Webinar

I have enjoyed participating in webinars—I do love to connect to others and get new ideas and practices to use in my library and this is a great way to do it. I started with the School Library Journal Book Buzz and have loved the archives they have of past offerings. I know it is nice to be able to participate live but the scheduling is definitely more challenging!

Elementary Visit

All I can say is, you folks ROCK. I seriously don’t think I could make it in an elementary school, or would ever really want to. The students are all over the place in terms of interest and ability (I don’t even think you would get the same span of qualifications if you combined middle and high school students) and that media center HOPS. I actually volunteered in my own kid’s elementary media center when they were younger and for four hours a week ALL I did was return books to the shelf. Oh, and in the spring I scanned shelves during an inventory. There is just so much going on.

The media center I visited had a lot of interesting programs that were completely different from us. One is the newspapers—I have only ever had two people ask if we subscribed to any and they were substitutes! At this elementary center though there was a steady stream of students every day doing current affairs activities with the papers. It was enlightening seeing such active, engaged learning. Lexiles was also a big focus—much so more than I have seen or heard about anywhere else. They do not do Accelerated Reader but they do have a rather large school-wide reading program run by a committee of PTA parents. Overall, a fun experience but was a bit overwhelming to me!

My Personal Learning Network

I established my personal learning network on a Google Reader Page and have enjoyed having one place to go and read through my subscriptions. As media specialists we do not always find ourselves in the company of our peers but this is a nice way to at least visit virtually.

My page can be found HERE.

High School

 I spent a day at the media center of a brand new high school. And wow-the budget, and to be fair the focus counts too, from one side of the county to the other is astonishing. While we have a flip camera and a borrowed dvd burner for our morning news program they have a complete news station with sound, multiple camera angles, lighting and props and a real news desk from a local station. It is not run by the media center but the students in that department help out with production needs of the library. What great support. The shift from middle school student to high school is something I think I would be very interested in. The students seem more interested in what they are doing (maybe those are the only ones you see) and seem more inquisitive than all but a few at my location. I liked that the students were allowed to print in the media center because they were capable of following the one to two page guideline given to them, and only doing more if they checked first. We recently had to discontinue all printing mainly because the students could not be watched constantly and that is what seemed to be needed. Also, they needed less constant supervision to stay on task and were able to talk in the media center without getting out of hand. What a difference age can make!

One of the biggest differences between the locations though was the class arrangements. Where my school is four teams and all teams teach the same thing at the same time, it is possible at the high school level to work with one teacher on a project instead of having to work with every student in the school. But I have discovered from making a lot of site visits and talking with a lot of media specialists that the way all schools work is completely different. I think the more experience you can bring to one location the better and I am very thankful for an administration that encourages me to collaborate with, and gives me time to go, and visit others around the county.

Another big difference at the high school level (at least in this county) is the staffing—while elementary and middle school have one media specialist and a clerk, high schools have two media specialists and a clerk. While it is fun running my own show I would like the opportunity to divide the work. I love doing program administration and sometimes get tired of giving the same class over and over (again, might just be my location because one class usually means about 20) and the opportunity to learn from each other and join forces sounds pretty darn nice.

Conference

The COMO (Georgia Council of Media Organizations) conference in Athens was a wonderful way to spend the day. I got in early (never know about Atlanta traffic!) and so got to spend a lot of time in the exhibits. And I am so glad I did! Not only did I score a huge box of free KAPCO book stuff, I also got a cup from my alma mater (go Gamecocks!) and signed up with Jr. Library Guild. I know a lot of libraries who use this company but I had never heard the details before. One payment (with new order incentive it came to under $8.00 a hardback with protective cover!) and we get new books all year. I was surprised it worked for a single grade level but their collections are great and a perfect fit for high interest/low level and advanced.

The sessions I attended were “proving your worth : using reports to promote media center”, “practical ways to energize your media program,”, GLMA grants for your library program” (so going to apply for one of these!), and “reality check”. I got something great out of every one and attending really instills the need to share with each other, even when we think our budget and calendars with be strained to support attendance.  

