School Library Media Month

"Leading superintendents, educational leaders, and school districts increasingly recognize strong librarians and vibrant libraries are essential to future ready schools. In fact, in many districts, librarians are intentionally connected to strategic initiatives ranging from the curation and use of openly licensed educational resources to the effective implementation of 1:1 device deployments" (Ray & Trettin, 2016)

In 2016, Alliance for Excellent Education president Bob Wise (2016) stated, “In today’s digital world, the school library has evolved from a place to merely check out books to one that offers opportunities for collaboration, project-based learning, and online access. Similarly, librarians are now playing central roles in school leadership and working daily with students, teachers, and administrators. Through Future Ready Librarians, school librarians will be better equipped to support teachers in their transition to a digital learning environment while themselves becoming more future ready. ”

Mark Ray states, "From my perspective, the Future Ready Librarians initiative is not really about school librarians. It’s not a Facebook page. It’s not a hashtag. It’s not about technology. It’s not about reading. It’s not a blueprint for changing the profession of school librarianship. Despite those Future Ready gears labeled Robust Infrastructure, Community Partnerships, and Curriculum, Instruction, and Assessment, it’s not really even about schools. At the center of all the Future Ready frameworks is the phrase “Personalized Student Learning". (Ray, 2018)

References:

Ray, M. m. (2018). WHY DO WE NEED FUTURE READY LIBRARIANS? That Kid. Knowledge Quest, 46(4), 8-12.

RAY, M., & TRETTIN, S. (2016). Librarians Connected to National Future Ready Initiative. Teacher Librarian, 44(1), 8.

Alliance For Excellent Education (n.d.). Future Ready Schools Announces New Project to Recognize School Librarians as Leaders in School Transformation. Alliance For Excellent Education. Retrieved from https://all4ed.org/press/future-ready-schools-announces-new-project-to-recognize-school-librarians-as-leaders-in-school-transformation/

Lia Dossin (n.d.). Future Ready Librarians - Future Ready Schools. Future Ready Schools. Retrieved from https://futureready.org/program-overview/librarians/

We have many collaborative and flexible spaces within the Media Center.

The goal of our Imagination Stations is to promote inquiry, creativity, collaboration and community.

Each month this allowed me to collaborate and share ways to integrate technology.

Students have been exposed to the use of Google Drive, Google Classroom, Google Drawing, Storybird, Google Slides, Sway, Powtoons, Flipgrid as well as apps like Chatterpix, Morfo, Sock Puppets, Toontastic, and Story Maker to create create their own digital products.

We also learned how to use screencastify to record their voices while clicking through their Google Slide presentation to create a video with their voice recording.

We've also learned about stop-motion videos.

Many students also have the knowledge to use the green screen along with iMovie to be creative and tell about what they have learned.

We've started using OverDrive this year for students to enjoy ebooks and audiobooks. Our district became 1:1 this school year and OverDrive is the perfect way for students to use their devices to enjoy books and stories.

This school year I taught a Professional Learning session about Digital Storytelling.

http://casedillacrumbs.blogspot.com/search?q=digital+storytelling

I taught a session to my colleagues about DonorsChoose last year. https://www.smore.com/0gjhk

I've also helped multiple schools use canva correctly to make adjustments and templates for the school website. One media specialist came to observe and learn about how our centers are managed in the media center.

I have a section for PL for teachers on my school website. It will direct you here:
https://www.smore.com/xq3h4

I consider our Co-Teach with Technology sessions a form of PL. I help teachers and students activate accounts and learn to use various websites and resources.

With our district becoming 1:1, helping students to keep their devices in working condition has been a main focus that I assist in. Many students come in with basic issues that I can quickly give them tips on how to fix, but I am also able to communicate more major issues and concerns to our tech. It is important to stay on top of these issues to keep the devices in students hands so that they have the same opportunities as everyone else in their classroom.

Another strategy of mine is to provide basically zero limits on the type of information a child can check out in the library. If a child of any age desires to read about Harry Potter, WWE wrestlers, or ballet - they are allowed to acquire that information. Libraries are all about freedom of information, and I believe that freedom applies to all of our students, regardless of their grade. We circulated 28, 341 resources thus far this school year. (as of April 1, 2018)

I created a Google Document for teachers to make specific requests for particular books that they see a need for.

I also started the Media Committee and plan to meet more regularly next year to have a better understand of needs within each grade level.

We had a Book Fair in Fall and Spring to raise money for the media center.

I had 3 DonorsChoose projects get funded this school year. We were able to add 4 BreakOut Edu Kits totaling $800, $400 worth of graphic novels and $760 worth of class sets of books including The Lightning Thief, Matilda, Maniac Magee and Hatchet.

As I stated above, I've had DonorsChoose project funded by members of the community to support our efforts in the media center.

The public library media specialist from Hampton is scheduled to talk to all of our students about the Summer Reading Program May 4th.

I raised money for the FERST Foundation by selling the t-shirt below to teachers and students.

I am the Relay for Life Captain for our school. We've raised $4,778 this school year. We had our Mini Relay March 30th with a Star Wars theme.

I am continuously teaching students about Digital Citizenship and how to be safe while using the internet. I used many lessons with Nearpod to teach students about this concept and start meaningful dialogue on situations that they may encounter.

Rocky Creek Elementary, Hampton Charter, Hampton Middle and Hampton High School are all in the same cluster in Henry County.

Mount Carmel

https://schoolwires.henry.k12.ga.us/domain/2160

Rocky Creek Elementary

https://schoolwires.henry.k12.ga.us/domain/5746

Hampton Charter School

https://schoolwires.henry.k12.ga.us/domain/3439

Hampton High School

https://schoolwires.henry.k12.ga.us/site/Default.aspx?PageID=63566