Free Anti-Bullying Programming

If you're looking for anti-bullying programming you might be interested in this email from a young woman working on her Girl Scouts Gold Award.

Hello!

Photo by Road Ahead on Unsplash

My name is Caitilyn and I've recently graduated from Lincoln High School in Wisconsin Rapids. I'm a second year Ambassador Girl Scout (which is the final level of Girl Scouts) and I'm currently working on my Gold Award for Girl Scouts. 

Some background, the Gold Award is the highest award a Girl Scout in the United States can earn while still in Girl Scouts. She has to complete the Bronze and/or Silver Awards in order to even do their Gold Award and she has to do it during the last two years of high school when she's an Ambassador Girl Scout. Only about 5% of girls stay in Girl Scouts and of that 5% only 6% of those girls complete the Gold Award. 

My Gold Award is an anti-bullying program called Be a Buddy, Not a Bully. Its main goal is to reduce bullying through parent education and prevention/intervention to make a greater impact. It teaches how to tell if your child is being bullied or is a bully, how to talk to your child if they're being bullied or are being a bully and how to help your child if they're being bullied or being a bully along with 4 strategies of how to prevent your child from bullying others. 

In order for my Gold Award to work I need to make it so it can continue on without me being in charge. We're hoping that through sharing with other libraries that they'll connect to me and I can find someone in that area to take it to their library and teach it using the information I have but with their stories and experiences. If you're in the cities/area around Wisconsin Rapids I'm very willing to come by and do a couple programs throughout the day at your library as long as you promote for me so I can have some people come participate! If you don't think you'll get enough people to participate in the in-person program that's fine! I have a youtube channel called Be a Buddy, Not a Bully and it's completely set up with all the information that I teach right now!

If you'd like to reach out to find out more about the program you can reach me at official.beabuddy.notabully@gmail.com! Thank you for your time!

Kind regards,

Caitilyn S.  

Jim Gill Workshop is almost here!

Musical Play is Learning Play with Jim Gill: A Professional Development Workshop - Fri. Aug. 14th 1-4pm

Attention Youth Services Librarians!  

Photo provided by Jim Gill

On Friday, August 14^th from 1:00-4:00pm, Jim Gill is offering a professional development workshop tailored for librarians and early childhood educators at the Oak Creek Public Library in Oak Creek, WI. Registration is required to secure your spot for this event. This workshop is free for participants.

Register now: https://events.getlocalhop.com/music-play-is-learning-play-with-jim-gill-professional-development-workshop-for-early-childhood-educators-and-librarians/event/mp0upT1Ace/

A free family concert will follow in the evening on Friday, August 14^th at 6:30pm. No registration required.

Other events to enjoy while in town include:

Oak Creek Kids Night in Drexel Town Square (Also Jim Gill concert venue, food trucks will be available!)
Friday, August 14^th, 5:00 P.M. – 8:00 P.M.
https://www.oakcreekwi.gov/visitor/events/kids-nights

Oak Creek Farmers Market
Saturday, August 15^th, 9:00 A.M. – 1:00 P.M.
https://www.oakcreekwi.gov/visitor/events/farmers-market

For more information, visit https://www.oakcreekwi.gov/visitor 

All these events are sponsored by Visit Oak Creek.

Free Teacher Admission at Old World Wisconsin

Photo from oldworldwisconsin.org

Looking for a fun summer adventure? Try out Old World Wisconsin. Teachers! Look for free admission on July 31st!

Enjoy a day of history inspiration at Old World Wisconsin! Bring your teacher ID on July 31 for free admission to explore the living history site, discover classroom resources, and scout out field trip possibilities.

Free Professional Development Workshop with Jim Gill!

 Musical Play is Learning Play with Jim Gill: A Professional Development Workshop - Fri. Aug. 14th 1-4pm

Photo provided by Jim Gill

 

Attention Youth Services Librarians! Save the Date!

 

On Friday, August 14^th from 1:00-4:00pm, Jim Gill is offering a professional development workshop tailored for librarians and early childhood educators at the Oak Creek Public Library in Oak Creek, WI. Registration is required to secure your spot for this event. This workshop is free for participants.