Seminar

I attended the BER (Bureau of Education & Research) seminar “What’s new in young adult literature and how to use it in your program” for grades 6-12. What a great day! I was not sure about taking the time to do this but I will certainly try to make it every other year. The resource book alone is worth the admission but to see someone booktalk all day long, in all sorts of different ways, and hear actual examples of how people are incorporating books into the curriculum and getting students interested was incredibly beneficial as well. Topics covered included incorporating innovative strategies for using some of the new books, integrating multicultural titles, special reads for special needs, enhancing literacy with poetry and book bundling. The entries in the catalogue, and hearing about the books, helped me make my entire fiction (and some non-fiction) ordering this year.

A busy day!

Another day in the life. Seriously, I couldn’t make this up if I tried.

1. Attended a training class for iRespond. It was the second one (of three) and there was almost a mutiny. The trainer couldn’t keep up with the questions and mood of the class, the teachers were frustrated from having tried to use the program after the first training, and there were internet connection problems when loading the data. (55 minutes)

2. Met with computer technician to talk about some laptop issues. (25 minutes)

3. Sent in some tech support requests. (15 minutes)

4. Scheduled three teachers for future classes in the media center. Discussed the projects with them and future dates and filled out to the collaboration planning form. (40 minutes)

5. Assisted students looking for books in library. (20 minutes)

6. Ordered batteries for audio books. (10 minutes)

7. Fixed a student login. (5 minutes)

8. Worked on a publication about reading for the assistant administrator. (50 minutes)

9. Assisted a group of students doing research on the computers. (15 minutes)

10. Went to classroom to help teacher with LCD projector that was displaying upside down. (20 minutes)

11. Processed a small book order and did finance paperwork. (45 minutes)

12. Worked with more students looking for books, since media clerk handing out flyers (not library related!) to homeroom teachers. (25 minutes)

13. Wrote announcement to update information about “going places with books”. (10 minutes)

14. Scheduled reading classes to come in the following week. (10 minutes)

Mid Semester

My day was looking up and then started to get crazy, so I jotted down the particulars. There are, gratefully, a chunk of days spent focusing on one thing. It can be a teaching day, or booktalk/checkout day, or book processing or ordering day and I really do enjoy those. And then you have a day like this where you are doing everything at once and finishing, and sometimes not even barely starting, anything.

1. Worked on finding the Destiny patron empowerment report and modifying it for my needs. Got it saved in favorite reports for easier retrieval next time. Helped a few students successfully log in and threatened them (re: offered bribes for proof of future success) into writing passwords and logins into the cover of their agenda.  (35 minutes)

2. Troubleshoot iRepsond (new student response system that was rolled out to school/county) with three teachers, principal, tech support, and company contact. Walked to classes, investigated issues, emailed and phone called reps and tried equipment in classrooms again. (70 minutes) This new equipment has been a huge time involvement already and will most likely continue to be as it is the new mandatory way to conduct benchmark testing. I was tasked responsible for inventory and distribution. Spent 3 plus hours labeling all units and remotes and assigning and checking out to staff.

3. Made banners for school displays for frantic teachers. (25 minutes)

4. Worked on the Go Places with Books program. Printed off wall summaries to bring to language arts meeting. At the meeting we talked about the particulars of the program and discussed celebration party dates and ideas. (35 minutes)

5. Went to math department meeting. Got them involved in the Books program—they will count the miles and chart the numbers in graphs. (20 minutes)

6. Worked on slides to go in the morning announcements. Did some character words to run long term and looked up Hispanic facts for Hispanic Heritage month. Had trouble with publisher and putting them into MovieMaker. (60 minutes)

7. Looked for last years banner for Hispanic Heritage month and printed list of books to pull. Helped tape up banner. (30minutes).

