A Different World

I visited the high school media center today for my practicum requirement.  High school is so different from elementary school!  The media center is currently preparing to undergo substantial renovations.  Windows will be cut into the wall connecting the media center and computer lab in order for students to use these computers when the half-time computer lab teacher is not there.  New carpet, bookshelves, and furniture designed for collaboration will be added to the facility.  

Teachers come into the media center very often to do research.  Even though there were no books in the media center, the computers were in use almost the entire day.  The media specialist also goes into classrooms as needed to help teachers with technology projects.  However, the WiFi within the school is still weak, so the laptop computers occasionally do not have Internet access at some locations in the school. 

Technology available at the high school includes:

Laptop computer cards

Motorola Xooms

Nooks

Projectors and 55"-screen TVs

Budget concerns are very similar to the elementary school where I work.  Funds have been cut substantially.  Most of the money for the renovations and new books/supplies come from SPLOST.  Some money is occasionally provided by Partners in Education.  One Partner donated several new computer tables

The media specialist is in charge of two separate committees for Technology & Media.  The Media Committee screens challenged books, approves materials, etc.  The Technology Committee plans technology events and purchases for the school. Technology Tuesdays are available for teacher training and led by the media specialist.  However, these are not required and do not usually have good attendance.   

I had some interesting experiences today.  I helped weed through some old materials that went with video tapes.  I helped box books for the move and transfer movies to different shelves so the shelves could be taken apart and disposed of.  Some of the student aids dismantled the entire circulation desk.  The desk was old and the particle board was beginning to separate.  

Overall, this was such a pleasant experience.  The media specialist was so helpful and answered my questions all day long.  She volunteer information when I hadn't thought to ask about a specific topic.  I enjoyed my time in the high school and would like to go back in the fall to see how the renovations turned out!     

Technology Conferences

For the past two summers, I have had the privilege to attend Hall County's Educational Technology Conference.  Modeled after Georgia's ETC, this conference is set up so that the attendee can attend sessions based on what specifically interests them.  I was able to attend sessions on Audacity, Storytelling with PowerPoint, Teacher Pages, Augmented Reality, and other tech tools.  My main observation was that Georgia Southern's program has thoroughly prepared me in the field of Instructional Technology.  Many of these sessions provided information with which I was already familiar.  This summer, I will not only be attending the conference, but I will also be presenting a few sessions with coworkers.  These sessions include:  Audacity (workshop), BrainPOP, and PB Works.

In Fall 2011, I was very fortunate to be a chosen representative for my school to attend Georgia's Educational Technology Conference.  This was a wonderful experience.  I tried to select varying sessions to attend, and even left some sessions early in order to catch the tail end of other sessions.  The session that stands out as being the most valuable was "Exemplary and Exceptional Library Media Programs."  I took extensive notes on the ideas that several elementary school media specialists presented.  This session encouraged me to always seek ideas from other media specialists and never settle for anything less than my absolute best effort!  Other very helpful sessions were: "Nothing but NETS: Transforming Your Students' Learning Environments with Technology," "Web Tools for Collaboration," and "Examining the Web 2.0 Learner."  Through attending this conference, I came to realize I am honored to work for Hall County Schools.  The ETC Hall County develops each year is just as good as the one the state of Georgia organizes. 

My coworkers and I were able to glean information from vendors, as well.  It was great to get a taste of what kind of equipment is available (regardless of whether we can afford it or not).  A coworker of mine was awarded an entire class digital response system from Proven Learning!

Processing

I was able to fully process four items in the elementary media center. Destiny makes this process quite easy. Through the program, you "Add a Title" by typing in basic book information (title, author, publication, etc.). Destiny asks if you would like to make changes to punctuation, but it is generally correct so you can simply click "accept all." The final step is to "Add a Copy." This portion of the process involves selecting the Call Number and bar code number. Follett allows you to download the specific MARC record for books you've purchased by the company. Once the MARC record is uploaded, all the cataloging information is automatically stored.

One of the items was particularly unique because it was a book donated by Georgia's First Lady, Sandra Deal. She visited our school and read this book, Who I'd Like to Be by Elizabeth Brown, to our second grade students. The book was published independently, so there was very limited information about the publishing company and other specific items.

The other titles I processed using Follett's download are:
1. Freedom Song
2. MyPlate and You
3. The Polar Bear Scientists

Overall, the cataloging process felt very enriching. I think this is because it is exciting to think of new materials being added to the collection. I am anxious to see how popular these titles become and if they bring joy to the faces of the children in this school!

TL Cafe Webinar--April 2, 2012

Dynamic Duo: English Teacher + Teacher Librarian!

