Joining GAIT

Today I joined the Georgia Association for Instructional Technology. I chose this affiliation because as I go through my courses I gravitate to how to better use technology in the classroom. I feel that by being a member of GAIT I have access to their listserve and can learn more about this field.

Nov 3rd

A had a large group today for Afterschool. The Coordinator rearranged the group to include more students. The students today edited previous videos. I showed some of the new students how to upload videos and use windows movie maker. The 2nd half of the lesson the students discussed making a video entitled "Is it Worth it?" The idea of the video was to ask yourself "Is it worth it?" before you begin bullying.

Letter to the Principal: Program Administrator

Monthly Report to the Principal

This is very important communication for the Library Media Specialist. It is very important to keep your administrators involved in what is going on in the Media Center. Thankfully, Our administrators are very supportive of our Media Center

Complete the inventory for one section of the library

I helped the librarian with the inventory of laptops and computer equipment for the media center. The Media Specialist keeps track of both regular education and special education computers. Ms. Hinger showed me out she keeps up with organizing the laptop carts, plugs, mice, etc. . . I went through and using her forms was able to inventory the Regular Education and Special Education laptop carts. I learned from this experience how important it is to have a system in place and how to be able to effectivly manage your collection. Just after we did the technology inventory we had an auditor from Clarke County School District came to  perform an audit on our technology.  Thankfully, thanks to record keeping and scanning, and visuals for teachers on how to turn in technology equipment, our inventory was all accounted for.

Weeding

Weeding was a difficult process for me. My goal was to pull books in the 300 sections. I didn't ask our LMS what to Weed I wanted to evaluate and do it myself. (Of course I wasn't really weeding and discarding books without her knowledge)  I was looking for current books that dealt with social issues such as homelessness. I began weeding the Social Science books. Our Media Center is routinly weeding and there were not many books that should have been discarded.  I did ask her about currency of books in the Social Sciences. She reported that the books on homeless that I did find are canidates that need to be weeded. The most current non-fiction book was from 1992. I would have discarded this book because homelessness has taken on a different meaning with so many people losing their homes during the housing bust due to foreclosures.

High School Visit

Today 11/10/2011  I spent the day at Clarke Central High School.  I arrived at CCHS at 7:30 A.M. the library utlilizes early hours. The library consists of 2 full time librarians and 1 para-professional.  Many students who were at the library for the early session were checking out laptops to work on assignments or homework.  I assisted the librarian in checking in books. The Georgia High School graduation test was to be administered for the first 3 hours of school.  I helped the librarians prepare the main library area for the test. I helped put up cardboard dividers on the table and taped them down.  Once the test administration began I shadowed the librarian in the computer lab. We helped get the computer labs setup for more testing by making sure that there were enough chairs and that the computers were set up properly. We then fixed several computer helpdesk tickets that were out. I replaced a few ethernet cables.
      The CCHS Librarian also has an advisement group of students that she works with during the week. This week these students needed to be registered on Georgia411. I assisted students in logging in and filling out their information.  After the advisement period I assisted the LMS by processing a new book order. I was able to fulfill the requirement of  processing 5 books. The LMS also showed me how to create lists in Destiny. This is one of the most beneficial tools with Destiny!  I learned how you can create different book list for students. For example at CCHS there is a Zombi list, banned book list, African-American author list, etc..
     The 3 libraries I have worked in this semester are all distinctly different yet have some similarities. I had the opportunity to work with three outstanding Media Specialist. All libraries worked on an open schedule. In all three libraries there had to be shifting around of schedules to accommodate special events. CMS bookfair, blood drive at CFES and Graduation Testing at CCHS.   The LMS was the go to person for all things technology at all sites.
  Time Spent at High School visit 8 hours

Checklist Item: Teacher

I headed up Banned Book Week at Clarke Middle School. I researched books that have been either challenge or banned in history  that we currently hold at Clarke Middle School . I created a display of these books at school and made a banned book signs that I displayed in the library media center.  For the virtual display part of this item on the checklist I mixed and edited  5 banned book trailers that I found on Youtube. Here is one example of my creation  These were played at the beginning of the morning announcements during banned book week. Students did seem excited about banned book week as many of the books from my display were checked out.  I think that the trailers were very beneficial for the students. What I learned from this is that there are many great Web 2.0 items at our disposal for sharing and using. Using Moviemaker I was able to edit these trailers and also add some of my creation (banned book trivia, information about books, etc)  I really enjoyed this assignment. Time Spent 7 hours.

