I have spent a lot of my spare time this week in the media center taking inventory. I was put in charge of completing inventory of the professional collection in our media center...I was amazed at how many resources we had that I was unaware of. The professional collection is placed on multiple bookcases throughout the media center, and it is not well organized. I was surprised to see that our media center houses many of the professional learning books that I have actually purchased myself, including some books I have used in my graduate classes. The professional development collection is one of my areas of focus for my facility plan. I know that these resources are just sitting and collecting dust when they could be very useful to many staff members at our school. I would like to add the titles to my BUES Professional Learning Community site, so that teachers are more aware of what we have to offer. I was also surprised that many items had never been processed into the system to begin with. After talking to Mrs. B I found out that this could be caused by the sheer volume of items that we have, and that we receive at one time. I also have found out this week that inventorying items is very monotonous! Aside from completing the inventory, I have also been weeding some items from our reference collection, as well as materials that are worn out. The weeding process, like the inventory process, is very simple. All I have to do is find the book in Destiny and delete the title. You have to make sure that you mark the track as weeded copy box and then press okay. I weeded 10 Georgia almanacs from 2006, because Mrs. B ordered 2012 copies to replace them. She told me that before you weed items you need to hold onto the copies until you order a replacement. I have learned a lot this week.

This morning I attended the 43rd Annual Conference on Children’s Literature. To begin the conference I attended a session on using digital text to preview short stories with students. I found the knowledge gained to be very beneficial. I learned different ways to use video to create anticipation guides for students on short stories. I know that the vocabulary and background knowledge component would be great for young students. I have been experimenting with digital texts, and plan on incorporating them into my lessons. I also went to the session titled Web 2.0MG! Taking Children’s Literature into the 21st Century. In this session I learned about some free web 2.0 tools that could be used in the classroom to enhance children’s literature. I knew about many of the tools from my coursework, but some of the tools were new to me such as StoryBird. My favorite part of the session was the way the presenters gave ideas and also showed examples of how the web 2.0 tools could be used by students. Authors Meghan McCarthy and Judy Feldman were keynote speakers at the conference. I gained tons of knowledge from the conference, and I would recommend attending the conference if you get the opportunity. Next year I want to attend both days instead of just one.

Today I joined the Georgia Library Association. I was given the option with my membership to join an interest group, so I chose to join the Collection Development, Distance Education, and Intellectual Freedom groups. I am excited to be a member of this wonderful organization, and I know that it will be a resource that I can use to continue on my path of professional learning. 

Today I visited the media center at Stewart Middle School. The media center was very well organized, but very different than what I am used to seeing. The rules of the media center were understood by the patrons that I observed, and unlike the media center at Alexander, the students were expected to be very quiet. The media center was full of students conducting research and reading for pleasure. There are 14 computers for students use, and I was told that every student has to have a signed permission slip to use the internet. Teachers are able to reserve the computers for a class in advance. There were a couple of displays set up showcasing books in the media center, but students had to ask permission before viewing the books. There was a seating area near the periodical. One thing that was different from both BUES and Alexander was Stewart's well organized and extensive collection of professional development resources for teachers. I am glad that I was able to visit the media center at Stewart Middle School. I believe that it is important to observe media center at all levels.

Today I visited a local high school media center. As soon as I walked into the media center I fell in love. The atmosphere was so warm and inviting and the two media specialists just contributed to this. They welcomed me immediately and made me feel at home. The media center was full of students, but the entire time I was there I so no behavior issues. One of the media specialists told me that they used to not allow the students to bring in drinks, food, or gum and they saw that they were having a huge problem. So they decided to remove the restriction and the messes stopped. She said that they wanted students to feel like they were welcome at all times, and she said that they do not monitor noise. On any given morning she said that there were anywhere from 50 to 100 students hanging out in the media center before school. She said they read, play on the computers, and work on school work, and get on their personal devices. She stressed that this was what they wanted. She said eventually you see more and more students picking up books. The media center has 30 student computers and 3 computer labs in the school. The computer labs have an online sign-up that teachers can access. A very neat feature the school has is called Lanschool. This program allows the media specialists to view and monitor every student computer screen in the media center. If students are doing anything inappropriate, they can limit web use, control the computer, limit printing, limit the USB capability, and they can also print the screen to show the teacher if there is an issue.  This high school has the highest circulation for fiction books in the county. The media specialist says that she works very hard to promote reading by promoting book fairs, using displays, and putting information on the message boards located on flat screen televisions throughout the school's hallways. She said that she is surprised to see how a books circulation can increase when you put it out on display. The school also had a large collection of graphic novels. They informed me that graphic novels were currently the popular thing among high school students, and they wanted to give the students what they want. I learned so much, and I am going to be able to apply many of their practices on the elementary level. Here are some pictures that I took during my observation:

Today I created a monthly report for the media center for BUES. Mrs. B gave me a detailed calendar from the month of December, and from that I created a detailed memo to my principal informing her of the media center activities for the month. I also included the circulation from the beginning of the year up until December 15th. The month of December was very busy for our media center (well I guess every month is). I enjoyed looking back at the different events of the media center, because it allowed me to reflect on past events. I believe that these memos are beneficial due to the fact that it allows administration to see just how valuable a School Library Media Specialist is. Click on "Monthly Media Center Report" to view the memo that I created.

Monthly Media Center Report

Since I am getting a first hand experience of what it is like to be pulled in 100 different directions throughout the day (wow...being a media specialist is tiring), I decided to combine my efforts. I wrote in an earlier blog about  how I have begun training staff members at my school on using AIMSweb, and I am in high demand for one on one training. This has turned out to be quite difficult, because when I'm not in my third grade classroom, I am in the media center. I was laying in bed last night when I had an AH HA moment! Since I am already creating a professional learning community website for BUES, why not include a screencast that gives step by step instructions on how to use AIMSweb. I used Screencast-O-Matic to create my first entry on the BUES professional learning blog. See, isn't technology a blessing! Here is the link to the BUES professional learning community blog!!!  : )
http://www.blogster.com/burnettelementary

Also, here is the screencast that I created:

Today I finished my Dr. Seuss Oh, the Places You'll Go! When You Read a Book school wide theme display for the media center. The display informs students about the Reading Across America events that will be at our school, a list of Dr. Seuss books housed in the BUES media center, different Dr. Seuss websites, and our Dr. Seuss website that I created for the school. I added pocket charts so that students can place answers to the Dr. Seuss trivia question of the day located on the website. This display will also be a part of the reading enrichment unit that I am developing. Here are some pictures of the display:

Today I went to my first media committee meeting. There were six other faculty members from BUES and Mrs. B attending the meeting. I could not have picked a better meeting to go to, because we worked on a three year 21st Century Technology Implementation and Learning Plan. Mrs. B discussed our district vision statement for 21st Century Learning which is: Students will have access to and be engaged in the use of a variety of technology tools to increase opportunities for collaboration, problem solving, innovation, and research in order to prepare them for post-secondary education and/or skill of a global workforce. To develop our school's three year plan, we discussed the current technology that we are using on a regular basis, and the way in which it is being used by teachers and students. We also discussed the ways in which the technology we are using is having a positive impact on our students. I think that the most crucial thing that I got from the meeting was that our school has an abundance of technology, but our staff has not been trained properly on how to use it. For this reason alone, most of our staff is either using the technology incorrectly or not using it at all. When I become a media specialist I will emphasize the importance of properly training teachers on the technology that we use.

Today Mrs. B showed me how to process items into our system. She informed me that all of Douglas County uses Destiny. She said most counties used this system. The first step in processing an item into the automated system is to go to the catalog tab. Next you go to the tab link and the location link to find your county. After you have found your county you go to add copies and then scan the barcode. Since I am extremely lucky, I was able to experience processing items when the barcode is broken (which by the way is also a lot of fun when you have to check students in and out of the library as well). Anyways, so I had to type in the barcode for each item, and hit add copies. Most of the book are already entered into the system since it is so popular. I processed 10 teacher resource books. I gave each book a school specific barcode and call number for our school. Since our label maker is also broke...I had to write these on a sticker and place them on the books temporarily. For example, one book's call number was PRO 372 PAV. I entered the new call number and barcode into the system. In addition to the normal processing procedure, since we are a Title I school if the books were purchased with Title I funds we have to put that into the system as well. I am glad that our county uses Destiny, because I feel like it is very user friendly. Ten books down...I hope many more to go!   : )