 

Register now: https://events.getlocalhop.com/music-play-is-learning-play-with-jim-gill-professional-development-workshop-for-early-childhood-educators-and-librarians/event/mp0upT1Ace/

 

A free family concert will follow in the evening on Friday, August 14^th at 6:30pm. No registration required.

 

Coming from out of town? Hotel blocks are available while supplies last.

TownePlace Suites by Marriott Milwaukee Oak Creek for 169.00 USD per night - Last Day to Book : Monday, July 13, 2026
Book your group rate for Oak Creek Public Library-Jim Gill Event

Homewood Suites Oak Creek by Hilton 159.00 USD per night

https://group.homewood-suites.com/0cmx1t

 

Other events to enjoy while in town include:

 

Oak Creek Kids Night in Drexel Town Square (Also Jim Gill concert venue)

Friday, August 14^th, 5:00 P.M. – 8:00 P.M.

https://www.oakcreekwi.gov/visitor/events/kids-nights

 

Oak Creek Farmers Market

Saturday, August 15^th, 9:00 A.M. – 1:00 P.M.

https://www.oakcreekwi.gov/visitor/events/farmers-market

 

For more information, visit https://www.oakcreekwi.gov/visitor 

 

These events are sponsored by Visit Oak Creek.

ALL.THE.THINGS. with Jonathan Dolce - September 2020

Image by Pete Linforth from Pixabay

Finding free "stuff" is fun. And nobody makes fun better than Jonathan Dolce who writes at the ALSC blog. A recent post "You Still Can't Beat Free" was stuffed full of sources for free books, activities, programs and more, more, MORE that Jonathan has discovered and pursued! It's a goldmine.

Check it out here!

Streamline for Success: Library Programs and Services Reboot - Registration OPEN

Choose the one that fits your schedule:

9:00 am – 4:00 pm each date

Tuesday, May 5

New Berlin Public Library

http://bit.ly/37UN7hP

Wednesday, May 6

Portage County Public Library, Stevens Point

http://bit.ly/2VijVyA

Thursday, May 7

The Lodge, Mauston

http://bit.ly/2OSxd0D

Friday, May 8

Rice Lake Public Library

http://bit.ly/375Wxq4

Open to public library staff. 60 seats are available at each location. Lunch provided at no cost. Mileage reimbursement available, carpooling strongly encouraged!
CE contact hours: 6

We all want our library services to be strong and strategic, but how do you ensure that your library is producing meaningful, intentional services that support your mission, rather than simply falling into the traps of “more is more” or “we’ve always done it this way”? This workshop will lead participants through perspectives on creating and implementing mission-driven library services. Participants will have an immediate opportunity to put their learning into practice in this hands-on workshop.

  

Learning Outcomes: Participants will learn to…

1. Define strong library services
2. Identify pillars of your library service
3. Conduct a library service audit
4. Develop a streamlined plan for strong library service
5. Utilize tools to enact a streamlined plan

Ideal audience: Library directors, adult and youth services managers 

Presenters: Kelsey Johnson-Kaiser (St. Paul Public Library, MN) and Amy Koester (Skokie Public Library, IL)

Co-sponsored by Wisconsin Library Systems and the Department of Public Instruction, with funds from the Institute of Museum and Library Services in the form of Library Services and Technology Act (LSTA).  

Free Continuing Education - Archived YSS Webinars

For the past few years, our youth services section has been partnering with library systems to create great content for your learning.  YSS Powerhouse Presents feature YSS member panels addressing issues and trends in youth services. We create the content and our system partners provide the tech support and sponsor the webinar for their system members.  They then share the archived webinar with us for our website.

The following webinars are available:

§ All in the Family - family oriented programs and Services

§ Beyond Storytime - play based programming for all ages

§ Collection Connections - tips on weeding, selection, working with salespeople and creating a diverse collection

§ Outreach and Community Partnerships - ideas on relationship building, outreach strategies and addressing barriers

§ School Age Programming - on & offsite programs, tips on successes and pitfall avoidance

§ Serving Homeschoolers including slides, Pinterest board and survey

§ Storytime 101: Rethinking the Basics - tips and tricks to engage preschoolers and their caregivers

§ Teen Outreach: Getting Out to Get Teens In - do's & don't in connecting to teens

§ Teen Programming:Teen Services, OK? Better Than OK! - tips on programs, services and volunteers

§ Transforming Collections - tips creating picture book subject collections and tween collections

§ Transitions and Transformations - change is hard...or stimulating. Three youth folks trace their transformations and transitions.

