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How do you make your voice and the voices of your students heard at the MN State Capitol? Join our session to learn how to make your voice heard on Library Legislative Day and other days of the year to advocate for libraries all across Minnesota. Learn how to contact and make appointments with your legislator, how to stay informed about issues that affect libraries, how to participate in Library Legislative Day, and how to leverage the tools located on the Minnesota Library Advocacy website. This will be an interactive, hands-on session, so please bring a device.

Join us as we share some of our favorite reads for students in grades 6-12. We have compiled a list of our favorite titles and sorted them by genre/theme. We have tried to include many lesser-known titles in order to give you some ideas for your collection. We will book talk as many as possible and will provide you a list of all our favorites!

Click here to view our presentation

Have you ever heard, that you can only use 30 seconds of music? Have you wondered, I don’t see a copyright symbol on it, so I don’t need permission, right? Or how about, I’m a teacher! No matter what I use, I can claim fair use! In this interactive session, participants will learn the basics of copyright, fair use, and creative commons licensing and receive a variety of resources to guide decision making.

Are you overwhelmed with all the online choices that you have to choose from to incorporate into the classroom? Are you looking for some short cuts? Join Christopher for an engaging session on how EBSCO can assist you with navigating all the various resources. EBSCO is just not a resource for the “upcoming Science Fair project” but a resource that both teachers and students will come to rely on for learning in the classroom. Perhaps “Siri” or “Alexa” may be one of your future classroom helpers!

A panel of our guest authors who write for elementary grades

Art Coulson    
Cori Doerrfeld
Mary Losure
Patrick Mader
Stephen Shaskan
Trisha Speed Shaskan
Lisa M Bolt Simons
Brandon Vreeman
Kari Van Wakeren

One of the most difficult parts of the research process for many students is the exploration stage: reading and understanding informational texts. Even though our students have “learned to read,” we should not assume they know how to “read to learn.” Students have difficulty with comprehension because they are encountering new content, advanced vocabulary, and unfamiliar text structures. They will often feel frustrated and resort to copying and pasting without understanding the content. In this session, we will explore features available within many databases (we'll focus on popular ELM databases to which we all have access) that can aid with reading comprehension, including translation, listening, and reading level options. We will also discuss strategies we can use to teach students how to approach common informational text structures.

We sometimes think that because our students are digital natives they have all of the knowledge to succeed in a information and technology rich society, but oftentimes this is not true. What skills do they need to learn? How can we help them navigate the information overload and act ethically? In this session, learn how, after observing the struggle of her middle school students, Lisa Newhouse planned and implemented a semester long Technology and Media Literacy class for middle school students.

Join Anne Nash and Mike Patterson from the Google for Education team as they share Google's new Applied Digital Skills, a free, online curriculum designed to give students an immersive experience within the 4 C's. The curriculum teaches project-based digital skills relevant to real-life situations like event planning, research projects, budgeting, resume building, creating a guide to an area, finding a job and more. The curriculum can be facilitated by an instructor, or taken independently as supplemental learning activities. Make sure you stop in for this can't-miss session as you'll hear from Google about the curriculum and best practices on how to use it to meet your district's digital literacy initiatives and learning goals.

The Newbery, Caldecott, and Printz are long-standing youth book awards followed closely by youth literature enthusiasts. But what about the “other” awards that warrant attention: the Walter, AILA, Jane Addams, Morris, APALA, and others? Presenters will discuss lesser-known awards that recognize and promote diversity, social justice, and new voices in youth publishing. They will also share advice for those interested in serving on media award committees. Participants will be encouraged to share their favorite “under the radar” awards and best books lists for children and teens. You may view our presentation at this link: https://bit.ly/2AuA3lE

Have you ever wanted to produce a weekly newscast? We video can be a great tool for editing/producing and sharing video. Learn how to use the green screen, layer video and audio as well as share your wonderful creations.