A Change of Scenery
Today I spent the day working in the Media Center at Islands Elementary School in Savannah, Georgia. This is a relatively new media center that serves a population of Pre-K through 5th grade students. There are six student computers and a multi-media station. The media specialist is Susan Hill. I spent my time correcting class assignments and adding new students to the online catalog system. This was necessary because of the reshuffling of staff after the initial school start-up. In addition, I created shelf/marker library cards for several classes who were visiting the media center today. There was also a great deal of shelving to do.
The school was having testing so the media center was not very busy on this particular day. However, several classes visited. The first graders were checking out books for the first time. It was very interesting being in the media center at an elementary school. There is much more class interaction and much less individual interaction and research. I also saw much less collaboration and teacher interaction than at Johnson High School. It may have been because of the testing.
Total Hours: 7 Hours
Thursday, October 22, 2009
Monday, October 19, 2009
October 19, 2009
Fall in the Media Center
Today I changed out the bulletin boards in the Media Center. I ordered the Teen Reed Week banner which meant crawling up tall ladder to hang it over the circulation desk. We put up a table with "spooky" tales for all those teens that love a good scare. I included the "hooks" like the Twilight series and the Sweep series and the Blue Blood series. To keep me happy, I also included Bram Stoker's Dracula, Edgar Allen Poe, and The Ledgend of Sleepy Hollow.
Friday was the district "in-service day" where the media specialists were charged with the task of delivering the NetSmartz.com curriculum to ALL students at the school. The material is very current and vital to today's students. I set up an appointment with the principal to decide how to best accomplish this. I then stepped through the presentation to become familiar with all the cues (it's scripted). It will be interesting and definitely addresses our standards.
Total hours: 8 hours
Today I changed out the bulletin boards in the Media Center. I ordered the Teen Reed Week banner which meant crawling up tall ladder to hang it over the circulation desk. We put up a table with "spooky" tales for all those teens that love a good scare. I included the "hooks" like the Twilight series and the Sweep series and the Blue Blood series. To keep me happy, I also included Bram Stoker's Dracula, Edgar Allen Poe, and The Ledgend of Sleepy Hollow.
Friday was the district "in-service day" where the media specialists were charged with the task of delivering the NetSmartz.com curriculum to ALL students at the school. The material is very current and vital to today's students. I set up an appointment with the principal to decide how to best accomplish this. I then stepped through the presentation to become familiar with all the cues (it's scripted). It will be interesting and definitely addresses our standards.
Total hours: 8 hours
Thursday, October 15, 2009
October 12, 2009
A New Setting
Today I spent a day at Charles Ellis Montessori Academy. This school serves a student population that ranges from Pre-K to eighth grade. This is a bit of challenge to keep the upper school materials out of the hands of the youngest patrons. Age appropriate content is a concern. The materials that are restricted to sixth grade and above are placed in a special area and labled accordingly. This media center has self-check-out. Assistance is often needed, however, the students really enjoy the ability to check out on their own. My familiarality with the middle school chapter books really helps out when suggesting books for the children.
The Accelerated Reader program is a real factor in the middle and lower grades. I am not sure about my feelings toward this program. However, the media specialist here seems very enthusiastic about the program and its impact on circulation.
After school I met with six teachers to deliver my staff development lesson. The participants voiced satisfaction with the new program. I taught an introduction to Audacity and Animoto. To improve the lesson I would split the lesson to teach these two programs separately.
Total Hours: 8 hours
Today I spent a day at Charles Ellis Montessori Academy. This school serves a student population that ranges from Pre-K to eighth grade. This is a bit of challenge to keep the upper school materials out of the hands of the youngest patrons. Age appropriate content is a concern. The materials that are restricted to sixth grade and above are placed in a special area and labled accordingly. This media center has self-check-out. Assistance is often needed, however, the students really enjoy the ability to check out on their own. My familiarality with the middle school chapter books really helps out when suggesting books for the children.