Leadership Meeting with The Library Media Specialist

Today I attended the Leadership Team Meeting alongside our LMS. The Leadership Team discussed upcoming testing dates, grade level and school wide incentives, IEP meeting timelieness, and upcoming events in the Media Center. I was very impressed with the amount of time taken to discuss upcoming activities by the Library Media Specialist. There was a lengthy discussion about planning and implementing Literacy Night. The Leadership Team Approved a plan for a school wide Literacy Night that Mrs. Hinger is chairing. She has asked me to help teach about Glogster and Photo Story to parents of our students that evening.

What I took away from this experience is that the LMS wears many different hats. Today I saw Mrs. Hinger advocate and promote Literacy Night to the School Leadership Team. I was very impressed by the willingness of our Leadership Team to take on and support this large (and after school hours) commitment to our students and their families.

After School Nov 1st

I had a brand new group of students today. The one thing that makes this project a little more difficult than other projects I have worked with is that I don't know who the exact kids will be each time we meet. i often have to retool my lesson to meet students needs. The students today dicussed a new commercial about having a teacher teach a lesson and how to act and how not to act when a teacher is presented. What is interesting is that many of the students in this group have numerous discipline referrals for the school year (I know because many of these students come through my office) and they were very good at showing appropriate behaviors. Very proud of these students.

Elementary School Observation

I spent Friday at Colham Ferry Elementary School in Watkinsville, GA. I spent the day with the Library Media Specialist Kathy Graham. I began the day by watching the Elementary School students prepare and produce the morning announcement. Mrs. Graham showed me how the broadcast takes place.  The next part of the morning several classes came in to check out books. Mrs. Graham explained how her flexible scheduling takes place.  She currently does not have a para-professional and the students check in and check out their own books. I was able to observe this process.  I helped two  classes look for books on biographies.  I am not used to working with Elementary school students but this was a very positive experience for me. I was very nervous but I ended up having a great time and learned a good deal with the process. I  even did story time and read to a 4th grade class.  During the day I was able to do a training with the Art and Music teacher on using Voki and voice-stream in their classes (Lesson plan is embedded in my wiki)  both were very appreciative and look forward to incorporate using them in the opening of their lessons. In the afternoon I did a team teaching activity with the LMS about using citation machine with a 5th grade class. The LMS discussed with the class how to use citation machine with books and I covered using Citation Machine with websites. I also shared with the students how to evaluate websites and used a few hoax websites for students to evaluate. This was a very eventful day and I learned a great deal about how an Elementary School library works.  Time 8 hours

Afterschool October 27th

Today is the day before a student Holiday. I only had 2 students in my after school group. Though we had a small group these gentlemen made a phenomenal video interviewing each other about bullying. Some of the best advice for the week. This will make a wonderful video for all students to see. I was really proud of both boys. The videos were very heartfelt.

Media Specialist Meeting

Today I attended the Clarke County Media Specialist monthly meeting. There were several things discussed at the meeting. The first thing discussed was the use of Destiny in the CCSD media center. Several Media Specialists reported that they were having difficulty with using Destiny.  ALso discussed was what might happen with SPLOST funds for the Media center. This really caused me to think and reflect on the most effective way to use funds in the media center. I am a technology guy and really excited about the use of e-books in the classroom. Several Media Specialist discussed concerns, and ideas about new school and media center construction.

1.5 hours

New videos

I have many new students who started to partake in my Digital Club. Today I started off my lesson by playing a Get to Know you game as an Ice Breaker. It's pretty cool that I have had several students approach me in the hall asking if they could join the Digital Literacy Club. Today we brainstormed several new videos and practiced shooting video.

After School October 18th

Well,
We finally did it. The students were able to successfully edit, put in music, and produce TWO videos for the morning announcements. I was very happy and excited for my students. They did a fantastic job.

Observed Lesson Reflection

Today was my scheduled observation.  The students in my afterschool group particpated in my lesson on copyright music. I thought that it went very well. By the end of the lesson many of the students in the class were able to add music to their digital video. I was really proud of my students @ CMS.

Time 2 hours

Webinar

Tonight I took part in my first ever webinar on learncentral. The webinar that I took part in was called the "mini-geek fest"  this was appealing because well, it had geek in it. This webinar is run by two teachers in Arizona and it was billed as a place to share ideas.  I shared my blog from my independent study and many people enjoyed it.  The thing that I took away the most from this webinar is the doc scanner app for Ipad and Iphone. This is amazing. Basically it is OCR software and you can scan anything with the camera feature on your Iphone/Ipad. This was a very worthwile webinar and I am sure I will take place next month as well.



Time Spent 1 hour