L West Portfolio Spring09

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L West Portfolio Spring09

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Technology

• November 2008 - I became the website liaison. I maintain the school website by updating calendar events, school news, photos, etc. http://srt1.atlantapublicschools.us/fickett/site/default.asp
• November 10, 2008 - website training (3:30pm - 6pm)
• November 12, 2008 - website training (3:30pm - 6pm)
• January 28, 2009 - met school Learning Technology Specialist (LTS) and was introduced as the onsite technology person for the school. We discussed setting up a training for teachers on using activotes with the Promethean Boards. In addition, we discussed adding more memory to the computer lab.
• February 16, 2009 - confirmed final date for activote training (training will take place on February 19, 2009). Sent email to seven collegues informing them about training date.
• February 19, 2009 - (3:00 - 4:00) participated in activote training. Although I was only a participant in this training, I felt the need to post it in my blog because I organized the entire thing. I organized the entire training, including selecting teachers that would go. The training went extremely well and left us with helpful information about using activotes with the Promethean Boards. I also took some notes about presenting that will be helpful for my upcoming staff development. The most important thing I took from the presenter was to "get to the point." She used a lot of pictures rather than words in her flipchart pages that she presented to us. She told me that she did this because people have the tendency to remember more with visuals rather than words. Therefore, as I do my staff development, I plan to use a lot of visuals!

Extra Time in the Media Center

• September 2008 - I started working with the media specialist and a team of technology students on the morning broadcast. We spend 10 minutes every morning broadcasting the morning anouncements and other important school news. My role: Broadcast advisor, laptop operator.
• January 13, 2009 - I spent 30 minutes preparing an MLK opening for the morning broadcast using Photostory.
• January 15, 2009 - I spent 1 hour creating a Barack Obama opening for the morning broadcast using Photostory which included pictures and quotes from Barack Obama.
• January 28, 2009 (3:30 - 3:40 pm) - I went over the 5 year plan for the library with the media specialist. She informed me that the district gives a template and she has the freedom to determine what areas of the library she will focus on for improvement year by year. 2008-2009 school year focuses are: social studies/history (900s), biography (b), fine arts (700s), and Accelerated Reader (AR) books. These focuses were determined based on teacher need as well as principal's request (AR books).
• February 23, 2009 - OBSERVATION - It saddens me that throughout the day as I have been going in the library, there is not much going on in the library. I have never seen anyone reading to children, I have never seen anyone checking out books, and only twice have I seen fifth grade classes conducting research. I just wanted to make note of this observation as I brainstorm about how we could get more people to use our school library.
• March 9, 2009 - Media specialist shared an email from APS media services. The email is a weekly update. Media specialists receive this email once a week. She informed me that the emails usually have helpful tidbits. This particular weekly email included the new GALILEO password, information about disgarded books being sent to Africa, advisement about attending a Promethean training, information about ordering periodicals, a substitute media specialist's contact information, the monthly checklist that needs to be completed, Barack Obama resources that can be used in the library, information about conferences, and information about grants (I will share this info. in the grant section of my blog). The email seems to be very informative and seems like a good way to help keep media specialists informed, organized, and in touch with each other.
• April 21, 2009 - The book fair will start tomorrow. Unfortunately, I was unable to help with setup of the book fair as I had hoped to do because of the CRCT. However, I browsed through the merchandise and found a lot of good books. I will try to get some time in to work with the book fair and see how everything works.
• May 5, 2009 - I spent 5 hours in a middle school library. The middle school media center runs totally different from the elementary media center. The schedule is more flexible and there is more activity in the media center throughout the day. There is one media specialist (the school has enough students for two [~2000 students]) and two paras. Teachers bring students in to do research for projects during different blocks of the day. The media specialist acts as a resource in helping students search for information, organize information, and print that information. It seems as if collaboration is a big part of the media school media center and that the primary role of the LMS is to collaborate with teachers to help students complete various types of projects. Beyond helping children, other tasks were similar to the elementary library. We analyzed a report and discovered a need for extensive weeding. A student assistant deleted some books that had already been weeded and we also reshelved some books. Observing the activity in the middle school media center was helpful because it allowed me to see how students need to be prepared when leaving elementary school.