To access the webinars, stop here.

And don't forget to visit the main WLA website for news and updates of conferences and other opportunities.

Free Wbinar: Tools for Building Digital Skills

Thursday, September 26

1:00 - 2:00pm (Central)

Public libraries have long been leaders in bringing people into the digital world, providing programs and services that help patrons get jobs, gain knowledge, increase productivity, and engage with others online. Leveraging and strengthening existing library and community resources can help reduce staff burden and increase the library’s impact on digital literacy. In this webinar, a panel of digital literacy experts will share tools, resources, and partnership strategies to help you enhance digital skill development among patrons and library staff.

This webinar is presented as part of the Public Library Association's (PLA) DigitalLead: Rural Libraries Creating New Possibilities project. PLA and Microsoft Corp. are helping rural populations reap the benefits of broadband internet connectivity.

PLA thanks Microsoft Corp. for its support of this webinar and the DigitalLead project.

Find out more and register HERE.

Translated Books for Youth - FREE Webinar

Translated Books For Youth: Celebrating the Batchelder Award--Past, Present, and Future

Wednesday, 7/17/2019 at 2:00pm

It’s a busy time of year for youth services staff, but you might consider registering for this free webinar about finding and promoting award-winning translated book for youth (books that originated in countries other than the US). I know that many of you value any resources related to collection development. This webinar will emphasize how buying and promoting translated books can be part of your efforts to forward inclusiveness and diversity.

Description - Click here

Register - Click here 

Disclaimer - I will be hosting this webinar for the Association for Library Service to Children (ALSC), a division of the American Library Association (ALA).

Sincerely,

Tessa Michaelson Schmidt

Public Library Youth and Inclusive Services Consultant

Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction

(608) 267-5077

tessa.schmidt@dpi.wi.gov

Kohl's Building Blocks Webinar: Social and Emotional Development in Young Children

The Kohl's Building Blocks Program will be hosting a free webinar on Tuesday, April 30, 2019 at 12:00 pm CST.

Our topic will be "Social and Emotional Development in Young Children".  This webinar will help parents, educators and professionals understand and recognize the social and emotional milestones for children from birth to age 5 while discussing ways to support their social and emotional development.

Please register for this webinar at:  https://attendee.gotowebinar.com/register/3455157414205034252

An Evening with Gene Luen Yang

La Crosse Public Library invites you to join us for an evening with award-winning cartoonist, teacher and former National Ambassador for Young People's Literature, Mr. Gene Luen Yang.  Yang is the author of numerous graphic novels including The Shadow Hero, Boxers and Saints, Secret Coders, and American Born Chinese. He has also written for DC Comics, including issues of Superman and a full run of the New Super-Man, and for Dark Horse Comics, including graphic novel spinoffs ofAvatar: The Last Airbender.

This event is free! Seating is limited and is available only on a first come, first serve basis. Auditorium doors will open at 5:30pm. Mr. Yang will be available to sign his books after his presentation and his books will be available to purchase at the event.

Free ALSC Webinar: Making the Move from Summer Reading to Summer Learning

Thursday, January 17

1:00pm

Summer is a critical time for children, and according to research from the National Summer Learning Association, children can lose up to 3 months of their school year learning during this time. Libraries have long embraced their role in the summer learning landscape, and more and more are adding in critical out of school time learning that align to 21st Century Learning Skills, Common Core State Standards or even Next Generation Science Standards. Additionally, NSLA has embraced libraries as valuable community hubs of summer learning and this webinar will talk about the ways in which NSLA can support libraries in the summertime. Participants will gain an awareness of best practices in making the shift from summer reading to summer learning and examine outcomes based evaluation as a way to measure program success and communicate their programs’ impact.

Register HERE.

