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/

Observation

Dr. Jones observed me teaching a lesson to Mrs. Spence's American Literature ELL class. I conducted a lesson on Photo Story. The students had completed reading Native American Myths. Mrs. Spence placed the students into groups, and each group was to create a myth. I showed the students how they could use Photo Story as a multimedia tool. The students were very well behaved, and I feel that the lesson went well. Mrs. Spence and I collaborated on this activity, and it gave me great insight into the importance of collaboration and communication as a SLMS. It is important for the SLMS to listen to teacher in order to offer ideas/suggestions to help enhance student learning. This was a great opportunity to step out of my comfort zone.

Weeding

This has been a very hectic week. I have worked diligently on the weeding the entire week. I searched thorough the 600s in Destiny, which was approximately 550 books.  Of the 550 books, 123 need to be weeded as they are over 13 years old. The oldest book dates back to 1964. This week, I will physically pull the books off of the shelf and review which book the media specialist wishes to remove from the collection.

In addition, I will attend E2020 training at Central Office this week. E2020 is an online virtual classroom proven effective at facilitating enhanced achievement for disadvantaged, at-risk, medically challenged and dropout students as well as enabling “behind-the-curve” and accelerated students to learn at their own pace, recover credits and achieve academic success. Through the use of technology, students have a means to access curriculum for the purpose of credit recovery, tutoring, content review, enhanced study, and remediation.

I am also scheduled for a site visit this week where my practicum professor will visit.

Webinar - Checklist Item: 4

On September 10th, I participated in the TeacherLibrarian Cafe webinar. There were 87 people participating in the live webinar.

The first speaker was Gwyneth Jones who presented a PowerPoint. Some of the topics of discussion were: book pass, post it notes – take post it notes and write a quick review about the book, QR code Loo reviews, and Twitter style book reviews. In addition, she discussed how to nuture and inspire reluctant tech users. Ms. Jones discussed community connection through Facebook, Polldaddy, Livebinder, and Wiki,. She reiterated the importance in ascertaining what kind of technology parents have in their homes. Ms. Jones shared her website with the webinar attendees:

https://www.facebook.com/NPESLibraryMediaCenterLearningCommons
She also suggested the librarianslocker.com

Librarian Tiff – shared her library with us.  She just set up a new media center and discussed how she used many vinyl made quotes in library. She communicated the importance of creating a media center that was inviting. In the new school, she wanted the media center to be the best looking space in the school. She does not use Dewey in her media center. All books are arranged by genre and category. She arranged books that made sense to her students. She began with fiction section. She communicated the importance of letting professionalism shine. She suggested that teachers put up diplomas and teaching certificates so others can see their accomplishments.  Dress for success – look professional.

Schoology – learning management system her school system uses. She uses it to teach digital citizenship.

Book therapy  - schoolwide literacy and reading.  – put notes on books “like” don’t like

Jennifer LaGarde – plans staff development for her school system.

http://cybraryman.com/gamepuzzle.html#OtherSites

1.7 millions students drop out of school every year. Five million admit to playing video games every week.

ALA Membership

I joined the American Library Association today.  I am excited to receive information from ALA regularly in order to keep up to date with current information and research within school libraries. I look forward to exploring the ALA site in more depth now that I have membership rights. I know the Continuing Education Clearinghouse will be a great way to always continue building knowledge in instructional technology and library management and current events.

Weeding

I began weeding the 600s of the reference section this week. The SLMS requested that I weed for damaged and out of date resources. Thus far, I have found material dated back to 1993. Weeding is very time consuming. The SLMS requested that I pull the materials I felt needed to be removed and then choose which resources to keep and which of those to discard based on the accuracy of the material. Thus far, I am in the Science section. It is difficult for me to decide which books to weed regarding accurate information since I do not teach science and am unfamiliar with the content. I am attempting to tackle the 550 + books the SLMS asked me to weed. 

Meeting with Media Specialist

I met with my media specialist to discuss the assignments that I needed to complete for my practicum. For the media display, my media specialst suggested that I go to Destiny Quest and locate "Don't Like to Read? Try these" and pull books from this category. In addition, my media specialist recommended that I locate book trailers for the resources I chose, and create a DVD of book trailers so that she can play the book trailers on the library television.
We also discussed weeking the 600-699 reference section of the media center. I am to look at the circulation for the past 3 years and decide which books we can weed. The media specialist suggested that I look at the publication date and condition of the books. In addition, I am to decide which books to keep.
For the reference evaluation, my media specialist suggested that I evaluate the entire high school reference section as opposed to a broad subject area as suggested in Task 1.

http://destiny.hallco.org/quest/servlet/presentquestform.do?site=101&alreadyValidated=true

Technology Committee Meeting

Today I particpated in professional development regarding the installation and use of the ActiveSlate. Two of my colleagues presented information on how to install ActiveInspire and the many uses ActiveSlate can have within the classroom. It is my desire to utilize this piece of technology in order to enhance my lessons and student participation with lessons.

http://www.prometheanplanet.com/en/Common/Register.aspx

 http://support.prometheanplanet.com/server.php?show=nav.19251&changeCountry=United+States

Scavenger Hunt

My 9th grade Ell students had Media Center orientation yesterday. The students were given a copy of a scavenger hunt to complete after the lesson. I helped the students complete the scavenger hunt in class using my computer and the projector. We conducted the search as a whole group. The scavenger hunt required us to search for the following?

1.  Go to Destiny Quest. Search for the key words “Walter Dean Myers”. Then narrow your search to only books with the Author “Walter Dean Myers”. Then narrow to only the genre “Fiction”. Then narrow to only books with less than “200” pages. How many results are left?
 2.  Go to the “1st Step –Database Passwords” or the "Database Passwords from Home" link on the Destiny CHS Homepage. What is YOUR login and password for Questia? *
3.  Go to the “Public Resource Lists” in Destiny. Pick one book off the “Don’t like to Read?” Try These.” list that sounds interesting to you. What is the title and author of the book? How many pages is the book?
4.  How long are books checked out?
5.  How many books are in the “Racing to Freedom” series by Alison Hart? Use Destiny to search.
6. How much is the overdue fine per day for books that are returned late?
7.  How many results do you get for skateboarding when you search by SUBJECT in Destiny?
8.  What about when you search by KEYWORD for skateboarding?
9.  In what section would you find the World Book Encyclopedias? (hint: sections include Fiction, Nonfiction, Graphic Novels, Reference, Story Collection, Spanish, Everybody, German)
10.  To get to the Destiny from the CHS homepage, what section can you click on?