Chat

Professional Portfolio

• January 19, 2009 - received email from a co-worker about a free site for creating electronic portfolios: http://www.efoliominnesota.com/
• March 23, 2009 - (7:35 pm - 9:53 pm) - Created portfolio template. After viewing several portfolios, I created a template for myself. The hardest part of creating the template was to decide where to place the artifacts. In addition, it was hard to choose which artifacts to use aside from the ones that are manditory. Nevertheless, I completed the template and emailed it to Dr. R. I am thankful that the template was required because now it seems like it will take no time at all to add the hyperlinks and then upload to slideshare.
• April 21, 2009 - (7:00 - 8:15) - 1. Signed up for preferred times for portfolio presentation. 2. Placed all artifacts to be included in one folder. 3. Hyperlinked all of the artifacts. 4. Brainstormed about what would be presented during the portfolio presentation.
• May 2, 2009 - The entire portfolio is finished!!!!! I present on Tuesday, May 5th, 2009. My only trouble now is trying to figure out how to get the portfolio and all of the accompanying documents to all of the people who will be viewing it.
• May 3, 2009 - Uploaded the Portfolio to slideshare and added it to the blog. The only problem is that the links do not work because all of the files are not available. Maybe I will try putting the portfolio on my wiki page instead. Cross your fingers bloggers!!!!!!

Media/Technology Meeting

• Talking with the media specialist a few weeks ago, I found out that although we have a "media committee" on paper, we do not have meetings and many people are not aware that we have a committee and that they are on the committee. I am one of the teachers on the committee. The media specialist and I had our own meeting in which we reviewed the budget as well as the 5 year plan for the media center. In addition, we analyzed a report which showed that only 18 books had been checked out in two months. We brainstormed about how to get more people in the library. An unofficial survey (oral) revealed that most teachers do not know that we are able to check out books. Since the media specialist teaches all day and we have a flexible library schedule, teachers are not aware that they can check out books at their own convenience. Instead, they continuously think that students are only able to check out books if the media specialist gives them a specific time to visit the library.

• March 4, 2009 - (3:00 pm - 5:00 pm) - District media specialist meeting. These meetings are held once a month. In this meeting, inventory was discussed. The APS goal is to have entire collections inventoried by the end of the school year. In the meeting, all LMSs brought in scanners and books from their collections and practiced the inventory process.
• March 5, 2009 (7:30am - 7:50am) - My LMS and I discussed "inventory." She informed me that since her duties are a little different (she works in the computer lab all day), she would actually only be doing inventory on part of the collection. We also discussed the flaws in the system: it is sort of outdated because all books have to be scanned and then a report is generated.

Monthly Activity Report

• March 10, 2009 - Created monthly report of libary activity for the month of February

School: RN Fickett Elementary

Month: February


Number of Books Checked Out: 18
Number of Books Added: 3
Number of Books Deleted: 67

Teacher Activity:
1.Teachers (upper elementary) brought students to the facility about twice weekly to aid students with research.
2.Teachers used media center computer lab throughout the month.

Student Activity:
1.Media specialist conducted 2 story readings with kindergarten students.
2.Every student in school went to media center computer lab at least once a week to use study island.
3.Media specialist allowed students (primary) to use reference books to look up information after completing study island activities.

Facility Evaluation

March 18, 2009 - (3:00 pm - 5:30 pm) - MS and I met to complete the facility evaluation. We went through every area of the rubric thoroughly and checked off where we would place the school library and listed reasons. Below, are the results:

Category 1: Student Achievement and Instruction
*Information literacy standards integrated into content instruction: Basic because there is little or no opportunity for collaboration with teachers due to MS role as technology teacher.
*Collaborative Planning: Basic because collaborative planning only occurs when teacher initiates. Most of the time collaborative planning only occurs when a teacher directly comes in and asks. It has never occured with a group of teachers teaching similar content.
*Library media staff is engaged in active teaching role/s: Basic because there is not a lot of extensions of classroom instruction that occurs.
*Library media center resources encourage and support reading, viewing, and listening: Basic because resources are less than average. For example, there are 3,900 books currently in the library (about 6 per student) which is less than is advised in a school library.
*Services for students with diverse learning abilities, styles, needs: Basic because there are some diverse resources but recommendations are rarely made to teachers about these diverse resources unless teachers come in with a specific needs request.
*Student achievement routinely assessed: Proficient because of studyisland. MS uses studyisland daily and is able to gauge where students are because of the program.