8. Read aloud with the small reading group. (25 minutes)

9. Worked with four periods of classes with finding books. Regular teacher was absent and so had a sub bring the classes. One class had to be taking back for repeated discipline issues. (4 hours)

10. Laptop not working for the classes coming in. Had to troubleshoot WIFI issues and eventually contact tech support and find another laptop which is not as easy as it sounds. We have four new teachers waiting on theirs and borrowing from library, and lots of broken laptops with a 4 week waiting list to get repaired. All available media center laptops currently being used somewhere. (25 minutes)

11. More iRespond issues. Had to talk to company rep and principal about problems then contact bookkeeper to order a slew of replacement batteries. Tracked down screwdriver which someone appropriated off my desk. (35 minutes).

Go Places with Books

The reading program last year was sort of a haphazard affair and I had virtually no involvement in it other that assisting the students in finding books to read. This year everyone wanted something different and I was put in charge. After lots of thought and brainstorming we now have a really great, school-wide program. It is called Go Places with Books and we have a bulletin board outside the media center that is the visual center with a huge world and information about the program. Essentially the students (according to the standard) are being asked to read 25 books and when a book is complete they fill out a “wall summary” listing the title, author, number of pages, and a few sentences about their thoughts on the book. Each page counts for one mile and each team has a transportation vehicle we tape to the summary (sailboat, motorcycle, bike, limo and a convertible for the teachers) and we have them taped to the wall running up and down the halls from the main board. The math department is in charge of keeping track of the miles and how many each team is racking up and the social studies department keeps up informed about where we are and on which trip around the world. We do drawings weekly with student names of who had turned in a summary and had our first party (of four, this one for reading five books) for the students with our principle “flipping over books”. The students who met the first goal came to the media center for pizza and got to see our principle actually do a standing flip and round off. They all had a great time and there will be even more people who meet the next goal in January. (One of our social studies teacher, a DJ, “rocking” over books maybe?)

Orientation week

We have 500 students in the school and 4 teams. Three of the teams are on a daily 6 period schedule. One team is on a 2 day block schedule. Confusing and frustrating to schedule things in the media center when I try to give all students the same attention! This year orientation took 5 days to complete all students in 19 classes. Thankfully this year was the one I decided to not deliver it all in person, but via Photostory. Unfortunately due to some poor planning on my part (I have learned the hard way to check and recheck and check again) and technology issues it did not go so stress free. Photostory got deleted off the server over the summer and was not going to be put back soon (the average time for any and all work orders from tech support have run 4-6 weeks this year) so I ended up creating the tour with MovieMaker. But when that went to get finalized I discovered my computer had been moved over the summer and there was no dvd burner, not even a dvd player (ah ha, that movie I tried to play most likely WAS functional) at my desktop. It took a very long time to figure out how to get the video out to the library projector. Working with technology and intranets and school internet security can be a huge ordeal.

At the start

Spent a lot of time showing the new media clerk how a few things worked. Don’t want to overwhelm her but lots of laminating and banner making and resources being asked for. Gave a crash course in call numbers and book sections but know it will need to be done again when there is a more practical need.

Attended  hours of administrative meetings with the staff. Got excused from a third of them to work on book ordering and check the magazine subscription which, due to budgets, started over the summer while we were all gone.

I am trying to establish a more hands off approach to technology support in the building—it is currently one of those gray areas where sometimes I can help and yet all the time am asked and expected to rush around helping. And while my clerk will be great with the students she is not at all adept with anything technological related and so can offer zero assistance. I made up signs to be posted in the four labs in the building with the tech support number and email. Also made up a sign for how students need to save work to teacher’s intranet folders since there is no printing in the media center.

Organized and took a mental inventory of equipment and supplies in the media offices. The office was left in chaos at the end of last school year.

Welcome!

Welcome to my blog! I am in the middle of my third year of working as a modern day school librarian (otherwise known as a  Media Specialist, Teacher Librarian, or all around amazing guru) and this blog will give you a glimpse into the “day in the life” of what I have been up to.

The dates won’t be correct though—I was actually keeping a log offline. I know, not the way to do a blog but I am learning how to be better “connected”.