Webinar - No Fear Coding: How to Start a Coding Club

Monday, September 24, 2018

1:00pm (CT)

Afraid of starting a coding club because you think your students know more than you do? Or you just don’t know where to start? Librarian Allyssa Loya shares her story of failures and successes in launching a coding club in her elementary school. This webinar will boost your confidence, arm you with the basics of coding, and give you resources for teaching computational thinking without even needing to touch a computer! 

Speaker

Allyssa Loya is an elementary school librarian in North Texas and the author of the series Disney Coding Adventures. Her passion for bringing meaningful learning to students led her to cultivate a technology-forward library that includes a makerspace and coding club. She loves sharing her knowledge with her peers and presents on topics that affect future-ready libraries.

Moderator  Rebecca Jozwiak, School Library Journal

Register HERE

Webinar: Laying Out the Welcome Mat

Laying Out the Welcome Mat: Asset Mapping to Better Serve the Immigrant Community

Tuesday, July 17

2:00pm

In this free webinar, presented in collaboration with TechSoup for Libraries, learn how Halifax Public Libraries uses asset mapping to identify immigrant community needs and develop responsive programs and services.  Asset mapping encourages libraries to go out into their communities and uncover and assess the resources available to immigrants. The information they gather gives the insight libraries need to develop programming to serve these patrons and help them thrive.

Find out more and register HERE.

Have You Heard...?

According to an article from MusicRadar.com, the BBC recently announced that it now allows people to download more than 16,000 free sound effect samples from its archives!  Check out the archives HERE! 

Even better?  The license allows for the sound effects to be used for "personal, educational or research purposes."  

In the brief article, Music Radar also mentioned its own library of free samples--dubbed SampleRadar--which features collections of musical loops, hits, and multisamples.  Again, the samples can be used as you see fit, but not redistributed.

Combine these resources with those available on BadgerLink and you are rollin' in sound effect options!

Imagine the possibilities!  Music mixing programs, film making/stop animation, promotional videos...  The sky's the limit!  

Webinar: Show It Off: The Power of Merchandising

 Thursday, April 26

1:00pm

Presenter: Rebecca Budinger-Mulhearn

Director Avon Free Library, NY

1 CE Credit

Looking to increase your library’s circulation and highlight your collection?  Take your displays from ordinary to extraordinary.  Show off materials with merchandising ideas perfect for a small library and budget.  After a career with a national bookstore, Rebecca has insider secrets and tips of the trade to merchandise your library materials to the max. Participants will share ideas, too!

REGISTER HERE

Best Websites for Teaching & Learning 2017

Each year the AASL (American Association of School Librarians) releases a list of "websites, tools, and resources of exceptional value to inquiry-based teaching and learning."

All the websites on the list are free, user-friendly sites that encourage collaboration, creativity and active engagement.  The list is broken down into sections including: Media Sharing, Digital Storytelling, and Curriculum Collaboration.

Check out this year's list of recommended sites HERE.

Webinar: Child-Lead Play in Public Library Programming

FREE upcoming webinar from the iSchool at UW-Madison!

June 6 at 12:00 p.m. (CST)
Presenter: Carissa Christner, Youth Services Librarian, Madison Public Library – Alicia Ashman Neighborhood Library

Have you ever wondered if there’s a better way to spend your summer programming hours than hiring magicians and jugglers? Do you struggle with ways to incorporate truly authentic play (the kind YOU engaged in as a kid, not the kind directed by adults) into your library offerings? Not sure how much guidance to provide in open-exploration sessions for toddlers? Are you looking for more ways to encourage literacy skills and parent education? This webinar will introduce you to a radical new library program idea being pioneered in Madison, Wisconsin, based on a groundbreaking new educational philosophy called Anji Play. Learn how Carissa has adapted this approach, originally developed for schools, into a library-friendly format that both kids and parents love.

Register here: http://go.wisc.edu/pkfgg5

Star Wars Reads Free Stuff

I bet you are excited about free stuff as the next person, aren't you? And free stuff to help you promote reading?  Even better.  Star Wars Read Day is October 11, and publishers of Star Wars books are happy to help you promote it with an event kit, plus a bunch of other promotions, like free posters, stickers and buttons.  Orders are due September 19, so you even have some time to figure it out!  Check out the promo information here.