Category 2: Staffing
*Full time MS: Proficient because the MS is not shared with any other school but there are no other full time certified personnel working in the library.
*Duties: Basic because MS performs other duties for the majority of the day (teaching technology class)

Category 3: Facilities, Access, and Resources
*Flexible Scheduling: Basic because the schedule is only somewhat flexible. LMS allows facility to be used freely throughout the day but is not available throughout the day because of other obligations.
*Square footage requirements: Below Basic because there are 500 students and the media center is about 2850 square feet.
*Central electronic media distribution system: Exemplary because MS leads team of students in morning broadcast everyday. In addition, announcements and other events are also broadcast on the school station.
*Print and non-print resources and access to online information are basic to library media program: In between basic and proficient
*Resources managed for maximum efficient use: Exemplary because the database is online.
*GALILEO - Below Basic because GALILEO is rarely used by teachers and students

Category 4: Administrative Support
*Local superintendent appoints system media contact: Exemplary
*Administrative staff support: Basic because there are few meetings between the LMS and administration.
*Media committee: Below Basic because it only exists on paper
*Media policy: Basic because district policy may exist but school only has a mission statement
*Funds: Basic because allocations are received every year but allocations do not exceed state allocation.
*Staff development opportunities: Below basic because of MS's other obligations

Overall Library Score:
Basic - The library does not have a fully functioning media program because the MS has been designated to do other duties. Therefore, collaboration and flexible scheduling have been somewhat sacrificied. The library program can use some improvements. Although it is making strides in the area of technology (broadcasting, attached computer lab that each student uses once a week, online database), it is lacking in every other area including number of resources, staff development, and administrative support.

Grant

• February 23, 2009 - http://librarygrants.blogspot.com/ - I found a great blog that has some information about some grants. I am still searching and trying to find out which grant I want to write for my school library.
• February 23, 2009 - It turns out that the site above is the same site listed on our syllabus so I did not find out anything new! Oops! :-)
• Information from APS Media Services Office:

Awards/Grants/Fellowships
· GLMA Mable Wyche Underwood Grant
· PURPOSE: To allow building level library media specialists who are members in good standing of GLMA to develop, design, implement, or continue an ongoing program which promotes the use of library media center in the instructional program.
· AWARD: The award shall consist of grants from $300-$500 for school library media specialists at the building level.
· Application deadline is May 15, 2009. All grants must be postmarked and received by that date.
· Please visit the GLMA Website for further details and an application. http://glma-inc.org/awards_grants.htm
· Congratulations to our former APS Media Specialist Janice Mock who was awarded a GLMA grant for her school in Mount Vernon Georgia

· Below are links to many of the ALA Awards/Grants/Fellowships you may wish to pursue.
http://www.ala.org/Template.cfm?Section=awards
http://www.ala.org/Template.cfm?Section=grantfellowship

Weeding

• January 28, 2009 (3:40 - 4:30 pm) - I assisted the elementary media specialist with weeding the 600 section of the library (technology). The process of weeding is tedious, especially for a media specialist that teaches a class all day! However, it is an interesting process because it gives a lot of insight as to what is in the library collection as well as to what is missing from the library collection.

1. Media specialist showed me a special media special portal that allows media specialist to post and read updated policies and happenings of the school libraries.
2. Media specialist printed out an updated weeding policy sheet entitled Guidelines for weeding library materials. The sheet provided a definition of weeding, what weeding is not, and seven general guidelines for weeding.
3. In discussion with the media specialist, I found out that most of our collection has an average copyright date of 1995!!!!! Therefore, we weedeed based on guideline #3: timeliness.
4. Media specialist informed me that we were not only looking for dates but also looking at format, condition, curriculum, and focus. Therefore, not all of the older books would be discarded. For example, we kept an older book on African American Inventors because there was no other book like it in the media center.
5. When books were chosen to take off the shelves, the library pocket and bar codes were removed. Then, the school name was crossed out in the entire book and the word "discard" was written in the front of the book. The books were then left on the table and will be offered to students and teachers. (In previous years, books would be boxed and shipped to a central warehouse but district does not want them this year)
6. After weeding, the media specialist showed me how to remove books from the database using Library Solutions, a web-based system. The school has been using this system for three school terms.

Inventory

• I discussed inventory with my LMS and because of time constraints she has decided that she will only be doing inventory on part of the collection. We will be doing this some time at the end of March.

