ALA Membership

I joined the American Library Association today! I also added an additional membership to the American Association of School Libraries. This makes me feel official. I'm excited to receive information from ALA regularly in order to keep up to date with what's going on in school libraries. This will definitely be beneficial once I am a SLMS, and perhaps it will even be helpful in acquiring a position. I look forward to exploring the ALA site in more depth now that I have membership rights. I know the Continuing Education Clearinghouse will be a great way to always continue building knowledge in instructional technology and library management and current events.

Book Fair Luau!

This week our media center has been quite busy.

Book Fair preparation is in full swing. The theme this year is "Book Fair Luau." While the media center is still fully functional, some decorations have begun to go up. I have experienced book fair for several years, but only from the perspective of a teacher. I'm excited to see more of the inner workings. Book Fair is such a valuable tool in our school now that the media center budget has been cut completely. Funding for new books and materials now comes from SPLOST and Book Fair.

I have begun the weeding process within the media center. Mary D. has not given me a specific section to weed as of yet, due to the fact that she has already done a substantial amount of weeding in the past few months. However, I have been working on evaluating the Destiny report of the materials that have been recently weeded in order to determine the specific criteria of the materials. When I spoke to Mary D. about how she weeds, she said that this weeding was quite overdue. It's more difficult to weed when funding to replace materials is so limited. She says she weeds based on very general guidelines: outdated reference or Dewey materials and damaged or low-circulation fiction. She allows classroom teachers to utilize weeded materials in their classroom. The majority of the non-fiction materials weeded were published in the 1980s or early 1990s. There were a handful of recently published books included in the weeding, but these were extremely popular books that had become worn out. I look forward to do some additional weeding here, or perhaps at one of my secondary observation sites.

February Technology Committee meeting, etc.

We had our Technology Committee meeting this week. Another teacher at our school won a digital response system and year's subscription to Starrmatica . She gave us a brief overview of the devices and how they provide instant student answers within the form of a PowerPoint. Survey data can also be displayed. I used Starrmatica with my class. It is a great resource that teaches and reinforces specific math and reading skills, but the reading passages are too difficult for 2nd graders.

The Technology Committee also discussed our upcoming SPLOST budget. It seems the money will go toward 55" flat screen televisions with interactive slates and Hover Cams for teachers. These presentation devices are quite valuable in giving students information and allowing them to practice concepts. Other considerations will be made concerning additional lap tops for teacher check-out, tablets, and e-readers.

I asked for feedback concerning my upcoming March staff development. The consensus was to focus on 2-3 Web 2.0 tools in order for staff members to have time to play around with each and not become overwhelmed. Now, I must determine which tools would be most beneficial to every teacher. I'm considering Kerpoof since I use it frequently with my own students.

I have completed my media center evaluation. The results were quite good, considering the nonexistent media center budget. Mary D. certainly does a lot with very little. Our discussion was quite helpful. In addition, the DOE rubric is a wonderful tool in order to improve the overall performance of a media center.

I'm excited about how my portfolio is coming along. I have many things embedded and am anxious to start embedding assignments from my practicum.

Also... my observation date has been scheduled for March 2nd! I'm certainly nervous, but excited, too. I'm confident the 4th grade students I'll be working with for my Information Literacy lesson will be excited to use the technology and Web 2.0 resources for their research on the three branches of government.

Busy Library Bee

It has been a wonderful week in and out of the media center. I spent a great deal of time discussing the reference section with Mary D. I have become much more familiar with the Destiny program. She was very patient in explaining ways I could use filters in order to find the specific information I need. This can be so useful when analyzing collection data. I look forward to beginning work on my weeding project. Technology like this makes clerical work so much easier so that we can spend more time focusing on the students!

I have continued discussing my information literacy lesson with my collaborating teacher, Mrs. M. We decided on the topic of The Three Branches of Government. I'm still piecing the details together in my head, but I've begun creating the pathfinder. You can find it here: https://sites.google.com/site/the3branchespathfinder/home

I believe I'll create a Glog for my ethical use project. I've begun the online poster, adding links and video clips. I think it will be a useful tool for teachers and students, and look forward to using it with my information literacy lesson.

My hours spent in the media center so far have been wonderful. Each day brings confirmation that this is my calling.