This week is Spring Break for the Douglas County School System. During the break I have been working on creating reports on Destiny for Mrs. B. When we get back from break, we are going to begin weeding different sections of the media center. I have become very familiar with Destiny and all that it has to offer. I also watched the webinar Media Literacy: 21st Century Skill All Students Need. The webinar discusses ways in which we can create critical thinkers and users of information while teaching the state standards. Here is the link to the webinar:  http://www.ascd.org/professional-development/webinars/frank-baker-webinar.aspx

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 was put in charge of finding the lexile levels of certain books in the media center. Since the Common Core Standards require that books are lexiled, Mrs. B split up the task between herself, the media clerk, and me. I used Destiny and lexile.com to complete the task. Inputting the lexile level of books into destiny was very simple, but was also monotonous and I could not imagine this being a one person job. AAAHHH! I like how Mrs. B delegated this task. As a media specialist you have to learn to do this, so that you can fulfill as many roles as possible. 

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 experienced how hectic it can get in the media center at times. Our media center was closed due to inventory, and I offered to do story time with our kindergarten reading buddies. After story time I checked books in and out for them. WOW!!! Kindergartners love the media center, and they get extremely excited. I found that this was a good time to throw the silent library stereotype out the window, and join in on the excitement. I was sweating when they left, but to see the excitement in their eyes was well worth it! 

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