Reference Collection Evaluation

• January 28, 2009 (4:30 - 5:30) - I begin evaluating the reference collection of the library. The most current reference books were published in 2007. All other books range from 1991 - 1995. I was informed that the reference collection will be a focus for the 2009-2010 school year and will be updated with few books. The goal is to keep the reference section small and include books only for teaching purposes (i.e. - comparing print and online sources). The majority of the reference collection will be online sources.

I also begin looking up sites that would be appropriate for supplementing the reference collection. I found an abundance of sites and will create a wiki page for those sites soon!

• February 23, 2009 (6:30 - 7:40) - I finally did the second part of this assignment! Here is a link to the online resources I would use to supplement the reference collection:

http://onlinelibraryresources.pbwiki.com/Online-Reference-Resources#

Processing

• March 11, 2009 - (3:00pm - 6:00pm) - Processing turned out to be way easier than I thought. We currently use Follett (titlewave) and all of the record keeping is done online. My LMS informed me that we have been using this system for the last three years. Here are the steps we followed to process 65 new books:

1. The books come already processed, so we took them out of the package
2. I checked off each book using a list that was included in the package to make sure that everything was there
3. LMS guided me in uploading discs into library solutions database (Follett sends a disc with titles, we upload into system)

Here are some rules about processing in APS that I learned:

1. APS no longer uses library pockets and cards (all records are kept solely online)
2. AR books are processed with AR info already on the spine (All APS schools now have AR because the system paid for it)
3. The LMS creates the specs. For example, my LMS does not like book jackets to come on the books. Therefore, in her specs she has requested that book jackets come separately. She can change other info on her spec such as receiving a CD rather than a floppy disc.

After processing, we looked through library solutions to see some of the new titles that were entered in the database. In addition, my LMS also showed me aps.tlcdelivers.com which gives access to other APS library collections as well as to the public library database. (TLC is the old name for library solutions)

Department Meeting

• February 20, 2009 - (11:00 am - 12:00 pm) Kdg. Grade Level Meeting - Our media specialist does not sit in on grade level meetings because she has to teach classes for the entire day. Therefore, playing the role of media specialist, I got permission from my reading facilitator to conduct a reading workshop on our reading reform model (Direct Instruction). I attended kindergarten's planning time and went over general guidelines for teaching the scripted program. In addition, I told of how to incorporate vocubary building games into the lessons. The games I discussed were matching (concentration) using the lesson words and word bingo. Beyond incorporated vocabulary skill building games, I also discussed correction procedures, challenging parts of the reading program (i.e. - teaching the final-e rule), and conduction checkouts (reading tests in which children are timed and graded based on time and accuracy)

I felt that this "workshop" for teachers was important. Although to me I took on the role of the media specialist while conducting the workshop, at our school this is not totally true. The truth is that the media specialist is not involved in our reading reform program. The media specialist teaches computer classes but does not participate in teaching Direct Instruction. However, I have found out that at many Direct Instruction schools, the media specialist is also responsible for teaching reading. It seems like the media specialist and the reading facilitator should work a little closer. However, that is not how we do it at my site. Nevertheless, I have been working with both the media specialist and the reading facilitator and am learning a great deal about teaching reading, teaching computer classes, and managing the library.

• February 23, 2009 - (11:00 am - 12:00 pm) - Part 2 of the same workshop conducted on February 20, 2009.

Information Literacy Unit

Looking at first grade benchmarks and weekly test data, it became apparant that some of the first graders had a problem with distinguishing between various reference books. They seemed to be unsure of when to use a dictionary opposed to an encyclopedia. Therefore, the week before the CRCT, I played to role of media specialist and lead an intervention group in which we discussed these books in detail. The promethean board was used to attain quick data for each individual student. Using the activotes on the promethean board made it easy to not only see where the students were but also to tell teachers which students needed more help and to decide what additional strategies would need to be done before the CRCT.

• March 30, 2009 - (11:30 - 12:00) - 1st grade intervention group segment 1 (22 students)
• April 1, 2009 - (11:30 - 12:00) - 1st grade intervention group segment 2 (22 students)
• April 3, 2009 - (11:30 - 12:00) - 1st grade intervention group segment 3 (22 students)

Click the link below to view the full unit plan.

http://itec7737documents.pbwiki.com/FrontPage