Webinar Wiki: http://tlvirtualcafe.wikispaces.com/dynamic_duo

Two English teachers from two different schools had their classes develop a script of Romeo and Juliet and perform the play. They used wikispaces in order to collaborate among classmates, as well as with the students of the other class. One school library media specialist acted as a mediator between both classes in order to organize the project and help develop ideas.

Students were excited about this project and were very eager to work hard in order to produce an authentic assessment in the form of a video. Their audience was the separate class, who was also working on an individual video performance. In order to reflect on the procedure throughout the project, students kept blogs. Their final blog entry was a more formal persuasive paper in response to Shakespeare's play.

Students decided to have all Montagues wear red to symbolize their aggression and desire to fight. All the Capulets wore white in their video. The English teacher listened while smiling, excited that the students were initiating a detailed discussion on symbolism on their own.

Here is the link to the wiki created and used by BOTH classes at two separate schools:
http://epicromeoandjuliet.wikispaces.com/

Other random things mentioned throughout the webinar:
Skype--Seek out opportunities to get authors into the classroom. The use of Skype should be explored more with the teacher-librarian relationship.

New accessibility makes it easy for the Teacher Librarian to assist teachers, even remotely.

The role of the media specialist as a facilitator allows the SLMS foster creativity within students and help them explore ideas for projects. The SLMS is able to have an open mind and be a safe place for collaboration.

www.fakemovieposter.com



Despite the fact that the focus of this webinar was a high school project, I found it very helpful in regards to creative ways a SLMS can collaborate with teachers.

Inventory! (000-299)

I was able to inventory a portion of the library resources. This was a brief, but interesting experience. The inventory consisted of three portions of the Dewey Decimal System: 000s--Computer Science, Information, & General Works; 100s--Philosophy & Psychology; and 200s--Religion. However, this was a relatively small portion of the overall nonfiction collection.

The inventory consisted of using a handheld device to scan each title. The device was then synced to the computer with the Destiny OPAC. The titles appeared within the program and several (around 18) titles were deemed "missing." The SLMS was very confused about this initially. However, she then realized that these specific titles were the individual videos available on our video streaming website, Safari Montage. This was especially frustrating because she mentioned that she had previously gone through the process to remove these Safari titles from Destiny in order to avoid this problem.

It's interesting to experience these kind of glitches... things you never consider happening until you watch them firsthand.

Weeding the 900's

I was able to recently weed a good portion of the 900s. This was an amazing experience! The SLMS told me that she annually weeds titles that are damaged, but hasn't weeded the nonfiction section in quite a while. This was very evident in the copyright dates of some of the titles. I discovered a few that were published in 1982-1983!

I came to learn how painful the weeding process can be. This is especially true due to the fact that the funding to replaces these materials is virtually nonexistent (aside from SPLOST and book fair). I reached the books on Mexico and only 2-3 of the titles were less than 10 years old. The SLMS encouraged me to only weed a few of the oldest titles and that she would make a note to acquire more titles in this specific area, among other topics. This was an interesting situation because many of our students are Mexican and the circulation of these books was excessive, particularly during National Hispanic Heritage Month. There were many other topic areas, like Native Americans, that I knew were specific to the Georgia Performance Standards for multiple grades.

I was able to gain valuable experience in how subjective the weeding process can be. However, I weeded approximately 46 titles. I would like to find time to continue this with another portion of the nonfiction resources.

District Media Specialist Meeting

I used one of my personal days this week to attend the county-wide media specialist meeting with Mrs. D. Although the meeting was a brief 30 minutes, this was an enlightening experience. The two topics covered were an RFP to determine options for the district to obtain eBooks for schools and changes made to our county Acceptable Use Agreement and Internet 2. It was intriguing to be a part of the initial process of developing an RFP. The document itself is confidential and will be presented to vendors via the district website on Wednesday. All media specialists were encouraged to read the RFP thoroughly and make suggestions for changes. It is also exciting to know that our district may soon be acquiring eBooks for our schools!

In addition, there was a general discussion involving the Acceptable Use Agreement. The importance of individual students logging in to computers separately was stressed. An instance was mentioned where a school's entire network was shut down due to the fact that a teacher attempted to allow several students to use her username and password simultaneously. Student safety and network security is vital. Repairs will be made to county internet over Spring Break in order that issues with limited speed can be resolved.

The majority of the typical meeting time was given to a vendor showcase. I was able to meet several vendors from companies like Mackin, Scholastic, Bound to Stay Bound, and Follett. It was interesting to see the importance of the relationship between media specialist and vendor.