Mary's Media Program... so far
Highlights of Mary's Media Program
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Highlights of the program as it evolves... |
The media program in schools should be designed with children in mind. They are the center and their learning is the goal. I believe the media center should be the heart of the school. Programs within the media center drive the reading program and instill enthusiasm within the student to want to read more and learn more about everything. Click here for photos of the media program so far... These are some highlights so far... Book Fairs - now my only source of funding other than grant writing and donations. Author visits - inspire students to read and write in many different subject areas. Guest readers - Read Across America, Jumpstart's Read for the Record, community readers Accelerated Reader - a wonderful program meant to encourage and inspire reluctant readers. Book Club - Lunch Bunch - grant from Donor's Choose allowed me to purchase books on several different levels so that I could have several "clubs". We met during lunch to discuss the book and then students we allowed to keep the book they read. Special Celebrations - Summer Readers' Party, 50 Point Club at the end of the first semester, 100 Point Club at the end of the year. Student Helpers in 5th grade Student Check in - Students check in their own books and sort them to the correct "bus" then I drive them to the neighborhoods to the correct address. Collaborative Planning with Teachers - The first Friday of each month of the school year, I meet with teachers during their common planning time to plan for the next month. (I provide snacks in order to make it a more pleasant experience). We look at curriculum maps to see what is coming up to see what materials they many need. We look to see what type of literacy skill lessons we could teach in the media center which would naturally progress from what they are learning in the classroom. We also use this time to go over Accelerated Reader. We go over reports and strategies to help students improve in reading. Drama and puppets- Students love to dress up and act out stories during story time. I do this with Pre-K and Kindergarten but 5th graders are interested when they come in and see what we are doing! (Big Pumpkin, The Tooth Fairy, finger plays, etc) Make movies for teacher's end of the year celebration - I used to make these when I had a classroom and then burned a DVD for each student as a gift. 9th graders have told me that they still watch our "movie". The goal is to get teachers to make their own. Troubleshoot technology problems with our tech person is not here. - WAY ridiculous to cut the media para pro the same year they cut the technicians... therefore it is very difficult for me to help in any way because I can't LEAVE the media center! HELLO! LOL! BookIT! and Six Flags Read to Succeed - are among the programs used throughout the school to help promote reading at home with parental involvement. Summer Reading Packets go home each summer to encourage reading while on summer break. The packet includes a calendar so that students can mark the days on which they read. It also has a chart on which students record books read as well as local programs available. These include programs at the county libraries, Barnes & Noble, Scholastic, and other summer ideas. I include a link to my summer website on which I include updates as needed throughout the summer. Ideas for the future: A News Team - have students write and produce a morning news program. A Core Group of Parent Volunteers - if we had enough parent volunteers, students would be able to check out books and shelve books while I continued to teach lessons throughout the day. More deeply collaborate with more teachers. Time restraint is the biggest obstacle. iPads in the media center. I am hesitant to have students check them out to take home but I would like to have some for activities in the media center. Several lessons I teach involve rotating from one table to the next. I always have a technology component and could use iPads as part of the rotation. They can also be used for research, writing and producing and creating a final product for presentation. There are many skill games which can be used with students when hooked up to a projector. I WANT iPads!!! Computers and printers that WORK! - I am frustrated. The teachers are frustrated and now the kids and parents are getting more and more frustrated because there is not a single piece of equipment in the media center that works properly. Printers and copier used as printer work 35% of the time. Hours each day are spent waiting for or finding another way to use technology. Stick a fork in me.... I'm DONE! Techy Tuesday - or any other day of the week. I would like to see the light of day enough to be able to have days on which I offer mini workshops of different little techy things. It could be small stuff like how to format in the new version of Word or bigger things like making movies in Movie Maker or preferably iMovie - IF we had Macs! An Assistant - or a plan to ensure that some help comes to the media center at some point! ALL of this is very very difficult to do alone. Thanks to those teachers who shelve books upon occasion. You have earned jewels in your crown in heaven for every stack you shelve! :-) Doctorate - ONE day I'll have the money and the program to do this. The plan was to start when Kathyrn went to college but private college is expensive even with a great scholarship! NOW Georgia State no longer has the doctoral program in media!! Write a Book of Media Lessons - I would love to compile a book of media lessons that kids have enjoyed and publish them. Collaborativing with my friend Kim Ramsey would be a great way to spend the summer! Publish a Mailbox type monthly magazine for specifically for media specialists It's lonely planning all programs all by yourself. 2 years ago we were told Media Specialists could no longer meet on a regular basis! WHAT?? We are the only people in our building who do the job we do. It is nice to collaborate with collegues... we aren't plotting to take over the world... yet! New Promethean Board! I need not only a new computer (actually ever single computer in the media center needs to be replaced!) my Promethean board is about 10 years old. It is so old that I can't use some of the latest gadgets! I used a tablet when I was in a regular classroom... Now it won't work. I feel as if I have digressed technologically in the last 3 years just because all of the equipement is junk. STUDENTS NEED E-MAIL! - There are so many programs that kids could use to present information that is so much cooler than POWERPOINT! YUCK!!! Well, in Coweta County students are very limited in what they can use because most programs are interactive on the web and each student needs a unique email address. Teachers can't even sign up as themselves and let kids use it because it's against the AUP!? This isn't 1990! We need to reexamine our Board Policies and come on up into the 20th Century! (Yep, I know we're in the 21st Century! That's how far behind we are!) Kids could use Prezi to present all kinds of information... it's cool... If you don't know about Prezi... check it out!!! Stay tuned! More rants to come!!! I consider them exciting ideas!!!
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