Caine's Arcade-Inspired Program in Chippewa Falls

 Editor's note;  Many thanks to Colleen Crowley of the Chippewa Falls Public Library for this guest post!

Setting up a cardboard arcade game

After much publicity to the larger community, especially the local elementary schools, it was time for our long awaited Caine's Arcade-inspired event to take place. Let's back up a moment. Does everyone know about Caine? He made the rounds on You-Tube and even PUBYAC, but I don't know how many of us youth librarians have actually created events in our own local communities.

So for those of you who don't know: He was, at the time of discovery, a 9-year-old boy who created a cardboard video arcade in his father's auto parts store in East L.A. After a local film director met him, his story went viral and can be seen at the website: www.cainesarcade.com. Many interesting things have come out of this story, i.e. a Global Cardboard Challenge, as well as the creation of the Imagination Foundation.

The Chippewa Falls Public Library and the local Boys & Girl's Club collaborated to create our own Cardboard Challenge. The library's contribution was my time for the initial publicity, general planning and about an hour or so of my work time each afternoon for three consecutive days. Though this is a tough time of year to get away, with all us planning for our summer reading programs, this event was a long time in the making, so I felt it was important. 

All youth in the community had been invited and we planned it to occur during the public school's spring break week. Though the Boys & Girls Club is geared to youth ages 8-18, the kids that were in attendance were 8-13 year-olds. The room had a lot of floor space, perfect for the kids to spread out and build their creations. I examined the assortment of supplies. The director had saved cardboard boxes for a few months, but none were very big. He said someone had mistakenly recycled the bigger boxes. When I saw that they were all small boxes, I quickly headed over to the appliance store, conveniently located 2 blocks away and got a few giant boxes.  I brought a lot of other things I'd saved, like egg cartons, empty thermal paper cartridges, recycled blue mushroom trays from the store, empty cardboard tubes from book tape and book cover rolls. These were the types of items the kids latched onto the most.

We got started then as a group, by watching the Caine's Arcade video from Caine's Web page and then discussing the various types and genres of arcade games available today, and in the past. I had brought some photos from Wikipedia and Pinterest that I thought might inspire their creations. Then they began to gather supplies. There was a frenzy to get the 'good stuff' and I can see that it might have been helpful for us, as planners, to come up with a better system for handing out the items. There was some disappointment as some of the teams missed out on supplies that they had wanted. But the kids really made do with what they had.

I spent a lot of time cutting the long tubes into 3 & 4-inch pieces for the kids. Knowing this, I would have saved more empty rolls of 2-inch and 4-inch sized book tape rolls for the kids. Ultimately, I think that while it is nice to have the basic cardboard boxes of different sizes, saving and providing the odd things were the most helpful. The kids made unusual things out of these pieces, like skee-ball holes and marble drops.  I had saved some 10 foot long boxes and kids used them for ramps and other ideas.  I had also saved the ends of the boxes that the library's iPads came in and the kids used those as ticket slots and other interesting additions to their games. 

The children created whack-a-mole, bowling, golf, basket-ball (using hand-created tape balls), tube drops, and knock 'em down 'throw' games just to mention a few of the good ideas. One team even created a cleverly designed dunk tank. My favorite was a photo booth. When it took your picture a 'hand-drawn' photo came out of the slot and the resulting picture showed a funny caricature. Impressive artistic ability, all the way around! 

It ended up being quite chaotic when parents came to get their kids. There were so many games that had been created. There simply wasn't enough time to vote on any of them and certainly not enough time for parents to interact with all the kids as we had hoped.

  Still, in the end, I couldn't help but smile. In my eyes, the goal of the event had been reached --it was all about the journey for these kids. Kids jumped in and used their imaginations to create some elaborate  games that were interesting to try out. They learned something new about themselves, and because many had worked together on teams with new people they worked on some important life skills. Many kids also got a chance to use parts of their brain-spatial, logic and creative thinking that perhaps they didn't utilize all the time. I was truly inspired all over again. Organizing community events like this is what makes being a youth librarian worthwhile. For a moment in time, I was part of something bigger and I am grateful everyday for the opportunities, like this one, to be here in this place, in this position.