Teacher Book Fair

Hot Chocolate, Spiced Teas, & Green Tea!

Teacher book fFair preview during our planning period!

Faculty & Staff – were invited to come to the media center to shop the book fair.  There were great Christmas presents for all ages. Also, teachers were able to email a “Teacher Wish List” to their parents and be entered in drawing for a $25 Book Fair gift certificate.

Middle School Observation

Chestatee Academy is a middle grade charter school that focuses on inquiry and talent development.  The Chestatee Media Center is very large and spacious. The middle school media center is very different from the elementary and high school media center. The media center walls displayed a variety of student work both on the walls and on the shelves. There is a very large collection of fiction books located within the media center as well. The media center has a media specialist and one full time media clerk, and it takes both to run the media center effectively.  Both teachers and students were in and out of the media center throughout the day. Several classes were taught reference materials usage. The media specialist is very knowledgeable and was more than willing to share her knowledge with me. The middle school media center is quite different from the elementary and high school media centers, yet I would say that it was age appropriate.

Monthly Report for Administration

To: Mrs. Jarrard

From: Mitzi Porter

Subject: November School Media Center Activities

November is a busy month in the CHS media center. First, we kicked off November with “NaNoWriMo”  (National Novel Writing Month). The link to “NaNoWriMo” is http://ywp.nanowrimo.org/how-does-nanowrimo-work-for-young-writers. Students from CHS can participate in the challenge to write an entire novel in just 30 days.  Several published novels such as: Anna and the French Kiss, Cinder, and Water for Elephants were written during NaN0Wri Mo.  

            I will be attending the GaETC conference at the Georgia International Convention Center in Atlanta November 9^th – 11^th.  Approximately 200 companies will be displaying the latest and best in technology.  During the conference, I will have the opportunity to increase my understanding of technology in education as well as collaborate with professional educators across the state about who are also concerned with technology in education.

The CHS Media Center will be hosting our first ever “Book Fair” the week after Thanksgiving, Monday, November. 26-Thursday, November 29. Student will attend the Book Fair with their English Language Arts class. Students without an ELA class will attend during 6^th period on Tuesday (11^th & 9^th) graders) or Wednesday (12^th & 10^th graders).

Sincerely,

M. Porter

Media Specialist

           

Book Fair Coming to the Media Center

Our media center will be hosting our first ever "Book Fair" the week after Thanksgiving,  Monday, Nov. 26 – Thursday, Nov. 29. Students will attend the Book Fair with their ELA classes.  Students without an ELA class will attend during 6^th period on Tuesday (11^th & 9^th graders) or Wednesday (12^th & 10^th graders). Also, teacher can create a “wish list” of items for parents to purchase online for our book fair to donate to your classroom. (Of course, any donated items can be catalogued as a class set and owned by a specific department, barcoded/inventoried by the media center at the teachers' discretion). This sounds like an exciting opportunity for our students, teachers, and parents.

Processing

I was able to process several items in the high school media center. Destiny makes this process quite easy. Through the Destiny program, you "Add a Title" by typing in basic book information (title, author, publication, etc.). We then searched for a copy of the book to see if it was located in other Hall County media centers. For The Kite Runner, we added to a book that a teacher had donated to class sets. We entered the price and increased it by .50 to cover the costs of the bar code labels and jacket cover. The funding source for all of our books was from donations. We also added a new book that was not in the media center. This book was titled, FireFly Lane. My media specialist recommend that we locate an external result that had a summary attached. After this, we added the book, Dear John. My Sister's Keeper was a duplicate as well, and a student had already placed a hold on this title so as soon as we entered it, we released the hold so that the student could check it out. We added Happy Quilting from scratch and placed a summary so that patrons will find useful information. Afterwards, we printed barcodes and my media specialist showed me how to cover the paperback with special vinyl covering to help protect the book covers.
Overall, the cataloging process was not too difficult. It was interesting to process the books, and see what procedures took place in order to get the books on the shelves.

Elementary Media Center

Today I spent time in the media center at Sardis Enrichment School. I did not realize how busy the elementary school media center was. The media center was very warm and welcoming. The entire back wall had natural lighting, which really added to the media center environment. The book shelves were lined with dioramas and other student displays. In addition, many of the shelves were lined with books and stuffed animals that complemented the books or were actual characters in the books. There were several computers available for the students to use as well. The media specialist and media clerk were wonderful.

I was able to watch the media specialist read, Where is My Mummy? to a group of kindergarten students. The students were very engaged and very well behaved. Then, a group of 4th graders came in to listen to The Headless Horseman. The media specialist had created an acceleratred reader quiz to go along with the book so the students could take a test to obtain AR points. I had the opportunity to sit down and read the AC test to a student who was unable to read the assessment, but knew the answers. The media specialist showed me how she created AR assessments for the teachers. Afterwards, a group of 2nd grader came in for enrichment time. They media specialist had taken them outside the previous week and gave pairs of students cameras. The students took pictures of each other and created a PhotoStory along with an essay, "All About Me". I was very impressed with the students' work. I had the opportunity to watch the students create the entire PhotoStory from scratch, implement transitions, music, and script. I was amazed at how quick the students' picked up on PhotoStory and how willing each students was to experiement with the transitions, fonts, script, and music. One group of girls showed me their finished product, and they did an excellent job! I was very impressed.

The media specialist communicated that she had been in her position for 20 years. She initially began teaching with a degree in History, but after teaching 1 year, she transfered into the media specialist positions. the media clerk had graduated from high school with me. It was great to see her after 30+ years. The media specialist and media clerk were great. I had the opportunity to watch the media specialist collaborate with different teachers. She was very helpful to all of the teachers. I will say that the media specialist never sat down. She ate her lunch and worked at the same time. The elementary media center is very different from the high school. I enjoyed spending time at Sardis Enrichment Academy.

Media Center Display

Today I completed my media center display. My media specialist requested "Don't Like to Read, Try These" page. I pulled several titles from the resource list. In addition, I located book trailers on each book and compiled a virtual website that allows the students to view the book trailers from a laptop computer that is stationed next to the book displays. The url link to the movie trailers is: http://chsteenbooktrailers.weebly.com/