The Accelerated Reader program is a real factor in the middle and lower grades. I am not sure about my feelings toward this program. However, the media specialist here seems very enthusiastic about the program and its impact on circulation.
After school I met with six teachers to deliver my staff development lesson. The participants voiced satisfaction with the new program. I taught an introduction to Audacity and Animoto. To improve the lesson I would split the lesson to teach these two programs separately.
Total Hours: 8 hours
Wednesday, October 7, 2009
October 7, 2009
Classes...classes...classes!
Today we had back-to-back classes in the Media Center. There was barely time for a quick bite for lunch. We had two classes in for instruction on searching data-bases (GALILEO in particular). We prepared special bookmarks with handy passwords for online research, including the latest GALILEO password, to give out. We had another class in for research on the periodic table. Another class came for instruction on the new multi-media station and an introduction to the presentation programs. This did not include the other small classes that came to utilize the extra space while we were instructing.
We have had a major push to get the students and teachers to sign in. We are trying to present accurate figures monthly to show how much the media center is used by the faculty and students.
I prepared and submitted two large book orders. After running the Titlewave analysis at Follett, I am concentrating on reference and the math and science sections. In addition, I am beefing up the section that appeals to the reluctant readers. We are really having success in that area. The Bluford High and Drama High series have really boosted circulation to those readers.
Total hours: 8 hours
Today we had back-to-back classes in the Media Center. There was barely time for a quick bite for lunch. We had two classes in for instruction on searching data-bases (GALILEO in particular). We prepared special bookmarks with handy passwords for online research, including the latest GALILEO password, to give out. We had another class in for research on the periodic table. Another class came for instruction on the new multi-media station and an introduction to the presentation programs. This did not include the other small classes that came to utilize the extra space while we were instructing.
We have had a major push to get the students and teachers to sign in. We are trying to present accurate figures monthly to show how much the media center is used by the faculty and students.
I prepared and submitted two large book orders. After running the Titlewave analysis at Follett, I am concentrating on reference and the math and science sections. In addition, I am beefing up the section that appeals to the reluctant readers. We are really having success in that area. The Bluford High and Drama High series have really boosted circulation to those readers.
Total hours: 8 hours
Saturday, October 3, 2009
October 2, 2009
A Quiet Day
Today was very quiet in the Media Center. Because it was Homecoming Day, our principal put the school in lock down mode. This meant that unless there was an overriding need, students were not issued passes to leave their classes. That kept the individual visits to a minimum. I did, however, have four classes scheduled for the Media Center. These were 9th grade classes scheduled for orientation and short story book check out. I used the quiet time to work on cataloging and placed my magazine subscription order for the year. In addition I submitted the collection for analysis through the Follett Titlewise service. I only submitted the reference section and modified the parameters so that it would give me a comparison to the Wilson collection percentages. I realize that Titlewise is designed to analyze the full collection for percentages, but I thought that it would be interesting to analyze the reference section in the same way. I began the process of building a consideration list for the reference section.
I checked the sign-in log and found that we still had over 100 visitors to the Media Center. I think this is rather impressive for a lock-down day.
Total Hours: 8 hours
Today was very quiet in the Media Center. Because it was Homecoming Day, our principal put the school in lock down mode. This meant that unless there was an overriding need, students were not issued passes to leave their classes. That kept the individual visits to a minimum. I did, however, have four classes scheduled for the Media Center. These were 9th grade classes scheduled for orientation and short story book check out. I used the quiet time to work on cataloging and placed my magazine subscription order for the year. In addition I submitted the collection for analysis through the Follett Titlewise service. I only submitted the reference section and modified the parameters so that it would give me a comparison to the Wilson collection percentages. I realize that Titlewise is designed to analyze the full collection for percentages, but I thought that it would be interesting to analyze the reference section in the same way. I began the process of building a consideration list for the reference section.
I checked the sign-in log and found that we still had over 100 visitors to the Media Center. I think this is rather impressive for a lock-down day.
Total Hours: 8 hours
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