stewart as our featured authors,  Nancy Robertson the Librarian of Michigan for our general membership meeting, Barbara Stripling ALA President will open the conference, and Timothy Shanahan Professor of Urban Education at University of Illinois-Chicago will be the closing keynoter.

While we had discussions about sharing resources with the Michigan Library Association, we both came to the conclusion that 2013 would not work. We are still in contact with them with hopes of making more inroads for  collaboration in the future.

We are really excited that the MACUL SIGMS has completely sold out their preconference. I look forward to hearing about the excellent learning that takes place. We are excited about collaborating with SIGMS with our summer institute in July. Kay Wejrowski of Swan Valley will be taking over for Evelyn Freeman as Summer Institute Chairperson. Many thanks to Evelyn for leading some excellent professional development over the years.

More From ALA MidWinter

ASCD WHOLE CHILD INITIATIVE
The Whole Child Initiative School Improvement Tool could be a strong tool to determine school library efficacy as opposed to or in conjunction with SL21 

• Healthy - Each student enters school healthy and learns about and practices a healthy lifestyle
• Safe - Each student learns in an environment that is physically and emotionally safe for students and adults
• Engaged - Each student is actively engaged in learning and is connected to the school and broader community
• Supported - Each student has access to personalized learning and is supported by qualified, caring adults
• Challenged (CCSS) - Each student is challenged academically and prepared for success in college or further study and for employment and participation in a global environment
• Sustainability - Schools implementing a whole child approach use collaboration, coordination, and integration to ensure the approach's long term success

• consistently engage incollaborative professional practices focused on improving literacy learning,
• pay attention to theprocess of collaborative learning in addition to the content of professional learning, and
• regularly share their work with theNCLE community throughstories, reflections, and artifacts of work at their site.

Tom 

State Librarian Nancy Robertson and Deb Biggs Thomas from the Library of Michigan and MeL visited Swan Valley High School on February 25th.  They joined our high school students in teaching a lesson to the latchkey children in our in school day care, and then met with teachers to look at how we are integrating MeL resources in research and ACT prep coursework 

On April 16th, Swan Valley High School students will also enjoy a writer's workshop and author presentation by Benjamin Busch. Writing isn't Busch's only forte, he is also a photographer, director, and actor. Dust to Dust, a memoir of his childhood and his time spent serving our country. Busch served as an infantry and light armored reconnaissance officer in the United States Marine Corps, deploying to Iraq in 2003 and 2005.       

Finally, Swan Valley High School will joining forces from around the world to give out books as part of the World Book Night Program. The event is April 23, 2013.

The 4Ever retirees invite ALL MAME retired members to attend our (nearly) annual WE'RE OUTTA TOWN event!

Wednesday, September 4th to Friday the 6th on the Beach in Frankfort, Michigan

Harbor Lights complex: 2 bedroom condos to share, sleep 3+, cost to be divided among roommates. Completely furnished.

Walking distance to shops, restaurants, beach out in front of each unit!

http://www.harborlightsresort.net/

We plan to celebrate retirees new and seasoned, toast sunset on the deck every night, go on an exploring trip to Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore, Chery Republic HQ for tastings and shopping in Glen Lake, visiting Gwen Frostic's studio and shop, hit Beulah (poor Beulah!), Trick Dog is a must!, a boat excursion and tour out to Manitou Islands from Frankfort and lounging about, just catching up!  There may be adult beverages involved!

Along with the bon vivante camaraderie, we will be plotting our Amtrak party train car to the MAME conference in Kalamazoo, our fundraising choices and scholarship offerings to MAME members, plus our annual Garage Sale and 'From Our Hands to Yours' drawing at the conference.

If desired, carpooling will be arranged closer to date from points all over the mitten.

All interested members should contact Annette Haley  annettehaley@att.net asap to get on the list! If you have roomies already picked out, let Annette know.  Questions? Ideas?  email them to me!  A deposit will be required by June.

Your fun should always be planned for the first week Not Back To School!

judy.hauser@oakland.k12.mi.us 

Cheers to Melissa White, who is retiring from Ingham Intermediate School District after 14 years there as the REMC 13 Director and 31 years in education. She will be continuing to work on the 21 Things Projects (Teacher, Admin, Student and iPad). Melissa will be the Project Manager of the Professional Development portion of the 22i Grant getting teachers and students tech ready for the Smarter Balanced Assessments in 2015.