Mary Cronin, Director at the Cook Memorial Library in Tamworth is working on a grant with Chocorua Lake Conservancy to bring a series of programs for all ages to Tamworth this fall about the history and presence of Native Americans in this region through educational programs with Wabanaki REACH and others. One of the organizations the library connected with is Gedakina, based in Essex Junction, VT, but serving all of New England, which has an interesting One Shelf Project to for schools and libraries, described as follows:
One Shelf Project – 2020 marked the birth of The One Shelf Project, a Giveaway of culturally relevant, historically accurate, and high-quality traditional literature and educational materials to school districts, community culture centers, and libraries serving children across New England and Upstate NY. This year’s selection included 50+ books for K-12 as well as Teacher Resources. We hope to make this an annual event in the future. See http://gedakina.org/index.php/2020/10/one-shelf-project/The One Shelf Project book list of 50 titles can be found here, http://gedakina.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/01/2020-One-Shelf-Project-book-list.pdf. They are working on a new list of titles for the next round of the project. Leah Summerfield is the person doing that, and she is interested in connecting with New Hampshire librarians.
It is my pleasure to share Seacoast Science Center’s growing library of free digital resources, all newly designed to support the changing needs of families and educators. These nature-based lessons and activities are freely accessible on the SSC website and new ones are created and delivered monthly via our email newsletter. Anyone can join our mailing list to stay current with new videos and activities.
Museums, libraries, science and nature centers and other learning providers OUTSIDE the classroom all comprise an ecosystem of learning to support our children, and ultimately, strengthen our community. In times like these, community is important. We love learning and exploring in person with students, families and visitors, but for now, our naturalists will come to you virtually!
We hope you and your members and patrons enjoy these curated collections of free activities, videos, links and lessons designed to support at-home learning, empower children to investigate nature, and help families find respite from today’s challenges.
There is one big Ocean that connects us all. Together we can support each other, and we encourage you to help us spread our message of ocean health and ocean conservation by passing this resource along to your members and networks and asking them to sign up to receive our weekly updates.
READsquared is offering a statewide spring training to showcase the new 2021 CSLP theme, how to do a theme update/import programs, and allow for open Q & A.
If you’re looking for resources to support your youth in the Engineering Mindset, you may want to check out this collection from Million Girls Moonshot, shared by the Afterschool Alliance.
If you’d like to learn more about Engineering Mindsets, an ACRES module about Engineering Practices would be perfect. Check out cohort RT32EP, which meets April 7th, April 21st, and May 5th from 3:00 – 5:00 PM EST. Stipends are still available. Register at https://mmsa.org/projects/acres/join-a-cohort/ and use code RT32EP.
NH Libraries: CLNH (Children’s Librarians of New Hampshire) has generously paid for online manuals for 2021–contact Deborah Dutcher deborah.l.dutcher@dncr.nh.gov if you do not have your online manual code.
Just because we are still living in a pandemic–do not let it discourage you from holding a 2021 Summer Reading Program at your library. Your community needs a sense of normalcy now more than ever. Look at the evaluation summary from last year–not bad at all folks:
Hello NH Librarians. There is not a single one of us operating in the same way we were at the beginning of this year. I am so proud to be part of a profession that despite all its difficulties, has quickly risen to the challenge and been very creative in continuing to meet their communities needs. Just because it is Not business as usual,we can still continue to train and deliver research based programs to our families.
I am happy to announce the sign-up to join one of the Reimagining School Readiness cohorts starting next spring. In 2021 NH joins 12 other states in Year 2 of the The Bay Area Discovery Museum (BADM), in collaboration with the Pacific Library Partnership (PLP) and the California State Library (CSL), in a train-the-trainer program to equip librarians with the resources to help families and children ages 0-8 prepare for success in school and inlife. The Reimagining School Readiness Toolkit is a set of free, online research-backed school readiness activities and resources designed to provide librarians with strategies and downloadable content for caregivers to prepare children for school.
This research based program aligns with NH’s play-based model of learning for Kindergarten adopted in 2018. Our goal in offering this program to NH Librarians is to: •provide training in current school readiness research and strategies to modify programming to align with research • Supply free research-backed activities and tools online that can be adapted by any community • Provide ongoing professional development opportunities for library staff
Our first cohort of NH Librarians will begin around March/April 2021. We are being granted some funds to help us provide participating libraries with some resources and would like an estimate of interested libraries to enable us to order enough supplies. The training for NH Librarians is estimated to be a half-day training (offered virtually) and actual participation will be required. May more than one person participate in the training from one library? Absolutely! We also anticipate offering a second cohort in May/June. Sign up HERE
Don’t forget to sign up for the special Youth Services Tuesday Together Talk with Cellissa Hoyt, State Director, State Early Learning Alliance of New Hampshire & State Director, Vroom and Mind in the Making on January 12, 2021@ 10 am. Fill out this Registration Form and shortly before the event you will be sent the zoom log in. Sign up HERE
I have enjoyed our Together Talks this past year but next year starting in March I will be holding an every other month YACHT (Young Adult/Children Hot Topics) club. The idea comes from my counterpart in Iowa and is being now used in Washington with great success. Participants will read/listen to/watch the resources, then we’ll get together to discuss them and how they can apply to our work as Children & Youth Librarians in New Hampshire. On the opposite month will be a similar group for Adult & Senior Librarians. I do not have a catchy name for this group yet–suggestions appreciated.
