Blog # 2 Busy Week Plus Reading Bowl Competition On Weekend!

I spent the day Monday at Huntley Hills planning my semester with the librarian and helping out with different tasks for the library.  It was a busy day with several classes coming in to check out books, a book reading, individual students arriving on a pass to check out books, and a “surprise” visit from a class brought in from their “trailer classroom” for the day.  In the afternoon, I helped the librarian unpack new books from the annual book.  As we worked, the librarian discussed the process she used for selecting books each year such as award-winning books, teacher requests, student requests, replacements books, and areas in curriculum needing updating.  She demonstrated locating books concerning a specific topic on Title Wave.  We ended the day reviewing my practicum expectations and how we could plan the activities for the library.  7.5 hours

Another great day on Wednesday at Huntley Hills!  In the morning we discussed the school’s Accelerated Reader activities and the librarian demonstrated how she sets the reading goal for each student.  She plans daily recognition as well as 9 week AR recognition.  She reviews the AR accomplishments each day and announces during the morning announcements five students to receive medallions on ribbons to wear that day at school.  Students turn in medallions at the end of each day so different students are being recognized on a daily basis.  The librarian showed me the information for each student and each class so I could observe her process for selecting students and how she determines which classes are not actively engaged in AR.  AR is one of the major activities of the school improvement plan for the year so the librarian spends many hours reinforcing the reading program.  Each nine weeks she recognizes students who have met their reading goals by offering an AR celebration with board games and other fun activities and a “goody” bag for each student.  PTA supports the costs with funds from the school’s Box Top funds.  Celebration shown on twitter: pic.twitter.com/2xpF29BNP7  I learned good ideas for rewards which could be applied to any reading program utilized in a school.

After lunch, we checked out books for several visiting classrooms and awarded book marks as prizes for students who scored 100 percent correct on an AR test.  Teachers were also sending students down to the library with passes who had taken AR tests in classrooms who had achieved 100% on tests. She has an excellent process and I observed the students' excitement!   We discussed a display I could prepare for new books next week.  I finished checking off receipt of new books against shipment packing list so new books could be displayed next week.  Then it was time to meet with two teachers from the Montessori area about a book enrichment activity with a Mexico theme.  7 hours

Friday I spent the day shadowing the librarian at Stone Mountain Middle School.  In the morning we had students arriving on passes to check out books and a class visitation for research on the computers.  I went with the librarian to track down a cart of laptops that did not get returned Thursday afternoon by 4:30 p.m.  I am noticing common issues in libraries with equipment and book checkouts. The librarian grabbed a stack of new books for me to add in DESTINY and showed me the process for adding books in the online catalog system.  I was able to add these books and he showed me how to print barcode and spine labels.  Next week I will add pockets and the labels to the books.  Each day passes so quickly in the library! 7 hours

I left the middle school library and helped set up the Helen Ruffin Reading Bowl Competition for our school district.  I was thrilled last year when the steering committee asked me if I wanted to serve on the committee after I had helped arrange bus transportation for the competition.  On Saturday I helped with registration and then served as a hall monitor to assist with any problems and to collect scores after each round.  It was a busy, rewarding day observing over more than eighty teams compete in the competition.  They had so much excitement and enthusiasm for reading!  I’m looking forward to being a librarian and helping coach my school’s team at the annual reading bowl.   

Practicum and Final Semester At Georgia Southern Begins!

1/22/2017

I’m very excited to start my last semester at Georgia Southern for my Masters in Instructional Technology.  This semester I will complete my practicum experience in elementary, middle, and high school libraries.  I’ve spent a lot of time reading class materials to fully understand the requirements for the practicum. Our first assignment was evaluating three different portfolios.  I really enjoyed exploring other students’ web pages and hyperlinks to their class projects and experiences.  There was a wealth of information provided in each portfolio. 

On Monday I participated in a live webinar presented by edWeb.net titled, Teaching Students with Autism about Digital Citizenship.  Even though it was MLK Day, there were many teachers participating from all over the United States and other parts of the world.  The online format made it very easy to view the speaker, see a slide show presentation, and submit questions on the chat feature directly to the presenter.  Jennifer Liang was presenting from Cumberland Academy of Georgia, a small school in metro Atlanta.

Huntley Hills Elementary will be my primary library assignment and last week I spent about thirty minutes talking on the phone with the librarian about her library and school.  I went online read about the school which is a STEM and Montessori certified school.  On Friday this week, I visited with Diann and learned how she’s a pro at juggling her many responsibilities.  She had a busy week organizing a celebration for 125 Accelerated Reader participants, hosting a professional development meeting for other elementary school librarians in her region in the county school district as well as the usual day-to-day tasks which make up her work week.  The PTA provided resources to the library for a Maker Space area utilizing a Lego theme and Diann set up an area for it this week. She had also organized the library when she lost her Media Assistant so her elementary students could be self-sufficient.  She has a computer set up so students could check in their books as they enter the library. Two carts are organized so students can sort these books by section in the library such as Fiction or Biography.  Each teacher has a small storage box with student library cards and students are trained to bring their library card to the circulation desk for check out by the librarian.  I will be returning on Monday for an observation day and am looking forward to seeing this check in system in operation.

I talked with Buddy from Stone Mountain Middle School for about thirty minutes last week.  Since he was having a District Librarians meeting Wednesday at his school, he invited me to come Wednesday to spend time with him in the Media Center.  It was very informative to hear the librarians present information about their library situations.  Then we went on a tour of the library, the Maker Space area in the library, and STEM classrooms in the school.  The STEM coordinator had set up a 3-D printer in the media center with project ideas so any student in the school could benefit from the equipment.  I was very impressed that both schools had Maker Spaces in their libraries.  It was great to go from reading about Maker Spaces in my Georgia Southern classes to actually seeing them implemented!